A Peculiar very Peculiar (Miss Peregrine's home for peculiar children)

*Note: Here's another chapter of this wonderful fic! Enjoy it.

And remember that if you want to read more chapters, you can suscribe to my patreon that it's practically free!

My Patreon: patreon.com/Bloodnight79

Have a good day :)

...

"You are not mistaken, Mr. Portman, you are absolutely right. The offspring of ordinary parents are often mistreated and neglected in the most horrific ways. Not so long ago peculiars' parents simply believed that they had taken their 'real' children away from them" - said Miss Peregrine.

When I heard that, I felt a feeling of tightness in my stomach. Now that I think about it, I have taken Jacob's body, I have taken away his future, his ability to reason, I have replaced him and the worst thing is that everyone thinks that I am Jacob, the son of his parents and the grandson of the famous Abe. Am I being a bad person by hiding my true identity? What would everyone think if they knew that I am not the real Jacob but a person who died in his original world and reincarnated in him, snatching away his body, his hopes, feelings, his freedom...? Would they disown me, hate me, try to kill me? For a moment, a lot of unpleasant scenarios flashed through my mind, like the peculiar ones stalking me and treating me like wights and hollows. A world where my goals changed completely and I was treated as a mere assassin. For a moment, so I thought.

"Is something wrong with you, Mr. Portman? You have become paler than the freshly fallen snow" - said Miss Peregrine.

"No... It's okay. It's just that I think it's crazy that their own parents believed that. It's... just disgusting" – I said.

I had had no parents and when I reincarnated and merged with Jacob's soul, when I got his memories I believed that I would finally have a family, a father and a mother who loved me and even a grandfather who loved me when he was alive, but I must remind myself that I am actually an impostor, someone who pretends to be someone else.

My heart began to pound and my hands began to sweat.

[Host, rest assured, it may be true that he has occupied the body of the original Jacob, but he is the Jacob of an alternate timeline, different from the original...]

That doesn't mean he doesn't have the right to live and of course it doesn't mean I am not still an imposter who impersonated him and stole his life. The life he has had and should have had!

[Host, I recommend you calm down, actually you... I can't say, but I really recommend that you calm down, sometimes things are not what they seem, sometimes it's something different, sometimes there's something more and in the future... some things will make sense, just keep living like Jacob... No, keep being you and fulfill your dreams. Listen to me, host, don't get carried away by those feelings, believe me...]

The system seemed to be more mysterious and sympathetic than usual. Normally it was always lively and even made jokes from time to time, but now it seems more serious. Could it be that there is something he is hiding from me? Anyway I must calm down, I am not like that. I am very serene and patient, yes, it is true that I have impersonated Jacob, that I took away his future, but in return, I will live his life for him and I will make those around me happy. I will even honor the death of his grandfather, in my own way, But I will, it's the least I can do for him after stealing his whole life.

"It is indeed a tragedy. But as if that were not enough,

"They also believed their 'real' children had been stolen and replaced with enchanted, malevolent creatures—changelings, as they were called—which in darker times was all the excuse people needed to abandon these poor children to the forest, or worse, kill them outright, with no distinction even if they were only children" – explained Miss Peregrine.

But there seemed to be a hint of sadness in her voice, probably due to the thought of the death of thousands of peculiars at the hands of their own parents for mistakenly believing that their "real" children had been replaced by aberrations, monsters, and evil creatures. That's a shame.

"Your story has left me stunned. It is certainly horrible to kill those poor children just for being different from the rest... It is an aberration against nature" – I nodded.

Even me, as I am, that story has made me feel bad. The number of peculiar lives that must have been lost due to the ignorance of the normal people just because of the fear of the unknown. The amount of torture to which they were subjected just for being different, for having something that made them special. I certainly curse all those people who made those poor children suffer and I hope that they are suffering as much as possible in hell, if it exists, of course.

[All karma is paid after life. After death, the karma you have accumulated is quantified and determines what the person will do or will be]

I see, I hope their punishment is equitable to the good and bad deeds they have done in their lifes.

[It is]

"Certainly. That's why it was concluded that something had to be done. So people like myself created places where peculiar children could live apart from ordinary people; physically and temporally isolated enclaves like this one, of which I am enormously proud" – said Miss Peregrine proudly.

"What do you mean by people like yourself? Aren't you also a peculiar?" – I asked curiously.

I know what they are, but not asking when you have the real person in front of you to explain it to you is just... stupid.

"Exactly, we are peculiar. Nut you must first understand that peculiars are beings who possess abilities that normal people lack. There are infinite possibilities and variations such as skin pigmentation and physical appearance in other people. That said, some skills are common, such as reading thoughts, and others are rare, such as the way I can manipulate the time" - she explained.

"And transform into a bird" - I added.

"That's right, and that's where the key to my ability lies because only birds can manipulate time. Therefore, all time manipulators must be able to take the form of a bird" - she nodded.

"It's funny to know that birds can travel in time" – I sighed.

I do remember this and when I read it the first time I asked myself, how is it possible that birds can travel in time? I mean, if that were possible, the normals could have figured it out and used them for their experiments.

"Most may. However, go back and forth from time to time, by accident, to which we can deliberately manipulate the temporal fields... and not only for us, but for others... We are known as Ymbrynes. We create loops in time in which peculiar beings can live comfortably" - she explained.

I think I get it now. It's not that normal birds can travel in time, I guess it's just about them, the ymbrynes. Otherwise it wouldn't make much sense.

"I see, so I guess it refers to places like this place. Grandfather told me the date before he died and at the time I didn't understand it..." – I said.

"That's right, your grandfather must have told you about this loop, the loop of September 3th, 1940, where we live" - she nodded.

The truth is that Miss Peregrine was surprised because Jacob was much more intelligent and intuitive than she initially thought. In addition, he is not only much calmer than Abe, but also more calculating and decisive. Because although he has just met in this world, he has not lost his cool, but he is calm, observing the situation, as if he were evaluating everything and was even surprised that he understood and assimilated everything she had explained to him so quickly.

"Without a doubt Mr. Portman is Abe's grandson. They even make exactly the same expression when they are thinking... In fact, it is possible that Mr. Portman is even better than Abe in some aspects, I wonder if he can even help those girls..." – thought Miss Peregrine.

"I admit, this is surprising, the world of peculiars, loops, everything and even ymbrynes, everything is incredible. But I have a doubt that has been running through my head during our enlightening talk" – I said calmly.

"If you have doubts, I will be happy to answer them as long as it is within my means" – said Miss Peregrine.

"I don't have the slightest doubt that there are more loops. In fact, there are probably hundreds of them around the world" – I said.

"Thousands. Such as the loops where you can find my friends: Miss Gannet is in Ireland, in June, 1770; Miss Avocet and Miss Bunting together in Derbyshire, on St. Swithin's Day 1867; My Nightjar at Swansea, on the third of April, 1901; Miss Treecreeper, though I don't remember where she is exactly—" oh and dear Miss Finch. Somewhere I think I have some photographs of her..." – said Miss Peregrine.

Then, she pulled out an album that was sitting on one of the shelves and leaned over to me with the intention of showing it to me.

There, I could see a lot of quite old people but all cut from the same pattern, nothing worth highlighting, just as a curious fact there was also among those photos. The same photos that were in the box that Aunt Susie gave me, that is, my grandfather's cigarette box. It's funny to think that I once saw those same photos and now I have them in front of me but newer and less worn.

"Look, these little birds are Miss Finch and her aunt, Miss Finch" – said Miss Peregrine.

It was a small bird leaning on the hand of an older woman.

"Do you know how to differentiate them?" – I asked curiously.

"Obviously, the oldest one preferred to stay in the form of a finch most of the time, which didn't matter why... She wasn't too talkative" – she commented.

It's funny. In the book Jacob asked the same question, now that I think about it, why did I ask that? I already knew that.

"There's also a photo of Miss Finch and one of her wards going into a loop and... those are my wayward brothers" – said Miss Peregrine.

But this time she didn't seem very happy to see the photo in front of her, as if she was disgusted to see those two little boys who appeared in that old photo.