Hall of Shadows

Do you think darkness exists in this world?

a/n: The story is a little different from the original one, since Pitch has not yet came in to the story. He is the darkness, and needs a vessel to be able to walk on earth physically. But he has been an enemy of the other guardians for decades.
Also, be aware that English is not my native language, so the story may contain misspelling and sentences that might not make any sense. Enjoy.

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Sound of steps. A young boy, not even ten years old, walked down the path into the woods. He had been dared to go wandering into the forest at night, to prove that he was worthy of the title of a man. There was nothing else a boy could dream of. The young's shoes were wet and cold, as it had been raining in the daytime. The grass was floating with water, and the air was filled with this onerous oxygen. Shadows were more bigger in this part of the woods, which made the little boy shiver a bit. He was not so sure about this anymore. Though something in him encouraged him to go forward.

Soon, he noticed something even darker than the shadows in the middle of the forest. It was an opening, whose trees seemed to have died and collapsed down. Only a huge rock covered the dead ground. 

It was obvious that he wanted to turn around and go home, but it felt like the darkness had got a grip of him, and didn't want to let go. The boy just went forward, as much as he had to in order to be able to touch the rock. And so he did, without even realizing it at first. It felt like the shadows were engulfed by the little boy, or at least a portion of it.

As soon as the boy let go of the rock, his eyes turned as black as the shadows were. He had an almost venomous smirk on his face, and it seemed like his veins started to pop out of his skin. His blood turned pitch black, and soon the boy started coughing it out. That something was too much for him, and in seconds the young one tumbled down on the ground. He was not dead yet, but started to crawl back towards the town like a zombie. It was nightmarish, but as soon as the sun rose, the little boy lost his life. Darkness had laid claim to another innocent victim.

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Jack brushed his hair as white as ice with his hand and let out a yawn.

"What were you talking about again, North?" he asked, rubbing his eyes and leaning on his frozen stick.

North looked at him in disbelief and folded his arms on his chest. Bunny didn't even bother concentrating on Jack and his sleepiness,  instead he stole a few cookies from a little elf who didn't seem to be pleased about his actions.

"Jack, how can you be so tired? I thought guardians never get tired, physically at least", Tooth pointed out from the middle of the conversation with her fairies.

"I don't know. I just started feeling so tired all of a sudden", Jack answered in confusion, and yawned again.

North frowned and stared at Jack for a while. It was indeed very odd that Jack felt sleepy in this manner, but that was not the worst problem they had at the moment.

"We received rumors from fairies and yetis, but haven't yet checked if they are actually correct or not. Jack, I decided that you should go see what's going on, since you're working so close to that location right now", North said and pointed at Jack with his index finger.

Jack was barely listening to him because of his sleepiness, but he put his thumb up instead as a sign that it's cool and he's following.

"They told us that little kids have gone mad, losing their minds and self-harming themselves", he continued, brushing his white beard with his fingers all the while, "Naturally, when things like this happen, we are in charge to take care of it."

Jack looked a little confused, but seemed to understand what his job was. He grabbed his stick tight and looked at North.

"Understood. I'll take care of it", bags under his eyes were clearly visible now that he had raised his head up. "I'll be as quick as a bunny."

Jack waved as a goodbye and flew away along with the frozen wind.

It didn't take him long to reach his destination, and soon he landed on a roof of one of the buildings. Night had already fallen, which was a good thing for him, since many kids believed in him and could see him if they laid their eyes on him. Night was the best time for him to be wandering around. Everything seemed so quiet, and Jack nearly fell asleep himself. This sudden sleepiness made him wonder what was going on. The same thing had happened a few times before, when he suddenly started feeling unbelievably tired, and couldn't help but close his eyes and fall asleep. Guardians don't sleep. So it's odd.

Before Jack actually fell asleep, he heard a loud scream coming from nearby. It was clearly a girl's voice. The frosty haired boy quickly followed the voice, but couldn't find the source of it. He had found his way into a dark alley, whose shadows seemed like they could gulp him down as whole. It was rather intimidating.

He had never seen shadows such as those. They were so threatening that it wouldn't be a surprise if they suddenly started attacking him for real. Jack looked all around the alley, trying to avoid the shadows as much as he could, but couldn't find anything. Not a sign of a girl, nor a sign of a fight. There was no proof that there had actually been someone.

Jack was going to go looking for evidence from further in the streets of the town, but suddenly heard the same scream as from before. A zombie-looking girl crawled up from the shadows, and her eyes were as black as the darkness itself. But her scream didn't belong to any human anymore. Jack took a huge bounce backwards, scared of the sudden surprise of the girl.

"What the-?!" he yelled, and widened his heavy eyelids, "what is that thing?!"

The child's skin was as pale as snow, which made her dark veins pop out even more. The sight was disgusting, but Jack could still see a spark of a human inside of that creature.

The girl grabbed his leg and pressed her sharp nails into Jack's skin. He let out a horrifying scream, and kicked the not-so-human thing off of his leg. She was faster than it initially seemed.

That monstrous thing didn't give up so easily though. It collected itself up again, and directed her focus at Jack again. There was a girl inside, indeed, but she was not herself anymore.

Jack tightened his grip of the staff even more. He unleashed his power, and froze the girl completely. She was not even an inch away from Jack, and if it had taken even a second longer, something worse could have happened. At least he made her death less painful.

He rolled up his pant leg, and checked the wound the girl had caused. It was not that bad, but dark liquid in his laceration didn't seem reassuring regarding his safety. He dipped his finger in it, but it seemed like the darkness wasn't even there. It was visible, but not physical. He couldn't feel it, he couldn't take a piece of it. It didn't even stick onto his finger. But still, it was attached in his wound.

Jack stood up again, trying to not be worried about the wound that was inflicted on him a while ago.

He looked at the frozen girl, and could now clearly see the bad shape she was in. How could anything do this to a person? Earlier he thought that her eyes were just as black as the shadows, but seemed like there were no eyes at all. She had clawed them out by herself.

Jack had to cover up his mouth because of disgust. He had to report of this to North and the others immediately.

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This is the end of the first chapter.
I have been working on this story for a few weeks now, and to be honest, I am not completely aware myself of how this will turn out to be in the end. I just hope it will become what I have been planning from the beginning. Awesome, exciting and interesting.
Critique is appreciated.