Chapter 3: Discovery

Lying on her bed with her face buried on her pillow, Frisk let out her long cries, as her pillow case became soaked both in tears and blood. With her sweater's sleeve up, her body shaking, and breathing heavy, she remained there on the bed as her mind tormented her with terrible memories. Lying to her side and tainted by the red liquid, the box cutter she had sat idly on the bed, its job for the day.

The fresh wounds on her wrist stung and part of her tears were from the pain it brought. But deep inside, she knew that she deserved all that pain, as she allowed herself to be punished. The pain she brought upon herself was only a miniscule fraction to what she had done to the others.

I brought death upon my family… She thought sadly. I must suffer the consequences…

Crying out the sorrow, she allowed herself to experience more of a punishment by scratching at her wrist, her nails pressing hard on the fresh wound, while opening some of the older wounds, causing the pain to intensify as more blood dripped. She wanted to scream from the stinging, pulsing, pain, but instead of letting out shouts of agony, she only let out cries of sorrow.

He's suspicious about you. The voice told her with an icy whisper. He probably thinks you're planning something…planning to kill him and all of them. He still fears you… And he hates you for that fear you caused him!

Looking at Sans straight earlier was hard and she had to fight back the sadness and sorrow within her to prevent herself from breaking in front of him. Not that he wouldn't like a sight, since he probably wanted to see her suffer.

She knew that he would love to see her in such a miserable state. His grin would be wider than ever if he saw her like this, suffering and wounded. She wouldn't blame him if he did. He deserved to see her in such a terrible condition. After how he watched him die, it was only right for him to see her in a near death state.

She can never look at him these days without remembering the sins she had done. He was a witness, a witness to her destruction. He saw him kill them and he tried to stop her. But ultimately, she killed him too.

And she knew that he would never forgive him for what she has done.

Despite the perpetual smile he had whenever she was present, she can sense the anger he felt. She knew that she still hated her for that timeline. Constantly returning despite the warnings, ignoring his advice, and ultimately destroying the world, how can he not hate her?

She was the worst, an example of evil itself. She did not deserve to be here and they did not deserve to tolerate her. Yet here they were and she hated it.

She hated this life.

She hated her decisions.

She hated herself.

Burying her face deeper on her pillow, she soaked up more and more of her tears, as her dripping blood was smeared all over the casing and the bed sheets. She knew that she'll have to clean that up sooner or later, or else Toriel would see it and worry.

She wouldn't understand why she was doing this and she didn't want her to understand. It would be too much for her mother, and she didn't want to worry and hurt anybody else. This was her punishment, something that she alone must take. There was no need for others to go through this with her, they had already suffered enough.

"I deserve this…" She reminded herself. "…I deserve all this pain."

She continued to sob at her predicament when all of a sudden a knock came from the door. Quickly cutting off her cries and panicking, she began to hastily wipe away her tears, as she fumbled around and grabbed her box cutter before looking for a place to hide it.

"Hey, kiddo, got a moment or two?" A voice called out from outside the door. "I just want to talk to you about something."

It was Sans! She thought with a hint of fear. Then she wondered what he could want with her right now.

"Uh…yeah, sure…" She replied, her voice shaky and uncertain. It had been so long since she last spoke to him that her words came out awkward and felt weird. "…just give me a second."

Racing off of her bed and hiding the stained cutter within the clutter in her table, she then took some tissue from a nearby box and began desperately wiping off the blood on her wrists. Then, once the only thing remaining on her sleeve were the scares, she rolled down her sleeve and threw the bloody tissues into a nearby trashcan.

Although she had said that he would probably enjoy seeing her suffer, she didn't want to risk him telling her mother. Toriel would be broken with such information and having already hurt her in a past timeline, Frisk could not bear hurting her again.

Moving towards the door and unlocking it, she slowly peered through the gap, as she caught sight of the skeleton standing before her. Wearing his usual blue jacket and holding the eternal smile on his face, she noticed something odd in him, something different. Glancing towards his eyes, she saw something she didn't notice before.

Was the concern?

"There you are kid!" Sans said, as she fully opened the door. "So, mind if I come in?"

Nodding her head slowly and backing away from the door, she watched him enter her room, exclaiming a sigh as he did so.

"How can you stand the heat in here?" He commented, as he saw no open windows to let in some air. "It feels like you've been living inside a microwave."

That's because kids like me should be burning in a hell like this. She thought sadly as she stood beside him.

Observing him as he looked around her room, she felt like that he was about to make a joke to relieve the tension of her silence. But instead of speaking up, he just kept silent and she suddenly noticed him staring at something. Curious about this, she began to follow her gaze before suddenly having her heart drop as she realized what he was staring at.

He was staring at her blood coated pillow!

In her rush to hide her cutter, she had completely forgotten to cover and hide from sight her stained pillow. Now, still covered with her blood, it was in full view of Sans, who was staring at it with awe and shock.

For a moment, they were in complete silence, with none of them saying a word. It seemed that Sans was too shocked at what he saw, while Frisk was to afraid on what wuld happen next. Will he ridicule her, insult her? Would he tell her that it was what she deserved? Lowering her shoulders, she accepted those thoughts, knowing that what he would say would probably be along those lines. She deserved what she had done and she knew that he would agree.

She expected him to laugh, he expected him to rejoice, to be glad that she was suffering just like how he suffered, but what she didn't expect was for him to speak in fear and sadness.

"Kid…" He said, as he turned to her, his eyes forming a broken and sad look. "…did you…did you do this?"

"Um…yeah…" Frisk confessed, feeling small under his worried gaze. Keeping her hands behind her back, she tried to avoid his glances, but she couldn't help but be curious at the hurt look he had on him.

"But why?" He said, in a gentle, yet demanding tone. "Why would you do such a thing? I knew, I realized, that you were sad, but I didn't know that it was this bad."

"Why?" She said, in a low voice, which soon grew louder. "You know why… I'm good at nothing but hurting…hurting others, the ones I love. So I decided to hurt myself so I can punish myself from my sin."

Sans eyed her for a second, disbelieving what he was hearing. "Punish yourself?" He said. "Punish yourself from what?"

"You know what I mean." Frisk told him. "You were there, you saw it." There were now tears rolling down her cheeks, as she looked at him with the saddest expression the skeleton has ever seen.

"Frisk…" He said, as he took a step forward, making an attempt to wrap him in his bony arms. "…this isn't right, you shouldn't be doing this."

"Isn't right?" Frisk said, as she took a step backward and away from him. "But I deserve this! I hurt everyone, including you! So it's my turn to hurt!" Tears were rolling down her cheeks instead streams, as her voice seemed to waver a bit. "I…I…I…deserve the pain…this punishment." Looking at him with a trance like gaze, her eyes were filled by a glint that seemed to terrify Sans for. "Aren't you happy? Isn't this what you wanted? To see me in pain, just like the pain I did to you in the previous timeline? Isn't this what I deserve?"

Frisk was shaking and shivering, as her voice began to hiccup from her cries. She was broken and a complete wreck, the sadness having completely taken her over.

Unable to bear the sight any longer and feeling hurt at seeing her in a state like this, Sans quickly, and gently, pulled her with his magic, letting him slide towards him before pulling her into a firm hug. Feeling her tense up, he attempted to calm her down with gentle stokes on the back of her head, as he held her close and tight.

"Frisk, you don't need to punish yourself for that." He whispered to her ear. "That was a timeline long gone. Besides, you managed to make things right again, you turned things around to make them better."

"But…but…I killed you, I hurt you." She cried into his jacket. "So…so I deserve to be hurt too."

"You've gone through enough hurt already, kiddo, there's no need to bring unnecessary hurt now." He reassured her, still trying his best to calm her down.

"But...but…" Frisk stammered, only to be cut off by Sans.

"Now, buts now, kid." He said gently, before slowly leading her towards her bed. Letting her sit before sitting right beside her, he continued to gently stroke her as he allowed her to release all the sadness built up within her. He could see that she had been building all of this up for a long time, slowly being bottled up within her. But now, with someone to talk too, it was bursting out in one long stream.

"There, there, kid, just let it all out." He encouraged her.

"I didn't mean too…I didn't mean to RESET the world…" She said in her cries. "I didn't mean to kill them… I didn't mean to kill you… I didn't want too…"

"I know, you didn't kid, I know you didn't…"

Keeping her under his embrace, two of them stayed in that position, Sans trying to comfort her best he can as she let all her tears out.