Jacob's Best Friend || Enoch O'Connor

Chapter 4

Today's the day! Jacob, his dad, and I leave for Wales in about an hour! I am going to honestly say this is one of the most exciting days of my life. I think I'm more excited than Jake is and he is the reason why we're going on this trip in the first place. Whatever, I love traveling so whenever I get the chance, I'm taking it.
The flight was very boring, although I slept for most of it. I used Jake as a pillow, which probably wasn't very comfortable for him but whatever. Upon our arrival to Wales, we had to take an hour long ferry to Cairnholm. We sat outside on the viewing deck watching the mainland fade away in the distance. We looked up and saw a peregrine falcon flying above us. (lol hey miss p 👋🏼)
"Hailie, look, it's Miss Peregrine," Jake whispered, laughing.
"I wonder if she knows we're looking for her," I chucked.
"Hey, Miss Peregrine! I'm Jacob Portman! Abe's grandson! We're coming to see you!" Jake hollered at the bird.
Jake's dad was giving Jake a worried look, like he was actually going insane.
"Dad, it's a joke. I'm fine," Jake said, seriously.
Mr. Portman didn't say anything, instead he simply looked out on the sea. Jake and I exchanged a look.
When we finally got to the small, insular island, Jake and I almost left Jake's dad behind going to look for where we were staying. It was a place called the Priest's Hole. The name sounded a little weird, but I didn't want to judge it jus yet. When we finally found it, Mr. Portman was trying to catch his breath. We walked into what looked like, and smelled like, a bar. A man came out from behind the counter and greeted us.
"I'm guessing you are the Americans who are staying in the room upstairs," the man said.
"Yes, that's us," Jake's dad replied.
The man didn't say anything, he just handed Jake a key and pointed up the stairs. All three of us dragged our bags upstairs. There were only 2 beds so I brought an air mattress to sleep on. We placed it on the floor in front of Jake's bed.
"Dad, can Hailie and I go look for the children's home?" Jake asked.
"Why do you want to go so soon? We just got here," Jake's dad replied.
Jake and his father began arguing. I walked over to the lone window in the room. The view was of the town. It wasn't very busy, probably because the population wasn't that great. There were, maybe, 150 people living here. After a couple of minutes, it was decided that Jake and I could go, only if we find someone from the town to guide us.
We had to have searched for hours looking for someone to come with us. Finally, we found two boys who agreed to guide us. Jake thought it was just because I was with him, and he's probably right. They began walking with us and rapping, well attempting to. They weren't that good. I don't even remember their names. Oh well. I'm probably never going to see them again. We came up to a bog-looking place. The guys said that there was a short cut through the bog. Jake went first and stepped in a puddle. I laughed at him but shut my mouth after he glared at me. I followed him, avoiding the puddle, of course. We walked through some trees and then found a house that was destroyed.
"This must be the children's' home. It looks like a bomb hit it," Jake said.
"Yeah because a bomb probably did hit it. This house was here during WWII remember?" I retorted.
"But the letter from Miss Peregrine to my grandfather was recent. How could that have happened if they all died like 70 years ago?"
"Don't ask me. I'm just as uninformed as you."
Jake looked up at the house and began walking toward it. I followed him cautiously. He entered the house and I stopped abruptly.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?" I yelled at him.
"Inside? Why, what's wrong?" Jake replied.
"That house is going to collapse at any moment. I'm not going in there," I said.
"Hailie, you'll be fine. C'mon."
Jake stuck his hand out at me and I took it. We walked through the first floor of the house and noticed that a bed had fallen from the floor above us onto what was the kitchen table. We wandered upstairs and looked in the bedrooms. We entered one and found a chest under a bed. Jake picked it up and hauled it onto the bed. I looked at the lock and noticed it had been broken in the bombing. I opened it and found pictures and books. Jake pulled out a photo of Abe in his army uniform next to a young girl. She looked about our age with blonde hair. On the back of the photo, the words Emma & Abe, 1940 were written on it. Jake and I heard a loud thud and basically ran out of the room. We turned to go downstairs and that's when I noticed a girl standing in one of the other rooms.
"Jake, wait!" I yelled, but I was too late.
Jake had fallen down the stairs and hit his head on debris from the bomb. I ran down the stairs after him and found his unconscious. The girl came down the stairs, followed by another older girl with red hair, twins, I assumed, another little girl with short brown, curly hair, and just clothes moving in thin air. They looked at Jake, then at me. Without saying a word, the little brown haired girl picked Jake up with no issues and began carrying him out of the house. The others followed her and I followed them.
"Since you're probably very confused," the blonde girl started, "I'm Emma, these are the twins, this is Olive, the clothes are Millard and the girl with Jacob, is Bronwyn."
"I'm Hailie and that's Jac-wait how did you know him?" I asked.
"I was very close with his grandfather," she replied.
"So you were the girl in the photo," I mumbled to myself.
We walked a little further until we came to what looked like a rock face with a cave near the bottom. Bronwyn put Jake down somewhat gently on the ground. We sat and waited for him to wake up. It was about 10 minutes later when he finally started to stir. He slowly sat up and looked around.
"How did I get here? Hailie who are they?" he asked.
"I'm Emma and this is Olive, Millard, Bronwyn, and the twins. We were friends of Abraham's before he left for America. Come. We have much to show you," Emma said.
I helped Jake stand up and we followed the group into the cave. We walked about 20 feet until we felt a large gust of wind.
"What the hell was ghat?" I asked.
"That was the loop, you'll understand soon," Emma answered.
We turned around and went out the way we came. Jake and I shared a puzzled look. The scenery around us had changed drastically. It went from cloudy and depressing to sunny and happy.
"Jake, I have a feeling we're not in Cairnholm anymore," I said, quoting the Wizard of Oz.
"Where are we?" Jake asked, seemingly reading my mind.
"Welcome to September 3, 1940," Emma replied.

Obviously, I'm writing this while watching the Wizard of Oz. Haha. So this chapter was really long and I'm very proud of myself. Sorry it took so long to update, I've been pretty busy. Love you guys and make sure you vote!
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