Strange Worlds [Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children] Enoch O'Connor

seven

CHAPTER SEVEN
PRIEST HOLE

I clutched the cold metal rail, standing by my brother. I stared up at the sky, which was covered by dark grey clouds, looking as though it were about to rain. Jacob stared into the wavy green sea. All around, the boat was wrapped in a thick blanket of fog. I began to wonder how on earth the boat driver knew where to go.

Unlike Jacob, I was not Seasick and wasn't contemplating on whether the fish would enjoy my breakfast or not, but I was reflecting on whether my curly hair would enjoy the humidity or not. The air didn't seem to know whether it wanted to be warm or cold and sat in a muggy centre.

I was starting to doubt whether our long travels from three planes, two layovers, and nap shifts in dingy train stations was worth it. I was falling asleep until both Jacob's and my attention was brought to our father, who yelled, "Look!" Before pointing towards a towering mountain of rock that loomed over our heads.

My breath hitched in my throat as I stared at my grandfather's island, his home. This was it. There was no doubt that by the sheer cliff tops and ghostly clouds with loud waves crashing on the edge of the rocks, that this place was as mystical as our grandfather had explained.

I let out a small laugh as my father ran around the boat's surface as he pointed into the sky, "Jake, Soph, look at thAT!" He bellowed. There was a magnificent falcon gliding through the sky, its wings almost blue in colour as our father began to explain that that bird was indeed a Peregrine eagle.

As I stared into the sky and watched as the bird glided around, trying to keep up with our boat against the strong wind, I begun to think just how lucky Jacob and I were to be able to get away from home, our mother seemed to feel the same way as Jacob had overheard her saying to her sister she was relieved to "have her life back" and do not have "three needy children to worry about" for three weeks.

Jacob's eye seemed to capture something within the water as his nausea vanished as it was replaced with curiousness to which a passing crewman called, "Never seen a shipwreck before, eh?"

"A shipwreck?" I asked, getting up from the chair and nearing the crewman with my brother.

"This whole area's a nautical graveyard. It's like the old captains used to say - 'Twixt Hartland Point and Cairnholm Bay is a sailor's grave by night or day!'"