Thin Ice (MPHfPC Fanfic)

Chapter Twenty:

"A memory," I repeated. "What memory?"

"One I'd rather not share." Miss Peregrine answered.

I didn't push. I respected Miss Peregrine, and as much as I wanted to know, I didn't at the same time. The scenes in her memories were bland enough if you didn't have background knowledge, but the emotion that came with them were too intense to ignore. I wasn't sure if I wanted any more.

I started to walk to Miss Peregrine, momentarily forgetting what could happen.

"Miss Perine..."

But I was walking fast now. I stopped right in front of Miss Peregrine. Nothing had happened. I could imagine my own face full of wonder and confusion, matching Miss Peregrine's.

"What on-" Miss Peregrine started to say after a moment, but before she could finish I was falling... falling... falling.

. . .

Caul stood in front of the window.

Someone gasped behind me and I spun around. Miss Peregrine was behind me, not a past-Miss Peregrine, the one from the present.

"Whoa." I said. My voice was muffled, like I was speaking into a pillow, but Miss Peregrine heard me. She nodded slowly in agreement.

The door banged open behind her and in rushed past-Miss Peregrine, going through the real Miss Peregrine, who grimaced.

"Oh no." The real Miss Peregrine said as her past-self rushed up to Caul and pointed a gun at his head.

"Turn around."

He did, and I saw that his pupils were already white, or gone, whichever you prefer.

"Alma!" I knew you would come for me," He spread his arms out, like he was expecting a hug. "Even though those fools you follow around told you not too, you couldn't stay away."

"You're going to come with me," Past-Miss Peregrine said. Her face was hard, but her eye twitched.

"You'd never... SHOOT me, would you?" Caul feigned horror.

"I will if you don't cooperate."

"How touching," Caul replied. "But I'm your brother. No matter what, you will never be able to kill me."

"That's not true," Past-Miss Peregrine argued, but her voice shook a bit.

"Show me then."

I looked back at the real Miss Peregrine, but she had turned her face away.

After a moment, Caul smiled. Grinned, more like it. A crazy, mad, grin that showed all his teeth.

"I knew you couldn't do it." He threw a small knife that sliced a long, deep cut in her arm. She cried out and dropped the gun. I heard gasp and looked back to the real Miss Peregrine to see that she was favoring the same cut. My own arm hurt, and I could see a faint red line right where the cut ran. But it wasn't even half as bad as the real thing.

"You should have left hunting me down to your elders. At least they would have been able to kill me." Caul wore a bland expression, like he was bored of this.

Both past and present Miss Peregrine were holding their arms, blood seeping out and spilling to the floor.

"I knew you couldn't do it."

I was jolted back to the present, surprisingly unharmed, except for the faint red line on my arm.

But Miss Peregrine's sleeve was still ripped and her arm was still bleeding. I didn't know why the memory affected her this way.

"There you go," Miss Peregrine said. "Now you know I could have prevented all this, but was too cowardly to do it."

"Don't say that," I said. "I'd say that loving your own brother enough not to kill him wasn't cowardly. I would have done the same thing."

"The council didn't think so. I don't either." Miss Peregrine said.

I looked at her wound, which was bleeding even more now.

"I'll go get Mother Dust." I said.

. . .

Mother Dust sprinkled some of her dust on Miss Peregrine's cut. An odd thing had happened after we'd dived into Miss Peregrine's memories. She suddenly was able to get close to others. The strange things her presence caused had suddenly stopped happening. Unfortunately for me, I tried to touch a pencil and it glitched and disappeared. Nothing had changed for me.

"You'll have a scar." Raynaldo said. "It was underneath the cut."

"That's because I already had it before," Miss Peregrine told him. "I'd be surprised if I didn't anymore."

I stared at the thin scratch I had gotten that trailed down my arm. It would probably heal during the next few days naturally. But Miss Peregrine had a permanent scar. 

Mother Dust finished healing the once-deep cut. Only a thin white scar remained. Then she grabbed my arm (not my hand) and sprinkled a little bit of her pinkie on the thin cut. It disappeared almost instantly.

"Thank you." I said to Mother Dust. She nodded and left. But As Reynaldo stepped out afterward, Miss Peregrine yelped and something popped, and Reynaldo glitched. Miss Peregrine's oddity was back, but I seemed to be immune.

Miss Peregrine sighed, stood, and pulled her sleeve back over her scar.

"Miss Peregrine?" I asked, "If you don't mind me asking, what else did he do to you?"

"Many things," Miss Peregrine answered. "None of them pleasant. He had always resented me, as well as others who were favored over him. Although he was treated well at the academy, he was still bitter. Myron less so, but he had always wanted to be on Jack's good side. They were both crazy."

We stood in silence for a moment. My head was still rearranging the memories. Although my moments of relieving the memory were over, my arm still tingled.

"And, if you please, Miss Perine," Said Miss Peregrine. "Keep this incident between us. The last thing we need is everyone getting sidetracked."

"Of course," I said. "I promise."

"Thank you. Could you go roundup the others? I believe they all should be done cleaning up by now."