Rosetta

27

Trigger Warning
The blood curdling scream told Thorne that it was done.

"No!" Cress screamed. She ran out the door.
Thorne followed behind her, and soon everyone was rushing to where they had found Cinder.

Carlos was sobbing erratically over someone's body. Cress let out a cry and  latched onto Thorne as soon as they realised who it was.

Rosetta was deathly pale, and the ever so slight rise and fall of her chest told him that she was hanging onto life by a thin, wavering thread.

"Lift her up," Jacin ordered, both his arms wrapping around a tearful Winter. Carlos obliged, picking her up and kissing her forehead.

"There's a suspended animation tank in the clinic Cinder is in," Jacin said. "You'll have to-"  But Carlos was off like a bullet.

Thorne encased Cress in his arms. She was shaking. "It's okay," he whispered in her hair. "We're gonna save her."

Jacin jutted his head towards the house, and they began to take the girls inside to rest and calm down.

But not even a few feet from the house did they hear the maniacal laughter. Jacin drew the gun from his uniform and Thorne pulled his dagger from his boot.

"Cress," he said through his teeth. "Get inside."

Jacin must have said the same thing, because Winter ran to the door and gestured for Cress to follow. She didn't.

"I'm not gonna leave you," she cried, wiping her face from dry tears.

He pushed her behind him, using his body as a shield.

A woman came out, from where, Thorne couldn't tell. The woman had blond hair trapped in a bun and was wearing robes. White robes.

The clothes of a first-tier thaumaturge.

"Hello, my dears!" She piped cheerfully.

"Winter!" Jacin shouted, his way of telling her to shut the door and hide. She did.

"Cress, get inside," Thorne repeated.

"I can't get manipulated," she whispered back.

Well, he couldn't fight that.

"Stay behind me," he told her.

She did the opposite. She stepped in front of him to get a better look at the witch Rosetta had told us about.

"Cinder wasn't kidding. She really is old," Cress informed.

"Good to know, now hide!"

Esmerelda slid a knife from her long, draping sleeves and held it in a fighting stance.

"Why, you didn't really think that I'd let my pathetic starchild and Queen Selene live, did you? And as for you? You'll be dead before you hit the floor!" She giggled.

"It's Cinder," Thorne corrected. "And I can't say whether Rosetta'll make it, but I can say this- if anyone'll die today, sorry lady, but it's gonna be you."

"Let's test that then!" She screamed.

Jacin pivoted on his heel and turned to shoot Esmerelda, but she slipped out of the way. Cress covered her ears from the gunshot, and Thorne heard Winter yelp from inside the house.

Then Thorne began to twirl and flip the knife in his fingers. Not of his accord.
"Cress!" He shouted. "Run! Get away from me!"

Yet again, she did the opposite. She caught the knife as it just came out of his reach and threw it. The knife whistled and cut through the air, lodging itself in Esmerelda's thigh.

She howled and fell to one knee, and Jacin threw his gun far from him. Thorne knew what he was thinking- he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he hurt anyone. 

Thorne himself struggled to be around Cress without thinking of how much he had hurt her.

He shook his head, willing the memory to vanish.

"Nice shot," he told Cress.

She shrugged. "I practise darts on the Rampion."

Before he could ask anything, the same whistle of a knife dashed through the air, skidding across Jacin's cheek.

"Jacin!" Cress screamed.

He growled and wiped at the blood in his cheek, before leaving it to drip down.

"I'm fine, just get inside!" He shouted.

Cress wouldn't give in. Then a figure emerged from behind the witch.

Carlos wrapped his arms around Esmerelda's neck and squeezed tight. She screamed and basked against him, but he wouldn't relent.

"I'm going to kill you, you witch!" He shouted. "If Rosetta dies-"

But his arms began to unwind instead his fingers dug into his own neck.

"No!" Cress screamed

Jacin was already behind him, trying to take his finger from his neck.

"I'm sorry, Carlos," he said, and thumped him on the back of his head with the plate of his guard's armour. He crumpled to the floor, unconscious.

Suddenly, Iko barged out from inside the house, knife in hand.

Esmerelda cackled. "Oh, I've heard of you. Android, are you?"

Iko threw the knife, only narrowly missing Thorne's ear before settling in a plaster board next to the witch's hand.

"Don't you dare touch them! I've seen what you've done to Cinder, lady, and I'm not the forgiving type!" Iko screamed

But then Esmerelda had a hold of Jacin, who opened Iko's control panel and switch off her power core.

Jacin didn't talk, or rather couldn't, and then sat himself next to the door of the house, back turned.

"I'll kill you one by one if I have to!" She screeched.

The knife flew through the air and was about to lodge itself in Jacin's back- until Thorne reached for the forgotten gun and shot it off course.

It wasn't until then that Thorne noticed Cress's attention elsewhere. She was watching Carlos, who had just woken up, creep behind Esmerelda, a kitchen knife at the ready.

"Wait!" Cress shouted. "Why-why don't you just leave us? What have we done so bad?"

"Idiot child!" The witch shrieked. "It was your friends tyrannical aunt that destroyed my life, and you'd give all your lives for her?"

"Yes!" Thorne shouted. They were both giving Carlos more time to come closer and closer to her.

Then she shrugged. "If that's what you want."

Then she pulled a sharp, slender knife from her sleeve, flexed at the handle and directed the hit at Thorne's head.

There were a mixture of screams. The one from Carlos, full of rage and grief, as he drove the knife into her throat. The one from Thorne, full of fear as he became immobile from the knife's aim.

And the worst one, the one from Cress, full of pain and remorse, as she put herself in front of him, jumping up to receive the knife in her eye.