Summer: The Woods Bring Forth New Incoming; Bonds PT. 4/4

After the meals were prepared, we all sat around the campfire, my group eating Luna's delicious cooking. Hiro's group on the other hand, was less fortunate.

"Like hell you cook meat until it's black! What stupid person would do that!?" Hiro was shouting at his teammates, all who looked extremely annoyed.

"Because black represents that darkness that threatens to consume my heart, the unholy struggle that one must suffer in order to fight the denizens of the night!"

"That doesn't mean we have to eat it black! And Merry, what the hell were you thinking, allowing this doofus do as he pleases!?"

"I just thought it was funny."

"We have to eat that funny shit you know! And you!" He pointed towards the ass. "Are you actually an ass, because you might as well be worse than one. How can someone mess up cutting up vegetables that bad!?"

The ass simply shrugged. "Never cooked before in my life."

"And the worse offender, Lachesis! I know you know how to cook, so what the hell were you thinking, letting him do all that? Hell, what did you do!?"

She simply crossed her arms and turned away. "I don't know what you're talking about. I've never cooked a day in my life."

Hiro let out another cry of frustration, his fist shaking furiously as he lectured his entire team, except for Nyx, who did the rice in a normal way.

"I've never seen big bro so mad before," Luna murmured in awe, and I just shook my head. You should've seen him last year, I thought.

When he was finally done, he collapsed next to me, letting out the heaviest sigh I've heard from him. "Ugh, what an absolute nightmare. Hey Luna, you wouldn't happen to have leftovers, would you?"

As if on cue, she handed him a plate. Where she was hiding it from the rest of us, I had no clue. However, the opposing team, who were forced to eat slop, had their eyes bulged out of their head as they saw that transaction.

"Oi, how unfair is that!?"

Hiro stuck his tongue out. "I ate your crappy food too, so deal with it!" He quickly ate it and sighed once more, his anger finally subsiding.

"Feel better big bro?" Luna asked, a smile on her adorable face.

"Ah, after eating your cooking, I always feel better. What a wonderful dish indeed." He stretched, the last of his tension going away before he turned to Lachesis. "Hey, we're not doing that shit ever again. I say Luna's the permanent head chef from now on, ya hear?"

Lachesis scratched her head, nodding. "I wanted to punish you, but to think it was that bad…"

"If you wanted to punish me, why the hell did you put me in your group!?"

"I wanted to sabotage, but it seems there wasn't a need for it huh?"

I laughed at their stupid exchange, and Hiro scowled at me. "Oi, it's not funny! If you were there, you would understand the pain man! The awful pain!"

He was slightly exaggerating at this point, and my laughter died down before I cleared my throat. "Okay, what exactly do we do now?"

"Obviously s'mores! We can't have an outdoor excursion without them!"

"But we didn't buy anything to-!" Lachesis got cut off by Hiro grabbing his bag, which had somehow managed to get behind him, and pulled out graham crackers, chocolate bars, marshmallows, and utensils to roast the marshmallows over the fire.

"I bought them while we were getting our supplies, since I figured it could add some life to this camping trip."

Prez's eyes lit up as she saw the stuff Hiro pulled out. "Whoa, I've never had s'mores before! Aw, Hiro, you're the best aren't yah!?"

"That's right, praise me more, it's okay."

"Hiro's the best, Hiro's the best!"

Lachesis rubbed her eyes and just shook her head. "Okay, I guess we're having s'mores too. Also, we're telling scary stories, so make sure everyone comes up with one as we're making some s'mores."

Everyone agreed, as we all made our s'mores before going around the campfire, telling each other scary stories.

"I'll go first," Aether said, a serious look on his face. Everyone quieted down in order to listen, and he began his story.

"There was a massacre in the heavens. The end."

"Like hell that's scary!" Everyone except Luna yelled out, who only looked confused at the story.

"Ooh! Me next, me next!" Prez exclaimed, and Hiro scowled.

"Oi, be serious at least."

"Whadda ya mean? I'm always serious thank you very much." Hiro shook his head but relented all the same.

"Okay, which one should I choose, hmm…" She paused for a moment, putting a finger to her lip before snapping her fingers.

"Ah, I got it!" Her entire demeanor suddenly changed, causing everyone to involuntarily tense up.

"It starts off with a young girl. The girl lived a relatively tranquil life with a bunch of friends she had made. But, that tranquil life could only last so long, as soon her friends started to die, one by one." She pointed at each us of slowly, as if checking off which of us had died first.

"It was an inevitable fate that awaited the girl, as she had been cursed the moment she had made these friends. Despite their best efforts, all those who tried to help her died, until there where three left." She pointed at Hiro and I but failed to point out a third person. I could feel my heart hammering nervously, as if we were hearing something that shouldn't be heard.

"The three remaining along with the girl, trying to outrun the one who brings death, got sent to a place filled with never-ending darkness by one, and then there were two friends left." Her finger lowered away from me, and I felt ice in my veins, unable to move as if I had been mesmerized by a spell.

"The second friend, sensing deaths approach, sent the girl and her closest friend back to a place far removed from which they had came, and then that friend died, his bloody remains scattered to the ends of the place filled with never-ending darkness. And then there were one." Only Hiro was left now, and he gotten paler as her story had been told.

"The girl, who had loved all her friends dearly, asked the final one remaining why they would go to such lengths to save her." An eerie smile arose upon her face, as if she was lost in her tale. "If you die too, I don't know what I'll do. The last one, the one she had spent the longest with, felt death rapidly approach, and gave her a simple answer:

"For you, it is worth it. Live for the sake of living and forget about us all. The last friend sent the girl to a place where death would be unable to reach her, and in front of the girls eyes as she was soon to disappear, the final friend died, being impaled mercilessly in front of her, but refusing to die until the deed was done. The final image of her dearly loved friend was one of absolute pain, crying tears of blood, with a smile." She lowered her finger away from Hiro, and it looked like Hiro couldn't breathe.

"The girl of death they eventually called her, the one who brings naught but despair to those who try to help her escape her inevitable fate."

With that final sentence her story was over, and everyone unfroze, sweating nervously, with Luna looking as if she was about to cry. But Hiro and I just stared at Prez, who still had an eerie look on her face as she looked at the both of us.

"What the hell was that?" Hiro managed to choke out, and Prez just laughed.

"Oh, come on, it's a scary story, nothing to worry about! It's not as if it's real! Silly Hiro!" Prez went back to normal, a silly grin on her face.

"Oi, then don't make it sound as if you know it first-hand dumbass!" And like that, it felt as if the ice in my veins had vanished, and my body relaxed almost too much, and I felt myself falling backwards to the ground behind me, but not before Nyx caught me.

"You okay?" she asked, and I nodded, leaning forward towards the campfire.

"That was surprisingly scary," Nyx muttered, and I couldn't help but agree.

After that, we went around telling our stories, and the mood started to lighten up from the dark one Prez managed to make. And soon it was my turn, and everyone turned towards me expectantly.

I frowned and thought for a moment before nodding to myself. "Yeah, that could work," I murmured to myself.

I looked up and clapped my hands. "Alright, let's begin. It starts off with a kid, not older than five years old. The kid had an enjoyable life, and two close friends she wouldn't trade for the world. One winter day, the kid went to find her two friends, but was only able to find one of them, although near a snowman you could see drops of red along with a singular glove. But she made no note of it, and instead continued to play with her other friend. But, as the days went on, she noticed that more and more people around were vanishing in similar occurrences, but she only cared about her dear friend, and continued to spend her life in peace.

"Soon even people close to her started to vanish, without a trace to be had, with only a singular article of clothing and drops of red here and there. The kid, now almost 14, came back home to find her parents had vanished, with nothing except her dad's hat and her moms' scarf, with drops of red surrounding the articles of clothing. She soon heard a drip behind her, something wet and sticky dropping on the floor. It was crimson in color, and she followed them, wanting to find something of use to help her figure out her situation. She soon came across her dear friend where the drops of crimson had stopped, and he turned to her and gave a big grin.

"She hugged the friend, terrified of what was to come, and the friend whispered quietly in her ear: I love you, so forgive me for this. She felt a sharp pain inside her, and she watched the drops of crimson fall to the ground as she cried in agony.

"It's okay, the friend said. You can vanish like all the rest, and I'll be soon to follow. And all that was left of her and her friend was drops of red and a single pendant, with the kid and her dear friend soaked in crimson."

Everyone was stunned as I finished my story, and I frowned at everyone's reactions. Only Lachesis was different, as a single tear streaked down her face.

"Is that really…" She trailed off, saying the rest in her head.

"Hey Depra, you're actually pretty good at this stuff you know?" Hiro said, patting me on the back before getting up and stretching.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but Luna sure as hell isn't sleeping tonight." I looked over at Luna who was shaking so bad that I quickly regretted telling my story. "Anyway, I think that's enough of the scary stories, don't you guys agree?" Everyone nodded, lost in thought as we all scattered to our respective tents.

I snuggled up in my sleeping bag, yawning as I watched Nyx get ready to sleep. She sat down on her sleeping bag and sighed. "Hey, are you sure you're okay with this?"

"I can sleep outside if it'll make you feel better," I said, confused on what exactly she was trying to ask.

She stared at me briefly, her expression shocked before chuckling. "You never change, do you?" She scooted closer to me, and I sat up to make room. "No, I'm fine bunking with you, but are you fine bunking with me?"

"Um, yeah, unless you snore really loudly." She laughed and shook her head.

"Never mind then, just forget I asked is all. Anyway, how've you been feeling? Better?"

I nodded, unable to believe it. "It didn't happen today, not once," I said. "Honestly, I can't remember the last time I felt like this."

She gave me a smile of relief. "That's good. I was hoping it would work, but it seems I didn't have to worry."

"Um, I really should be thanking you a lot more than I did." I bowed my head down towards her, eliciting an expression of shock. "I am truly grateful for what you did, however you did it. Even if it was for a short amount of time, I will owe you a great deal. Please, if there is anything I can do, don't hesitate to ask."

"Hey, don't be like that, I'm doing this because I want to. You don't owe me a thing, especially after…" She cut herself off, and I rose back up to see her biting her lip in anxiety.

"After what?"

"Don't worry about it too much. What we really need to worry about is our plan of attack against Hemera."

I smiled as we both got in our separate sleeping bags, and we ended up talking for quite a while into the night, as did everyone else in their own tents I later found out.

And soon, our conversation of words turned into a chorus of snores.