This time, I did not wake up in my bedroom, but in the cave, and I opened my eyes yelling for Sedlin the Dead. When I sat up, all of the Elves were watching me.
"Sedlin the Dead," I cried, my former panic still gripping me intensely. "One of the Other Five had him. He was trying to buy time for me."
"We know," said Trenlin the Old. "He will join us soon, as he was fighting Pain. But for now, our duty must be to keep you safe."
"What happened?" I asked them.
"They came looking for you." Trenlin the Old answered again. "We told you they were coming after you. Pain had you and very nearly completed their mission, but Sedlin the Dead was there just in time to save you."
Remembering the horrifying sights, of how one of them had completely sucked that other woman dried made me cry.
"They plan to fight us across time." Redlin the Newborn noted. "They went to attack in his day for three reasons; to kill him, to find souls to harvest and feed on, and because in that day, there is barely anyone with power that can stop them."
"That is why we must equip the boy." Darwin the Boy suggested. "He must be able to protect his time and fight the other five."
"No." Marlin the Young disagreed. "He does not know of the power he carries within him yet, or of what he has to do to fight. He still has so much to learn, and there is still so much we must teach him."
"We lack time. The Other Five have started destroying his age, because they know they barely have anyone to protect them. He must step into his role as the One and do what is required.
I perked up, listening to them as they spoke— these five, abnormal looking men whom I had not known of before, but yet claimed I was the One to save them.
How could I even save them when one of them could barely save me?
How did I ever get here in the first place?
That book, that Book of a Thousand Curses had been the cause. A single contact with it and now I was sure I had been laden with a thousand curses, seeing things nobody else was supposed to be seeing, in places where no one deserved to be.
I tried to imagine what I would be doing if I had never come in contact with that book. Maybe I would be reading a better one in my room, or playing with my little sister, or eating something sweet.
What I was sure of, was that I would be anywhere but here.
"I wish I never touched that book." I blurted out, and they all turned to look at me.
I looked back at them and rose to my feet, still weak.
"If I never touched that book and never uttered the curse that brought me here, I would be far away, in peace. Maybe the Other Five would have killed me by now, but I would still be in a more peaceful place."
"Calm," Darwin the Boy told me, but I was in no mood to be calm.
"How can I be calm? I am only a regular boy who wants to live life. You come and tell me that fate has chosen me to be the One… I don't want to be the One. I don't want to be anything. You find somebody else and let me go. Take me back to my time."
"You must understand—" Marlin the Young tried to explain.
"I said take me back!" I cut in, refusing to hear anything.
For some reason, my gaze was fixed on Trenlin the Old. I saw his eyes wet, as though he was going through some personal, private pain. Then I looked the rest of them in the eyes and saw the same wetness and the same expression of pain.
I was determined to not let it stop me.
"We must let him go, then." Redlin the Newborn finished.
"First, have this trinket." Marlin the Young came forward, and put a necklace of five glowing orbs on my neck. They stood solemn and watched as it glowed softly.
"And this book… You must be accustomed to it by now." Redlin the Newborn came forward, handing me the Book of a Thousand Curses.
With a snap of their fingers, all combining to be one great sound like thunder, I was falling through the great darkness again.
I opened my eyes in my bedroom in front of the mirror, and it was as dark as night. This time, I was cautious and wary, remembering how the Other Five had come into my city and spread terror.
Finding my flashlight, I moved around slowly and then went outside my room. The wooden stairs were there, but it was hard for me to feel the same safety that they once gave me.
Running around the house, I called out to my parents and heard no reply. I ran to my little sister's room, but she was not in her cot.
Now, I began to panic. I ran to the living room, and found no one. Then I rushed into my parents room and kicked the door open.
There, the glare of my flashlight fell upon Sedlin the Dead, frozen with a pained expression on his face and with his arms wide, as though he was shielding himself from something that hung in the air before him. His skin, which had always been dry, was even drier now. I yelled in fright at how he looked.
Instantly, I knew the Other Five had gotten to him.
But nothing broke me more than seeing my family behind him, all with the same pained expression on Sedlin the Dead's face, and all as frozen and dried as he was. I fell to my knees and cried as loud as I could, holding onto my hurting chest, and I lay down there for a long time indeed, thinking of how best to die.
And Sedlin the Dead…
He had died fighting for my family, shielding them alone, his arms wide in front. He was the most expressive amongst the Five Elves, which was why I liked him.
What was I supposed to do?
And then I realised I did not want to think, or do anything.
I just wanted to die.
Lying there on the floor with tears streaming from my eyes, I looked outside the window by chance to see the sky, and only then did I notice what it looked like.
It was not night time. The sky was just red enough to be near black.