A/N: IF I GET ANYTHING WRONG ACCORDING TO THE BOOKS please don't complain and be too triggered by it I just read MPHFPC so much when I first read it I would read until I accidentally fall asleep so if I missed anything I was probably too tired OKAY BACK TO FANFICTION
I had that dream again. It was exactly the same as last time, I was struggling to keep myself from diving into the lake. I jumped in and entered a world of beauty, a world that I wanted to live in forever. I stared into my reflection in the clear water. It was a world where I wasn't an outsider. A world where I felt normal. I looked up at the glimmering stalactites above me, small droplets of water dripping onto the flowers that surrounded me. And the more I stared, the closer they got, and the faster they grew. Then I realized that they weren't growing at all. They were falling. Like hail, the stalactites dropped and came to attack me. I bent over and held my arms over my body as a shield. I could hear them raining down onto the lake, and my heart was beating fast, almost fast enough for me to have a heart attack. But I had a different attack. A sharp pain in my back. The stalactite got me, I thought. But then I looked up and turned around. I wasn't in the lake anymore. It was a cold winter's day, and a man with blank eyes was holding a gun and aiming it at me, a car driving away behind him. A car with my parents inside.
"Gah!" I screamed as I sat up in bed, perspirig madly. "Millard!" I looked up to see Emma, Hugh and Fiona dashing over to me. "Are you alright?" Hugh asked worriedly, his bees flying around his head, "Oh, what the bloody hell am I thinking, of course you're not! We've just made another cup of tea, please wait here until we get Miss P over." Emma passed me a cup of honeyed tea and I thanked her before taking a sip of it. I couldn't express my relief of waking up from that terrible nightmare. I was beginning to remember more about my past, how I looked like, how my parents looked like. But who exactly was that wight who was aiming at me? Did he manage to shoot me or did I escape? There was still plenty of my past hidden from me, but if I stayed in the loop for long enough, I would almost definitely be able to remember. Either that or I would spend my life not knowing anything about my origins.
I heard a knock on the door. "Nullings?" Miss Peregrine entered the room, dressed in the same frilly black and white dress from dinner. I supposed that it was still the same day. "Yes, Miss Peregrine." I greeted. "Are you in a good shape to tell me about what you have remembered from your past?" She asked, "I do not wish for you to push yourself too far, especially considering that you are ill at the moment." I shook my head. "It's alright," I said. Miss Peregrine nodded and took a seat next to me. "So, what do you remember about the wights?" She asked. "Well," I began, "I remember a wight holding up a gun and aiming at me. It was probably when I was still visible, but it was quite cold and I could see my parents driving off in the distance, so it couldn't possibly be too long ago. The wight also looked frightened and scared of me, his hands trembling with the gun in it. He looked pretty young and had brown hair and was dressed in rags. That's all I remember."
"I see," Miss Peregrine bit her lip, "and you do not remember where exactly it took place?" I took a moment to think. "No, I don't," I replied. "Well, if that is the case, thank you very much for this information." she said, "Now, this is your bedroom. It is right next to Enoch's bedroom, which I am quite sure you know how to get to. You shall stay here until you recover, and afterwards you may choose whether to leave or stay. I am not forcing you to make a decision. With that said, have a pleasant evening, Mister Nullings." I watched as she shut the door behind her. I took another sip of the tea and stared out of the window behind my bed. It was dark and rainy, not the best night. I thought about the loop. If this day repeated forever, would the others never be able to experience a dry night? They would never be able to experience growing up, starting a family, living independently. They would be kids forever, and the moment they step out of this place, they would shrivel up and die. The thought terrified me, and I didn't want to skip my entire adulthood. But I was tempted by the thought of living forever. If I never step out of this place, I would be able to live forever and ever as a teenager, without a care in the world. I could examine everything that happens in the loop. The thought excited me.
I heard the door creak open ever so slightly. "Psst…Millard!" Enoch hissed from the doorway. He looked back at the corridor. "Take this," he said, handing me something black and gray, in the shape of a misshapen face. I walked over and took it. I gasped softly when I realized that I was holding a gas mask. "Follow me," he said, "and be quiet." I smirked. "I'm an expert at sneaking out," I whispered. Enoch grinned and I stepped out of my room, closing the door quietly and following him down the stairs. At the main entrance, Enoch hid behind a bookshelf. "Ready to make a dash for it?" He hissed, pointing to the lawn. I had no idea why he wanted me to follow him to the garden, especially since I was sick. "Sure," I responded anyways. Enoch pulled on his gas mask and I followed suit. He peeked out to see if Miss Peregrine was around. She seemed to have just left the building, so Enoch and I quickly ran out the door and hid behind a topiary in the shape of Adam from Michelangelo's fresco in the Sistine Chapel. Then I noticed loud fireworks in the distance, their firy explosions accompanied by ear-blasting bangs. Then I realized they weren't fireworks. They were bombs.
"Run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run run run," Enoch sang, "Bang, bang, bang goes the farmer's gun," I noticed that the lyrics were timed perfectly to the bombs' rhythms, "He'll get by without his rabbit pie, so," I noticed a bomb, like a shooting star, heading towards Adam's finger, "Run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run run run!" Just when the bomb touched the bush, I crouched and hid under my arms. This was it. This was the end. Then I felt Enoch's hand rubbing my shoulder, and I saw him pointing up at the sky. The rain wasn't falling, but being lifted up into the sky. The bombs were being pulled back to the heavens, and the night sky became a clear, sunny afternoon one, then a bright, morning sky and then back to a night sky. I was shocked beyond words. "Was that Miss Peregrine…" I mumbled. "Resetting the loop. Yes," Enoch replied. I gasped. It was a sight to behold. I looked at Enoch, whose smile lit his face up even in the darkness of the night. His face was probably too bright, since I could see Miss Peregrine walking over suspiciously. Enoch gasped and took my mask and clothes. "You get back to your room," he said, "I'll take your clothes there later." I didn't bother to reply because Miss Peregrine was already quite close. After stripping me of my clothing, Enoch shoved them in the bush and I escaped to my bedroom as quietly as I could.