The Fifth World

Bo: I blink a couple of times and try to recollect what has just happened. What has just happened? I am lying on the floor, the kitchen knife inches from my hand and there is a loud ringing in my ears. I cough as I brush debris from my body. The lounge, the front door, the foyer... at least half of the house is destroyed. Rubble is everywhere. Pieces of furniture lie everywhere, the walls have been torn open and their innards are spewing out onto the floor. I stand up slowly and feel my head spin a little as I try to see amongst the dust in the air any sign of life.

"Mum! Adam! Cynric!" I call out.

I can hear nothing. There is no response. Not even a mumble from someone... all I hear are the sounds of the house falling apart. The second storey could collapse at any moment now. We could be crushed. I breathe heavily, I am so afraid.

There is a sharp sound. All of my senses perk up. I hear another sound like a gust of wind and I immediately fly back and into the kitchen cupboards. I moan loudly as my body crashes onto the floor. My teeth grit together as a sensational pain aches through me. I am sitting on my bottom, my back up against the cupboards, a pain stinging up my spine. I stare ahead at the people I can see in the shadows. There are at least four of them. I feel blood drip down my bottom lip and I lick it away as I watch them.

One person steps out from the dust and I feel my mouth fall a little, it hurts. It is Jasmine - the Thorne that held me captive in the mountains, one of the Royals. She stares at me with a sleek smile on her narrow face. I am impressed that she is still alive. I would have guessed that she died back in the clearing, that day when the great battle happened. How in the world did she escape?
She walks slowly towards me and three male Thornes appear behind her. I recognise none of them.

"Bo Abshire, we meet again," in a smile that is neither happy nor amused she stares at me, revealing her beautiful teeth.

I feel a tear run down my cheek, "Please."

I try to tell her not to do anything, not to hurt my family... but I am speechless. It is as if the breath has been knocked out of me. Hell, I don't even know if anyone else is even alive. I can hear... nothing. Not even a murmur or a breath. I try not think about the worst case scenario. I just hope Jasmine take me now and do nothing to anyone else. A tear runs down my cheek.

She smiles and squats so she can be at my level, her fingers stroke my cheek very gently and she removes some hair from my face, "Oh, sweet, Bo, do not cry."

I cringe when she touches me and I feel more tears run down my face. I hear a Thorne clear his throat behind her and Jasmine immediately stands and removes her gaze from my face. Her face turns serious, serious and... deadly.

She turns to the men, "Kill any survivors and then bind her wrists."

"No!" I scream, "Please don't! Jasmine! Jasmine!"

She is already disappearing into the dust and I can tell that she is going into the lounge to see Adam... to see Cynric... and probably my mother. I can feel my heart aching like it never has before. Of course, I have been faced with these kinds of problems before, where someone so close to me has almost been killed because of me... but not like this. Not when it has to do with the lives of the most important people in my own life right now. Not when it is all of them.
I stand up with what little energy I have left and I jump into what is left of the lounge room. The furniture is destroyed, the Christmas tree burning away and Jasmine standing above Cynric and Adam as they lie unconscious under some rubble. Jasmine immediately looks over at me and I hear the Thornes run into the room. I jump in front of Jasmine and stare directly into her eyes with a hand on her arm as if I am holding her there... but it is not my hand that is holding her - my eyes are.

"You will not harm them," I say to her.

I don't know how my manipulation works exactly, I just hope it works right now.

"I will not harm them," Jasmine repeats back to me, a strange look in her eyes that I have never seen on her before, I can tell by this one significant look that she is obeying me.

I feel myself smile but suddenly her hands are on me, on my chest, and in one simple push she thrusts me back against the lounge room wall. Before I can gather myself her hand is around my neck choking the life out of me.

"I did not say I would not hurt you!" she hisses at me.

I try to say something to her, just to get her to stop... but I can't manage to squeeze out a word. All I do is try to pry her fingers from around me as my feet dangle in the air. My heart pounds even harder, like it never has before, this is the worst of all things... this is even more unfortunate than the battle, even more unfortunate than being almost killed, several times too... because it is happening all over again and it has Cynric, Mum and Adam here too. I would die a thousand times over just so this would never have to happen. I would experience the most excruciatingly painful death imaginable just so they could be a million miles from me right now, and so no one, and I mean no one, could ever find them or harm them again.

I call it love.

I jump and disappear from Jasmine's grasp. I hear her as I appear at the front door of the house, on the inside, look around angrily for me. In what little time I have before she finds me again I search for my mother. I cough as I try to get control of my breathing. It only takes me a second to see Theresa... she is lying very uncomfortably, and what would be very painful if she were awake, across some of the bottom stairs. I run to her as quickly as I can. I hear a Thorne grunt from another room, I can guess the kitchen and I hear him run over. I spin around very quickly and stand protectively in front of my mother. I will kill this man if he takes a step closer to her.

"Do not force me to kill you," I threaten him.

His face doesn't even change, it is as if he barely even hears me, or if my threat had made no difference to him whatsoever. I have never seen this Thorne before but I can tell... he is just like any other. He is in no way like Colt. Colt is- Colt was different. He had this thing about him that made him seem so much more surreal, so different to any other Thorne. It is a relief because I think I can kill this one. He is young, just a bit older than me, and he has short dark hair and a short beard. His clothes are tattered and dirty, definitely not like Jasmine's sleek body suits she always wears. He's just any other Thorne, not royal, just a worker, a slave who must obey his elders commands. I almost pity him.

He runs towards me, taking a knife out from his satchel, a satchel I have seen before... one that carries serums. I dodge his knife as he lunges at me, I disappear and reappear wrapping my entire body around his back, legs and all. He tries to shake me off and even tries to stab me a couple of times but realises he would only stab himself. My fingers tear at his flesh, trying to rip apart what I can to make him scream like a little girl. I punch him as hard as I possibly can with what little energy I have left and finally, I feel someone grabbing at me from behind. I remember the other male Thornes there too. I yell as I am ripped from the man and thrown out of the foyer and into the lounge where Cynric and Adam are. I hit my head, quite hard, on a piece of wood. My eyelids begin to droop and I can feel the unconsciousness pulling me in... I am so close to being knocked out... but something is telling me to keep going... keep fighting... I watch how Cynric stirs, he is almost awake. It makes me feel a little comforted and a little more alert. I tap his face with my hand, very urgently, and he regains consciousness.

"Cynric!" I yell at him, "Help!"

He struggles to get up and he pushes wood from what is left of the coffee table off from his legs. His attention doesn't even move to the Thornes, he just looks at Adam, despair in his eyes and my heart thuds. Adam is unconscious, still, I think. Cynric's hand touches Adam's cheek and then moves towards his neck, two of his fingers search for a pulse. My eyes widen as I watch for Cynric's reaction.

"Oh," I hear a cold voice, "how sweet."

I turn and see Jasmine, who is staring at the three of us with her men behind her. Neither of them look happy. She looks at me up and down and then over at Cynric and Adam. I have manipulated her not to hurt them... the only person she can hurt... is me... or Mum.

"Get the girl," she says to the men, "kill the rest. Hurry up!"

Or, if she does use her wit... she can just order her men to do it for her. Damn.

I see at the corner of my eye how Cynric slowly gets to his feet lifting Adam up with him. I look properly and see how Adam is lying in Cynric's arms... limp... I feel another tear roll down my cheek as I stand in front of the boys as the men come towards us. What now? What the hell do I do? I stare at Adam, look at his innocence... his soft and young skin, his bright red curly hair... I see my mother in him, I even see Callahan... my hands close and turn into round fists. I can feel the anger convulsing within me... the fear is suddenly being taken over with immense sadness and fury. I have never felt so angry in my life. Who dares to hurt my family? To hurt a single mother and an innocent, helpless little boy?

Jasmine watches as she stands behind the Thornes, she just stands... she does nothing! It infuriates me that she cannot commit the deed herself! Cynric hisses something under his breath, so low that it is difficult for me to hear but after a moment I realise... and in one quick, swift motion my hand opens and closes on Cynric's Angelican dagger he has just given me. I raise it in front of the men and they hesitate.

"What are you doing?!" Jasmine yells at them, "Get her-"

Jasmine is cut off, her voice just stops completely and everyone turns to look at her as she gasps a very loud breath. The Angelican dagger almost slips through my fingers when I realise what has happened. A very sharp piece of wood sticks out of her chest and is covered in her own blood. Mum stands behind her, her fingers shaking and tears running down her cheeks as she releases the wood from her own grasp. Everyone stares... at this Average Human in shock... the Thornes are astonished that a single Average Human has stood up to a Fifth World Human, not only that, a Thorne of royalty. Realising the opportunity I have since the men's attention is taken from me and put on Jasmine and Theresa I run towards them about, trying to figure out the easiest, fastest way to kill them with Cynric's Angelican dagger...

I stop suddenly... as one turns slowly around to me, ever so slowly, incredibly slow for a Thorne... and he grunts the tiniest sound, so low I barely hear, and then he as well as the other two fall to the ground around me.