A few minutes later, he got Charlie and went back to Emma, handing Charlie over to her. He sat down and rolled up his pant leg. The monkey ropes were ropes that hung down from a bar above everyone’s heads. The children who played there had decided to set a trap underneath the sand, so when Jake stepped near the rope, the rope had wrapped around his ankle and strung him up. The bruise around his ankle wasn’t too bad, but it still hurt.
“Daring feat you did there, Jake. Taking on a bunch of 7 year olds.” Emma said sarcastically. Jake smiled imperceptibly. He knew how to get Emma on his side. He reached down and pulled his pant leg over his ankle a little bit, hiding the bruise from Emma. Then he reached down and poked it gently, pretending to wince.
As his shoulders went up in a wince, he felt Emma tense next to him. She bent down to put Charlie down, looking at Jake. “Can you walk?” she asked, a serious tone in her voice. Jake tried to hold in his laughter but failed, and a short bark of laughter escaped him. Emma realized that she had been tricked, and punched his arm. “You’re annoying!” she said, picking up Charlie and putting him in the stroller. Jake kept telling Emma that Charlie didn’t need a stroller, but Jake didn’t push for getting rid of the stroller because Charlie seemed to like it. 
On the walk home, Charlie fell asleep in the stroller. Emma parked the stroller on the tiny porch and picked Charlie up, bringing him inside. Jake followed her as she took Charlie to his room and dressed him in new clothes that weren’t dirty from the park. She laid Charlie down in his bed and kissed him on the forehead, casually throwing his dirty clothes into the laundry chute on her way out of the room.
The rest of the afternoon was uneventful, and Emma sat down in the living room with a good book, while Jake went out for a long walk. Jake walked out of the neighborhood and into the city, then farther outside of the small city and into the woods beyond. Despite what had happened there about a year prior, he still felt safe and secure within the forest. He sat down near a stream and just thought.
Jake reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a crumpled letter. The letter was addressed to him, and he had opened it the day he got it. He opened it once again and began reading:

Dear Jake,
I apologize profusely for what will be in this letter, but I knew this would be something you would want to hear. Again, I am sorry that this letter had to be written.
As you know, your grandfather asked you to leave so you could be with Emma, and I agreed because I knew you were a peculiar and because I saw the way you and Emma looked at each other; it would have broken my heart to separate the two of you.
Your grandfather is now deceased. Last night, your grandfather was killed by a hollow.
Jake, don’t blame yourself. I remember the first time this happened, when that hollow killed him the first time, the nightmares that came after. But you can’t blame yourself for this. This wasn’t your fault. Please tell Emma about this, don’t burden this alone.
My condolences,
Miss Peregrine

Jake just kept staring at the letter. He tried to not think it was his fault, but there was no other explanation. He stared at the ground, folding the letter and shoving it into his jacket pocket again. He kept thinking of that dark night where he found his grandfather bleeding on the ground.
The image circulated in his head; his blank eyes staring up at the empty forest, his pale face on the muddy floor. Jake remembered how happy he had been when he had finally killed the Hollow that killed his grandfather. He had saved him then, and had failed him now.
He groaned and put his head in his hands, his head pounding as his thoughts chased each other, the grief adding a sense of pain on each memory, making his headache bigger. He stood up from his rock and saw the sun sink below the mountaintops. He started walking through the forest, walking out onto the road.
The sun had fully set when he stumbled onto the porch. He opened the door and hung his jacket, shivering slightly. Emma came out of the kitchen and motioned for him to come into the kitchen. By the smells coming from the kitchen, she had just finished making dinner. Jake walked over to Emma’s smiling face, and looked down at her, trying to smile back, but he couldn’t. Something in Emma’s eyes flickered, and her smile wavered. “What’s wrong?” she whispered. Jake shrugged.
“I think I’m going to turn in for the night,” he said. “I’m fine, just tired.” he added after Emma’s concerned glance at him. Emma nodded and kissed him goodnight. Jake kissed her back and hugged her, not letting himself fall apart in her arms. He walked out of the kitchen, his insides feeling like sharp rocks. He saw the pillow rising up to his face as he collapsed on the bed face first.
He tried going to sleep but couldn’t. He heard Emma’s heavy footsteps on the stairs, then her soft voice as she read a bedtime story to Charlie. Jake closed his eyes and steadied his breathing, pretending to be asleep. Emma walked in quietly, the door barely clicking as it closed again. Emma’s footsteps became louder as she came closer and bent down to kiss him on the forehead. He opened his eyes and stared at the wall blankly, then looked up at her.
His eyes felt heavy, but not from sleep. Emma took one look in his eyes and immediately sat down on the bed next to him, opening her arms as he fell into them. Jake wrapped one arm around Emma, the other one propping him up. Jake pulled away from the hug, then slowly leaned down, kissing Emma’s lips. He slowly brought her down so that she was laying on top of him, the kiss never breaking. Emma kissed Jake harder, but Jake pulled away and sat up, Emma sitting up with him. 
Emma looked at him, a confused expression mingling with concern on her face. “Not tonight,” Jake said. Emma nodded and went into their closet, coming back out in her nightgown. She crawled into bed next to him, her weighted boots weighing on the bed and dragging his feet towards hers. She rested her head on his chest and whispered “goodnight” and promptly fell asleep. Jake felt his eyelids grow heavier and heavier, and soon he drifted off.
Jake stood in the forest, his crossbow in his hand. He thundered through the forest and stumbled into a muddy patch where a human body was face down in the mud. He knew it was his grandfather. He ran over and turned the lump over. “Grandpa!” Jake said, shaking him. “Grandpa!” he yelled, panic and grief making his voice break. He turned the lump over more so that he could see the face better, and he saw nothing but red, raw flesh staring back at him, two black holes leaking blood red tears where his eyes should have been. His chest was mangled, torn up, and bruised.
The scene shifted and Jake was in the air, held there by a hollow. He screamed Enoch’s name and saw Enoch crash through the bushes surrounding the clearing. A sharp pain went through his back and chest as the hollow’s grip on his chest tightened. He couldn’t breathe, and he felt the blood slowly draining from him from the scratch on his back. He tried to yell for help, but nothing came out but a strangled sound. He saw black dots, his vision swirling. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t feel his limbs, couldn’t see the bushes surrounding the clearing…
“Jake!” Emma yelled, shaking him. Jake woke up with a start, sweat surrounding him and soaking the clothes he went to bed in. He was breathing heavily, the feeling of the tentacle around his chest still there. Emma swam into his eyesight, and her lips moved, but he couldn’t hear anything.
“W-what?” he stammered. “I-I don’t kn-know what you’re s-saying,” he said, still gasping for breath. Emma’s worried look hardened as she leaned in and hugged him, holding him while he cried in her arms for the second time that day. Jake felt his heart calm down, his breathing return back to normal. 
Emma let go of him and held his hand between hers, bringing it up to her lips and kissing his rough hand. “Jake,” she said softly, rubbing his hand comfortingly. “What was your dream about?” Jake smiled slightly at the question. That was what she asked him every night for the first few weeks that he had been at Miss Peregrine’s. He had had nightmares every night. Nightmares that were similar to what he just had.
“I-I dreamt of the night that hollow attacked me in the forest. I couldn’t breathe or see.” he said in a barely audible whisper. Emma looked at his hand, a look on her face that made Jake think she didn’t believe his story; or at least thought he wasn’t telling the whole truth.
“You were yelling for Abe,” she said softly, looking at him. Jake clenched his jaw. How much had he shouted out loud? He sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes, the pit in his stomach growing. His stomach growled and Emma moved as if she was going to go get him something. Jake stopped her with his hand. 
“Don’t, I’m not hungry.” he said. Emma looked like she didn’t believe him, but sat down anyways. “Just-Can we go back to bed?” he asked tiredly.
A figure appeared in the hallway. “Is Jake alright?” Charlie asked no one in particular. Emma smiled at him and nodded, slowly leading him out of the room and back to his bed. Jake laid back down and fell into a sleepless, fitful sleep.
The next morning he woke up to his alarm, again. He stumbled off to the bathroom, taking extra care to not spend forever in there. He was dressed and ready for the day in less than five minutes, and he fell into his chair beside Charlie. The bags underneath his eyes were palpable to him, and he felt like he could have stored anything he wanted inside of them. He needed more sleep, but he knew he had to help Emma with Charlie.
They went down to the park again, and Jake decided to go back home early, leaving Emma and Charlie at the park. He flopped down onto the couch and zoned out to the news. 

Jake woke up with a start as the 5pm news started up. Jake looked around the living room and thought that it seemed too quiet. His attention turned to the television as they broadcasted the big headlines for the night.
“A car wreck killing five; investigations on it and what they have found about what caused it. Two people looming large, we review the life and legacy of film stars Reganto and Regina, and we will bring you the latest on the playground tragedy that happened…” Jake's eyes hardened as they showed a sight he wouldn’t have believed if he hadn't seen it. The park that Emma and Charlie were at was now a ghost town, bodies everywhere with no eyes.
A hollow.
Jake turned off the tv and ran out the front door, heading to the park immediately. His stomach dropping with each step, he almost ran into someone on the street. The person was so thin and light Jake thought he would knock him down but the person resisted and continued without a word. Thoughts of Emma and Charlie’s blank stares flashing across his vision, their screams as the Hollow killed them echoing in his head. He ran down the street, fear making him arrive faster than he thought possible, and saw it was marked off with police tape, with tons of police vans surrounding the place. Coroners were mingled in as well, their vans packed full with yellow bags of bodies. “Emma!” Jake yelled, running towards the park. He was stopped by a police man, keeping him out of the crime scene. The police man was soft on him. He wasn’t angry at Jake but instead calmly asked him who Emma was and what she looked like. Jake gave a description of her, then was led over to a yellow body bag that was on the ground.
“Why-why is it on the ground?” Jake asked, his voice seeming to belong to someone else. The police man unzipped the bag and pointed to her metal boots.
“I don’t know what they are made of or how she can walk in them, but these boots are heavier than any shoe I have ever encountered. We can’t lift her with her shoes on, but we don’t take the shoes off of corpses, because they need to be unchanged for inspection to find out what happened.” the policeman said. As the policeman said this, Jake realized he needed to get Emma out of there, otherwise her corpse would be sent to an alien research facility, or something crazy like that.
“Don’t worry, I have some friends that can help you move her. But it is going to have to wait until tonight.” Jake said. The policeman nodded.
“By the way, we don’t need everyone to help us find out what happened.” he said softly. “If she is gone by the morning, then I can say I don’t know where she went.” the policeman said, walking away. Jake silently thanked him.
“Wait,” Jake said. The policeman turned back around and came back to Jake. “She had a child with her.” he gave a description of Charlie, and the policeman thought.
“We didn’t get any kids with that description.” Jake bones stilled from the slight buzzing sensation they got from finding out Emma was dead. 
“What?” Jake whispered. “He-he was never found?” Jake felt like fainting. Somehow the stillness was worse than the buzzing. He pressed his hands into his eyes, hard. He then looked back up at the policeman. “Why does this keep happening?” Jake whispered to himself. The policeman patted his shoulder.
“I’m sorry son.” Jake nodded, wiping away his tears. 
“I’m going to go get my friends, we’ll move her.” Jake said, sniffing slightly and gaining control of himself again. The policeman nodded and walked away. Jake looked down at Emma’s pale face, the whiteness emphasized by the blood red tears that dripped down her face from the black flesh holes that used to be her eyes. A single tear fell off of Jake’s face and fell onto her pale face, wetting the dried blood and making it smear a little. “You’ll be moved soon,” he whispered to her.