Author Note: Hi my readers,

Thanks for all of your kind reviews and special thanks to those reviews that urged me to finish this chapter a lot faster. Without them, I might update this chapter on Friday or something. So, I'm so thankful and I'm sure others will be thankful as well.

You have no idea how large my smile is, reading your lovely words.

For terralove, yes, since you asked, I did the previous one for you. If you want to know more about Emma's past, I'll write about that in chapter V or VI of Long time no see. Just in case you're interested. Glad that I can make you happy.

Again, please and please and pretty please, give me some reviews. At first, as I've told some of you already, I wrote these stories just for myself to read, but when I posted it here, I've learned that having other readers to talk to is fantastic. It's like we're sharing our favorite moments together and that means so much to me.

Now, I'm just gonna let you go and enjoy it! Have fun!

Chapter VIII

'Emma, are you alright?' Miss Peregrine asks her girl when she sees Emma smiling alone before regretting doing so, for the girl's face instantly turns stern again.

'You should ask yourself that,' the floating girl mumbles coldly and walks away before Miss Peregrine can say anything. Alma's heart aches a bit when she heard that. She will deal with her big girl, of course, but perhaps, later since now she's so tired that she has no idea how she can still remain on her feet and her bandage needs to be changed immediately.

'You can go now, Enoch.' She dismisses him, sitting near her Little Claire and touching the girl's cheek to check the temperature. Her little girl looks a lot better and Alma thanks every bird that things don't get any worse. Otherwise, she might end up having a mental breakdown.

'Miss P, I still insist that your cut needs to be s-'

'I will not discuss this again, Enoch.' There she is. Her deadly face has come back, and even Enoch has to surrender. When Miss Peregrine wears that face, it's a sign that the conversation has reached its end and no matter how hard he is going to try to change her mind, it won't work.

He exhales deeply and looks at Claire for the last time. At least, that little face has turned a bit rosy, so the boy presumes that his Miss P may not have to be up all night to take care of the little girl. She will get some sleep, right?

Who knows? The Bird always do what she wants to. If she has already made up her mind, fighting a hollow with bare hands might be easier than changing her decision.

'Fine,' he breathes out. He has no choice, obviously, and since she doesn't want him to stay here, he leaves.

It's 1 o'clock in the morning and the whole house is so quiet like everyone is sleeping soundly in their bed. The truth is, almost all of them are still wide awake, and some of them are even breaking Miss Peregrine's golden rule, being out of their bed in the middle of the night.

While Emma, Enoch, Olive and the twins lie awake in their bed, Millard, Horace, Hugh, Fiona, and Bronwyn are now standing at the corridor, not far from Miss Peregrine's quarter, talking about what happened. They are so worried about their youngest sister and also, about their ymbryne. Claire's face when she realized that Miss P had got hurt was very gloomy. Everyone knows she blames herself for this and it will not be easy to change the girl's mind. They were all once abandoned and all of them have faced the darkest hour when they feared they would be abandoned again, but Miss P has proved herself to each of them and made them believe with all their heart that she would never ever leave them. It took some time and a lot of patience, of course, but in the end, they all could get through it. They just hope their Little Claire can go through this very soon as well.

'Did you hear anything?' Fiona asks the invisible boy, who is now standing right before Miss P's bedroom, his ears against the door.

Millard waves his hand instead of shaking his head as usual. He doesn't wear his hat, so moving his head will do no good.

'Will she be okay?' Hugh has his heart in his mouth, and bees, too. They are buzzing worrily like their human friend.

'I don't know, but I do know that if she finds out we are here, we won't be okay.' Horace is leaning against the railing. He doesn't like the idea of being out at night at all.

'You never like sleeping, Horace, and sitting in your room can't make anything better,' Bronwyn snaps at her always-seem-to-be-weary friend.

'Standing here can't make anything better as well,' Horace spouts.

'Maybe, she has gone to bed already.' Fiona guesses, ignoring the boy.

Millard agrees with that. He can't hear anything inside the room, any movements, any sounds. He's about to believe that Claire and Miss Peregrine have fallen asleep already, but

'Shhh, it's okay, honey. I'm going to get you Miss Rabbit, alright?'

It's Miss P! Millard mouths to the rest before realizing that they can't see him, so he tiptoes back as fast as he can, and when he thinks this is far enough from Miss P's ears, he squeaks,

'Miss P is coming out!'

They all gasp and try to find a place to hide. It's a corridor for bird's sake, there's no place to hide here, so they just drag each other into one of the bedrooms. As soon as they close the door, they can hear Miss P's door open. Millard breathes a sigh of relief but when his eyes turn to see Miss Rabbit on the little pink bed, his heart drops to his stomach.

'She is coming here!'

'What?' Hugh asks, doesn't care that much for he is listening to Miss P's footsteps.

'She is coming to get Miss Rabbit for Claire.' Millard tries to speak as clearly as possible. The rest look at him questioningly at first, but then, they all come to an understanding. They are in Claire's bedroom, and Miss Rabbit, the doll Miss Peregrine is coming for, is, well, here, smiling innocently at them.

'Oh my bird!' Bronwyn exclaims and drags Horace and Fiona into the closet with her. 'Mill! Hugh! Under the bed! Now!'

In just a second after Millard and Hugh managed to hide under the bed, the door opens. The children hold their breath since it is known that the Bird's ears and eyes are so sharp, or else she might not be able to tell where Millard is every time he goes naked.

They hear her footsteps towards the bed. For Millard and Hugh, this is so scary that they unknowingly hug each other. The boys can see her pale feet in her slippers a few inches before their eyes. She stops there for a moment and Millard is so confident that she will bend over and drag them out momentarily, but she just turns around and leaves the room. When they no longer hear her footsteps, each of them gradually comes out from their shelter. Hugh is the first one who gets to the door. He leans against it and tries to detect any sounds outside.

'Did you hear anything?' Fiona asks.

Hugh shakes his head,

'I think she is gone.'

The bee boy thinks it is safe now, so he opens the door as quietly as he can, staring at Miss P's bedroom. When his headmistress is nowhere to be seen, he steps out, breathing a sigh of relief.

'Phew! That was close.'

'Close to what, Hugh?'

A chill runs down the children's spine when they heard the voice. Suddenly, they all feel like they are sinking deep into the bottomless iced lake. They all slowly turn to see her. Although she is wearing a white dressing gown like an angel and holding Miss Rabbit in her good hand, she doesn't look less fierce or kinder at all. Her lips press together and become a very thin line and her eyes could definitely turn someone into stone, if she had the peculiarity to do so.

'I thought I told all of you to go to bed 3 hours 15 minutes ago, didn't I?'

'Yes, Miss Peregrine,' they all mumble, looking at the floor.

'But we really worry about you and Claire, Miss.' Millard is the first one who dares to look up again. That's when he notices how pale her face is. It's almost as white as a paper. His eyes move to her wounded hand and he wonders how many times she has changed her bandage. For some reasons, he's quite certain it's not just two or three.

'Are you alright, Miss?' He asks and because of his question, the others look up at their headmistress as well.

'Yes, are you alright?' Fiona sputters.

'You look bad, Miss P.' Bronwyn blurts out.

'You should get some sleep, Miss,' the advice from the boy who hates sleeping from the bottom of his heart.

'We can help you get back to your bed.' Hugh offers.

Miss Peregrine puts her hand up to stop them.

'We are now discussing the fact that you five have disobeyed my words. Don't change the - What are you doing?'

'Miss P, your hand is so cold!' Millard holds her hand in his. 'But you're sweating!'

'I'm fine, Millard. I'm fine. How many times do I have to say that?' Miss Peregrine pulls her hand back. She grabs the railing to help herself stand firmly and tries to maintain her serious look.

'All of you must go to bed now! You five here and you five there as well.'

On the third floor, in the shadow, the other five children look at each other in wonder. They have no idea how she knows they are there, since they are just watching the whole situation in silence.

'But Miss-'

'No buts, Millard. Bed!' The Bird stands with one arm akimbo, frowning at the invisible boy, and that's the end of it. The Bird always knows best! But as Millard lies down in his bed, he can't help asking himself, does she?

The next morning, Enoch, Olive, and Emma wake up even before sunrise to make sure that they can stop Miss P from cooking breakfast, but they are too late. When they enter the kitchen, their breakfast has already been prepared-a load of bread, beautiful omelet, a large bowl of porridge, some butter, and a jar of fresh milk. It's obvious that no matter how hard they try, they couldn't outwit her.

'Well well, how determined she is!' Enoch mutters.

'She prepared this all alone?' Olive can't believe it. She can't imagine how her headmistress managed to come up with these dishes with her wounded hand. The girl also wonders how early the Bird had to wake up to finish cooking all of these before they come down. Has she slept?

Emma doesn't say a word. She bites her lips so hard, but can't feel anything. Sometimes, she just want to shout in that stubborn lady's face, for bird's sake, she thinks she can create a storm now. Anyway, she tries to compose herself and asks out,

'And where is she?'

Apart from Miss P, Olive is quite certain that she has never seen any ladies who look as dreadful as Emma at this moment before. She's a fire girl, yes, but air seems to be a lot more dangerous when its manipulator is boiling. Her friend's face looks so mad that it even scares her a bit. My, like mother, like daughter.

So, the red-haired girl just brings their breakfast to the dining table silently before her floating friend is going to blow all of these delicious things down.

'She brought Claire her breakfast.' Millard comes in. 'I've just dropped by.'

The twins, Bronwyn, Horace, Hugh, and Fiona join them. They all couldn't sleep, so it's no use being on their bed.

'And how is she?' Enoch asks, demanding an answer at once.

'Well,' Millard begins, 'she has dressed up already so it's hard to tell.'

'And her wound?'

'She's feeding Claire. I think she has changed her bandage before doing that. Otherwise, Claire must be a lot more upset.'

'And Claire, how is she? Does she look...happy now?' Olive asks.

Millard shakes his head.

'She is recovered for sure, but she doesn't look at Miss P at all. She doesn't say anything to her, doesn't answer, just gives a nod for yes and shakes her head for no. She often looks at Miss P injured hand and I think Miss P sees that as well. The Bird tries to comfort Claire, but Claire just...remains silent.'

'Poor girl,' the fire girl mumbles.

'Let me help you, Olive.'

'Thanks, Fiona.'

The children move to the dining room. They sit on their chair, ready to finish their breakfast as fast as possible so that they can pay their youngest sister a visit.

Enoch is about to pour some milk for the twins, Emma is about to give Bronwyn some omelet, and Olive is about to cut the bread, when the very loud sound of something heavy hitting the floor, followed by the cranking sound of the platter, breaks the uncomfortable silence of their breakfast time.

It's from the second floor.

Every child in the dining room raises up at once and rushes upstairs. Their footsteps are so loud but their headmistress doesn't appear and tell them polite persons do not walk so loudly as always. Some of them like the little ones can sense that there must be something wrong. The older ones know for sure that someone has just collapsed, but the oldest ones are confident that that someone is her, since it's impossible that she would let Little Claire carry a platter.

Enoch gets there first and his heart skips although he has prepared for what he is about to see.

There, on the floor, lies Miss Peregrine, unconsciously. Her lips, despite her lipstick, are frightfully blue and her face, despite some make-up, is colorless. No one has expected this before. No one can imagine the day their strong ymbryne falls. The children just stand still there, can't move, can't blink, and even can't breathe. It takes them a few seconds before their clock comes back to tick again and Emma dashes to her beloved mother as soon as she can move her legs.

'Miss P!'

The girl kneels down and lifts her ymbryne's head up. Thanks bird that she's still breathing. Miss Peregrine's cheeks are burning like fire and Emma can see a drop of crimson stain at the end of her headmistress's eyebrow. It glows dreadfully on Miss P's very white skin. Too white, actually. The Bird must have hit her head so hard.

'Miss P.' Enoch calls her, holding her hand. 'Miss P, can you hear me?'

For the first time in forever, Olive has just seen Enoch panic. She has never seen him hesitate like this before. Yes, when he saw Claire sitting on those shards, he seemed hesitant but he could calm himself down so fast in just a minute, which is totally different from now that his hands are shaking uncontrollably as well as his lips.

'We need to move her somewhere.' The fire girl suggests.

'Yes, somewhere.' Enoch repeats her words, gently places his hands behind his headmistress's neck and knees, and carefully lifts her up. She is even lighter than she looks. If he were not in the serious situation, he might wonder is it because she's the fastest bird on earth?

The boy is about to step towards Miss Peregrine's bedroom when Emma speaks up first,

'No! Claire is there! She can't know this.'

Enoch stops mid-step. How stupid he is! If Claire saw Miss P passing out and even getting hurt again, only bird knows what the girl would be. He turns around, faltering like an idiot!

'Then, where? Where?'

'Claire's bedroom!' Millard shouts and Hugh darts to open the door for Enoch.

But before the oldest boy moves, Miss Peregrine's bedroom door opens, and at the threshold stands a little girl with curly blonde hair, holding Miss Rabbit and Miss Caroline in her hands.

Oops! Sorry I end it there. Lol. Please, I die to see what you think about this chapter.