Charlie and I were still very much freaked out by the changeover. However, like last time, it was over in less than a minute.

After supper, we were all exhausted. Before Miss Cardinal sent anyone to bed, she asked Riley and Raymond to give us their spare pairs of nightclothes; Riley was perfectly fine with this, but Raymond grumbled as he led me upstairs to the attic where he slept. It was the same room he'd sent me dreams from; wire-framed bed, open wardrobe, writing desk in the corner, et cetera.

"I'll go find them. Don't look at anything, don't touch anything, and don't ask about anything." He ordered, taking a step towards the wardrobe.

"Alright." I said.

As he dug through his overstuffed wardrobe, I stayed with my feet planted and did not move. I did glance out the window; it wasn't snowing yet, but a little bit of frost was beginning to appear on the glass.

"Here." He pushed some pajamas at me; I grabbed them and examined them; they were paisley with dark green buttons.

"Thanks." I went down to the second floor bathroom go put them on; they were so warm, I didn't even care they looked like a girl's pajamas. I kept my socks on and had to roll the pants up a little, as Raymond's legs were a lot longer than mine.

Miss Cardinal led me to a spare bedroom, where Charlie was already climbing into bed. She was wearing a yellowed, frilly nightdress and the longest bits of her hair were wrapped tightly around small curlers. "Hey." She said when she saw me. "Nice pjs."

"Hey." I crawled under the thick covers. "Don't make fun of me; you're dressed kinda stupidly too."

"This is what girls wore to bed in the 1920s; that's when Riley grew up." She giggled. "You just look like a strawberry."

"Well... At least they're warm." I retorted.

"So're these." Charlie clicked off the gas lamp. "Good night."

I slept well at first; I had a sorta-wet dream about Meghan, in that it, unfortunately, stopped right before we were about to do anything, then the dream shifted and I was standing in the middle of the hall in Miss Cardinal's home. But the pictures were moving; I looked closer and saw that the pictures were now of completely different people; they were all the peculiars I'd met. The picture of Johnny the giant boy had been replaced by a picture from which Grandma Sam was screaming at me and letting loose more cuss words than I even knew; she was waving her fist and trying to get out of the painting, but she couldn't get through. In the picture that had once housed the pudgy toddler with the rock over her head, Sebasten held up a car with one hand and glared at me. "You don't even know what I'd give to be able to live in the present." He said. "You'll never know." He threw the car in my direction, but, luckily, it didn't come into the hall. I noticed the picture that had had the kissing couple; the only real difference between it in real life and it in the dream was the girl was completely gone; the boy looked lost as he searched every inch of the photograph. When he looked at me, I recognized his face; he was Hugh. "D'you know where she is?" He called out to me.

"Who?" I replied.

He didn't get a chance to reply before I felt a hand on my shoulder and jumped around to see Miss Cardinal wearing a bright red bathrobe and a slightly twisted smile. "I see you've met the pictures." She said. "Are they friendly to you?"

I shook my head, unable to speak.

Miss Cardinal frowned. "That's odd. The only people they aren't friendly to are wights."

I only had time to turn around and start running before she started calling her children. They chased me through the woods. I chanced a couple of glances and saw they were carrying pitchforks and torches and Miss Peregrine's children were with them too. They chased me into town where I hid inside the deli I'd eaten at the first day I was here; I ducked under a table.

"Ricky?"

I turned around and saw Meghan as well as everyone else in my class. They were laughing at me. I looked down and saw I was only in my boxers.

The peculiars broke through the door, chanting "kill the wight! Kill the wight!"

I curled up into a the fetal position under the table.

Then I woke up. I sat up with a jolt, sweaty and breathing hard. My eyes darted around the room for the short moment where I had no idea where I was. When it all came back to me, I let out a sign of relief. I realized my throat was dry and got out of bed, the freezing floorboards moaning under my weight. The window was frosty and I could hear the howling wind. I figured it was the middle of the night. I'll just go down, get a glass of water, and go back to bed. I thought, then I opened the door slowly, so I wouldn't wake Charlie, and stepped out into the dark hall. I tiptoed downstairs and turned on the light in the kitchen. I opened a few cupboards before I found a glass; I filled one with water from the tap, and lifted it to my lips.

"G'night, Ricky!"

The sudden, high-pitched voice startled me so much, I dropped the glass and it shattered on the wood floor. I jumped around and saw, leaning on the counter, a little girl with long brown braids and am excited smile on her face.

"Ph-Phoebe?"

She giggled. "I was thinking you wouldn't remember." She maneuvered around the counter and trained her eyes on the shattered glass. "Don't worry about that; I'll clean it up." She met my eyes again. "How'd you like the talent show today?"

"I-it was great." I said, still kinda shekel up.

Phoebe nodded. "Why're you up at this hour?"

"I-I..." I began, but I didn't want to tell her I'd had a nightmare. "Couldn't sleep."

"Right." She smiled. "Would you like to join me for some midnight tea?"

"S-sure..." I scratched my head and stepped away from the glass. "But I don't like tea; can I have cocoa instead?"

"Sure thing!" Phoebe immediately opened a cupboard, pulled out a bulky clay teapot, filled it with water from the tap, and placed it on the stove; she lit the stove and pulled down two teacups. "Go sit down at the table; it'll be ready in a minute." She told me.

"Okay." I turned on the dining room light and sat down at the empty table.

As promised, a minute later, Phoebe brought out a tray with two steaming teacups on little plates. She pulled one of them in front of her and I took the other one. "Thanks." I said, then blew on my cocoa.

"No problem." Phoebe took a sip of her tea. "So why couldn't you sleep?"

I shrugged, taking a gulp of hot cocoa.

"I won't tell anyone." She put her cup back down on her plate.

"What makes you think I know?"

"I heard you groaning in your sleep earlier." She leaned forward. "I peeked into your room and you were flailing around. I tried to wake you, but you didn't want to, it seemed."

I sighed. "Fine. I'll tell you about my nightmare. Just promise you won't tell anyone."

"I promise."

I told her about my dream (not the first part with Meghan, but the part with the hall with the pictures and after it).

Phoebe nodded. "Well I assure you that would never happen."

"What d'you think it means?"

She cleared her throat and folded her hands under her chin. "Do you feel you belong here, Ricky? Like, really belong here?"

Slightly offended, I stood up. "Of course I belong here. I'm peculiar, ain't I!"

She shook her head, one of her braids falling from in front of her shoulder to the back. "No I mean..." She gestured around her. "Do you feel you belong here. On New Years Eve, 1949, Cunningham Valley, Virginia?"

I sat down and thought about it. "Well... It's a lot different than present day Florida..."

"And what about that? Do you feel you belong there?"

I shrugged and drank some more cocoa.

"Do you like us?"

"Of course!" I said automatically. "Y'all are the first real friends I've had in a long time."

Phoebe nodded and leaned forward. "Ricky, I think you're dealing with a dilemma; you feel like you belong here, but at the same time, you don't, and you also feel you belong in the present, but at the same time, you don't. Make sense?"

"Not really."

"You're homesick, but you don't wanna go home. Perhaps it'd be healthy for you, tomorrow, to go spend some time outside the loop. Do some things you could only do in the present."

I weighed this; it did make sense. "Okay. I'll do that." I stood up. "Thanks, Phoebe, g'night."

"G'night." She called as I went back upstairs and to my bed. I fell asleep as soon as me head hit the pillow.

_____________________________

Hope y'all enjoyed!

Love ya!

CC