Stuck in the moment

Chapter six

After dinner, I went up to our room. I knocked on the door and mister Portman opened it. "Amelia! There you are. Where were you during dinner?" he asked. "I had dinner with some of the girls on the island." I lied. The truth is that I went to all the elder people of the island, asking about the children's home. None could tell me any more than Oscar could. "That's wonderful!" mister Portman exclaimed. I smiled and entered the room. "Hey." I said to Jake. "Hi." he gloomily replied. "I'm going to take a shower." I announced, walking towards my suitcase to grab some underwear and pyjamas. I was very careful not to show Jake the letter.

After I took a shower, I returned to the bedroom and I saw Jake sitting on his bed as mister Portman was typing on his laptop. "You need to talk about this with someone, buddy. We should call doctor Golan." mister Portman told Jake. I crawled into my bed, in the corner of the room, closest to the door. "What do you think, Amy?" Jake asked me. "About what?" I asked. "Why didn't grandpa tell us that the home was bombed?" he questioned. "Maybe he didn't want to believe it. Perhaps he thought that if they were alive in his stories, that they would simply come back to life." I speculated, sitting up straight. "Alright, that's enough talking for tonight. Time for bed." mister Portman told us. I crawled under my blankets and turned off my reading lamp. "Goodnight, mister Portman." I said. "Goodnight, Amelia." he replied. I spun around so I could face Jake. "Goodnight, Jacob." I whispered. "Goodnight, Amy." he whispered back.

We were having breakfast in silence when Jake spoke up. "Ehm, do you mind if we go hang out with those other kids today? They asked." he said. Mister Portman looked over to me and Jake. "Yeah? That's awesome." mister Portman said, glancing back to the telly.

But we didn't hang out with those bastards. Instead we went back to the children's home. Jake wanted to see what is looked like on the inside. It looked a rather creepy as we entered through the broken, glass parlour. I glanced around me, staring at the once lovely children's home. We walked inside the kitchen and Jake picked up an old photo of the children who had lived in the home. There was a soft ticking noise in the hallway. I walked over there and stared at the clock which produced the noise.

Jake and I walked upstairs in complete silence as if any sort of noise would make the building collapse. We walked into a room filled with jars containing strange objects. I walked out as soon as I had entered and I saw the figure of a girl dressed in blue. "Amelia?" she asked. I signed for her to be quiet and she obeyed. Then, Jake walked out of the room and saw the girl as well. "Abe?" she asked. Jake ran downstairs as the girl walked towards me. "Amelia, what's going on?" she asked. "I'll explain everything, I promise. Just, not right now. Make sure Jake gets through the loop. I'll go there now to warn miss Peregrine." I told the girl in blue before sneaking away through another door, leading into the garden.

From there I ran and ran until I reached the grey moor. I glanced around me before entering a medium sized cavern. The familiar feeling of time stopping and turning backwards filled my body before I felt the time starting again. Only this time, I was in a completely different era. I walked towards the fields owned by mister Barnabits and stepped into the stables.

"Amelia! Lovely to see you again!" Barnabits's wife said. "Hello there, Mrs. Barnabits. Can I borrow Angus?" I asked the brown-haired woman. "Miss Peregrine has her own horse, doesn't she?" she asked me. "Yes, she does, but she needs it to pull the cart." I explained. "Oh, alright then. But do be careful with him." the lady told me, handing me a fully-saddled horse. "Thank you, Mrs. Barnabits!" I yelled, getting on the horse, before galloping away towards the children's home.

"Amelia! There you are. I though you weren't coming." miss Peregrine stated as got off Angus and sent him back to the Barnabits' house. "Sorry it took me so long. Getting Jake to the loop is surprisingly tiring." I explained, entering the home in its full glory. "Get changed, Jake should be here in..." she looked at her fob watch. "...twenty-seven minutes. Oh, and when you're done changing, go to Horace. He said he wanted to ask you something." she told me. "Yes, miss Peregrine." I said.

I changed into my usual dress and slipped into some black shoes before clasping my necklace around my throat.

I brushed my hair for a bit and stepped out of my room towards the garden.

"Horace! I heard you needed me?" I asked the blonde boy. "Amelia, lovely to see you again. And you're quite right. I was wondering if you could borrow me another one of your books." he replied. "Of course, I mean you know the rules." I stated. "Thank you, Amelia." Horace said. "You're welcome." I told him before walking towards Emma.

"Amelia! There you are." she exclaimed, hugging me. "Hi there, Emma." I replied, hugging her back. "What was going on? Back in Jake's time, I mean." Emma questioned. "Jake doesn't know my secret." I whispered. "You haven't told him?" she shouted. "Shh! Of course I haven't. My job was to get him to miss Peregrine." I told her. Her eyes widened and she pushed me into the bushes. I was about to yell at her when I saw Jake and miss Peregrine approaching us. Emma stared at the tree again, looking for the baby squirrel.

"And there's one more if I'm not mistaking, have you seen her, Emma?" I heard miss Peregrine ask. "Who?" Emma asked innocently. "You know who I'm talking about. You can come out now, Amelia!" miss Peregrine shouted at the bushes in which I was hiding. I carefully stepped out of them and I saw Jake staring at me in shock.