Instead of an intense rush of panicked adrenaline, everything felt oddly still. Yearl had set out on their young adventure just like the one named "Frisk" that came here some time before them. Was this how it started? Was this the "grand adventure" they thought they would have? Where even were they? Why is the ground so far away… and getting closer.
The numb sensation was gone now. Yearl was falling. They felt sick as they tumbled through the air, no Idea of where up or down was. Their scream was drowned out by the air that howled past them. Then everything went black.
Like a dreamless sleep. They could have been dead and they wouldn't even have known it. Except for... something. A sharp but constant sensation. It was far away, they couldn't tell exactly where it was but it was getting closer. There were more similar sensations. It was pressing into them.
Their eyes flew open. It felt like they had been stabbed. Their vision was blurry and their head felt weightless. Yet moving it around was hard. They had the overwhelming urge to cough. They spasmed, unable to stop themselves from trying to get something out of their lungs. It was uncontrollable, and it was overtaking them.
Their eyes, stained with tears, winced. Unable to withstand the pain that engulfed them. They forced themselves to get a hold of their breathing after seconds that lasted far too long. Their thoughts were racing. Too fast to think anything coherent. But their coughing eventually turned to almost steady wheezing.
They swallowed, trying to resist the urge to let their lungs take over again. It was as close to clarity as they could get. They opened their eyes again, trying to blink away the tears. What happened? Where were they?
Yearl tried to look around but their surroundings didn't make sense. They thought they had opened their eyes, but all they could see was darkness. No, they did have their eyes open, but this place had so little light. They could see they were lying on hard stone; the ground a greyish purple. It stretched only a few feet in front of them and then vanished into complete pitch darkness.
It looked like they were in the middle of an unnaturally bright spotlight. But the shadow surrounding the light seemed… off. There was a hard line between light and dark. Like the blackness itself made up a physical wall.
They had to think. Where was this place? They must have listened to the audio recordings of Frisk telling their story about traveling to the Underground hundreds of times by this point. This didn't seem right at all. Was Yearl even in the Underground? Did they just fall in some random ditch without hope of being found?
No. They had to concentrate. Their thoughts were once again beginning to melt into the tornado of random terrible feelings. They tried to refocus on the ground. Their eyes slowly making their way back from the edge of darkness to ground a bit closer than them. Purple gave way to shiny red.
Their eyes widened. They searched themselves for their arm. They awkwardly put force on the limb sandwiched between them and the ground and forced themselves to be propped-up. Their stomach felt like it was going to rip apart. They were beginning to shake as eyes followed the trail of red liquid to its source on their red-stained t-shirt; the orange and white colors now unrecognizable in the wash of sweat and blood.
Yearl found their other arm, from where, they could not say. It trembled as they peeled the shirt back, revealing the drenched wound on their stomach. They wanted to turn their head away; as if somehow ignoring it would cause it to not exist.
They had to do something about the rock lodged inside themselves. But how exactly? They gritted their teeth, a vague Idea forming in their head. They moved their shaky hand over the source of blood.
They had to close their eyes as they grabbed hold of the thing and pulled. Vertigo passed over them. They thought they were about to throw up as the rock was pulled out. It was a lot longer and sharper than they thought. Yearl could feel every inch being pulled as stone ground against moist flesh.
Eventually, they opened their eyes to see the long, bloody thing was out. It looked almost like a knife. They threw it as far away as they could. It didn't get very far. They immediately wadded up their shirt and pressed down on the wound.
They exhaled, not knowing how long they had been holding their breathe. It felt better. Their mind no longer felt like it was on the edge of being lost in a storm. Everything still hurt but it almost felt manageable now. Besides, everything felt so terrible that the concept of pain was beginning to lose meaning.
But they still needed to get out of here. Now. They had come here to try and meet the monsters that remained in the Underground and Yearl needed to find them. Surely they could help.
They tried to move their legs but they immediately had to stop. One leg twitched a bit, each movement sending shocks through them. The other didn't even budge; feeling like it wasn't even a part of their body.
They closed their eyes and took a deep breath. They looked around, still propped up on one arm. They couldn't see anything past the ring of light they were in. It wasn't very big. They laid down on the floor. They put an arm out on the ground in front of them and tried to pull themselves forward. They had to battle the overwhelming urge to stop as their stomach felt like the rock had been put back in place.
They let themselves go limp. They had managed to get close to the edge of the lit circle. They could reach out to it if they wanted to. Crawling was out of the question now. However, something about the darkness seemed very strange to them.
They almost did it reluctantly as they cautiously reached their one free arm out to it. Immediately they pulled back. They had the overwhelming urge that any part of their arm that went dark was somehow vulnerable. The limb disappeared completely as it passed into shadows.
Something about the absolute lack of light that was in front of them sent chills through Yearl's already shivering body. They ignored the pain and forced themselves to back up, trekking through their own sanguine fluids just to get back toward the center. Away.
They needed someone, anyone. Frisk had someone to help them, right? They were hurt when they fell too. Yet what a way to learn that the term "fallen human" wasn't just a metaphor. Why couldn't Yearl just have thought about what they were going to do? Then something stuck them. How could they not have put the pieces together? Eight other kids, much like themselves, had come here before. Only one managed to survive.
Yearl began to tremble even more. They were so stupid. For what reason would they do this to themselves? To think it was a good Idea to come here? To make friends? Because they were somehow unsatisfied with their life? Life. Now they might end up...
"Is anyone there?" Yearl's raspy voice screamed. Then all thoughts vanished from their head. They were too afraid to even breathe. The sound that came out of their voice sounded wrong to them. It was dampened. Not even the faintest echo came back to them. It was like the shadows had eaten the sound; stealing the air right out of their lungs. Yet, they couldn't shake the feeling that they had still accomplished their goal; something had heard them.
Something felt close. They look around, hoping not to find anything. Their sluggish head moves around as fast as it can; searching.
Their eyes came to rest on something. Some very minute change in a region of darkness. It was barely distinguishable. Yearl blinked. They squinted their eyes, trying to get a better view. The contours were hard to distinguish, just barely visible from the surroundings.
There was a general outline but it didn't make any sense. It could be constantly changing shapes and Yearl probably wouldn't be able to tell; it was so dark. They focused, trying to follow the shapes until it reached some sort of top.
Whatever it was at the very top made Yearl's skin crawl. The thing looked like it had melted and. But what had melted? It looked like some sort of…
Yearl pulled their gaze away, shutting their eyes. They couldn't get the thought out of their mind. The thing wasn't just a thing; it had a face and it was watching them. Yearl knew it hadn't been there before. It might attack them at any moment, ripping them to pieces and they would have no way of doing anything about it.
Yearl opened their eyes but kept them trained on the moist floor. They didn't want to look. But nothing happened. The only sound was that that of their own breathing. They cautiously moved their eyes to the spot. The slightly-lighter-than-black was all they needed to see before they pulled their eyes away.
But they then noticed something else. On the floor, a few feet away from them. They were vaguely aware that when they threw it away, it still landed somewhere in the ring of light, but now, the curtain of shadow had covered half of the blood-soaked rock. The wall of darkness was getting closer.
Yearl's heart was beating out of their chest; their breath shallow and quick. They looked again at the thing at the edge of the light. They pulled back away from it. Even as the shadow's drew closer, it to was moving into the light. Very subtly, but still apparent.
They only caught a glimpse of the face. Jaws, seemingly broken in all directions with hollow eyes, no brighter than the infinite background behind it. Yearl kept inching back, trying to put as much distance as they could between it and them.
A freezing chill ran down their back. They turned to look, they were touching the shadows. They quickly looked back at the thing. It was gone.
Acting on instinct, Yearl contorted their body, trying to scramble back to the center. They could barely hold back tears. The ground was looking more red than purple. Each moment they felt lighter and lighter. Their grip on staying conscious was starting to slip.
They tried to look back behind them, but they have to strain to even move their head. They glimpsed the thing, standing right over them, right where Yearl had touched the darkness. Eyes shut tight. It's so hard to tell themselves that they will be fine.
Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. Their body slowly turning against them. All for what? Some great adventure? Because they weren't content with their own life? And now they wanted more than anything to return to that.
They shut their eyes. Too tired to even even cry; tears just lethargically being dragged out of their eyes, mixing with the wet floor and becoming nothing. Their heart was racing, but they weren't afraid. It was just doing its job, trying to pump blood to where it needed to go. And as their eyelids were having a harder and harder time staying open, it was apparent that the blood was running out.
Yearl moved their gaze toward their feet. The shadow's could almost lick their shoes, but Yearl didn't have it in them to pull back. They barely had anything in them at this point. They let their eyes close, just hoping that maybe something would come to help them like a last minute save from the hero in a fairy tale. Or at least they could try to be a bit more comfortable.
Waiting. Waiting for the inevitable end. For the darkness behind their eyelids to swallow them like the darkness of this terrible place. It didn't matter how long it took, there wasn't much to wait for nor much to hold on to. Why would a kid, barely reaching their teenage years, need to contemplate what lies on the other side? Well, there was no point in wondering now.
Then something weird happened. Everything didn't get darker and darker, but rather, things began to get brighter. Somehow they were aware they were moving. Their entire view was different. They could see all around them without needing to turn their head.
They were a floating point, hovering above their own mangled body; seeing it below them. The ring of darkness was overtaking their physical form, the shadows were close, but they could clearly see the light above. How could this be? They were a spirit? A ghost? What were they?
It didn't really matter. They could feel the constant emotions that flowed through their mind were starting to fade. They were simply content with the existance they had now, moving closer and closer to the light above. There was nothing to be scared of-
There was movement in the surrounding shadows. It should have felt insignificant, irrelevant to them, but it felt the polar opposite. The thing was moving toward them, stepping out of the shadows into the light. Yearl wanted to run but couldn't even move.
It was awful. Some kind of animal, blended together with leaves and teeth. A horrible tornado of things smashed together. Whatever was left of Yearl tried to scream but there was no sound as an endless sea of fangs swallowed them whole.