He sat there on the edge of the natural platform, his lower legs dipped into the oddly warm water as faint sparkles lofted up around him. They flittered up from the strange surface of the water, dancing about through the air before vanishing into the near-endless abyss of starry lights in the immense cavern "skyline". Across from him sat various blue, faintly glowing flowers that slightly seemed to breathe in and out, as if alive, breathing alongside Neil as he sat quietly, waiting. Just...waiting.
He was an odd sight, without a doubt. The caverns, despite being alit with the faintly glowing waters that cascaded all through it, and the soft light blue of the echo flowers, and the dazzling crystals embedded in the ceiling acting as would-be stars, it was all oddly somber and sad. All of it was faintly melancholy, the beauty trying to cover up the faint tinge of sadness that infested all of Waterfall. Waterfall was, in some ways, a place where dreams of the Underground came to die. This was your last resort. Either you were there to make a wish in the Wishing Room where the starry crystals were closest to the ground...almost close enough to touch...or you were there for the garbage dump. The endlessly flowing rivers that carried garbage and refuse tossed from the outside world to the underground rivers of Mt. Ebott kept on flowing down, down into an endless darkness from which there'd be no escaping if you found the right spot and just...
Stepped off.
Neil had been tempted. He was only 11 years old, and he'd been tempted to just...step off the edge of one of waterfalls eponymous waterfalls. Just...fall out and let it all end. To let the darkness claim him. But he wanted something more. He wanted something that fit.
And so Neil quietly waited, finally sensing that she was here and standing up. His soft blue eyes scanned in the direction he knew she came from before finally speaking. "Undyne."
The singular piercing eye he could see stopped, its singular yellow eye going wide in surprise. It's black pupil narrowed before the armored form stepped forth, helmet taken off as it held it in one arm. "How do you know my name?"
"I know a lot about you." Neil quietly murmured. His voice was faintly midwestern, and somehow, despite looking so young, he seemed so much...older in this moment. A normally youthful, blond-locked face was wracked with what seemed like years and years of pain. He had eyes that seemed to be centuries old, filled with deep regret and loss, even his slightly puffy blonde hair looking grimy and worn. All a stark contrast to the cute little pink tutu and ballerina attire he had on. Slowly one of his hands that hung at his sides reached up and lifted his shirt, revealing a wound Undyne, Head of the Royal Guard, recognized instantly. A familiar bruise mark that indicated where a spear had gone through his body...a magic spear, that is. Faintly blue, with a dark point just barely visible, and twitching light blue lines emanating from the wound, Undyne could see he'd been speared at least six times.
"How in the..." She whispered, her voice almost breaking with pure shock. Only she knew how to do that! Her blue, scaly face was full of amazement, a faint hint of fear, and a tiny blend of anger and worry as the human kept staring at the fish-like head of the royal guard.
"Can you swim, Undyne?" Neil asked her, Undyne blinking rather stupidly in confusion.
"Of course I can!" She remarked, shaking her head...before she saw Neil spread his arms wide.
His smile was hollow.
"I never learned."
And with that, he flopped into the water behind him, Undyne gazing on in shock before she found herself racing forward, the world around Neil going so oddly warm and dark.
...
...
...
...Neil Elliot's family had moved from Kentucky when he was seven, and despite his father feeling that Neil was too young to remember, he was dead wrong. Neil could remember how the sunset had lit up the corn fields, the vast stretches of plain, and the soft Kentucky wind. He could remember the smell of potatoes and farms in his nostrils, and the embrace of his mother. And the sad thing was, that was all he could remember of her. Because her death had made her father unable to stand living in Kentucky. So off they'd gone to Simsbury, to live near the fabled Mount Ebott.
Neil had tried to adjust. But he didn't much like his dad's attitude. His father was a very, very red-blooded, red stater moving because of a job offer from an old friend on the east coast. He was determined to help turn Connecticut red, and that his son think the same way he did. His father Arthur had grown up in 2010 during the height of the notorious Tea Party movement's popularity, and had pretty much soaked up everything it had to offer. Regrettably, at least to Arthur, most of the country had not taken kindly to Tea Party politics, and this made him something of a dinosaur.
Especially in the quite liberal Connecticut. So Neil was embarassed by his father's ranting about how govt was too big and taxes and all that crud. Especially on the days when the school encouraged parents to come in and talk about what they did. It would always lead to a kind of stream-of-conciousness rant from Arthur about everything wrong with America, liberals, communists, liberals, China, liberals, those awful Canadians, liberals, green energy, liberals, etc.
So Neil not only had to adjust to a new home, and new kids, but a father who's viewpoints couldn't just be shrugged off in a more liberal environment than what his dad was used to. And his dad had gotten far less tolerant of anything remotely liberal or effeminate and sissy.
Which is why when Neil had taken ballet, he'd almost flipped his lid.
"Are you...serious?!" Arthur Elliot had asked the teacher of the ballet class at the PTA meeting at the school, who also happened to be the art teacher. She gave Neil an apologetic look, realizing she'd made an awful mistake in bringing up Neil's passion not only in art class, but ballet after school. "I thought he was doing baseball!"
"Oh, sir, um, not quite. Are you not comfortable with your son-"
"You're damn right I'm not!" Arthur snapped, arms folding across his chest as he glared over at his son from behind his thick glasses and thicker moustache. Neil inwardly gulped, but then a glint came to his eyes as he glanced left and right.
"Dad, listen, can we talk out in the hallway?" He asked, Arthur frowning slightly before sighing, taking hold of his son's shoulder as he headed into the hallway outside of the library the meeting was taking place in.
"Ballet? You're really doing ballet? Son, that is just...I cannot even!" Arthur was on the verge of exploding. He needed defusing fast. But then Neil asked a simple question.
"Dad, what does a ballet class have a lot of?"
"Well that's easy!" Arthur said with a hearty snort. "Ballet's got lots of-"
He stopped himself, mouth slightly agape, doing a double take. "Dames."
"That's right, dad! Dames! The chicks. And if there's one thing I love more than anything else, its bein' in a room full of hot ladies!" Neil proclaimed with a big ol' grin as his father clasped his hand on his son's shoulder, a look of pure pride on his face.
"Well, son, why didn't you say so? You're a chip off the old block!" Arthur laughed, grinning as he made his way into the PTA meeting once again, Neil wiping his brow, the smirk fading from his face as he groaned.
What could he say? When the going got tough, the bullshit got going.
But in truth, he knew this was the only answer that would have pleased his father. For you see, Neil knew a lot of things he shouldn't have. Things he normally could have never known. And he only knew them because he had an unusual ability. A skill that as far as he knew, nobody else had.
And it was that skill that allowed him to remained untouched at school from any bullies or harassment. He'd practically glide through the halls, a big ol' smug grin on his face as he ducked to avoid every single one of Big Tom's clotheslines that would randomly jut out from a corner, leapt over all of Cindy "Slam" Syzmanski's feet as she tried to trip him, and expertly avoided every single hall monitor when he was out buying stuff from the teacher's lounge vending machine when he wasn't supposed to. How?
Simple.
"Left alleyway, duck, then twirl around and jump backwards." Neil whispered to himself, nursing a slightly bloodied lip as Big Tom pulled him up by his blonde hair, glaring down at the young eleven year-old as he was surrounded by his little posse.
"What're you sayin'?" Tom asked with a grown on his thick-nosed face, dark brown eyes narrowed darkly.
And then, just like that, Neil was back. He was walking down the sidewalk again, and he grinned proudly as he ducked underneath Tom as he tried to reach out to grab hold of him. Smirking, he then turned around, sticking his tongue out and then leaping backwards, avoiding a crack that would have tripped him up as he stuck the landing expertly, giving Tom and his friends an elaborate bow before rising back up with the fluidity of a swan.
"So close! So far. Not this time. Not. This. TIME." Neil laughed, before racing off down the sidewalk and past the convenience store to head back home, Tom fuming darkly as he clenched his fists and ground his teeth.
"How does he always know when we're about to try and do stuff to 'em!?" He yelled out, stomping his foot on the ground. "It's like he's freakin' PSYCHIC!"
Oh, if only Tom knew. Neil had a fascinating ability. The ability to "RESET". He could go back to a moment in time before something awful happened. And he'd done it time and time again, and to great effect.
He'd first discovered it on the day of a big test. Tom had beaten him up the day before for being in ballet, and Neil was freaking out, having spent the entire night sore in bed, nursing what he was sure was a broken pair of ribs, unable to concentrate on studying. Head held in his hands, the clock had been ticking down. Tick...tock. Tick...tock. Continuously ticking against soft blue walls, Neil's eyes bugging out, sweat pouring down his brow and onto his white, well-buttoned longsleeve shirt. His mind had been drawing a blank, his mouth hanging open as he found himself finally letting out a scream.
"THIS IS SO UNFAIR, IF HE HADN'T-"
And then, just like that, Neil was on the sidewalk close to the convenience store, realizing he was in the same spot he'd been in before Tom had popped out, seen him, and decided to beat him up. Quickly diving into a nearby alley and hiding behind the dumpster, his heart panting in his chest as a faint golden glimmer seemed to shine off his form for a brief moment, he realized he had gone back in time. Through pure will, he had shot back in time to the day before, and now? Now he could study for the test.
And so he'd used RESET again and again, able to go back an entire 24 hours. With this, he could now ace every test. Know when every bully was going to try to knock him down. Know every single response that would make teachers or his father happy. And with this, he was quickly rising in popularity despite being an 11 year old boy who took ballet class in 204X.
And it was this popularity that led him to be invited to the top of Mount Ebott for the big kid's party. That day. The incident.
"You actually came? Oh WOW, you just do not give a FUCK, do you man?" The high school kid remarked, flicking his nose ring with his tongue as he passed Neil a "Blue Pabst", Neil looking the bottle over as he held it up. "I mean, you wore a TUTU to this, man? That's hardcore not giving a fuck." The moon was high in the night sky, casting faint light on the bonfire at the top of Mount Ebott's northern side, many high schoolers and middle schoolers hanging out for an enormous party as they celebrated like there was no tomorrow on this, the infamous 'Mischief Night', the night before Halloween when you did your worst pranks. They'd been taking turns tossing stuff into the cave, they'd painted on the walls just outside, they were tossing stuff that exploded nicely into the bonfire and whooping in delight...
It.
Was.
AWESOME.
"Party rock is in the hoooouse toniiiight! Everybody just have a good time!" A very lovely-looking girl proclaimed, red hair swaying back and forth as she held her own bottle of Blue Pabst up, grinning cheekily at Neil. "Come on, kid! Take a drink! Live a little!"
"Thanks for inviting me." He admitted. "I've just never done this before. Little...nervous?" He mumbled, taking a small sip, the girl chuckling as she shook her head back and forth.
"Really? C'mon, you can do better than that." The red-headed girl said as Neil's eyes slightly glinted, almost looking golden in the bonfire's light.
"You know what? You're right. And I will." He said. "Thanks for inviting me!"
(RESET)
GLUG. GLUG. GLUG.
He chugged the bottle down, the kids all around him punching the air as the red-headed girl gasped in awe at him guzzling the beer down. "Chug, chug, chug, chug!"
"Oh my GOD. You are so much more older and mature than I thought you'd be. Like, I don't know any kids who'd chug one!" She admitted, Neil coughing a bit before laughing, holding up an almost totally-empty bottle of Blue Pabst up.
"You do now!" He laughed. "Gimme another!" He insisted. "Party rock!" Neil laughed aloud, the warm liquid surging through his body as he staggered about a bit, hiccuping slightly as another beer got passed to him. Slowly but surely, the night became a blur. He could faintly remember sitting by the bonfire, sitting close to the red-haired girl and all of them singing loudly and vacuously. He could remember peeing off the mountain, fists held high, going "woohoo" as he did so. And he remembered taking the dare...to pee off the edge where that Asian child had vanished.
The tragic disappearance of Qiang Chan had haunted Simsbury for years. Their parents had insisted a monster had tried to take their little girl, but the police simply didn't believe them. But nobody had any evidence that they'd done anything wrong, either. So alas, the town was just left to speculate, many believing the Chans had murdered their daughter or, more likely in most eyes, Qiang had run away or fallen on Mt. Ebott and in their grief, the Chans had concocted a story to try and cope. Many had wanted to stay far, far away from the mountain after that. Many had begun to call it cursed.
But the urge to spit in the face of that so-called curse was great among the kids of Simsbury. And so now Neil was about to drop trou and pee off the very spot where Qiang had supposedly fallen. But as he staggered forward, head woozy and hiccuping slightly, that was when disaster struck. He was literally falling down drunk, they realized. And they realized it too late when he literally fell down, drunk, into the dark abyss below.
The laughter stopped. The music got shut off by a slow, shaking hand. The red haired girl stared at the spot where Neil HAD been, and then, at last...
"...did...we all just...I...did that just happen?"
"...what just happened?"
"...I think we accidentally killed an eleven year old by getting him drunk. That's what happened."
"...shit."
...
...
...
...Neil woke up with a start, and he glanced around, blinking in surprise at the soft red that surrounded him. He was in a very comfortable and cozy bed with a delightful pink, white and red comforter blanket wrapped around him as a gentle goat-like face stared back at him. This odd monster stood quite tall above him, yet her face radiated warmth as he blinked slowly, holding his hands to his face and feeling his cheeks. He then pinched himself on the arm...
"OW. Nope. Nope, not a dream." He said, blinking a bit.
"Good to see you are awake, oh small one." The goat-like monster in the faintly religious attire remarked, giving him a gentle bow. "I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins. I must admit, I was shocked to see a boy in a tutu when I went out to see if anyone had fallen in to Mount Ebott. But in truth, you look rather adorable in your little pink ballet slippers!" She admitted, clasping her hands together and giving him a big smile. "I could pinch your cheeks!"
Neil rubbed his eyes, looking her back over before his mouth hung open. "This...this can't be...wait."
His blood ran cold. "Miss...Toriel? H-How long was I asleep?"
"You've been passed out for a good day and a half, my child." She admitted with a nod. "You stank horribly, and I had to give you a bath and wash your clothing, but after about 36 hours you've finally woken up! I must ask, though. You smelled like...well, and your breath, er..." She cringed. "I shall be honest. It was pure hellfire. Had you been drinking?"
"Thirty...six...hours?" Neil whimpered, his lip quivering as he clutched himself, a shudder running through his body as his eyes went wide with horror. "I've been away from home for thirty six...no, no, NO, NO NO!" He screamed, covering his face. "No, this can't be happening! This can't be happening!" He shrieked out. "NO! NO, NO, NO!"
"My child, whatever is the matter?" Toriel asked, Neil sobbing as he curled up in a ball in the bed, weeping like a madman.
"A day and a half! I'm stuck here, I'm stuck, I'm-oh no, no, NO..."
"Child, please. Don't cry." Toriel begged him, Neil slowly turning around, Toriel's arms outstretched as he did the only thing he could and sobbed into her chest, letting her soft warmth embrace him along with her arms, and letting the crying come naturally as he got it all out. He cried for what seemed to be a long, long time, Toriel gently stroking his soft blond hair, the texture like cotton as his open wails began to turn into pitiful whimpers, and then faint sniffles.
"It's alright." She said. "It's alright. I'm here for you. I know we do not have much. But we can have a good life here. I promise."
And in truth, Neil wanted to believe that. And for what seemed to be a long, long time, he DID believe it.
Toriel was a good cook, and he would often return from exploring the ruins to the delightful scent of butterscotch pie and monster candy that was freshly made, Toriel's warm smile always at the ready alongside them. Her presence in the doorway of his new home was a constant after every trip he took out into the ruins, easily learning how to handle the monsters there. From the Froggits to the Whismuns, from Loox to the Vegetoids, Neil grew more and more comfortable with the Ruins and what it had to offer.
At night, Toriel and he would dance, he showing off his ballet moves for her, she clumsily trying to imitate them whilst he, in turn, tried to learn how to waltz. Because, as Toriel put it, 'A good waltz is always classy'. After all, it had been the dance for her and her husband at their wedding. "Remember, when you have your other in your arms, there's only three things that exist." Toriel had said on one particular night as she took Neil's hand, another hand resting on his side as she gave him a sage nod. "You. Them. And the WALTZ." She proclaimed, before they swept across the living room in broad strokes, a big ol' grin on both their faces.
Yet after two months of this, Neil kept finding himself going to the overlook that peered over the remnants of "Home", the old capital of the Underground. The old home of the monster kingdom was nigh abandoned, and it seemed to stretch out for ages, yet in truth, he'd explored every nook and cranny with Toriel, and now the ruins felt incredibly small to him. It was like being away at a summer camp out of state. At first it had seemed too different and exotic, then he'd been fascinated with all that there was to explore. Yet now?
Now he wanted more. And so he quietly sat on the ledge, looking out over the stretched-out city before him, turning slightly to the left as he saw a toy knife lying on the ground.
For a moment he considered picking it up. For a moment, he found himself wishing the knife was real. He was getting so bored.
So...
So very bored.
But no. Neil just sighed and shook his head, before he took notice of a froggit that was hopping towards him. "Oh, for..." He grunted. "Get lost!" He threatened, shaking his fist at the froggit, who stupidly stared.
It was hard to take Neil seriously. He had taken to wearing the tutu almost all the time, being the only thing that still connected him to his old life. The froggit just blinked a bit, tilting its head to the side, before Neil grabbed the toy knife and threw it. It bopped the frog-like monster on the head with a PA-PLUNK, the froggit letting out an "OW" and hopping off, wincing as the knife plopped back down on the ground, Neil finding an odd satisfaction rising him him. There had just been something kind of funny and enjoyable about whacking the froggit right in the middle of the head with that knife. Maybe he should throw more things at them more often, he mused to himself before he sighed.
"I'm just wasting time." He muttered as he made his way back towards home, Toriel standing in the doorway, seeing his sad face. "Oh, dibbun. Please, tell me. Whatever is the matter?"
"I'm just...tired." Neil mumbled. It was true, but not in the way she thought. "I think I'll take a nap." he murmured as he made his way back to his room, sighing as he plopped into the bed, looking over at the photo frame on the bureau not too far from him.
It was then that he faintly noticed something in the light. You could, if you stared just right, see something. See that the frame wasn't empty. The photo had just been turned around to show its blank side.
Blinking in surprise, Neil got out from the bed and carefully pulled the photo out of the frame, turning it around. It revealed a bearded being similar to Toriel, a cute little kid with a striped yellow and green longsleeve shirt that was obviously the same species as Toriel and her apparent husband, and-
Wait.
Neil's eyes widened. The last person in the frame, standing next to the young child monster, was a human with brown locks, rosy little cheeks, and a pair of dark eyes. Almost...black eyes. Neil wasn't sure, but there was something about the face that didn't seem quite right. It was as if the person staring back with that cute little smile on their face was just imitating what a child was meant to look like, yet despite their well-toned face and cuddly appearance, there was something still "off" about them. It was like looking at a zoo exhibit. From behind the bars of the cage, a tiger was glaring out.
"Greetings." A voice rang out.
Neil turned around. That same child was there, with that same cute little smile on its features as it extended a hand. "I'm Chara." The girl said. "You'd like to exit the ruins, wouldn't you? I can show you how."
Neil stared at this, mouth slightly agape as Chara tilted her head and blinked slightly. "Well? I thought you want to go home? I can show you how, so would you like to join me? I was waiting for someone with a SOUL that was close enough to my own to finally awaken me."
"Well...of course I wanna go home." Neil said quietly, looking this 'Chara' girl over. "I miss everything I had. I miss my dad and the autumn leaves of New England and being popular and the kids liking me."
"I can get you out. But we're gonna need some things. First thing's first...it's been a while since I was down here. Don't know how much time's passed, so tell me..." Chara began, looking out into the hallway, then turning back to Neil with a polite smile.
"Where are the knives?"
Author's Note:
Whenever I'm feeling down or blue, I try to hunker down and write. It helps me out immensely to work through feelings that assault me. And as such, this particular chapter, you should know, was written when I was VERY depressed, shortly after losing my second job at Stop and Shop and feeling trapped, stuck in a dead-end job with no way out. It indulges in the Genocide path of Undertale, and as such, I warn you all.
THE NEXT CHAPTER IS GOING TO GET DARK.
I do, however, want to bring something up. I never saw any of the kids who fell down, not even Neil, as being bad kids like Chara. They're all just doing what they think will get them home, or what they think they have to do to protect others. Chara's the only one who was motivated by selfishness, exploiting the family and friends who loved him to hurt innocents and restart a war. Regrettably though, Neil's own soul is far too close to hers because of how easily he manipulates his own ability to get what he wants. He's the most selfish out of all of them. It doesn't make him bad. He's just flawed.
One more thing. I had been trying to show that the monsters could be just as bad, if not more so, than the humans they didn't like. This is the first time I'm showing a human acting like a real monster. Too often Undertale stories put all the onus of blame on the humans, and gloss over what the monsters did and are capable of. Too often, Frisk is the only good human on display in the stories. I wanted to do something different.
