10 years later.
Disclaimer, this is just another version of Miss Peregrine, I only own the characters I made up, the rest belongs to Ransom Riggs.
Chapter 1: Unwanted guest
Ten years ago Jacob proposed to Emma. He had only known her for a year, but he knew he would never find someone like her anywhere, or any when. Emma was thrilled, she wanted to marry Jacob for quite some time now. He was just the perfect guy for her, brave, courageous, kind, compassionate, loyal, and handsome.
On the night of his bachelor party, he went to a bar, had way too much to drink, then took the woman bartender home, and had sex with her. Unfortunately, Emma walked in on them, and was infuriated, then she was plain out heartbroken. She threw the ring at his head, and ran off. Olive tried to comfort her, but it didn't work, she ran as far as she could. None of her peculier friends saw her for a year after that.
One day she bumped into an old school friend, his name was Ethin. They hung out as friends, she poured her broken heart out to him, he listened. Just being around him made her feel like there was some goodness left in the world for her. He was everything she thought Jake was, and more.
One year later Ethin asked her out on a date, she said yes, by that point it was like Jake had never been in her life. After being friends for so long he knew everything about her, and she knew everything about him, even peculiar stuff. Turns out Ethin was also peculiar, he had the power to help people through tough emotion, and in certain situations manipulate them. He guaranteed Emma that he never manipulated her emotions, just slowly helped her get over Jake, and she believed him, she could tell by the look in his eyes when he said it. Being able to tell another person's true intentions was not her peculiarity, but it was just a little talent she had since she was little.
On their date they discussed going to other times, how interesting it would be to meet Leonardo Da Vinci, and sail the seas on the most luxurious boats. The night was perfect, till Emma got attacked in the washroom.
She had had some serum forcefully injected into her arm, she didn't get a good look at who it was, but she knew it was a targeted attack, by the quick glance in his eyes. Then the crook ran off. Ethin rushed into the bathroom after he heard her scream. Emma was rubbing her arm, like rubbing it would make the pain go away. They couldn't go to a hospital, because they would do tests, and find out that they were not the normal ER patient. They had to go to an Ymbryne, something that they were both dreading.
They arrived at Miss Peregrines, and knocked on the door. This little girl answered, about three years, one Emma had never met, had they come to the wrong house? Did they move somewhere else? Olive came into view, she was holding a baby boy, maybe three months old.
Olive was shocked, and amazed that Emma was standing in the doorway. Suddenly the little girl shapeshifted to the same age as the little boy. The girls talked a little, Olive explained who the baby's were, they were her's and Enoch's. The little girl's name was Jade, she could shapeshift her age, at this point it was uncontrollable, but when she got older she would be able to do it at will, or at least that's what Miss Peregrine said. The little boy's name was Kaden, he didn't show any signs of a peculiarity yet.
After the conversation with Olive, Emma went to see Miss Peregrine, she was caught off guard by Emma's voice. First she began to mildly scold her about disappearing, then she gave her a warm hug. Miss Peregrine gave her a medical examination, what she found out broke Emma's recently fixed heart. The serum destroyed all of her peculiar DNA, except one tiny sliver, one that hadn't been there before. Miss Peregrine tried to comfort her, but she didn't want to be comforted by Miss Peregrine, all she wanted was Ethin.
Emma couldn't stand to be around her peculiar friends, except Ethin. So they left, not to be seen by them for a long time. She was a mess for a long time, Emma didn't want anything to do with Peculiardom, other than Ethin. He was the only constant in her life, her rock.
Eventually after a year Emma accepted what had happened, shortly after Ethin asked her to marry him, she agreed. All they had was each other, and that suited them fine, so the wedding was very small. No bachelor parties, no alcohol, just the two of them, happy as could be.
One year later they had a son, his name was Thomas. Now their twosome had become a threesome. Emma tried her hardest to keep him out of the peculiar world, she just wanted him to have a happy childhood, unlike hers. If he didn't inherit the peculiar gene, that was fine with her, it just meant he wouldn't have to deal with the same horrible things she did. If he ended up with the gene, it would be sort of impossible to keep him out of Peculiardom, but she swore to herself, if he did get the gene, she wouldn't let an ymbryne take him from her.
Emma's POV.
"Come on Thomas, don't want to be late to the show do we?" I asked.
"I hope the puppets are funny!" Thomas said excitedly, in his cute little voice. I couldn't believe he was almost seven, it felt like just yesterday I was bringing him home to our little place.
We walked along the boardwalk looking at the other street performer, there was a mime trapped in an invisible box, a woman charming a chicken, and a clown making balloon animals. Thomas stopped to look at the balloon animals he was making.
"Can I have one please Mommy?"
"Sure."
"Doggie please." The clown made the balloon dog, he used four balloons, personally, our dog Skip looked better. Skip was a great companion to Thomas. Thomas was shy around other people, he didn't get along good with the kids in his class.
Especially these three boys, I think their names were, Seth, Mark, and James. They teased him about random things, mostly his lack of coordination, when playing sports. Sometimes they would just purposefully throw a ball in his direction without him knowing, this was to watch him fumble the ball, those boys were bullies, and there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn't do anything about it, because Thomas didn't want me to, claiming he would get picked on more if his Mom fought his battles. A couple of times they hit him in the head with a football, Thomas came home with a black eye one day, because they hit him in the face with a basketball. Boy, did I want to hurt those boys, for hurting mine.
"Thank you." Thomas said. I gave the clown a penny.
"No, thank you." Replied the clown.
We walked into the tent where the puppet show was being held, when I saw him. In a second my world felt like it was crumbling down, I hadn't seen him since that night with that whore. I wonder if he still had that mark on that forehead from when I threw my ring at him, if he did, served him right.
I stopped in my place, clearly from Ethin's expression she saw him to. Ethin had never met him, but he had seen pictures from when we were at Miss P's. I didn't want to have to see him, but for the sake of Thomas not getting suspicious, I sucked it up.
Thomas was oddly smart for his age. He could already do complicated fractions, and his vocabulary was outstanding. Some kids are just born with high IQs. It probably also helps that we didn't use baby talk when he was little.
From what I could tell, he didn't get the peculiar gene, which I was happy about. I don't need that gene messing up our perfect little family, normal as can be.
Sadly for my sake, the only available seats were right next to him. Me and Thomas sat down while Ethin got some peanuts. I begged inside my head a million times for him not to notice us, mostly me.
"Hey, Em, odd seeing you here, heh?" He said, a crooked smile emerged on his face. I just ignored him.
"Come on Em, talk to me." I continued to ignore him.
"Who's the kid you're babysitting?" I just kept ignoring, finally Ethin came back, boy was I happy for that. Ethin just gave him the don't mess with us stare.
"Who is that man?" Thomas asked. I didn't want him to know. Ya, this is my ex fiance who cheated on me before our wedding day, he's a real jerk, don't talk to him. Totally wasn't going to have that conversation ever.
"Nobody." I answered. He looked down at my feet, and said-
"Sorry, thought you were someone else, my apologies." I could tell he wasn't done with me yet, byt the look in his eyes.
The show started, the manikins were having a cute little stick person fight, it made Thomas laugh so hard. What made it funnier was that the manikins were fighting over a purple orange.
I got up to leave for a breather, I just couldn't stand to be so close to him, my arm hairs were standing up. I walked to the exit, sure enough he followed. I stopped at the edge of the tent, because I realized I couldn't just run away from my problems this time.
"Em, can't you just talk to me please. You left in the middle of the night, and now I have this ring indentation in my forehead. Don't I deserve an answer?" The nerves of him, wanting an answer. If anything I deserve an apology, or at least an explanation.
"What happened to your boots?" If anything, that was the last thing I wanted to talk about.
"What do you want me to say, I caught you having sex with a hooker! Or maybe that I thought you were a good person."
"What?!" Ethin came in sight, and he had his business face on.
"Are you alright, did he do anything?" Ethin asked, concern filled his face.
"Yes, I'm alright." I responded quickly.
"You should go." Ethin told him.
"Who are you?" He asked.
"You don't need to know that." I told him. We walked away, and he didn't follow, but I still knew he wasn't done with me yet.
"By the way, I wasn't babysitting." I told him for an unknown reason.
Yesterday had been a nightmare, I just wanted to forget it, but today was a new day. Thomas had a playdate with Jackie's boy Danny. He was a sweet normal kid. We were passing a house of mirrors on our way to their house.
"Can we go to the mirror house? Please!" Thomas practically begged.
"You know the rule, no more than two special treats a week."
"Ok." Thomas responded. Then I saw him again from a distance.
"Maybe we can make an exception this one time." I said, and we dashed into the reflecting house. Thomas made a funny face in each mirror, it was adorable. We proceeded through the house, when I felt like my ears popped, despite not ever being on a plane before. The mirrors on this side of the house were cracked and dirty, talk about upkeep of a place. We went through the door, and there were weird looking cars zooming around the place, it was darker out, and the earth felt unsettlingly warmer.