To Ally with the Guardians

Chapter 17: The Fake Monitor

When Matt and the others reached Grandpa Sloan's house, Matt opened the door and walked in. The others didn't follow for a second as if they weren't sure if they should enter as well.

They might as well just have stayed out there. Matt wasn't looking forward to this, and an audience would just make it worse, more real.

Grandpa Sloan looked up from his coffee at the dining table. "New friends?" Although he was still in his robe, he didn't appear to care. His brown eyes hovered over Bunny, but he didn't outwardly question his inhuman appearance.

"I...uh..." Matt's heart rose to his throat.

"Your parents have been worried, Matt. You should have told someone before you left."

"I couldn't." The boy did his best to keep his voice from shaking out of rage and fear. "The Guardians kidnapped me, and we were being attacked by thousands of Fearlings and Nightmares."

"So it was an evacuation?"

"Yeah." The teen couldn't look his grandpa in the eye now. He stared at the table instead. "But we have to go back to the Warren soon. They won't let us leave. Could you please tell Angelia, Duran, Haven's," his voice cracked, betraying him, "and my parents what happened to us? The Guardians sent them notes, but we want you to tell them they're true. We'll all come home sometime."

"I can tell you where we live so you won't have to look it up," Angelia offered, stepping forward from the crowd behind Matt.

Grandpa Sloan scanned the group. "Where's Haven?"

Those two words struck Matt's heart with fear. His mouth felt dry.

"She's...fine. Just not here."

Grandpa Sloan gave him a knowing look.

"She will be fine." Matt spat the second word from his mouth as if saying it with more force would make it more true. She would be fine somehow. Hopefully Mallory could create a new cure. If not...Matt would find another way. He wouldn't settle until Haven was human again.

"Be careful." Grandpa Sloan tried to meet his grandson's eyes, but the boy refused to look.

"I will."

"Hey, where's Whisper?" Duran asked all of a sudden, looking around. Everyone else did the same, craning their necks to search.

"You can come in," Angelia called toward the door. Matt walked away from his grandpa in the direction of Angelia's gaze, and there was Whisper standing outside and staring at something right next to the entrance. The Prophecy Person glanced at the others but then went back to looking at whatever it was, putting her hand on it and closing her eyes. At first, Matt had no idea what she was seemingly so obsessed with, but then it came to him.

Grandpa Sloan got up from the table and moved forward through the group staring at the girl. Her breathing hitched as he approached her, and she tightened her grip on the outdoor thermometer, slender and traditional in design, the kind with the red substance that went up and down.

"What's wrong?" he asked in a kind voice, looking up at her. Based on the fact that she didn't open her eyes, Matt guessed that she didn't respond.

"She's grieving," Duran explained, although it was a sort of understatement of the fact that nearly everything she had known had been destroyed. "Her name's Whisper. She's a Prophecy Person from the planet The."

"Oh." Grandpa Sloan didn't question the unfamiliar terms, just reached out and placed a wrinkled hand on her shoulder. He looked at the thermometer for a second. "Would you like to keep that?"

Tears leaked out from under Whisper's eyelids and lashes, and she just barely nodded. Grandpa Sloan then pulled her into a hug around the books she was holding. She tensed up at first but then relaxed into it, wrapping an arm around him as drops fell down her face.

"It gets better," he whispered. "I don't know what you lost, but it gets better, I promise." She twitched. Her eyes flickered open, and tears poured faster as she shook, a garbled noise coming not from her mind but from her throat. It was an odd but pained sound, one that reminded Matt of his own sorrow and chipped away at his heart. No, he wouldn't grieve. There was nothing to mourn because he would save Haven. He just didn't know how yet; that was all. Ignoring the rising feeling of terror, he glanced at Mallory, who, looking troubled, had furrowed his brows as he stared at Whisper. Or maybe he was deep in thought. Yes, maybe he was secretly already thinking about that cure.

Matt waited for Whisper to finish crying, for his grandpa to let go, but her tears kept flowing, and he held her tight. Every second seemed wasted to the boy, just standing there and doing nothing. He wanted to be polite about Whisper's grieving, but he also really wanted to leave so that she could translate those records and give them to Mallory. They couldn't make a plan without a new cure.

Everyone aside from the comforter and the comforted stood there awkwardly, some averting their eyes and some scuffing their feet on the floor, even Mallory eventually looking away as the minutes passed. An intense anger grew in Matt. He tried to keep it under control as time stretched on, but even though he knew it was the curse and not him, he soon couldn't take it anymore.

"We need to go." His voice wavered with emotion that he couldn't keep out. He almost went over to wrench Whisper away and make her pull herself together, but he hesitated just long enough that she could react and keep him from continuing to give in to his urges.

She released Grandpa Sloan from her grasp and slipped away from his arms, her breath still shuddering but her crying slowed. "You're right. We need to work on that cure."

Grandpa Sloan shot a quick scolding glance at Matt before softening his expression for Whisper. "Are you sure you don't want to stay? I have plenty of room." She hesitated for a second before shaking her head and resuming walking out the door. Everyone else followed, but Grandpa Sloan stopped Matt before the boy could make it through the exit.

"What was that for?" the old man asked, then paused. "What's really going on with Haven?"

Matt stared at his shoes. "She'll be fine." He tried to make it outside past Grandpa Sloan, but the man pulled the teen back.

"And how is she currently?"

"She's cursed," Matt finally admitted. He didn't dare mention that he and some others were slightly as well. "But we'll break it, don't worry." He said those last two words more to himself than his adoptive relative, mumbled lower than the others.

With that, Grandpa Sloan let him walk out the door. People gave the boy uncomfortable glances as he rejoined them but didn't say anything. They had to know that it was the curse that had made him act that way.

But if- once they rescued Haven, how would they rescue themselves?

*}{/*}{/*}{/*

"Mallory?" The Nightmare in front of Mallory said, and the voice wrenched him from his dream- well, nightmare, really. He awoke to see a figure at the edge of his vision in the darkness of the Warren. Without analyzing it for too long, he knew that it was Whisper. Nearby were his kids and the L.E.R., all tossing and turning in their sleep. The Guardians and Yetis were being sentinels like the previous night.

"Are you done with the translation?" Mallory asked as he forced his brain awake. Although they had left the workshop before getting paper and a writing utensil, one of Tooth's fairies had gone to get some, as well as everyone's belongings, once they had come back from Matt's grandpa's house.

The girl took a step closer and nodded, crouching. "Here."

Mallory frowned at the hefty stack of papers she was handing him. It was going to take a long time to get through it all. Hopefully he would be able to absorb the information quickly. But right now, he had to get some more sleep.