Matt whipped the bag of what he had left of the curing orbs out of his pocket as a feverish panic rose in him once more, lighting his still-recovering body on fire with a heightened sense of danger. The Yetis still had their swords, and the Guardians their own weapons.
Everything fell to chaos as the first Fearling came through a nearby tunnel. Mallory grabbed his kids and booked it. Children began screaming. The Yetis brandished their swords and charged, and the egg statues turned so that their angry expressions were facing front and did the same. Matt's heart rate rose even further, and his head spun, trying to come up with a way to protect the Fearlings this time.
"Stop!" Duran shouted, using a voice Matt had only heard when the Fearlings had threatened Angelia. "Don't kill Haven, Vivian, or anyone else!" He took out his sword and tried to run in front of the Yetis and eggs, a few veins clearly visible in his neck, but he wasn't fast enough.
"Just get the children and elves to safety!" Angelia said, racing after him with her gleaming scythe. One of the Yetis shouted something at them, but Matt couldn't understand their language, and his friends didn't stop trying to get in front of the furry creatures as the Yetis continued to advance.
"I will use this!" Duran warned, and Matt didn't doubt for a second that he would. The guy had made threats before and not followed through with them, but this one sounded more real with the fear in his voice. And he was likely under the influence of the curse now. Who knew what he might do?
The Yetis slowed, but it was because of the children and elves running away from the dark creatures, going in the opposite direction that the Yetis were. But the fleeing halted their retreat once they were in the middle of the Warren, surrounded on all sides by Yetis and egg statues, Fearlings and Nightmares. Matt couldn't see Mallory or the Guardians or Whisper, but it didn't really matter for the most part. Whisper was temporarily incapacitated, Mallory had no weapons and was more keen on defending his kids than saving anyone, and the only Guardian on his side was Bunny, who sometimes stopped him from doing things anyway.
Matt sprinted into a tunnel with only Fearlings in it and didn't look back. He fumbled with the tiny curing orbs as his fingers perspired, but he managed to close in around the spheres and throw them at the nearest Fearlings. Their shrieks hurt his ears, echoing in the tunnel, and they froze in white.
He grasped another orb and threw it. Another. Another. Screams danced around him as he ran farther into the cave, and the light faded to a dim glow that came from somewhere above the ceiling, though the Fearlings lit up before they turned into children, disorienting him.
The boy threw another curing orb. And another. And still none of the rescued children looked like Haven, a Pooka, or a Prophecy Person.
It grew even darker, but Matt could still see. His body was filled with a liquid fire that burned bright in his soul, and he began to grab and throw the clear spheres with a surprising ease and strength. He ignored the thoughts of who he was looking for possibly being dead already or in another tunnel or that he might run out of curing orbs. It was like he was in a lucid dream, where just because he thought something, it was bound to happen. Certain to.
Whack! Matt was sent to the stone floor with a thud, and his bag of curing orbs flew from his hand. He sucked in a breath to replace the stolen air and jumped up, not feeling a single ounce of pain. He didn't even care what had attacked him, just that he had to get his orbs back, especially before the Fearlings bore down on him.
But as he squinted in the low light, he saw that all the phantoms had backed away, forming a sort of wall of shadow. Among their ranks was a single Nightmare, its golden eyes standing out from the darkness of its companions, probably what had hit him. But the teen couldn't spot his bag or its contents anywhere. Screw their transparency!
"Matt?"
*/*/*/*
Mallory clutched his children against him as Fearlings and Nightmares filled the air, Jamie for once not protesting at being held so closely. Children around them were screaming, especially the ones that were falling from the sky near the middle. Sophie was crying in her dad's arms, and the Guardians were shouting at various people and creatures. North ordered the Yetis around while Bunny argued with him about something indistinguishable above all the other noise and yelled at the egg statues. Jack was near the Bennetts trying to tell them something Mallory couldn't hear (it probably was just about the danger), and Sandy spoke to Tooth using golden symbols above his head before she flew off toward the main assortment of tunnels.
Nightmares were shrieking, adding to the constant high drone of sound, but there were two things Mallory could hear in spite of it all as he tried to tell Jack he didn't know what the winter spirit was saying. The first was Mallory's heartbeat pounding in his ears as the Warren became plagued with danger. The second was Whisper's voice.
"Have you seen Matt?" Mallory heard this as clear as if he and she had been alone in a quiet room.
Sophie held on to him more tightly, and he failed to find Whisper in the commotion of people sprinting and wailing and creatures running. He knew she would be unable to hear him anyway, so he shook his head so hard it made him a little dizzy and mouthed a "no," hoping Whisper would see and that Jack wouldn't take the response as something for him. The last Mallory had seen of Matt had been right before the former had deemed it safest to rush his children to the Guardians. The L.E.R. had probably been about to perform another curing stunt anyway, something he would greatly prefer not to take part in until a cure that didn't curse was discovered, especially because of the whole "doomed soul" thing.
But what if his kids were turned into Fearlings? This question spun around in Mallory's head as he tried to fold himself over Jamie and Sophie as much as possible. Some of the Yetis formed a semicircle around the children against a grassy hill, others intermingling with the kids.
Bunny's daughter had become a Fearling. Wasn't it possible that Pitch might decide to take vengeance by turning Mallory's children into those shadows? Would the father end up having to use the same cure he feared? If he and his kids became Fearlings, they could all die. Bunny and the L.E.R. may try to defend their lives, but how successful would they be? How successful had they been in defending Haven and Vivian thus far?
Perhaps this was why Mallory felt a sudden concern for the teens as he watched the Fearlings swoop and swerve around the children in the Warren. The L.E.R. had been all right with so many threats until now, but how much longer would it be until its members were in too much danger? That had to be why Whisper was looking for Matt, to make sure he was safe. But why him in specific? Why not Angelia and Duran?
The Yetis bringing two struggling figures into the protected semicircle answered Mallory's question. The teens fought with sharp blades in the rapidly dimming light to get back out, but it wasn't working. The Yetis were clearly much more skilled at wielding their own weapons.
Angelia then pulled out a bag of something and began throwing the things at the Fearlings above them, and Duran did the same.
But Matt was missing.
*/*/*/*
At first, Matt only stared at the short-haired figure in front of him, making sure that his eyes weren't deceiving him as he also secretly searched for his curing orbs.
"Won't you answer me?" The voice was familiar in two different ways. It from his dreams and his nightmares, something to love and something to fear. It was Haven's voice, but yet it was also a Fearling's. The innate quality of it was still there, but it was also twisted, corrupted, distorted. It belonged to her, and yet it didn't.
The voice's owner stared right back at him with an expression that was both pleasant and warm, and sinister and prideful. It was Haven's face, but it was formed from the darkest shadows. Was it her, or was it not?
"Haven." Matt's voice cracked as he spoke. Something tugged at his heart as if the organ were being stretched with sharp talons. Was this figure in front of him really his girlfriend, or was it a trick? If she was Haven, he would be one step closer to his goal. He had to believe it was her. His eyes darted around the tunnel, but he still couldn't find the curing orbs.
"Aren't you gonna apologize to me?"
Matt found it impossible to not tear his gaze from the search to her. A sinking feeling wormed its way into his chest.
"Apologize for what?" He spoke carefully and softly as if she would explode if he said the wrong thing. Wasn't that something women did on television, get angry because of the slightest imperfection in a sentence?
"For not saving me."
"Sorry." The word felt forced in Matt's throat, a little choked and a little angry. He was trying to save her now! Couldn't she see that? He had to remind himself that she was a Fearling at the moment. She had been corrupted. She didn't know what she was saying.
And she wasn't in control.
Matt snapped out of his focus on Fearling-Haven at this realization. He wasn't speaking to his girlfriend right now. She wouldn't even remember what she was doing once he saved her, if she was even really Haven. He wrenched his eyes away, a slight guilty tug in his heart, and began scanning the ground for his curing orbs once more.
"You don't mean it." Fearling-Haven's voice throbbed with sorrow, and Matt saw a pout on her face out of the corner of his eye. It only reinforced the thought it wasn't really her talking. She didn't make that kind of look. "You should have stopped me. You should have realized the curse came from the cure earlier and made me stop."
This was a pointless conversation, but Matt had a feeling there would be repercussions if he didn't respond. "You wouldn't have listened to me then, either." He had to find the orbs, and then he could stop this talk. His fingers twitched at the thought of grabbing one of the spheres, as if by pretending it was there it would materialize in his palm. His heart raced at the thought of completing his goal and ending his stress and terror.
"You're stronger than me, Matt. You could've made me."
A spark of anger fluttered to life in his being. Not only was this corrupted version of Haven using his name as if it knew him, but it was also suggesting something completely terrible! He would never use physical force on her like that!
"You're not her."
"Excuse me?"
Matt met its gaze. "You're not her. You're not Haven."
It tilted its head to the side. "Of course I am. I know things about you the other Fearlings don't. I know you don't have any social media accounts. I know you came up with the name for the L.E.R. I know you..."
"So you admit to being a Fearling." The words rolled off of Matt's tongue without him thinking. He knew he shouldn't have been saying them. He knew he shouldn't make a dark being angry. But corruption taking Haven's memories and using them as if they were its own made him feel a rage he had never felt before. His twitching fingers began to tremble.
Fearling-Haven's mouth was slightly agape for a second, no words coming out. However, it soon closed it, and dark tears appeared in its eyes.
"That's right." Its voice warbled and lost its corrupted quality. It sounded exactly like Matt's girlfriend's voice now, like she was in pain. His anger drained from his body. It was like Haven was there right in front of him; how his ears had longed to hear the voice he was hearing now! Had the real Haven broke through the corruption? "I'm a Fearling because you failed to protect me!"
Matt's rage came back to him in a sudden wave. That wasn't the real her, no matter what its voice sounded like. She had never guilted him like that, nor had she ever played the victim.
"If you're really Haven, then drop your sword." The boy stared the Fearling right in the eye, pausing his search, then began to circle around it, secretly looking for the curing orbs again.
Fearling-Haven's tearful gaze drifted down to the curved blade in its hand.
"The real Haven wouldn't need it," Matt continued, "because the real her wouldn't hurt me." A spiteful smile, more of a jeer than a grin, pulled at his lips. He had stumped it. He had stumped the corruption, the enemy that had taken over his girlfriend and others. A strange powerful feeling pulsed through his body.
Fearling-Haven looked up at him, its eyebrows lowered and the corners of its mouth drooping in supposed hurt. "I don't need my sword to protect myself against you. I need it for them." It gestured at the Fearlings around it, but its expression faltered as Matt's smirk grew. That had not been a very Haven thing to say, that she would voluntarily use a sword against Fearlings that weren't attacking her.
"If you were Haven, if she was really in control," Matt said, his smile creeping up his face even more at the thought of his words, "then you would tell me where the curing orbs are. You would want to turn back."
"I don't know where they're at."
"Then help me look for them." How far would Fearling-Haven be willing to go to keep its act up? Hopefully...
"I can't. The other Fearlings won't let me."
"What a stupid excuse. Is that the best you can come up with?"
"Matt!" Its pained voice and facial expression were so much like the real Haven's that the boy felt a yank in his chest again. But no, he shouldn't feel guilty. Fearling-Haven may have his girlfriend's voice and looks and memories, but corruption was in control. "If you were you, wouldn't you not upset me?"
The sentence threw Matt's thoughts off their course for a second. He was him, and he was acting unkind toward "Haven," so how could he accuse her of not being in control just because she was doing the same thing? Sometimes people acted seemingly out of character just because of their situations. Maybe Haven was partially in control, but not all the way.
"You wouldn't hurt her," she continued. "You know that becoming a Fearling wasn't her fault, so why would you hurt her?
"We all do stupid things sometimes. You saw what the curse did to her- to me. You know I can't always control what I do anymore."
Did all the other Fearlings still have their former selves inside of them, too, just twisted with corruption?
Matt looked at the phantom in front of him. His spinning thoughts didn't know what to do, but he felt the pain in his heart taking control. "If you're really Haven, then why did you come talk to me? Why did the corruption make you?" What would the darkness gain from putting a fake in her place when it had made sure he was rid of his curing spheres? Nothing, that was what.
"It wants me to make you hurt. To tear you apart."
Matt heard the screams of Fearlings begin to echo through the tunnel again. Someone was at its entrance, saving the shadows. Someone was coming with a cure. He looked behind him, in the person's direction.
"I have to go," Haven said. Matt snapped his head back around.
"No! Wait!" But Haven and the other Fearlings began moving away from the noise. "Someone is coming to help!" He reached toward her but missed. The Fearlings sped up, and Haven's form shifted back to an indistinguishable ghost as Matt tried to run after them. "No! No! Come back! Please!" His voice was so high and loud that it tore at his throat. "Fight the corruption!"
Too soon, they were out of his sight. But he kept running. He kept running until he was seized from behind and dragged back to the main area of the Warren, screaming and thrashing the whole way.