Emma's POV

Chapter 5: Headache

I was in this very dark black place, I felt like I couldn't escape it. The nothingness of everything of life right now consumed me. Was I dead? If so, how did I die? Was this all death had to offer, black nothingness? Is this how the rest of eternity will be? I see a bright light, could it be heaven coming for me?

I squint my eyes from the blinding light. I instantly feel a sharp throbbing in my head, and sides. If this is heaven, why do I feel so much pain?

I see this tall bearded man come towards me, is it God? Boy, were people wrong about the afterlife, all I feel is pain.

"Hello, I'm Doctor Cane. Can you tell me your name Miss?" Shit, this isn't heaven. Then his question hits me, what is my name? I don't remember it, I don't remember anything really.

"I… don't know." I hear a voice from a distance. It's a man's voice. His voice is hard, there is a slight rasp to his tone. He's saying something about his daughter. Could he be talking about me? Or is he talking about someone else? The man comes closer to me, he's practically hovering right over me. A grin appears on his hard slightly wrinkled facial features.

"Emma, how are you doing?" Emma, that's a nice name.

"You are?"

"I'm your father."

"Seriously?"

"Are you disappointed?"

"A little." I hesitated.

"Why?"

"Guess I expected someone different." I continued to hesitate.

"What kind of person were you expecting?"

"I don't know? Just someone different."

"I promise you, I am your father." I suddenly feel this horrible thud in my head, then my head feels slightly less empty. I look down at my feet, I'm still wearing my boots, surprised the nurses didn't take them off. I remember my power, and how it works.

"What happened?" I ask.

"You were walking through the forest back to our house from my work, when you came to the road, you were struck down by an automobile. The people hit you, brought you here, then left." Was I supposed to believe him? I didn't have any reasons to trust him, but I also didn't have reasons not to trust him, this was a dilemma. I just stared at him.

"It's the truth. Why would I lie to you?" I could think of a couple reasons. I'm vulnerable. I don't know if you are telling the truth, and you are trying to get me to trust you. I knew at least one thing about myself, listen to your gut, and my gut senses a truck load of baloney. I looked at him with sceptical eyes, he didn't notice.

"Your birthday is Nov 8th 1927. You have a little sister named Julia. One thing you love to do is work with me at the rehabilitation residence.-" He was cut off by a doctor, thank you.

"I have some questions for you sir."

"For instance?"

"I know these bruises on her lower side abdomen aren't from the collision, they seem fairly new, about a couple days old at the most."

"What are you implying doctor?"

"You must know how they were caused, don't you?"

"Some of my patients attacked her. They got anger, like they do, why else would they be there?"

"What exactly is your occupation?"

"I am the head in charge of The Residence for Reckless Girls. I treat, and relebitabe troubled girls. Mostly teenagers."

"I see. So you say they attacked her? These look more like puncture marks, then a simple beating."

"They stole some equipment. I wasn't available to attack, so they went for the next best thing."

"Why weren't you around?" This doctor had a lot of strange questions. Was It weird that I was starting to believe what he was saying?

"Doing paperwork, I have a job you know."

"I have to admit, your story seems ethical. You can take her home in a couple days." Great, I eternally sighed.

"Thank you doctor." Then they shook hands.

He came and left for the next couple days, he told me stuff about myself, some of it I believed, some of it, I didn't. The day came where I had to be released. He was there from the minute the hospital opened to visitors.

"Are you ready to go? Aren't you excited, you get to come home?" I was a little excited, hospital food sucked. I was ready for a hamburger.

"I guess so." The rest of the day was just sitting around the house while my little sister stared at me; for some reason it felt weirder than when the doctors were staring at me. She stared at me, like I wasn't supposed to be there.

It had been a week since we left the hospital, I was going to go to work with dad. I had been doing so for the past five days. The more I was there, the more I believed what dad had said in the hospital. The girls were ruthless, I got many death stares. Some even tried to attack me, no surprise, I was usually out in the open, while he was in his office.

I didn't see how I let them attack me before, when they tried I just blew them off of me. I got some respect for my lethalness.

"Hey! I don't belong here! I have a family I need to take care of!" Ah, patient C9, she was always a pleasure, not. She kept on complaining about how she didn't belong here, it was bogus. I checked her file a little while ago, stabbed her fourth grade teacher for failing her, she'd been in the fourth grade already three times, the fourth time the teacher wasn't so lucky. Her sentence was, and I quote 'till she is not a psychopath'. With that sentence, she's doomed for life.

I learned that even if the patient is over the age of eighteen, she's supposed to stay till they have carried out their sentence. I asked why. Why aren't they transferred to a different place if they are older than eighteen, shouldn't they? If this is a place for girls, then why have women here? He replied, 'if they were admitted before the age of eighteen, then they have to carry out the sentence here, those are just the rules.'

"We're not having this conversation again." I said, then I blew her away from me.

"We never had this conversation in the first place!" That was true, I had had this conversation with myself.

I walked into dad's office for the manual check up. I stride in.

"Dad, C9 is all worked up, again" I roll my eyes. I see this boy standing a few feet away from dad's desk. He's about my age, cute. Before I can introduce myself, dad already has.

"Jacob, this is my daughter Emma." He says. He just looks at me, stares is a more appropriate term. It seems like I know him, but in truth, I've never seen him before. I walk over to him.

"Emma, but you already knew that. You're cute, we should hang out sometime." I smile at him, he smiles a dorky grin.

"I don't think that would be right, you are the boss's daughter." Suck up. I can tell he likes me, he just doesn't want to admit it. I walked out before they could continue talking, I prefered more hands on work, talking was boring.

Jacob's POV.

I had been more worried sick about Emma now, than before I knew what happened to her. She was being torchered. I couldn't stand to think about it.

When I wasn't thinking about Emma, I was either thinking about how to help Emma, or the story about Rosie, my thoughts were never empty. How could genetics make such a dangerous person?

Well the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was about the person possessing the power, not the power possessing the person. A key example of that was Olive, she was a sweet, kind, and ironically the least dangerous person I'd ever known, not counting Emma. What made it ironic, was the fact that she could make fire appear at the flick of a wrist. She could be quite dangerous if she had a different personality.

"Do you have a plan?" Olive asked me. In fact I did. I stared at her.

"Oh no, why did I have to ask?" She groaned.

"You set something on fire-"

"I know where this is going." She continued to groan.

"Get yourself send to this place-"

"I'm not setting a building on fire!"

"I didn't say It had to be a building."

"You're sick, I'm not setting anyone on fire!"

"I didn't say a person."

"It sounded like it."

"Like I was saying, Millard will follow you, and tell us where you are."

"I already said I'm not doing it!"

"Come on Olive, for Emma."

"I still don't get why I have to be bait? I don't see you throwing your ass into the situation!"

"Language!" Miss P scolded.

"Sorry, but it's true. What's he doing? Except for trying to risk my life. Why can't you be the bait?"

"Because I'm a boy."

"You could disguise yourself."

"Let's see, what if I have to go to the bathroom?"

"Alright, I've heard enough. You don't have to be bait. But still why me? Why can't Millard follow someone one is actually guilty of a crime?"

"We can't take that chance, we have to have full control of the situation."

"Stop it you two. I will figure something out. Your job right now is to not alarm everyone, alright?"

"Yes Miss Peregrine." We said in unison. We walked out of the room.

"Why are you so against my plan?" I asked calmly.

"Do you seriously need to ask? If this plan goes wrong, there's two of us stuck there, do you really want to take that chance?" She also said calmly.

"I feel there's another reason?"

"My life would be on the line, do I need another reason?"

"It goes deeper, I can see it in your eyes."

"We are finally ageing, I want to be able to have a normal life, I can't do that if I have jail time on my record." I guess I never realized to the full extent of what my friends wanted. I had had a normal boring life, I'd always wanted to do something, be something out of the ordinary. All my friends wanted was to have what I had growing up. Now I felt like I would never be able to fully connect with them, not experiencing what they'd gone through.

"I'm sorry, I guess I never realized that."

"It's fine, you wouldn't know, you had a dream like childhood compared to ours."

"One day, you think you could tell me about it, so I could get a sense for what you went through? Just so I can be more sensible towards you guys."

"Maybe, one day. "

It was dinner time, probably going to be more seafood. I swear if I eat anymore, I might get sea sick.

"Where's Emma?" Claire asked.

"Are we not safe here? We just got here?" Fiona asked right after Claire.

"If it thoses wights and hollows, we can handle them." Hugh barged in a split second after Fiona.

"How could she be gone and Jacob still here, was your peculiarity defective." Enoch asked, I was slightly offended.

"Settle down children. There are no wights or hollows here."

"Then what happened?" Bronwyn asked.

"Only some moronic normals, nothing to be worried about, the situation is being handled, she will be back with us soon." Miss P announced, she underplayed the situation a lot, but I didn't blame her. I wouldn't want to know what eleven upset peculiars looked like.

"Emma against how many, potentially unarmed normals? I don't believe that." Horace added.

"She was temporarily detained, identity misunderstanding." That actually could've been true.

"So she's alight?" Claire asked.

"To my knowledge, yes." Now she was in fully lying mode.

Morning came, I knew Miss P told us she would come up with something, but it didn't hurt to do my own research.

"Where are you going?" Olive asked, as I was leaving.

"Going to do some research on that place."

"I'm coming."

"Sure." We walked towards the beach.

"I'm pretty sure the library isn't this way, beside, what information would it have on this place?"

"I know where I'm going." We came to the cave I'd discovered yesterday.

"Why are we here? Is it a short cut to the library?"

"You should stay here."

"Why?"

"Do you want to die?"

"Of course not?"

"Then stay here."

"This is a loop entrance, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"What can you do out there, that you can't do here?" I could think of one thing, use the internet. I didn't want to lie to her, but Miss P had heavily warned me about telling the other about the future when unnecessary.

"Better books."

"Fine, I'll stay here, but you will take us to see American one day, won't you?" She was really laying on the guilty feeling now.

"Sure, one day." I hope I could keep that promise.

I walked through the loop, my phone pinged, I had sell service, definitely not in the 1940's anymore. I walked to the nearest library, there was no internet on my phone.

"Hello young man, I haven't seen you here before, but I haven't seen a lot of the people who usually come here, I'm a new librarian." She sounded like my friends, could she have moved here from Wales?

"Hello, could I use a computer?"

"Sure, just let me bring one up for you."

"I'm Jacob."

"Julia."

"You sound like some of my friends."

"I do?"

"Yes, I spent some time in Wales this summer with my dad."

"That's lovely, I love Wales, I am actually from there. I immigrated in the sixties, thought there would be better opportunities here. Here you go Jacob."

"Thanks." I looked up The Residence for Reckless Girls, on the internet. What I found was horrible.

The Residence for Reckless Girls, was a place for girls that had done crime, usually teenagers. The place opened in the early 1900's, and closed in the early 1990's. The girls were beaten, given drugs to seduce them, starved, and sexuel horased. If I kept reading this I was going to be sick, but I had to carry on for Emma's sake. Below that were horrific pictures, I can't even describe them. To put words to these pictures, it would never truly describe them, as the old saying goes, 'a picture is worth a thousand words.' There was a list of administrators, 1900-1918 Johnathan Evans, 1918-1930 Edward Lewis, 1930-1940 Royce Rees, 1940-1960 George Bloom. My brain was going to explode, Emma's dad was in charge of that place, while Emma was in it right now, I had to know more, when the computer shut off, and so did the lights.

Shit, a power outage. I bashed my elbows on the keyboard. Julia came up to me.

"Be careful, and nice to the computers."

"Sorry, I just lost my research."

"What were you researching, I might be service, it is a library you know."

"Summer school, I had to research a non natural disaster to happen in Wales."

"I grew up there, what event is it?" Should I really tell her?

"The Residence for Reckless Girls, I got to choose last." Her face instantly went white, metaphorically.

"My father ran that place for twenty year, he was a horrid man. My sister wasn't any better, you remind me of her husband." Could this ederly woman posible be Emma's sister? She never told me she had a sister. If so, maybe she could give me some answers?

"Really."

"Yes, you look a lot like him, I would say you were the same person, but that's not possible."

"What was his name?" I know I was off topic, but I wanted to know if we ended up together.

"Jacob Portman." Wow, least I knew we had come up with something.

"Could it be?"

"Could what be?"

"Who are your parents." This was about to get weird.

"Frank, and Maryann Portman."

"Oh heavens, I think you are my great-nephew." What the heck had we done to the timeline?