Chapter Text
They couldn't have disappeared... They wouldn't do that... Or would they? She wasn't sure anymore.
Limping from room to room she called out the names of the missing children. Emma, Enoch, Bronwyn and Jacob. Just imagining the possibility of them being out there made her heart ache.
The bell rang in the distance, someone was approaching the house, and for a second she had the hope that it was them, maybe they had tried to escape and regretted it on the way and came back, she was so relieved and hopeful that the sound of a gunshot completely destabilized her.
Claire's duplicated scream made her snap out of her stupor and run as fast as her condition allowed to the stairs that led to the ground floor. Her mind poisoned her with the worst possible scenarios. A wight had definitely invaded the house... And maybe it had killed someone, the screams of fear terrified her.
Nothing prepared her for the scene in the entrance hall. A man soaked from head to toe had destroyed the door lock with a shot and invaded the house. The Wight had grabbed little Claire and was holding her by the hair, pointing the gun at her head.
“You, just the one I wanted to see... The hostess, forgive me for coming in before you arrived, but I was anxious to meet you in person...” he said, looking at Alma and approaching the stairs and the other children. “I see a little Avocet has flown into this nest.” He smiled and looked at poor Miss Avocet. “How lucky I am, don’t you think? I’ll kill two birds with one blow...” the man shouted and let go of Claire, his hands covered in blood. Claire bit him and when she was free of him, she ran after Miss Peregrine, the poor little girl was hiding behind the hem of her skirt.
The Man raised his gun and fired a shot upward. Everyone ducked and screamed in fright, and in that short time the damned wight managed to hit Hugh's head with the butt of his revolver. The boy fell to his knees screaming in pain and everyone else around him screamed too. The wight grabbed him and aimed the gun at his head.
“NO! DON'T HURT HIM! LET HIM GO!” Alma screamed with panic rising in her throat.
“I won't hurt anyone else, as long as you follow my orders... Unless of course, you want him to get a new hole in his head.” The wight said seriously.
“Don't hurt him, I'll do whatever you want.” Alma said as she tried and failed to fight a tremor that ran through her fragile body.
“Exactly, don’t hurt the boy… We’ll do whatever you want.” Miss Avocet said.
“Great, who doesn’t love an obedient woman? Then let’s get down to business. Alma call your children. All of them.” He looked at her to make sure she would do it.
Alma shouted for all her children, she just didn’t see Millard and Horace among the children. Horace appeared cautiously, he didn’t disobey her even though he was terrified. There was no sign of Millard's presence, but it was better this way, the Wight probably doesn’t know of his existence, a safe child was something to celebrate.
“Are these all your children? Luckily I’ve already seen the rest of your children today, Emma, Bronwyn, Enoch and Jacob, By now there must be 4 corpses, Malthus must be sating himself on their flesh right now.”
“My birds… What have you done?!” Alma couldn’t contain her scream.
“What the hell, I didn’t do anything, I didn’t kill anyone, yet. My friend Malthus is taking care of them. Now enough talking. Does the house have a basement?” He asked Hugh.
Alma felt extremely guilty, she had forbidden Hugh’s bees from the house and by doing so she had taken away the best defense they had, and the only defense that boy had.
“Yes... We have a basement, the entrance is right there,” Hugh replied and pointed to the basement door in the distance. He feared for his own life still in the hands of the Wight.
“Good boy, then let’s do this, all you pestilent children, go to the basement. NOW.” The Wight shouted at the children.
“Children, please... Head to the basement...” Miss Peregrine asked with tears in her eyes, and her children obeyed her. One by one she saw them entering the basement, Claire was the last, she was clinging to the hem of Alma's skirt until the last second, and she needed Alma to put her hand on her shoulder and nod her head for the girl to understand that she needed to go. Crying hard she joined the other children. The defeated walk of each child hurt like a nail stuck in her heart.
When all the children were inside, the Wight locked the basement from the outside.
"Part one done, time to finish this, it's almost time... You know Alma you picked a terrible day to create your loop." The Wight dragged Hugh to the entrance of the house, and then came back inside again holding an extremely modern looking cage. "Now ladies, both of you inside this cage."
Alma almost laughed, he couldn't be serious, the cage was tiny. It was even plausible to fit Miss Avocet in there, she would be cramped in there, the two of them in there was inconceivable.
“GET IN HERE, YOU BITCHES, OR DO YOU WANT ME TO DRILL ANOTHER HOLE IN THIS LITTLE SHIT'S HEAD?” Wight seemed to lose patience with the ymbrynes' delay.
“We won't fit, this cage is too small.” Alma said the obvious.
“I'm sure they both fit in there. Both of you, get in the cage, or I will carry out my threats, the big boy here will die.” He smiled as if just imagining that possibility made him happy.
With the threat in the air, Alma and Esmerelda transformed into birds, Esmerelda entered the cage first, and Alma soon after, that situation was extremely claustrophobic. Alma had always hated cages and after that horrible experience she would definitely have serious problems with claustrophobia.
The wight locked the cage with a padlock, and then dragged Hugh to the basement. He unlocked the door, threw Hugh inside, and then locked the door again.
He picked up the cage and smiled at the ymbrynes inside. "The master will be happy to see you again..." Holding the cage with a macabre smile, the man left the house into the night.
Alma's heart was racing with the growing fear of what was to come. She couldn't even say goodbye to her children, and she felt that she would probably never see them again. A deep fear settled in her being, the loop won't restart tonight, her children will be in the house when the bomb falls... Maybe they will be safe in the basement... Or maybe not, her brain felt the complete inability to feel hope.
The wight kept complaining about the date of the loop, and took the cage towards the beach. Alma looked bitterly at her island, it will probably be her last day in that place.
And her future... She's not sure anymore, things are simply out of her control and that's scary.