It was cold and dark and she was so so scared and no matter what she did there was nothing around her but darkness and the passing of hands and they were all so cold and she couldn't stop crying but no one could hear no one ever even tried to listen and for a brief moment she thought maybe maybe maybe maybe someone had heard her but then the flash of white and black had drained away and it was back to the cold and the quiet and she heard him she heard him and one more soul one more child one more one more one more get her out of here please-
"No!"
There was a sudden movement beside her, and then a voice- "Jo?"
"Frisk?" Realizing she was struggling to breathe, Jo took a few deep breaths to calm down. "Sorry. Nightmare."
"Are you okay?" Frisk was sitting up, pulling Jo to sit up as well. "Do you need some water?"
"I think I'm okay." Jo rubbed at her eyes, giving Frisk a smile as she looked around. "When did we fall asleep?"
"I dunno. A little while ago?" Frisk looked around the room as well, brightening. "Look, pie!"
"You mean the pie that's probably poisoned," Jo muttered, grabbing the glass of water that had been set on the nightstand. "Huh… How do they get water down here?"
Frisk frowned as she stood, brushing herself off and putting the blanket back on the bed. "It's a mountain. Don't mountains always have water?"
"I mean… I guess so." Jo downed the water, feeling better when she did. "Alright, I'll take the first bite of pie to make sure it's not poisoned, then you can have some, okay?"
"Alright, fine," Frisk said with a huff, crossing her arms. If it was poisoned, then at least this mess would be over, Jo mused.
"Alright. One, two, three." Jo used the fork to shove a bite in her mouth, eating it slowly before blinking. "Oh, wow, it's good."
"Really? Let me have some!" Waiting for a few moments to make sure she wasn't about to drop dead, Jo sighed and handed Frisk the fork. Frisk beamed at her and immediately began to dig into her pie.
"As soon as you finish we're looking for a way out of here. Toriel is probably asleep herself or doesn't know we're awake."
Frisk frowned, looking up at Jo. "But that's mean to leave without saying goodbye."
"Look, Frisk, we need to get home, and Toriel will try to stop us if she knows that. Besides, I'm sure she would understand and want us to go back to our families, right?"
"Why would she stop us from going home?"
"That's why we need to get out of here. What if she thinks we're safer down here or something?"
Frisk frowned, looking down at the rest of her pie. "I guess you're right… But… But maybe we should ask her, anyway?"
"Let's at least find a way out, first, then we can ask her." Jo just had to time this right and it would all be fine.
The two tiptoed out of the room, Frisk following after Jo. Jo led her down the stairs, and the two seemed to reach the bottom without any incident. But they barely made it more than a few steps before- "You two would have no fun playing down here. You will catch a cold, it is drafty."
"We were exploring," Jo lied at once, stepping in front of Frisk. "We wanted to see where this led." It definitely felt like it was a way out - more so if Toriel was trying to stop them.
"Go on, then. Upstairs. Did you two sleep well?" Holding an arm out to stop Frisk from following the directions, Jo narrowed her eyes.
"We slept fine. I was kind of curious, though. Where did you get all those kid shoes?" Toriel seemed to pause, having turned to the stairs.
"I used to have children of my own."
"That's a lot of shoes." Jo didn't want to push Toriel too much, but she was scared and maybe if she pretended she wasn't then it would all be okay.
"I've had a few children, over the years."
"Children like us?"
Toriel looked back at them, finally smiling, but she looked… Sad. "If you mean human… A few of them. Not all of them."
"Did they ever go back home? To the surface?" Why would she be so sad if she was some horror movie villain? Maybe she really was just trying to care for the kids that passed through?
"One of them did. I don't know if the others did." One of them made it, though. That meant there really was a way out of here.
"Come on, Frisk," Jo took Frisk's hand and pulled her upstairs. "Let's go back to the room."
"Oh, uh… Okay." Frisk looked at Toriel again before pulling away from Jo- Oh. Frisk really did see the good in Toriel, didn't she? Especially if she was hugging her so tightly.
"We could use some more rest, anyways." Jo started up the stairs, throwing a look towards Toriel. They still needed to get out. Toriel seemed to say something to Frisk, the girl pulling away with a smile.
"Okay. Okay." Heading back upstairs, Jo waited for Frisk and noticed that Toriel didn't follow them. She would probably be down there for a while.
"Want more pie?"
"Yeah. Okay." Frisk took Jo's hand, smiling at her.
Jo led Frisk to the kitchen and cut another slice of pie for her, setting it down on the kitchen table and giving herself time to think. Frisk might be okay, if Jo left her here, but Jo might feel guilty for the rest of her life if Frisk didn't get back to the family that she obviously loved.
After Frisk finished the slice of pie, Jo had to frown, looking out into the living room. Toriel still wasn't back? Hm… Maybe they should check on her. It wasn't like Toriel could just block the exit all night. Maybe there was another way back out that led to her rooms and now the girls were free to get out. "How are we going to get home?"
"I don't know, yet, but we're about to figure it out. You can bring the pie, if you want, but we need to get going."
"I don't think we need to bring the pie." Frisk slid down from the seat she was in. Jo tried not to laugh at how funny an image that was as she held out her hand.
"Just trust me, okay? I'll do my best to make sure you get home."
"And you too, right?" The two of them went back down the stairs, and heard… It was an echo coming from further down that hall.
"What's that?" It sounded like knocking, almost, but the noise was just different enough to cause Jo confusion. The two continued further down the hall in time to see Toriel just beginning to nail a board into what looked to be the only exit! "Wait! What are you doing?!"
"I am not letting him kill anymore children." K… Kill children? Who the hell tried to kill children?!
"Yeah, that's- That's great. Not killing children is great, but we really need to get home and out of this place." Toriel sighed, turning to the two of them.
"If you leave, he… Asgore will kill you, without hesitation. I've seen it happen before, and I will not let it happen again."
"We can deal with this Asgore ourselves." Jo knew she was lying through her teeth, but she had to do something. She had to do something.
"...Very well then. Prove to me you're strong enough to survive." Toriel looked deathly serious and Jo gulped as she began to glow with cyan light, Frisk glowing with her own red light.
"Um, so, I'd really like to know what's happening? Because humans aren't really supposed to glow, you know!"
"If you would like to leave, you must Fight me. If you can best me, you may just hold your own against Asgore."
"I'm not exactly a fighter, very much, and I'm pretty sure Frisk is even worse than me. I mean, are you really going to fight kids!"
"If you leave, Asgore will not hesitate to kill you." With that, her hands were alight with fire that she was throwing at them!
Jo just barely managed to drop to the floor to duck the fire before quickly looking back to see if Frisk was alright, relieved that the other girl had the same idea. "Right. Okay. Fire throwing goat monster." How did one beat that?
"Tori," Frisk said, staring up at her - Tori? "We have to go home."
"This can be your home, now! You will be safe here, and never have to worry again." She threw more fire attacks at this one, these seeming to rain down upon them, and the girls just barely dodging out of the way.
"I have a mommy, and a daddy, and a big brother, and they miss me! They're sick!" Her family was sick? No wonder she was so anxious to get back home.
"And I don't want to be killed by a monster! I'm sick of everyone but me always having control- I want to decide what happens to me!"
"Oh, my children… Can't you see this is for the best?"
"I don't want to be locked up in some cage!" Jo dodged another blast of fire, digging around her pockets for something to use before she found her toy knife and threw it. It landed a foot short and hit the ground with a muted thud.
"Please," Frisk pleaded with her. "I want to go home, please- Ah!"
"Frisk!" Jo was rushing over to Frisk's side at once, trying to check her over. "Are you alright?"
"I'm okay. It just hurt…" Frisk was holding her arm where it looked like her sleeve had singed. It didn't look like she had been too badly burned, if at all, but Jo still worried.
"Frisk, we need to get past her. Any ideas?"
Frisk shook her head with a sniff. "I dunno."
"Hey- Hey, it's alright. Um, you're okay?" Jo did not know how to deal with a crying child, she was realizing. Sure, some people may have said she was a kid herself with how she was twelve, but there were decades between being twelve and being Frisk's age.
"Oh, my child…" Hang on… Toriel wasn't attacking them. "This is only a small show of what will come if you leave. Do you still truly wish to go?"
Frisk bit at her lip, nodding. "Josh needs me." Frisk was acting. She was good at it, too, it seemed.
"Toriel." Right, then. Jo had to do her part. "Please let us leave. Frisk needs to return home to her family."
The glows subsided, and Toriel bent down, pulling them both into a hug. "I see now I won't be able to stop you. Just please. When you leave, I beg you not return."
"We won't." Jo gently patted at Toriel's back, swallowing down the lump in her throat. "I'm sorry about your kids." She thought she heard Toriel sniff as she hugged the two tighter.
She pulled away from them with a smile. "Please stay safe, little ones."
"We'll do our best," Jo nodded, carefully taking Frisk's hand. "I'll make sure she gets home safe."
"Thank you." With that, Toriel got to her feet and left them alone. Jo stared after her for what felt like an eternity, almost, before she was nodding and pulling Frisk along.
"Come on, Frisk." Frisk nodded, still sniffling and stumbling as they walked. "Are you… actually crying? Did you really get burned back there?"
"I dunno. Maybe a little? I…" She shook her head, turning away from Jo. "Doesn't it make you sad?"
"Does what make me sad, Frisk?" Leaving Toriel behind? Because if so, Frisk became attached very easily.
"Just… She lost all of her kids, and now we're leaving, and she really liked us, so we're leaving, too… Don't you feel bad?"
Jo was quiet for a moment, thinking it over. "I don't really feel bad for leaving, but I guess I feel bad for her. Maybe if anyone else ever falls down they'll stay with her."
"Maybe. I hope so. I think she's a really good mom." Frisk sniffed before nodding and following after Jo. They got to the next space before… Oh, that flower.
"Golly, Chara! You're so smart! It's gonna be all seven, isn't it?"
"Did you tell him your name was Chara?" Jo asked quietly, giving the flower a distrustful look. A flower that talked couldn't be trusted.
Frisk shook her head. "I'm not Chara," she said to the flower.
'Flowey' stared at her, his petals waving in the wind. "Oh, right! Silly me!" He winked at her. "Of course not! I'll be seeing you. Not that you'll see me."
Jo watched as the flower was suddenly gone, not a trace of him left. "That was creepy to you too, right?"
"Yeah," she said quietly. "Really creepy. I guess we should go. We can't be that far from home."
"Yeah. We just need to keep going and we'll probably find some way up and out of the mountain."
Frisk nodded. "Okay. Okay. Look, there's a door at the end of the hall."
"Finally. Let's get you home, okay?" Jo could figure out what to do after that, but for now she had to see that Frisk made it home safe. Besides, it wouldn't take too long. How much more of this place could there be? Jo opened the door and immediately shivered.
Snow. They were staring at… Snow. Were they still in the mountain? Looking up as far as she could, Jo noticed that the 'sky' ended in rock, so that meant they were definitely still in the mountain, and yet… "Frisk. You see all this snow too, don't you?"
"Yeah. It's kinda cold." Frisk stepped out first. "It's really snow."
"How is there snow under a mountain?" Jo stepped out after here, staring down at the crunch her shoes made. "It's still just fall up above!"
"I dunno," Frisk said with a shrug, looking around. "Hm."
"Let's just keep walking. We'll probably find some way out of the snow, at least." There seemed to be less monsters just from glancing around, so that was good. Frisk nodded beside them and the two trudged along, side by side.
Then it sounded like someone else was trudging in the snow behind them. Had a monster followed them? Remembering Toriel's ability to throw fire, Jo spun around quickly, ready to shove herself and Frisk to the ground as whatever monster attacked them. But… No one. No one except their footprints and… It almost looked like another track of footprints. They started in the middle of the path, then stopped a few steps later. If this wasn't a horror movie scene, Jo would eat her shirt.
"Frisk," Jo said as quietly as she could. Her words still echoed in the empty snowy landscape. "I'm going to grab your hand and as soon as I do, we're going to run, okay?"
"What? Why are we going to run?" The two continued walking on their way, and Jo heard the snap of the branch the two of them had definitely avoided when they passed.
"Because we're being followed." With that, Jo grabbed Frisk's hand and began running as fast as she dared, pulling Frisk along. Frisk scrambled to run with Jo before the two got to a bridge that seemed kinda narrow, both of them pausing.
"Jo?" Squeezing Frisk's hand, Jo eyed the bridge. It didn't look exactly 'safe.'
"We're fine. It's fine. We're going to be okay." The snow crunched behind them slowly as the monster drew closer until the monster was right on top of them-
" n." Jo shuddered and shoved Frisk in front of her and further away from what was behind them, trying to decide just how quickly they could get away because this monster didn't sound anywhere near as 'friendly' as Toriel had been. Frisk turned to Jo, hugging her tightly and hiding her face against her chest. "Don't you know… How to greet… A new pal? d."
Taking a deep breath, Jo hesitantly looked behind her, eyes wide as she saw a skeleton standing behind her. All the stories of the Grim Reaper suddenly flooded her mind and Jo took an unsteady breath. "Are you here to kill us?"
"Shake my hand." Oh, man, Jo knew enough about crossroads and demons and deals to know that that would probably kill her.
"Fine." But it would buy them the time Frisk needed to run away if something bad was about to happen. Jo put her hand in the skeleton's-
And heard the worst fart sound of all time. "Whoopee cushion. Never gets old."
"Did… Did you just prank us with a whoopee cushion?"
"Yeah- Hang on. Who's us?" Jo saw Frisk peek out from behind her, staring at the skeleton. "...Ah."
"So, what, is that supposed to distract us before you try to kill us?" Jo shuffled backwards, nudging Frisk at the same time. "Gonna chop our heads off!"
"N… No, I- There's two of you." He seemed pretty surprised, considering he had just been following them.
"Yes, you can count, great, there's two of us." Jo just had to be PATIENT and distract this skeleton until she could think of a way to get Frisk somewhere safe. If there were 'nice' monsters like Toriel, maybe one would be willing to take pity on a human child and lead her out. "Where are we?"
"Uh… Well, this is just outside the Ruins, and if you keep going you'll hit Snowdin- Sorry, who are you, exactly?"
"If you're some kind of demon Grim Reaper, I don't think I should tell you my name. Why do all you monsters know English, anyways." Jo gave Frisk a sharp push towards the bridge, trying to get her to run without drawing attention to it.
The skeleton shook his head. "I'm not some demon Grim Reaper- It was only supposed to be the little one. There's not supposed to be two of you."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jo glanced back to Frisk, finally just mouthing the word 'run.' "How'd you know there'd be any of us?"
"It, uh- Hey, don't- Oh, jeez." The skeleton watched as Frisk ran across the bridge. "This isn't good. She'll run right into Pap."
"Who's Pap?" Jo stared at the skeleton, eyes widening. "There's another monster over the bridge? No- Frisk! Wait up!"
"My brother," the skeleton said, hurrying along with her. "He really wants to catch a human."
"He what?! Frisk! Frisk, Frisk, wait, come back!" Jo hurried even faster, and, really, a kid couldn't get that far, right? "Fine, whatever, he can have me, but you're not hurting a little girl!"
"Jeez, kid, I'm not trying to- Here he comes, go duck down behind that shack- Oh thank god- Hey, hey kid, how about you hide behind this conveniently shaped lamp over here?"
"Just be PATIENT and hide for now," Jo panted, catching up to Frisk and pushing her towards the lamp. "We're gonna make it out of this."
"Sans! You look tired! Were you actually working?"
"Heh, nah. Just got back from practicing my jokes. Walking's hard work, y'know?"
"Sans!" Oh, jeez, that was a loud skeleton. He sounded terrifying. "You never do your actual work! And you still haven't recalibrated your puzzles!"
"Yeah, I'll get around to it later, don't worry so much."
"Of course I'm going to worry! What are you even doing right now?!"
"Looking at this lamp. Cool lamp, am I right?" What was he doing?! He was basically telling the human-catching skeleton 'hey look, there's a human over here!'
"While it is a very tasteful lamp, I am far too busy at the moment, Sans! What if a human comes through here?!"
"I dunno. I'll probably just keep looking at this lamp. It's really cool. Maybe sleep at my post." Jo froze and held her breath, praying the other skeleton didn't come investigate. As the skeleton started going on about 'the Great Papyrus' and being a part of some royal guard thing, Jo slowly and carefully peeked over the edge of the stall, trying not to be seen. The other skeleton was really tall and didn't seem to notice Jo, but Sans was grinning, and he looked over at her, and grinned wider, looking nervous. Nervous was never a good sign.
Crouching back down, Jo took a steady breath. If they could just wait until the big skeleton left, then they could run away before the smaller one managed to hurt them. "Alright, see you later, Papyrus." Immediately, he walked over to the stall and slid down to sit beside Jo, giving a shaky laugh. "This just got a lot more complicated."