Caged Bird

Part Two

Wherever the man was taking Miss Peregrine, it was a bumpy ride. She'd only been in the boot of the car for a mere hour or so and she felt like she would pass out any second. Her head was spinning and she couldn't see straight. Travel sickness mixed with claustrophobia.

Just when she thought she couldn't last another second, the car screeched to a stop. Miss Peregrine almost toppled over from her position at the bottom of the cage when the car lurched.

Miss Peregrine heard the car door open and then slam shut. She tensed and watched the boot door through the bars with her sharp eyes.

It opened only a few seconds later and the light from outside illuminated the dim area Miss Peregrine was in. The man from the beach who had captured her stood in front of her, a proud grin on his face. Miss Peregrine ruffled her feathers and hissed at him, angry.

The man placed his book from earlier on top of the cage she was in and then reached inside the boot, pulling out the cage to carry it. He then placed the cage on the floor and closed to car door. He used a key to lock it, then pocketed said key.

He picked the cage up again and started heading towards a large, white building with only a few windows that Miss Peregrine hadn't noticed in her anger towards the man.

It seemed they were still in the town she and her wards lived in. She'd seen that same large building sometimes during the times she transformed, but had always stayed away from it as it was not only quite far from her home, but it always gave her chills. She wasn't sure why, but she never questioned her instincts.

The man carried her towards the building and stopped when they reached the doors. There were two, but they were both very large as if one large door wasn't enough.

Her captor balanced the cage on the palm of one of his hands as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a white card with writing on it. He held it up to a square on the wall which was immediately followed by a beeping noise then a clicking sound. He shoved the card back into his pocket then opened one of the doors.

oOoOoOo

Claire looked at the clock in the sitting room. It had been an hour since she last asked what time it was and the clock now looked a little different than before.

She frowned.

The Twins stood either side of her, looking at the clock with her. Like her, they didn't know how to tell the time, but they were also worried about Miss Peregrine. The three children were smart enough to know something was going on. The older children were in the kitchen talking in hushed voices. Sometimes the trio wished they were old enough to be involved in whatever the older children did.

Suddenly, when the Twins and Claire were fixated on the clock after catching it tick, the door to the sitting room opened and in walked Emma, Enoch, Jake, Olive, and Millard. The three looked away from the clock and immediately ran up to the four, Fiona, Bronwyn, and Hugh joining them.

The elder children looked solemn, like they'd had to make a difficult decision or their pet had died.

"What is it?" Fiona asked with worry.

Enoch sighed, "Claire's right. Something's happened to Miss P," he said.

Tears welled up in Claire's eyes and she looked down. They'd only just started to heal after Blackpool and now their headmistress was in trouble again.

"We're not sure what, but reset is in an hour and a half, and she would never leave it this close," Emma said.

"I think we need to leave and find her. Maybe look around the island first then if we can't find her, we'll have to leave the island," Jacob said.

"I don't want to leave our new home," Hugh said with a sigh.

"Neither do we, but we need to find Miss Peregrine," Millard replied.

"At least it won't get destroyed by a bomb this time," Jacob put in. Some of the children turned to look at him. "Sorry," he muttered.

"Let's just go get Horace and we can leave. We'll have one and a half hour then to get started before the loop closes," Enoch said and exited the sitting room to go and find Horace.

Enoch ran up the stairs of their new house in search of Horace. None of them had seen the prophetic boy all day and he wondered why. He was sure Horace would have been bothering people about their clothes or something, but no. He hadn't.

Enoch entered Horace's bedroom and let his eyes wander around. There was no sign of him. Internally he was panicking. Maybe it wasn't just Miss P that was in trouble. Perhaps it was both of them.

Just as Enoch was about to leave the room and tell the others, a deep intake of breath caught his ears. He stopped and listened. A few seconds later he heard it again. He realised it was coming from behind the door.

Enoch pulled the door closer and took a look behind it. Crouched low behind the door was Horace. He had his hands over his ears and his eyes shut tight against whatever nightmare he was trapped in this time.

Not sure what to do, Enoch hovered awkwardly in front of Horace. Whenever Horace had, had a nightmare in the past, Miss Peregrine had always delt with it. She seemed to be an expert at it because she could always soothe him then get him back to sleep in minutes.

But now that Miss Peregrine wasn't there... what did he do? And the loop was going to close soon, they couldn't afford to waste time trying to pull Horace out of his nightmare.

It took Enoch a second to decide what to do, but when he had, he left the room and went running back down the stairs to the others.

They all looked up from their conversation to see Enoch in the doorway without Horace.

"Where's Horace?" Millard asked.

"Upstairs. He's trapped in a nightmare," Enoch informed him and the others. "I didn't know what to do." They each looked at each other, feeling as hopeless as Enoch felt.

"I'll try and help him," Olive said and moved past Enoch to head upstairs where Enoch had been. Enoch followed Olive upstairs back to Horace's room where the boy still hid behind the door.

Olive entered the room first and Enoch came in after. The fire gifted girl checked behind the door where Enoch had told her to look, and frowned in pity. All of the children knew that Horace's peculiarity could sometimes be a curse rather than a blessing , but none of them could even begin to imagine what he went through and what he saw in his dreams.

The pair carefully kneeled in front of Horace. After a moment's hesitation, Olive reached out and placed a gentle, gloved hand on Horace's shoulder. The boy gasped and flinched away, but Olive didn't take her hand away.

"Horace..." she said quietly, trying to get his attention and let him know she was there. "Horace, it's me, Olive," she then said. Horace slowly stopped shivering and whimpering but he didn't open his eyes and come back from his nightmare world. "You have to come back to us, Horace," Olive said.

After five more minutes of comforting Horace and speaking to him, the boy finally opened his eyes and blinked against the harsh light compared to wherever he'd been. He sniffled and wiped his tears away with his hand.

When he'd completely woken up, he noticed Olive and Enoch in front of him. Quickly, he stood up and smoothed his clothes down as the other two got up as well.

"What happened?" He asked them and picked up the book he'd been reading earlier.

"You were having a nightmare," Enoch said, but without any harsh intentions.

"Oh. Forgive me," Horace replied.

"It's okay, Horace. But we need to go, Miss Peregrine's in trouble," Olive said. After having a nightmare, Olive didn't want to bring more bad news upon him, but they had to go.

Horace paled considerably.

"So it wasn't just a nightmare," he said to himself. Olive and Enoch shared a look.

Noticing the time on a clock Horace had on his stand, Enoch grabbed Olive and Horace's wrists and ran out of the room, and back down the stairs to the others. They had to go.