To Ally with the Guardians

Chapter 13: To Halt a Prophecy

Matt lay on the hard mossy ground, a light blanket over him and his hand in his pocket, his fist clenched tight around his bag of curing orbs. He wasn't going to lose it again.

No matter how much he tried, he couldn't fall asleep for very long, and when he was unconscious, he had nightmares. Terrible ones. Ones of Haven being just out of reach as he tried to cure her, Pitch laughing at him in the distance. If that villain ever showed up, Matt's personal goal was to punch him in the face as hard as physically possible, but maybe that was just the corruption taking over. After all, the spirit only acted the way he did because he was possessed by Fearlings.

Matt sat up and tossed his blanket off of him, glancing at the boarded-up tunnel nearby. Also close to him were Angelia and Duran, both asleep but not comfortably so by the looks of it. Mallory was with his kids at the top of the hill, the elves were playing near the river, the Guardians and Yetis were roaming around watching over everyone and everything, occasionally mumbling to each other, and Whisper...Matt didn't know where she was at the moment. She had run off after the talk. She had probably hidden, wanting to be alone.

The human boy looked at his feet. Both of them, the one with three toes and the one with four, a birth defect, were completely gray from the curse. A memory flashed through his brain of Haven's terrified face when she had shown the L.E.R. the progress the curse was making on her body. While Matt wasn't a "doomed soul," that didn't stop him from getting cursed like her. If Haven and Mallory were "doomed," then what was he?

He rolled up his right pant leg, and then his left, observing how far the grayness had gotten on both of his legs, whose lengths had been uneven until the summer before eighth grade when he had had surgery to fix it. The curse had taken one of his limbs entirely and just a little of the other. It wasn't following the exact same pattern as it had in Haven, but that didn't matter. Matt thought about more important things.

The Guardians had said they would plan in the morning, that everyone else should sleep first since one couldn't come up with a good plan when one was exhausted. Chances were, however, that Matt was going to be even more tired tomorrow than he had been before now. Fears kept striking at his skull and seeping into his bones. What if the Fearlings and Nightmares came back during the night and broke through the boards, and no one was prepared for it? What if Haven never appeared to him in a recognizable form again? What if they ran out of curing orbs before they could save her?

Matt pulled the Indicator from his other pocket and stared at it in the low light. Its white needle hovered in nearly the center of the blue half. He pushed his thumb against it, but it didn't budge, almost cutting into his skin when he tried.

What had Garvit guessed this thing meant again? That one group of people would die, exist, or disappear based on wherever the needle was pointing? Why had it switched to pointing at the other half all of a sudden? It had begun being in the orange half when Haven had killed the Fearlings chasing Angelia after the whole Indicator, especially the words on the back, had glowed. That had been before the L.E.R. had the cure, before they even thought one would be possible.

Matt's heart stopped for a second. Haven. What if she was in the group that was supposed to die or disappear? What if the Indicator was telling him that there was now no way to get her back? After that whole "doomed soul" thing, even though Whisper thought the red nail might have come from the Nightmares...

He tried to push the fear to the back of his mind, but that wouldn't work anymore. Even when he tried to reason with himself that the needle had pointed at the blue half before, and that Haven had been safe then (or as safe as she could have been while being haunted by Fearlings and having no way to defend herself), he couldn't make the nagging worry disappear.

But was it possible that the Indicator could be wrong? Or could he at least fight against what it was telling him, change the whole "doomed soul" thing somehow?

Whisper would know. She dealt with Prophecies, and the Indicator seemed to be telling one, even if it wasn't one of those Monitor things. He had to find her.

He stood up, donned his shoes so that the rocks wouldn't hurt his feet, immediately put one hand back in the pocket with the curing orbs in it, and began sneaking around. Although all of the Guardians were on his side now, he didn't reckon they'd think it was a good idea for him to be up like this, so he made sure to stick to the shadows.

The Asian teen checked for the violet-spotted girl everywhere: behind egg statues back in their normal places, in the high branches of trees, in corners and crevices, and sleeping among the other kids, but he couldn't find her anywhere. That was when he remembered the cave they had spoken in earlier, however, and he slunk his way up the hill to its entrance. When he squeezed his way inside, he found her sitting against the stone wall with her head leaned back, her body trembling.

Whisper looked at Matt, and she stilled. "What do you want?" A flash of anger crossed her face, but it was gone as soon as it appeared. She drew her legs up to her chin and shut her watery eyes.

Matt sat down, sliding the hand holding the Indicator against the cave to feel his way to the ground. It was dark in here, darker than it had been earlier. "I was wondering if you could tell me if I could stop a Prophecy from coming true." No response, either positive or negative. "I...I'm wondering if...if Haven being turned into a Fearling has something to do with the Indicator." Matt didn't mention his fears.

Whisper opened her eyes again. "If your Indicator is not a Monitor, then it has nothing to do with Prophecies. There are no other instruments that display Prophecies' details in such a way. And as I said before, it is highly unlikely that Haven had a prophetic dream that relates to it. Neither the Indicator nor the 'doomed souls' dream mean anything." She immediately snapped her head down and covered her face, her breathing hitching.

"What if things have changed since your time? Could I stop a Prophecy?"

"If things have changed, then the universe is doomed. Others should not have unlimited knowledge of what is to come."

Matt sighed internally. Angelia and Duran would probably be better at talking to a grieving person than he, but they were asleep and needed the rest.

"Whisper, I don't know what it's like to lose everything, but I'm trying to save Haven. Is it possible to stop a Prophecy from coming true?"

"I...I don't want to talk about it. Please leave me alone."

"What could I do to make you comfortable with telling me?"

"I said leave me alone!"

A terrible pain ricocheted through Matt's brain, and he grimaced, raising his Indicator-holding hand to his head.

Whisper retreated further into a ball, like she was trying to become one with the cave. "I'm sorry." Her voice was soft and remorseful. "I shouldn't have shouted like that. I hope you can forgive me."

"Yeah...it's fine." Matt lowered his hand. His chest felt hollow inside, not because of Whisper yelling at him but because of her unwillingness to answer his question. "It wasn't that bad. But are you sure that..."

"Please just leave. I don't want to talk to you anymore tonight."

"Why?"

"Please leave." She raised her hand, and for a second, Matt could no longer see. But his vision soon flickered back, and Whisper let out a quiet sigh. She was still unable to use her power of darkness control. "I'm feeling vulnerable and I'm grieving. Please leave. I will say no more."

"Just answer my one question!" Matt begged. He didn't want to push her like this, but he just had to know. "I need to help Haven, like how you're helping your friends."

But she remained silent.

Matt tried for hours to get her to answer him, but she wouldn't say another word. His fear shot up at first, but as his mouth started to feel dry from arguing with nothing so much, he began to feel a strange sense of calm.

As the light outside the cave began to brighten, he finally went back to bed, almost not believing what he had done.

He had given up on getting Whisper to tell him if he could stop a Prophecy from coming true, at least for right now. He had given up on something.