((A/N: Warning for constriction. And violence. And resemblance to breaking bones and bleeding. And death threats. And lots of sadism. And visually describing a child victim of hypothermia. Yeeeaaaaahh, I'm not too proud of this one. Skip/ignore this chapter if you're squeamish; believe me, if I wasn't writing it I'd skip it too. Yeesh!
On another note, have a Happy Thanksgiving week my fellow celebrators! That's next week, but I'm gonna be busy catching up on homework so I had to post this one early. Maybe the next one will be lighter! And for the rest of you, I hope you have a great November!
I'm also gonna be updating Trainertale and hopefully Kishintale by the end of the break, so be on the lookout for them! :D))
...
They might have a solution for that, actually.
This was something they've never done before, but for some reason it felt like they could pull it off on the first try. Sure, it might ruin their clean-slate reputation, but no one was gonna remember a little yellow flower, right? A measly key going missing and a possibly-traumatic experience for one monster wouldn't mean much in the long run...
Plus, Borna better be grateful that Frisk even bothered to visit his corpse at all- if it was even his corpse. It was only going to be a quick look, and once they felt queasy they would just look away and be on their way to...
Hm.
Where would they go, anyway? At least Borna gave them something to mess with, but up until now did Frisk realize how short-term that whole arc was. Then again, what other things can they expect to do with only one SAVE file that they can't even control?
Nothing, really.
.
.
.
After pulling a few strings and making a loud noise with the empty trash cans out back, Frisk was able to get what seemed like an employee of Snowed Inn to step away from the bunny lady at the front desk and go through the back door. They perked up from the piles of overturned trash to hear an exclamation that would have frightened children to see an angry orange rabbit monster stringing colorful swears about the spilled garbage.
Conveniently past the bunny monster's line of sight, Frisk took this time to prepare an attack. There may have been many more pacifistic alternatives to what they were doing, but honestly they weren't up to being nice lately.
It's unfortunate, but that seems to be a universal thing with being soulless.
Only looking behind itself when a shadow blocked the artificial sun above its head, the monster looked positively horrified at the sight of thorny vines looming above it. The vines snapped and popped through the snow with speeding growth as the thorns grew redder and sharper with every passing second.
Frisk was mildly surprised that they didn't use up more energy to summon those, but that wasn't what they focused on.
They desperately wanted to say they hated the look of terror on the bunny's face, that it would be burned into their mind's eye 'till they died, but it was very hard for them to lie about how they truly felt.
Without batting an eye, the flower willed a vine to tightly coil around the monster's body and relished in the satisfying CRACK of a magical embodiment of bone. Every bump of damage they inflicted on it was accepted with more joy than they expected; the slight trickles of magic dripping from its legs with the concept of blood made them feel empowered. No wonder Flowey enjoyed hurting people so much. It was so... so...
FUN.
...It was only the feeling of purpose, not remorse, and the whining of excruciating pain from their victim that brought them out of their twisted reverie.
"Wh-what do you want from me, y-you demon?!"
They almost smiled at the insult. It was so relevant, wasn't it?
"I don't want to do this, and you don't want to be in this. Just fork over what I want and you can go scot-free," Frisk hissed, sending a shiver up the monster's spine. It squeaked in fear when Frisk drew up the second thorny vine to its throat.
"W-what're you lookin' for, then?!"
"Hush!" The flower barked, causing the coiling vine to inflict a bit more damage. Quickly the two went silent, and Frisk checked down the alley for any interruptions. Assured by the casual din that went with living in a bustling town, they returned to their hostage.
"I want a key. A specific key, the one that opens the key to the human's room."
The bunny monster visibly shrank a bit, it's voice just barely above a whisper. "Th-that one? But... but whyever would you want that?!"
Frisk really didn't know how to respond. Why were they going out of their way to see a dead kid?
"...For reassurance." Pausing again, they decided to get to the bunny's instructions.
"Get the key. Give it to me, and no one you know will get hurt," Frisk ordered, not bothering to hide the threat of what would happen if the monster failed its task. Nodding quickly, the bloodied mess of a monster was unceremoniously dropped onto the snow and the vines slowly retracted, leaving two gaping holes in the ground. Scrambling to its feet with hisses of pain, the bunny monster limped its way back through the backdoor where it came from.
That went well. Now all that's left is to wait for that coward to bring the key.
Though they would have spent this kind of time reviewing their actions, Frisk barely felt anything about the events that just took place. All they could truly recall was a surge of adrenaline and a slight loss of power, but everything else remained a blur.
They noticed a bright blue glowing coming from their heart locket that was still somehow on their stem. It's not like they had any hands or small sharp things to pry it open, and even though they could use vines, they weren't quite sure they even WANTED it open...
A dull wave of pain sifted through their body, and they didn't really know why. Was it the locket?
Another wave of pain, stronger this time. Maybe it was the locket; if they don't think about it, maybe the pain will go away.
They'll just wait for the bunny monster to come back, then.
.
.
.
It didn't take that long to get their little helper to cooperate, and it took even less time for it to come back with what they wanted. The silver key clinked against their locket as they wore it upstairs, and they were unsure how they could just pop upstairs but not into the human's -not Borna's- room.
There were probably stone floors or something; they didn't dare question it too much.
Clicking the door open, the door creaked a bit as a vine slipped through the doorframe, bringing Frisk along with it.
The room was dark and smelled of wet snow and bloodied clothes, something they really didn't feel like smelling at the moment. Getting closer to the bed, the smell got stronger, but it was also tinged with cold. A cold body, specifically. It's hard to describe the smell of the cold, but it was as clear as crystal. The face was luckily covered at first glance; Frisk was already getting a little squeamish. Just through blindly poking the body with a vine a few times, they could tell this was the same kid they left behind.
Borna W.
The silver cross had been left untouched, and Frisk considered claiming it, but they decided it was better to let sleeping dogs lie.
They covered their eyes with a leaf and drew away from the room, feeling mixed emotions.
What they didn't see was their heart locket glowing dimly, with a soft orange wisp being pulled away from the child's silver cross and into the light of the locket. It glowed orange at first, then blue, as if accepting something before it faded to its usual silver sheen.
.
.
.
No one was able to find out who attacked the manager, and even if they managed to figure it out, the perpetrator was long gone.
.
.
.