e l e v e n - jake's pov
i carried on running from the men from the priest hole. i ran through the people in the streets not noticing that everything around me was different. i probably should have realized this but i didn't. i only noticed things were different when i nearly got ran over by a horse drawn carriage. everybody around me was looking at me weirdly, and i had no idea why. i had ran up many streets and alleyways, twisting and turning and jumping walls to try to get away from the big men and only then did i realize that everything looked like it was from a different time period. i would have trouble blending in here.
i was running behind some houses when i saw the blonde girl from the house again. she had me in headlock and had a knife to my neck in seconds.
"scream and i'll cut you"
she had pushed me against a wall at that point, so i was facing her with the knife still dangerously near my throat. her hands were shaking and the knife was getting way to close to my neck - she was scared. but even more dangerous.
"what are you?"
"an- uh- i'm an american"
i wasn't getting my words out properly, and i was confused by what she meant.
"i'm jacob"
she pressed the knife closer and stared at my eyes.
"what were you doing at the house? why were you chasing me?"
" i just wanted to talk to you! don't kill me!"
she brought it even closer to my neck.
"talk to me about what?"
"about the house- about the people who lived there"
"who sent you here?"
she was looking quite skeptical now.
"my grandfather. his name was abraham portman"
she looked at me shocked.
"that's a lie! you think i don't know who you are? i wasn't born yesterday! open your eyes - let me see your eyes!"
"i am! they are!"
i opened them up as wide as i could, worried for my own safety. she was on her tiptoes studying them real close, and i was very confused. why did she need to see my eyes?
"no, your real eyes! those fakes don't fool me any more than your ridiculous lie about abe!"
"its not a lie - and these are my eyes!"
the knife was so close to my neck by now. if it was any sharper it would of cut me by now.
"look, i'm not what ever you think i am. i can prove it!"
the knife moved away a teeny bit.
"then prove it, or i'll water the grass with your blood!"
"i have something here."
i went to reach for the letter from miss peregrine in my pocket, but the girl seemed to freak out and stop me, and the knife was brought closer to my neck again. she probably thought i was getting something to fight back with. but, i don't want a fight, i just want to speak civilly without a knife to my neck.
"its only a letter! calm down!"
the knife was moved slightly further away from my neck again. i put my hand back in my pocket and brought out the letter.
"the letter is part of the reason i came here. my grandfather gave it to me. it's from the bird. that's what you call your headmistress, isn't it?"
"this doesn't prove anything! and how do you know so bloody much about us?"
she hadn't even looked at it.
"i told you, my grandfather-"
"i don't want to hear another word of your rubbish!"
she slapped the letter out of my hand, staring at me angrily. i think i had touched a nerve. she didn't say anything for a while, just stood there looking frustrated, until we heard angry shouts from not that far away. i turned and saw the men from the pub coming near, looking angry and dangerous, armed with various wooden splinters and clubs. it seemed as if the girl had seen them as well, as she looked at me with that look again.
"what's this? what've you done?"
"your not the only person who wants to kill me."
~
i was now the girls prisoner. once she saw them coming she threatened me and told me to follow her or else, so i had followed her into this little cottage we had ran too. i didn't have much time to think about how safe i was with her, but i rather preferred my chances with the girl then the adult men from the pub. in the cottage she watched through the window to check if they were coming, while i had looked around. it was really rustic, even for cairnholm. there was a dog asleep, and a stove in the corner among many other things, but what caught my eye was the calendar. it had black and white photos of girls in long flowy dresses and close ups of there pristine, suitable hair and free of makeup skin. and the date was september 1940.
3rd september 1940.
i stared at the calendar for a while, confused. but, it did start to make sense. my grandfather was never much of a poet, so what he had said to me must of been literal. "on the other side of the dead man's grave." the dead man was who here they called bog boy, and his grave was the cairn. i was on the other side of it because i had crawled in. the other side was 3rd september 1940.
and that was when i fainted.
~
"he must be a wight. why else would he have been snooping around the old house like a burglar?"
"i haven't the slightest idea. but neither, it seems, does he. you say he didn't even realize he was in a loop?"
i woke up and heard the girl speak to someone. someone must of shown up while i was out. but, when i had opened my eyes, it didn't seem like it. all i could see was her, talking to thin air. the weirdest thing about it, though, was that someone was replying to her, and the voice seemed to be coming from the said thin air.
"see for yourself. can you imagine any relative of abe being so perfectly clueless?"
there she went again, speaking to nothing. how the hell was she speaking to nothing and getting an answer?
"can you imagine a wight?"
"i can imagine a wight faking it."
i thought i wasn't looking close enough for this non-existent boy, so i strained my neck and looked around from my position on the floor. but there was still nobody there but her. i turned back around and saw the dog staring at me expectantly, and then it started licking my face. i sat up, getting away from the dogs slobber.
"well look who's up! that was quite the performance you gave earlier. i particularly enjoyed the fainting. i'm sure the theater lost a fine actor when you chose to devote yourself instead to murder and cannibalism."
she fake clapped at me, and stared in distaste as i tried to tell her of my innocence. i stopped, however, when i saw a cup of water floating in the air in front of me.
"have some water. we can't have you dying before we get you back to the headmistress, now can we?"
there definitely wasn't anybody there holding the cup. there definitely wasn't somebody there speaking, either. i reached out to get the floating cup, and felt a hand hold it, which made me nearly drop it.
"he's clumsy"
"you're invisible"
"indeed. millard nullings, at your service"
"don't tell him your name!"
"and this is emma. she's a bit paranoid, as i'm sure you've gathered"
the girl - emma - seemed to glare at the spot i assumed millard was stood in. i stared at thin air (or millard?) trying to formulate a sentence to explain myself, or ask a question, or to just break the silence. but the angry men from the pub did that for me, as we heard them yelling through the window. emma looked at me and told me to stop speaking, as i heard millard walk towards the window.
"whats happenning?"
me and emma tried to peer through the gap in the curtains millard made.
"they're searching the houses. we can't stay here much longer."
"well, we can't very well go out there!"
millard seemed to walk away from the window, towards a table with a single leather bound book on it.
"i think perhaps we can. just to be certain, though, let me consult my book."
the book then floated up and opened, the pages moving around as if someone was reading it. well, someone was.
"as i suspected! we have only to wait a minute or so and then we can walk straight out the front door"
"are you mad? we'll have every one of those knuckle-draggers on us with brick bats!"
"not if we're less interesting than what's about to happen. i assure you,this is the best opportunity we'll have for hours"
as he said that, i heard something that was much louder than the angry men shouting - engines. and loads of them.
"oh! millard, that's brilliant!"
he sniffed.
"and you said my studies were a waste of time"
emma turned to me and dragged me from the floor. she held her knife to me again.
"take my arm. don't run. act like nothing's the matter."
she put the knife away, but assured me that i would see it again if i tried to escape. we walked out and i saw the source of the loud noise. planes. german planes.
"how do i know i won't see the knife again anyway?"
"you don't"
~
authors note -
i know i say it literally every time i post, but i'm sorry that i haven't for a while. i won't make up excuses. i wrote a quite a lot to try to say sorry, though.
jake's pov is officially done! technically there is still a little bit until he gets to the house, but 1. you guys know how he does, 2. i wrote quite a lot anyway, and 3. i just wanted to see him meet emma and see their relationship at the start before going fully to anna.
i'm happy i don't have to do that anymore, though, to be honest.
anyways, i've decided to ditch capital letters because who the hell needs them.
well i don't want to bore you.
hope you've had a good christmas/hanukkah/holidays/new year and i will try (fingers crossed) to update soon
maisie&kirsty