I don't remember what happened. I don't remember where I came from, or who I am. All I remember was waking up in a sea of yellow, staring up at the sky. Wow. Way to be a cliche.

My head spun as I tried to get up. A wave of nausea rose in my throat. I looked around, struggling to calm my queasy stomach. Rock walls surrounded me on three of four sides. A hole above me showed a small section of the sky and a single tree branch. The sea of yellow, I noticed, was in fact a bed flowers, larger than my body. One of the flowers clung possessively to my pant leg, and I struggled to free myself.

I stayed there for several minutes, somewhat nervous, but not scared. Apprehensive. There we go. Finally, I came to the conclusion that the only way out was forwards, and stumbled through the corridor that was the only exit, eventually coming to a doorway. I stepped through, gazing around cautiously. I wish I had a weapon of some sort.

Two staircases diverged and then rejoined at a platform. I walked up the leftmost one, coming upon yet another doorway, which I headed through, blinking several times as my eyes adjusted to the darkness. Six panels were arranged on the floor and a barely detectable-path led to yet another door. A yellow lever could be seen to the right of the door. The room seemed like it used to be inhabited but had since gone abandoned. The layer of dust was thin, but it was still there.

I eyed the panels uncertainly. Logic dictated that they were buttons of some sort, but I did not know how they worked. In a futile attempt to open the door, I stepped across them randomly for several seconds, then pulled the lever. To my astonishment, the door opened.

The next room extended in front of me for several meters. Small streams intermittently split the ground, and wooden bridges spanned over them. In the far end of the room, I saw a row of spikes, about a meter tall.

I licked my lips thoughtfully, then came to a decision. I ran full speed across the floor. When I was about a meter from the spikes, I launched myself into the air, diving forwards and landing on my stomach with a thud over the spikes. I laid on my stomach, winded, for a few seconds, before continuing.

Several rooms later, I came across a bridge filled with spikes. "What kind of fool made this place?" I grumbled, looking for around, searching for a way to cross. When none presented itself, took a step back, took a deep breath, and plunged into the water, inhaling sharply as I was submerged in the icy water. It was deeper and rougher than it had seemed from the surface, and on several occasions I was pulled under and struggled to resurface, searching for a bottom to bounce off of but finding that my ears would begin to hurt from the pressure before my feet hit against anything. Eventually, a wave guided me towards the exit, at first at a pleasant speed and then significantly less so as I was washed painful ashore the rough rocks. I shivered as I pulled myself further ashore, moving clumsily in my waterlogged clothing. I coughed several times, spat out some water, before falling against the earth, more tired than I thought I would be from covering such a relatively short distance.

I stood up unevenly, growing dizzy and nearly falling down before placing one arm out against the rock wall to support myself. A spider crawled over my hand and I retracted it hurriedly, shaking it to remove the arachnid. I turned to the room in front of me, hoping that there wouldn't be another stupid and ineffective trap ahead of me.

There wasn't. In fact, there was nothing in the room except for some vines, a needlessly curving, barely detectable path, and a single column in the far end of the room. Which, considering that I just had to jump over spikes and cross a bridge of spikes by nearly drowning, seemed a little bit too innocent. Unfortunately, there was nothing feasibly wrong with the room and also no obvious way around simply crossing the floor, so that's what I did, slowly, carefully inching across the floor, making sure that not a single step that I took was going to betray me to a pitfall or rotating panel or net that would swoop down and trap me.

As it turned out, my fears were ill-founded. I managed to cross the entire room without triggering a single trap. It appeared to be just as innocent as it appeared. Which sucked, considering I had just spent five minutes daintily crossing a room that I could have simply sprinted down without any trouble.

I progressed through the next few rooms easily, although once I had to propel myself over a chasm that seemed to have formed many years ago but had only widened to be about twice the width of my body. Actually, to say that I had to propel myself over it would be a severe overstatement. A more accurate term would be step.

Honestly, it was easy to cross through the rest of the rooms once I realized that I could simply leap over the spikes. There was really no nuance to the traps, just lots of rooms with spikes at the end of them. Before long, I had arrived at a sad little house. It looked liked it had once been well-loved, but since then it had fallen into a dilapidated state of disrepair. Testing the handle, I discovered that it was locked, but it was a simple enough matter to smash through one of the windows and leap through, and found myself standing in a small foyer with a hallway to what looked like bedrooms on the right, a small living room to the left, and a staircase leading downwards straight ahead. Downstairs, a tiny voice inside my mind whispered. I did not spend any time wondering who it was. I vaulted over the railing and landed in an awkward lunge on the flat area between where the staircase turned around. I got up quickly and ran down the corridor that it led into. It did not cross my mind to question why.

Whoever built this place seemed to be overly fond of doorways. I had to pass through three of them before eventually making my way outside. My only welcome was a blast of icy cold wind and a faceful of snow. I wish I had brought something warmer. Or, rather, unintentionally fallen down a pit so deep I don't understand how I survived with something warmer. All I was wearing was an old yellow and orange striped shirt and black jeans. And, apparently, that was all I would be wearing for quite some time.

It occurred to me that I must have made my way aboveground. Obviously, it couldn't snow underground. Of course, though, there was actually zero advantage to me returning aboveground because I didn't remember where I came from or if I knew anybody.

I began trekking onwards through the snow. It occurred to me that if I was close enough to place this cold that snowed this regularly, my past self probably should have been smart enough to wear boots that went up past my ankles. Receiving a bootful of snow was more than a little uncomfortable, not to mention wet.

A stick cracked behind me. I whipped around, but nothing was there. Instinctively, I balled both hands into fists. If anything comes out and attacks me, they're going to regret, I told myself firmly, conveniently disregarding the fact that if they were armed with a gun or something my fists would be all but worthless against them. After checking my surroundings again, carefully checking to make sure that nobody was hiding in the shadows, I turned around again, continuing somewhat more cautiously this time.

I stopped before a bridge, eyeing it curiously. It looked like at one time it had bars blocking someone from passing, but by this point all but two of the bars had fallen off into the stream below, which remained unfrozen. I bent down to see if the bridge was stable, then screamed as someone appeared in front of me. No, not someone. SomeTHING. I raised my head carefully, ascertaining what exactly had appeared.

He looked somewhat like a skeleton. A skeleton, that is, who had disproportionately sized bones and wore a blue hoodie. "Wh... where did you come from?" I stammered. My voice sounded different from what I remembered, not that I remembered what it had sounded like all too well. The skeleton said nothing in response, but held out his hand.

"dont you know how to greet a new pal?" he said.

"I... I don't trust you somehow," I said, taking a single step backwards. "And I sure as hell don't consider you my 'pal'."

The skeleton retracted his hand. "wow, kid," he said. "guess youre not much one for jokes, huh? thats a shame."

"What are you talking about?" I demanded.

"hey, lighten up, bucko. nobody here is going to hurt you. not anymore, at least," he said. I stared at him curiously.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"had you come a few years earlier, kid, youda had a bad time down here," he said. His voice had a curious inflection when he said those words.

"Uh... what do you mean?"

"nevermind, kid," he said. "forget it. point is, nobody down here would want to hurt you."

I stared through him-literally. "Since when do skeletons exist?" I asked absently. I was probably dreaming, I realized. This whole thing seemed way too surreal and, more importantly, unusual than I would expect from the real world. Falling down a giant gaping hole in the ground and surviving? Coming across something reminiscent of an ancient temple? Meeting a skeleton? Unlikely. "I'm dreaming, aren't I?" I asked him.

The skeleton regarded me evenly. "i'm not sure if i should be offended by that," he said. "you most certainly are not. do i really seem so impossible to fathom actually existing in 'the real world'?"

I hesitated. "Yeah," I said eventually. A slight grin crossed his face.

"well, at least you're honest," he said. "integrity. that's something that i hear humans possess a lot of."

"What?"

"forget it," he said. "come on. i'll take you into town, show you around, introduce you to everyone. i'm sure my bro would like to meet you," he added. "he was pretty close friends with the last human who fell down here to the underground. may or may not have had a crush on her."

"Uh... what?" The skeleton had turned around and was now walking forwards, away from wherever it was that I had just escaped from. "You mean we're still... underground?"

"of course, kiddo. that's what we call the place, in fact. the underground." He was quiet for a moment, then added, "our king isn-wasn't-very good at naming things," he said. "guess what our capital is called?"

I shrugged, puzzled by the non sequitur. Then, after a moment, I realized that the skeleton wouldn't be able to see the gesture, so I verbalized it. "I don't know. Why is that relevant?"

"he calls it new home."

"What happened to the old one?"

"you just left it, kid. those are the ruins... the ruins of home."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"that's what we called it. home." I got the impression that he was making a face, even as his back was turned towards me. "you'd expect that the queen would step in and intervene-she's a bit more, uh, intelligent-but apparently not."

I said nothing for a minute. "How far is the walk?" I asked eventually.

The skeleton shrugged. "oh, fifteen minutes or so. it was a lot longer back when we bothered trying to capture humans. my brother, papyrus, he was a human hunting fanatic. you should of seen some of the puzzles he built, before the queen stepped up and asserted that we wouldn't capture any others of your kind. i mean, you'll still see their remains, of course," he said. "but they were a lot more impressive when they were active. even if they failed."

I nodded as I processed that information. "Do you have a name?"

"nah," he said. I stared at him. "joking, joking. i'm sans. sans the skeleton. nice to meet you. and you are?"

I hesitated. Eventually, I simply spread my hands apart and made a noise that sounds someone akin to, "Ehh?" Sans looked at me like I was crazy. Honestly, I don't blame him.

"your name is ehh?" he asked.

I glared at him. "No," I said impatiently. "I don't remember what my name is."

Sans turned around and continued walking. "That's, uh, not good," he said. "do you… do you have a name you'd like to be called?"

I shrugged and jammed my thumbs into my pockets. "I don't plan on staying down here to need one," I said. "If you could just show me to the nearest exit that'd be great."

"about that," the skeleton said as we passed by a weird-looking sentry station with pieces of smashed pottery and a weird piece of fabric resembling a severely-crumpled lampshade, "at the moment, the only way down here are through holes in the ground. Like the one you fell through."

I blinked. "I didn't fall," I said. "If I had fallen, I wouldn't have been able to survive. I don't know what weird enhancements you have that would enable you to survive such a fall, but I don't have them."

The skeleton shook his head. "believe me, kid, you fell down there. there are no humans down here. and you're not the first human to fall down here."

"Then why are there no humans down here?"

Sans halted and turned around. His pupils had seemingly vanished, giving him a grotesque, ominous look. Come to think of it, how could a skeleton have pupils in the first place? "They died," he said. His voice was no longer jocular and happy. I curled my fingers into a fist, wishing I had a more substantial form of weapon. Sans, however, did not seem to be keen on attacking me. "well," he added, his pupils reappearing, although from where I am not certain. "one of them made it out. We haven't heard from them since." He turned around and continued walking. "anyways, kid, don't worry about it. nobody down here is gonna hurt you anymore. the queen banished that sort of thing we she stepped into the throne. besides," he continued, "killing humans no longer has any purpose."

"And it had a purpose however long ago?"

"naturally," he said. "we were collecting human souls to try to break the barrier that's trapping us all down here. then they escaped mysteriously, so we've done away with that plan."

"There's no such thing as a soul," I scoffed.

The skeleton narrowed his eyes. "funny how that works out, isn't it?" he asked. "here we are, with human souls being the only current feasible way for us to escape, and you humans don't even believe that they're real anymore."

"Why is that funny," I stated flatly.

"nevermind," the skeleton said.

"So why are you trapped down here?" I asked.

Sans turned and began walked once more, stuffing his hands in his hoodie pocket as he did so. "a few centuries, there was a giant war between humans and monsters-"

"Is that what you are? A monster?" I asked interrupting him. "I thought you said you were a skeleton."

"i am a skeleton. but all of down here are collectively referred to as monsters. we don't all fit into the same category of animal, so the humans adopted the term 'monster.' they don't like imagining that there are sentient versions of some of the animals that they domestic and incarcerate as pets."

"What do you mean?"

"like... bunnies, lizards, dinosaurs... they're all considered 'monsters.'"

"Humans don't 'incarcerate,' as you put it, dinosaurs. Dinosaurs don't exist anymore."

"how do you know," he asked, "if you lost your memory?"

I froze suddenly. "How do you... how do you know about that?"

The skeleton fell silent for a few minutes. "uh... i just figured, because, you know, you said you didn't have a name, and, uh..." he trailed off and I glared at him suspiciously for several seconds, although eventually I grew bored of this and half-ran several steps to catch up to him. He shook his head as if to clear it. "anyways," he said. "about the war. the human soul is stronger than the monster soul. they possess determination, integrity, bravery... we don't."

"You seem to have enough integrity to me," I offered, then added, "although I don't know that much about you."

Sans shook his head. "that's not what i mean," he said. "those are just the names we attach to certain traits that human souls possess. monsters do possess them, but not in anywhere near as much volume as humans do. anyways," he continued, "the humans were eventually able to defeat us and seal us up down here. they erected a barrier around the only entrance to the surface world that we would be able to use. It takes the power of seven human souls to smash through it. that's why we were killing humans," he added, "to collect their souls. unfortunately, because humans are idiots-"

"Hey!"

"-they decided to make the shield just barely stronger than the human soul. It takes one human soul and one monster soul to cross the barrier. so, in order for any humans to escape, they would have to absorb the soul of a monster. the only problem is very few monsters have souls that persist after death. most of them are so weak that they vanish immediately after dying, so you can't absorb those."

"What kinds of monsters have souls strong enough to exist after the monster dies?"

"monsters like the queen, and the king when he was alive. that's why he was killed," he added. "the seventh human to fall down here needed his soul to escape to the surface."

"What was their name?"

Sans looked at me, surprised. "i have no idea," he stated flatly. "i guess that makes me a pretty bad friend, huh?"

"You're friends with the guy who killed your king?"

Sans shrugged. "they did what was necessary. i don't blame them for that."

"Couldn't they just have stayed down here?"

"they could've," he said. "but would you want to?"

"I don't know anything that has happened since I fell down here," I pointed out. "You seemed to know that."

Sans shrugged. "well, this human remembered life on the surface. if you remembered your past life, wouldn't you want to return to it?"

I exhaled loudly. "Probably," I admitted. I began dragging my feet on the snow.

"do you want to stay down here? or would you take the life of another to escape?"

"I don't know," I said. "I'm not just going to go around killing monsters to find out which ones have souls that I can take in order to escape."

The skeleton smiled. "if it helps, my soul is strong enough."

I stopped walking. "What are you talking about?" Sans said nothing in reply, didn't even seem to acknowledge my statement. "Are you asking me to kill you?" I asked incredulously.

"Listen, kid," he said bleakly. "Nothing down here's gonna be changing any time soon. You get pretty tired of the despair after a while."

"You ARE asking me to kill you," I said, beginning to walk again, stumbling slightly as I did so. Wonder still tainted my voice. "That's horrible," I spat, my voice now infected with revile.

"Don't worry about it," he said. "After all, it really doesn't matter if I die. I'll just end up right back here sooner or later, having the same conversation with you. Or maybe I'll go all the way back to when the seventh human was here!" he said, a note of happiness splashing into his voice in the last sentence.

"What... what are you talking about?"

The skeleton lowered his head. "oh, nevermind," he said. "forget i said anything about it."

"Why?" I persisted.

Sans turned to me and halted. He stared into my eyes for several seconds, then turned and continued walking. "I can't tell you that," he said, spitting his words slightly as if they were poisonous.

"Why not?"

"if i told you why not, it would be as good as telling you in the first place," he said. "just, forget it, please. i don't want to talk about it. i don't want to remember it." He increased his speed, until his figure was just a silhouette in the snow. I stared after him from a distance. I couldn't will myself to move.