Hello my readers. So sorry that I upload this quite late, but English isn't my first language and it's quite hard for me to put my ideas into words.

Anyway, I've tried my best to come up with this fiction and I hope you'll like it.

As always, it may sound boring but I do hope you will leave me some comments and it can be anything. I mean seriously anything at all. I'll look forward to see your feedback, but now I'll just let you go and enjoy the second chapter.

Thank you very much for every review and suggestion. Thank you for reading it as well.

Chapter II

Emma is the first one who arrives at the doorway of the kitchen. She is about to ask what's going on, but becomes speechless when she sees Little Claire sitting on the floor, shards scatter around. The little girl is crying, yes, but Emma can't move. Her eyes stare at those wounds on little legs, arms, hands, and even cheeks. Some shards are there as well, piercing deep into her legs. Blood is everywhere, not a puddle of blood, but still a lot of it. Emma's brain has stopped working. She literally does nothing but stand there with her mouth open.

'What happened?' Millard is the next. When he can see the answer, he goes numb as well, and then, panic.

'Emma! What're we gonna do? Emma! What should I do?'

Emma's still in a shutdown mode. She can barely hear Millard's voice. It sounds like someone's calling from somewhere far away. Fortunately, it becomes clearer until she can hear it at last, both Millard's questions and Claire's crying.

'Emma, what're we gonna do?'

She shakes her head and tries to regain herself. She tries to find her voice and begins to solve things.

'Call...call Miss Peregri - No! Don't! She's dealing with that bloody Hollow now.'

Millard's stunned. He's quite sure if Miss P had heard what Emma just said, the girl must have been punished. But, he doesn't care that much. Now' it's Claire, not just Claire but Claire with shards and blood.

'Emma!' He urges her.

'What happened here?' Now, it's Bronwyn, Fiona, Hugh, Horace, and Olive. Their eyes widen at the same time when they see Claire. The twins join them and hug each other tightly, squawking shockingly. Emma tries to reach Olive but she turns blank as well. They are not afraid of blood, but blood looks quite scary when it's on somebody they know. The only one who's still speaking is the invisible boy.

'Emma! What should we do?'

'I...I think...I...I DON'T KNOW!' Emma breaks down. She can't endure this any longer. She can't think of anything. She can't call Miss P since now, the ymbryne is out at the cliff, waiting for the invisible monster, and with those shards, she doesn't know whether she should reach Claire or move her or not. She isn't Miss Peregrine for bird's sake. She's just realized how useless she is when Miss P isn't here. Foolish girl! Do something!

When she's about to step forward, a stern voice cuts in,

'What're you looking at?'

Everyone turns to see the boy who can revive the dead walking down the stairs. Enoch O'Connor looks as annoyed as always. He seems so calm, at least calmer than others, so the children assume that he might not hear Claire's scream a few minutes ago.

'Cl...Cla...Claire...' Olive stutters. She has never been this cold before. She even doubts that she could lit a fire now. Her voice has gone for good.

'Enoch! What're we gonna do?' It's Millard. He runs to Enoch which is quite unusual since usually, if someone has a question, well except Miss P, he or she will run to the invisible boy. He always comes up with the right answer one way or another. But apparently, not now.

'What?' Enoch asks again. What on earth is going on here? Why everyone looks so blank? I must miss something.

'Claire, Enoch! CLAIRE!' Millard looks, no, sounds like he's gone crazy already. He tugs Enoch's shirt and drags him to the kitchen, passing other children, even pushing Horace and Hugh out of the way. Both of them seem lost as well. Horace has never dreamt of this before and now, he wonders what is scarier, being haunted by the future, or being surprised by the present.

Whatever Enoch thinks he has already prepared for, he hasn't for this one. When the boy gets a glimpse of the little girl with her curly blond hair, sitting on those shards, covered in blood, he's just realized how one's heart can drop into a stomach. His limbs turn numb like they're not there, but when Little Claire looks up at him, he knows he has to do something because the girl begins to move to him.

'Don't move, Claire!' He tells her calmly, trying not to sound too nervous.

Little Claire stops dead, her mouth moves like she's about to call Enoch's name while another mouth at the back of her head's still crying.

'Just look at me, okay?' Enoch steps forward on those shards. Thank Bird, his leather shoes are quite thick. 'Don't look anywhere else. Just me.'

Claire doesn't take her eyes off Enoch. She follows every word of him. And after what seems like an eternity, Enoch has reached his little girl at last.

Looking from the threshold, everything is bad enough, but that can't compare with what Enoch's looking at right now. Claire's face is really pale like she's about to faint. Generally, her skin's quite white already, but when it becomes, well, whiter, the red color of blood just stands out more clearly. Wounds can be found almost everywhere on her right side except those parts under her pink dress. That's a good thing for Enoch can't imagine how he could have stood, if her stomach had been stabbed, let alone other children.

'Now, Claire, I'm gonna count to three and lift you up, understood?' Enoch tries to find the right place to hold her, avoiding those cuts.

The little girl just nods, tears well up in her eyes. The boy can see that it's not just tears of hurt but also, tears of fear and disappointment in herself. He's not good at encouraging others when it comes to this matter, so he just remains silent.

'Okay, ready?...One..two..three,' he holds her up gently. Little Claire frowns but doesn't give a shriek. Enoch turns to see other children which still remains blank and shocked. He walks pass them to the conservatory where there's enough light to tackle these cuts, and sits Claire down on a couch.

'It's alright,' he tells Claire, but that's a lie. It's NOT alright at all. She's still bleeding and Enoch doesn't know what he should do next. Stop the bleeding? But how? Some shards are still there. Getting them out? He doesn't think he can go through that on his own but he has to try at least.

'Now, I'm gonna get...those glasses...out. You have to sit very still, okay?' Enoch expects a nod, but Claire gives him a very strong shake instead. She bursts into tears again and Enoch's getting more nervous that he almost can't hide it behind his emotionless face. He doesn't know how to deal with children. Of course, he can hold them up, he can look after them for quite some time, he can even invent them some toys, but not this, he doesn't know how to get to them in the moment like this. There's only one person who can deal with this mess and Enoch curses himself for he should have thought about her at first place.

'Somebody please call Miss P, will you?' He turns to see other children. They still seem blank, but better than when he saw them five minutes ago.

'B...but...Miss P is out, killing that Hollow,' Emma finally speaks up.

'I'm quite sure she's done. The Hollow has never kept her waiting, has it?' Enoch barks. He knows he shouldn't but everyone here should be pulled back into this world.

'I'll go,' Millard volunteers, but little voice cuts in,

'Don't!' It's Little Claire herself. The girl's eyes are swollen like they're stung by Hugh's bees.

Enoch turns to see the girl,

'Why not?'

Claire shakes her head, saying nothing. She's crying harder, little rosy lips trembling.

'Claire, this is quite...,' Enoch almost says 'severe' but he thinks it's better not to use that word, 'quite..important. She must be informed.'

'Please, don't,' Little Claire insists, pleading Enoch with her watery eyes.

'But, why, Claire? Why?'

Claire doesn't want to say it out loud. She's so afraid her nightmares are going to come true. But the girl has no choice, they are going to call Miss P here and if Miss P learns what happened, Claire can't imagine how bad her punishment will be.

'If...if Miss P knows this, she's gonna hate me. She...she's gonna hate me and shoo me away from this house...from this loop. And there'll be monsters waiting for me outside and they'll...and I'll...I'll be eaten,' she spells it all out, her darkest fear. Just thinking about it is scary enough. She doesn't want to be abandoned again, but most of all, she doesn't want to be hated by the woman she loves most.

Enoch almost rolls his eyes but he doesn't. He crouches down until his face is at the little girl's level and holds her tiny hands.

'Claire, Miss P will never ever hate us,' this is the truest thing in the world Enoch can come up with. He's witnessed the love of this young ymbryne for her children for almost a century, and he can say there's not a day that love wavers or changes. 'If she can tolerate me, I'm so sure there's nothing on earth that you've done and she can't forgive.'

'But I've broken her dishes, more than ten dishes,' Claire cries, looking into Enoch's dark eyes.

'I used to burn my whole bedroom down, Claire,' Olive tries to help, 'Miss P didn't send me away nor hate me, right?'

'One of my bees, his name is Gaston, used to sting her unintentionally, and I'm still here.' Hugh joins her.

'I used to turn her bedroom to the rain forest. I didn't mean it, of course, but that was a mess, a big mess. She wasn't angry at all. Besides, she even thanked me for the new decoration,' Fiona gives the little girl a genuine smile.

'I always wake her up in the middle of the night because of those nightmares, but she's never left me or ignored me for once,' Horace smiles at Little Claire as well.

'I used to break her wardrobe because I cannot control my strength at that time, and she was laughing, Claire,' Little Bronwyn moves closer and sits near her best friend.

'I always float as you can see, and it's not easy at all to deal with my peculiarity. She had to adapt so many things in this house for me and she didn't even say a word. She could have given me away to other loops, but she didn't. The twins were always squawking at night when they first came here, but she didn't shoo them away,' the twins nod simultaneously. Emma smiles softly and continues, 'if Miss P had heard what you just said, she would have been so sad that you think so little of her.'

'Well, I used to run away from home, because I thought no one could see me, I mean yes no one can see me I just felt worthless, unimportant. I didn't wear anything at all, but she could find me. I don't know how, but she always see me, see us, even when nobody in the world can. And though many philosophers claimed there's nothing real in this world, I say Miss P's love for all of us is real,' Millard can calm himself down now and comes back to his intellectual mode.

Every pair of eyes looks at the injured girl on the couch. Claire begins to smile as well. She is more confident now that her Miss P will forgive her for what she's done and will not hate her for that.

'So, shall we send someone to call her?' Enoch asks his little girl again, but this time, Claire nods.

Okay, as always, how was it? Please say something! I'm so excited to hear from you.