The Fifth World

Bo: "Lucius," I whisper, "what do they want with me?"

I hear him breathe out. He sounds weak. I have no idea how long either of us have been down here for... but I know that he has been down here for some time now. Who knows how long? And why.
I am sitting up against the wall I share with him. Our hands are touching. His hands are calloused, dry and have cuts and scars over them. They're also dirty but I don't resist. This person, this person I have never met nor set sight upon is the only connection I have with the goodness of the outside world... this person represents hope or maybe my destiny.

"I do not know," he replies with a cough. His hand is limp on the floor and in the hole, I am guessing that he is lying with his back down and is probably looking up at the rocky ceiling. "I hear them talking about you often, they have been waiting for you for a long time. Who knows how long they have been searching for you."

"But I cannot give them what they want," I whisper, "there is nothing I have to offer. I am merely an illegal existence. I can do nothing but time travel and jump and manip-"

I stop. Manipulate. My Angelican power. Oh my god. That is why they want me! They want to use me as a tool or something! They want me to create a war or something. I will do no such thing!

"What did you say?" Lucius asks me. His fingers curl around mine but he remains gentle. I hear him shuffle his feet a little bit. "What is it?"

"My Angelican power," I whisper and bite my lip, "I can manipulate people. I don't even know how I do it... I just tell them to do something and they listen to me."

Lucius' hand disappears and I hear him move around in his cell even more. Stones slide against the floor of his cell and they make screeching noises. I cringe a little when I hear him speak again.

"That must be it," he says, "there is no other reason unless they want to turn you in to the government which I highly doubt."

"It's silly," I whisper, mainly to myself, "this entire thing is insane. I have been running for days. When I was at the Academy in Hargon... it was fantastic, then everything went wrong and we were running for a while... then I went to Seabrooke and everything was okay. Now look what has happened."

"You lived in Hargon?" he asks me, the pitch of his voice a little higher, he is interested, "For how long?"

"Only a few days," I reply. I look down at the hole and realise that his hand has not returned. With a deep sigh I keep talking, "I only had one class at the Academy. If you ask me this entire situation is quite shit."

I know I'm not funny but I was expecting some kind of laugh or response from my curse... but there wasn't. Lucius seems far more interested in Hargon than anything else.

"Why are you asking me about Hargon?" I ask him curiously.

I hear him swallow, it echoes throughout the many cells in here. I wonder if we are underground, well, surely we are... but if we are in some kind of city or town somewhere... or just in the mountains - that is something that I would expect.

"I used to live there... it seems like a lifetime ago now. These last couple of years have been full of nothing but interrogations, tests and torture."

I feel my mouth fall a little... here I am wondering what the hell I am doing here in the first place when the person beside me, in the next room, has been here for who knows how long... why am I not asking about him? I am feeling so tremendously sorry for myself that I have completely ignored him.
"What?" I ask, a little horrified, "what have they been doing to you, Lucius?"

"I am unsure if you have realised but I am an Angelican, Bo. I have a gift - a gift that some people may not find of great value... but when you have advanced technology like you do now... my gift can be used as something a little different than it's intended purpose."

"What are you saying?" I demand and lie my body across the hard floor. My head is right beside the hole, my ear listening intently for his answer.

"I see people, Bo. I can see them in any amount of years I choose. If I could, I would look at your face right now and choose if I wanted to see what you would look like in twenty or thirty years time... it is so simple and so pointless. I have hated my gift since the moment I realised I had it. I can predict the year when someone will die. I can see what they will look like in my mind in years to come... believe me, it is not always a pretty sight."

I feel my fingers dig into my palms impatiently, gosh, tell me what you are really saying. He is stalling, he is explaining things that are of little importance to me... I just want to know why the Thornes want him in the first place!

"Over the years the Thornes have been abducting innocent residents of different cities and towns... particularly Angelicans. They have been using us to their advantage. They have been forcing many Angelicans to be their doctors and little scientists so the rest of us can be experiments. They have manipulated my Angelican genes to physically make my gift a reality. They reproduced Thornes who were going to be the first children who would be adults days after being born. They would take my manipulated Angelican genes and inject them into these newborn babies... of course it was an ultimate failure in the beginning because the results were adults who could not walk, talk or look after themselves... they have learnt to give these children a life up to their teenage years... then they would inject them with my genes and others if they wish... it would take merely an hour for the change to occur. A teenager would grow into a full-sized adult in an hour all because of me. The impossible would become something true and obtainable. There are so many Thornes out there that hold powers so great that nobody could take them down. There are other Angelicans and other humans like you and I that they want to use. Most of them haven't made it as far as I have..."

Everything he is saying... is somehow making sense... every word is frighteningly true. This would be an evolution... a new species divised by the species who nobody thought would be capable of doing. This is what it has all come down to - the genetic engineering... the war that I saw, that one time when I ran into myself here in the Fifth World and there was Cynric... he was hurt, he needed my help but then me, the Bo from the future, came to my rescue. She told me to get back... it was a shape shifting Thorne who imitated Cynric in order to capture me or kill me... that's what it is... that's what the war is.
I know now.

"They want to use my genes..." I say to myself. I hear Lucius hum a 'hmmm' in response.

"It would be time consuming taking your genes, Bo... when all they could do is threaten you and make you manipulate who they want - it makes sense, really... you would take the blame for all their wrongdoing. After all, the government would probably expect that you were controlling the Thornes, ruling them by manipulating them into gaining you power and ultimate control. That is why I hate the fact many Angelicans have these special powers... they are not powers, they are curses."

What happens from here? What can I possibly do to stop this? I am weak. I am weak, I am weak, I am weak. My head hurts, my face is swollen and disgusting, I don't even want to imagine what I look like. My own blood is on my hands, it sticky and revolting... my entire body hurts. I am dirty. I want to go home but I can't... because of these stupid bars in this stupid cell - because of the powers and magic and everything wrong with this stupid Fifth World. I want my mother, I want my father, I want Adam and Jonathan and everything right in this world. I want things that are real, that are not out of the ordinary. This is a nightmare, this is supernatural, everything. I feel tears roll down my cheeks.

"Lucius," I cry, "I don't want to do this. I just want to go home. I don't belong here."

"It is too late for that now," he replies, "you have to be strong, Bo. Right now you are probably one of the greatest humans to walk the Earth - well, one of the greatest who was born naturally."

There is a clanging sound, of a door opening, voices are in the distance, further down the hall. I gasp and crawl to the corner of my cell hoping that the darkness would swallow me. Footsteps begin to echo, I hear chains dragging along the ground.
Three silhouettes appear in front of my cell, they talk amongst each other and laugh horribly. One of them stares at me as the others stick a key in a giant metal lock and pull the door open. It opens with a screech.

"Get up," one of them hisses at me, his voice is familiar, possibly the Thorne I fought, the one who almost beat me to a pulp, "get up now!"

I whimper in my corner and stick my head in between my knees. No, no, no. I rock back and forth until two of the Thornes come towards me and heave me to my feet. I begin to scream and pull myself in every direction. A slap across the face calms me down and shackles are placed around my wrists. I am guessing that these are the ones Lucius was talking about - the same spell on them is the same spell on my cell bars that will restrain me from using my powers. I sigh and let my head droop as I am dragged out of my cell and down the hallway.
What happens from here?