– 🤎 ⌗ 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝘄𝗼.

˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ ❀ FROM A YOUNG AGE, atticus-grey and ania-grace loved to hear about the peculiars from their grandfather, and they loved to share it as well.

but by sharing the story, there was a price to pay.

a younger atticus-grey stood at the front of the class, memory box in hand."this," he holds a picture up, it was marie holding a fireball. "is marie. she can make fires with her hands."
the poor boy couldn't even get through his show and tell without
his fellow classmates laughing at him.

from then on, atticus did not believe that the peculiars were real.

i mean come on. children with supernatural abilities? a woman that can manipulate time and can become an owl? that's stupid if you actually believe that.

it was a different story for ania though.

after hearing atticus' experience, she thought back to when their grandfather would share these stories.

she knew it was crazy to think it was real, but she did. she knew her grandpa was telling the truth about them.

she doesn't know how she knew, but she had this feeling. her grandfather loved these people, and ania could sense it just by his voice.

and whenever she touched him, like leaning on him, when he told these stories, she felt it too. she felt that same love that he felt for his friends. like she already knew them.

but she couldn't tell this to her brother. he'd think she was crazy like their grandfather apparently was.

eddie and ania-grace were going through diary entries and more pictures. he was telling her a story of when

"can i keep this one, grandpa?" ania holds up one of the photos. it was of elizabeth making her homunculi.

he looked at her in slight confusion, so she thinks quickly. "i, um, wanted to research about the dolls she makes."

definitely didn't want to keep it because she thought the girl in the photo is pretty. not at all.

he thinks for a moment. "okay, you may. you have to look after it though, its one of the only ones of elizabeth." the young girl grins, smiling brightly like the sun. "yay! thank you grandpa." she hugs the man.

the door swings open, ania's ears twitching at the sound.

"stupid." atticus storms in, mumbling to himself. "so stupid."

"atticus, are you alright?" eddie asks his grandson, wondering why the boy was angry, out of character for him.

"no, i'm not alright." atticus-grey snaps, tossing the memory box edward gave to him for his show and tell.

"be careful with that." the old man warns, to which atti scoffs.

"why should i be careful when none of it is real anyway?"

"what? of course it's real." eddie says, quieter now.

"really?" the boy scoffs. "a girl with fire powers? another with bees living inside of her? yeah, sounds so real."

"when i showed my class, they all laughed at me. they laughed!" he had tears threatening to fall out of his eyes now.

"well they just don't understand-"

"no, grandpa, you just don't understand. dad said it wasn't real-"

"your father knows perfectly well that i was in a children's home when i was younger." the man was serious instead of sympathetic now, he can't believe his son told his grandson that.

"yes, but not with the special children with powers."

"fine." eddie sighed in defeat. "they aren't real. i'm just a crazy old man."

atticus felt bad now due to the tone in eddie's voice.

betrayal.

but nonetheless, he left to his room.

ania-grace sat through the whole thing, then looked up to her grandpa. "they're not real?"

"of course they're real, ani." his hand rested on her cheek, her leaning into the touch.

and that's when she knew.

atticus, ania and their father were now at the seemingly empty ferry.

their flight to wales was incredibly uneventful, but now ania-grace was restless.

the girl was bouncing around, finding any way to release her energy. she was incredibly excited to meet the peculiars and miss cerise.

her brother however, was sitting, seemingly deep in thought.

"what if they are real?" he speaks to his sister, as his father was too busy reading a welsh newspaper.

ania stops prancing around, coming over to her brother. "you think they're real now because we're actually going there? what happened to how crazy grandpa was?"

"well, no, but it's just a possibility. you heard what ms morrison said-"

"ms morrison doesn't know anything." ania snaps. "miss cerise is alive, along with all the other peculiars."

"how do you know for sure?" atticus furrows his brows. he knew ania was really attached to that memory box from a young age, but didn't realise she still believed in them.

ania hesitates to answer that, as she didn't know how. "i just know."

"yeah but that's not-"

"kids," their dad gets up off his seat, pointing to the ferry. "this is us. come on."

the argument before long forgotten, ania now was staring at her surroundings in awe. "i can see the island, its so pretty."

"really? it's so miserable today." steven replies, raising an eyebrow.

"holy shit, an owl!" ania ignores her father, gasping and pointing to the sky.

"wait," atticus playfully lets out an over exaggerating gasp, teasing his sister. "what if that's miss cerise?"

he begins to yell to the bird, having a whole conversation with it, as if it was actually miss cerise.

ania shakes her head, but laughing at her brother's antics.

oh what a trip this will be.

words: 0.9K
proof read?: nope 👎

i know this one is a little shorter, but im planning to double update this weekend !! and for an update schedule, it will probably be every weekend, and if i can get time to write during the week :))

and i know i said we'd meet the peculiars this chapter, but i got a bit carried away with the flashbacks (plus the first couple chapters usually focus on background stuff anyway, so context is neededdd), which is why i plan to do a double update this weekendd

atticus was mean to eddie in this one 😔 but hopefully he learns his lesson (i spoke to atticus' admin so everything's all good, she let me make him a meanie for the ✨drama✨) but like i get where he's coming from.

remember to keep commenting and voting, dont be a silent reader plss <3