Strange Worlds [Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children] Enoch O'Connor

four

It was honestly torturing.

Every night I woke up to the same dream. Jacob and I ended up sharing a double bed since either one of us would always wake with a nightmare, and our parents didn't want to get involved. We couldn't close our eyes without seeing the face of the tentacled monster that killed our grandfather.

Jacob and I had spent the day of our grandfathers funeral inside our windowless laundry room that had a lock on the inside as that was where we felt most comfortable and safe. If only we believed him, if only we got there sooner. These were the only thoughts that ran through my head as Jacob tried to take his mind off things by playing online games.

No one had believed my grandfather, and I felt a lump of guilt buried in my gut for not believing him either. He had trusted us, but we couldn't trust him. We didn't listen and thought he was crazy, and it was our fault he was dead. You know what, no one believed us either.

It hadn't been Long since Grandpa Portman died. Police had come to the Portman's house to question what had happened that night and what the two kids had seen. Sophia felt as if everything she had seen was a reality until she was forced to speak aloud and hear what she had to say. She must've sounded crazy. She knew she sounded crazy.

They told the police officers about what they saw and heard, and they didn't leave out the monster, although, after a second thought, they believed they should've left this part out. The sketch artist drew every last detail they gave.

"How many eyes did it have?"

"Two."

"Gotcha." He spoke as if drawing monsters were a perfectly normal task for a police officer.

When they finished describing the features of the said monster, the officer looked at the picture in annoyance and thought, "Great, thanks." He turned to the parents of the two children in, and without even bothering to have a private talk, he said, "Have they been seeing anyone?"

"Excuse me, officer!" Sophia snapped and stood up, her face flushing red with anger. Jacob, too stood up from the seat. "I believe we have another statement to make."

The officer turned back around in the seat, annoyed at how they were wasting her time. As if in sync, the twins raised their right hands and flipped off the officer before walking into their separate rooms.

Their parents quickly stalked to their rooms and pulled them out. They yelled at them for being rude to the officer even though it had been the officer who was rude first. It turns out that no matter how harsh the authority was, they still couldn't be rude back.

Sophia yelled and kicked and screamed while Jacob began blaming the two for the death of their grandfather, "You're glad he's dead, and I know that because you didn't even love him! Soph and I were the only ones who did love him!"

Jacob was slapped across the face, and as was Sophia. Their parents were just glad they had sent the sketch artist and police officer into the kitchen with an ice tea each, so they hadn't witnessed the incident, although they probably heard the cracking slaps from the kitchen.

They ended up staying in the same room with each other, the police officer knocking on the door and letting himself in with the picture in hand. He sat on the edge of Sophia's bed, the kids giving him an odd look.

"Look, I know it can be hard as children to lose someone you love." He spoke. "I'm no psychologist, but I do know that it's normal to bring in a made-up suspect to try and help you believe that his death wasn't an accident. That the man you cared for died fighting."

"How would you know!" Sophia spat.

"Because, believe it or not... I once stood in your shoes. I once believed that some hooded monster had murdered my parents." He answered slowly. "They were mugged while walking home one night. I was walking out of the house to greet them back when a man came out and stabbed them, stealing all their money."

"So what, you tell us a sob story in hopes that we realise that this monster isn't real?" Jacob scoffed.

"We know what we saw!" Sophia yelled in annoyance.

The police officer handed the picture over to the two kids. "And I knew what I saw, but my parents' killer looked nothing like the monster I dreamt up."

The officer quickly stood up and walked out of the door, bidding their parents goodbye. The two stared down at the picture in disgust as the artist had drawn exactly what they had seen that night, causing a form of nausea to bubble to the surface.