Chapter 3: Imprisonment

Emma's POV.

I couldn't be on this ship anymore, at least for the time being. That is why I was so happy when it was announced at breakfast that we had docked in none other than my hometown, where I grew up, the tiny town of Laugharne.

I had fragments of good memories of the place, and clear as glass bad memories. The good memories were of my Grandma, she would take me to the beach, we would go out for milkshakes, she was just the best. The bad memories where I wasn't allowed to leave the house at all between the ages of ten and the time I ran away.

I started hovering when I was ten, nothing much, my Dad just thought he would feed me more, that 'solved' the 'problem' for about three days. Then I started hovering again, my Mom got so freaked out by this she ran away when I was eleven, never to be seen by us again. I would float one inch higher every week, till I eventually was bonking my head on the ceiling at least five times a day. My Dad couldn't take it anymore, so he just tied me down in the basement, and piled sharp bricks on me. He wouldn't untie me for any circumstance. One night my little sister Julia untied me, and I ran away.

I ran away when I was thirteen, I thought I would blend in with the traveling circus that was in town. Do an 'illusionists' act, 'The Floating Girl.' How I kept from floating away before that was by tying half a dozen of stray bricks from our neighbor's brick wall project that they gave up on to each of my feet. For extra insurance I filled my blouse with them too.

Sure, I got a lot of strange looks, but nothing I wasn't used to, I was the girl that went missing that nobody but my Grandma cared about. I also got many odd looks for the obvious reason of bricks being tied to my feet.

I arrived at the circus, showed them my trick, and they put me with this other girl, probably a couple of months younger than me. We got along very well; she said her name was Olive. We both showed each other tricks, I was amazed how life like hers was, she literally lit a fire in the palm of her hand. Olive's the one who first produced the idea to tie a rope around my waist when performing.

We were doing a show one night, when a mysterious woman wearing black approached us after our act. She said her name was Miss Peregrine, she told us all about herself, and asked if we wanted to come with her. To live with her in this big house with others like us, of course we agreed, the other children with her also had strange abilities. That is the day I met my real Mother; she was like a mother to all of us.

I pulled on Jake's arm, running down the ship ramp, I knew where I was going, the beach from my childhood. I wanted to show it to Jake, and I didn't want to stick around the ship after last night.

"Where are we going Em?" Jake asked.

"You'll see." I answered.

I kept tugging till we arrived, still as beautiful as I remembered. Jake just stood there, like he was trying to figure something out.

"This is weird?" He stated.

"Why is it weird?" I asked.

"Saw this place in my dream last night."

"Have you ever been here?"

"Nope."

"Can we please just not worry about anything for a while?"

"I can try." We just sat there on the beach for some time, relaxing in the sunlight. We spent most of the day just sitting there, it was amazing.

We fell asleep on the beach, listening to the waves drifting in and out, it was so relaxing, and soothing.

I wake up, and Jake's not with me, where did he go? I look around, I am not on the beach anymore, I am in a room, a red bricked room. I continue to look around, my ankles are chained up, and my boots aren't on, there on the ground below me, and I'm floating in midair.

"Where am I?!" I yell at the walls, hopefully someone heard me. I hear the thick rusty steel door creak open. The person was tall, and bulky, they were wearing a gas mask, so I couldn't see their face.

"Who are you? Where am I? Where's Jake?" All I heard was deep breathing.

"Answer me!" They just poked me with this large police baton.

"At least say something!" They continued to poke me; each poke harder than the last. From a distance I could hear another person screaming in agony. It sounded like a girl, a little girl.

"EVERYONE REPORT TO THE MAIN ROOM NOW!" Yelled a man from a speaker on the wall. As soon as the man stopped talking, the person stopped poking me, my side was surely going to bruise.

The person, who at this point by their build, I had determined the person was a man. He let me down and put me in my shoes. I attempted to kick him in the groin, and escape, but he jabbed me in the side with something skinny, and sharp. I fell to the ground. I was forced to get up, and walk down this narrow hallway, there were many rooms, all with thick rusty steel doors. There were some labeled, Infirmary, salon, the hole, nursery, room a, room b, room c, etc.. These people were sick, torturing little kids, innocent little babies. I only had one theory, wights, they were the answer I could think of.

We arrived at the main room, there were other children, babies, and teenagers. I immediately saw one thing we had in common, we were all female.

I was told to sit down; I was too sore to object. The couch I sat on was an ugly green color, covered in stains, mostly blood.

"INSPECTION TIME, MAGOTS!" Yelled the speaker. A gas masked person went around checking out each of the girls, checking hair length, eyeballs, then he gave them an injection in the arm. After each of the girls got an injection, they perked right up, I couldn't tell what the other effects were, all I knew was, I didn't want to figure them out.

He got to me, checked my hair, he jabbed me in the side with a skinny sharp thing again. I would have blown him off me, but my side was in so much pain I was having a little trouble breathing, so I couldn't tap into my peculiarity. He checked my eyes, I got another jab, this time to my other side. I fell on the girl to my left, I got a jab for that, really what was with these people and jabbing me.

Another person with a gas mask came in, they grabbed me, and took me outside of the room. He took me to this large room with a desk, which reminded me of Miss P's office, in our old house. There was a man at the desk, he wasn't wearing a gas mask, he didn't have white pupils, but he could have been wearing contacts. When I got a clear look at him, I was astounded, it was my father.

Jacob's POV.

The day had been perfect, me and Emma just lying on the beach, so peaceful, so relaxing. We fell asleep to the sound of the waves brushing on and off of the shore. Her head perched on my shoulder, it was such a good day, till I woke up, and she was gone.

Where had she gone? I was worried out of my mind, I kept thinking she had just gone to the bathroom, and would reappear any moment, that did not happen.

"Emma, where are you!" I yelled around the empty beach. I walked around the beach looking for any clues to where she had gone, I got to the far-left side of the beach, when I came across this cave.

It was the same one from my dream. I could just imagine the woman there, with the scared little girl, comforting her, I wish I knew who the little girl was. I continued to walk through the cave, I felt my ears pop a little when I went across the other half of the cave, this cave was a loop entrance.

It felt colder, damper, and definitely not shorts weather. I was getting goosebumps just standing there. There was a woman in a plaid raincoat, maybe I still was in the forties, but I knew I wasn't when I saw the hi-rise buildings, I knew this place, it was Florida.

I knew this beach well; it was the beach close to my house. Why would someone make a loop that went from a tiny village in Wales, to a beach in Florida? This day was just a mess.

I didn't know what year it was, all I knew was where I was, I went up to ask the woman in the plaid raincoat what year it was.

"Hello, might I ask you what year it is?"

"Sure, it's August 2nd 2016, why?"

"No reason, I just briefly forgot, and my phone died, thanks." I walked away; I was in the present.

As weird as this all was, I had to soldier on. I went back through the loop; it was still sunny. I walked back to where we were sitting, thought maybe something might be buried in the sand. I was right, I had stepped on this pointy thing, it was a pin.

The pin read RFRG, whatever it meant, it was a key piece of evidence for where Emma had gone. The pin was shiny smooth, clearly it hadn't been in the sand for too long, and it was only feet from where me and Emma were sitting, so I took the liberty of claiming what had happened to Emma, a kidnapping.