(I did NOT make glitchtale or Undertale and I'm making a disclaimer to let you know that, this disclaimer, the one you're reading)
ChaosPheory #6
The One Where It's a Musical. Act 2
The next morning had come with a certain music in the breeze, a breeze that was unfortunately kinda cold. Not cold enough for heavy coats or frost, but just cold enough to make Jessica Gray very, very, uncomfortable. She pulled the covers of her king sized bed over her, still half asleep, in a vain attempt to get warm. In the end, the light pouring in from her open window told her it was time to get up anyway. She got up, stretched, rubbed her eyes, and shut the window, why was it open anyway, she could've sworn she shut it last night. She got her nearly ancient flip phone off the desk with her laptop at the far side of her room, as she did every morning. She opened it and saw the blinking light that told her she had a new message. She played it,
"Hey Jessica," the phone said, "this is Tom. listen, you know I wouldn't bother you on the weekend unless it was urgent, but well, this is very urgent. Meet me at the office as soon as you get this. BEEP."
Tom Bains was Jessica's assistant from the A.M.D, he joined recently after her old assistant quit, and almost the rest of the A.M.D quit. In fact the Anti. Monster. Department, in general, was a very unpopular right now. Before Mount Ebot blew its top everyone complained that the A.M.D got too much power and influence even though it didn't do much, everyone wanted it disbanded. Then after the barrier opened everyone complained that it wasn't doing enough and wanted it disbanded. Finally the Bete Noir attack came, and literally, everyone had their own opinion on what they were doing wrong, and all of the (get this) wanted them disbanded. So needless to say, Jessica wasn't too enthused about something 'urgent' from work, but Tom wasn't the type to call about something that a very mad protester did, in fact, Tom wasn't the type to call to call at all. He always did what he was told, nothing more, nothing less. If there was a problem that was out of his way he'd leave it to someone else or just put it off till tomorrow (which mean means it was never done) for him of all people to call on a weekend just seemed so unusual.
So she showered, changed clothes, and took some of those pills that Gaster gave her, 'if you keep taking them daily you should be at a healthy HP in no time' she could hear him say in her mind. She walked downstairs to her living room, taking the time to stop at the piano in the corner, and look at the pictures she had laid on it.
The first was a photo taken in her backyard with her daughter Natalie, it almost brought tears to her eyes, how much she missed her. The second was another photo, this one being lot older, contained an image of her younger self dancing on the stage of Gray's Theater House on the lower east side of the city, in the arms of her soon to be husband, Daniel Gray, while his brother, Lance, played the piano that she now stood by. Now she was crying, it sucked losing so much she had like that, but at least things were beginning to fall into perspective for her, she knew that those who died were at peace, and if they were here they'd want her to continue. She took the picture of her and Natalie, folded it neatly and stuffed it in her pocket, as she did every day, and left for the A.M.D office.
The same chilly breeze that had awoken her that morning greeted her again outside with its lovely music, it's lovely familiar music. Sang by a familiar, piercing tenor voice,
"You'll be so lonely, without me only, cause you know full well boys you could've had me stay," a passionate man sang coming round the corner in his usual yellow button up shirt, gray overcoat, and wild multi colored hair, (seem familiar, it should)
'Oh, no not him' Jessica thought to herself,
"But now I'm leaving, and I hope you're grieving, you're gonna miss your old pal buddy, yes sir, some of these days" he finished, stopping right in front of Jessica,
"Great, now you're here" she let off some notable sarcasm,
"Good morning to you too Jessy"
she sighed and touched a hand to her forehead,
"What do you want Lance," she asked
"I came to check on you. Is that a crime
"Ok but…" she shrugged her shoulders, "...why"
"Well you're always doing this and that at the A.M.D, and I have the theater worry about so we really don't get to talk much, and I thought you'd like a friendly conversation with yours truly"
Jessica look at him skeptically,
"Anything else?" she asked
"Speaking of the A.M.D how are things going there cause I hear that nowadays…"
"Lance" she interrupted
"Yes?"
"Answer the question"
"What question"
"The one I just asked!"
"And that would be?"
She dropped the matter, he was imposable to deal with when he was being difficult,
"Things are… so so at the A.M.D., in fact, I'm on my way there now, apparently, it's 'urgent'"
Lance smiled
"Well then, I guess time is of the essence" he started walking and beckoned her to follow, she did, and soon he had led her to a dark alley that she knew too well where it went,
"No! just no. I'm not going back to the lower east side"
"Oh come on, what's so wrong about a shortc… ah, I almost said that out loud."
"I know what these people think about me, and I'm not about to give them the chance to make good on their threats, not to mention all the…" she paused there, not able to describe the feeling that that place gave her,
"Bad nostalgia?" Lance suggested
"Yeah" she half spoke, trying to resist the bad memories, but she shook them off, "no offense, but the people here are kinda… vocal"
He actually laughed, "none taken. I know first hand. I'm the one who has to live with them, and now that we're on that topic" he took a deep breath and looked Jessica in the eyes, "here are a few things that I know, the first being that while they know who you are they, more importantly, know who I am, and no one, in or out of their right mind, messes with me. Now as for your bad nostalgia, well I can only say that…" he sighed "it wasn't fair what happened to you, it wasn't fair what happened to Daniel, and it definitely wasn't fair what happened to Natalie, but you should know by now that you can't just hold onto the good times and pretend the bad times never happened, they go hand in hand, the best thing you can do is make sure you're not alone when you finally face them"
Jessica was somewhat dumbfounded, this coming from her idiot brother-in-law, "that was… oddly poetic"
"It's actually just a bunch of inspirational quotes that I meshed together in hopes that it would make sense"
"Well it sorta worked"
"Thanks, now let's get you to work" and they walked into the alley."Oh and Jessica"
"Yes?"
"You remember that amulet that Daniel gave you when you first came here?"
"Yeah, I never take it off"
"Good… keep it that way"
The lower east side was it's usual unwelcoming self, with buildings all barricaded and unfriendly, and with people even more so. Lance was right in the part that no one really wanted to mess with him, as in physically get in a fight with him, but they all still wanted to use the opportunity to literally yell out their political view when they knew they could be heard, and that involved a lot of yelling,
"Why don't you people address the any of the real problems in monster/human relations!" someone came out onto their porch and shouted,
"Maybe if you addressed the real problems in YOUR relations you wouldn't have to scream to get a girl to listen to you Ralph, also, delete your internet history" Lance yelled back.
The guy quickly ran back inside his boarded up home,
"How do you know his internet history?" Jessica asked
"I don't, I know Ralph and that's good enough"
"Get a real job you little pisher!" someone else ran outside a similar shutter up house and yelled
"Running a theater IS a real job, and that's Mister pisher to you!"
The rest of the lower east side passed much like that, with someone running outside to yell something rude to Jessica, and Lance coming up with an even more rude retort. However, once Gray's Theater House came into view, even Lance's neighbors faded into the background. It was noticeably different from the other buildings in this area of the city, not because it was bigger or cleaner, but because it was grander. The bright paint made the place look almost otherworldly, the concrete pillars supporting the pavilion gave it a feeling of immortality, and the lights coming from its double doors and windows radiated its feeling of awe. They both walked by in silence enough was said about this topic.
At last, they had gotten out of the lower east side and made it to the A.M.D building where they were immediately greeted by Tom Bains.
"Jessica!" he ran over to them, startled, "I didn't expect you so early, how did you get here so fast?"
"We took a shortcut" Jessica explained
"I'd avoid using that word in the future if I were you" Lance cautioned
Tom's eyes turned to Lance, "wait, who's this?" he asked
"The name's Lance" he introduced himself
"Lance?" Tom scratched his chin, "Lance Gray!?" he exclaimed
Jessica's eyes narrowed, "you know him?"
"By reputation" Tom replied
"You mean the theater?" she asked
"What theater?"
"What?"
"What?"
"Nevermind"
He looked at Jessica again, "so you're his"
"Sister-in-law" Lance finished for him, "she married my brother"
"So what's this 'urgent' thing you have to show me?"
"Oh, OH! Right, um, come inside we, um can't discuss this out here if you know what I mean hehe" Tom chuckled weakly
Lance nodded, "see you later Jessy" and he left
Tom brought her inside "so I understand you have read the encrypted email we were sent by the E.L.O.D?" he asked her
"No, I came here as soon as I got your message"
"Oh right," he got more nervous as he continued, "well, in short, the email stated that, well, um, shoot, it said that..."
"Spit it out already!"
"Betty escaped the Lighthouse"
Jessica could only feel shocked, that creature, that caused so much pain, loose, and after all she did to keep it locked away, "How!"
"Well," he fumbled around with a phone, trying to pull up that encrypted email, "they say she escaped with the help of one of the experiments that were kept there, almost all of the guards had taken the day off for some reason, and reports also put ambassador Frisk at the scene"
Frisk? They would never help Betty… unless she blackmailed them. That must be it, but Betty couldn't have done it herself, she was no mastermind and she had no outside connections, no someone had set this up from the outside, "can we track her through the cameras" she asked
"Well, we could, but if she's going where I think she going, we can't"
"And why's that"
"Well, we recently discovered a huge blind spot in the camera system, apparently someone tampered with it"
"So where is this blind spot exactly" her temper growing
"The lower east side… that whole section of the city"
How could someone from the lower east side mess with the cameras, the only one who could've gotten close is… no, it couldn't be
"Funny thing is, a lot of weird things have been going on in that area, a thunderstorm that wasn't forecasted, and no reported deaths from the attack…"
"The guards that took the day off, can you show me a list"
"Um, sure?" he fumbled with his phone then gave it to her "If you're trying to find a pattern, then, well, I'd hate to break it to you but people have tried no one found a pattern in these names"
But she managed to find a pattern within a few minutes of looking.
They were all Lance's debtors or people who had had ties or influence with him.
It couldn't be
But everything pointed to it
Jessica's brother-in-law helped Betty Noir escape
