Continence
Asriel scrunched his body up, lacing his soft fingers together while playing with them below his quivering chin. His wavering, watery eyes skirted away from Frisk.
His blistering lungs tighten as his leaden breaths crawled from his half-open mouth.
He winced when his gut churned from the pitting, nerve-wracking words that burrowed in his sore throat.
The tinges and afterglow of the orange outside light reached within the prison, illuminating them like a spotlight.
Flecks of dust roved throughout the unscathed void.
Frisk stared at him with those lifeless eyes. They pierced his shattering soul.
Please don't go.
Each blistering, drawn-out breath sundered his lungs.
Please don't go...
He shut his eyes and knitted his brows, blocking out the world, scorching strands of tears streamed down his cheeks. He sniffled to stifle them.
...You have to let them go...
Potent, foul words drained from Asriel's throat before they ebbed into a stinging whisper.
"Don't you have anything better to do?"
Asriel's eyes crept halfway open, his shrunken pupils darted from Frisk's stoic gaze.
He turned his back to them, resting his palm on his clasped, wilting lips.
He wallowed in the thought of one last goodbye hug.
They stood in agonizing silence for minutes.
His brows parted as the faint footfalls of Frisk's shoes clattered against the concrete.
Sluing his head to the side, Asriel peeked over his shoulder, he watched his friend diminished into the void as their reverberating steps faltered; each footfall rung throughout his ears before they ceased.
He spoke under his breath.
"It's okay."
Inhale.
"It's okay..." Exhale.
He sniffled, his meek voice cracked.
"...It's okay..."
Asriel stared at his mother's flower bed and Chara's grave: a twinge ruptured his heart.
He set his sweaty, wavering palm over chest as it murmured.
His shoulders collapsed, head sunk, and mind wailed.
"T-they'll be safe..." A smile struggled as it dimpled his cheeks.
"And happy...they've..."
He clasped his lips, gulping the stinging words into his pitting stomach.
A chilling purgative sigh cleansed the clawing sorrow.
"It's like...I never existed."
Asriel's stiff body numbed from the encroaching pulse.
The chittering, violating cackles of it racked his aching forehead.
He whimpered as his frigid body shuddered.
A blistering torrent of tears poured. Gasp escaped his muzzle. His spindly knees gave out.
Do I deserve this?
Asriel sniffled and coughed as he carried himself on his fours. "Is it my fault?" He clenched his hands into a fist, clumping up the flowers in his grasp while tightening it.
Glistening droplets flecked the golden flower petals as they swung back and forth from each tear like a seesaw.
He shut his eyes and mused.
Mother's sentimental smile evoked a fluttering, blissful zest through his crumbling heart as he pictured her with her glasses and read him stories about the world above; her famous tangy smell of butterscotch pie caressed his nose, melting the mutilating misery from his mind; Father, who always offered him piggyback rides, or when things seemed gloomed, he'd always say in his soothing, saccharine voice.
'You cannot give up...Asriel! Stay determined.'
The inner distressing, dreadful demons hushed.
Asriel's quivering, lips dimpled his cheeks briefly.
"...At least they'll be happy..."
Flicking his dry tongue against the roof of his mouth, Asriel's words plummeted into his throat before they seeped from his mouth. "That's..." He paused. "All that matters."
He set himself upright, resting on his knees while setting his palms on them.
He stared up at the ceiling and watched the outside light snuffed.
The darkness consumed him.
His stiff limbs refused to budge as an acute, scraping sensation surged through his frail, frigid body's arteries.
His leaden, drawn-out breaths withered into dying pleads for help.
Maybe, it won't be so bad this time.
Asriel's brows furrowed while he shut his eyes, he focused on his fingers, attempting to make them budge.
His soft fur brushed against his thumb as he rubbed it against his pointer finger.
He yelped and ceased his motion when his skin pricked him, a warm fluid streamed down his hand. His tense jaw dragged while his mouth moved, but his words died within his churned, sinking stomach.
His body froze in place like a statue.
Each breath ebbed.
He cried.
It'll be okay. It'll be okay. It'll be okay.
Rays of light shined down into the abyss. Its warm beams brushed against his face.
Soft heated sand and pricks of gravel slipped between his toes.
The balmy, fragrant scent of flowers caressed his nose.
A brisk breeze ruffled his woolly clothes.
The taste of the outside world...
Cannot be reached.
The scenery crumbled as the void consumed it; a beam of light lit an area in front of Asriel.
Someone in a green and yellow shirt faced their back at him.
Their brown as the wood in the fireplace and shoulder length hair danced in the wind as gold petals roved by.
Asriel crept his eyes half open. The weight of the world dissipated as he stared at Chara.
His heart teemed with joy. The pain dissolved. He bolted towards his best friend.
He ran through the void, his footfalls pattering against the frigid ground.
Asriel motions slugged through the abyss as if he's in water. He outreached his hand towards Chara: the tip of his fingers brushed through the air as they almost reached them.
His vision blurred from the searing torrent of tears while his lungs strained when each leaden pant rushed in.
"Wait, please! Chara, don't leave."
His hand came an inch away from Chara's shoulder.
Rose-like vines snared his knees and wrist.
It dug into his skin, lacerating the flesh.
It dragged him to the ground.
Carrying himself on his fours, Asriel's wavering fingers burrowed into the dirt as his fingers made ruts in it: the distance between the two grew.
He hauled his hand forward as he crawled onwards towards Chara.
Clammy, sultry crimson seeped from his gashes while the thorns bored into and severed the tissue.
"Chara, it's me, Asriel." He whimpered. "Please don't leave me."
His heavy body dragged, mottling the ground in blood.
He blinked and sniffled, his vision bleary from the blistering moisture.
The vines snared his throat, stifling his desperate breaths.
Warm fluids that taste of iron flooded his mouth.
His muscles contorted from the tendrils.
The sound of twisting flesh and bones droned.
His severed voice cried out one last time.
"...I-I'm sorry..."
The vines dislodged his knee like a crocodile, snapping the kneecap from its joint and riving it from his thigh: abrupt, agonizing, anguish assaulted his nerve-wracked mind.
His cries pitted within his sunken gut. His body convulsed for a moment. Blistering bile plummeted back within its chamber.
The hissing sound of blood that rushed from his arteries plagued his ears.
Specks of black crept around his vision as his mind hushed.
Another numb tug before both legs didn't respond.
Asriel crawled towards Chara, he reached up with his quivering, heavy hand and tugged on their shorts.
His words clashed in his throat as they snared within it.
Please...help me.
He coughed, his voice rasp and guttural, "C-chara..." The tendrils around his neck tighten, throttling his breaths as its thorns bored into his skin.
The strength in his arm faltered, it collapsed onto the ground.
The blotches of black combined while his vision faded.
Warm flood of tears trailed down his quivering chin.
His sunken heart ceased and crumbled.
His torn mind silent and still.
His body lifeless and limp.
Asriel's faded eyes peered up at Chara as the vines consumed his body.
Chara peeked over their shoulder, staring down at him: their narrowed, stoic gaze stabbed Asriel. They whispered.
"You deserve it."
Mustering his strength, Asriel hacked up his words, "I'm so-" His eyes widen, pupils shrunk, and his mouth hung open while Chara glared down at him with furrowed brows.
"Lies." Chara clenched their fist, they spoke through their teeth, "That's all you do."
No response.
Chara faced away, lowering their head between their shoulders, they gripped something in front of their chest. "You're just like Mom and Dad."
Asriel's mouth moved but the words didn't come.
"You're all the same." Chara sighed as they shook their head. "I told you everything."
They pivoted around, staring down at Asriel. They held the heart-shaped locket in their splayed palm. "Do you remember?" They stood their as he said nothing. "Did you even care?" Their arm collapsed by their side while they set their other hand over their face: tears streamed down their cheeks and they gasped for air before they whispered, "Why?"
Low breaths seeped from Asriel's mouth. "I..." His eyes fluttered from the weight of his lids. "I...ne...never." He paused breath. "Forgot abo-."
"I hate you."
Chara threw the locket at Asriel's face, it slid down it as clicked open.
Both their blissful smiles radiated from the picture.
Asriel narrowed his eyes as his dark, blurry vision masked the scrawled text before he could read it.
Best friends forever.
He stared up at Chara, struggling to move his mouth.
"I honestly thought you're different." Chara unsheathed a knife from their back pocket.
"You left me to rot while you got to play."
"I stuck to you and you ignored me."
"You're no different from humans."
They cocked their hand back, readying the blade.
I haven't forgotten you.
I haven't moved on.
I haven't let go.
The blade trembled in Chara's hand; the blistering, bitter ire glisten in their phosphorus red lone eye while the other hid beneath their hair.
Both of them watched each other in silence for moments.
Neither budged.
Asriel's words seeped from his crumbled heart. "You're...the...only... one who's-"
The blade bolted. Silence engulfed. Asriel's skull fractured.
"You're disgusting."
Asriel's eyes shot open, snapping out of the dream, he wailed in the void. Blood seeped from his eyes, mouth, and ears: his numb body wrapped in the dense vines as he slued his head in search of hope, but ceased his motions when the vile, chittering cackles encroached his ruptured mind, and its heinous voice violated his ears.
"Howdy."
Skirting his eyes to what he could see, Asriel's breaths increased.
Keep it together, it won't win.
Asriel eased his inhales and exhales.
"Boy, it's about time." It paused. "What? No Mom or Dad this time?"
Silence.
"You're no fun."
Asriel stared dead on into the abyss as the tendrils raised his head while they wrapped around his neck.
"C'mon, cry, at least do something!"
It's going to be okay. Just count to ten.
One...
"Hey, don't ignore me!"
Two...
"I'm going to make them all pay."
Asriel smirked as a feeble chuckle escaped his lips.
Three...
"What? Nothing going to stop me, this world is mine."
Four...
"I'll get Mom first and then Dad, I'll wait 'till they save."
Five...
"I'm being serious! Nothing will stop me!"
Six...
"Oh, I get it. Hahahaha, really? Is that what you think?
Asriel's breaths ebbed before they died. His heavy eyes dragged as he struggled to keep them open while he stared into the darkness in his stupor and his mind-numbed when his sweat-drenched head hitched back once his neck gave out.
S-se-seven...
The monster cackled. "I'll make you watch again."
No response.
"Frisk won't stop me, I'll be free."
"All I need are a fresh pair of so-"
Light patters of boots echoed down the corridor of the ruins.
They...came back for me.
Asriel's mending heart skipped within its chamber.
An invigorating rush purged the putrid torment from his mind as it attuned.
Saccharine sentimentality sutured his sundered body as a torrent of hope rejuvenated.
His glistening eyes widen as a graceful smile dimpled his cheeks. He dragged his head to face the chamber's exit.
...But nobody came...
"You're too easy." Flowey cackled.
The tendrils consumed the corpse. Fangs ripped his flesh. An old form reincarnated.