Chapter 1
Stage 1
Snowdin was quiet at night. The snow would fall, the stones in the ceiling would sparkle, and all was calm. This was the only time it was peaceful in the Underground.
However, as it might seem peaceful on the outside, it was definitely not the latter inside a certain log cabin located at the edge of the snowy village. There, a certain monster was sleeping on the floor; no blanket or pillow. The bedroom around him was a mess. There were greasy clothes that littered the floor, and a trash mountain that had become a self sustaining tornado.
The walls and doors of the room has seen better days. They were littered with various sized holes and cracks, hinting various lost fights and arguments gone sour. The window was nothing more than an old t-shirt pinned to the wall. It was not effective, and still let Snowdin's cold air permeate the room.
The occupant of the room, well, was a mess. An old black hoodie was folded to the right of the occupant, who was wearing a red t-shirt and sweatpants covered in grease, dirt, and dust. The occupant's arms were scattered with various scars and fractures.
You, the reader, has probably figured out who exactly the occupant is by now…
...If you don't, it's Sans.
In his left hand he held a shard of broken glass, probably salvaged from the broken window. It was covered in some sort of red liquid and dust. It's sharp edges have cut into his hands, causing it to bleed continuously through the night.
Sans woke up with a start, and started having a coughing fit. It sounded raspy, and made his throat hurt. He tried to muffle his coughs, as too not wake the other occupant of the house. The sound of stomping soon mixed with the sound of coughs. The door slammed open, revealing the second in command of the royal guard, and he was obviously furious. " KEEP IT DOWN, DAMMIT!," he yelled, and Sans just shot him a death glare. " well, i'm sorry, i can't fuckin' help it," he said quietly, and Papyrus stormed back into his room. Not wanting to invoke his brother's wrath, he slipped on his black jacket, and teleported outside.
Instead of landing on the ground, he ended up teleporting ten feet in the air. " oh, shi-"
He landed face first in the snow. Thankfully, it had snowed yesterday. Groaning, he pulled himself out, and headed towards his secret lab. No one else but him knew of this hidden lab, and he intends to keep it that way. In one of the drawers was some cough medicine, which he took a small sip of, and immediately spat it out. " ugh, it's expired.," he said tossing the medicine into a garbage bin. He tried to stifle another fit of coughs, thanking that the walls of the lab were sound proof. He was mildly surprised when the floor of the lab splattered with his own blood.
'Damn, that's gonna be a pain in the rear to clean out.," he grumbled, and opened another drawer. Inside was a pack of old hospital masks. Taking one out of the package, he slipped a wraparound mask on. He walked around the lab until he found an old pen and notepad. He wrote down 'visit alphys for medicine'. He went over to the door and looked outside. The various shop lights that were on told him that it was time for him to rush to his sentry post. He subconsciously rubbed his nonexistent throat, and headed towards his post.
Halfway towards his post, however, he started having a particularly nasty coughing fit. A nearby monster, Snowdrake to be exact, looked at him in horror, and started backing away from Sans slowly. Confused, Sans put his hand up to his mouth, and when he pulled away, his entire hand was soaked in blood. Sighing, he wiped his hand on the side of his pants, staining it with blood. After being abused almost every other day, he had found that he had become numb to most pain. He arrived at his sentry post, and his coughing fits getting slightly worse as time went. Soon, the blood was dripping down his chin, earning him several horrified glances.
He heard his phone ring from the depths of his coat pocket. Looking at the caller ID, he picked up, only to hear a familiar stuttering voice.
" H-holy HELL! Y-you look l-like you murdered someone!," the voice said. The voice belonged to a small yellow lizard monster, the Royal Scientist of the Underground.
" what do you want, alphys."
" W-Well, I c-couldn't help b-but notice your, ah, condition. Could y-you, um, y'know, swing by when you get the chance?," she said.
" sure, i'll come by on my next break," he said, and hung up on her. Soon, he noticed a tall figure coming towards him. " WELL, IT'S GOOD TO SEE YOU AREN'T SLACKING AS USU-," Papyrus said, but paused when he saw Sans' face. " SANS! WHAT IS WITH ALL THIS BLOOD?!," he exclaimed, clearly borderline disgusted and horrified. " it's nothing, boss. I'm gonna see alphys later on.," he said, with the most utter 'I'm-pretty-much-sick-of-your-shit-bro' look on his face he could conjure up with his bloody mask.
" LATER?! YOU ARE TO GO SEE HER RIGHT AWAY!"
"Wait, what?," Sans said. His brother usually never cares for him, but this is just downright strange. " um, what about my-"
" JUST GO, FOR CRIPES SAKE!"
" er, yes boss"
Sans walked towards the boatman. He wondered why Papyrus looked horrified. He got beaten up everyday, so he has seen blood before.
He unconsciously rubbed his right arm, lifting his jacket fabric just high enough to show his scarred bones. He realized that he had already walked past the boatman, so he backtracked towards the dock.
"Where To?," the boatman said with his brittle raspy voice.
" hot-," Sans was cut off by a another bout of bloody cough. " hot-cough-land.," he managed to say, and the boat then took off towards the land of fiery magma and brimstone.
Alphys was sitting at her lab desk watching vore when she heard a faint coughing followed by two hard knocks. She closed-no- slammed her laptop shut, and went over to the door. The hydraulic pressure doors open, revealing a very bloody and sick skeleton.
" Ah, good, y-you're here!," she said, and Sans just stood there silently. "Come, I-I need t-to analyze y-you and your stats in order to see if my s-suspicions are correct.," she said, and pulled out a chair from who knows where. "S-sans, may I see your s-stats?," she asked.
Sans, who was having another coughing fit, managed to pull up his stat screen. Alphys did not like what she saw.
"what?," Sans said, confused at Alphys' horrified expression, which soon turned to nervous laughter. "what the hell are you laughing at?"
" Uh, h-how long h-have you been, er, hurt by yourself and y-your boss?," Alphys inquired.
"dunno. awhile, i guess."
"...Wow. W-well, however long it w-was, it's t-taking a t-toll on you.," Alphys said, still nervously chuckling. " W-well, I'm n-not gonna mess w-with determination on y-you, so, I'm j-just gonna g-give you this, uh, cough s-syrup to help out with your, er, condition.," she said, digging around on her desk until she found a bottle deftly labeled "cough syrup" and a packet splattered with a strange red liquid. " You m-might want t-to read this.," she said, thrusting the items into Sans arms. He quickly scanned the stained paper, his smile turning into one of grimace.
"...alphys?"
"I-i'm sorry, b-but, er, you, you're dying. I d-don't know if you want to try t-to fix it, or, y'know, end yourself quietly v-via mercy k-killing, or-"
"...just don't tell my boss.," he said, and Alphys nodded in understanding.
"SANS, WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?"
He had decided to walk all the way back to Snowdin in order to get some of his thoughts straightened out. It was now darker than usual in the underground, and Papyrus was already at the house. "UNDYNE CALLED ME TODAY," he said, and Sans mentally cringed. Alphys must have told Undyne, and if Undyne told Papyrus… Sans was sweating bullets at this point. Thankfully, the medicine Alphys gave him relieved his cough, but he still had fits.
" SHE SAID TO EXCUSE YOU FROM YOUR WORK FOR THE TIME BEING, BUT SHE NEVER TOLD ME WHY.," he said, and Sans was slightly relieved. " guess alphys told her of my condition," he said, hoping that he wouldn't ask any questions.
"TCH! I GUESS YOU'LL STAY AT HOME UNTIL YOU GET BETTER!," he said dismissively, and walked to his room. Once Sans was sure the door to his room was closed all the way, he started grabbing some trivial things. His quantum physics/joke book, his telescope, and an old faded photo of him and a few other people. The photo was so faded, the faces seemed blurry, but anyone could see that the group consisted of three people.
"...things were better back then…," he said, and quietly exited the household. He headed to a secluded area in Snowdin, a place only he knew. It was a quiet little cove with glowing blue mushrooms and blue water similar to Waterfall's numerous luminescent lakes. Setting down his possessions, he assembled them in a way a monster would set up the funeral for a loved one.
"Heh, of all things i'd never thought i'd do would be making my own grave.," he whispered hoarsely. He teleported to Waterfall, nearly landing in the water, and searched for an echo flower.
He soon found one, and carefully uprooted it up, and took it back to the cove, opting to walk rather than teleporting. He whispered a speech, one that sounds very well rehearsed, and planted the echo flower down into the earth.
A/N: Greetings to anyone who is reading this! I am a relatively new writer, but I am no stranger to this website. I will accept helpful constructive criticism, and please no flames. I will update this almost every week, but sometimes it will take longer to find a muse.
Or I'm too lazy to type.
Well, I hope you would enjoy this angsty piece of work
Ciao!
