The Innocent Malice

Chapter 1

It had been 10 years since Frisk left the underground to live permanently on the surface among the other humans, though since the barrier had been broken at long last monsters and humans were finally able to co-exist in peace - well, as peaceful as you can get, there were often still a few disagreements here and there but even so it was minor. People just got used to it eventually so it wasn't weird to see a talking anthropomorphic rabbit or armoured dogs walking around once in a while.
Even then, Frisk didn't get to see as many monsters around where she lived, not as much as she had thought she would. After the barrier had broken and Toriel had taken her to the surface along with the others, she thought they would all live together and that would be it. Happily ever after. Only it didn't turn out that way, it was apparent that not every monster really wanted to leave the underground and there had to be proper law and order set below in order to keep everything under control and make sure everyone was still able to live happy and comfortable lives. So Toriel and Asgore took it upon themselves to make sure that was the case, for a little while Frisk still lived with Toriel; but it only prolonged the inevitable. Eventually one day, Toriel had announced to Frisk that she'd discovered a human family that was willing to adopt her after months and months of searching and contacting local adoption centres with Frisk's details. It was a big surprise, and not one Frisk was all too happy with. She was so used to living with Toriel and being among other monsters that she was too afraid to change that way of life now. Everyone loved her here, what if she didn't make any friends in the human world?

Though Toriel had insisted it was better this way, she'd grow up in a loving human family, get the proper education she needed and live a happy life, something she had wanted for a long time. Toriel promised her she'd still visit on weekends and that would be their time together, so it wouldn't be all so bad. And for a while it was just like that, on weekends she'd stay with Toriel in the underground, which meant she was able to hang out with Sans, Papyrus, Undyne and Alphys too. It was like that up until she started High School, then it all stopped. Suddenly, Frisk just didn't have the time to visit the underground anymore, by then she had made good friends and spent most, if not all, of her weekends spending time with them. She sometimes made phonecalls to Toriel, but even then they started to fade out. High School became demanding and studying was a word that was drilled into her mind constantly, so much she didn't really get a chance to think of much else. Soon enough her friends from the underground, Toriel, Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, etc, had slightly faded into the background like a distant memory. She didn't really want that to happen, not that it was intentional, but with the direction her life was going there was nothing really she could do to stop it. Maybe that was the end?

Or so she thought.

Now, at 21 years old, Frisk was excited for summer vacation. She'd just completed her second year at college and what a year it had been, first year of Music Production as a freshman had been the most daunting and boring time of her life, but that was soon made up for in her second year and she felt herself looking forward to what her final year had in store for her.

That was, until she realized she needed a job to help her get through the summer, which was something herself and her roomie/best friend Warren had been harping on about for the entirety of the year.

"Man Frisk, as annoying as a job would be during the summer - just think of all the stuff we could do with that extra cash!" said Warren, throwing his backpack down on the kitchen table.

"Ahh, tell me about it - I've been eyeing up this snazzy new microphone and ooh ooh this new game as well, ugh, there's so many things I want but I don't have the money!" said Frisk, laughing.

Warren laughed at her enthusiasm. "Aww, Friskebab (ongoing nickname Warren thought up for her back in highschool, he still thinks it's clever), I know that feeling. But hey! I seen a couple of places hiring, we should totally hand in our resumés and fingers crossed they hire us both!"

"Pffft, us working together? That's gonna be one hell of a disaster," said Frisk jokingly, swatting Warren with a tea towel.

He laughed, trying the dodge the tea towel. "Heeey, we're not that bad now...ok, maybe a little!"

"Hah, pretty certain our lecturer wanted to permanently separate us for any group activities we had to do, we just messed about sometimes!" said Frisk, switching on the kettle to make herself and Warren some tea.

"This be true, Friskebab, this be true. Still, we made the best music and you can't deny that, we're a great team! Alongside Janet and Robert of course."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right. They can't fault us there!"

After the kettle had finished boiling, Frisk grabbed their two favorite mugs and began making the tea. She set Warren's mug down in front of him as well as a plate of cookies to reward their hard work this year and as a 'official start to the summer' treat. They clunked their mugs together, muttering a "cheers" before sipping their tea and tucking into the cookies.

"Say, Frisk... Do you ever think about the underground? Like, your friends down there I mean? I remember back in primary school you always talked about them," said Warren, munching on a cookie.

Frisk paused for a minute mid-chew, it had been a while since she'd thought about them all properly, yeah she did have days when they'd cross her mind and there was a sinking feeling deep inside of her that missed them and how she wished she could see them again if her life hadn't been so demanding these past 8 years. She swallowed.

"Yeah, well, sometimes I do... y'know it's been years since I last seen anyone it's almost like they've vanished. At least, it feels that way. I mean, I've seen quite a few monsters I recognize from the underground around the place; but none of my friends really." said Frisk, sipping more tea.

"Yeah, weirdly enough I don't see as many monsters here in the city than I would back in the village," said Warren.

"Mmm, yeah it's strange, maybe they just prefer a smaller area rather than the crazy and fast-paced environment that is the city?" Frisk wondered.

"Possibly, but hey - it's not like you won't ever see them again!" said Warren, trying to remain positive.

"True...but I dunno Warren, I haven't spoken or seen anyone in so long, I feel so shit about it I don't know if they'd even WANT to see me again," said Frisk, feeling her heart sink.

Warren bit his lip, regretting his choice of bringing this up. He thought hard and quick for something that would cheer Frisk up or at least lighten the mood so she didn't feel like crap for the rest of the day. He suddenly thought of a brilliant plan and grinned, jumping up off his seat.

Frisk looked at him, a quizzical expression plastered on her face. "You ok?"

"Frisk, you know what? It's the start of summer vacation, you know what that means?" said Warren, grabbing her by the shoulders.

"...No?"

"It means we're gonna order some pizza, get fucking wasted and just relax for once! I'm gonna call Janet and Robert to come join us, a mini party with just the four of us, it'll be fun!" said Warren excitedly, whipping out his cellphone and quickly tapping out a few messages.

Frisk giggle-snorted. "Yeah, that does sound like a pretty good idea actually! It's been a while since we were able to kick loose and just have fun, I'll go order the pizzas and we can run down to the shop for alcohol and snacks and stuff! Hell, maybe a bad movie night?" Frisk was starting to get more into the idea, excitedly babbling away suggestions and picking up her cellphone.

"Yeah, yeah! Maybe even watch a bad movie or something, always that bit more enjoyable when drunk - unless of course you just fall asleep again," Warren joked.

"Hey, I don't always pass out!" said Frisk, chuckling.

"Suuuuure," Warren's phone buzzed. "Ahh, sweet - Janet and Robert should be here in the next 10 minutes. I'm gonna quickly run down to the store and grab all the stuff we need and you can order the pizza ok?"

"Yeah, totally! Here's some cash, can you pick up some Cool Ranch Dorritos for me?"

"Right on it, be back in a bit!"

With that, Warren had left the house, leaving the pizza ordering duties up to Frisk. She thought of tidying up the place a bit, but knowing them they'd end up making it a mess by the morning. After the pizzas were ordered and the dirty mugs cleaned, she heard a knock at the door, Frisk answered it in a rush to see a smiling Janet and Robert standing there.

"Heya Frisk!" said Janet, waving animatedly.

"What's up, Frisk?" said Robert, grinning.

"Janet! Robert! Come in you guys, damn it's so hot out there!" said Frisk, allowing her guests through the door into the kitchen.

"Sure is, and I forgot to put on sun lotion today! Not smart if you were washing your car out in the sun with a tank top on all morning," Janet groaned, rubbing her shoulders.

"Daamn, lucky for you we'll be staying inside for the rest of the day," said Frisk.

"Thank God...can't believe summer vacation came by so fast," said Robert, plopping himself down on the sofa.

"Same, doesn't feel that long ago we were all freshmen partying too hard and stressing over college work," said Janet.

"And this coming term is our last year, wow. Time sure has flown by!" said Frisk, sighing.

"Eesh, don't remind me! Now where's Warren? We brought some booze and he isn't here to start the obligatory start of summer shots!" said Robert, looking around as if he expected Warren to be hiding on him somewhere.

"Oh he popped out to get snacks and stuff, he shouldn't be too long-"

Just as Frisk finished that sentence, they all heard the front door open and close and Warren came sauntering into the kitchen with bags of goodies.

"The fun has arrived! And boom-" he (carefully) slammed down two bottles of Jack Daniels Whiskey. "-tonight's gonna be fun."

"Hell yeah! And lookie here, Warren - got some tequila and rum of our own, plenty of booze to keep us going through the night!" said Robert laughing, he got up off the coach. "You got any shot glasses?"

"Yup! I'll grab them for you," said Frisk, rummaging through the cabinets and pulling out four shot glasses. "Ummm, I don't have any lemons but we still have salt?"

"Ahh no worries, let's just leave that part out!" said Robert, pouring tequila into each glass. He passed them around to everyone and raised his glass up. "To the start of summer!"

"To the start of summer!" everyone responded in unison, clinking their glasses against each other and knocking them back quickly.

Frisk grimaced and coughed. "Ughhhh, I can never get used to the unforgivable taste that is tequila."

"Same here, doll!" said Janet.

"Just not rock n' roll enough - right Warren?" Robert joked, winking.

"Yup!"

As soon as the pizza arrived and everyone had tucked in to several slices, they cracked open the rest of the booze and carried on from there, sharing funny stories of their past years in college, stories from the past, jokes, laughter, it was a pretty good evening so far. They played Cards against Humanity for a couple of hours until everyone was too drunk and in too much of a fit of laughter to continue so they decided to settle down with bad movies to try and calm the mood. It helped, a little, but with drink involved anything and everything was absolutely hilarious to the group. They had popped on 'The Room' as the first bad movie of choice and all four of them felt it their sworn duty to quote every one of Tommy Wiseau's signature lines, "You're tearing me apart Lisa" couldn't have been said enough that evening.
Still, even with all the fun Frisk was having and how happy she was to be in the company of good friends, the Underground was all she could think of. Her monster friends, everything. Her heart felt heavy and she felt like her emotions had finally caught up with her after all these years, she missed them sorely. Sure, she had great friends here, but everyone down there had been her first proper friends, the first proper people that cared about her and they weren't even human. What did she give them in return? Silence for 6 years, some friend huh? Guilt stabbed at her and it was getting pretty difficult to bear it.

Several bad movies and copious amounts of alcohol later, the gang had finally passed out. All except for Frisk, who was still busy drinking Jack Daniels straight out of the bottle. Trying to block out the guilt. But to no avail, and that's when her drunken mind had come up with a brilliant plan and that was final. She was gonna go to the barrier, she was going to go see her old friends again.

She squinted at the clock to try and read the time: 3:15am. Fuck...well, some would still be awake right? She could just stay in an inn and wake up all nice and fresh for the morning. Yeah, brilliant idea.

Brilliant.

Frisk sneaked out of the living room and heading straight for the front door, grabbing her car keys on the way out, the bottle of whiskey still in her hand. She carefully opened the front door and closed it just as gently behind her. Now drunk driving was something Frisk was absolutely against and normally would never EVER considering doing, but something inside her had awoken and she knew this was something she had to do. She hopped into the car and turned on the engine, not really as quiet as she'd hoped but nothing she could do about that now. Frisk backed out of the driveway and made her way down the street, through the city and towards Mt. Ebott. For someone who was absolutely out of her mind drunk, you'd think she'd have been a more reckless driver. Oddly enough, Frisk suddenly felt she had enough wits about her to keep control of the car, it wasn't something that really happened often. Not that she made a habit of drunk driving, but normally with this amount of alcohol she wouldn't have been able to see straight was one thing, let alone make her way out of the house without falling and passing out on the floor there and then.

Was it...determination?

Frisk had been driving for the last 30 minutes until she finally approached , the barrier shining bright before her. She stepped out of the car, whiskey bottle in hand, and marched towards it. The barrier felt slightly cool on her skin as she walked through it, it was slightly dark ahead of her and she wasn't able to see very much until out of nowhere lights flickered on and she found herself almost running face first into an elevator. She clumsily hit the buttons and the doors flew open, letting her inside. As if by some sheer force of bad luck, Frisk's vision was getting blurry again and she couldn't quite read what was said above the elevator buttons. She decided to wing it and push every one of them, the elevator groaned in response and she felt it surge downwards, giving her delicate stomach a shock and she suddenly felt like she wanted to vomit her guts up. It stopped suddenly after a while and the doors opened once more, she stumbled out of it and squinted at her surroundings. The heat was unbearable and if she didn't watch her step she'd fall straight into the lava pit below her, luckily there was a pretty handy path and she decided to follow it.
After what seemed like forever she found herself heading through a cave into a rather, um, wet looking environment. She wasn't complaining, at least it was much cooler in here. Frisk took a swig of whiskey from the bottle for courage and advanced forwards, she was so busy looking in awe at the scenery around her that she didn't notice the sudden gap in front of her, she tripped and tumbled down off the platform, smacking her head against the cold pavement and knocking her out cold.

Who knew her entrance to the Underground would play out somewhat the same way from when she had first fallen down 11 years ago? Only, of course, far less graceful and dignified.

Welcome back Frisk, this is going to be a long night.