The school playground was full of young children from the ages of Five to Eleven years old running around, laughing, screaming and jumping except for one girl around Nine years of age dressed in a yellow and green striped sweater, brown trousers was sitting inside a bush, knees pulled up to her chin. It was obvious that she was hiding from someone because there was a look of fear on her face and she was constantly looking through the bushes as if she was making sure no one was approaching. There came a handful of snickers and a hand shot through the bushes behind the girl, grabbed her by the back of her sweater and dragged her out before a crowd of four girls who were much taller than herself surrounded her.
"Thought you could hide from us did you?" the girl who had hold of her sneered "you should know by now little freak that you can't hide from us no matter what." The bully holding the small girl by the sweater dropped her to the ground and delivered a kick to her back which caused her to cry out.
"W-why are you guys always picking on me?" she asked, pulling herself up into a sitting position.
"You want to know why?" the bully girl asked "it's because you're a freak and no one likes you" she dragged the smaller girl up from the ground and spat in her face "not even you're own parents want you, you were just an accident." What she said was quite true, her parents didn't care about her, they often physically and emotionally abused her but she couldn't help but feel a pang of anger bubbling up inside her and with a squeal, she connected her fist with the bully's face, giving her a nose bleed in the process.
"Shut up" the angry Nine year old screamed "shut up." The other three girls stood in shock as the little girl who was half the size as their ring leader had socked her right in the face and given her a nose bleed. The bully wiped the blood dripping from her nose and glared at the smaller girl, unable to believe that this little girl had managed to do this to her.
"You're going to regret that freak" she hissed before grabbing her victim by her hair "no one hits me and thinks they can get away with it." Before long, the two girls where engaged in a full on fight and it wasn't long until a circle of kids surrounded them, chanting "fight fight fight."
"What on earth is going on here?" a chubby balding man in a dark brown suit and tie demanded as she strode over to the circle of children, pushing his way through to see the two girls fighting "Louise Jones and Charlotte Williams, stop fighting at once." he strode over to the two girls and pulled them apart "now is one of you going to tell me what all this is about?"
"She started it" Louise stated, pointing at Charlotte who was more commonly known as Chara "she punched me for no reason."
"That's a lie, I was provoked" Chara pointed out "she called me a freak and said no one wants me around, it's the truth Mr. Fox I swear."
"I didn't provoke you, stop lying Williams" Louise hissed "you're a freaking psychopath."
"No I'm not" Chara yelled, fists clenched up, eyes welling up "the only reason I punched you is because I've had enough of you bullying me all the time, what did I ever do to you, you're a stupid big headed piece of poop."
"You little..." louise raged, going to hit the smaller girl only to be held back by Mr. Fox "let go of me i'm going to kill that bitch.
"Alright that's enough, in my office now" Mr. Fox yelled before frog marching both Louise and Chara into the school building and into his office where he told them to sit down "Okay I want to know what happened, starting with you Charlotte."
"Well it started like this, Louise and her gang started chasing me so I went to hide in the bushes but they found me and Louise pushed me to the ground and kicked me in the back" Chara explained as Louise gave her a look which could murder someone in mere seconds before denying everything what Chara had just said.
"Silence Miss Jones" Mr. Fox told the older girl sternly before urging Chara to carry one.
"She then called me a freak and said no one wants me so I just lost it and punched her" Chara replied. Mr. Fox nodded and turned to Louise with a stern expression before informing her that he did not tolerate bullying in the school.
"You're older and much bigger than Charlotte, how would you like it if someone bigger than you used you as a punching bag?" he stated as Louise continued to glare at Chara "are you listening to me Miss Jones, you're bullying of Charlotte here needs to stop and stop right now, you're in Sixth grade, you should know that it's not right to terrorize someone who's younger and smaller than you."
"I didn't do anything, she's lying" Louise protested but Mr. Fox wasn't convinced, he knew Louise all too well and knew she loved going around with her little gang bullying the younger students, especially Chara.
"That is enough young lady" he firmly stated "and another thing I will not tolerate in my school is fighting so I have no choice but to suspend the both of you for a week."
"But I didn't do anything wrong" Chara protested, shocked by what Mr. Fox had just said "Louise is the one who was bullying me."
"Yes I am aware of that Charlotte but you know that violence will not be tolerate in school" Mr. Fox stated firmly "and hitting someone is never the right solution no matter what the circumstances, you should have told me or one of the other teachers that Louise and her friends were picking on you because using violence is not the answer." Chara wanted to protest but Mr. fox shushed her before making a phone call to both of their parents, explaining the situation and how long the two girls would be suspended for.
"Just wait until we come back to school you little freak" Louise hissed, grabbing Chara by her sweater whilst Mr. Fox's back was turned "you're gonna be dead you hear me, dead." The older girl quickly let go of Chara when Mr. Fox turned to face them, informing them that their parents would be coming to pick them up right away.
"Now when you both come back after your week suspension,I don't want anything like this to happen again" he warned "and Charlotte, if Louise or any of her friends start giving you any trouble, come and talk to me or any of the other teachers, don't go hitting and using your fists, am I clear?"
"Yes sir" Chara replied miserably, looking downa t the floor and twiddling her fingers, knowing that when her parents found out what she had done, she would be in trouble, they were not exactly kind and understanding parents. Both girl's parents arrived at the same time and despite Mr. Fox telling Louise's parents of her bullying Chara, they appeared not to care. Chara's parents however was a different story, they both appeared angry and annoyed that they had to come all the way to school after hearing their nine year old daughter had been fighting.
"What the hell did you have to go and punch that girl in the face for?" her father questioned.
"She provoked me" Chara replied in defense. After Mr. Fox finished explaining to her parents about how he understood Chara's reason for lashing out and that it wasn't the solution, that she should talk to someone if she was having any problems, her parents didn't say much, they pulled their daughter out of his office, dragged her to the car and threw her inside.
"You're in so much trouble when we get home young lady" her father warned before starting the engine "and why the hell did you go punching that Louise kid for?"
"She called me a freak and said no one wants me" Chara replied "I, I just lost it and I lashed out."
"Well" her mother stated, glaring at the young girl "maybe she had a point, you're nothing but a waste of space, who would want you, you're nothing but a burden of our live." For the rest of the car journey back home, Chara was silent and just kept her head down, this wasn't the first time her parents had told her she was a burden, that she was cramping their style and that they should have put her up for adoption when she was born. When they arrived back at their house, her father dragged her out of the car and into the house before shoving her against the wall.
"Did you say anything about us?" he demanded "when you were in the principal's office, did you tell him about our secret?" without saying anything, Chara shook her head "are you sure you didn't say anything?" she nodded, eyes wide with fear as his expression changed from angry to a smirk and he patted her on the cheek "that's a good little girl, you don't want to go telling anybody about our little secret do you, because no one's going to believe you, you'll get locked away in the crazy people house if you did say anything" his expression changed again to his angry one "now go to your room, we don't want to see you for the rest of the day, you're a disgrace." He released his grip on the girl and she immediately ran up the stairs and into her room before slamming the door before throwing herself onto her bed, punching her pillow.
"I hate them, hate them" she cried, tears rolling down her cheeks "I hate everyone, I wish I wasn't around, no one wants me." After what seemed like an eternity, she finally stopped hitting her pillow repeatedly but tears were still falling down her reddened cheeks and she began to think that maybe everyone would be much happier if she wasn't around anymore.
"I'll do it" she said to herself "no one would care anyway if I was gone, I've got no friends, my own parents don't want me so what's the point in even being around anymore." Grabbing a pen and paper, Chara began to angrily write a note to her neglectful and cruel parents, telling them that she was finally doing what they always wanted, that she was going far away and was never coming back, that they were never going to see her again. After she had finished, she put the note on her desk before slowly creeping out of her room, listening out for any sounds but the house appeared empty, meaning that her parents must have gone out, good, that meant that she could leave without them trying to stop her, not that they would care anyway, they often stated how much they wished she wasn't around so it didn't matter if they were around or not whilst she was running away and as she reached the front door, she turned around and gave her home one last look.
"Bye home" she said with a sigh before stepping out the door and closing it behind her before making a run for it down the driveway and down the street, trying to think of someplace to run to, some place where no one would bother to find her before she remembered one place she had read about many times, Mt. Ebbot, she had heard often that people who ventured up there went missing and where never seen again.
" Mt. Ebbott sounds like the perfect place for me" she muttered, wiping more tears from her eyes "if people who go there disappear for ever then that's where i'll go." Without hesitation, she ran straight to the forest where the mountain was located and despite there being KEEP OUT signs placed around the area, Chara ignored them and continued running until she reached the mountain, stopping to catch her breath. It was beginning to get dark and she began to wonder if her parents had returned home and noticed she was not there, not like they would have cared anyway, she was far too angry and upset to care about wether they knew she was missing or not, she didn't care if anyone realized she was missing or not, it wasn't like she wanted to be found anyway, she had been through so much during her nine years of life and she had just had enough. After angrily wiping more tears from her eyes, Chara looked up the mountain to see that there was some kind of cave halfway up and her angry feeling was suddenly changed to curiosity.
"I wonder what's in that cave up there?" she muttered before pulling herself up to her feet "maybe there's some great big hole I can jump down and no one will ever see me again." Taking a deep breath, the angry and upset nine year old child began climbing up the side of the mountain until she reached the entrance to the cave and walked inside to see that there was indeed a huge gaping hole, the walls covered with vines and leaves.
"Well, this is it" she said to herself as she made her way towards the great big hole "this is where I end it all, where I make all those who don't want me around anymore satisfied and happy." Squeezing her eyes shut and taking a deep breath, Chara walked to the edge of the hole and jumped down, falling deeper and deeper to where ever this hole lead but Chara didn't care, this was the end, she was doing what everyone had wanted her to do and she continued to fall further and further until she hit the hard ground below, knocking herself unconscious.
~X~
"Hey, are you okay?" with a searing headache, Chara stirred and slowly opened her eyes, her vision was blurry but she could just make out a figure leaning over her "can you sit up, here, let me help you" she registered a pair of hands helping her sit up "there we go." As her vision cleared, Chara noticed she was in some kind of cavern and she was surrounded by four towering pillars, another thing she noticed was that there was someone with her and she looked over to see what appeared to be some kind of small goat like creature dressed in a sweater which was pretty much the same colours as she was wearing, yellow and green and a pair of black trousers.
"Howdy" it greeted and from the tone of it's voice, Chara assumed that it was a boy, a young child to be exact, not much older than herself at least "you're a human ain't ya, golly, I've never met a human before."
"W-what are you?" she stammered "some kind of Goat?"
"I'm a monster" the boy replied "you're in the underground, the world of monsters" he then noticed blood running down the side of her face "Oh golly, you're hurt, come on I think i'd better take you back to my place and get my mom to take a look at you, she'll know what to do."
"Hold it Goat boy but I don't even know who you are, how do I know that you're mom or whatever is going to eat me or something" Chara pointed out, folding her arms as he looked at her with confusion.
"Eat you, why on earth would you think that?" he asked with confusion.
"Well that's what monsters do isn't it, they eat little kids" Chara implied but the little Goat boy assured her that his Mom would not eat her, that she wouldn't harm any living creature whatsoever.
"Okay fine but I'm not comfortable with going anyway with someone I just met" she stated "how do I know you're not some crazed psychopathic demon disguised as some cute little goat monster."
"Oh no no no" the goat like boy replied, shaking his head "I'm not anything like that, I was just passing through this area when I found you here laying Unconscious so I just sat with you and looked after you until you woke up which you did" he noticed that Chara still appeared to be a little weary of him "hey I got a wonderful idea, how about we introduce ourselves and then we won't be strangers anymore. Okay, you go first, what's you're name?"
"C-chara" the human girl replied, rubbing her head where she had hit it "my name is Chara."
"Chara huh, that's a nice name" the little goat boy replied with a friendly smile "anyway pleased to meet you Chara, my name's Asriel Dreemurr."