Hey, are you listening?
Don't give up! You can do this; I believe in you. If you're brave you can do anything. If you're brave…you can….you can…
Nothing but darkness surrounded him.
Pain was pounding in his skull, as if something was trying to claw itself out of his head from inside his brain. There was a loud ringing in his ears, drowning out any other sound. He clenched his teeth as he pulled himself off of the cold ground, struggling to deal with the aching. His bare hands landed against something soft, like a pillow of cotton. An odd smell of pollen hung in the air
Where am I? He thought, as he rubbed a hand against his scratchy hair. The area was dimly lit, and as he gazed around the area longer, his eyes began to adjust; but it still wasn't enough to see anything distinctively.
Peter...His brain thought. He remembered faintly that he had been walking with his brother. And then-suddenly, he was here. How exactly had he wound up in wherever it was he was? And where had Peter gone off to, anyway?
"Howdy!" A voice greeted, and Chad jumped at the sudden break of silence. He looked around for the source, but couldn't spot anyone. The voice spoke again; it had a sickly sweet quality to it, and Chad felt like it had came straight out from one of the cheesy educational VHS tapes that they so often watched in school. "Down here."
Chad looked down, and saw that he had been lying on a pile of golden flowers. There was nothing really unusually significant about it at first; until one of them sprouted out from the rest and began to speak. "There you go." It spoke. It had surprisingly human features on its pistil; two bright, almost cartoonish looking eyes that peered up at him, and a bright smile that rested on its unnatural face. Its petals were constantly waving, as if it were doing a little dance. "I'm Flowe-"
"You're a talking flower." Chad interrupted, his mouth slightly agape.
The smile on its face tightened. "Yes. FLOWEY the Flower." It clarified. "You must have had a long fa-"
"You're a TALKING FLOWER." Chad repeated.
The smile fell. "We've established that already." With a breath in, it said, "Now, down here-"
"This can't be real." Chad said, his voice slightly panicking. "Flowers can't talk."
"Listen, you little braindead trashbag." The flower, Flowey, suddenly snapped harshly. All at once, its face began to mutate, its initial cute disposition melting away as it transformed into a horrifying creature made out of nightmares. The eyes grew bloodshot, and two rows of sharp fangs prodded themselves out of its smile, so large that they stuck awkwardly out of its tiny mouth. "You're an idiot for falling down here. Say goodbye."
It laughed manically, in a high-pitched screeching laugh that wasn't pleasant to the ears. Before Chad could process what was happening, an array of white bullets appeared out of thin air, and circled him. They began to move in on him, getting closer and closer with each passing second.
Thankfully, they moved rather slowly. Slow enough for Chad to duck down and grasp the flower into his fist. "You know, you're a flower." He said, as the bullets collided into one another and exploded into an array of tiny lights. "I could just pick you up out of the ground."
The flower struggled against his grasp. "That's not how this works!"
"And flowers aren't supposed to talk." Chad pointed out. "I guess we're both confused."
The flower let out a grunt of irritation. "Let go of me, you idiot." Its vine tried desperately to escape from beneath Chad's chubby fingers.
"Maybe." Chad said, sensing that he now had the upper hand. "If you tell me one thing: did someone else fall down here?"
The flower hesitated for a brief moment, as if it was thinking (which Chad deemed impossible; there was no way the creature had functioning organs in its tiny body). Then, finally said, prodding a smirk on its face,"Do you mean a tall boy in a cape?" It asked, feigning naivety.
"Yes!" Chad exclaimed. There was only one person that could be: Peter. "So he was here?" He asked eagerly.
"Oh, he was here," The flower spoke back, putting on an innocent tone. "But last I saw of him, he had walked straight into the ruins. Quite sad really. No humans ever return from the ruins."
Chad suddenly felt his heart begin to pound. "What's the supposed to mean?"He asked.
"Oh, wouldn't you know?" The flower said, blinking up at him. "Haven't you ever heard of this place before?"
As the flower spoke, Chad began to regain some of his wits, as if his brain was being pieced back together bit by bit. "This is...the place of monsters?" He concluded. He had heard of this place; everyone had. Just below Mount Ebbot, there was an underground trap for monsters, keeping them locked away for the safety of humans. But no one had entered the place in centuries. Chad had concluded that it was more than likely a silly fairytale told to children, a white lie to scare them from climbing up the mountain. After all, the mountain was steep, and one wrong slip could leave them tumbling to their demise.
But now, looking up at the faint light miles high above him, and the cave walls surrounding him, and especially, the talking flower in his hands, he began to wonder if the rumors had been true after all.
"You got it right, buddy!" The flower interrupted his thoughts. It began to gain back its smile. "And you know what happens to humans here in the underground? They. Die." It let out another laugh, this one light-hearted and full of joy, as if the boys demise would bring it impeccable joy. Then, with a tilt of its (presumably) head, it said, "Well, have fun!"
Before Chad could do anything, it slipped out of his hands and popped down into the dirt-but not before growing its grotesque fangs once more and laughing vehemently, leaving nothing but the echo of its laughs bouncing off the cave walls.
When the laughter finally faded away, Chad got up from the flowerbed. He couldn't really be here-could he? All those silly lies he had been told as a child; all those rumors that had been spoken about this mystical world of monsters. No, it couldn't be real.
But yet, he had to believe it was real. At least for the time being. At least until he found Peter and the two could return home.
He took a deep breath, and picked up his coat from the ground, sliding it on. It was a hand-me-down from Peter, and was always a little to big for him. On his thin shoulders, it constantly slipped off, and he often had to consistently pull it back on. But in the cold October air, especially so deep below the ground, it was warm enough.
As he put it on, he spotted something had been left beside it. His memory slowly returning to him, he immediately remembered what it was just as he picked it up from the ground. His Halloween costume-nothing but a haunting skeleton mask with a wide grin plastered on its ceramic face. A cheap gag they had found at the dollar store and decided it would do for a costume this year. He stared at it, pondering. Maybe, just maybe, this would help assist him in his search; he hoped, at the very least it'd be a good enough to disguise himself among these 'monsters' until he found his older brother.
With a hesitant hand and a shaky sigh, he pulled the mask over his face.
And then entered into the world of monsters.