Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: The Ballerina's Secret

The Florida sun was setting, casting long shadows as you walked away from the ballet studio. The familiar ache in your muscles was nothing compared to the sting of Eliza's words. "You really are just a waste of space," she'd hissed, and something inside you had snapped.

The water fountain had erupted, soaking Eliza and her clique, giving you the chance to flee to the SmartAid where Jake worked his miserable summer job. He looked at you, dripping wet, and you explained what happened. He listened, but his mind was elsewhere.

Later, a phone call from your dad. Grandpa Abe. There was something wrong. Driving to his house with Shelly, a coworker of Jake's, the coastal fog rolled in, and a strange, blind-eyed man stood in the road, making Shelly swerve.

Arriving at Grandpa's, the house was trashed. Papers scattered, furniture ripped apart. A chilling silence filled the air. Following a broken fence to the woods behind, you found him. Lying on the ground, his eyes... gone. His last words were frantic, cryptic: "Go to the Island... the postcard... the loop... September third, 1943... the bird will explain everything."

Then, a rustling in the trees, unseen by you but terrifying to Jake and Shelly. Something was there, something monstrous. And life, as you knew it, changed forever.