Riya and Jacob walked to the old, burnt down house once again. Once in the garden, they split up and she went upstairs. There were some pictures and a clock with the date of their death on the ground. It was remarkable what survived a freaking bomb. The place was filled with growth and the wood was moist which made her afraid she would fall through the floor. 

"Annie?" a small blonde called. 

In a jerky fashion, Riya glanced over her shoulder to see a small blonde - with a light yellow light behind - in pink looking at her. Fear filled her small face before she took off. Riya followed her. Either she was a hallucination or a child had found her way into the woods. She was probably a hallucination as she said 'Annie', but there was always a chance that she was real. And she could have just hallucinated 'Annie'. She found herself in the dining room when Jake ran into her. She did a twirl and fell. But Jake fell on the pile of rubbish. He was instantly knocked unconscious. Riya crawled over to him and rolled him over. 

"We won't hurt you." A blonde with a red light like Jake's came up to her and held out her hand.

Riya looked at it suspiciously before huddling closer to her brother, checking him for a pulse then his eyes for pupil response.

"Please, Riya, Miss Peregrine saw you and your brother on the ferry. She sent us to fetch you. We won't hurt either of you," she promised gently.

Riya hesitated and just placed Jake's head in lap, checking for blood.

"You're quite the nurse," Emma noted. "I'll tell you what. Bronwyn will carry him until he wakes up and you can decide them whether he's ok or not?" she offered. 

Riya glanced over at the approaching brunette and nodded her consent. 

*

They made it to a hill and Jake started to come to so Bronwyn, green light, dropped him. 

Riya ran up to him. 

He scrambled to his feet. "You're Emma. And the twins. And Olive. Bronwyn." 

The brunette smiled and nodded. 

"He's Millard." 

The floating clothes with a light blue light behind it, outlining his body, tipped his hat. 

"No, you're dead. All of you. You're all dead. He is... he is invisible. That is... He's still dead," Jake backtracked. 

"None of us are dead," Millard retorted. 

"Oh my God. Am I dead?" Jake, ever the idiot, asked. 

Riya hit him upside the head. "You're neither dead nor crazy." 

Jake turned to the blonde, Emma. "You called me Abe, in the house. Why?"

Emma looked a little guilty. "You looked like him. Just for a moment. Before you started screaming, running away and concussing yourself." 

Jake looked around. "Wait, what's happening?" 

"We are waiting until the coast is clear before we go into the loop," Emma explained. 

Olive, who had a silver light behind her, walked up to them. "You never know who might be watching." She put her hand on Jake's shoulder and pushed him towards the loop entrance, checking the coast. 

"Wait, before we... before we go into what?" Jake asked. 

"Please, Jake. Miss Peregrine's waiting. She saw you both on the ferry and sent us to get you," Emma pleaded. 

They all entered the cave. A strange feeling overcame Riya and she had the urge to let her legs collapse beneath her. Standing strong, she was suddenly forced to the ground and looked up at her brother's retreating form. 

He was leaving her, all alone with the strangers even he was afraid of. 

Emma sighed. "Horace couldn't have let us know he wouldn't be as easy as her," she muttered under breath. She took off after him, Olive and Millard chasing as well.

The twins helped Riya to her feet. They followed the cave through and the sunlight briefly blinded Riya upon exiting. 5 or so minutes later, they approached a beautiful, vintage home that looked brand new. One of the twins pulled a rope that left a resounding noise inside. The doors opened, seemingly, on their own.

A striking woman stepped onto the porch, a pipe in her mouth and a pocket watch in her hand. She had the most beautiful light Riya had ever seen: orange swirled with blue. Riya recognized her, her favorite character from her aunt's stories, other than Annie herself. "You're early... and alone," the Britain noted. "Claire, Bronwyn, twins, you may go play." 

Said children ran inside. Riya didn't move. 

Miss Peregrine held out her hand. Riya slowly took it and a warm, pale hand gripped tightly on the pale, cold one. Miss Peregrine pulled her up the stairs. "Look at you. Last Annie send a photograph, you were so much younger: early teens. You have definitely grown." Looping her arm with the dark haired girl's, Miss Peregrine led her through the house. "Alma Peregrine. Delighted to meet you," she introduced herself. "Now, first, as you are an adult, you may call me Alma. Secondly, tea: do you take sugar?" Alma asked, guiding them into the kitchen. She entered the area with a simple stove and island-counter. "Tea?" she asked, holding up a pot. 

Riya shook her head. 

Alma shrugged, placing the pot back on the stove. "It'd be cold anyway." She glanced at her pocket watch. "Your brother should be halfway to the pub by now."

Riya glanced up in slight confusion. How would she know anything in that sentence? That he had ran? That he ran to the pub? How far he would be? 

A boy with a yellow-green light entered the kitchen and grabbed a jar. 

"Enoch, this is Riya," Alma attempted to strike a conversation. 

Riya waved at him, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. Despite the counteractive measure, more hair fell in front of her face. This was the first time she noticed a strand. It was like a piece of yarn. It tied Alma to Enoch and vice versa. It was a navy blue color, like Alma's clothes, but lighter. She watched Enoch's end of it vanish behind a door as he did. The strand vanished. 

"You see it, don't you?" Alma demanded. 

On instinct, Riya looked away from where it was. She met Alma's soothing eyes and the urge to deny anything and everything vanished. She wasn't afraid of how Alma would react, almost as if she were aware Alma would believe anything she said. That's when she saw the strand connecting the woman in front of her to herself. It was a pale gold color which was slowly intensifying. It reminded Riya of when Hercules became a God in that cartoon where he was made mortal, but retained his strength. 

She was about to answer when Alma glanced at her watch and hissed something under her breath. "Your brother will be returning momentarily." She stood to go get the door. 

Moments later, Olive entered the kitchen and began filling the teapot with water. Placing it on the stove, she removed her gloves and put her bare hands on either side of the pot. As such, Riya could hear it beginning to boil. 

Moments later, Alma and Jake entered her hearing range. "Now then, do you take sugar?" They entered the kitchen and Jake's eyes lit up with realization and relief as if he just remembered they began that journey together. "That will be enough, thank you Olive. Nobody enjoys overboiled tea." 

Olive removed her hands from the pot and began pouring it into glasses. She saw the Enoch carrying two jars under his chin. "Let me help you with those, Enoch," she offered. 

"Don't bother. Wouldn't want to interrupt the tea party," the Scot hissed. Olive frowned then hurried after him.

Alma waited until the teens were gone. "Shall we take our tea outside?" She went to give Riya hers, but Riya just set it down. She didn't drink tea. 

Jake took his with a breathed, "Thank you."

"Before Annie died she said to find you," Riya stated. 

"Could explain everything, please?" Jake asked. 

"Absolutely. There are few things I can't explain. ... We are what's called, in common parlance, as peculiar." 

A girl with stringy hair in braids and a vibrant green light behind her run up to them. 

In an instant, Miss Peregrine whipped out her watch and held it in Fiona's face. "51 seconds late, Fiona," she said in a scolding tone. 

"Sorry, Miss Peregrine. How many carrots you need for supper?"

"Just one will do."

Fiona ran into the garden and knelt with her hands held out. 

Miss Peregrine continued, "As I was saying, some people are peculiar." 

There was a carrot growing from the ground at an exceedingly swift rate. 

"It's a recessive gene carried down through families. Yet, many generations can pass without a peculiar child being born. And alas, peculiars have been persecuted through the ages. Hence, we live in places like this." 

"In Wales?" 

"Anywhere will do if you pick the right day." She called, "That's fine now, Fiona. You see. I am a type of peculiar called an Ymbryne. That means I can-"

"You can turn into a bird." 

"Well, I do! Yes. But that's not very useful. An Ymbryne's main skill is the manipulation of time. We chose a safe place, a safe day and create a loop." 

"That was one of the last things Annie said. What is it?" Riya asked. 

Miss Peregrine turned to Riya, grateful the shock seemed to be wearing off. "A loop preserves the last 24 hours. Reset the loop and the day is yours to live in again. Reset it daily and you can stay there forever. Entirely safe from the outside world." She gave a quick glance at her pocket watch. 

Bronwyn came running up and went over to the now large carrot. She, with a single pull, yanked it from the ground. 

"Right on time Bronwyn, good girl." She turned back to the siblings. "And that's why we Ymbrynes are charged with the care of the young." 

"No one ages," Riya commented. 

"It's best for everyone this way, I assure you." Miss Peregrine took the cup from Jake, glancing at Riya's empty hands, and placed hers and Jacob's aside. "Every Ymbryne commits herself to the creation and upkeep of a place like this." She urged Jacob forward with a hand on the back of his arm, linking her other arm with Riya's. "A Home for Peculiar Children." She guided them further into the backyard, her arm still linked with Riya's. There was something about her that sent Alma deep into her protective nature. 

In the back, the twins were yanking a teddy bear back and forth. They had strange, multi-colored lights, like it couldn't make up its mind. 

"You've met the twins," Miss Peregrine stated. She left Riya's space to gently removed the bear from the twins. In a single move, she tore the stuffed animal in half. Oddly, no stuffing fell out. 

A blonde ran up behind the twins. 

"This is Claire." 

They walked further into the field where Millard and another boy were playing soccer, called football in England. 

"Millard, you've met. And that's Hugh." 

Hugh's light was mainly yellow, but, occasionally, a stripe of black would shimmer across it. Not menacingly, almost as if it were curious and venturing out. 

A boy wearing a suit walked up to them. His light was purple. Riya had never met a boy with a purple aura before. Unless they were gay. "Good afternoon." He held out his hand to Riya, who was back in Miss Peregrine's arm. "I'm Horace." 

Riya didn't move to shake his perfectly manicured hand.

Horace, however, was non-plussed and turned to Jake who shook his hand. "Delighted to meet you." He turned to look at the boys struggling to get a ball down from a topiary. "We sorely needed some new blood here. Super shirt by the way." 

Riya got up on her toes and whispered in Miss Peregrine's ear, "Couldn't Fiona get that down? Or Emma?" 

Miss Peregrine nodded and turned back to Horace who was now walking away. 

They walked over to where Emma had a rope and was checking her watch, "You know Emma, of course. And I think that's everyone." 

"Didn't Bronwyn have a brother?" Jake asked. 

"Yes, Victor's upstairs. Wait, where did Enoch and Olive go?" Alma smoothly changed the subject. Her light had briefly turned dark red and a little murky blue. 

"Heaven knows. Enoch's been off ever since we went to look for Jake," Emma explained. 

Fiona ran up behind them. "Miss Peregrine, there's a policeman at the door. He says it's about the pub," she declared. 

Alma shot Emma a disapproving glance. "We'll discuss this later, Emma." She turned to leave and, yes, Riya was following. 

"It wasn't their fault. Honestly, just they were just trying to help," Jake explained. 

Alma loosened up and smiled lightly at Emma. She walked to go meet the police and pub manager. 

"You won't really kill anyone, will you?" 

"Not if I can talk my way out of it," Alma promised. She opened the door to meet a red faced man. 

"You and those children have destroyed my pub!" 

Protectiveness flared within Riya. "What makes you think it was one of Miss Peregrine's?" 

Alma froze in shock at the timid teen's outburst.

"Everyone knows their kind are freaks." 

"How do you know?" Riya shot back. 

"Beg pardon?" the pub manager demanded. 

"Who's to say you're not the freak and the orphans are completely normal?" Riya argued. 

The pub manager sputtered for a minute. 

"Come back tomorrow with a better excuse!" Riya spat, raising her head. And she shut the door in his face. 

*

"You need to change for supper. That is, if you'll be dining with us?" Alma offered. 

"I can't stay out late," Riya stated. 

"Supper's at 5:30." 

"That's early," Riya commented. 

"I like us to have family suppers together," Alma explained. 

"I could stay, I suppose, if Jake does. We have to stick together."