The Darkness

Chapter 23: The Children of the Swamp

AN: While reading this chapter please listen to Weird Place from the Sword Art Online Ost. It makes this chapter more creepier and better. Maybe :/

The portal had lead the group to a swamp. The swamp was a dark and eerie looking place. Fog began to roll in as the group stood there looking at their surroundings.

Everything was silent minus a few bubble popping mysteriously in the swampy water with a few croaks from some large bull frogs. Armin heard something moved in some bushes that was close by.

She backed away from them slowly until bumping into Reiner. She muttered an apology as she kept her eyes on the bushes.

"What's wrong?" Reiner asked her.

"I think there might be something in those bushes." she said, "But my mind could be playing tricks on me. So it could be nothing."

Reiner walked over to the bushes and pulled out his hammer. He used the weapon to search through the plant.

"Reiner, what are you doing!?" Rogue said, "This place is dangerous! You can't do that."

"Armin said she thought something might have been in there." Reiner said, "And if this place is so dangerous, why did you bring us here?"

"Because it was the only place I could get too quickly. If you forgot we are on the run." Rogue said.

"Guys, stop fighting. We need to stick together." Greed said.

"Greed's right. We need to find the way out of here." Pony said.

"We won't be able too until morning. We have to camp here." Rogue said and the group began to talk about who does what, while Armin stood there listening to them.

A small child's hand grabbed her leg and she froze with fear. The hand tugged on her pants two times.

"G-Guys." She whispered as she kept looking straight.

The hand tugged on her pants again. She swollowed her fear for a moment and looked down. She bit down on her bottom lip as a small skeleton looked up at her.

"Are you my mommy?" The skeleton asked.

Armin did not answer. Instead she screamed and latched onto someone tightly. That person happened to be Greed.

"Armin!" Pony shouted as Armin kept screaming while hugging Greed, "Armin!"

Armin kept screaming, until Matt walked up to her and smacked her in the face. Armin stopped screaming and blinked for a moment.

"Armin, what's wrong?" Pony asked her.

"S-Skeleton ch-child." She stuttered with fear and she pointed a shakey finger to where the child had once been.

Everyone looked over to the area and saw nothing.

"Armin, maybe you should just sit down here." Pony said and un-latched her from Greed.

"It was there." she said as Pony lead her to a fallen tree.

"It must have been your mind playing a trick. This place is creepy." Pony said, "Now sit here and rest, while we get the camp set up."

Armin nodded her head and Pony went off to the others.

"Is she okay?" Greed asked.

"Yeah. It must be her mind playing tricks. She is easily scared." Pony said.

"But what if there really was a skeleton child?" Juvia asked.

"I'm sure it's nothing. Let's get the camp set up." Pony said and the group started working.

Greed was in charge of starting the fire, while Juvia and Matt was to make the bedding. Gray was in charge of getting wood for the fire, while Pony and Rogue set up traps for any enemies in the area, and Reiner was in charge of hunting food and preparing it.

Meanwhile Armin sat on the fallen log and watched Juvia use her nature magic to have vines and leaves make beddings, while Matt fixed the sleeping area up.

As she watched them a clacking sounds of bones could be faintly heard behind her. Her heart felt like it had dropped into the pit of her stomach and she felt very cold.

"Are you my mommy?" A small child voice asked as a skeleton hand grabbed Armin's.

Armin let out another scream and ran out of the camp ignoring everyone shouting at her. Armin ran blindly through the darken area until she tripped and fell into the swamp. She tried to swim upwards, but a hand grabbed her ankle.

"Are you my mommy?" A child's voice asked again, before she was pulled out of the swamp water by a scaley tail.

She began to cough up the murky water as a hissing was heard next to her. She looked up to see a slightly big Hades. She had forgotten about holding on to him and figured he had fallen asleep in her pocket due to the warmth.

"T-Thank you Hades." Armin said as she stood up.

Hades let out a hiss as something began to come out from the water. Armin turned to look back and saw an adult skeleton.

"Are you my child?" A woman voice asked coming from the skeleton.

Armin took a step back and glanced behind her to see skeleton children.

"Oh God, I don't want to die." Armin said as she began to shake, "But if I am going too, I'll go down fighting!"

She grabbed her whip and began to whip a few of the skeleton children. A few of them crumbled and the skeleton woman let out a screech causing many crows to fly away.

"You hurt my children!!!" She screamed and ran at Armin.

Hades struck at the woman with his fangs, but she easily tossed the boxer sized snake to the side. Armin called out to Hades who slowly rose up.

The snake began to vomit as Armin dodged an attack from the skeleton woman. She smacked her whip at the woman, but it was un-effective.

Armin fear began to weigh her down as she dodged another attack. She looked over to Hades and saw her sword laying on the ground.

She ran over to the sword and grabbed it from the vomit. She ignored the awful smell and feel as she blocked an attack from the woman.

"Hades! Attack the children!" Armin shouted to the snake hoping it would be able to fight without Pony being there.

The snake just layed there and Armin fell over from on the skeleton children.

"Are you my mommy" the child skeleton asked as many began to climb on top of her.

Armin tried her best to get them off of her, but there were to many.

"Hush. Now child. Become one of my children of the swamp. I will keep you safe." The soothing voice of the woman skeleton whispered to Armin as everything began to grow darker and darker.