Chapter 3
"All this had been so close to me – quite literally under my feet – for years , and I hadn't known it. . . it made me wonder: How much more peculiarness had I been exposed to without realizing it?" {Jacob Portman, pg 96 book 4}
They returned to Jacob's home to find Horace's complaining was still rampant, the topic had merely shifted.
"The day denim became acceptable as daily wear contemporary fashion lost all credibility. The modern runway looks like a hobo camp."
"You have to have new clothes." Claire replied, tugging his sleeve, "Miss Peregrine says."
"Miss Peregrine says, Miss Peregrine says." Enoch scowled, "You sound like a windup toy."
She and Millard left them all squabbling and went to shower off and change.
"What are they on about?" Aurora asked Emma as they passed her on the stairs.
"Miss Peregrine said Jacob is taking us shopping so we can start dressing like normals. Two shifts so we fit in the car easier. Firsts myself, Olive, Enoch, and the two of you. We're leaving as soon as Olive finishes spot-welding the door back onto the car."
That made Aurora pause and quickly turn back to Emma. "What happened to the door?"
She looked down at her simpler lead shoes, "It's a long story."
Millard took her hand and pulled her along while her mind tried to come up with what exactly happened when Jacob's parents woke up.
"Did we miss something?" she questioned aloud.
Millard shrugged, the sand stuck to his skin made it easier to see the movement, "Jake did mention something about his mother grabbing a carving knife from the kitchen."
"Oh my Bird."
Aurora remembered the trauma that came with her own discovery that she was peculiar, though that trauma had nothing to do with her abilities, just that she had been sneaking out to see a boy. She understood the indecency of it, and the scandal it would have been, whispered about behind neighbors' hands to give them a reprieve from talking about the war. But how much worse would it have been had her father learned she was peculiar? If he thought she was a freak? Or a witch? Would the beatings have been worse, instead of a harsh grab or a smack every now and then would he have regularly struck her? And with a closed fist instead? Or would he have kicked her out? Leave her to fend for herself on the streets? He might have even done what Jacob's parents had tried to do, have her committed. Aurora shuddered at the thought, suddenly being smacked around and on rare occasion belted, didn't seem so bad. She'd never make excuses for the man, but she did have to acknowledge that other people did have it worse, and it was important to be grateful for little mercies.
When she was dressed in the same black blouse and beige skirt from earlier she and Millard headed straight for the garage. Their group all piled in and a minute later they were winding down the banyan shaded road that traced the spine of Needle Key. Big houses loomed on either side, glimpses of beach in the gaps between. Everyone was quiet as Jacob navigated down the road, he seemed so bored by the atmosphere that Aurora was reminded that while this was all frightfully fascinating for them, for Jacob this was the pinnacle of boring normalcy. Oddly enough, she found herself craving it. After so many near death experiences she felt ready to settle down. She and Millard were married now and they had discussed the possibility of getting their own home. They didn't have to worry about aging forward or wights or hollows. Part of her brain resumed running away with the idea that now she and Millard could start getting their ducks in a row, maybe even by this time next year she could be pregnant. She wanted a family and just the thought of the word 'baby' seemed to stir up her motherly instincts, baby fever, she thought, was that what they called it? Without her permission her brain started to replay moments when she would help her mother care for baby Noah, all the times she'd fed him, rocked him to sleep, sat there and just kissed his little head as he slept in her arms wrapped in blankets. Then her mind started to shift the image, putting a bow on the baby's head, dressing her in pink, names Aurora and Millard might pick out for her. Aurora shook her head turning to Millard but could tell he was looking out the window from his breath fogging the glass with each exhale. She looked back out the window at the beautiful beaches and the sunny day and couldn't help but think how wonderful her future looked.
"Why do you think Abe moved here?" Olive asked, her arm woven with Enoch's. "Of all places in America?"
"Florida used to be one of the best areas for peculiars to hide." Millard explained, "Before the hollow wars anyway. It was the winter home of all the circuses, and the whole middle of the state is a great trackless swamp. They said anybody, no matter how peculiar, could find a place to blend in here - or to vanish."
"Oh shoot." they heard Jake mutter then clear his throat, "Sorry wrong way."
They were driving into a place called Circle Village and Aurora saw a sign for Piney Woods Road.
But before Jacob could turn them around Emma straightened up in the passenger seat, "Wait Jacob, wait a minute."
"Yeah?"
"Isn't this where Abe used to live?"
"Yeah, it is."
"Really?" Olive asked looking around with a new sense of excitement.
"I turned in by accident, it was just like, muscle memory."
"I want to see. Can we look around?" Olive pleaded. Then she turned to Emma, "Remember how we used to always talk about visiting? Didn't you always wonder what his house looked like?"
"Olive no." Millard insisted, "It's a bad idea."
"I want to go." Emma said, not looking at any of them just at the street sign, "I want to see his house."
"You do?" Jake asked.
"Are you sure?" Millard questioned.
"Yes." she turned in her seat, "Don't look at me like that Enoch."
"Like what?"
"Like I won't be able to handle it."
"Nobody said that." Millard replied and Aurora felt him shift uncomfortably in his seat.
"You were thinking it."
"What about the clothes shopping?" Aurora asked.
"I think we should pay our respects." Emma said unhindered, "That's more important than clothes."
"All right." Jake said sounding reluctant, "Just for a minute."
Aurora felt her spirit rise, there always had been that inner curiosity, not just for her but all of them. Wondering who Abe had become after he left the loop, what kind of man he had grown into.
Turning her attention back to the homes she tried to figure out those answers as best she could based on Abe's neighborhood. There were lawn gnomes and plastic flamingoes and rusting fish shaped mailboxes. The houses were all various fading pastels, and the front were all alike.
"Certainly is a humble place." Millard murmured, "No one would think a famous hollow hunter lived here, that's certain."
"I'm sure that was intentional." Emma added, "Abe had to keep a low profile."
"Even so, I was expecting something a bit grander."
"I think it's sweet." Olive oohed, "Little houses all in a row."
Jacob continued through the little neighborhoods until he came to a cul-de-sac, it was obvious which house was Abe's, the lawn was overgrown, the paint was peeling along the edges and there was a For Sale sign staked into the yard.
"Well, this is it." He said as he parked.
"How long did he live here?" Enoch asked.
Jake opened his mouth to answer but then seemed to notice the For Sale sign. He marched out of the car, yanked it from the ground and tossed it in a ditch.
"They mustn't have told him." Aurora whispered.
"Horrid people." Emma said as she got out and went to Jacob. The rest of them exited the car and once Jake looked calmer they followed him to the front door. He retrieved a spare key from under a conch shell in the small vegetable garden. It didn't seem like Jacob was nervous about going inside, in fact, it seemed like he was relieved, that the place brought him comfort even after Abe was gone.
Inside the house was hot and stale, worse then the stifling heat was the state of the place. Clothes and papers were stacked in unsteady piles, household items were littered across the countertops, trash spilled from a pyramid of garbage bags in the corner.
"Gosh." Enoch breathed softly, "Was he bad off at the end?"
"No - it was - it was never like this." Jacob said as he scooped old magazines from the seat of Abe's armchair. "At least, not while he was alive."
"Jacob wait." Emma called as he kept hurrying to clean.
"Jacob." Aurora tried. "Jacob stop!"
He turned to her, "He didn't live like this I swear."
"We know." Olive nodded, "I remember Abe wouldn't even have breakfast without a clean collared shirt on."
"And when we lived together in France, in that little cabin, I swear he cleaned his weapons more often then new mothers' fuss over their babies." Millard chuckled fondly at the memory.
"He and I would always get into a row about my organization of my pickled hearts." Enoch said with a grin as he looked at his shoes with his hands stuffed into his pockets, "He would move them into date order and I would move them back alphabetically by the profession of their owner."
"Let us help." Emma offered.
"You shouldn't have to-"
"Jacob." Aurora cut him off, gentler this time, "He might have been your grandfather, but he was our family too."
Jacob looked touched and nodded before turning away and clearing his throat. They all dove in, Emma took charge like the natural leader she was, "Books on shelves, clothes in closets, trash in cans."
Everyone dusted and swept, Aurora threw open the windows to let in fresh air and some sunlight. Enoch and Millard carried rugs outside to beat the dust out of them.
As they worked they shared stories about Abe, Jacob seemed so interested in the ones of his grandpa when he was young and in their loop, while they were thirsty for what Abe was like throughout Jacob's childhood. Aurora laughed when Jake mentioned he'd often catch Abe at the window just watching 'for the postman' he'd say with a chuckle. Now they knew Abe was looking for any wights or hollows - old habits died hard and Abe was a fighter until the end, always ready.
When they were done with the cleaning they all gathered on the lanai, letting the slight breeze help dry the sweat on their skin. They had needed this, Aurora thought, they couldn't be at the funeral to say goodbye to Abe properly, instead, this was their way of saying goodbye; taking care of what he'd left behind in a suitable fashion, not the careless way his own children had done.
"You guys didn't have to do that." Jacob said from the chair he was plopped in.
"We know." Aurora replied, "But it felt good."
"I'm only sorry the others couldn't be here." Emma said, "We should bring them later, so they can see it too."
"We're not finished are we?" Enoch asked from where he was laying on the floor, his head on Olive's lap.
"That's the whole house." Jake shrugged, "Unless you want to clean the yard too."
"What about the war room?" asked Millard.
"The what?"
"You know, where Abe planned attacks on hollowgast, received encoded communications from other hollow hunters, et cetera. . . he must have had one."
"He, uh – no, he didn't."
"Maybe he didn't tell you about it." Enoch suggested, "It was probably full of top secret stuff, and you were just too small and too dumb to understand."
"I'm sure if Abe had a war room, Jacob would have known." Emma defended him.
"What about a basement?" Olive asked. "Abe must have had a fortified basement to protect against hollowgast attacks."
"If he had a place like that then he wouldn't have gotten killed by a hollowgast."
There was a brief, awkward silence and everyone looked around not meeting anyone else's eyes. That's when Aurora saw it. "Jacob? What's that?"
He followed her gaze to the door that opened to the backyard. It wasn't like a front door, it was just a wooden frame and a screen to keep out the bugs. But the mesh had been cut and was flapping in the breeze.
"Is that what I think it is?"
"Yeah. That's where the hollow came in." Jacob nodded sadly, "But it didn't happen here. I found him. . . way out." He pointed toward the woods.
Emma and Olive exchanged a loaded glance, Aurora looked to Millard at her side on the wicker loveseat and Enoch's eyes were glued to the direction Jacob pointed in.
"Could you find the spot again?" Emma asked the tension thick enough you could cut it with a knife.
"I could find it blindfolded."
Jacob led them through the knee high grass to the edge of the woods, then they plunged into the gloomy pine forest. He had to call out pointers so they didn't get cut by underbrush like saw toothed palmettoes or tangled thickets of vines. When he mentioned avoiding snake nests Aurora froze and Millard walked into her back before asking if she was alright. She looked down at her skirt and exposed lower legs and took a deep breath. She didn't survive hollows, wights and World War II just to die of a snake bite now. With a firm nod of her head she carried on.
As they made their way deeper and deeper into the shade and humid air trapped by the foliage, Jacob retold the story of what happened that night. He described the panicked call he'd gotten from Abe while he was at work. The delay in getting there because he'd had to catch a ride with his friend. A delay that may have cost Abe his life, or saved Jacob's. He talked about finding the house a wreck, then finding Abe's still lit flashlight in the grass, shining into the woods. Walking into the forest, just like they were doing now –
"Jacob?" Aurora interrupted.
"Yeah?" he called from the front of the group.
"It's slightly dumb, but you don't. . . feel any around here do you?"
"It's not dumb." He replied with a small shake in his tone, "And no, I don't feel a thing."
"Good." Enoch said and all eyes turned to him, "Ya know. . . so the girls don't get scared."
Emma rolled her eyes and Olive squeezed his hand, when he tried to shake her off and insist he wasn't nervous she lied and said she was, and he let their hands stay linked after that.
"It was around here I think." Jacob said drawing their attention back to the place where they were, where Abe had died. The trees that had been the last thing he'd seen, the birds in them the last sound he'd heard. Unintentionally they ended up in a circle, and out of nowhere people started saying goodbye.
"You were a great man Abraham Portman." Millard began, then Aurora felt him take her hand, "I owe quite a lot to you. You saved my life, and you got my head out of my ass when I needed it." He chuckled, "Peculiarkind could use more like you. We miss you friend."
"It isn't fair what happened to you." Aurora began her turn, "I wish we could have protected you like you used to protect us."
"Thank you for sending Jacob." Olive carried on, "We would all be dead without him."
Everyone looked to Enoch whose expression had soured, "Why'd you have to do something stupid like get yourself killed?" he shook his head, "I'm sorry if I was ever an ass to you. . . I wish you weren't dead. Goodbye old friend."
Emma stood there looking down into the dirt. "I'd like a moment alone please."
They all nodded and acquiesced, Olive and Enoch wandered in the direction toward the house, Jake moved about thirty feet from Emma before leaning against a tree and keeping an eye on her. Millard was about to also head toward the house when he noticed Aurora going in the opposite direction, deeper into the woods. He caught up to her and noticed the slightly confused, pondering expression on her face.
"Darling." He said softly so as not to startle her, "What is it?"
"Don't you think it's a bit odd?" she asked as they wandered deeper, "For Abe, with all his hunting experience, to leave his house and go outside, where he'd be exposed and more vulnerable to the hollow?"
He paused, "It is, dare I say it, peculiar behavior."
"He has a gun rack in the garage he didn't use. And he didn't drive off? Take his car and head to a populated area where he could disappear into a crowd? He ran into a forest. Why?"
Millard was beginning to connect the dots. In the house Abe had cover, it took time for hollows to knock down walls and break through doors, so why go outside where the hollow could build momentum while running? Unless he thought the trees would slow it down, but that only made a fraction of sense. Why leave the house, his car, his guns. . .
"The only thing." Aurora began, "The only possible thing, I can think of is he left the house because –"
"He was running to something."
"He was running to something."
They said simultaneously as she looked down from the trees and he turned from the brush and their eyes met.
"The war room." Millard finished their hypothesis. Aurora immediately looked to the ground and started kicking away vines and dead leaves and twigs and Millard did the same. It would be easier if he had shoes on but the adrenaline coursing through him made it easier to ignore the jabs from broken sticks and branches. They spread out, moving wider and wider, until Aurora called him.
"Millard."
He rushed over and under her foot was a sheet of plywood, it looked dirty and moldy like it had been there a long time. They both crouched down and lifted it up by one edge. Underneath pill bugs and worms wriggled trying to get away and find cover, moss that had been growing on one edge ripped in half as they continued to lift and then flipped the board away from what it was hiding – a metal door with a keypad.
"Jacob! Emma!" he shouted and they heard rustling getting nearer and nearer.
"What is it?"
"We found it."
Jacob looked down in shock at the three foot metal square that looked just large enough for a grown man to fit through.
"Holy shit. Is that a door?"
"More of a hatch, really." Millard replied as he helped Aurora back to her feet and they both brushed the dirt from their knees. "I hate to say I told you so. . . but I told you so."
Jacob still looked in awe as he knelt down by the dull grey steel door and brushed the remaining dirt from its surface. The handle and keypad were recessed, Jake gave it a go but it was locked and wouldn't budge.
"What's the combination?" he asked looking around.
"Don't you know?" Olive questioned but Jake shook his head.
Enoch rolled his eyes, "You don't know much do you?"
"Let me think for a second."
"Could it be a birthday?" Emma suggested.
"Couldn't be." Millard said as he began to pace, "Abe would never have made the combination something so obvious."
"We don't even know how many numbers are in the combination." Olive pointed out.
Jacob crouched there as the moments ticked by. They all waited, wearing puzzled expressions of their own trying to come up with numbers. September 3, 1940 didn't work, his license plate number didn't, the numbered version of 'peregrine' 'cairnholm' and 'peculiar' also didn't yield any results.
"I'm out of ideas." Jacob sighed falling back onto his rear as he sat down.
"You're giving up?" Emma asked crouching beside him.
Enoch let out a frustrated sigh, "Not holding out on us, are you?"
"What?" Jake snapped at him.
"I think you know the code but you want to keep Abe's secrets for yourself. Even though you wouldn't have found the door without us."
Jacob got up and for a moment Aurora wondered if the two of them were going to swing at each other. But then Jacob turned his back to Enoch and stepped away.
That didn't stop the dead riser though, "Ahh who cares what's in Abe's dusty old hole in the ground." He chuckled, "It's probably just a thousand old love letters from Emma."
She gave him the finger.
"Or maybe a shrine with a big photo of her and candles all around. Oh, that would be so awkward for you two!" he laughed until Olive elbowed him in the gut.
Emma shook her head and returned her attention to Jacob. "There must be something. Some secret only between you and Abe, something special but nothing too obvious."
"You know, it might not even be in English." Millard theorized, "Abe spoke Polish too."
"Maybe you should take the night to think it over." Aurora voiced, maybe it would come to him in a dream, or after a good rest.
But Jacob looked like a lightbulb had just gone off and he quickly punched in one word.
The tumblers inside opened with a clunk.
"Holy shit." Jake said again.
The door opened to reveal a ladder descending into pitch black darkness. Jacob swung his foot onto the first rung. "Wish me luck."
"Let me go first." Olive offered holding out her hand and making a flame.
Jake shook his head, "It should be me. If there's anything nasty waiting down there, I want to get eaten first."
"How very chivalrous." Millard commented as Jacob vanished under the earth.
They could hear his shoes each time he moved a rung, the darkness swallowed him up like he was sinking into water and after a moment they heard nothing and assumed he reached the bottom.
"Well?" Emma called down.
"No monsters." Jacob's voice echoed back. "But I could use more light."
"Be right there!" Olive called back.
"Us too!" Emma shouted.
She went first, and one by one they all followed. Millard followed after Emma and Aurora followed after him.
She was cautious as she climbed down the ten steps until her feet met the concrete floor. It was cooler and the only light came from the flashlight built into Jacob's cellular telephone, and even that was only bright enough to show the walls which were curved grey and concrete. It was a tunnel, one too small to stand up properly in so he and Emma were already hunched.
When she reached the last few rungs she could feel Millard's hands on her waist steadying her in case she slipped. Even when her feet were planted firmly on the ground he still didn't let go. Rather, he tugged her closer so he could wrap his arms around her middle, like he was nervous he'd have to spin them around to the wall and use his body to shield hers at any moment. He wasn't wrong, they had no idea what was down here and Emma made the same thing clear when Olive and Enoch joined them – Enoch having shut the hatch door behind him.
"Move slowly, listen out for anything strange, and keep your wits about you." Emma instructed as Olive lit a flame along the back of her hand that danced like a butterfly had just landed there. "We don't know what's down here, and its possible Abe could have booby trapped the place."
Hunched and shuffling they all moved forward, after a while Jacob muttered something about them being under the front lawn of Abe's house. Eventually the tunnel ended at a door, a heavy looking door and it made Aurora's heartrate speed up when she saw it was slightly ajar.
"Hello?" Jacob called inside making Aurora jump slightly. "Sorry."
"Are you expecting someone?" Millard asked him.
"No, but you never know."
Jacob held his phone out in front of him, slipping it through the open door and tilting it around the room. He poked his head through, then Emma did the same, only she noticed something Jake had missed.
"This might be useful." And she reached for the wall and flicked a switch. Rows of fluorescent lights shot to life in the ceiling of the room and they all stepped inside, their spines thanking them for finally standing up straight.
"Phew." Olive sighed as she shook her hand and extinguished her flame. "That's more like it."
Millard's nervous grasp of Aurora's waist slackened and let go as they entered the room and looked around. It was small, maybe twenty feet by fifteen and was meticulously organized – just like their Abe. Along one wall were four metal beds arranged bunk style in two stacks, a tight roll of sheets and blankets sealed in plastic at the foot of each. There was a big locker bolted to another wall, which Emma opened to find all kinds of supplies: flashlights, batteries, basic tools, and enough canned and dried food to last several weeks. Beside that was a big blue drum filled with drinking water, and next to that a strange looking plastic box that was labelled along the side as a chemical toilet.
"Whoa." Enoch gave a low whistle, his eye pressed against a metal cylinder that protruded down from the ceiling, "You can see outside."
"Is that a periscope?" Jake asked joining him.
Enoch nodded and stepped back, "It must be hidden at the edge of the yard."
"So he could see them coming." Emma finished the thought.
"What is this place?" Olive asked walking in slow circles taking in everything.
"Must be a shelter." Aurora deduced, "In case of hollowgast attacks. He had enough beds so his family could hide too."
"It was for more then just waiting out attacks." Millard's voice reached them making them all turn to a desk by the opposite wall, a floating book with its pages turning was the only evidence Millard was standing there. "It was a receiving station."
On top of the desk he stood by was a large chrome and green plated metal machine that took up most of the counterspace.
"I assume this must be how he communicated."
"With who?" Emma asked walking over and examining the machine that looked like a mix between an archaic printer and a fax machine with a keyboard stuck to the front.
"The other hollow hunters." Millard said closing the book and tucking it under his arm, "See, this is a pneumatic teleprinter."
"I remember those." Enoch said lighting up like a child on Christmas as he rushed over, leaving Jake at the periscope. "Miss Peregrine used to have one. Whatever happened to it?"
"It was part of a scheme for ymbrynes to communicate with one another without having to leave the safety of their loops." Millard explained, "It didn't work in the end, too complex and too vulnerable to interception."
As Millard spoke Aurora turned to Jake, he was still standing by the periscope but was no longer looking into it, he was looking to the side of the floor and tapping his finger along the metal tube deep in thought. She wondered how many memories he was replaying, combing through his grandfather's words for hidden clues, secret meanings, anything that would help them figure out exactly what he was up to down here.
But there was also guilt in his eyes, guilt that if he had asked the right questions sooner, would Abe had confided all this in him? Would he have just come out and told Jake it was all true, time loops and hollowgast? A secret bunker underground? Could they have spent more time together bonding over their shared secret?
When Jake noticed she was staring at him she gave him a small smile, he barely returned it and she could tell he was hurting. But he shook that off and approached Millard at the desk with the others.
"You say this thing was for communicating with other hollow hunters? What do you know about them?"
"About the hunters?" Emma asked her brows shooting up, "We don't know much, but that was by design. They were extremely secretive."
"Do you know how many there were?"
"Not more then a dozen I suppose." Millard responded, "But that's just an educated guess."
"And could they control hollows?"
"I don't think so." Emma said with a finger tapping her chin, "That's what made you and Abe so special."
The chair slid out as Millard sat at the desk and they could hear his fingers drumming the top, "Abe loved his secrets."
"Did he ever." Aurora said walking up behind him and resting her hands on his shoulders.
"I think he loved them more then people sometimes." Emma said as she crossed her arms and leaned back against the lockers. "And in the end that's what got him killed."
Jake nodded and looked around the room, "Well. . . at least we found this place. One less secret for Abe to take with him to the grave."
"Maybe more then one." Millard said as he opened the book he'd moved from under his arm to his lap. "You might be interested in this Jacob."
He passed Jake the book and on the first page in typewriter ink were the words OPERATIONS LOG.
"Is this. . ."
"Just what it says." Millard replied with a smile in his voice. Having already flipped through it he knew what Jake was reading now, what information was coming to light. "You know what this means don't you?"
"Abe did more then just find and kill hollows." Olive grinned.
"Right. He was saving peculiar children too."
"We'd been talking about America's seeming lack of ymbrynes." Aurora said as she looked down at Millard and his chair turned as he looked over his shoulder at her, "Abe was doing the work for them. Getting those children to safe loops so they wouldn't be killed."
"But why wouldn't the ymbrynes just do that?" Olive asked.
"If the wights knew the children were peculiar perhaps they kept tabs on them, waiting for an ymbryne to show up, using them like bait. That would have made it too dangerous for the ymbrynes to go out to collect the children themselves." Emma said pacing now in front of the bunks. Then she checked her watched and sighed, "It's almost six. We'd better be getting back."
"The others are going to kill us." Olive said as they headed back for the door, "We've been gone all afternoon and we still haven't got new clothes."
"I think they'll be more upset that we found Abe's secret bunker without them." Aurora said taking her arm and making her smile.
"I want to get home and read that log book cover to cover." Millard said, but before he could call dibs Aurora reached back with her free hand and swatted his arm, "Jake gets it first, you can go without a book for one evening."
"What else am I supposed to do?"
Enoch chuckled, "How about your wif-." Then he grunted and bent over clutching his stomach, "Will you all stop doing that!"