Dani sat dumbfounded for several moments her phone in her lap as she tried to wrap her head around the messages she had received. Mason had never sounded like that before; so angry and frustrated. He was a happy person as far as she had known him. He joined the military out of pressure from his dad and so they would have to pay his way through college after he was finished. Mason had always been a big guy, tall and wide as a truck but he was never a fighter. What had happened to make him act like this? She felt sick as she sank back into the sofa.
She struggled to pull herself from the uncomfortable realization that her best friend had changed. The silent house wasn't helping the unhappy feeling; normally Papyrus was romping about or at the very least Sans would be seated beside her snoring. Anything would have been more welcome than the stillness. Resolved to keep from thinking any longer, Dani rose and gathered her music player from the kitchen, plugging it into the wall in the living room. She turned the music up higher than normal, standing in the middle of the room for a few seconds.
The one nice thing about being alone was that there was no one around to watch her act like an idiot. Dani wasn't a particularly gifted singer, or dancer, but thats what she felt like doing. Her legs were still sore but the human managed to ignore it, prancing around with a hand held up near her face as if it were holding a microphone. The band was from the seventies, something her mother liked listening to back when she was a little girl. It had a distinctly hippie vibe, warranting many wiggly movements and dramatic hair flips. The songs were all about how each member of the band had slept with one another, but she didn't think too hard about that. The album reminded her of her mom and how they used to dance in the living room together singing at the top of their lungs while dad was at work. It made her feel like a kid again, carefree and blissfully happy.
By the time the album ended Dani was strewn across the love seat, winded by her efforts but still singing. The old house felt warm again, if only for a little while, and for that she was thankful. With the last song fading into the next musical selection, the human huffed, a pleasant smile on her face. Her legs were tingling with exhaustion, a faint throbbing in her matching bruises.
Sans slouched into his seat, his hands hanging limply in the pockets of his jacket. This was just as boring as he thought it would be; relentless talking, political politeness with a distinct undertone of intolerance. Sometimes he wondered why they had even come up from Underground just to deal with this shit. His eyes started closing, he could feel the warm embrace of sleep slowly creeping up on him but didn't resist. Papyrus and Toriel could handle this better than he could anyways; if they needed him they'd wake him up.
The stout skeleton was barely awake as his rag tag group of freedom fighters drove back towards home. Apparently the talks had gone pretty well while he was asleep, even Frisk was smiling and offering a word or two in the conversation. His smile widened, although none of them seemed to notice. As far as his friends were concerned he was asleep and would stay that way. Sans was happy to lean against the car door and listen for a while.
Dani stirred on the love seat, waking up after a few hours of napping. She sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, listening in a dazed lul as her phone rang and buzzed beside her. Fingers fumbling to pick it up at first she listening as the robotic voice informed her that Sans was calling. "Answer." She said before pushing the phone to her ear. "Hey, how'd it go?" She questioned, covering her mouth as she yawned. The call crackled and buzzed but there was no answer. "Sans?" Nothing. "Did you managed to butt dial me without a butt?" She teased, wondering if he was playing one of his tricks in order to freak her out.
The human sat listening to the eerie static for a few seconds as the silence on her end of the phone dawned on her. She didn't remember turning of the music before passing out; where the skelebrothers already home? Dani held the phone away from her ear for a second to listen. The house was silent, although depending on how long she had slept for, that may not have been too strange. Maybe they were both asleep in their rooms. Dani doubted that Sans would call her from his room if he was just laying around doing nothing.
"Very funny Sans… I'm hanging up now-" She stopped as a noise on the other side of the phone made her heart sink. Sure it was static, but it was different now, familiar. Dani shook her head, brows pulled together in disbelief. That had been a dream, she was awake now; wasn't she? Her hand started shaking but kept the device snug to her ear as it did so.
The white noise grew louder until she was forced to pull the phone away or go deaf in one ear. Her hand was a death grip on the phone, grasping so tightly her fingers hurt from the object's edges digging into her. The static was so loud it filled the room bouncing off the walls and amplifying further. Dani thought she was going crazy with fear, the horrendous sound filling everything around her making escape seem like little more than a fantasy. Her eyes were already gone and the overwhelming static had taken away her hearing too leaving the girl paralysed further than she had ever feared.
Without warning the noise stopped, leaving her reeling on the sofa. Dani's heart thundered so hard her body ached, begging her to stop. She was getting light headed, the familiar sensation of a panic attack working its way through her limbs. "MINE." The word was spoken this time, the voice sounding as though it were being played through an old time radio and a television with bad reception at the same time. "EUREKA."
The word wasn't spoken like a scientist exclaiming victory, it was spoken like a title; or maybe a name. Dani couldn't explain why but it felt distinctly her's, hearing it filled her with a sick kind of recognition; a memory lingering just out of her grasp, teasing her consciousness.
She felt her body going cold, her skin plagued with goose bumps as her hand continued to shake but refused to drop the cursed cellular device. She had been sitting in silence now for nearly two minutes still so terrified that her body refused to respond to her commands. Her phone would inform her when a call ended and there was nothing; whatever had spoke to her was still on the other side. Was it listening, waiting for her to say something before spewing another handful of choice words to scare the shit out of her? The phone felt like a brick in her hand, heavy with the horrible possibilities.
Something tapped her leg, it's bitterly cold temperature easily seeping through the easter colored leggings she wore. Another something dropped onto her. All at once the kinetic sensation of being close to someone came over her, the hair at the back of her neck rising as the person leaned towards her. Yet again a cold drop tapped against her hitting with the weight of small stone against the bruise on her right leg. The physical pain roused her body awake from it's stiff immobility, her hand jerking back before throwing the phone at the presence in front of her.
The device crashed into the floor, bouncing up in pieces before scattering. She struggled over the cushions and arm rest before falling to the floor herself, pulling her body up onto her feet a few seconds later. Her heart was thundering, releasing the pent up horror as adrenaline. Dani's fingers struggled with the dead bolt at the front door, throwing it open and tearing into the cold. She couldn't hear anything behind her but that didn't stop her legs from running. The pavement was cold and slick with ice under her feet burning into her flesh with each step. Equally frigid air tore at her lungs as she heaved breath after breath.
Papyrus reached into the back seat gripping his brother's knee before giving it a firm shake. "SANS, WE WILL ARRIVE HOME ANY SECOND NOW." He said informatively before turning back around. Toriel was driving, following Papyrus' directions back into town now that it had gotten dark. They were at a stop sign about to turn onto the brother's block when Sans slowly came awake. He was happy to be getting home, if only to sleep in something more comfortable than this car. The skeleton blinked his eye sockets, yawning as he looked out the window to watch familiar houses passing by.
The lights in his house were all off, not surprising since the only person home didn't need to bother with them. The car pulled up to the curb, just far enough away from a snow bank to allow the skelebrothers to get out. "we'll catch you guys later." Sans said, evidently tired in the slow way he spoke. The other's were just uttering their good byes when the front door to their house swung open. The car went silent as the four inside watched as a blonde human sprinted out.
Nearly in unison the skelebrother opened their doors and were chasing after her, shouting for her to stop. Dani got to the corner before finally stopping but she didn't seem to have heard them. Dani was listening for cars, about to step off the curb when her body went rigid. Sans stopped running, his magic gripping her soul to keep her from going any further. He could feel her struggling against it even as Papyrus got up to her, his hands coming down on her shoulder. "HUMAN, WHAT IS THE MATTER?" He asked, evidently concerned.
Sans released the girl as soon as he felt her stop trying to run. "He's in the house! He's in there right now!" She said frantically, moving in to hold Papyrus, the tall skeleton putting his arms around her instinctively. Sans didn't wait to hear the rest of the conversation before walking angrily back to the house. The door was ajar as Dani had left it, the house empty and quiet.
Not bothering to switch on the light he moved through the living room finding Dani's phone smashed in pieces on the ground, but little else. He searched the entire house before coming back outside finding Dani, Frisk and Toriel in the car, Papyrus standing on the porch. "no one's in there… although i guess they could have gone out the back." Sans reported with an uncharacteristically malice tone to his voice.
Although it took a fair amount of convincing, Papyrus and Sans eventually got their roommate back into the house, getting her up into her room right away. Frisk and Toriel had stayed for a while to be sure everything was alright before leaving.
[hey guys!
sorry if this one is a little confusing; i'm insanely tired but wanted to get something posted since i probably won't have time tomorrow.
just a heads up and apology in case it's super bad.]