Mercy's POV

The last thing I remembered was Jalic rescuing me as I had dreamed. 'Wait, Jalic came for me?' I thought as I woke up. I wasn't the only one in this room. Beside me was a sleeping Jalic. He looked so peaceful. I began to trace shapes on his arm which was wrapped around me. His eyelids opened to reveal a pair of light brown eyes which stared right at me. He then realised the placement of his arm and tried to pull away. I stopped him, "We are like boyfriend and girlfriend now so you can do that,"

"I know and would love to, but I don't think Miss Peregrine would approve," he said as he stood up to get changed. I looked at him confusedly. "She is the headmistress," he replied but upon realising I was still confused, explained further, "We are in a children's home for peculiar children like ourselves,"

I then remembered the letters and the bird. He changed behind the closet and then left. "I'm going to eat breakfast and I will meet you there. You might wanna clean up and get changed by the way," he said as he left with a grin. "Wait, how long have I been asleep?" I asked him.

"just over a day. See ya downstairs."

I looked down and realised I was filthy. I wondered how he slept beside me the whole night. I quickly got up and got changed as I found a spare set of clothes by the bed that seemed to fit me.

I walked downstairs and since Jalic didn't tell me where the dining room was, I just randomly chose a door and opened it. As I walked in I felt all eyes on me but I only had eyes for one.

Not sure about doing Mercy's POV again, if you want me to, please tell me so.

-

Jalic's POV

"everybody's watching her, but she's looking at you" - Calvin Harris - This Is What You Came For.

As she entered I noticed that she was a lot cleaner and somehow more beautiful. Everybody was looking at her expectantly but she just quietly took a seat beside me. "So, how do you like it here so far?" I asked her.

"It's nice. It looks very nice."

"Someone has gotten shy," I said playfully.

"I'm not used to getting attention."

"I think you should be used to it since you look pretty," I mumbled without thinking.

"Pardon?"

"Um, nothing."

"No, say it!"

"I just said you were pretty and should get more attention for it," I said embarrassedly.

"Thank you," she said as she kissed my cheek causing me to blush.

After breakfast, Miss Peregrine wanted to speak to us both. We entered her office and sat down. She looked at us both. She broke the tension by saying "So, you two, or should I say four, are probably wondering why I wanted to speak to you."

"four?" Mercy questioned.

"The ones that are in you, as well."

"oh yeah."

"Well, I have called you here to inform you of your lessons."

"Lessons?"

"Peculiarity training lessons. Now, you two will be training together as your peculiarities are similar and lessons will start after breakfast every 3 days."

"Do the other children have training lessons too?"

"The ones that are less experienced, yes."

"When will our first day be?"

"Now. So if you will follow me to the training area," she said as she got up and indicated us to follow her.

She led us into an empty room at the back of the house. "Who wants to go first?" Miss Peregrine asked us. Since Mercy looked quite shy, I volunteered to go first. "Ok. Please, may you tell me what you think or know what your peculiarity is."

"Well um, shadow manipulation is what I call it."

"Ok, and what do you know how to do?"

"Well, first thing first, when I'm in a dark room I can control objects inside it," I said, remembering the first time the boy taught me to use my peculiarity. She placed a weight down and turned the lights off. I turned on my aura and focused on the weight. I then lifted it in front of Miss P. She turned the light on and noticed my aura. "I also can turn on and off this aura thing."

"Does it affect anything?"

"I'm not sure."
I then showed her what else I can do with the exception of being able to see and hear through shadows and shadow teleporting as they might be useful if she didn't know. "Ok. Just give me a minute to write down some information about your peculiarity and how to improve."

I then moved to beside Mercy and noticed she was shaking. "Are you ok, Mercy?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, just nervous,"

"Well, good luck,"

"Thanks," she replied.

"Ok Mercy, it's your turn." Miss P called. "What is your peculiarity?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mercy POV

"Light manipulation."

"Ok, so what can you do?"

"Well, the most basic thing is I can make bursts and orbs of light."

"Ok, would you like me to turn the lights off?"

"No, it's ok," I said, still shaking.

"Well, whenever you are ready."

I tried to form a ball of light in my hands but it kept failing and I kept on remembering the last time I showed someone my peculiarity. It was my parents. They kept screaming I was a demon and tied me up, and dumped me in the basement. Dad said that he kept a whip because he knew that mum's family had demons in it before and he knew I would be one too. I was broken out of my daze when Jalic asked if I was ok. "Yeah, I'm fine," I said as a tear fell.

"We can do this later if you would like to, Miss Spencer?"

"Yes please," I said and Miss P left us alone. He then led me to a chair and wiped my tear away. "Are you sure you are fine?"

"Yeah,"

"Well, when people are fine, they usually don't cry, so I don't think you are fine," he said with a chuckle.

"It's just, the last time I showed someone my peculiarity, I was called a demon and thrown in a basement so..."

"Well, that is in the past and we are here with people that accept us and are just like us."

"I know, but it just triggers memories," I said as we fell into comfortable silence with me resting my head on his chest as he played with my hair. I got lost in his light brown eyes. He told me that when they were brown, he was himself, but when they turned pure black, it was the one he calls Corrow, that was controlling.

"You've never shown me your peculiarity," he said breaking the silence. "Maybe if you do, we can overwrite the other ones."

"Maybe," I said as I got up. "Ok, I've got this."

"Yes you do!" he encouraged.

"Yes, I do!"

I closed my eyes and began to concentrate. I concentrated on the palms of my hands getting brighter. Then, the memories came flooding back. Beating me and calling me a demon. Sensing my distress, Jalic shook me back to reality. He had a look of worry in his brown eyes. "Ok, how about this time don't close your eyes,"

"I'll try," I said weakly.

I concentrated but this time without closing my eyes. I tried to focus but I couldn't without closing my eyes since they drifted everywhere. I didn't want to look him in the eye though because I didn't want it to be awkward. "Instead of closing your eyes, look into my eyes."

"Um, ok," I said awkwardly and looked down.

"Nope, those are my shoes. Look at my eyes," he said. I then brought my eyes to meet his. I immediately forgot about my worries. He then took my hands and brought them together into an upside-down dome shape. "Now, without taking your eyes off mine, focus on your palms," he said. I nodded to show him that I heard. "Then, imagine a ball of light," he instructed. I noticed something bright in my hands and my eyes drifted toward it. "Hey, eyes!"

"Oh, sorry," I said sheepishly. I then focused on the ball of light getting brighter as we came closer to each other.

-

Jalic's POV

Just then, Emma walked in. "Oh, am I interrupting something?" she said with a smirk. The ball of light shrank down but didn't go away completely.

"We are just practising our peculiarities and Mercy just needs a bit of help and concentration so if you could move away slightly," I said without taking my eyes away from Mercy's. Slowly the ball grew then suddenly disappeared.

"I think that's enough practise," she said hurriedly stepped away and broke eye contact.

"Are you sure?" I said thinking about if it was something I did.

"Yeah, we can continue later,"

"Ok, well I'll tell Miss P about how you would like to practise."

"Ok, thank you."

I then left and went to find Miss P. I was so lost in why Mercy wanted to stop so suddenly that I nearly bumped into Millard. "I thought you could see me!" he said jokingly. We had become quite good friends since I was the only one who could 'see' him. When I say 'see' I mean that whenever the shadows sense something I can't see, they sort of wrap around it in a way that only I can see.

"Sorry, just have something on my mind."

"Is it something a scholar of all things peculiar can help with?"

"I don't think so."

"Is it girl problems? Because Emma is good with that stuff."

"Sort of. I guess it wouldn't hurt to try?"

"Ok, if it goes well, can you play football with us later?"

"Um… yeah sure," I said as I went to find Emma. I knew she would be out of the training room so I quickly went to check her room. Before I entered, I heard some voices in her room which were amplified by my shadow awareness thing. "What should I do?"

"I think you should tell him."

"But what if he doesn't like me for it?"

"Don't be daft, why would he stop loving you for it?"

"Loving?"

"Have you seen the way he looks at you? You'd have to be blind not to notice!"

"Huh, 'love'. Never thought of it like that."

"Aren't you two in a relationship anyway?"

"Well yeah, but we haven't said 'I love you' or kissed, we've barely even held hands!"

"Maybe if you become closer it could help with your problem?"

"Ok. Thanks, Emma, you really are helpful,"

"See you later and don't forget to tell him!"

'"I won't, I'll tell him..." she said. "...Later"

she continued under her breath.

I rushed away and pretended to be going to my room which was coincidently beside Emma's. "Hello," I said quickly as she exited Emma's room.

"Oh uh, hi." she said distractedly. She looked like she was debating in her head whether to tell me or not. Apparently, she decided to tell me as she quickly followed up with "Hey, can I talk to you for a sec?"

"Yeah sure, what do you want to talk about?" I said as I led her into my room. But before I got an answer, the bell for lunch rang out.

"Well, we can talk later." she said as we went downstairs.