A Peculiar Time in 1944 - A Millard Fanfic (Miss Peregrine's Home) #wattys2020

Chapter 4

There might be a trigger warning here.

The next day passed Aurora in a blur, she knew she wouldn't see Millard until it got dark out. In broad daylight a set of clothes walking by itself would be too obvious and Millard was too much of a gentleman to sneak into her yard completely undressed. The thought that he walked around naked in public was enough to make her furiously blush all over again. She thought about their night together and how easy it was to be with him even only knowing him for two days. He'd done things no one else had ever done, he'd called her beautiful, he danced with her, made her feel special, valued. It was something she never got at home no matter how hard her mother tried, her father always had a way of knocking Aurora's self confidence to all time lows. But when she was with Millard she felt more confident, like he really cared about her opinion, in what she had to say.

She wished she could bring him home, just to meet her mother; she knew her mother would love Millard, he was kind, polite, intelligent, everything she'd ever want for her daughter. It saddened Aurora that her mother, and so many other people would never get to know someone as wonderful as Millard simply because he was invisible. It made her angry as well, which was quite the ordeal, Aurora never got angry. But her anger was directed at society, why couldn't people look past differences and shortcomings and see how amazing the people around them were? If humanity could do that there wouldn't be a war right now; people wouldn't be dying by the hundreds each day.

She took a long sigh, reminded herself that the world was far from perfect and that she could only live one day at a time, put one foot in front of the other and hope for the best.

As the sun was setting Aurora's father sent her to the shop around the block to pick up supplies that they were running low on. The elderly couple there was familiar with Aurora and always tried to give her as much as they could afford to in these tough times. In exchange Aurora would mend clothes that the older woman couldn't because of her old unsteady fingers. It was trust like that which reminded Aurora that even during a war there was still goodness in people.

Aurora took her mothers cloth grocery bag and filled it with half a dozen eggs, half a loaf of bread, a box of crackers, some assorted fruit and a can of beans. Before she left she met the shopkeeper in the back and collected their bag of torn clothes to mend and he slipped her a small can of powdered baby formula.

"For your brother."

The kind gesture made Aurora smile, "Thank you." She replied as sweetly as she could before leaving the shop and heading home.

On her way she had to pass the local pub, it always gave her a bad twisting feeling in her stomach so she'd cross the street and avoid making eye contact with any of the stumbling drunken men. Tonight there were four German soldiers standing under a lamp post smoking cigarettes. One turned at the sound of her footsteps and gave her a look that made her stomach flip. She quickened her pace looking at the sidewalk hoping their attention would be drawn elsewhere. Unfortunatly, there was no one else around, the townspeople had either shut themselves in their homes for the night or were in that pub drinking their worries away.

Aurora heard the soldiers mutter to each other in German before hearing footsteps following her down the sidewalk. She walked faster though still didn't run, worried she might injure her still fragile ankle. But a sixteen year old girl couldn't outrun four military trained men. One grabbed her by the arm pulling her to a stop and using his free hand covered her mouth so she couldn't scream. Another came and snatched her bags away tossing them to the side. The two others joined them, one talking in a soft tone, he sounded like he was trying to talk the other men out of whatever they planned to do.