We all sat down solemnly and silently at a long table in a large room. Since there weren't enough chairs to accommodate me, my sister, and all five of Miss Cardinal's conscious children, some chairs had to be brought in from other rooms. Given the mood, lighting, and the fact that I was dining with a bunch of senior citezens, I was pleasantly surprised when we were served grilled cheese sandwiches, little bowls of fruit, and chicken strips. Everything was pretty much silent as we all began eating our lunch. Miss Cardinal's peculiars simply looked down at their dishes, as if determined not to make eye contact with anyone.

Raymond was the first to break the silence; "when are we having the funeral?"

"Not today." Enoch replied, his fork midair in front of his mouth, suspending a peach slice. "All my hearts are back at the house." He bit the peach slice off the fork.

"But you'll bring them tomorrow so we can do it first thing in the morning, right?" Janie chirped.

"Sure." The pudgy boy replied.

I wanted to ask why he needed hearts, but now didn't seem like a good time; I simply took another bite of my sandwich.

There was another awkward silence between all of us as we continued to eat.

Olive was the next person to break the silence; "Miss Peregrine, where are Miss Cardinal's wards going to go?"

"Another loop, probably." The ymbryne replied. Then she looked at the children in question. "Unless, by chance, you'd like to stay here?"

"No, ma'am." Raymond responded. "I know I speak for all of my fellow loopmates that we'd like to go to another loop. Personally, I'd prefer the countryside; perhaps a house larger than our previous one; there oughta be a beach nearby."

Sebasten wrinkled his nose at the boy. "I'd rather be in the city; preferably New York; I honestly kinda hated how tiny Cunningham Valley is."

"No offense, Sebasten," Riley put a protective arm around Janie and George, who were sitting on either side of her, "but I wouldn't want the little ones exposed to the kind of environment you grew up in."

"Well then what do you want?" Sebasten seemed to be getting a little bit angry.

Riley hesitated before responding, "hey didn't you say you got a letter from one of your old ymbrynes one time? Your second one?"

"Yeah, so?"

"You said she made a new loop, didn't she? And she asked you if you wanted to come back to her?"

Sebasten grumbled angrily in reply, "yes, my old ymbryne made a new loop. Yes I was asked to join it."

Janie excitedly jumped on her chair, which was so old it creaked under even her tiny weight. "Where is it? When is it? Can we go?"

The older boy shrugged. "I got the letter in the early fifties and didn't get any more after that; I have no idea if it's still there. I know it was in Tiverton, Rhode Island, and set on October 6th of either 1936 or 1937."

"Hey didn't we go to one in Rhode Island a few months ago?" Millard asked. "It wasn't in Tiverton, but it couldn't be more than an hour away from there."

"Really?" Janie jumped so excitedly I was sure her chair would break. "Then we can go after the funeral!"

"Unless it's gone..." Enoch said grimly.

"What do you mean?" Olive frowned.

"He said he hasn't heard from her since the early fifties." Enoch explained. "And the loop she held previously was destroyed by wights; maybe they found her again."

"Enoch's right." Emma said. "It's much too far to go there through the present just to find it gone and have to return here."

"I'd just like to say," Sebasten said, pointing his half-eaten chicken strip around the room. "Mallard made sure to get far away from the loop that got destroyed, which was in New York. Very thorough that way."

"Mallard?" Charlie asked, glancing at the empty air which currently contained Millard.

"My old ymbryne." Sebasten said quickly. "Could turn into a mallard duck."

"Oh, sorry, I misheard you." Charlie shook her head, lifting a chicken strip off her plate. "I've been having a headache lately."

"Oh you poor thing." Bronwyn consoled her.

"How bad is it?" Miss Peregrine asked.

"Not that bad." Charlie rubbed her forehead. "It's just been a nonstop throbbing since a few days ago..."

"Does it get worse the longer you have it?" Claire asked.

Charlie shrugged. "All I know is it won't go away."

Claire's eyes lit up. "Maybe you have a backmouth like me!"

"A what now?"

The little girl turned to the back of her head was facing Charlie, then lifted her hair, exposing a second smiling mouth with sharp teeth.

"Oh..." Charlie put her hand on the back of her own head.

Claire dropped her hair and turned back around to Charlie could see the front of her face. "That's what happened when I got it; I had a real bad headache like something was trying to bust out of my head, then, yeah."

"So you weren't born with it?" Jacob furrowed his brows.

The little girl shook her head.

"Anyway, back to the issue at hand," Raymond said impatiently, "perhaps Miss Peregrine's children could go to Tiverton and see if the loop is still there. If it is, then we will go there."

"What if we don't like it?" Janie asked, still standing upright on her chair.

"In that case," Riley gently pushed her down to where she was sitting, "we'll find another place to stay."

"Miss and Mister Pickering," Miss Peregrine addressed my sister and I. "Would you like to join your friends?"

"Yes ma'am." Charlie said, still rubbing the back of her head.

"Yeah. I'd like that." I added.

"Yay!" Janie clapped.

"Won't Ricky and Charlie still come with us to the house tonight?" Olive asked her ymbryne.

"What house?" I asked.

"My house." Horace answered.

"'House' being a massive understatement." Hugh said from under his bee net.

"The Estate isn't that big." Raymond said.

All of Miss Peregrine's children laughed except Horace.

"It's literally the biggest thing I've ever seen." Emma said.

"At least five times bigger than mine." Jacob added.

I gaped. 5 times bigger than the Portmans' house? I thought. Is that even possible?

"That's up to the Pickering siblings, dear." Miss Peregrine answered.

"Oh yeah; I have to see this." As usual, Charlie took the words right out of my mouth.

I nodded in agreement. "Ditto."

The old woman nodded. "Well we won't be going until tonight; after Miss Cardinal's children are all settled in."

"So you're not staying with us?" Janie asked sadly.

"We're only leaving for the night; we'll be back in the morning." Miss Peregrine answered, smiling at the invisible girl.

After we ate lunch and cleared the table, Miss Cardinal's children were led upstairs, followed by Charlie and I, to an apartment. It was rather large; there were three bedrooms, one bathroom, and a sitting area with a window looking out at the city. The rest of the afternoon was spent just hanging out up there. Miss Peregrine's children came up at some point with a stack of board games; most of which I'd never even heard of.

Right as I was smack in the middle of a surprisingly intense game of Kings in the Corners with Janie, George, and Raymond, we heard Phoebe call out for Riley; everyone hurried to squeeze into one of the bedrooms, where Phoebe was sitting straight up in one of the metal twin beds. She looked around at us, eyes wide. "Wh-where are we?" She squeaked.

Riley sat down next to the little girl, wrapping an arm around her. Raymond, George, Janie, and Sebasten all gathered around Phoebe and Riley, grim expressions on their faces.

"Should we give them some privacy?" Hugh whispered to his loopmates behind me.

"Yeah. Let's go." Emma whispered in reply.

All nine of them ducked out of the room, leaving Charlie and I standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, watching Miss Cardinal's children.

"It's alright, love-" Riley gently stroked Phoebe's head.

"Where's Miss Cardinal?" Phoebe demanded, looking around the room.

"Phoebe..." Raymond held her hands, sounding on the brink of tears.

"She's dead." Sebasten said simply. "The wights raided our loop and they killed her."

Phoebe wailed and buried her face in Riley's sweater. George and Janie both hugged her, crying. Raymond rested his head on Riley's shoulder. Sebasten wrapped his brawny arms around all of them protectively.

Charlie ran forward and joined the group hug; she was immediately accepted by the others. My feet were still planted to the ground, my eyes trained on the huddled children. A tear escaped the corner of my eye; I let it fall.

"Where are we now?" Phoebe gasped. "Are we still in Cunningham Valley?"

"No, sweetie, we're in a special loop called Devil's Acre." Riley explained.

"Miss Peregrine is gonna take care of us until we can find a new loop." Sebasten added.

"We're having the funeral first thing in the morning." Janie said.

Phoebe started wailing again, and the others continued to try to comfort her. "I want Miss Cardinal!" She screamed.

"We all do, darling." Riley replied softly.

There was a soft knock on the door; I turned around and opened it; none of the other children so much as looked up.

Bronwyn and Emma were standing on the other side of the door.

"Miss Peregrine told me to tell you supper's ready." Emma said.

"How are they doing?" Bronwyn tried to look around me at the others, who were still huddled together.

"They're really sad..." I said. "I am too... I really miss her." That last comment seemed irrelevant; I had known Miss Cardinal for only a total of a few days; these children had been under her care for decades; I could never possibly know what they were feeling.

Both girls gave sympathetic smiles.

"We'll be along in a bit." Raymond called from inside.

Charlie and Sebasten suddenly came up behind me.

"I'm starved." Charlie said.

"Me too." Sebasten said. "And I'm not really one for comforting... When mourning, I prefer to keep my distance."

Charlie looked at him with a goofy grin on her face. "I swear, if I was born a hundred years earlier, you and I would've been twins."

"Or if I was born a hundred years later." He shrugged agreeably.

"Then you'd be my brother." I pointed out.

"Ugh." Sebasten made a face like he'd just eaten raw sewage.

"Hey!" I exclaimed.

"I wonder what color your hair would be." Charlie said with fake thoughtfulness.

"Bright orange." Sebasten said firmly. "I have thought about that. If I were to color my hair a different color, it'd be a bright flaming orange, then I could spike it and it'd look like fire."

"Eh," I raised one eyebrow, squinting at him, "I think you'd look dumb with orange hair and that face."

His joking facial expression was quickly replaced by a hard, mean scowl. "You got a problem with my face?"

I put my hands up defensively. "Hey, hey! I was kidding! Calm down!"

"Supper?" Bronwyn said shrilly. I'd almost forgotten she and Emma were still standing there.

"Let's go." Charlie started walking to the door and the rest of us followed.

_____________________________

Love ya!

CC