The snow crunching beneath Sans's feet did nothing to calm him as it used to. The way it sounds to him used to remind him of his home, of all the good memories he shares with those he cares for, it reminded him that even if he had made mistakes or had a bad dream that he was cared for... But now... Now it just reminds him how much he is missing and what he so badly wants to get back to.
He hates how his magic has been messed up. He has tried and failed to teleport but it has failed as he can't get it to even work. He hasn't been able to summon bones or even his blasters.
Every time he has tried any magic it only resulted in blue magical sparks with no other results.
Now he's lost and without his magic.
He glances around himself as the trees he swears all look the same. He never meant for this to happen never knowing that somewhere in the forest magic doesn't work.
To think that this had all started when he swore he saw something in the forest, so being a sentry he went looking in case it was a possible danger.
Before he knew it he didn't know where he was after following the sounds of someone or something else in the woods. He glanced back and the falling snow mixed with the wind had covered up his tracks. He couldn't follow them back to a path or to his sentry station where it all began.
The wind blows against him and despite skeletons not usually feeling cold he actually feels like his blue sweater with a grey hood isn't keeping him warm at all.
His arms crossed over his chest as his body shivers badly. His slippers soaked from walking through snow making his feet feel like blocks of ice. He needs to get out of here and back to the others. His cellphone has died despite Papyrus charging it last night for him. He can only guess that it's because of the area around him making even magic act oddly. He is sure Papyrus has texted and called him numerous times by now. He at least knows that his brother will start a search party for him when he can't find him.
Everyone will probably want to help. Undyne, Alphys, Grillby, his friends from Grillbys and some of the other monsters he has made friends with.
He pauses when he wonders if he should find somewhere to hide to try to stay warm, to wait for help. He supposes that the dogs might be able to possibly track his scent. He looks to the trees looking for a tree with a possible opening to hide in. He wants out of this wind and staying out in the open won't do anything to help him there. He may be feeling exhausted, from the walking and from being so cold, but he knows better than to nap in the cold. He knows that he might never wake up if he does. So even if he hides to warm up he needs to stay awake if he wants to live. His movements pause as a feeling washed over him.
The feeling of being watched.
He looks around trying to find out who could be watching him. "H-H-Hello?" He manages to chatter out keeping his eyes open for movement. He so far doesn't see anything but trees however. "I-I don't m-mean you harm. I'm j-just lost. A-Are you lost? M-Maybe we could s-stick together?" He has always liked his privacy especially on certain matters. He however feels just so alone out here which is starting to drive him up the wall. He begins to wonder if his mind was starting to play tricks on him. He wonders if he is just trying to give himself the illusion of someone else being out here with him... Unless... It's the monster he was chasing who lead to this situation. He can't even be sure anymore; but the feeling of being watched is sending an unwelcome shiver up his spine. He can't see or even hear where it's coming from. He doesn't know who it is, what they want or why they're out here. "P-Please. Help m-me." He begs and a moment after he says that the wind howls for a moment. He tries to take another step but couldn't see the tree root buried beneath the snow. He finds himself falling forward face first into the snow. His arms spread from the surprise of falling.
The feeling of being watched only intensifying.
He pushes himself up with his shaky arms getting his torso off the ground. He shakes his head to clear away any snow stuck to him. He stops after about a second or two to look around. He is trying to find movement but finds not even a shadow of someone can be seen. He for a moment wonders if whoever it is had come closer to see if he's okay. His chattering is slightly worse and he takes a moment to try to speak. He however doesn't get a word in before things take a turn for the worse. His soul pounding against his rib cage and his shivering intensifying. His instincts and soul all screaming the same thing to him.
RUN.
He wastes no time scrambling to his feet, stumbling a bit from the root, to try to get away. He has always trusted his instincts as they've never steered him wrong before. He begins running as fast as he can dodging trees as he just tries to get away.
Away from whatever is making every bit of himself scream for him to run.
His breath starting to come out heavy having used a lot of energy walking. His sometimes stumbling from being so cold getting a little worse. He keeps going with adrenaline and fear pumping through him.
The trees are starting to become a blur as he is no longer focused on them. Other than to dodge out of the way, but even then they are blurry.
His soul is pounding against his rib cage so hard he swears it's trying to be a drum. A drum to play like dramatic music in the background.
Finally he takes a quick glance back to try to see what's chasing him. Just before he turned back around he swore he saw a shadow or a black figure, darting between the trees.
This pushes him to try to run faster even as his legs scream in protest. Now that he is sure that something or someone is chasing him. And judging from his instincts it's not to give him friendly advice.
His panting now quite heavy he begins to feel even more lost. Feelings of being a bit disoriented have begun to arise from inside. Every blurred tree looking the same and the endless snow on the ground isn't helping.
However it only got worse from there... As IT began...
Everything started screaming as if even the trees were screeching at him. The screams so loud and painful to hear he can't drown it out. It's as if he is surrounded by it all. It's almost like it's all screams of fear or pain calling out in the hope that help will come.
He picks up the pace, finding it within him to go just a little faster, when the screaming starts. His souls pounding ringing in his nonexistent ears... Even that couldn't drown out the horrible screaming.
Those horrible sounds are drawing closer and closer. Gaining in volume as the small skeleton swears faces have begun to appear on the trees.
Faces contorted in fear, pain, agony and a few even scowling at him.
He tries to ignore the faces and the screams as he tries to focus on getting out of there. His eyes are drawn to one side of himself then the other. His eyes being drawn to black figures he catches out of the corner of his eye. He doesn't see them when he turns in that direction though. He feels like everything is closing in on him that suddenly the forest is cramped. He feels like he has no space to breath and things only seem to draw closer. His legs are extremely sore as he is also struggling to breathe at this point.
The only things keeping him running is the fear, panic and adrenaline trying to keep him alive.
He doesn't even have any sense of direction now except moving forward. His eyes are drawn to branches that have begun reaching for him.
Slowly at first but getting faster as he continues running.
Even with the adrenalin his legs feel ready to collapse; and he swears his soul is gonna burst out from his rib cage.
He hears the whoosh right behind as a curved hand like branch barely misses him. He also has to duck from a few more attacking branches so they don't hit him. He doesn't have time to react when something swoops under his feet knocking him over. He falls front first onto the ground skidding a little that stirs up snow. He shifts to at least be able to look up when he isn't skidding anymore.
The screams are right here with him and as he looks up his eyes land on something.
Just a little ahead of him is a melting skeletal figure in black clothes standing there hunched over. An eerie grin dancing upon his mouth. His scars, with one above one eye and the other below his other eye, make him all the more menacing.
Soon other monsters gather as well coming from around Sans making a half circle.
Sans knows immediately all of these monsters are the lost souls. He remembers them all becoming lost souls when that experiment Gaster did on him went wrong. His magic sent them to be lost souls during that experiment without him having any control over it.
The screaming has stopped and the forest has fallen silent.
Sans can't get up, he can't run and he can't use magic. So all he can do is shut his eyes tightly and hope it's over soon. His eyes snap open with a gasp when a black tentacle wraps around his neck tightly.
On instinct he moves one hand to try to claw it off without any success.
His fingers not even scratching the rather solid tentacle. He stops trying as he screams when something slams into his side. He can feel the blood running over his bones from the wound. He glances to see some black individual long claws floating into his side. When he reaches to try to take them out they vanish in black smoke. He couldn't focus on it for long as more and more attacks from the monsters hit him. He's even slightly lifted into the air by the tentacle around his neck so they can hit more areas. He soon finds everything fading to black and finally the unbearable pain fades away.
... They've been searching for so long now... Three hours since Papyrus realized that Sans is missing. Undyne, the dog guards, Grillby, Papyrus and Asgore are all on the search team. They came this way when Alphys saw him on a camera heading into the woods. They were told it looked like he had noticed something and went to investigate... But never returned...
"Sans!" Undyne calls out cupping one hand by her mouth. "Heh! Can you hear us!?"
"Sans! Please! Come back!" Papyrus calls out cupping both hands around his mouth.
They all pause when they hear something in the distance but can't quite make it out.
"What was that?" Grillby questions glancing to the others that are nearby where he is. He's wearing boots that help keep him safe while walking through the snow.
Undyne clenches her hand only to look down in surprise when she finds the spear she'd been holding is gone. She tries to summon it once more only for it to show up as blue magical sparks that fade. "What!?"
"What is it?" Papyrus asks glancing to Undyne in hopes she found something, or knows what that now silent sound was.
"I can't get my magic to work." Undyne tells him trying again but it only brings the same results.
Papyrus raises a hand and tries to summon a bone. He finds only orange magic sparks that soon fade. "Mine too!"
This time Grillby tries to summon a fireball, but is surprised when all he gets is fire coloured sparks.
"Maybe that's why he didn't teleport back." Papyrus gasps in realization. "For whatever reason magic doesn't work out here."
"We'll need to be cautious." Undyne tells them causing them to look to her. "We don't know what's out there. Without our magic we'll have to rely on our physical attacks."
The others nod and everyone continues the search. All are ready to fight as needed.
Papyrus turns in the direction the noise came from before. But this time it sounds like a deep groan. He knows that it's not his brother however he wonders if whoever it is knows something. He follows the direction that the sound came from hoping to find someone.
Someone who just might be able to help find his brother.
It takes a moment for the others to notice this and they soon follow. Believing that he may have found something. They soon hear the groaning as well realizing what he's following.
Papyrus continues to lead the way as they head through the woods.
Just as the sound cuts out Papyrus freezes on the spot.
Papyrus feels like his entire being is shattering.
The others move around him wondering what's gotten into him... Only to stare in shock and horror.
There is Sans's sweater and dust lying in blood covered snow.
The end.