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

Chapter 42

AN: If I were writing the screenplay for the Hollow City movie this is how I would connect the ending of the movie to the beginning of the second book. I have my fingers crossed that Tim Burton does a sequel, this is a series I'm dying to see come to life and the second movie would be able to cover so much more of peculiardom that we haven't seen yet!!

Chapter 42

"I heard a shout and looked up to see a man in a grey uniform rise from a hatch – I saw his face full in the light, his mouth curled into a leering grin, his eyes depthless and blank." {Jacob Portman, pg 326-327 book 1}

Aurora grabbed Claire as they fell from where they were sitting so the younger girl wouldn't fall into the broken glass around them. Once the ship settled from the collision they both got up and ran for the main deck. The others were already there, some looking out the windows, others crouched in fright.

Out the grimy window Aurora saw what had caused the ship to tilt so violently. It looked like a whale about to surface, long, large and grey. It had come up and collided against the right side of the front hull of the ship – a U-boat. And what was worse was the crew that emerged from it, not Nazi's or Allies but something much worse - wights.

"Stay here." Miss Peregrine ordered as she prepared to leave the deck.

"We can help!" Enoch protested from his place behind the wheel.

"He's right." Jake agreed, which shocked Aurora, those two never got along, "You saw what we did to Barron and his group." Jake reasoned.

"You can't go out there alone." Emma added, "Let us help you."

Miss Peregrine looked around the room at all the faces of her wards with a mix of concern and pride in her eyes. Then she took a deep breath to compose herself.

"Aurora, take the younger ones – Claire, Bronwyn and the twins – deeper into the ship. We don't know what weapons the wights have and we can't risk them getting hurt. Horace, Olive, Hugh and Fiona, man the ship. Enoch, Millard, Emma and Jake will come with me – "

"I can help too!" Bronwyn disputed. Miss Peregrine looked unsure until Olive spoke up.

"Wyn and I can go deeper into the hull and try to repair where the U-boat hit so the ship doesn't go under." She offered and the headmistress gave her a thankful smile. Bronwyn, who seemed pleased by this nodded her head vigorously and both her and Olive took off for the inner workings of the Augusta. Aurora ushered the younger children out the door before turning to Millard. He grabbed her and pulled her lips to his, kissing her passionately, when they broke apart she was the first to speak.

"Don't be a hero." She begged, her hands still cupping his face.

He hesitated before answering, "Just keep yourself safe darling." He said and before she could make him promise Claire began tugging at Aurora's skirt as she began to cry in fear. Aurora picked up the tiny peculiar girl and followed the twins down the stairs and into a room that hadn't been destroyed by the crash.

MILLARD P.O.V.

He immediately stripped off all his clothes and followed the others out to the bow of the ship. Jake had taken the crossbow and began having target practice on the wights. Enoch had rustled up a few of the remaining skeletons and they were now throwing harpoons at their attackers. Emma was bent at the rail blowing into the water trying to get their ship out of range from the U-boat while Miss Peregrine turned into a falcon – mid run – and began circling and pecking at the wights, going for their eyes with her talons. Millard ran over to Jake and knelt beside him.