Tabatha stretched luxuriously as she stepped out of her shoes and tugged her hair out of her ponytail. It had been a late shift and she was exhausted, wanting nothing more than to go to bed and sleep for ten hours.
She left the light off as she navigated by touch, not wanting to turn the light on and ruin her night vision. She tripped over a shoe box outside of the hall closet that she didn't remember being there before, but made it to the bedroom without any more incident. It was then that she froze. Someone was there. A man.
A door creaked and light flooded the hall. And then a loud shriek sounded.
Papyrus was humming to himself as he got out of his car, ready for another cooking lesson from his human friend. Tabatha had promised to teach him how to properly make a lasagna! His bones were practically vibrating from excitement.
He eagerly knocked on the door and put his hands behind his back to wait. He heard the lock being fiddled with and then the door opened. It was not Tabatha.
"Who are you?" the middle-aged woman in the doorway asked, her tone suspicious.
"I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS," the skeleton replied. "IS TABATHA HERE?"
"Who is it, dear?" a man's voice sounded from behind the woman, who's face had soured. A face with round glasses appeared by the doorway as well.
"HELLO SIR!" Papyrus greeted him. "I AM HERE LOOKING FOR TABATHA. THIS IS HER HOME."
"So she was telling the truth," the man mused. His wife looked positively indignant.
"If you're part of this conspiracy to steal our new home from us, you can go toss yourself in your fancy car and drive away!" she snapped. "Or better yet, you can go join your little brunette friend: behind bars."
Alarm struck the tall monster very hard, alongside deep, pervasive confusion.
"THERE WAS A YOUNG HUMAN LIVING HERE NOT LONG AGO," he stated, trying to stay calm. "DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO HER?"
The woman looked like she might explode, but her husband intervened by whispering something into her ear. With a huff she left and the man stepped out onto the porch, shutting the door behind him.
"I'm afraid I don't know the whole story here, good sir," he said in a weary tone, folding his arms. "My wife and I are renting this property from a man by the name of Joseph Strong and we don't know the arrangements he may have had for the house or the previous tenant. But I can say what happened to the young woman who came here last night. She came into the bedroom at about ten-thirty and my wife came out of the hall bathroom since I'd been using the master and startled her. We thought she was an intruder, so I subdued her while my wife called the police. She was very compliant and was trying to explain that she had been expecting us to come within the next three days and had planned to clear out, but the officers decided to take her to the station until they can verify her story."
Papyrus stammered out some thanks as he raced back to his car, almost forgetting to buckle his seatbelt as he backed out of the driveway. He drove as fast as he dared to the police station, unable to believe what he had just heard.
Tabatha arrested? In prison? For simply being home? It didn't make any sense. He had always assumed that Tabatha owned her house or was paying it off or something. Was it possible she'd been there illegally? The realtor shared her surname, but that could have been a coincidence. For the first time, Papyrus became highly aware of how little he actually knew about Tabatha. She was almost a stranger to him: he didn't know who her family was, where she worked other than the dance studio or what she did when she wasn't with him. All at once, he was terrified.
He made it to the police station in record time, his long legs easily carrying him inside. Swiftly, he marched to the front desk where the human officer seated behind it looked up at him expectantly.
"I AM HERE TO INQUIRE ABOUT TABATHA STRONG," he stated. "I WAS TOLD SHE WAS BROUGHT IN YESTERDAY TO THE... DETENTION CENTER."
"Let me check our records really quick," the officer replied, typing away at the computer for a few moments. "Okay, yes, I do have a record of her coming in. Last night, about eleven PM."
"IS IT POSSIBLE THAT I COULD SPEAK WITH HER?"
"I'm sorry sir, but unless you are an attorney or a member of the clergy you cannot simply speak with her at any time. There is only one visit allowed for friends and family a day and hers has already been used today."
"V-VERY WELL," the skeleton managed to bite out through his tight jaw.
"Sir, are you alright?" the officer asked. "You don't look very well."
"I...I WILL BE FINE, I THINK. EXCUSE ME."
The skeleton backed away from the desk and tried to keep himself from sprinting out the door. Never before had he envied his brother's ability to teleport and get anywhere in a matter of seconds. He just wanted to find someone to talk to—right now.
The drive home was torturously long, and Papyrus was bursting by the time he pulled up. He opened the door with enough force to significantly loosen the hinges.
"SANS!" he cried. "I KNOW YOU'RE HERE! I NEED TO TALK TO YOU!"
Papyrus heard his brother ambling down the stairs at a leisurely pace, yawning.
"kay, i'm awake," he sighed. "what's up."
"IT'S TABATHA. SHE'S...BEEN ARRESTED."
That caught his attention: Sans immediately stopped rubbing at his eyesockets and came down the stairs. He sat on the couch and gestured for his brother to explain, which took several minutes. When Papyrus was done, Sans' eyelights were completely extinguished.
"I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO THINK, SANS!" The tallest skeleton was figuratively pulling his hair out as he paced back and forth across the living room. "I KNOW I SHOULD JUST WAIT FOR THE POLICE TO MAKE A VERDICT AND REVEAL THE TRUTH, BUT I CAN'T HELP THINKING...WHAT IF SHE IS NOT THE KINDLY HUMAN I THOUGHT SHE WAS? WHAT IF ALL HER SECRETS ARE SUPER BAD AND SHE IS A VERY BAD HUMAN?!"
"and the cops wouldn't let you see her and get an explanation?" Sans confirmed.
"ONLY ONE FRIEND OR FAMILY VISIT A DAY," Papyrus repeated with a nod.
"then... there's nothing we can do," the stocky monster shrugged lazily, leaning into the cushions. "gotta let justice run it's course...or whatever humans say about these kinds of things."
"SANS! YOU'RE JUST BEING LAZY AGAIN!"
"you should try it some time Pap. so relaxing."
"NNRGH!"
Sans looked at his little brother, knowing that this distracting was only a temporary solution. Until the whole story came out, his bro would be stressed and anxious, even if he wasn't saying it. So, simply put, Sans would have to get that info a little sooner than the Justice system would allow. Even if that meant using... unorthodox methods that may not be... entirely legal. It was hard to say how the law would classify the use of his unique magic in an interrogation.
Tabatha sat against the back wall of her holding cell, not really looking at anything as her eyes idly flicked around. She wasn't too worried about her situation—she was actually more bored waiting for everything to work itself out than anything else. The quiet was nice though.
"heh. y'know, you almost had me trusting you."
Tabatha jumped about a mile when she heard that familiar drawling voice and saw the hooded figure of Sans standing opposite where she sat. In a panic, she looked around for anyone who might spot him in her cell. What she saw, however, was that the world had gone gray around her and everyone seemed to be frozen in place. The only thing in full color was a circle that surrounded both her and the monster who had appeared out of nowhere. A monster whose face held a dark smile that did not promise a good time.
"i was starting to think you were okay," the skeleton continued, seeming uncaring that the world had stopped around them. "but now...heh heh, you got yourself in a load of trouble now."
The human was paralyzed. This was not natural, this was not okay. And on top of that, a terrible feeling of dread was sinking into her chest when she saw that eerie grin that promised nothing but pain.
"i don't really know what plans the humans have for ya Tabatha, but i got a bone to pick with you. remember how i asked ya not to hurt my baby brother? and how i toldja you'd be in for a bad time if ya did? well guess what happened to Paps when he tried to drop by your house."
Tabatha moved to stand up, but with a loud, almost cheerful ding, her Soul was wrenched out of her chest and became blue. Suddenly gravity yanked her back to the floor.
"let me tell you...i hoped i would never see him look so devastated and worried in his entire life."
Sans' eyesocket was flaming with blue magic as he stalked forward towards the helpless human. He squatted to her level and put his hand on her head so that the pressure made her look up at him.
"you wanna learn something cool about monsters, kiddo?" he asked in a low tone. "unlike humans, we don't have judges. just the one, with a capital 'j'. this Judge...he can see and hear much more out of a Soul than a regular monster. he can see their memories, see everything about them with just a little special magic. very efficient way to determine someone's guilt or innocence—far more than the humans attempts to do the same in their courts."
"Sans," the young woman managed to force out around the lump of terror growing in her throat. "Please, I didn't mean to hurt Papyrus; this is all just a mistake!"
"oh really?" Sans drawled, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "well either way, you're in my judgement hall now. and i don't think that the verdict will be in your favor."
"Sans please!" Tabatha cried, tears streaking down her face. "My uncle lets me live in his rental properties when there's no tenants! I was supposed to move out of that house tomorrow with my personal items to a new place, but they showed up earlier than my uncle said they would! They didn't know, I didn't know, it's all just a big misunderstanding!"
Her tears gave the enraged skeleton pause. The emotions her Soul was projecting were those of deep regret and pain as well as an unhealthy dose of terror. She really hadn't meant for this to happen at all. And then he remembered what he had sensed in her Soul when he had pulled it out just a few days prior—pure, genuine kindness and a complete lack of malice. This human couldn't bring herself to hurt anyone, could she? All the same...
"you made Papyrus upset," he growled, keeping up the façade of anger to conceal his curiosity about how she would react to his next words. "he was ready to cry because he's scared you're a criminal."
The pain in her Soul skyrocketed to the point where Sans had to resist the urge to wince himself. Then he heard the (sadly) familiar sound of a Soul cracking. The short skeleton was startled when her HP bar appeared in his field of vision and he saw it begin to drop. She was...taking damage. All because she knew that she had caused Papyrus emotional distress.
Sans released Tabatha's soul from his blue attack, but he did not sever his connection to her entirely. Instead, he searched through her memories of the day, finding an image of the man who had visited her—her uncle, Joseph Strong. He lingered on her thoughts a minute longer to find out a detail or two more that he would need in the near future before he lifted his control over time and space, teleporting away.
If he was going to get the whole story, he was going to need a second witness and informational source.
Hey guys! So of this chapter feels like kinda a hot mess, that's because it was written over the course of a looooong roadtrip where I was just kinda writing all over the place. Sorry for the late update! Let me know what you think about this new development in the mystery!
Thanks be to my reviewers, as always!
KHR-Yunalesca: Well, if Paps is gonna get involved with anybody, big bro's gotta approve, right? ;)
The Rude Girl: I really like Asgore, so he's probably gonna feature more than Toriel in this fic. And I really thought the meta humor of Sans playing video games and seeing the alternate meanings of EXP and LV was just too good to pass up.