I got to the loop entrance just as Miss Peregrine's peculiars did. They looked at me with concern as I gasped to catch my breath. Then I told them exactly what I'd just heard on the mountain. They all exchanged glances, looking extremely nervous.

"You guys," Jacob said to his friends. "you all go back to the Panloopticon. Tell Miss Peregrine and all them. Ricky and I are gonna go get Miss Cardinal and her peculiars; if we're not back in half an hour, disconnect Cunningham Valley."

Without hesitation, the others ran as fast as they could back into the forest. All except me, Jacob, and Emma.

"I'm coming with you." She said.

We didn't even care about the biting cold as we ran to the Home. When we got there, we found Sebasten, Riley, and Raymond on the couches next to the fire. We told them what I'd heard, and they looked taken aback.

"No way!" Sebasten said. "You're joking."

"I'm dead serious!" I said. "Now come on! We're on a time crunch!"

The three of them flew off the couch and went in different directions. A second later, Janie, George, and Miss Cardinal had joined the panic as they randomly stuffed things into suitcases. Sebasten came running downstairs with Phoebe sleeping in his arms. Jacob, Emma and I helped them carry their bulky suitcases. Miss Cardinal carried Phoebe so Sebasten could grab a large wooden trunk, which I'm pretty sure no one else could possibly carry.

Unfortunately, something was waiting for us on the other side of the front door. The two men I'd seen in the woods. They blocked the doorway.

Miss Cardinal got in front of all of us, kitchen knife in hand. But the men had guns.

Emma lit her hands ablaze, Sebasten raised his fists, and George patted his ears, signaling us to cover ours. He didn't really wait before opening his mouth and bursting the eardrums of everyone present. Unfortunately, the men at the door had the sense to cover their ears and swing their guns at the little boy. Sebasten blocked the hit and bent both guns beyond use.

"Now now, struggling will only make it worse!" The redheaded man said, then the shorter man grabbed Miss Cardinal. Her children tried to pry him off; he easily shrugged them all off except Sebasten. The redhead hit Sebasten in the head with his bent gun so hard the boy collapsed to the ground, unconcious. The redheaded man then grabbed Jacob and Emma; Emma turned him but that just made him squeeze harder. Charlie punched the redhead in the gut and he kicked her down.

There was a scream. I turned around and screamed myself; Miss Cardinal was on the ground, stabbed in the heart with her own knife. Her children kneeled over her, pale with shock. The shorter man took this opportunity to grab Janie and George.

Raymond jumped up and punched the shorter man in the face; the man dodged it.

"It's over!" The redhead cackled. "Just give up!"

I don't know exactly what happened next; next thing I knew, we were all banged up and bruised and being forced to walk in a straight line as the men pointed guns to our heads. Janie was crying and kept trying to look back towards the house. Riley obviously wanted to hold her, but every time one of us made any movement other than walking, the men would click their spare guns at us.

The only thing that gave any hope in this situation was the fact that the men had left Sebasten behind; I was confident that the blow he got to the head didn't kill him; the only concern was whether or not he'd wake up in time.

As we walked up the road to the cliff face, my heart pounded and my brow became soaked with sweat despite it being way less the freezing. The loop entrance seemed more like a crocodile's jaw ready to snap shut on us and crush our bones between its razor-sharp teeth.

Janie was the first one they forced out of the loop; she screamed as they pushed her through to the other side. The screaming stopped sickeningly as she left the loop.

Riley was next; although she did not do anything to suggest that she was afraid; in fact, she didn't even have to be forced through the loop entrance; she jumped in and disappeared without a sound.

After that, Raymond went through, then George, Emma, Charlie, a half-sleepwalking Phoebe, Jacob, then my breath hitched as one of the men shoved me through.

I squeezed my eyes shut as the man pushed me out of the loop, sure that I would find a pile of the bodies of my friends on the other side.

But when I came out into the present, the first thing I heard was "move out of the way, Ricky."

I opened my eyes and saw Jacob standing right in front of the opening and the rest standing back among the trees. Jacob pulled me out and the man behind me grabbed my ankle. That was when I saw the other man; the redheaded man was lying in the middle of the road, his skull split in half and spilling out chunks of pink covered in blood.

Suddenly, something made the man behind me fly forward, taking me with him. We were suddenly dangling ten feet off the ground. The man cursed as some invisible thing took his gun and threw it up the cliff. Something grabbed me around the waist; some sort of invisible tentacle wrapped itself around me and pulled me from the man's grasp, then placed me down gently next to the others.

Meanwhile Jacob was just standing right in front of the loop entrance, staring angrily up at the man who was still alive and floating, letting a long string of cuss words down on Jacob.

"Don't mess with my friends." Jacob said right before whatever was holding the man flung him down next to the reheated man; his skull was crushed the moment he hit the pavement.

Jacob did not hesitate before running over to us. "Everyone okay?"

"Okay as we can be." Raymond answered bitterly. "Miss Cardinal's dead."

Janie burst out crying again and Riley comforted her. Tears streaked George's face and he had to grip his jaw in order to not open his mouth and blast our ears off. Phoebe was fast asleep on the ground. Emma ran to hug Jacob.

A clump of dread formed in my stomach; there was no going back to Cunningham Valley, New Years Eve, 1949; Miss Cardinal had died; she couldn't reset the loop. I gaped at the hole that had once been the doorway to the most incredible place I'd ever seen. Sebasten was still on the other side.

"Is he trapped now?" I asked, then realized how unclear my question was. "I mean, can Sebasten still come through into the present?"

"Yes, but not for long." Emma answered.

And then, almost as if on cue, Sebasten crawled into the present, looking extremely out of breath. This seemed to cheer up Miss Cardinal's other peculiars a little bit; all four of them who were awake ran to the hole in the cliff face and swallowed Sebasten in a group hug.

"We need to go!" Charlie exclaimed from right next to me. "What if more of those guys are coming!"

"It'll be fine." Jacob assured her. "We have three hollows; I'll set them on whoever tries to attack us."

"The real immediate concern is getting them to Devil's Acre before they age forward." Emma added, gesturing to Miss Cardinal's peculiars, who were huddled close as possible and talking among themselves.

Jacob shifted his gaze to Phoebe, who, at that moment, turned over in her sleep. "How are we gonna tell her?" He wondered out loud.

"We aren't going to tell her anything." Emma answered, then once again gestured to Phoebe's loop-mates. "One of them should be the one who breaks the news to her; if it were Miss Peregrine, that's how I'd want to find out."

Jacob crouched down to pick up the small girl. "We should get going."

Emma called the others to follow.

___________________________

I'm sorry that took so long

And I'm sorry it was kinda rushed

Love ya!

CC