To Survive without the Guardians

Chapter 19: Out

"Hold it down," Haven said, and Micah grabbed the Pravitas Crystal and pressed it into the carpet, away from the lamplight. "Are you ready?" Micah nodded. Haven heard her phone buzz, probably another text from Matt, but she didn't answer it. Right now, she had to do this.

She pressed the button on her retracted sword, then slowly began lowering the blade toward the top of the crystal. When she got about a foot away, Micah had to physically strain to keep it in place. While Haven didn't know if it would be helpful to find out if anything happened if she touched it with the metal, Micah had said that it was worth a try.

As the sword got closer, the crystal began to shake in Micah's grasp, and her face contracted in apparent concentration. Haven put her foot down on the dark thing's side to help. It was fighting vigorously.

Micah struggled to hold it still as Haven touched it with her sword, and the short-haired teen heard a sizzling noise. A little curl of white steam rose up from where she continued to press down on it. Was the crystal melting? Haven was able to force the sword even lower as it seemed to eat the Pravitas Crystal away and turn it into mist. The physical corruption began to glow a hot white so bright that Micah squeezed her eyes shut. Haven looked away.

Then suddenly, when she made it about halfway through the crystal, it stopped moving, as if it had died. The light and heat went away as well. The object had also turned clear, and when Haven touched it, it shattered apart into tiny spheres, like minuscule marbles.

Micah opened her eyes. "What did you do?" Haven picked up a handful of the balls and let them sift through her fingers back onto the floor. They were light in weight and very, very smooth. The teen thought for a moment before answering her sister's question.

"I don't know for sure, but I think we cured it." While the Pravitas Crystal's creations weren't strong enough for the light to not completely destroy them, the crystal itself could apparently take it. All of its darkness had been eliminated, and now it didn't even appear to be a crystal anymore. It was too pure.

"Could you use those to turn the Fearlings back?" Micah asked.

Haven pulled out her phone to send Matt a picture. "Maybe." She smiled. Her heart glowed with hope.

*/*/*/*

Matt squinted at Haven's photo. She had texted that the Pravitas Crystal had turned into that when she pressed the sword into it, but it was difficult to see. She was in a mostly-dark room, and whatever the spheres were made of was so clear that it was tough to tell where one ended and another began. The transparent stuff was so perfect it barely distorted the image of the dark carpet below it.

The teen boy sat back down on the couch. How long until the Fearlings came? They had to come before North got too close or else he would see them and know something was up. Matt practiced lifting the Metal Disruptor and holding it in a way that would allow him to use it. It was a rather awkward weapon. He set it down.

The suspense was killing him. He wished he had someone to discuss this feeling with, but the only person he could talk to right now was Haven, and she wasn't in his situation.

He walked over to the fridge and searched for something interesting to eat. The chocolate chip cookies were off-limits since they were for the next day, but nearly everything else was fair game.

But suddenly, he heard it: the silence. He shivered. Even the wind seemed to retreat at the frightening presence of the Fearlings.

Slamming the refrigerator door shut, he sprinted over to the Disruptor. He then sent a quick text to Haven and hoisted Garvit's creation into his arms, pressing the button that powered it up. Wait, should he devote his hands to grasping that or his sword? Probably the Disruptor first, then the blade, currently retracted and in his back pocket, once he had rid the Fearlings of their weapons. Okay.

He heard a noise that sounded like something out of a horror movie: some sort of demonic horse's neigh, one with an echoey and scream-like quality to it. It made the hair on his arms stand on end. What was that? Unlike everything else, it didn't sound quieter with the Fearlings' presence. If anything, it seemed strengthened by it.

Matt's eyes darted around him, searching for the Fearlings and whatever had made the noise. It sounded like it had come from the woods close to the backyard, so he went to a rear window and peered through the falling snow. There was something glaring back from amongst the trees. A dark creature- Matt couldn't tell what it was in the night blizzard- with two glowing golden eyes. They locked with his in a hateful gaze. But where were the Fearlings?

He suddenly felt a looming presence behind him and spun around. Oh. There they were.

Pulling the trigger nearly made the weapon slam against his body, and he had to take a couple steps back. One Fearling's sword shattered out of its hands as the rest of the two dozen finished coming under the front door. Their soulless faces didn't look surprised in the least.

Matt shot the next sword, and the next, and the next, always losing his footing due to the recoil. However, it wasn't that hard to aim since the weapon appeared to have such a large range. That meant he had to be careful where he pointed it, though. He didn't want to shatter anything but the enemies' equipment.

He awkwardly ducked a blow from a sword and shot it. Metal fragments rained down a little too close to his head for comfort. He then struggled to get up with the weighty Disruptor, and he had to shoot a few weapons from the floor before he was able to stand again.

Soon, he felt something behind him and turned around to find a weaponless Fearling trying to take his retracted sword from his pocket. He shot another and tried his best to grab the hilt while still holding the Metal Disruptor with one hand. However, he quickly discovered that wielding the heavy weapon with only a single limb was entirely impossible, so he had to half-rest it on his leg while he grabbed his sword, pressed the button, and clumsily sliced the Fearling in half.

Barely dodging another blow, he made the corner of the room his base and the side of the couch his stationary shield while he de-weaponized and killed the Fearlings. In a few minutes, after obtaining a few cuts to his arms and face, they were gone, and there was a mess of metal shards scattered around the floor. He was about to get the broom and dustpan to clean it up when he remembered the creature with the golden eyes.

He went back to the window he had seen it through and found it standing directly on the other side of the glass, glaring at him. In the light, he could see what it appeared to be: a horse made of black sand or ash. It huffed. Matt set his Disruptor down on the floor, gripped his sword with both hands, and opened the back door.

The creature rushed at him, and he thrust his sword forward, but the demonic horse suddenly broke its form and swirled around him like a sandstorm, stinging his cuts and getting in his eyes. He slashed at the entity, but it was no use, and he felt his grip loosen and heard his weapon clatter to the floor as if he was observing everything from a distance. And then he completely lost touch with the world of consciousness.