Shadow Wood, Desmond, 10416 P.C.

Matthew awoke with a start, sitting straight up on his sleeping mat and looking around quickly. His heart stuttered, and he took a deep breath to calm it, reminding himself where he was. He hadn't had a dream or nightmare in a long time, and waking up from one now was unnerving. Swallowing hard, he laid back down on the mat, tugging the blanket back over him. Around him, the others slept on, unaware.

Several hours before, their little group had stumbled into the small town of Shadow Wood. Abby had directed them to a house on the edge, secluded by trees and bushes, and while the others hid, she approached the door and knocked. Matthew could still hear the elderly man's cry of disbelief and joy when he opened the door and saw his granddaughter. They were all quickly ushered inside, where Abby's grandparents had hugged her and cried. Matthew was relieved that some of Abby's family still lived — he had a safe place to leave her.

Abby's grandparent's assured their small group that they could spend the night in their basement. There were two washrooms in the house, one upstairs and the other in the basement, and while Abby's grandmother took Abby to wash her down and tend to her wounds in the bathroom upstairs, the others were given free reign to the basement one. Matthew had made each of the others use it before him — frankly, he was scared to see his reflection. The last time he had seen what he looked like, he had been a child. He wasn't a child anymore.

When he did finally step into the bathroom and face himself, he wasn't sure what to think. The young man looking back at him was a disaster; how could the others have even looked at him so normally? His long hair was a knotted, frazzled mess, and his face was speckled with dried blood and many fine layers of dust and filth. His shirt was torn all over, and he could see the Death Omen symbol in its entirety for the first time. It was a hideous scar. Pulling off his shirt, Matthew was able to see the countless little scars scattered all over his chest. When he turned to look at his back, the sight nearly took his breath away.

Scars on scars on scars, layers and layers of white and red lines on his back. Some thick, some thin, all of them ugly and gruesome. It was as if the skin of his back had been traded for the scaled and scarred flesh of some other creature. He trailed his fingers over the scars he could reach, feeling the bumps, seeing for the first time what everyone else had seen. Now he knew why he had gotten such stares of disgust and horror. The sight was mortifying.

It had taken a long time to scrub his body free of the years of grime and filth. His hair was impossibly tangled, but he worked hard on it, eventually getting it to the point where he could weave at least the clumps into a haphazard braid. When he faced himself in the mirror again, he felt like a different person. The scars were even more prominent now, but he chose to ignore them as he dressed in the clothes Abby's grandfather had provided for him. The pants were a bit too short, but the t-shirt and button-up fit alright. He wasn't going to complain. He had then taken the mat, pillow, and blanket they gave him, curled up in a corner, and fallen asleep immediately without much more than a word or two to the others. Stephanie had tried talking to him, but he didn't want to talk. He had just wanted to be alone.

Now he was alone, in the black of night with the pulse of Athrii still loud in his mind.

It hadn't left, not when they had left the mountain and not even after the Veil's Lady's attack. It had followed them all the way to Shadow Wood and Matthew was beginning to wonder if he was going crazy. There was nothing he could mentally grab a hold of; when it had been in the cameras, he had just known it had been a camera. He had felt it. Same with the cuffs. He could sense even now that several houses in Shadow Wood contained Athrii in some way, shape or form. A stove, a heating system, a lamp — such simple things were powered by magic instead of electricity, and the people either did not know or did not care. He could reach out mentally and grab a hold of that Athrii and shut it down if he had wanted to.

But this pulse, this other form of Athrii... it was different. More powerful. Deadlier. It seemed to be finite and coming from one source, and yet at the same time infinite and completely consuming them. It was as if Matthew had connected to a signal and something was interfering with it or jamming it somehow. He knew that the Veiled Lady was following them, but he couldn't tell where exactly she was or what her motives were.

He wasn't sure how long he had slept. It didn't feel very long at all. The nightmare had been quick in coming, and with a squinted glance at the clock on the wall, he realized he hadn't been sleeping for much more than an hour. The others were all fast asleep, scattered in various places in the basement: Stephanie and Annabella and Bethany on the couches, Todd and Jessie on mats like him. Abby was upstairs with her grandparents.

Staring up at the ceiling, Matthew pushed the pulse of Athrii to the back of his mind and focused on what Stephanie had asked him earlier. It was just before he had retreated to his corner and slept; she had given him a look, one he couldn't read, and asked, "So, are you going to join us?"

He had mumbled some kind of excuse and moved away from her, but now her question was troubling him. Join them? Join them in what? Yes, clearly, these strangers were on some sort of mission — Stephanie had briefly mentioned it before — but he had no idea what they were doing. These friends of hers were Oddities like him in some way. Did Stephanie think that would make him willing to just drop everything and join them?

He had nothing to drop. He had nowhere to go, no one to go home to, and he knew he couldn't stay with Abby and her grandparents. He was too much of a liability. He endangered everyone he encountered because of what he was: an Oddity.

Maybe that was why, when the others woke up and got ready to leave, he finally made up his mind to join them.

"You're coming?" Stephanie asked, staring at him in surprise with those mesh-like eyes. Had she thought he was going to stay? More than likely. The truth was, he wasn't sure why he'd let her just walk out of his life. Coincidences like her didn't just happen. He still couldn't understand why his Warmth had reacted the way it had to her. Maybe he'd figure it out if he went with them.

"Yeah, I think so," he murmured. They were in the corner of the room, folding up their blankets. Annabella was upstairs with Bethany and Abby's grandmother, and Todd and Jessie were on the other side of the room, organizing their backpacks with the new supplies Abby's grandparents had provided them with. Matthew glanced at Jessie every once in a while, knowing she was purposefully avoiding catching his eyes. She loathed him, and he didn't blame her. The Death Omen — hidden safely beneath the button-up shirt he had been given — was an ugly symbol with bad memories. He didn't blame her reaction to him having it.

He shook away his dark thoughts, looking at Stephanie again. "I have nowhere else to go. It's not safe for me here, or anywhere. Not with... you know."

She did know. She was the only one who fully knew. It seemed to have become a secret between the two of them — 'it' being the full extent of his powers. Todd, Jessie, and Annabella had surely noticed that he was different, but it was hard to wager how much they had figured out.

Annabella came down the stairs, slinging a backpack over her shoulder. Bethany stepped down beside her, not at all dressed for a journey. Matthew hadn't heard the child say more than a word since meeting her, but he could see that there were tears in her eyes as she ran to Todd and hugged him.

"What's wrong?" Todd asked, pulling the toddler into his arms and frowning at Annabella.

Annabella let out a breath. "This trip will be dangerous. It'll be too hard for Bethany to make. Hannah and Phillip have graciously offered to keep her here with them while we're gone."

Matthew pushed himself to his feet, looking across the room at Todd, who seemed a bit stricken at the news. The other boy didn't seem to be much older than Matthew, and while he seemed bold, there was a caring in him that Matthew hadn't seen in very many men in his life.

Todd held Bethany out at arm's length, talking quietly to the little girl as Jessie crawled up beside him and played with Bethany's braids, adding her own comforting words. Matthew had long since noticed that Todd and Jessie smiled frequently, even more than Stephanie, and he understood it as their own form of rebellion. Motch had attempted to take away joy, and they were fighting back bit by bit. He found it admirable, and yet he couldn't bear to draw a smile up himself. It didn't feel right, and that didn't feel wrong. He knew he wasn't alone; Annabella seemed to be in his position as well. He hadn't seen the girl crack a smile yet, and something told him he wouldn't.

Stephanie spoke up. "Matthew is coming with us."

They all froze, looking up at her and Matthew. Annabella only had her eyebrows raised. Something in her gaze told him she wasn't surprised. Todd, however, looked surprised, while Jessie only frowned. After an exchange of glances between Annabella and Todd, Annabella nodded. "You trust him, I assume."

"I do," Stephanie replied, a hint of a smile ghosting her face. "With my life, actually."

"Oh, boy, that was fast," Matthew said without thinking. He was rewarded with her full smile. The Warmth approved, and he had to bite his lip to stop himself from returning it. This girl was doing weird things to him, and he wasn't sure what to do about it. Resist? Accept it? Accept what? He didn't say it, but he realized that he trusted her too.

Oh, boy, that was fast.

Annabella looked at Todd, her eyebrows still arched.

"I trust Stephanie," he said simply.

Jessie spoke up. "And I would say let's vote on it, but it looked like we already have." Her tone was only mildly bitter.

"It's settled, then." Annabella straightened her shoulders, nodding at Matthew. "Matthew's with us."

Why did he suddenly feel like he had just signed his life over on some really sketchy deal? "Great. Alright. Where are we going and what are we doing?"

Stephanie stepped up beside him, holding the folded blankets in her arms. "Simple. We're going to the Misty Lake on a quest to find Annabella's parents — the king and queen of the south, by the way — so that hopefully they can give us a clue as to where the Immortal One's son is. Oh, and by the way, Todd is the Deliverer." With an impish grin, Stephanie took the blankets upstairs.

Yes, Matthew had most definitely just signed his life over on some really sketchy deal.