III
Unconvincing Smile.
"You know what?... I've had it." Brainz dropped his rucksack to the ground. "I've had it with this place."
One by one he opened the compartments bringing the contents to light.
"I've had it with this cold." He began rummaging through his possessions.
"I've had it with these things." He reached for the familiar black box, but stopped midway and resumed his search.
"I've had it with this houdini motherfucker." His hand brought out a large cloth conformed in the shape of the item it concealed.
"And I've had it with this cryptic bullshit." Brainz gently unraveled the cloth from the item making sure the cloth separated it from the wet ground. The sight of the item made him nod his head with an aggravated grin on his face.
Brainz caressed the torn stock of the weapon with his left hand, his fingers felt the indentation of the etched word on the side of the stock "LUPARA." Holding it gave him a sense of security and comfort, but yet he could feel a distinct feeling of guilt from looking at the thing, he felt dishonest, dirty even. He heard a somber voice in his head,
"You promised…"
Brainz placed the weapon back on the cloth and shook his head while arguing with himself. "Please… how would she know? Didn't want to come with me." Brainz rolled up the sleeve on his left arm and observed the bandaging, it made him more uncomfortable. "She's gonna die anyways when those assholes come down here."
He pushed his guilt into his stomach and held the shotgun, once again running his hand up the shortened barrels to the jagged openings. Brainz recalled his poor craftsmanship at the sight, when he cut the two barrels off with a hacksaw to help conceal the weapon easier, chronic use wore the tips down further and converted their uneven cuts into jagged bottlenecks. He felt the sharp edges of the barrels, he'd use them as a bayonet often.
"Alright, that's enough." Brainz ended his memory trip and pulled a plastic bag out of his backpack, "HAVE A NICE DAY" was inscribed on the side in permanent marker with smudged letters. The contents rattled inside as he untied the opening, when he found his way inside the bag two shotgun shells were rescued. They found their place inside the shotgun which snapped shut with an ominous *click!*.
He wasn't satisfied yet, reaching further into the rucksack he rummaged for a moment and ceased when he brought out a rubber handle, he squeezed the trigger and the handle stuck out its serrated steel tongue. "Good." He was about finished with his inspections when a small black magazine fell out of the open zipper.
Brainz picked it up and frowned. "Well, these are useless now-" He tossed the ammo back into the bag and closed it up. "-Why did I have to develop a conscience back there?" He stood up groaning. "And that was a really good gun too." He didn't proceed down the path however as he didn't consider the difficulty of holstering the sawed-off without his jacket. "Of course… she dumped my coat because it was dirty… there goes holding an armory in my pockets." With a sigh, Brainz began his trudge through the path, holding the shotgun over his shoulder.
While the path wasn't too difficult to traverse his pace was especially slow and cautious, the shrieking skeleton didn't leave his thoughts as he was forced to follow its footprints. It wasn't long when the trees gave way for an opening in the narrow path. Considering the oddity he faced back by the door, this was comforting. Brainz did feel a small tinge of disappointment when he saw the opening revert back into a narrow tree filled path just ahead, it was quite a small clearing.
The disappointment became confusion when something else caught his attention among a collection of footprints in the snow. It rested on an abandoned plate resting on the snow bed considering everything that it could've been, it was out of place to say the least.
"Spaghetti." Brainz was forced to speak in order to confirm the sight as real, "Spaghetti…" Brainz looked around tentatively trying to spot an ambush in the makings, nothing. He cautiously approached the plate and observed it, looking for a snare rope buried in the snow, nothing. He looked at the snow prints in the ground, they continued out of the clearing and back into the narrow path, whatever set this down wasn't here anymore. Brainz bent down to examine the "trap?" closer, the food was cold and soggy while the sauce began to congeal into red ice. "Gross."
Just as he sought to leave the waste behind, Brainz took a hard blow from behind, sending him tumbling into a bush leaving his breath and shotgun behind. Brainz recovered from his daze just in time to see the blue creature careening towards him to land another strike, with a frantic roll he avoided the creature and led it to trip on the same bush. Brainz quickly jumped to his feet and quickly gave himself some distance from the recovering creature, enough to get a solid look at it. Whatever it was, it was concealed by a large ornate mask brought to life by a pair of radiant eyes.
Brainz spaced his arms and locked himself into a defensive stance ready to avert another attack, the creature merely stared at him. The two locked eyes at each other waiting for the other one to make a move, a modest stalemate.
"You're not giving me the cold shoulder are you?" The creature spoke in a childish banter that was out of place not to mention poorly considered.
Brainz only grimaced from confusion and replied loudly, "What?!"
The creature dashed towards him once more going for another blow.
Brainz instantly side-stepped to the left, dodging the attack and becoming arm's reach with his discarded weapon, he spun around furiously and disengaged the safety. The mask was now faced with the wrong side of a vengeful gaze and a twelve gauge shotgun, it froze.
Considering how the awful pun was spoken in english, Brainz made one last effort to be merciful, "One more go at me, and I'll blow your head off!-" He straightened his stance. "-Back off!"
The creature showed no fear in its response and laughed, "Guess I'm gonna get iced now!"
The response was so out of place and lame that Brainz couldn't find any rational way to retaliate to it, his mind was empty but his mouth began to shake. He removed one hand from the weapon and placed it over his mouth to stifle the laugh, "My god-." He paused to wheeze another chuckle. "-You can't be serious with that." He lowered the weapon and continued snickering at the awful pun, when he locked his eyes with the creature he failed to keep a straight face and instinctively grinned at it.
His smile was met with another one the creature nodded it's head and began to retreat into the bushes, "Thank You, that is all."
It faded into obscurity, the smile left Brainz's 'face. "What kinda bullshit was that?!" Brainz expected a patronizing answer from behind him and spun around to confront Sans, he was ultimately disappointed.
Back on the path again, even more cautiously this time. Brainz held the gun close as he proceeded occasionally pointing it in any direction where he'd hear something or at least think so, the circumstances were more than enough to feed his paranoia. A few minutes of cautious trekking and the path opened up once again this time it was a true sight for sore eyes. A large cavernous space greeted the man with the tree saturation dropping to nothing. Brainz sighed with relief and carried on he gazed at the running water off of the path and smirked.
"This might actually go somewhere, I may be able to finally leave." With that note, Brainz began to proceed with more confidence, his mood only lightened when he noticed the climate becoming less arctic like and more friendly. The air felt increasingly warmer and was accompanied by a receding snow sheet eventually giving way for grassy soil. The presence of actual hope dropped the screaming skeleton from his mind as he continued haphazardly noting the terrain changing in front of him.
The only anomalous feature of this new land was the occasional block of ice that passed down the water, their perfect sculpted figure suggested that they were being artificially made and dispensed, why however, eluded Brainz. Eventually cavernous space shrank into another claustrophobic linear path swapping an army of snow covered trees for soulless walls of rock. Brainz wasn't too keen on the idea of another darkened nightmare, but the thought of going back and running into another psycho in the forest made the darkened path the better option. This time however… before entering the space, Brainz reached for his zippo and held it out with his brandished weapon flame sustained.
As he entered the space he thought outloud, "Might as well see where I'm actually going, I probably should've done that in the first place." The light from behind gradually stopped supplementing the orange glow from the lighter. "Come to think of it, I probably shouldn't have buddied up to a spook, given my only beretta to a goat lady, or entered the spook's house."
Brainz continued begrudgingly through the blackened corridor. "Come to think of it, I probably should have never come to this God damned place." Like the majority of his life he had only himself as an audience, he continued on growing more depressed with each sentence. "Come to think of it, I should've come to my senses and stopped way before I did-" He felt the bruises under the sweater, the least a bullet could do when impeded by kevlar.
"Would've been fine if I didn't go there in the first place." His soliloquy was abruptly ended by the sound of rushing water ahead paired with a dim light from the opening. The lighter returned to his pocket and he proceeded shotgun first.
The room itself was small in every factor the walls were closely facing each other under a small ceiling, a small stream of water took a fourth of the walking room. There were no visible sources of light in the room and yet it glowed with a feigned twilight presence, Brainz looked up at the ceiling to see stars basking the room with their glow.
"Well that's impossible… looks like I'm going the right way."
The other contents of the room were revealed by the light, a tall, ornate, blue, flower and a small wooden structure that looked like a tollbooth of some sorts. The sight of it washed the relief off of Brainz as he remembered the skeleton that must have taken this path, there were no other ways to go as far as Brainz could see. When Brainz was sure that the booth was empty he went to examine it. It was empty mind the half dozen emptied bottles of various brands of ketchup, seemed normal enough.
Out of the room he went, the large backpack scraped against the delicate petals of the flower, it retaliated with a faint voice that froze Brainz in his spot. The voice sounded tired and defeated, stinging with a looming depression.
"-I'm not capable of seeing the difference anymore, what is real or what is not, truth or madness, it's as if nothing exists or even if I exist, the walls that move, the floors that change, it's like I'm trapped in my own world… alone."
The voice faded out of earshot leaving Brainz with his thoughts, confused and disturbed of course. While the words were uneasy enough, it was the voice that stuck out the most, there was an overwhelming sense of familiarity in it but he just couldn't put his finger on it.
"Hello?, are you… alive?" Brainz addressed the plant in a soft tone, he reluctantly stroked one of the petals for a reaction.
"Hello?, are you… alive?"
His words were recycled and presented to him, he tried speaking to it again, "Like some sorta tape recorder are ya." He moved the petals gently again, his words were mimicked with perfect accuracy. "Huh." Brainz stood up and shrugged, picking up his things and finally leaving the small room, he didn't want to put much mind into the concept but he just couldn't forget about what the flower said when he approached it. Someone had to have said it before he arrived, but whom? It hadn't sounded like anyone he had heard before and yet it was so very familiar as if he'd heard it countless times in the past. It was just something else to worry about later, he pushed on.
The next room wasn't too impressive, a waterfall separating the path by earth but still connected by wooden walkways, still illuminated by the faux stars. Other than almost slipping into a watery death there wasn't much to this room, except the lingering feeling of being watched but even that was becoming monotonous. The terrain was becoming noticeably more mountain like, with steep walls forming near the falling sources of water, it was ironic considering all of this was inside of a mountain, chalk one up for inception.
Patches of grass became more frequent in the path as he continued, they grew up to his waist concealing anything below. Brainz festered on the idea that there could have been bear traps in these spots but he never found one. What he did find however caused him to lay down in the grass, completely hiding himself from sight, a pair of voices began to grow in proximity on the grounds above.
"-oh yes! It's true, Sans found it himself! I never would have believed it."
Brainz recognized the first voice as the pale psychopath that he was trailing behind, the second one was slightly muffled and Brainz only heard fragments of it's speech.
"-Lost…. Know where it is?... the human." This voice sounded deep and angry yet slightly effeminate.
Papyrus spoke loudly, easy to comprehend from below, "I was about to bring it to you, but I think I scared it and it ran away."
Brainz grimaced and thought grimly, We'll see who's scared when I feed you both barrels… asshole.
The other voice muttered again, slightly in and out of comprehension. "... Find it and…. I'll do it myself…. Check Snowdin and I'll be…"
Papyrus was clearly audible once more, "Okay, but even if you find it, be sure to give me credit too, I found it first!"
While the other voice was speaking, Brainz gradually peaked his head just slightly above the grass while holding his breath as to not disturb the blades, he made out the tall white figure standing in fair light. The other figure was shrouded in darkness but its shape was just visible, it was considerably larger than Papyrus and it appeared to be encased in a full suit of plated armor, it looked intimidating as hell.
Brainz couldn't help but whisper meekly out of fear, "Oh God." He quickly covered his mouth and buried his head in the grass again. He couldn't tell if they had noticed his little cry but he furiously hoped in his mind that they didn't.
"Please don't notice, please don't notice, please don't notice."
The conversation seemed to carry on unaware of his presence, eventually he couldn't hear voices anymore. This wasn't enough for him, he stayed pressed against the soil for a long while, controlling his breath and trying to hear anything besides his raging heart. He never heard any set of footsteps from his time hiding in the grass, he wasn't sure whether to assume they were gone, or if they never left and were just waiting for him to drop his guard to strike him.
The conflict in scenarios was pure hell, all Brainz could do was helplessly, compulsively consider the circumstances all while never moving a cell. He had lay there for a long time in a bath of pure paranoia, he was still unaware of the concept of time and couldn't even fathom the time that had passed. Brainz needed to make a decision on what he'd do next, waiting further wasn't wise, he decreed that he would make his move right after he closed his eyes for just a moment, his lids weighed a ton.
"Unit Two Thirty-Seven calling in with a status report… are you able to receive?" The black box crackled as it spoke.
"Go ahead."
The box chimed in, "It is now approximately eighteen hours since the suspect's disappearance, the area is now confirmed blockaded with all entrances under surveillance, all residents have been relocated."
Mordegrid clutched the receiver and held down the small button, "Very good Two Thirty-Seven, maintain surveillance and keep any civilians outside of the perimeter, report in any further breakthroughs or events." Mordegrid returned the microphone to its bed and leaned back in the lush office chair, despite his efforts to clean the desktop from his spilled coffee, a defiant brown ring persisted on the white surface. Large unruly collections of various folders and papers concealed the stain from eyesight while dossiers towered precariously on top.
A soft set of knocks reverberated throughout the room breaking the silence,
"Come in."
A slender man sporting a black suit walked in, red tie loosened down his shoulders. "Jesus Mordegrid, are you going to be content with rifling through mountains of papers all day too?"
Mordegrid didn't acknowledge the man in the door and panned though another tan folder, "That's the idea." The man scoffed and persisted, "You've been neck deep in the stuff since four in morning, you've gotta sleep eventually."
Mordegrid continued to paw through the folder.
"Aren't you the least bit tired? You've been in this office for almost thirty hours straight-"
Mordegrid held up one finger to shush the officer, he pointed it to a pile of spent energy shots and styrofoam coffee cups.
The man shook his head, "Jesus man- you're gonna drive yourself into the ground from the inside out if you keep this up, I know this is a major thing but-" The man bent over to pick up one of the photos, still on the ground from the downed bulletin board. "-The force is doing all they can right now, and you've certainly done way more than you could've." The criminal in the photo stared straight through the officer causing him to shudder and release the photo to the ground.
Mordegrid didn't respond at all and continued rifling through the papers. A hand gently pushed the folder down from his sight and onto the desk.
"Lunezo… please, burning yourself out like this won't help us catch him any faster and you know that, why don't you get some rest instead of rotting in this office."
Mordegrid grunted and fumbled the folder out of the man's hand placing it face down angrily, "I can't okay?... I just can't… I just need to find one file pertaining to this damned place, I just know that something's here about it."
The officer rolled his eyes, "What, the Mount Ebert thing?"
Mordegrid exaggerated the word, "Ebott, E-B-O-T-T."
A bland apology, "Sor-ree."
Mordegrid continued his rant, "There's something just tucked away from us, from ME, I just know so."
The officer's patience was degrading, "I don't know why you're so hung up about this, you look up the place and it comes up empty, there probably hasn't been any cases there I mean… on a map this place is in the middle of scenic nowhere."
Mordegrid glared at him, but held his silence as he continued.
"I mean really, we have no recorded incidents, cases, situations, notes, nothing… zeppo, so I'd imagine that if you look this place up in the database that exclusively records that information you'd come up with nothing more than a footnote."
Mordegrid grinded his teeth together and spoke with clear irritation, "You'd be so sure of yourself if that was the case-" Mordegrid rapidly punched the letters on the keyboard. "-But where's your logic when I search it up and I get THIS?" Mordegrid spun the monitor around for the man to see, the dialogue box strobed on the screen. "Anomalous Cases, Access Denied." Mordegrid reassured the man, "That's right, that's the 'footnote' that I'm greeted with, Me… the 'Captain' of the entire force related to this guy?"
The officer sighed loudly losing interest, "Yeah we all know, you call the shots here for anything related to Brainz, I get it, but that doesn't mean that you get all clearance for everything unrelated to him."
Mordegrid spun the monitor around again and sat down furrowing his brow. "From last night on, this IS related to him and therefore related to ME… now if you'd please… I have a lot of papers to sort."
"Are you dead mister?"
Brainz's eyes shot open to see a pair of wider eyes staring at him on the ground. "GAH!" Brainz jumped up, startled out of his senses out of the grass only to groggily fall over. He sat up from the ground and held his heart to keep it from exploding out of his chest slowing his breathing. A familiar yellow figure rustled out of the bush, Brainz recognized it as the armless child. "Oh jeez-" Brainz rubbed his eyes and placed a hand on his aching head. "-You scared me out of my gourd."
The child looked down sheepishly. "Sorry."
Brainz stood up and slowly steadied his wobbling legs, "I was sitting in there for so long, I guess I dozed off for a bit."
The child looked back at him. "I guess so, what were you doing in there anyways? Were you hiding from her too?"
Brainz straightened himself and cracked his joints, "Who?"
The child squinted at Brainz. "Who? Undyne of course! She was just here and I just missed her!"
Brainz was still too groggy to think straight. "Who's 'Undyne?"
The child gasped and gave Brainz a look as if he committed a murder in front of it. "What? She's only like the leader of the Royal Guard and like the toughest person down here! She keeps everyone safe by beating up all the bad people!"
A spark finally lit up in Brainz's head, he pictured the armored giant glaring at him from a large corridor and groaned. "Oh that Undyne…."
The child lit up again, "Oh wait! I know you! You're that guy I saw in the town, when I thought you were a-"
"Yep!, But like I said, I'm not, I'm just out of town." Brainz didn't want that word to go around, obviously there was something significant about it.
"Did you see where she went when she came here anyways?"
Brainz remembered the voice telling Papyrus to search the snow forest for him, he assume that the iron hulk went towards the new land, and "freedom". "Um- yeah, she went that way." Brainz pointed down the path, the child jumped up and started running.
"Cmon then! Maybe we can catch what she's doing!" The child disappeared, leaving Brainz alone with his thoughts yet again.
"She'll be tearing me a new one from the sounds of it…" Brainz sighed and gathered his things, shotgun in hand and followed after the child, he didn't even consider the possibility of somewhere else to go, he'd rather deal with the skeleton, but going backwards was taboo.
The terrain was forming into a marsh from the fragmented pieces of land separated by small bodies of water, Brainz was reluctant to complain about it out of fear for another snow nightmare, he just couldn't forget about it. Being cautious for any signs of Undyne, he carried on through the wetland, occasionally glancing at the "Stars" on the cavernous ceiling. Eventually he reached an oddly formed gap between two pieces of land, separated by water the one side had a blue lettered sign and a bell mounted in the wall.
"If an error is made, the bell blossom can call bridge seeds back to where they started." "The hell's that supposed to mean?" Brainz shrugged it off and approached the gap. It wasn't too daunting Brainz tossed his bag across the water and soon followed with a leap. More cavernous hallways awaited him, the mimic blue flowers reappeared in some of the pathways Brainz could hear their stories as he passed them, once again it was the familiar voice.
"-Where am I going? Am I just wandering around or do I have a purpose? Frankly I can't tell."
"I have never been so lost but yet, I could swear that i've been here before, that this is all some sort of bad dream on repeat."
"The things I see, the sounds I hear, is this reality or fantasy? I can't tell anymore."
Brainz rolled his eyes as he left the flowers behind, "Man, It's like reading my thoughts out loud, good to see someone else had to deal with this bullshit- I wonder how many people fall down here on a regular basis…"
Brainz stopped speaking to himself at the bump of a wall, "What?" The path seemed to take a left turn and then abruptly stop into a wall. Brainz looked around for another doorway, exit, ladder, anything to escape this place but found nothing but the river running along the ground. "Well this can't be right! Where could that kid have gone?" Brainz looked at the running water on the ground, it couldn't have swam… could it? It had no arms or fins…. Gills even.
Brainz looked back on the path and sighed, "I must've been going the wrong way, does that mean I've got to walk all the way back?" Brainz let out an exasperated sigh and looked back at the dead end… then he perked up, "Unless-" Brainz approached the wall again and began tapping it with the stock of his shotgun, the noise was hollow. Brainz let out another sigh, it was a mixture of relief and irritation.
"Well that figures!" Brainz backed away from the wall and pointed the shotgun at it, he braced himself and pulled one of the triggers. The blast pushed him back almost to the ground, the sound reverberated throughout the cavern leaving a slight ringing noise in his ears. Brainz recovered from the slight daze and approached the wall, still holding together but barely with various forms of light shining through the numerous bullet holes, a couple of swings with the butt of the gun would finish the wall off.
Brainz wanted to begin trying to rationalize how, or why the child or whoever walled up the only path out of there and so fast even, but like countless aspects of this world he didn't expect an answer out of it. More blue lettered signs signs lit the path which gave way for another body of water separating it from the way out, reading them wasn't his best interest.
Brainz could barely see the other side of the body so jumping it was out of the question, swimming wasn't an option either he wouldn't be able to keep himself afloat with all of his equipment.
Choice C it was, Brainz spotted a tiny wooden raft made out of dock planks, "Oh yeah, this is a great idea!-"
He slapped himself in the face. "-Don't know what could possibly go wrong!-"
He slapped himself again. "-Clearly this is the right way!-"
He went to slap himself again but withheld. "-This… is starting to sting,"
Brainz cautiously placed one foot on the raft and gradually increased the pressure on it until he supplied his entire body weight on it, considering the size of it this was a physical anomaly. The raft easily sustained itself with Brainz and his rucksack resting on top of it even without tipping, Brainz didn't question it as he paddled with his hands towards the other side. The water felt like liquid ice, but having only to submerge his hands in it was a blessing compared to having to swim the channel. Brainz eventually departed the magical raft and continued down the docks, he wasn't too mindful of his surroundings until a bright blue flash almost impaled him through his eye.
"What the hell!?" A blue spear bore into the wooden planks in front of Brainz, he stared at it in awe for a moment but lost his focus when another spear almost took his head off. Brainz gawked at the origin of the spears, it stood on the elevated ground parallel to the docks staring hatefully at Brainz.
Brainz tried to feign some level of composure, "Oh hello there… you must be-" He swallowed. "-Undyne."
The armored assailant stood motionless, Brainz tried once more to make peace with it. "So… I was just talking to uh… Papyrus and he was just saying how we have a lot in common." Brainz flashed his trademark grin, complementary to all of his lies.
Undyne didn't buy it, she clutched three spears and reared her arm to throw them. Brainz geared up to run, "We're not gonna be pals are we?" A barrage of blue spears answered for him.
Brainz had grown accustomed to running throughout his life, by all means he wasn't a healthy man, the cigarettes made sure of that. Contrary to his physique and physical health though he could run and he could run fast even when carrying heavy loads on his back. By all means, he was used to running for his life with certain death behind him, the spears may of well have been snarling police canines ready to tear his limbs off.
"Shit shit shit shit shit!" Swearing under his rapid breaths was also common. Running on a slippery dock with a heavy bag on his shoulders being chased by an endless supply of spears from an armored, pissed, she beast would be enough for some men, but Brainz considered that the world felt that his life wasn't difficult enough as the dock began to conform into non-linear jagged paths.
"Oh Cmon! Give me a goddamned break!" Brainz began jumping over the gaps from the dock's odd formation, his bag taking some of his balance with every leap, on the last jump Brainz tripped and fell flat on his face. He rolled over, "Oh man, I'm screwed!-"
Brainz saw the menacing figure prepare a killing spear and held up his arm in fear. "-Wait…" Brainz looked at the shotgun in his hand, "Of course!"
Undyne arched her arm to launch the spear while Brainz quickly steadied the weapon.
He pulled the second trigger. The thunderous blast startled Undyne enough for her to throw the spear off course while the pellets themselves flattened against her breastplate sounding off like a bell, the lead knocked her off her stance and sent her backwards to the ground.
Brainz had ample time to scramble into another patch of tall grass growing right off of the docks, by the time Undyne got to her feet, he was out of sight and ultimately would be out of her jurisdiction. Another moment of terror lying face down in the grass to conceal his panicked breathing, the metallic footsteps approached the grass and abruptly stopped.
Brainz was a sitting duck, both barrels had been fired already, his shotgun was a paperweight in this condition, he braced for the worst and waited in silent fear. To his blessing, the footsteps started again, walking away and eventually becoming inaudible, he counted to one thousand before he poked his head out of the grass to survey the scene. Dark and soulless with no signs of life, back to normal. Brainz crawled out of the grass and sat down on the ground shaking, "Did she really think I left?, Or does she know already and is just screwing with me like cat toying with a vole before ripping their throats out?"
Brainz looked at the path ahead, "I'm sure she knows this place like the back of her hand while I'd be better off drawing a map on mine." Brainz sighed and looked at his black bag. "I need another cigarette."
While he was setting up another dose of the poison a familiar voice bounded towards him,
"Oh there you are again." The yellow child approached him from the darkened path, "What happened? I thought you were behind me the whole time!"
Even though he had just narrowly avoided potential death, Brainz put up a facade that nothing was wrong for the kid, he shrugged and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I haven't been down here before, I got a little lost." Brainz hastily snuffed the small flame and buried the butt in the ground, "In fact-" He looked to the left, pondering a lie. "-I thought you were sitting in this grass here, it's so tall that you'd fool me hiding in it." The lie seemed to work, delivered with a fraudulent grin.
The child nodded. "Yeah, I can get lost sometimes too, it's ok… I came back here because I heard a huge boom coming this way, did you catch what it was?"
Brainz held the shotgun behind his back, concealing it from the child, "A loud explosion?... Here?... I didn't hear anything like that."
The child raised a brow. "Are you sure? It must have been really loud because I heard it echo all the way from the waterfall!"
Brainz tried to confirm his lie again, "I don't know what to tell ya, didn't hear the slightest of something like that." He finished his lie with a shrug.
"Well… that's okay, I didn't find Undyne yet by the way, so you didn't miss anything."
You don't know how right you are. "Oh that's good she's probably still up ahead then- lead the way, I'll try to keep up this time."
The child's face lit up, "Okay! Let's go!" The small creature skipped down the path this time turning back to assure that Brainz was following. Brainz clutched the gun behind his back and gently rubbed his sore knees before he was back on the path. "Yeah yeah, I'm coming,"
The two proceeded at a casual pace, Brainz ensured full eyesight on the yellow child as they passed multiple branches and turns in the path... getting lost here would be a death sentence. One particular oddity that Brainz noticed on the path was another blue recorder flower next to what appeared to be a petrified wedge of cheese on display. Brainz didn't break pace to hear what the flower had stored but nonchalantly dropped the question. "So, what's the deal with those blue flowers?"
They continued walking, "What do you mean?"
Brainz kept it simple, "You know, you talk to them and they tell you right back."
There was some clarification in the kid, "Oooooh, You mean Echo Flowers-" "Yeah that's what I meant." "-Those things just started growing out of nowhere, they're pretty cool though sometimes I like to listen to what other people have said I know it's snoopy but I can't help it."
Brainz rolled his eyes That wasn't any help "Okay, thanks."
The child beckoned a turn in the path onto a marshy ground, the water was a homogenous blue tint, looked like liquid sapphires. "So, you're really unfamiliar down here huh?-"
Brainz tensed, uhoh.
"-Where did you say you were from again?" Brainz fumbled for words. "Err… pretty far out of town, I mean out there." He complimented the lie pointing towards nowhere.
The child was slightly perturbed, "Well I know that, but like… where? I mean the underground isn't that big of a place… are you talking about by the castle?"
Castle? Brainz felt moisture building on the stock of his shotgun from his sweating palm, he had one word. "Yes."
Any suspicion anticipated was cleared from the air, "That's so cool! Do you like, get to see the king whenever you want then?"
King? "Oh for sure-" Brainz felt the hole from his lies being dug under his feet. "-Sometimes I drop by and say hello and stuff like that." Not even the child would be able to be less convinced than Brainz himself. You idiot! That's not how a king works! They're exclusive not your next door neighbor you jackass!
Surprisingly there was no opposition to the phrase. "Awesome, you are sooo lucky, I wish I could see Mister Dreemur whenever I wanted."
Brainz was too relieved that that farce had actually worked to question the logic behind why that farce had actually worked, they carried on through the marsh.
They proceeded with no further conversations between them, out of the marsh and through a lone path in the middle of a large pool of water. While they were leaving the chamber Brainz heard the water rippling from behind, seeing a large shape in the water was enough for his quick glance, he left quickly.
"Ok, we're almost there, keep your eyes open for her."
Brainz caressed the trigger on the shotgun, "Gotcha,..." More illuminated corridors and rooms, it was looking all the same mind for a horned statue sitting in the middle of the room, water endlessly leaked from the ceiling above drenching the thing.
"Huh."
The child turned it's head. "What's up?"
Brainz averted his gaze from the statue. "Nothing." While it really was nothing, looking at the stone figure instilled feelings of desolation in him, there was just that recurring feeling of familiarity. As they proceeded, the leaks in the ceiling began to disperse, it felt like walking through a sprinkler. Brainz tried to keep the gun away from the moisture, if it jammed from the water he would be screwed a couple of notches further. Brainz shook the droplets off of his sleeves, "Man, of all the days to forget my umbrella."
The child stopped and pointed, "It's all good… look!"
It was almost on cue, Brainz expected to see something similar but yet actually seeing it stumped him. "PLEASE TAKE ONE." The sign implored him to do so, Brainz decided to accept it and relieved the bucket of one of it's umbrellas. Brainz went to grab another umbrella from the bucket for the child but retracted his arm realizing that it had no appendages to hold it with.
"Err… this oughta be big enough for both of us." The monotonous applause from the raindrops emitted a calming tone giving Brainz some refuge from his persistent anxiety. It was a brief moment of tranquility when the child giggled with excitement,
"Oh man, this is gonna be great, maybe we'll get to see Undyne beat someone up."
Brainz returned to his normal state of fear, "Oh?" The child continued, "Yeah, I think something's going on or something cuz I heard some people talking about this really really really weird guy who just came in and left."
Brainz could hear his heart over the rain, his facade was a direct contradiction to how he felt. "Oh, really?"
The child turn to him jumping with glee. "Yeah!, they were saying that it may have been a human of all things! Can you believe it?"
Brainz was having an increasingly difficult time keeping his composure, his voice periodically quivered. "No way-" He swallowed hard. "-What…. Um… what do you think will happen if it's a human?"
The child laughed innocently, to an actual human this response felt like anything but. "They probably told Undyne already, and she's gonna find the human and then she's gonna-" The child went into a terrifying and descriptive prediction leaving no room for imagination but instead a mental picture.
Brainz began to twitch, he could see the metal gauntlet holding him up by his throat, face turning red life slowly exhaling from his pained mouth, he felt his teeth grinding against each other.
"Hey."
The horrible visuals left his mind, he looked down to the child, a smile long gone from its realized that he had stopped.
"Dude, are you feeling Ok? You just like… froze for second."
Brainz tried to control the trembling, his voice was stifled and scared. "Oh yeah-" He sighed with a loud quivering breath. "-I'm good… I'm good." He looked ahead with a soulless expression. "I- am- good…"
The child wasn't persuaded this time. "Are you really sure this time… like what's with your face?"
Brainz broke his gaze and returned his vision to the child. "What's wrong with my face?"
The child squinted. "It's all white and stuff like it was in Snowden, but I thought it was because it's cold, also you got something on your nose."
Brainz squinted one eye and felt his upper lip with his hand, he felt the slime, partially sticking to his hairs. The blood ran down his finger he smeared it away with his thumb. "I face planted pretty hard back at the docks, guess I didn't notice that I got a bit of a nosebleed-" Brainz smiled at the child and wiped his lip with his sleeve sniffing. "-no biggie."
The child was only mystified further. "Nose-bleed? What's that?,,, I fall on my face like all the time and I never had red stuff come out of my nose." The kid sounded disappointed like bleeding was a good thing.
Brainz raised a brow and tried to wipe any residual blood off of his face. "You're kidding right? Haven't you ever had an accident, or hurt yourself doing something, like a papercut?"
"All the time, but I never had that stuff come out of me, what is it, does it hurt?" Brainz bit his lips and smiled. You've GOT to be fucking kidding me. Brainz glanced around in desperation looking for something to take the attention off of his bodily functions. "Say… what's that?" Brainz knew what it was when he pointed towards the large structure in the distance.
The child glanced at it and returned with a skeptical gaze, it spoke with sarcasm. "The castle?... what's the castle?" It stood proudly under the unnatural stars, isolated from the two by a massive lake of pitch black water.
Brainz laughed at himself. "Oh wow… silly me-" He lightly slapped himself in the cheek. "-It looked liked something else for me, I'm going blind as a bat, I see a pair of glasses in my future." Brainz shrugged with a smile on his face, sweat beaded up on his forehead. Please buy it…. In the awkward moment without sound, Brainz realized that the rain had stopped. "Oh look at that, it stopped raining!"
The child disregarded the previous conversation and sped down the path. "Cool, we're about there anyways… come with me!" Brainz watched the kid vanish into the darkness ahead and then gazed at the grand structure.
"Hmm, that's gotta be a sign of some form of government down here-" Brainz began to follow after the child, mumbling to himself. "-Guess that's where I'm going for some information-" He sighed. "-Granted they don't lynch me."
Brainz met back with the child standing in front of a tall ledge blocking the path. "What's all this?"
The child motioned towards another bucket on the ground, similarly stocked with umbrellas. "Man, it's too tall for us to climb over."
Brainz returned the umbrella and examined the cliff.
The child jumped. "Oh wait! I have an idea."
Brainz massaged his lip pondering, "What."
The child stood, flush against the wall and looked up. "Climb on me, I'll boost you up."
Brainz slowly shook his head, "Uhh… I appreciate the offer but-"
The child's face turned into a frown.
Brainz paused, prolonging his umms and ahs. I really don't want to pop this kid's bubble by saying how I'd probably break his neck. "But…. but-" Brainz examined the ledge again, it wasn't too daunting, standing only inches above his height. "-But… that won't be necessary."
The child held it's frown and watched silently. Brainz approached the ledge and unfastened his bag, he began to swing it in a pendular motion. With a grunt Brainz threw the bag on to the elevation and carefully placed his shotgun next. The soft ground was easy to scale using his upper body as an anchor to swing the rest of himself up.
"Whoa, how did you do that?" Brainz brushed the dirt off and re equipped his things, "Just a little core strength, that's all."
"Awesome, I'm going to find another way around, see ya!" The child began to race away from the cliff.
Brainz held out his arm. "Wait! I can just reach down and pull… you…. up…..and he's gone." Brainz was alone once more, "Shit." Normally the solitude was something he sought after often, but under these circumstances Brainz felt exposed by himself. That child would have served as a good buffer if he'd run into the iron casted soldier again, in desperation it could've been a hostage.
Brainz begrudgingly continued down the path thinking to himself, If I took that thing as a hostage I'm sure even- He made air quotes -Undyne would open up to 'negotiation'. More blue lettered signs faced him, contrary to the others that he had passed for insignificance he viewed what they had to say, narrating to himself.
"The humans, afraid of our power, declared war on us. They attacked suddenly without mercy. In the end it could hardly be called a war. United, the humans to powerful and us monster too weak. Not a single soul was taken and countless monsters were turned to dust."
Brainz was taken back by the text, it looked like a passage out of a corrupted textbook, "There was actually something to what Toriel said then?" Brainz began to scratch his head. "Can't be… if this was such a major thing that it's plastered on every wall, why have I never seen it before topside?"
It didn't make sense, Brainz couldn't recall anything pertaining to this place, not in history books, conspiracies, or even commonly misinterpreted ancient dialogues and texts, it couldn't be real could it? His confusion was interrupted by a noise that faintly diffused into the air, the melody of metallic tones familiar to the song of a music box. It seemed to come from the path behind. The song was slow and soothing like the tune of a lullaby so gentle it gave Brainz a sense of sorrow in his being, bad memories began to creep out of obscurity.
It happened again, the feeling of deja vu had clouded his mind again stronger than ever leaving him with a migraine as a side effect. Brainz began to rush away from the music delving further into the unknown ahead. When the noise finally left his ears he stopped to survey the area, Brainz found himself standing on one of a pair of wooden bridges, over and under suspended over a void of absolute darkness. "Now what am I dealing with?" The wooden pathways seemed to span infinitely like an artificial purgatory.
*CRACK!*
The noise caused his heart to skip a beat, a blue spearhead burst through the planks in front of him. Brainz twisted his face into a look of hostility and fear and leaned ever so slowly to peak at the bridge below him. He didn't need to see her standing there because another spear emerged between his feet only inches away from impaling his groin.
"Fuck me…"
Brainz sprinted down the bridge in a panic turning his head to see the barrage of spears drilling through the path behind him, this pathway was a spitting image of the unruly docks with the only difference being the sheer size acting like a maze. There was no direction, no lead, or goal, only running, Brainz's frantic footsteps were joined by the procession of rapid wood splintering sounding like automatic gunfire.
Even as the path conformed into a nonsensical design, Brainz traversed the labyrinth like an enraged bull, the jagged projectiles never came any closer to striking him from below as both him and Undyne were at the same pace. It was an even race, Brainz was held back by his large backpack while Undyne struggled to keep up in heavy plated armor. Sweat drenched the striped sweater as more part of Brainz's skin began to perspire madly, a stream of blood shot out from his damaged nostril from the rapid exertion, his eyes strained to navigate the dark path.
The bridge finally regained logic in it's design as it narrowed down to a linear path, Brainz fixed himself on the path and the hope of getting away flared up into his mind…. It didn't last long. Just as quickly as Brainz stopped hearing the sound of death by impalement the path in front of him ran out, leaving him gasping profanities.
"What the Fuck is WITH this goddamned place?!" He burned the remainder of his anger with an infuriated growl that left him shaking violently. It was certain death from both ways, either he could fall endlessly and hope he finds a bed of spikes to end it quickly, or experience the joys of becoming a pincushion firsthand, Brainz felt his mouth drying up as the metallic footsteps came closer.
The dark figure emerged from the shadows slowly, Brainz could see the indents in the armor where the pellets impacted it. The towering figure sent Brainz into a state of hyperarousal similar to a cornered wolverine prepared to tear away the flesh of attackers or to simply tear away.
Undyne slowly approached him, towering over the petrified man, she stopped mere feet away from him.
Brainz blindly pointed the shotgun at her and pulled both of the triggers tensing for the kickback, his greatest fears were yet to come when he heard the damned sounds. *CLICK* *CLICK* The shotgun parted from his trembling hand clattering to the floor, the stock greased with sweat. Brainz instinctively pulled the switchblade from his pocket and brandished the blade, swinging it blindly in the air, reciting all the swears he could remember. Three spears came into his vision.
Undyne reared her arm to strike the man with them, the unforgiving blue steel burned into the the man's retinas. The sight of his mortality caused a spark in his mind to set off the culmination of absolute terror and pressurized fury, a burst of rage flared up inside of the man, veins throbbing and skin reddening.
Brainz blindly charged towards the monster releasing an inhuman, guttural war cry knife high in the air. His knife found it's mark as he plunged it into the left slit in the metal helmet, Undyne only stumbled back slightly from the puncture and blindly grazed one of Brainz arm with the cluster of spears, severing the backpack and knocking it and Brainz to the ground.
Brainz sprung back to his feet, still teething with adrenaline, he dashed towards Undyne again with death in his eyes. With the knife still stuck in her eye, Undyne hastily brought three more spears into play and with a heavy notion, smote the discarded backpack on the ground, splitting the wood beneath as well. Brainz screamed once more and leaped, pounding the knife handle into the helmet with all of his might, he progress was marked by the orange sparks that erupted from the collision.
Undyne retaliated, grabbing the man and lifting him over her shoulders while he flailed violently. His body slammed into the ground with a bone destroying *SMACK* the weakened bridge couldn't bear the stress any longer and severed from the holes sending Brainz into the darkness below showered by the contents of his split open backpack. His screams boomed through the open space, a mixture of fear and hatred but soon ceased, paving the way for absolute silence and darkness to creep in.