Silver Lining

CHAPTER SIX

I raced down the stairs as soon as Miss Peregrine closed the door and stood waiting behind for her to turn around, a grin plastered on my face.

She smiled at me. "You're three seconds early."

"Is there anything for me?"

Miss Peregrine's eyebrow quirked as she flicked through the letters in her hand, scanning each side carefully. She drew this process out longer than was necessary as I stood, a frown slowly taking over my face as I grew afraid that there wasn't anything for me.

"There are two for you-"

Before she could even finish speaking as she held out the letters to me, I snatched the letters out of Miss Peregrine's hand with a 'thank you' and stole back up the stairs. My feet pounded along the floor and I wouldn't have been surprised if I managed to wake up the rest of the house.

I jumped onto my bed after shutting my bedroom door behind me, peeling open the first letter in my lap. A sheet of paper along with a couple of pictures fell out onto my bed and I smiled, holding them up for me to see.

The first was a picture of Jake standing beside Abe on his birthday, holding out his grandfather's cake with a grin. However, even I could tell from his eyes that he would rather be anywhere but taking that picture. I chuckled. Abe always spoke about how shy his grandson was in his letters.

I couldn't help but giggle at the second picture. Abe's face was smeared with the cream frosting from his cake that Jake had pushed into his face, his smile beaming through all of the sugar. I tacked the two pictures onto my mirror with the rest of those I received, going back as far as the first baby picture that Abe had ever sent me of his son, and a few of Jake as a toddler.

Abe's letter was filled with praises for his grandson as well as a recount of his birthday party (which he had no need to give me considering I had spoken with him that night after his family had left. We spoke well into the morning until Miss Peregrine begged for me to be quiet and get some sleep).

Abe and I had kept in good contact over the years. Once he had settled down after his travels, our letters only grew more frequent. I had received many pictures of his wife to his children and now, of Jake. I kept most in the box under my bed but I did keep a few tacked onto my mirror that I could look at every day.

Abe had turned our childhood into a bedtime story for Jake, with his very own photographs of us that he showed Jake every night he baby-sat. Jake knew all about us and our peculiarities, however, his belief wavered as he grew up. I still kept an eye on him through whatever surface was closest and I watched him grow up as much as Abe had.

As much as I missed my brother dearly, I couldn't resent him for leaving the loop and creating this family of his own.

A couple of days after Abe had left, the Hollow that killed Victor had returned. Miss Peregrine took down the beast herself, but that wasn't our biggest problem of that day. She hurriedly made a loop that evening as bombs dropped over the home, and we have been replaying the same day ever since.

As much as it never felt like the same day over and over again, until we were reminded with the reset every evening, thinking back on when the loop was made... Sometimes I couldn't help myself from wishing that I had left with Abe all of those years ago.

I picked up the second letter my brother had sent me and grew increasingly anxious the more that I read.

Abe's paranoia was palpable in his letter as he spoke of his fear that he had finally been discovered by Barron and his companions. He mentioned how he had seen Barron skulking outside of his house several nights prior and he knew that his days were numbered. In his letter, Abe bid me goodbye, as he feared that it wouldn't be long until Barron led a hollow to him.