Chapter 4 – The Big Breakup - [Peregrine POV]

"I see we have a peculiar problem on our hands."

Although she didn't understand the words the newcomer spoke, Miss Peregrine's head snapped towards him. She would know that voice from a mile away.

Miss Peregrine stared at him a beat. Then she recognized her. He was someone she met a long time ago. She remembered specifically Miss Avocet forbidding her from ever speaking to this man.

Miss Peregrine watched as the newcomer strode towards her. When he was near enough, he reached out and grasped her temples.

In surprise, Miss Peregrine jerked her head in a futile attempt to dislodge the newcomer's hands.

He held fast.

Then, in English, he spoke. "I'm going to enter your mind and plant our language into your brain so that you may understand us." He paused. "It should be relatively painless."

He waited for her to nod before proceeding.

Then he closed his eyes.

Miss Peregrine braced herself, fearing the pain she assumed was going to come.

Except it never came.

The next few moments Miss Peregrine experienced were a rollercoaster of experiences – if that was the correct word; Miss Peregrine's guesswork isn't always accurate. At first, she experienced a slight pressure in her head, then the sensation of falling while hearing a constant stream of babbling faded gradually into speaking the closer she got to the bottom of her fall.

When she finally hit the bottom, Miss Peregrine snapped back to reality.

She blinked her eyes open to see a blurry image of curious faces watching her.

Still in a bit of a daze, Miss Peregrine winced from the beginning of a headache she could feel forming behind her eyes.

Some of the piercing blue eyes that were watching her turned to concern.

"Are you okay?" Miss Peregrine looked up at the person who spoke. Like everyone else – except Sophie – he had blue eyes. He looked about fourteen with styled strawberry blonde hair.

"I-, yes, yes, I'm alright. Thank you."

Another blue-eyed person, this one with dirty blonde hair, shouted excitedly, "It worked!"

Miss Peregrine winced again at the sudden burst of noise.

The first boy that had spoken turned to the bloated man still standing above her. "Do you think we should hail Elwin?"

"I think that would be a good idea," A woman with auburn hair, perhaps twenty, spoke, approaching Miss Peregrine with a glass of what looked like water. "This is a Bottle of Youth. It should help with your headache."

Miss Peregrine accepted the drink and took a small experimental sip. It tasted like water with a little sweetener. She found herself wondering how this Bottle of Youth could be any more special than water when her headache started to recede.

Eagerly, she took another sip of the drink.

Watching her, Mr. Forkle bent down to reach into a pocket that was strongly placed at the ankle of his pants. He pulled out a small black device that he then raised to his lips and spoke into. "Show me Elwin."

.

Not too long later there was yet another knock on Havenfield's grand doors. The man who had opened the doors for Miss Peregrine – who she now knew as Grady – let in a tall man with curly brown hair, was wearing large circular spectacles and a colorful set of clothes with strange animals on them. He was also carrying a bag with a pattern that matched his outfit that was jam packed with strange objects.

Miss Peregrine watched as he exchanged pleasantries with the adults around the room. Then he clapped his hands together loudly, drawing everyone's attention, as he turned to look at Miss Peregrine.

"Well, hello, strange woman!" The man, who miss Peregrine realized must be the aforementioned Elwin, said. He walked over and plopped down onto an available chair next to his patient.

He settled himself into a mock professional pose with a clipboard and pen and peered at Miss Peregrine over the rim of his glasses, failing miserably at looking serious. He opened his mouth and started to speak in a low baritone that had everyone laughing immediately. "What are your symptoms."

Then his face split into a wide grin and he cracked up along with everyone else in the room. Even Miss Peregrine herself was smiling in amusement.

When Elwin managed to get control of himself, he spoke sincerely to Miss Peregrine. "Seriously, though, known symptom is a headache. Any others?"

She shook her head no.

Elwin bobbed his head in a nod. "Then just hold perfectly still while I check your vitals."

Elwin snapped his fingers and to Miss Peregrine's surprise multiple glowing orbs of ranging colors spawned in response to Elwin's snap. They moved towards and then around her, mostly circling around her head.

At first Miss Peregrine tried to recoil from these strange orbs, but seeing no one else was concerned she relaxed and held still.

After a few minutes of this, Elwin, who had appeared to be in deep concentration, started speaking. "Nothing seems to be the matter. Everything is fine. I'd say the headache is only a result of someone else entering your mind for the first time. There is no medication needed, though I would suggest drinking two Bottles of Youth and your headache should dissipate."

Edaline immediately moved from her seat at the small kitchen table to fetch another Bottle of Youth for Miss Peregrine, who gladly accepted the drink.

After downing the drink, Miss Peregrine stood up to smooth the wrinkles out of her black dress and sat back down. She crossed her legs before speaking. "It seems there is a reason to give me the knowledge on how to speak your language, so get on with it, if you please."

Mr. Forkle cleared his throat and turned to Grady. "I believe you had something to say to Miss Peregrine?"

"I, um, yes, I did." Grady turned to face Miss Peregrine. "How did you get here? Better yet, why did you come?"

"As I already explained to Miss Sophie, I simply followed her and her friends through the empty space room they disappeared into."

"It's called the Void," Tam interrupted.

Miss Peregrine ignored him. "As for why, I believe those children stole something from us." She nodded at Sophie, Fitz and Tam.

Grady turned a glare on the three accused. He opened his mouth but was interrupted b Miss Peregrine. "Now even though it was Mr. O'Connor's fault that we could not have our picnic it is not his fault that we don't have our gelato because they stole it. Therefore I do not want my wards harassing him over something he didn't do."

Grady looked at her, then turned his accusing eye to Sophie, Fitz and Tam to grant their response.

Sophie of course took this chance to admit Fitz as the culprit. In other words, to throw him under the bus. "It was Fitz! We were going to leave and he just had to sneak the gelato away from them!" She glared at Fitz.

"We promised gelato! What was I supposed to do, just let them have it?"

"YES!" Sophie and unsurprisingly Tam both shouted.

Fitz switched his gaze back and forth frantically between them until finally he settled on Tam. "You're really with her on this?"

Tam nodded.

"But they stole the gelato from us first!"

"They're children, Fitz!" Sophie intervened.

"Not Enoch! Or either of the other two!"

"What about Olive? And Claire? You took gelato from two little girls! How could you!"

At this point Tam had backed off, and everyone else in the room decided it would be a good idea to stay out of the argument.

"What happened to you, Fitz? You used to be so kind and so caring! But now you're just so cruel, and you try way to hard, to the point you're stealing gelato from children!"

"What happened to me?" Fitz scoffed. You happened to me, Sophie. He thought. Fitz continued, "If you don't want to think that I stole it for our friends, think that I did it for you!"

Sophie countered, "That's even worse! I'm done with you doing whatever you want and then saying it's because of our relationship!"

Fitz snorted, "Name one time other than this that I've done that."

Angrier now, Sophie retorted, "Well, there's that time you installed your so called 'Security System' that cocooned intruders and left Dex stuck to the ceiling!"

"WELL, I JUST WANTED TO KEEP YOU SAFE!" Fitz shouted.

At this Sophie snapped. "JUST BECAUSE I WAS YOUR GIRLFRIEND DIDN'T MEAN YOU COULD CONTROL MY LIFE!" She screamed.

The room became so silent at this that you could hear a pin drop.

Eventually Fitz, who had been staring at the ground, spoke in a voice that barely passed above a whisper. "Was?"

Turning on her heel, Sophie answered, "We're over."

Everyone watched as Sophie fled the room, a hand covering her mouth and tears streaming from her eyes.

Miss Peregrine placidly watched the scene eagerly, and she turned to watch Fitz storm out of Havenfield's grand doors, quickly followed by Elwin, and Tam and Marella – who Linh was ushering out, ranting about how they wouldn't help the situation. She also watched as Biana, Keefe and Dex rushed after Sophie, probably to comfort her.

Grady, who had a confused look on his face, Miss Peregrine observed, headed outside to tend to the animals that lived on Havenfield's animal reserve, and Edaline rushed to the cupboards to make something.

Now that the room was vacated, Miss Peregrine turned to Mr. Forkle. "I think we might have a -"

"Pecu-" Mr. Forkle interrupted.

"No! Stop that! No more peculiar puns! It's offensive. But yes, we have a problem on our hands, as I was trying to say."

This was followed by a solemn silence. They both knew there would be difficult times ahead.