A few days had passed since Undyne joined the group, and everything seemed to go back to normal...well, normal enough with monsters living with you as your shadow most of the time. There were no new sightings of monsters bonding with humans that we were aware of, though the group agreed that perhaps it was going on to people we didn't know. This made things a bit worrisome, however; if a new monster had appeared, we would have no idea if it was one of Sans and Undyne's friends or not. And it was this idea that worried us the most above everything else due to the creeping dread of the future that usually came with it.

On top of all this, Travis was getting more and more annoyed with the idea that a monster had not merged with soul like the rest of us. He kept going on and on about how unfair it was that we had such cool companions and was considering delving into some sort of witchcraft or other means to make a monster appear. A part of me wanted to just ignore him, but I could understand where he was coming from; it sucked being the last to be a part of anything.

That was what made me to decide on talking to him later than usual one day. For a few hours, Travis and I kept texting each other about random stuff and generally having a decent non-monster discussion. Eventually though, I felt myself close to dozing off and decided to say goodnight and log off. And after also saying goodnight to Sans, I felt my mind drift off to the usual DreamScape.


Opening my eyes soon after feeling the fall, I let out an audible yawn and scratched my head. It took a few seconds for me to realize it, but I soon noticed that Sans was nowhere to be found; neither fused with my soul or by himself out in the open, the skeleton seemed to be missing.

"Damn it, Sans...Did you really have to go visit Undyne and Matt right now?"

Sighing heavily, I decide to start figuring out what to do for the night and clapped my hands to make my room appear. Not seeing results, I clapped a few more times and frowned when the abyss stayed its pitch black.

"Are you friggen kidding me right now..?" I mumbled, stomping on the ground to see if that would do anything. Of course, nothing changed. "Sans! You better not have changed anything!"

Suddenly, a distant light seemed to materialize nearby my location as if in response to what I had said. Thinking the skeleton in question was up to his old tricks, I started walking towards it. Stopping a bit away from it, I extend my hand to touch it and look mildly surprised when it moved off to one side as if to avoid contact.

"Very funny, Sans..." I grumbled as I tried again, this time trying to go a bit quicker. Once my fingertip seemed to brush past the light, another light popped up. And that one was followed by more of the small wisp-like orbs as they began to fly around the blank space. The atmosphere of the void started to grow steadily into dread, as the wisps reminded me of some sort of spectral meeting ground.

Opening my mouth to speak, I felt my throat tighten and my hands grabbed at it as I struggled to breathe. My vision went blurry and my entire being felt as if it were a machine that was slowly losing batteries. Not knowing what else to do, and slowly losing consciousness, I tried in vain to fight it.

Between the blurry images that my vision showed me every time I opened my eyes, I slowly began to make out a figure in the abyss. Each time I closed my eyes and re-opened them, it seemed to get closer and closer with every step. It soon was a few feet away from it, and I was able to make out precisely what it was. The spectre was slender and tall, with white hands and a black outfit that was somehow lighter in shade than the abyss around us. At first, I mistook the thing for some sort of Reaper...and I almost believed it when I forced myself to look at its face; instead of a skull or something with features, the thing had what looked like some sort of marionette head with only two empty eye sockets and a tightly closed line that made its mouth.

The spectre kept its silent gaze, the wisps all around us seeming to stop their movements as if waiting to see what it would do. Soon however, the lights began to morph into little computer screens that projected noisy, flickering static. But, as if someone had changed the channel, the static turned into horrific images of my own face in many different expressions that seemed to cycle at different intervals with different sounds to occupy each image. I could do nothing but slowly choke to what felt like my inevitable death, staring in horror at everything around me. Sensing something with what little sense I had left, I realized that the specter had gotten closer. And each time it moved, the entire abyss seemed like it was glitching in and out of existence.

Closing my eyes tightly, I begin to sweat and cry as I felt like this truly was the end. But no sooner had I done that, the noises and glitches seemed to disappear to the point where I had to open my eyes again to see what had happened. Nothing was left of the previous encounter; the haunting reaper and the images disappeared as quickly as they came.

No sooner that I thought I was safe, however, my body felt itself being choked again. Unlike last time though, it felt like it was being lifted off the ground and held in place by some unknown strength. Looking down at my own hands as they scrambled to free my throat, I almost screamed in terror as the spectre from before was back again; a grim, deathly wide smile etched over its face and two tiny white pupils in the empty sockets. As I watched helplessly, my body began to morph from a tar-like shadow to my normal form as it kept staring at me, my mind making the connection that it was trying to corrupt me. The abyss around me began to glitch uncontrollably again, and its smile got bigger and bigger as if the mouth itself was going to swallow me whole.

Somehow, I was able to finally get the specter off of me and swiped its hands away before I turned to run. Only taking a few steps, I began to realize that the glitches from before had begun to disappear and got a little distracted in seeing them fading from existence the farther I got. But my safety was short lived and I screamed again as I felt myself fall to the ground of the abyss, being dragged backwards towards the reaper soon after. Every inch it pulled me in, the glitches re-appeared more frequent and severe than the last. With my last bit of strength, I rolled over to kick the hand off of my leg, and the last thing I could remember was the face of the specter leaping towards me before everything went black.


My eyes quickly flashed open and a scream escaped my throat as I woke up, my eyes looking around frantically as if expecting the specter to return. A few seconds of silence went by as it finally dawned on me that whatever it was from earlier was gone...I was safe…

At the moment, I could not stand up; my whole body felt numb to the point where I may as well have been dead. It was like...I was paralyzed, yet I could still breathe and move my eyes around. Soon though, a throbbing ache began to creep through every vein and bone in me and I knew the healing process was beginning.

Relieved that I would get back to normal sooner rather than later, I took the time to look around my surroundings to calm my nerves. Unlike the other DreamScapes that I had encountered, this one seemed….normal. There was an actual sky above my head, colored in the beauty of twilight as a rather large moon shone down to light up the world. As soon as feeling got back into my legs, I shakily got myself up and used a nearby tree for support. Now from a new angle, I noticed that I was standing in some sort of grassy park with a waterfall ending in a lake at the bottom. There were also a few bridges to get across the water from multiple places as well as a pagoda that looked like a place people would go to sit and enjoy the view of this truly beautifully quiet haven as the crickets chirped in the distance.

"I wonder who resides here…?" I heard myself whisper, my mind almost instantly beginning to forget about the horrors I had seen earlier. My thoughts were cut as I heard a shriek of surprise coming from nearby and I quickly turned my head to one corner of the lake to see what was going on.

From my vantage point, I could see a lone figure on his hands and knees looking into the water's reflection. It was too far away to see who it was, so I figured I would get closer. After some distance had passed, I ended up on one of the bridges that would take me close to its position and was close enough to finally hear and see what was going on clearly.

"Wh-What in the world is all of this?"

Hearing the voice, I felt myself do a double-take. Standing by the lake and peering into it was none other than Travis, his hands quickly pawing at the white cuirass and pauldrons he was wearing. His mouth opened to say something else, but the red scarf around his neck muffled whatever it was that he was mumbling as he bent down to look at his feet. From what I could tell, Travis was also wearing red gloves and boots that were adorned with gold striping, a blue fauld, and a black undersuit that fit his entire body besides his head underneath the armor.

"This is not what I was expecting when I woke up today," He frowned as he turned around to check what he looked like from behind. "How did these strange clothes get on me...and why does my butt looks so big in this?!"

Finally deciding it was time to actually make myself known and say hello to Travis, I started to move further down the bridge when my body locked up like it did when I first arrived. Wincing in pain, I tried to make an effort to at least say something, but even that made the pain worse.

My eyes darted to where Travis was to make sure he was okay and a gasp escaped me, ripping my throat a little. There, only a few feet down the bridge I was currently on, stood a demon of my friend that was similar to the other selves that Matt and I had fought. Sensing that I was behind it, the demon turned and observed me with a look of aggression before it turned to a mocking smirk as it realized I wasn't a threat. Taking a second to to lift a finger to its now grinning lips as if to shush me, it turned and began to walk to where my friend was still looking into the lake like an oblivious moron.

I tried to move my so I could help at least get Travis' attention, but it was all in vain. Without knowing what to do, I knew that Travis would stand no chance against his demon self as much as I did on my first night. And I was sure that the demon knew that too since it was taking its time in getting to him.

Suddenly, as if from nowhere, Sans appeared in front of the demon with his usual bored expression, eyeing the entity a little as it in turn sized up the skeleton with a small growl.

"Hey bro...I thought you were the one who was always preaching about staying vigilant and stuff. Don't tell me that my laziness finally caught up to ya."

Hearing Sans' words, Travis looked over at where he was standing with a big grin on his face. "B-Brother? Is it really you?"

"Just stay right where you are, Papyrus. You seem to have an uninvited house guest that I need to remove from the premises." The skeleton made a shrugging gesture to the demon without taking its eyes off of it, his one eye slowly flickering to its blue flame state.

"What?! Who dares challenge great and mighty Papyrus?" Travis...or Papyrus, as he was calling himself now...was now walking towards Sans' location while rolling up his non-existing sleeves. Hearing the voice that now came out of my friend made it clear that he had fully bonded with the monster his soul had chosen. But unlike Matt or I, his voice still somewhat sounded the same...except this new one was a little more dramatic in tone than Travis' normal speaking voice.

"Bro...seriously, I got this. Don't worry about it." Sans' flame dissipated as he blinked, surprised out of focus as Travis gently pushed the skeleton behind his body as if to shield him.

"Nonsense! As a Royal Guardsman in training, it is my duty to deal with rabble like this myself!" Travis cracked his knuckles, narrowing his eyes at the demon. "Besides...this is MY special hidden abode, so I should be the one to deal with our problem like any master of a house would." Pointing, Travis grinned wickedly. "Prepare to be amazed at the might of I: the one and only, Papyrus! Be thankful that my brother Sans was here, or else you would be in a world of hurt!"

"I think its the other way around, Pap." Sans mumbled to himself.

"Now...before we begin, let me test your skills..." Travis clapped his hands and the bridge expanded to become a giant checkerboard, with all four of us taking one of each side. Much as anyone would expect, everyone except Travis and Sans had no idea what was going on, The skeleton in question was currently facepalming.

"Behold the puzzle of your demise, creepy human! I have placed traps on certain squares of this board, and all you have to do is come get me without triggering your demise. Can you survive and complete my challenge, or do you surrender?"

The demon cocked its head, utterly confused and probably not understanding a word its prey had just said. Clearly, this whole night was something it had not prepared for and did not know how to properly act. Staring down at its feet at the multiple tiles nearby it, it slowly took a step on one of them and found that nothing happened. So it took another...and another...and another…

"Papyrus, not to BUTT in on your great battle of wits, but did you forget to turn the traps on?" Sans asked, getting more and more worried as he saw the demon inch its way closer.

Travis stayed silent, though a tiny bead of sweat was rolling down his face. The demon seemed to be getting faster and faster with its movements, apparently getting confident due to none of the traps getting set off. It got a few squares away and made a move to jump, but no sooner had it leaped into the air, a large bowl of spaghetti suddenly dropped out of seemingly nowhere. The somehow perfectly sized bowl took out its vision completely as it shrieked in shock and fell over while trying to get tit off its head.

"Nyeh, heh, heh! Taste the wrath of my patented 'Pasta Surprise Attack', vermin!" Travis ran from his side of the board and rammed into the demon with his shoulder, knocking the other him down as it sprawled in a mess of sauce, meatballs, and angel hair pasta. No sooner had it attempted to stand up, several sharp looking bones erupted from the ground and impaled the other self as it screamed in agony.

Right when the demon seemed to be impaled, my mind blanked out and I felt myself being choked again as the face of the specter from before flashed in front of my face with glitchy, ringing noise that erupted all of my senses. But as soon as it appeared, it was gone and I gasped from the sudden ability to breathe overtaking me in a coughing fit. Feeling the presence of Sans and Travis, my fear and tension slowly started to die down as they helped me stay upright.

"What...was all of that…?!" I heard myself say with some difficulty, coughing more as I felt Travis rub and pat my back.

"It's okay, human. Take your time to recover; my brother Sans and I will make sure that you won't get hurt."

"You seem like you saw a ghost or something," Sans asked with a concerned tone, gently patting my hand as if he knew what I saw but not eluding to it in front of Travis. Seeing me about to say something, he shook his head and gripped the hand a little tighter. "We can talk about this later. For now, let's get you back to your own DreamScape."

I nodded, glad to have the option of going home. After all that had happened, I was ready to wake up and try to forget the whole thing. "Sounds like a plan to me..."

Travis picked me up and placed me in his arms as we started walking down the bridge that I finally realized had gone back to normal since Travis' puzzle. Blushing from embarrassment from not being able to just walk down with them, I let the feeling pass and closed my eyes to enjoy not having to walk at all in this current state my body was in.

"I can't believe that I have a new human friend! Today has been a very fulfilling one, if I do say so myself!" Travis grinned, looking pleased with himself that he beat a demon and made a friend in the same day.

"Travis...you are a human, you dork..." I responded almost sleepily, the effects of the morning coming sooner than I thought taking their toll.

"Wait...I am?" He responded, stopping mid stride as he looked at me. His eyes soon widened as he somehow realized what I said and his voice seemed to go back to normal.

"Oh man...this is going to need some getting used to. How do you and Sans deal with having the whole one mind and body thing?"

Sans simply shrugged and winked at Travis, "Don't worry. The two of us can show you the ropes. Soon, you will both be BONE-ified masters!"

Hearing Sans make a pun, Travis and his newfound monster named Papyrus both yelled out a cry of annoyance.


My eyes opened as I felt my body being shaken, waking up fully soon after to see Travis standing over me. My first instinct was to slap him in the face for waking me up, but I quickly decided to use my words instead.

"Travis, what the actual hell?"

"First off…," Travis began, "...Sorry about waking you up. But I had to come over as soon as I woke up! We need to talk about what happened last night!"

I yawned and tried to roll over, but soon found my body was still exhausted from last night. "Do we need to do it right now…?"

"Hell yeah we do! You won't believe who my monster is!" He exclaimed giddily, trying to be quiet but having a very hard time in doing so.

Before I have a chance to say anything else, a knock was heard coming from my mirror. We both turned to see Sans standing next to another skeleton, this one very lanky and tall with the garb Travis had on last night. Seeing us looking at them, the taller one waved and grinned happily.

"Hello human! Sorry for disturbing your beauty rest, but Travis told me that Sans was staying with you, and I had to check on him before anything else wild and crazy happened. I hope you do not mind if I stay in here until Travis wants to leave?"

"Pap, you don't need to worry about Maximus. She's cool." Sans looked over at me and waved as well, looking much happier than he ever did since I met him.

Travis looked back over at me, his excitement overflowing and almost overbearing for me so early in the morning. "His name is Papyrus; apparently he is Sans' younger brother, if you can believe it. I guess he and Undyne are also really close friends, so I should stop by Matt's place so he can chat with them."

I nodded groggily and felt my eyes close again. This was going to be another one of those mornings...