Our Common Ground

Chapter Five from Thorne: The Withering Shore

Welcome to the fifth chapter for Thorne: The Withering Shore.

There are six chapters to the Withering Shore but Thorne’s story doesn’t end there, so stay tuned for more adventures.

And welcome to all the new subscribers to Verse! It’s great to have you here. If you want to start the story from the beginning, follow the link below to chapter one. Otherwise, settle in for the latest instalment.

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Thorne: The Withering Shore

I was always told that the day belonged to us but the night belongs to them. It was never a truth I wanted to unfurl but all paths are leading me there, down to the pier at the end of the line. Down to the darkness that bleeds into the withering shore.

Chapter Five - Our Common Ground

Thorne waited in the shadows of the dark that she’d created. A simple illusion that masked the light in the room and gave her control of the scene. She was taught to think about her illusions like the world inside a mirror. She couldn’t alter the physicality of the things around her but she could change someone’s perception of them. 

None of it was real but that didn’t matter. The world in the mirror was never real and people lived their lives by it. 

Thorne let her shadows cover the room, sticking to every crevice of furniture. Audrey Elison would be home any moment and find Thorne in her living room, ready to pounce. Until then she sat and simmered in her rage. 

She had been used these past few months. 

Thorne had always counted on her instincts and her natural ability to see through anyone’s lies and appearances. But Alina had slipped through her defences and even when she questioned the chaos that was unfurling, she believed that she needed to protect Alina. When the reality was, she needed to protect herself. 

She would only make that mistake once.

She heard a key find the lock and then the front door groaned opened. 

Audrey was home. 

At first she suspected nothing until she flicked the switch again and again searching for light. She cursed to herself as Thorne pulled the chain of the floor lamp next to her and allowed its warm glow to reveal her in the swimming dark of her illusion.

‘Hello, Audrey,’ said Thorne. Audrey launched back with a squeal. 

‘Christ! Thorne - what the hell are you doing here?’ said Audrey as she looked nervously around the room, assessing the dark. She reached out a hand and Thorne’s shadows stuck to her skin like slime making Audrey snatch it back.

‘You look well,’ said Thorne. ‘Last I heard you were deathly ill. But then again, last we saw each other you lured me into some occult bullshit. Did you know Lewis March was just a pawn when you led me down that path?’

‘You know about Alina?’ She said, holding her hand to her chest as if it had been burned.

‘I know.’

‘I wanted to tell you, I swear,’ she cried. ‘When I found out that she was involved and that she had her grips on you I wanted to help but they know everything about me.’

‘Pathetic,’ said Thorne. Audrey rushed towards her as tears started to stream down her face. Thorne jumped to her feet just as Audrey clambered at her coat. Thorne stopped her by holding her at arms length as she wobbled with each sob.

‘You don’t understand,’ she wailed. ‘They could kill my parents, my brother and his kids - everyone that I care about. All I have to do is keep my mouth shut.’ It reeked of rehearsed desperation as if she played this role a thousand times when she couldn’t get her way. The tears were real; the fear wasn’t.

‘I don’t care,’ said Thorne. ‘I only need one thing: where are they?’

‘I can’t tell you.’ Thorne sent her shadows soaring around them like a scream and as Audrey shrank at the sight she pulled by the scruff of her collar and shouted:

‘WHERE ARE THEY?’ But Audrey only shook her head violently, refusing to budge. It was enough to make Thorne even more furious. She pulled her closer, determined to drag the location out of her. But then she noticed the bruises that her makeup tried to hide and the last few days of swelling around her eyes. Maybe she had been deathly ill. Beaten to a pulp by the man that was supposed to love her. Maybe it was less of an act after all.

Audrey saw her notice the marks as Thorne’s grip loosened. She peeled herself away, crying softly. Thorne let her shadows dissipate until they stood in the luxurious living room of a broken billionaire, studying one another.

‘I can stop him,’ said Thorne finally. Audrey just shook her head.

‘He’s not usually like this,’ said Audrey. ‘He’d never hurt me.’

‘But he has and when he fails at what he’s trying to do and comes home to you. What do you think he’ll do then?’ Audrey thought about it for a moment, her hand absent-mindedly going to her wrists where Thorne spied fresh bruises she hadn’t bothered to cover.

‘Will you stop her as well?’ She said. ‘He wouldn’t have dreamed of any of this if it wasn’t for her.’

‘Trust me. I’ll stop them all.’ It was enough. Audrey looked to Thorne with a sense of hope that she hadn’t seen in a long time. As if she’d been waiting for someone to help her but had given up on trying years before. She was only human. Now she could get her life back.

‘Oakridge Pier,’ she said. ‘We own a few warehouses on the water - they said something about the energy being stronger there.’ Audrey collected her keys from where she dropped them and handed them to Thorne. ‘One of these will get you in.’ She made her way to the stairs but hesitated in the doorway struck with a thought. ‘If he dies, leave the body. I’ll need it to claim the insurance.’

‘Of course,’ scoffed Thorne. ‘Wouldn’t want to miss that payout.’

Oakridge Pier was an industrial dock downtown and Thorne was carrying enough keys to get into over half the warehouses that ran its length. With a heavy sigh she began by entering the first and working her way down the line.

She’d walked through ten before she knew she was in the right place. The doors opened onto three cars parked just inside. Alina’s black porsche glinting in the waning sunlight. Thorne peered into each vehicle and noted them empty before she moved further inside.

The warehouse seemed deserted.

An Artach had been drawn in the centre. It was nearly three times larger than the mark she'd seen in Ellison’s apartment. Thorne sighed with relief when she saw that this one had been drawn in paint not blood.

Not only had it been drawn with paint but the artist had taken greater care. The points of each curve we sharp and it looked like it had been drawn without breaking the stroke.

It was perfect.

They had created a salt ring around the Artarch, which was overkill. It wasn’t something that Thorne had told Alina - where were they getting the information from?

She broke the ring with a foot, scraping the salt across the floor. But she didn’t dare touch the Artach in case that somehow connected her to it. It was the same superstitious caution that probably led them to throwing salt on the ground. Still Thorne gave the mark a wide berth as she searched the rest of the warehouse looking for signs of life.

The warehouse sat directly onto the water and the doors had been thrown wide open. And there, standing out on the edge of the dock was Alina.

Keeping as quiet as possible, she crept closer to Alina. Softening her footsteps with practised ease.

Finding her alone made Thorne’s plan even more simple: stop Alina. She was the mastermind behind it all, the one pulling the strings of those around her. If she could stop her, then she could give herself time to stop them using the Artach all together.

She drew her taser from her pocket. Unlike Audrey, she wanted to avoid killing anyone if she could. She would overpower Alina before turning her attention to the mark itself.

She was close enough to smell Alina’s perfume on the breeze. Then she heard someone moving behind her.

Thorne whirled and saw the woman’s flaming red hair before she saw the discarded piece of wood in her grasp. Thorne aimed her taser but Yasmin was faster. She struck her hard against the head and Thorne instantly crumpled to the ground - out cold.

Thorne: The Withering Shore is the latest fiction project for verse. Make sure you’re subscribed so that you don’t miss the final chapter.