The Fifth World

Bo: I am horrified by what I see in the mirror... Jasmine told me I had been in the dungeons for seven days... seven days? It felt like weeks!
Every inch of skin is dirty... I am covered in dust and muck and other muck that I don't even want to know what it is. It wouldn't surprise me if the corner, that I had assigned off limits to myself since that would be my 'toilet', and some of it's contents... would be on me or my clothing right now. There are marks around my eyes, dark shadows from the lack of sleep... my lips are chapped and sore... my hair is beyond a mess. My clothes are dirty, there are holes here and there... tears too.
I tear my eyes away from the mirror and slowly look around. This bedroom is fit for a royal yet I still find myself fitted with shackles around my wrists. There are carpets of red, black and golden colours hung on the wall, they cover the floors too. Stuffed heads of animals hang almost as high as the ceilings. Candles cover ancient looking bench tops and cabinets. Paintings hang on the walls of different faces of people I have never seen before. There are two sofas in the room both sitting beside a large fireplace. But the greatest thing in the room? Something so beautiful that it scares me? The bed. It's bigger than a king size... and it's bedframe is enormous. It is made of wood and has thin sheets of fabric hanging from it. It is quite pretty but the thing that scares me so much about it is the fact that I will be sleeping in it... in this place of all places... unconsciousness is unconsciousness... unconsciousness is vulnerability, very little awareness of what is going on in the world... you are stuck in your own world, in your own mind... what could happen during sleep scares me.

"Are you happy with your room?" I hear a woman's voice and turn around to see Jasmine. She stands in the doorway, her body leaning seductively against the frame.

"It is adequate," I snort.

I notice her lips curl upwards as she walks slowly into the room, "there are armed guards outside of your room. They will be there all hours. It is just a safety precaution."

"And who's safety matters? Are they guarding me or those outside of this room?" I ask her. I put my wrists out in front of me as I stand up and slowly move towards the sofa by the fire place. The fire crackles and sends waves of heat my way. I sigh as I slowly sit down. "These shackles prevent me from doing anything. What danger am I?"

She doesn't answer. She simply moves across the large room, which is probably the size of the bottom storey of Mum's house back in Manchester. "Tonight you will return to the Royal's Chamber. There will be a meeting, consisting of just the royals, and we will be discussing our... plans."

"What are the plans?" I ask blatantly. "I need to know how much damage I will be inflicting."

She smiles again at me, "Many of us will accompany you to the city of Hargon... the journey there however will be quite... destructive. Any humans or towns we come across we will destory, you will manipulate the humans so they can be part of us... once in Hargon your shackles will be returned, the clothes you are wearing now returned to your body... and you will appear as our prisoner, we plan to tell parliament that we are turning you in and in return we will get our reward... but once you get into parliament as do I and other royals you will manipulate everyone in there and we will gain power. It is simple."

Each word she says becomes that much more stomach churning... this isn't just an overthrowing of the government of a city... it is a takeover of the world. I put on a facade and act as if none of this bothers me as much as it truly does.

"I would like to... introduce you to someone, Bo."

She stands up and moves swiftly to the other side of the room, back towards the door, half of her body disappears and I assume she is leaning out, beckoning for whoever it is to enter the room, she comes back towards me, sits down and I watch as a strange young man enters the room. He looks about my age, maybe a bit older or even younger... it is difficult to truly know just by looking at him. His arms are thick and clearly strong looking, his biceps are huge... actually, each muscle in his body is huge. I have seen Thornes who can defintely do damage... but this guy, this guy looks like he can kill you with a simple flick of his finger. His flesh is a golden colour, olive almost, his hair is long and dark in dreadlocks. His eyes are a very dark brown, almost black. His clothes are much like the other Thornes, however he wears no armour. It is not difficult to understand why - he simple doesn't need it. He wears a leather vest that cuts down the middle, revealing his toned chest and abdominal muscles. He also wears three quarter jeans that have holes and shreds of demin at the knees. For shoes he wears simple running shoes, sports shoes... some that you would find at any time back in the Average Human world... in department stores, sports stores... he looks at me curiously as I do back at him.

"This is her?" he asks Jasmine when he looks at me. He stands a few metres from me but is clearly not afraid of me. He seems arrogant and conceited... but why is Jasmine introducing me to him?

"Colt, this is Bo... the hybrid that I believe everyone in the moutain is buzzing about. I wanted you to meet her because I know that she would be very curious about you..." Jasmine says as she looks at me, her eyes sharp and strange looking. Colt does the same.

"Curious?" I ask Jasmine, "About him? Why?"

Jasmine smiles softly at me, "I assume you would know about the experiments us Thornes conduct... rumours have been flooding your people for years about it all."

I nod my head, "I am aware of the rumours but have never had the... privillage of seeing the result for myself."

"Colt is the result, Bo," Jasmine says and holds her hand out towards Colt, "physically he is nineteen years old but with the help of your neighbour, Lucius, he truly is thirteen years old. He is the only Thorne to be injected with every single gene the Thornes have in posession making him the greatest, most powerful Thorne in existence."

Am I curious about this boy? Yes. Fascinated? Most definitely. But am I deadly afraid? Of course. I do not know this boys abilities, I do not know what powers he posesses... he could be indestructable for all I know.

"Ask him a question, Bo, any question at all."

I'm quite afraid to speak to him. This boy, well, man has the mind of a thirteen year old... but his powers could be endless.

"What can you do?" I mumble very, very quietly.

He answers almost straight away, "I can run twice as fast as any other Thorne, I am twice as strong as any other Thorne, I can teleport, time travel, shape shift. I am of course physically older than I really am, I have super hearing, if I wanted to I could make anyone feel immense pain just by staring at them, I can create illusions within ones mind if I choose to do so, I can speak every language known to man... and the rest... well, I usually lose count on how many different genes I have been given and the different powers I have. That is just a small list."

I wonder if he actually has intelligence.

I look at Jasmine, "when do we leave for Hargon?"

She smiles softly, "we leave tomorrow morning. Clean yourself up, there are clothes waiting on your bed. When you are ready, notify your guards outside, they will escort you to the Royals Chamber."

In a blur Jasmine is gone, Colt remains. He stares at me, curiously. I stare back at him and wonder, with immense fear, what the hell he is thinking. Maybe the real reason why Jasmine introduced to him was because he would be the one... killing everyone I know, my friends, my family. I shudder.

"You are a strange character, Bo Abshire," he says to me, his voice cold. I feel an eyebrow raise as he continues, "You are difficult to read. I am trying to understand what you are thinking."

"Well," I say and go to fold my arms but realise that I can't... since I am handcuffed, "I am thinking about cleaning myself up and getting changed but I don't particularly want to do that with you in the room. Would you mind leaving?"

He takes one slow step towards me, a very slow step... for a Thorne, and he stares at my face. I can't even imagine what I look like, "make it quick," he hisses at me and vanishes before me.

When I realise that I am finally alone I feel something within me ache... my heart... all of my organs... I have no idea what I am going to do. There is no plan, no plot... just hope. A hope that maybe, somewhere along the way, I will have a chance at getting away from these people... I know what I will have to do. I will have to manipulate people, maybe even kill them... innocent lives... taken, stolen, all because of me. But it is what I have to do; in order to save myself, the people I love and the world I now live in.
I look towards the corner of the room and see a large silver tub. I walk to it and see that is full of water. Beside the tub, on the wooden bench is soap and a few cloths for me to wash myself. The soap smells wonderful, of lavender and strawberries. Shampoo and conditioner sit on the other side of the silver tub. I know it will be difficult doing all of this whilst in shackles. I get to it. I strip down, cautiously look around to make sure nobody is in the room, and wash myself from head to toe. It is actually disgustingly brilliant about how many dirt is on my body.
After, I go to the bed and find the clothing Jasmine was talking about. It is much like hers... there is armour, fitted for a woman, but what I am supposed to wear underneath that armour definitely freaks me out a little... it is a sleak, black leather body suit that would be skin tight. It is much like the suit that that Justice Agent was wearing... Namara, her name was. I pull a blanket from my bed and wrap it around my body before walking towards the door and notifying one of the guards that I cannot possibly put on those clothes with the shackles on. He tells me he will tell Jasmine and within two minutes she returns to my room.

"I do not want to help you dress, Bo, that is why I am going to take off your shackles and if you escape do not think for one second that your friends or family will be out of danger. The second you leave will be the second I tell Colt. He has been spying on your family in Australia for a long time now, he can simply jump there and slaughter them all."

I nod my head, "I get it. I won't do anything stupid."

With a run, just like a blur, she appears before me and places a key into the key hole on the metal cuffs, she turns it and there is a clicking sound. The shackles loosen and she removes them from my wrists. In shock I stare at the marks on my flesh from both the rust and the bruising.

"I will sit by the fire with my back towards you. You can change but if you jump or do anything out of order, I will know."

I could manipulate her right now. I could say something, anything and make everything seem okay, I could manipulate her without her even realising. It could all be a secret. I feel my hands tremble a little as she runs, in a blur, towards the sofa. She sits down and stares intently at the fire. Part of me is screaming at me to jump, another part is creaming at me to manipulate her... the rest of me is screaming from fear inside. Even if I did manipulate her... my family would not be out of danger. I resist and I simply turn around and put my clothes on. When done, I look at myself in the mirror and stare at the weapon, the real villian; me.