After about twenty shots were fired between the two of them, it seemed as if they'd gotten all the soldiers, though it wouldn't be long before the rest arrived. Abe let out a huff and leaned out the doorway, coughing and peering through the dusty air.

"Alright," he said, turning around. "All clea—"

V gasped as Abe fell to the ground, blood seeping from his head. Madame X, head of the Peculiar Acquisition Sub-Sector, stood in the doorway, watching him sit up groggily while she aimed a gun at his head. Before V could react, a new group of white-eyed soldiers burst in and kicked the table away, grabbing the pistol and roughly bringing Madame X another prize.

Fräulein Sarkisan, AKA Madame X, was a turned ymbryne. Besides apprehending and experimenting on peculiars, she spent her efforts swaying others to the Nazi ideology, usually through bribery and extortion.

Madame X (except in this story she's wearing a tactical suit).

She turned her head from Abe and opened her mouth to speak. With her potential as both a leader and a peculiar, she was capable of far more than just pistol-whipping a spy, so V remained silent and let her talk.

"You know who we want," Sarkisan said curtly. "And I'm not going to ask for them."

<><><><><><>

"My mother hates me and I hate her and I never want to see her again!" (Y/N) screamed at Millard the second she got through the cairn. The fact that he was standing there was a little creepy, but (Y/N) chose to ignore that.

It took Millard a second to respond, what with her screaming and crying and waving a knife around like a lunatic.

    "Shh, I'm sure that's not true, (Y/N). Still, you need to set the knife down so we can talk," Millard tried to console her.

    "I'm fine now, I just needed to get that out. You're probably right, maybe she loves me...just a little. And the knife is just for creepy dudes chasing me off of cliffs," (Y/N) explained. "You know, the usual."

"There aren't any wights around here now, since you killed one, and there aren't any hollowgasts here, since Miss P. killed the one with your wight."

    "Wait, Miss P killed a what? And that creepy dude isn't even a human? I need an explanation, pronto." (Y/N) pocketed the knife, figuring it wouldn't be very helpful against any creepy non-human creature.

    "How about I give it to you after-"

"Nope."

    "But you'll want to see it."

"Nope. Now."

"Jacob will be there too, you might as well be there to keep him from freaking out."

"Um, I have a steak knife in my pocket and my face is covered with tears. He'll probably think I was being tortured for information and then escaped," (Y/N) smirked.

Millard rolled his eyes and grabbed her arm to guide her. "Sorry, we're going anyway. What fun is an audience when everyone knows the show by heart?"

(Y/N) squinted her eyes, both thinking and studying the ground in the dim forest light to keep herself from unexpectedly tripping. "If this is a show, then why aren't we going to a theater?"

    "The theater is already here. We've set it up in the back yard. Now stop asking questions or I'll have to set a quota."

(Y/N) rolled her eyes and followed him back to the manor, wondering why he had been there waiting next to the cairn when she had come back.

<><><><><><><><>

"Ladieeees and gentlemen!" Millard shouted across the stage. (Y/N) assumed he was the ringmaster for this show. She saw Emma and Jacob sitting near the back, and watched as Emma pinched Jacob nearly a thousand times as Millard ran through his introduction. (Y/N) turned back in her chair to face the stage with a smirk on her face, deviously planning all the ways to annoy her cousin about his soon-to-be girlfriend.

She sobered quickly as she began to focus on her more important task– getting her books back to the library. Well, that was the cover-up. What she needed was already in the library. She sat through the show, planning as the children–and Ms. P.–went through the acts. The show was pretty interesting, but she was only half-focused.

She had left her books on her nightstand last night before dinner so that she could bring them to the library-step one. Pretty easy, but step two would be returning the books. By herself. She'd either have to leave right before the show ended, causing the peculiars to look for her afterward, or ask to return the books like a normal person. She wanted to choose the latter, but someone was almost guaranteed to escort her, and she needed to do it alone.

A grand round of applause sounded as the show ended, and (Y/N) stood along with everyone else. Millard ran up next to her with a grin and asked how she liked the show. She smiled politely and said she'd really enjoyed it while hoping he wasn't going to quiz her on it.

    "Ms. Peregrine is going to give Claire and Olive a lesson in the study; would you like to play croquet with the rest of us? Even Jacob's playing."

"Sure," (Y/N) replied, watching her plans fly out the window. The study was the library and now it was being occupied. She supposed she might as well have some fun while she waited for it to be empty, so she ran up to her room to get the sun bonnet that was still lying on her bed. She also applied some sunscreen and laughed upon realizing that she was right back where she started when she first came here, minus the crutch.

When she came back outside, the game was just about to begin. It was the perfect summer day- comfortably warm, slightly breezy, and the air smelled of the beautiful flowers that Fiona had grown herself. The children had set up a wooden table and were pouring limeade into different colored glasses (so everyone could remember whose was whose), making (Y/N) understand why staying could be so appealing.

(Y/N) wasn't very talented croquet-wise, but that made it all that much more fun. Jacob was just as awful and they both wondered at whatever luck kept them from hitting the ball way into the woods. Their mallets must have been possessed, they concluded, by the spirits of the best croquet players-they even got the ball through a wicket once or twice before the game had ended.

Then came lunch. Delectable sandwiches and chocolate pudding, which left them all lying on the ground. Emma tried to get everyone to go for a swim, but wasn't very successful at first. (Y/N) was so full, she said, that she would surely sink straight to the bottom! Yet eventually, everyone conceded and (Y/N) decided she would return her books while everyone got ready. Emma said she would make sure to bring along enough (rather chic) 1940's style bathing suits for all the girls, and Millard finally decided to come when he realized everyone else was going.

As (Y/N) grabbed her books from the nightstand in her room, she made sure to step lightly as she made her way down the hall. When she got to the library door, she stuck her head in and checked to see if anyone was in there, afraid somebody would be since the door was open. After a quick search, nobody seemed to be in there, so she walked in and started searching, turning herself invisible just in case.

    "A book that could change everything," she heard her grandfather say.

Now what would such a book even look like?

Surely it wasn't the Bible, and if it was important enough to travel across an ocean for, it had to be unique.

So...the Map of Days? (Y/N) had already checked that. It wasn't anything ultra-special. Well, not in the way she was thinking. And it was only life-changing if she didn't already have a loop to occupy.

    (Y/N) ran her fingers along the spines of the books, half focusing on the titles and authors, half on the sounds of children running through the halls. She was down to the Rs and the children were getting close. They couldn't see her, but if she happened to find the book, they could still see it floating along as she took it back to her room.

Richler, Riggs, Riley, Rimbaud. The author's names weren't very helpful. She looked back at the titles.

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children, Personal Appearance, Illuminations.

WHHHOAAA!? (Y/N)'s mind nearly exploded. Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children?! Now that is capable of changing everything, she thought excitedly.

Nearly in shock, she lifted the book off the shelf.

    "(Y/N)? Where's (Y/N)?" One of the children was right outside the doorway. As they walked in, (Y/N) tried to slide past, but there was no fooling the expert.

"(Y/N), I know you're here," Millard sighed.

(Y/N) turned visible, hiding the book behind her back. It was cliché and stupid, but he could not find out about the book, and there was literally nowhere else to hide it.

    "What are you doing in here, (Y/N)? We're almost leaving." Seeing that she was holding something behind her back, he tried to grab it and just barely missed. "Seriously, we don't have time, let's just go. And tell me what you're hiding!"

"Yes, let's go," (Y/N) agreed, choosing to ignore the rest of what he said.

    "(Y/N)," he said sternly.

    "Nothing!" She sighed exasperatedly.

    "Stop being so immature!"

    "I'm not! You can't know! It's...it's your birthday present!"

    "Okay. One-I don't tell anybody my birthday. Two-I've literally read every book here at least seven times."

    "Cool," (Y/N) said while running down the hallway.

"Hey stop it!" Millard yelled. "Seriously, you don't even have anything?!"

"What?" (Y/N) stopped. She held the book out in front of her.

Millard didn't react.

She waved it in front of his face.

Nothing.

Hugh walked down the hall with a bunch of towels.

    "Catch!" (Y/N) yelled, throwing the book.

She watched as her (surprisingly good) throw made the book go straight at him- and then straight through him. She gasped as the book hit the ground and Hugh and Millard neither saw or heard any of it. Hugh walked away, slightly annoyed.

What?!? She mentally freaked out. A book about everyone in this house, and yet none of them can read it?!?

My grandfather was right- this book must be the most important object in history.