This is the first story I've written that I just couldn't name. It didn't feel like it was supposed to have one. But have some angsty Undyrus.

It was my fault.

The realization hit me so hard, I collapsed onto the floor of my house the moment the doors closed. Putting my head in my hands, I tried to banish the thought from my mind but it only became stronger the more I fought it.

I was the one who told him to capture a human.

I was the one who gave him false hope about joining the Royal Guard.

I was the one who encouraged him, who told him how tough he was even though he wouldn't even harm a fly.

Papyrus was dead because of me.

It felt like my heart had stopped pounding. Maybe I had dropped dead in that room. But if I had, I must have gone straight to hell because I'd never felt worse about anything. The guilt felt like it was consuming my soul and all the memories of our friendship, our stupid little cooking accidents and snow wrestling in Snowdin and dragging him to Grillby's even though he hated the place… I would give anything to do it again. To not have to feel this anymore. To not feel anything anymore.

I didn't actually think Papyrus would want to join the Royal Guard this much. I didn't think he would take my orders so seriously, not after I'd seen those ludicrous puzzles all over the place. I underestimated him and now my worst fears had come true. The very thing I'd tried to protect him from had been his downfall.

I tried to shift the blame. The human had killed him. But I couldn't even let that rage consume me anymore. I felt my gills, still functioning because the child had mercy on me. So if they had saved my life, why hadn't they let Papyrus live? Did he annoy them into it? Did the child only let me live to force me to endure this pain? If that was the case, humans were more sadistic than I imagined.

Briefly, I thought about trying to find Sans. Maybe he could understand how it felt. But no one had seen him and I didn't know where to begin to go looking for him. The cell phone in my pocket suddenly felt like a huge weight and I took it out. The last text I'd gotten from Papyrus was still on the screen when I turned it on.

"THE HUMAN WILL SUCCUMB TO MY TRAPS! I WILL LET YOU KNOW WHEN I CAPTURE THEM! NYEH HEH HEH!"

He couldn't even type in lowercase letters. I never did ask him why. Now I wished I could. Just to hear him come up with some silly excuse or reasoning would be enough to bring me out of this black hole of anguish inside.

Without really knowing why, I pressed the call button. The phone rang once, twice… three times. He would be picking it up right now if it weren't for me. Just like always.

"YOU HAVE REACHED THE GREAT PAPYRUS, FUTURE MEMBER OF THE ROYAL GUARD AND UNPARALLELED SPAGETTORE! IF YOU ARE A HUMAN, PLEASE LET ME KNOW YOUR LOCATION SO THAT I MAY CAPTURE YOU. IF YOU ARE NOT A HUMAN, LEAVE A MESSAGE AT THE TONE. NYEH HEH HEH!"

I felt a small smile on my lips at the sound of his voice, so silly and loud. So innocently naïve. As if a human would actually leave a message telling him where to find them. The phone beeped and I paused for a moment. I could hang up, call him again, and listen to that message until I went crazy pretending he was still with me. Instead, I found my voice.

"Papyrus, I…" my throat felt like it was closing but I forced my voice through. "I… I shouldn't have told you to capture the human." My eyes burned with tears but I kept talking. "The truth is, I wasn't going to let you join the Royal Guard because I didn't think you could handle it. I thought you'd get torn to smiling shreds. And I was right." I wiped my eye. I hate crying. "But I was wrong too. You're a lot braver than I thought. You stepped between the human and the rest of the Underground and didn't back down. I never thought you would do that. I never thought you wanted this so badly. I should have told you. I should have told you ages ago." I gritted my teeth and took several deep breaths. "I'm sorry. I know if you could hear this, you'd forgive me right away. But that doesn't mean I didn't mess up. My mistake got you killed. I'm so sorry, Papyrus. I'm… I'm…"

The phone slipped out of my hand. I didn't even know if it hung up. Perhaps it didn't. Perhaps Papyrus could hear my desperate attempts to swallow up the emotions raging inside of me. I clutched at my arms until my fingernails cut through my skin. I didn't want to face this. I didn't want to live the rest of my life knowing that I'd gotten my best friend murdered.

What would Papyrus do now? How would he handle this?

Well… he sure as hell wouldn't give up.

I was going to make sure he didn't die in vain. I was going to protect the Underground from the humans or die trying. Even if that meant I had to take over completely. No one else was going to die.

I stood up and as I did so, I realized with a horrible stab of pain that Papyrus's cooking lesson should have started five minutes ago. He would never have been late for that.

The human had saved my life and I was going to make sure that hadn't gone to waste. I was going to make the humans pay for what happened to Papyrus. I was going to tear them to pieces with my bare hands. If this one got out of the Underground, they would be the last to see the light of day again.

I knew this wasn't what Papyrus would want. But what he had wanted simply wasn't possible. And no one else was ever going to make that mistake again.

Man, I cannot stop writing these, can I?

~KateMarie999