Chapter 3: A Grim Song
"Heather, Wake up!"
Mari and Jowee shook Heather awake.
"Wha-what happened?" Heather asked.
"Well, first of all, we're here." Jowee said. "And you were also having a nightmare. You were thrashing wildly, like someone was attacking you. We were worried."
Heather sat there. She was being attacked. These nightmares were getting worse. Heather started to fear for her sanity, if not her life.
"These dreams are getting worse." She said, obviously worried. "I think the Shadow is trying to break my spirit."
She sighed, shivering. The thought of the Shadow on her face overpowering her was terrifying. If the fate of the world was dependent on her, and she fell to corruption, all her friends would suffer for it.
Mari grasped her shoulder. "Hey, it'll be alright. We're here to help you. We're going to defeat the Shadow and save the World. The Creator said it, so it must be true."
The Creator is a dimwitted fool, Heather thought to herself. Suddenly, she pushed the idea out of her head. What was she thinking?
The Shadow wasn't just corrupting her body. It was in her mind, becoming part of her. It was corroding her thoughts and manipulating her personality. She had to fight back.
If she failed, Mari and Jowee would be alone. Alone against a world of nightmares.
They got out of there house and looked around. Turtle Rock had docked in Watersong. However, the streets were infested with Shadow Walkers. Shadow Goo was everywhere.
"We're too late." Heather sighed.
"No." Jowee said. "We failed to warn them, but we can still save them."
"How do you expect to fight an army of Darkness?" Mari asked.
Jowee smiled. "The Hero could destroy hoards of these things. We're the Heroes now."
The drew their swords and charged into the fray. After a quick and brutal melee, the Walkers were destroyed, and they began to sneak through the city. They encountered more Shadow Walkers, and other Shadow Creatures, but no corrupt Raposa. It was as if the city was deserted. The most chilling part was the silence. Watersong was known for it's beautiful music, but it was deathly silent, except for the distorted and disturbing cries and shrieks the Shadow Creatures made when slain.
"It looks like there's no one here." Jowee said.
"We need to keep looking." Mari replied. "We can't leave anyone in a nightmare like this."
As they continued to walk, they searched everywhere. No one was bathing in the Hot Springs. No one was riding in the waterways. No one was selling fruit or food in the market. No one was there.
At last, the City Hall was the only building left unchecked. The main doors were locked shut by a massive shadow lock.
The three of them traded nervous glances. Heather swiped at the lock and, surprisingly, it disintegrated.
"Oh." She muttered. "That was surprisingly easy."
Mari, Jowee and Heather then entered the Hall.
Looking around, they could see that the beautiful statues of city hall were corrupted by the Shadows. The thought that the Shadow Queen could even think of corrupting such a beautiful place... it was appalling.
They soon reached a large pair of doors at the end of a hallway. Behind it, they heard applause, as if a concert was being shown.
"Do you hear that?" Jowee asked.
Mari looked at him like he had just said the stupidest thing ever.
"I guess yeah." Jowee said glumly.
They pushed the doors open to reveal a large concert hall. Inside, hundreds of Shadow Raposa sat in the seats, applauding a orchestra of more Shadow Raposa. In the center of the stage stood Mayor Rose, in a Shadowy form.
"Thank you. Thank you." Mayor Rose proclaimed, to get the audience to stop applauding. "This next piece is very important, made by command from the Shadow Queen herself."
The Shadow Raposa ooed and aahed at this remark.
"This piece is a tribute to the Shadow Martyr, Wilfre, who sacrificed his standing in his home village and his own sanity in order to defy the Creator and break the chains that had once kept the Raposa people enslaved. This piece is a song of gratitude and commemoration to Wilfre, may his memory live on in each of us."
The corrupt mayor then motioned to the orchestra, and they started playing.
The song was curious at first. Quiet, with only a few instruments playing. Slowly, however, it got louder, with more instruments joining in.
Heather recognized the music. She felt as if the music was played before, as a battle theme for when the Hero and Wilfre fought.
The crowd sat silently as the music played on. As Jowee, Mari and Heather approached the stage, they began to be overpowered by the music. They felt as if they couldn't fight back, mesmerized by the songs strange, terrible beauty.
Maybe Wilfre had been right all along. Maybe he was the Hero, and the Creator was, truly, a Tyrant.
Pushing these thoughts out of there heads, they eventually made it through, using sheer force of will to get to the stage.
They confronted the Mayor, who looked at them with a sneer.
"So, you've come here to interrupt this great concert? I won't let you just walk in here and ruin my people's work!"
She lunged at the 3 heroes, as the music kept playing. She floated upwards, firing volleys of Shadow at the heroes, who jumped up and slashed at her with the swords the Creator gave them. Jowee tried to deflect a volley of shadow, but it dissolved as it touched his sword. As they slashed at the mayor, globs of shadow goo fell off of Rose and dissolved, revealing the real Raposa beneath.
"You're starting to annoy me!" Rose snarled. "Now die!"
The Orchestra continued playing, only now each note fired a volley of shadow bolts. The bright side was that Rose had lowered to the ground and engaged in melee combat, making it easier to attack her.
As the fight began to reach it's end, Rose grabbed Jowee and Mari by the throats, lifting them off the ground with the intent of strangling them to death.
"You 2 have caused enough trouble for the Queen already. It's time I finish what Wilfre started."
However, Heather leaped off the ground, roaring a battle-cry, as she drove the sword into the corrupt mayor's back.
The Shadow on Mayor Rose shrieked in pain as it disintegrated. The Mayor then dropped Jowee and Mari, letting out a sigh of pain before collapsing to the ground.
The music stopped, as the Shadow Goo on the other Raposa began to fall off, as if it was sourced by the Mayor.
Heather looked down at Rose. The Mayor was freed from the Shadow's influence, but the sword Heather used had stabbed the mayor. Rose was sickly pale, and barely breathing. A small pool of blood was forming under her, and Heather's sword was stained with it.
"The Mayor's hurt!" One of the villagers screamed in fear. The other villagers started panicking, as medics came and took the mayor away.
The people started to panic, and some even began to jeer and roar in anger at Heather, screaming "Murderer!" accusingly.
Heather just stood there, shocked, unable to move. She wanted to save the Mayor from the Shadow by killing the Shadow with the sword. That was noble, right?
She accidentally hurt the Mayor. But that wasn't what scared her,
The scary part was that she enjoyed doing it.