The Power of Five Oblivion

had this sort of uncle who was making money out of us, putting us on the stage. That’s what we were doing night after night. Cheap magic tricks that people thought were just tricks but that really were, in a way, magic. We weren’t having a good life but at least we had each other. We dreamed that one day we’d turn eighteen and then we could run away and set up on our own. We used to talk about it all the time.
    “All that changed when these people came after us. The Nightrise Corporation. That’s what they called themselves. They were just business executives … at least, that’s what they looked like. Men in suits. But they represented something totally different, which is to say they were working for these … creatures. They were monsters. They were totally evil. They weren’t from this world.”
    “You mean … they were aliens?”
    “No. Not aliens. I suppose you’d say they were more like … demons.”
    He must have seen my face fall because he stopped and turned away. “I said you wouldn’t believe me.”
    “No. Go on,” I said. “I might as well hear all of it.”
    He nodded. “The creatures were called the Old Ones,” he said. “All they wanted to do was destroy everything. In a way they were like cancer. When cancer invades a body it kills it, even though in the long run it will end up killing itself. There is no reason. It’s just what it does. The Old Ones invaded the planet and they set out to kill everyone and everything on it. They wouldn’t be happy until there was nothing left.”
    “What do they look like, the Old Ones?” I asked.
    “They’re all different. There are shape-changers who are human one minute and then change into freaks. There are fly-soldiers and horsemen. But they don’t like to be seen. They like to hide behind human beings who do their work for them. And this whole process, this destruction, it has to be as slow as possible because that’s what gives them pleasure. They feed on pain. They create it. They inspire it.
    “A very long time ago, maybe ten thousand years, they came very close to wiping out the human race. There were just a few survivors but the ones that were left came together and formed an army. And the strange thing is, the leaders of the army weren’t adults. They were kids. Four boys and a girl.”
    “You!” I exclaimed.
    “Not us. Not exactly. There were five of us then at the very beginning and there were five of us again, ten thousand years later. It was as if we had been born again, on the other side of time, sent back into the world to finish the job that we’d begun.
    “You see, Holly, there was this great battle and the Old Ones were defeated and thrown out of the world. I know it’s a lot to take on board but this is how it was. Two gates were constructed to stop them coming back. The first one, Raven’s Gate, was in a place called Yorkshire, here in England. The second one was in Nazca, in Peru. The gates stood there for thousands and thousands of years and the Old Ones kept on trying to find a way back, and in the end, of course, they succeeded. Matt tried to stop them but he wasn’t strong enough on his own and they smashed through the second gate. Since then they’ve started all over again, destroying everything they can.”
    The darkness was almost total. The church loomed over us but although I could feel it, I could barely see its edges, its outline blurring into the night sky. If Jamie hadn’t been so pale, he would have been invisible.
    “Five had defeated them at the dawn of time and five would defeat them again,” Jamie went on. “But first we had to find each other. You see, we all had powers. Scott and I were telepathic. Pedro was a healer. Scarlett could control the weather. And Matt … well, he could do all sorts of stuff. But on our own, we were too weak. Matt found that out in Nazca and he was almost killed. It’s only when we come together that we’ll be strong enough to do what we have to, somehow build a new gate and get rid of the Old Ones once and for all.
    “Do you still believe me? Are you glad you asked me about all this?”
    “I’m still here,” I said. “Tell me the rest of it.”
    “Aren’t we supposed to be inside? I don’t want your friends hanging us upside down by our feet or whatever it is they do.”
    “That’s not fair, Jamie. They’re just scared, that’s all.”
    “OK. There’s not much more to say. I could talk all night. I could tell you about the