Bending Light

30~For the Ymbrynes

    She's dead kept playing in (Y/N)'s mind on repeat. No matter how cold the wind and rain had made her before, it couldn't compare to the bone-chilling truth—Elise had died to save their cousin.

    The peculiars headed for the tree line, walking quickly despite the fact that (Y/N)'s parents had already run away in terror. Whatever they had seen was enough, and (Y/N) had not a single clue how to fix it. And bringing her sister back wasn't an option. Whatever happened, (Y/N) had to get that wight, and since he couldn't escape through this storm, he must be inside the loop.

    They made their way across the bog, stepping cautiously on the invisible path to safety. They kept their hands linked, allowing them to pull each other up if someone misstepped. (Y/N) tried to say something to Millard once, but she couldn't get out more than half a sentence. Millard didn't respond. (Y/N) had exhausted her peculiarity so much that she couldn't even muster enough power to see him. His hand was freezing cold in her grip. Everything was cold. After that, nobody tried speaking.

    As they reached the edge of the bog, (Y/N) caught her foot on a rock, almost falling into the sinking mud if not for Emma pulling her up. "Thank you," (Y/N) gasped as the rain assaulted her face, streaming into her ears and mouth. Her voice came out in a whisper, for she realized that Millard should have been able to catch her too.

    He wasn't there.

    "Emma! Jake! Millard's not here! The wight must've gotten him. I thought I was holding his hand but—" she looked down at the crumpled piece of paper in her hand and unfolded it. In the flash of a new bolt of lightning, she could see it was a scrap piece of paper from when they were taking notes on the tabby together.

    Emma took one look at the paper and realized "He must have gone ahead, for whatever reason. Maybe he's gone to tell Miss P. we killed the hollow. In any case, a wight wouldn't have left a paper," she shouted over the thunder. "Let's hurry!" she nodded to Jacob and (Y/N).

    (Y/N) shoved the note page in her pocket and they took off running for the loop. The water had soaked the paper and nearly frozen it, and paired with (Y/N)'s misery, she hadn't been able to notice that Millard was gone. Stupid, she told herself internally. I lost my sister and now I might lose my boyfriend. Could anything else go wrong?

    Inside the loop, planes screamed overhead, the bog now filled with craters, the trees in the distance dancing with flames. Further away, more bombs exploded, and (Y/N) locked eyes with Jacob.

    "How do we know we won't get blasted to pieces if we stay here any longer?" she asked Emma over the cacophony. "We might have to wait on the other side!"

    Just then, Bronwyn jumped out and hugged Jacob, Enoch and Hugh trailing behind her. "You're alive!" she cried.

    Enoch and Hugh shook (Y/N)'s and Jacob's hands, and while Emma and Jake explained how the hollowgast was killed, Bronwyn's expression fell. When Emma finished off on Elise getting killed, Bronwyn looked at (Y/N).

    "I'm very sorry, Miss," she said, grabbing one of (Y/N)'s hands. "After this is over, we'll help you have a proper funeral for her."

    "Thanks," (Y/N) replied, sniffing. Looking at the others, she could see they looked just as forlorn as her. "But Millard's gone too. We don't know were he went. Have you seen him? He might've gone after the wight, because—"

    "Sorry to add to it all, Miss," Bronwyn interrupted, nearly sobbing. "But Miss Peregrine is gone too. And Miss Avocet. He took them. The wight, that is."

    "Oh God," Emma said. Of course. (Y/N) thought. One more thing did go wrong. And now we're too late.

    "He come in with a gun," Hugh confessed to the ground, unable to look up. "Tried to take Claire hostage, but she chomped him with her backmouth, so he grabbed me instead." His words began coming out quieter. "I tried to fight, but he knocked me upside the skull with his gun." He pulled his fingers away from behind his ear, and (Y/N) could see them glistening with blood—his head was still bleeding. "Locked everyone in the basement and said if Headmistress and Miss Avocet didn't change into birds he'd put an extra hole in my head. So they did, and he stuffed 'em both into a cage."