The Struggling Life: The Hard Life

Chapter 9: Final Break

Jasmine's Point of View:

The next morning soon came to the robot and I woke extra early as I always had. Today was going to be a not so great day for me. Today, I had to give out more answers about my past to the team. I'd have Robby and Spencer help me answer questions about my father, other brother, sister and mother, but when it came down to my necklace, I was on my own, and I had to explain my powers. The accident, as many people labeled it, even me, was the reason behind my family's powers, well, everyone except my mother.

My mother had been the rare exception to our family who didn't want the powers we were given. She didn't want them after finally finding a family and a life where she didn't have to fight everyday. But that's getting ahead of myself.

I quickly got up from my bed and got on some easy to work in clothes like violet sweats and an orange strapped shirt. Once I was dressed, I made my way down to the kitchen, where I expected to see at least one of my team mates up by now.

Cobi sat in the kitchen sipping on a cup of coffee. I joined him at the table once I made myself a cup of OJ, since I wasn't really into coffee. He looked up the spot on the he had been staring blankly at and I saw his tired eyes. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Morning.." He mumbled. I took the coffee from his hands and grabbed a towel the cupboard and handed it to him.

"Morning, but you're not drinking that stuff. You need more sleep. I'm not going to force you back to bed, but you have to sleep here with the towel as your pillow." I took his cup of coffee I dumped down the sink. I was so thankful he wasn't addicted to the stuff yet.

"But you're always up this early." He argued.

"Because my body's use to it, and I let it have a nap every now and then when it needs it, like when I'm ignoring Sprx." He snorted at that. I rolled my eyes and gently forced his head down on the towel, this time he didn't stop it. "Sleep Cobi, I'll be here when you wake." He let his eyes close and soon his breathing evened out. I sighed and left the kitchen so he could sleep for a bit. I felt the urge to take a shower, so I headed back to my room and did so.

I felt millions of tired kinks relaxing in my neck and back as I let the water roll over them. I groaned, my neck especially hurt this morning, I must not have slept good… again. God, do I ever sleep well ever anymore? I know I did a few nights every now and then when I was still underground with my brothers, but for a while now, I don't feel like I'm getting the total rest I need. Even for my messed up body.

I soon removed myself from my shower and changed into the clothes I had on earlier since they had only been worn for at least a half hour, so they were still clean. I soon was dressed and I made my way back out to the kitchen.

I must have taken longer then I wanted because most of the team was up now and cooking breakfast. Cobi was still out and June sat next to him with orange juice for herself and him once he woke.

"Morning Jazzy," June greeted me.

"Good morning June." I replied. I then looked over at the others that were awake; Nova, Antauri and Gibson were all at the stove cooking. "Good morning to you guys too."

"Morning Jazz," Nova said. She looked up at me worriedly. "You don't mind us calling you that do you?"

"Not at all Nova," I sighed. "You know, it doesn't feel as bad as I thought it would to hear people call me by my name again."

"But it will feel bad once you explain to us some more about your family again?" June asked. Only she would ask that question. She was lucky Cobi was still out so he didn't hear it.

I take that back. A loud smacking sound suddenly echoed in the room and I saw Cobi awake now and June holding the back of her head in pain. She hissed in pain at him. He glared back at her with a fire in his eyes that I had never seen before.

"That hurt." June seethed at her brother.

"Good, don't ask that kind of question again or I'll make sure next time you can't talk to complain about it hurting once I'm done with you. Apologize, now." Cobi and June were just about ready to deck it out as they argued. I sighed and walked over to the team as June and Cobi fell out of their chairs and starting wrestling on the ground in anger.

"If I may ask, when will you tell us today about your family?" Antauri asked.

"While we're on our field trip," I replied to them.

"We're leaving the robot for your explanation?" Gibson questioned.

"Yes, I thought that if you guys saw places my family were at once, it might help, and I promised Robby and Spencer that I'd show them the house they were raised in before it burned down. I don't think the city's touched it since they think the area is cursed." June and Cobi both stopped their fight to look at me when I mentioned my house and land was cursed.

"So when are we leaving?" Antauri asked.

"Right after everyone is ready."

HalloweenWitchHalloweenWitch

Once everyone was awake and had eaten breakfast (and once Cobi and June stopped trying to kill each other), we headed out to the first place on our short list of stops for today. Our first stop was where the accident took place that gave me and my family our powers.

I led the team, Cobi, June and my brothers toward the edge of the city, where my father had once had his shrine where he like to meditate, the spot next to our old house. Once they took a good look at the area, they stared in shock. Plants were growing out over the burnt wood of the two buildings and millions of weeds and thick layers of grass had overtaken the garden I once planted and raised. The exterior of the house and side building were still held together, but the fire had ruined most of it.

I led the team into the side building next to my childhood home. Inside was a partly burned meditation mat and plants were growing in the circular shaped hut. A large part of the cone room had been broken and a giant hole let in the bright sun. The floor wasn't a complete one; pathways had been made in the floor so water could drift through it, like a few mini rivers. It was the perfect place for our father and mother to meditate before bed.

"This is where we begin," I told them. I reached up toward the ceiling and let my hand softly grip the dangling circularly cut clear gem that still hung, after all these years. I was surprised that it hadn't been stolen. "This is where my family got there powers, and this crystal is the reason why." I pulled the crystal down off it hook, which should have broken years ago from the fire and old age, and handed the crystal to the others to look at.

"This crystal, I feel enormous power flowing from it." Antauri said.

"As you should," I replied back. "That crystal is the reason behind my family's powers, and the reason I'm still alive." The team looked from the crystal and me in horror.

"How many times has the universe tried to kill you Kid?" Sprx asked, it was slightly a joke, but also very serious.

"Too many times to count," I told him. I sighed, a tear had slipped from my eye and I took back the crystal. "The story goes back to when I was a little girl, I was only eight at the time, my mother had been pregnant with Spencer. My sister, Lyra had been nearly seven, and my brother, Gabe had nearly been ten a half. My mother had been cleaning the meditation hut when a thunderstorm started to roll in…"

Jasmine's Memory- The Thunderstorm (Still her Point of View):

Black storm clouds started to roll over our heads. Normally my mother would have us hide in the house, but at the time, the roof had a few large holes in it from cruel kids in town while we had been gone, so my mother had take Lyra and I into the meditation hut. We hoped that Gabe and Daddy would get home soon, they were gonna get soaked and hit by lightning if they didn't get out of the rain.

Suddenly my father and brother ran into the hut and shut the door tightly behind them. My mother slowly rose to her feet to greet him, with the help of Lyra and me, it was hard for her to get to her feet without help now since she was at eight mouths and she still got sick every now and then.

"Kathy, don't stress yourself out, I'll come to you." My father told her.

"I know Sean, how bad did they say it was this time?" My mother asked as my father sat down on the meditation mat next to her and pulled her into his arms.

"They say the storm is supposed to go on for a few hours, but the lightning should stop after ten. I'm hoping it ends sooner so we can start fixing up our home. Don't get me wrong, I love the meditation hut, but I'd rather be in my own house that'd be fixed if it wasn't for some rotten inner city boys."

"I know Love." My mother tried to sooth and calm his rarely seen anger. "I'm sure that the girls will work on that when they get the chance. The garden won't need as much tending since all this ran and smaller weeds will die from over watering. And as long as I keep the door open so Lyra and Jasmine can check up on my every now and then, I should be fine by myself in the house while they try to fix the roof."

"We'll fix it tomorrow Momma." I told her. "You just rest and we'll make sure your okay."

"Thanks sweetheart." She told me.

"What do we do now Momma?" Lyra asked. She looked out the window at the storm and tilted her head at it.

"We have to wait out the storm dear Lyra." My father told her, holding her close to his side. "Once the lightning calms down, we can go back into the house and collect the rain water for cleaning and what not, but not now, the lightning could hit us and hurt us very badly."
"Oh," She replied. "How long it will be?"

"As long as it takes my sweet Lyra," My mother said. Lyra nodded to our mother and she crawled over into her lap and laid down, she slipped easily into the world of dreams in her head and slept.

While my sister slept and my brother remained quiet, I looked up at the ceiling and saw a crystal dangling from the top, hanging from the ceiling on a string. "Daddy, what's that?" I pointed up to the gem.

"It's a gem that helps your mother and I meditate, Jazzy." He told me. "Though with this storm around and the power that crystal has, it's probably best if I take it down."

"Be careful dear," my mother said to him. He smiled to her and stood up and reached for the crystal.

In that instant that my father touched the crystal, a lightning bolt shot down from the heavens and hit out hut. My father let go of the crystal and fell to the floor. My sister, mother, brother and I all rushed to help him. He thankfully wasn't hurt or burned, but the crystal was glowing with the power of the lightning bolt. It turned white and then multicolored before the crystal blasted out at the six of us (if you were including my unborn brother). We all screamed as the beams hit us and knocked any of us that were standing off their feet and over. I felt my body fail and I fell into a world of blackness.

Present- The Meditation Hut (Still Jasmine's Point of View):

"The next day we all woke up and soon found that we all had powers, even Mom, which made it harder for her to carry out her pregnancy with Spencer, since he would expand his powers every now and then inside her. In other words, he played with his powers before he was even born." I shook my head at the memory and looked back at them all. "If it wasn't for this crystal in the hut when the lightning bolt hit, we would have all been killed, so our options were either get killed by a lightning bolt or get our powers. I think we got the better end of the deal."

"So that's how you received you powers." Gibson muttered. "What happened next?"

"The fire," I said simply. "Follow me." No arguments could be heard against me as I led them off out of the meditation hut and into the burned, one story home next door. When I stepped inside, I felt memories hit me as I walked inside. I remembered them as if they had only happened yesterday. I saw my entire family. My mother was alive, my brother, sister and father were all there with me. I felt tears slipping from my eyes.

"Are you okay Sissy?" Robby asked me. I looked down at my little brother and shook my head. His lip quivered and he started to tear up as well.

"Hey buddy, its okay." Cobi scooped Robby up in arms and let him cry in his chest. "It's just hard for your Sissy to be here. This place has a lot of memories that mean a lot to your Sissy."

"This is the place…" I was able to get it out before I started to hiccup and before more tears flowed. I whipped my eyes. "This is the place where my mother was killed and my brother; father and sister were taken, by Skeleton King." I heard many gasps about the room and I saw Spencer get red in the face with rage and he screamed. He then started to try and punch the singed walls. I wanted to help and stop him so bad, but my heart was just breaking so much. It was too many memories, to many nightmares. They burned my mind with their remembrance.

Cobi suddenly handed Robby over to June and he and the team raced to hold Spencer still. With his training and powers, he used his air ability to force the team back since htey were lighter, but Cobi was too heavy. He pushed through the wind my brother blasted at him and took Spencer in his arms. Spencer no longer used his powers when he fought Cobi, pounding his small fists into Cobi's chest and Cobi just held him tighter. Spencer eventually stopped and let his head fall against Cobi's chest; he clung to him as he cried. He screamed and sobbed; he hiccupped and clenched his fists.

"I don't know where our family is. I don't know where Skeleton King stashed them away. It's been years, they could be on any planet, in any galaxy. I don't want to think that they're dead, but that's a possibility too." I gripped my arms with my hands; the pain in my heart was just too powerful. I wanted to disappear; I wanted to end it all. I didn't want to remember.

"Kid.." Sprx was at a loss for words as he tried to talk to me. "Can I ask one more question?"

I gave him no answer.

"Kid, I want to know, your Mom, how did she die? Was it the fire or Skeleton King?"

"I don't want to talk about it." I growled at him. My eyes filled with pain and anger flashed at him and he jumped back. "Not now, I don't want to remember anymore." I then crashed down on the floor. The team and my friends rushed over to me. I cried and let the pain of my heart overtake me. I let it swallow me up hole.

I let it swallow me in its darkest memory, my darkness nightmare. The moment I saw my mother be killed by Skeleton King in front of me in the flames.

Witch's Note:

Wow, that was a late chapter, but I hope the intense-ness of it made up for it. So I can get back on track, I'm going to start working on the next chapter and I hope to have it up in the next couple days.

Question of the Chapter: Where do you think Jasmine's family are? Does the Skeleton King still have them on the Citadel of Bone? Or does he have them now hidden on another planet?

Remember to Review Please! I need them to help me write!

Halloween Witch