Like the description says, if you haven't read the first one yet, go do that first. It's on my profile page, simply called 7 Souls.
I cracked my eyes open, and found myself free-falling in the air. I didn't know where I was, what I was doing. Why was I in the air, with nothing to hold onto, and with nothing under for me to land safely on, and just me falling alone in a wide expanse of nothing?!
It was then that I realized. I was going to fall to my death.
Screaming and waving my arms around, I felt the backpack slip off my shoulders.
Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow…
I groaned as I felt my bones creak and my bruised skin stretch. My head throbbed, and I held it in my hands, trying to keep it from exploding. Where was I? What happened to me? Why was I lying in a… patch of yellow flowers? How had I gotten here? Looking up, I saw a huge hole looming above me. And up there, I saw the sky. How had I gotten down here? Had I fallen?!
Everything hurt; my back, my arms and legs, and especially my head. I carefully threaded my fingers through my hair before feeling a bump in a little spot above the back of my head. Ouch. I must've fallen pretty hard to get a nasty thing like that. I tried to get in a better position to feel just how big it was, but the plan failed when my back started to practically scream in agony. After that, I just stopped moving.
I was still trying to figure out where I was and what I was doing. How had I ended up here? I didn't remember getting here… had I jumped? Had I tried to suicide? From what? I thought harder, trying to remember my family… if I even had one. Did I have a family? Did I have siblings? Where was I born? I continued to rack my head for answers, but found none.
But then I thought of a question that I was sure I knew the answer to. My name. But after a few moments of blinking, I realized I couldn't remember that either. Panic started to seize me as I realized the fact that I remembered nothing. Had something happened to me? Did I hit my head too hard? Did I get a concussion?
Why hello. A ghostly figure suddenly appeared before me, and then I knew I was crazy. It was a girl in a green sweatshirt, and a single yellow stripe was traced upon it. She had short brown hair, with with cute bangs covering part of her eyes. Her smile was gentle, but mischievous. I see you have fallen, partner.
I blinked at her once. Twice. She was slightly transparent and floating, like a real ghost. Maybe she was a ghost. Suddenly, I shook my head frantically, turning away and shutting my eyes closed. This wasn't real, it couldn't be. This was impossible. I was hallucinating, that was all.
A moment later, I reopened my eyes. She was still there, staring at me expectantly. Well, how are you? Her voice was curious, but unamused at the same time.
"I-I'm…" I wanted to back away, but my body protested. "Y-you're not real! This isn't real!" I shut my eyes closed again, trying to block out these strange things appearing before me.
"Howdy! I'm Flowey." Snapping an eye open, I found another shape in front of me. It was a big flower with yellow petals. How had it gotten there? The voice was loud and squeaky, like a kid's. "Flowey the Flower!"
It took me a moment to realize that the voice was coming directly from the flower itself. Upon closer inspection, I could see it had face features, like a mouth and eyes. It was a live, talking flower! Shock spreading across my face, I turned around and saw the girl still floating there. There was an unamused expression on her face. Oh great, it's him.
"What do you mean?" I asked her, but she didn't respond, as her gaze was still fixed on the flower. Feeling uncertain, I finally managed to get myself up to a sitting position. What in the world was happening?
Seeming oblivious to the transparent girl and my comment, the flower continued to spout nonsense at me. "Hm… you're new to the underground, arnet'cha? Golly, you must be so confused."
After a moment of confusion, I slowly nodded my head. Everything was definitely strange, but… maybe this flower could help sort things out? It certainly seemed to have good intentions, and looked harmless enough.
"Someone ought to teach you how things work around down here." Flowey waved his little leaves around, seeming excited. He still hadn't noticed the girl. Or maybe only I could see her? That would just prove even further that something was seriously wrong with me.
Don't trust him. The girl whispered to me in a warning tone. You can't trust anyone down here. I blinked at her, suddenly unsure. Flowey hadn't done anything bad to me yet. How was I supposed to know who to trust?
"I guess little old me will have to do." Flowey took a deep breath. "Ready? Here we go!"
Suddenly, the strangest thing happened. A red heart flew straight out of my chest, and I couldn't help gasping at the sight of it. It was just so pretty. There was a beauty to it that I couldn't describe, like the rich redness of it and how it seemed to brim with energy. What was this thing? And had it come out of me?
Then suddenly, I felt gravity falling away, and I rose into the air. I could barely stifle a gasp. How was I flying? It was… so cool! I waved my arms around experimentally. I was pretty sure I looked like a wacky chicken.
"See that heart?" Flowey beckoned to the amazing shape before me. "That is your soul, the very culmination of your being!"
My soul? I stared at it, a little awed in spite of myself. This beautiful thing belonged to me? Was it also the reason I was flying?
But if it really was my soul, and if it really was made up of everything I was… then wasn't it a little too exposed?
"Your soul starts off weak." Flowey continued cheerily, "But can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV!"
"Level?" I frowned, trying to think. That didn't make any sense. Level was a video game term, not something that happened in real life. My eyes widened when I realized I had a faint understanding on how video games worked. So that was something I could remember. I liked video games. Or at least, I was familiar with it. Maybe staying with this flower would help to recover some my memories.
"What's LV stand for?" Flowey gave me a smug look. "Why, love, of course!" He said it like it was obvious, and it made me feel kind of stupid. (I mean… it wasn't that obvious, right?) Of course video game terms wouldn't be referred to in real life. Unless this was all really just a stupid dream or hallucination?...
"...huh." I could only answer. The ghostly girl shook her head at me, probably with displeasure.
"You want some love, don't you?" The flower stuck out his tongue playfully. I had no idea that flowers had tongues. "Don't worry, I'll share some with you." And just like that, little white pellet-shaped items rose up from behind the flower. They spun around teasingly, and I wondered how he managed to keep them up like that. Was the flower magical? That surely couldn't be the reason. Magic wasn't real.
"Down here, love is shared through…" He seemed to be thinking as his face scrunched up. "Little white… 'friendliness pellets.'"
"How are you doing that?" I finally asked, curiosity making the best of me.
His face showed confusion. "Doing what?" I pointed to the flying pellets, and the flower gave me a displeased look. "Curiosity killed the cat." He responded simply before shrugging his leaves. I noted that he still hadn't answered my question. "Are you ready?" The pellets slowly started to move in my direction. "Move around! Get as many as you can!"
I didn't really have to move. The pellets were already heading in my direction on their own. I was about to reach for them, but the girl started to wave her arms wildly around. Focused on her, I turned my head, and all the pellets rushed right past my head, embedding themselves into the wall behind me.
Surprised that the pellets actually managed to miss me, I turned to a very unamused Flowey. "Hey buddy. Ya missed them."
"S-sorry!" I pointed a glare at the girl. It was her fault she distracted me.
"Let's try again, shall we?" A brand new row of pellets appeared, and this time when they came to me, I firmly reached my hand out, ignoring the ghostly girl completely. I wasn't going to waste Flowey's friendliness pellets again through something as stupid as-
Pain raced through my arm and I hissed, immediately retracting it back to my chest. The pain was hot and furious, and I could feel it slowly spread through all my limbs. I gritted my teeth and tried to suppress it, sending a desperate glance towards the girl. But she was still staring at the flower.
What had the pain come from? Was it from the pellets?
I turned back to Flowey and was faced with the most horrid face I had ever seen in my life. (But maybe not, since I may have seen worse in my past life) His eyes were dark, and a maniacal grin spread across his face, showing white teeth. Had he betrayed me? This was what I got for trusting random talking flowers.
"You idiot." He grinned mischievously at my shocked expression. "In this world, it's kill or be killed. Why would anyone pass up an opportunity like this?" He laughed as a whole circle of pellets surrounded me, spinning around in a teasing manner. The pain was still throbbing in my arm, and I could feel myself starting to panic. I couldn't avoid all those pellets in the state I was in. And if just a couple could hurt this bad… how much would a whole bunch of them feel like?
Obviously, I couldn't let them get to me. But I was in no state to move away. "DIE." Flowey laughed as the pellets started to come closer to me, but very slowly. He was trying to scare me, to make me panic. I couldn't afford for that to happen.
I still had one hope left. Swerving my head around, I faced the girl. She was still there, floating eerily. If only I had just trusted her before, then I wouldn't have fell for Flowey's lies. Could she help me out in this predicament?
The girl finally seemed to notice my desperate expression. After a second, she pointed next to me. And when I turned, I found a backpack. There was no time to question how it got there. I needed to act fast. Snatching my hand forward, I grasped onto a strap and swung it towards the pellets. Surprisingly, it worked. Although the pellets didn't quite seem to bounce off or embed into the backpack. They just kinda… disappeared.
The flower gave me a disbelieving look. "W-what?"
The girl quickly flew next to me, and motioned her index finger up before pointing at the flower. Understanding, I lifted the backpack high in the air with my unhurt arm. Feeling strength fill me, I flung it at the flower.
The last I saw of Flowey just before he got squashed by the backpack was his angry face of revenge. Once the dust had settled, he was gone. The soul returned to my chest, and although I was sad to see it go, I felt whole again.
I dropped back to the ground and turned to the girl, giving her a grateful look. There was no way I could've done that on my own. She had helped to give me strength. "Thanks." I mumbled.
You okay? She asked.
I nodded, turning my head downwards to stare at the ground. I just needed some time to gather my thoughts, now that the murderous flower was finally gone. I took a deep breath, and tried to think sensibly.
Uh… yeah. This was just a really weird dream, and nothing more. Ghosts and talking flowers weren't real. These were all just hallucinations or something. Or maybe I was just dreaming. Who knew? Perhaps I just needed some rest, and then I would be fine. Perfectly fine… and hopefully, things would go back to normal. Nodding to myself, I dropped back into the bed of flowers. They were rather soft, more comfortable to lay on than I would've imagined.
The girl was giving me a curious look, but I ignored her. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyelids and went to sleep.
The sky was dark with the bringing of night.
The back of my head still hurt. I sat up and inspected my surroundings, noting that I was still in the cave. I sighed, a little despondent. Apparently, it wasn't just a dream. At least no flowers came to murder me in my sleep. And I was feeling better. A lot better, somehow. I cracked a few of my joints to warm up.
Looking around some more, I found the same girl from before sitting next to me. She was staring at me intently, which was kinda creepy.
"Uh…" I hurried to find the rights words, but ended up blurting, "How long have you been sitting there?"
She ignored my question. How much do you remember? She asked instead.
I frowned. "Not much. I think I may have amnesia." I sighed. "Actually, I was hoping you could help me. But… I don't even know your name. Could you perhaps… tell me?"
She smiled before answering with a simple, "Chara."
"Chara." I repeated. The name felt funny in my mouth, like I should've recognized it, but didn't. "That's a nice name. My name is-" I stopped when I remembered that I couldn't remember my name. The thought brought a pout upon my face.
You can't remember your name? I nodded sorrowfully to her question. Then for the time being, your name will be Frisk. You okay with that?
I blinked at her for a few moments, thinking. I felt doubtful, but I was too excited from earning a name to be like so. I quickly nodded my head to the suggestion. Frisk. That was a good name. "Frisk." I repeated, the word feeling familiar in my mouth. Like it belonged there. Was it possible that this was my real name?
Good. Now we need to move along. I raised an eyebrow at her. Yes, we have to keep going. No matter how dangerous this place is. It's the only way out. You do want to get home, don't you?
"Shouldn't I try to regain my memories?" I asked, unsure.
You'll regain them on the way. Chara answered dismissively. But just remember, Frisk, that I'm here to help you. If you follow exactly what I say, there's no doubt that you will stay perfectly safe, okay?
After the slightest moment of uncertainty, I nodded my head. She was someone I could trust, I knew. She had already proven herself to me. Smiling for the first time, I grabbed the backpack before following Chara's ghostly figure out the cave from where I had first fallen.
And with the bringing of summer brings more updates!
...and a genocide route.
Let's just say I'm glad to be back. :)