When Miss Alma Peregrine awoke from the slumber induced by the thick spray of chloroform, she was very much alone.
The cage that her bird form was trapped within was deposited carelessly outside a large wooden door, which remained bolted shut above her. She didn't have enough room to transform into her humane form, and even if she did, there was the unsolvable factor of the missing key necessary to open the cage to allow her escape; so, within the confines of a small bird cage, left abandoned in the middle of the hallway, Miss Peregrine was left alone with thoughts of worry for her children and the dreaded anticipation of her unknown fate.
Her mind wandered in the particular direction of the children she had sacrificed herself to protect. It wasn't something she had done with much deliberation - the situation was not something she had planned for, and despite her calculating mind and quick-thinking, she hadn't been able to see another option. In the case of her children, and their safety, she would always be the sacrifice. There was no question of it.
She wondered if they had been eaten by the hollow. The thought brought a sense of despair through her heart, which clenched painfully, her talons tightening on the taunting perch.
It was humiliating, being trapped there, in bird form, with no idea of how her children were fairing, no way of escape, and no knowledge of the future awaiting her. Here she was, perched uselessly inside a small cage meant for birds, a woman scorned by the stubborn nagging of uselessness.
Her mind then wandered along the path of the letter she had received not long before her capture. It was written in the hand of her dearest friend and closest ally, describing the woman's plight, the children trapped within a tourist attraction on the end of Blackpool pier awaiting her return - and she wasn't entirely sure if her friend wasn't in the same predicament in another hallway, trapped within a bird cage and awaiting uncertain fate.
" - what a pretty little birdie," cooed a familiar voice.
Had Miss Peregrine been human, her jaw would have clenched and her eyes would have all but popped out of her skull with the rage she was feeling. Her feathers ruffled as she turned her head slowly to face Barron, who was crouched behind her, a teasing, malicious smirk tainting his face. If she was able, she would have attacked him.
"What's a beautiful thing like yourself doing out here?" he continued teasingly, his fingers tracing the bars of the cage. She lunged forward and attacked his fingers, wrenching the fingernail of the middle finger of his left hand straight off with her sharp beak.
He yelped, drawing his hand away, before smiling wickedly.
"You're a fighter, Miss Peregrine," he taunted, his smile widening at her clawing at the cage. "So much like your dear friend - I believe her name was Miss Hawk?"
Miss Peregrine froze.
"I thought that would halt your annoying screeching," Barron snapped, roughly gripping the handle at the top of the cage and wrenching her up off the floor. "She managed to escape several times before we finally trapped her in that cage with all the other Ymbrynes - much like you, she's always managed to evade my capture, along with those pesky children of hers. She and her kids have caused too much trouble to go unnoticed."
She squawked, ruffling her feathers, and her mind flitted to the children - had they been found in the shack? Were they meeting the same fate as Miss Avocet's children?
"If I found them, they'd suffer," Barron growled, shaking the cage, one hand on the bolt of the door. "They'd suffer more than yourself, I assure you, Miss Peregrine."
Miss Peregrine would have attacked him had she been able. She would have torn him apart by hand had she not been trapped. She would have done it with no remorse, no afterthought, and she would have killed anyone relentlessly, anyone who came between them.
"I did say the same to Miss Rebecca Hawk," said Barron wickedly, his grin growing as her large eyes flashed to him. "She was irate, fierce, and she fought more than any other Ymbryne - rather attached to her children, I suppose."
And he pushed open the bolted door, slammed it open and walked in with purposeful steps. He strode into the room, and when Miss Peregrine's eyes adjusted to the dark lighting and the minimal sunlight streaming in from the skylights, she found herself in an oddly circular room; around the edges, there were several tables of chemicals, experiments prepared to be carried through, and in the middle, a larger bird cage.
Inside, was a hawk, a finch, a blue bird and a robin. The hawk began screeching, wings batting madly at the sight of the peregrine falcon, and the hawk lurched forward to bash against the bars of the bird cage.
"Now, now, Miss Hawk, do calm down," Barron said patronisingly, "your friend is unharmed. For now."
The moment she was allowed from the cage, she flew from the cage and viciously bit him - on the nose. He yelled in pain and staggered back, and she flew for the cage, scratching at the bars, because she couldn't - she wouldn't - leave without her dearest friend, who was squawking madly, wings fluttering.
The cage door slammed open and Miss Peregrine was wrestled within its confines, and barely managed to escape the door slamming on her tail feathers as she landed beside Miss Hawk, who immediately nestled beside her.
"Just wait, my dears, you will be most useful to me," Barron smirked, though blood gushed down from his nostrils to his chin.
And as the door shut, Miss Peregrine found herself veiled in darkness, tormented by the idea that her children could, at that moment, be dead.