The chilly night air tickles my skin and I fumble with the zipper at the end of my jacket. Claire and Olive look over and see me attempting to zip up my jacket, and giggle to themselves. I glare at them. It's not my fault I haven't gotten the hang of it yet. Jake only showed us once. Jake had just taken us to our second movie at the theater since we've come to the present world, and it was as thrilling as the last time we went. I smile to myself, remembering the first time we all went, and Horace passed out at the sight of a man with a chainsaw seemingly walking straight towards us on the screen.
We pass a young couple sitting on a bench and Horace waves at them politely. Emma and Jake are walking in the back of the group, holding hands. Bronwyn walks behind the little ones, protecting them from the dangers of the night. I'm walking next to Horace, and Millard. Enoch walks by himself in the middle of the group. I groan in frustration when the zipper slides up one of the sides of my jacket, failing to connect both sides. I feel a hand on my shoulder, and Jake steps out from behind me."Do you want me to help you with the zipper, Hugh?" He says, trying to suppress a smile.
I roll my eyes. "This is seriously impossible!" I insist. He laughs and bends down, so his eyes are level to my waist.
"Okay, watch me do it, so next time you can do it yourself," He insists.
"Okay, Mommy," I reply sarcastically. While he demonstrates how to zip a jacket, the rest of the group had stopped and were now chatting next to a small tree. The moon shines down on us, giving a faint glow to everything.
"- And then, boom! It's zipped. Catch all that?" Jake says, standing up.
"Uh-huh,"I reply sticking my hands in my pockets.
"Jake, my foon says it's ten o'clock. Miss Peregrine told us to be home by ten thirty, so we should get going," Emma says.
"First of all, it's called a phone not a foon," Jake says chuckling. "And second, you're right we should probably speed up a bit." Jake and I rejoin the group, and we continue our walk.
"How long 'till we get back to your house, Jake?" Claire quarrels, pushing away a stray red curl that had been bouncing on her face.
"We'll be home in about ten minutes," Jake replied. There is a couple of minutes of silence when out of the blue Horace breaks into a fit of coughing. When he is done, he wipes his mouth with his sleeve, and looks up only to find all of us staring at him.
"What, can't a boy cough once in awhile?" Horace comments in a raspy voice. Olive gasps and looks up fearfully at Bronwyn. Bronwyn turns to Emma, her mouth gaping open. Emma blinks, and puts on a fake smile.
"Guys, he was just coughing, so let's all just calm down," Emma reassures us.
"Are you kidding? The last time one of us coughed like that was…" I began to say but stopped too scared to finish my sentence.
"What? Why is everyone freaking out? Why is Horace coughing a bad thing?" Jake turned to Emma, expecting an explanation.
"Well it's hard to explain," Emma says, scrunching up her face.
"No it's not," Olive argues. "Every year, we all get really sick and are peculiarities go haywire." She says.
"Wait, so you all just suddenly get sick?" Jake says, confused.
"No, it usually starts when one person gets sick, and it just spreads like a wildfire," Olive shrugs as if it's no big deal. "It's kind of a really big deal."
"How come you guys never told me this?" Jake says.
"It never really came to our minds as a big deal when we first met you, and I guess when we moved in with you, we just failed to mention," states Millard.
"But once again, Horace was just coughing. So we have nothing to worry about. Right, Horace?" Emma says, turning to look at Horace. Horace breaks into another fit of coughing and leans on a tree for support. We're screwed.