Bending Light

16~Now He Knows

    When Miss Peregrine tried to admonish Emma, her efforts were lost as Emma ran away, still crying.

    "That was most unfortunate," Miss P. sighed. "I'm afraid she's quite sensitive as regards to your grandfather."

    "I noticed," Jake said. "Why? (Y/N) and Jake asked simultaneously. And then Jake added, "Were they-"

    "Yes," Miss P. answered, correctly guessing the question. "They were admirers, paramours, sweethearts."

    A look of understanding crossed Jake's face as Miss Peregrine led him and (Y/N) out of the room, up the stairs, and down the hall to the library.

    "Sit," she said, pointing to two desks that (Y/N) and Jake promptly sat in. (Y/N) was pretty sure she knew all of this, but she stayed just in case.

    Miss Peregrine stood at the front of the room and began to lecture. "The composition of the human species is far more diverse than most humans suspect. The real taxonomy of Homo sapiens is a secret known to only a few, of whom you two will now be a part of."

    Seeing (Y/N) beginning to doze off (it sounded too much like that cat books she had been reading with Millard), she sighed and simplified. "At base, it is a simple contrast: the bulk of humanity being common folk, and the hidden branch, the crypto-sapiens being the smaller portion. If it hasn't been obvious enough, we here are of the latter type."

"But why don't people know about you? Are you the only ones?" Jake asked

"There are peculiars all over the world," Miss P. answered, "though there are many less of us than in the olden days. Those who remain live in hiding, as we do. There was a time when we could be accepted by the common folk, but only very few people in the more isolated parts of the world still do. Most of the coerlfolc believed that we were evil spirits cast upon the world to cast nothing but harm, so they drove us out." She paused, a regretful look passing across her face.

   "What is worse is that peculiar children are not always born to peculiar parents. Should a peculiar have been born to a common couple, they might have been neglected, abused, or abandoned with hardly a thought. The gift of a peculiarity is not passed down like most hereditary traits. Many generations may pass before a peculiar will be born in the same family name. And whether or not either parent is peculiar, the child or children are more likely to be "normal" than not. There are simply not enough peculiars for us to make large refuges."

   "That's awful," Jake said, as if he was reading (Y/N)'s mind.

  "Extremely," Miss P. replied. "So that is why ymbrynes like myself had to create our small, temporal loops, of which I—we—are extremely proud."

   After having been shown a bunch of names, places, and photographs, (Y/N) finally learned exactly why Miss Peregrine had needed to create a loop. The children's home had been bombed on September 3rd, 1940. Before leaving to get ready for supper, Miss P. answered one more of Jake's questions-Had their grandfather really been running from the Nazis when he came to the loop?

   The Headmistress answered, with much pain, that he had been. When Jacob asked if Grandpa Abe was peculiar, Miss P. just smiled strangely and said, "He was like you, Jacob."

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   Miss Peregrine insisted that Jake wash off all the grime before eating dinner, but (Y/N) figured Jake might need a break for processing, so she asked him if he could help her pick up the books she had left by the tree and he gave her a dazed but thankful smile before they walked out to the back yard.

"So," (Y/N) said after a bit of a silence. "It's a lot to take in, isn't it?""

"Yeah," he laughed. "At least we know Grandpa Abe wasn't cheating. And that he wasn't lying about the children's home."

  "Plus," (Y/N) laughed. "The children aren't dead."

    "Ugh," Jake rolled his eyes. "Miss Peregrine is very intimidating."

"Well, that's nothing compared to Emma, right?"

"Yeah, and Miss P. still wants her to fix the bath for me. As if that will help."

(Y/N) laughed and then concentrated. Jake started at the sight of her, ten yards ahead all of a sudden.

    "Wha-" he gasped and (Y/N) broke the illusion by laughing.

    Her voice came from where she really was, right next to him. Her illusionary selves disappeared and instead she held a ball of light in her palm.

"That's my peculiarity," she told him, extinguishing the light. "I can manipulate the way light reflects back at one's eyes. If I concentrate hard enough," she paused, closing her eyes. "I can do this." As she opened her eyes, clones of her began multiplying until they encircled the two of them. "Of course, it's very difficult to control large illusions, but I have been practicing."

   "Wow," Jake replied. It seemed like surprise reduced his sentences to single-syllable words.

"And you?" (Y/N) asked. "What's your peculiarity?" They neared the tree and (Y/N) picked up her books.

"I—I don't...have one."

"You're sure?" (Y/N) blinked, surprised. "Everyone here has one. Miss P., Mill-" she paused. "Oh, you haven't even met them all yet! We need to get you to dinner. Come on!" She rushed him inside and got ready for dinner as he took his bath. Before she went downstairs, she set her books on the vanity, so she wouldn't forget to put them in the library later.

   She entered at the same time as Jacob, and smiled at the flurry of questions the peculiars threw at him.