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Draconic Fortune

Chapter 22

Roses and Clover


This didn't feel right. Susie tried to relax and remember what Berdly told them. But wherever she went, it didn't work in keeping her calm at all. Every wall she rested against, every elevated stone brick she sat on, she always felt uncomfortable and unable to relax. But what could you do? She went back to some of her old habits. In the less savory neighbourhood near where she lived, there was this old guy who would get upset whenever there was some slight noise.

And near where he lived, there was a trash container where someone regularly dumped all his empty cans. Susie liked to mess with the old guy by grabbing a load of those empty cans and throwing them onto the wall on the old guy's porch. And there that fat old crocodile came out. Dressed in nothing but a tank top and shorts. "Darn reptiles, get away from my property!"

That got old pretty fast as well. Nothing really captivated her like the thoughts of what was going on in the dark world. Wandering back and forth between her part of town and the center of hometown, she often wound up stopping and sitting down on benches, sighing, wondering what kind of exciting battles Kris was getting into. And Ralsei.

Many times she zoned out, imagined if she was there. Whatever hurdles they had to overcome, she imagined all kinds of ways this could go, if she was there to help. If there were enemies, they were definitely going to try to befriend them. If they couldn't, she could have just beaten the hell out of them. If she was there. If only she was there.

Time went by with her fantasizing about adventures that would never happen, until it started to get dark. She began to realize how stressed out she was over all this for the last few hours, from how tired she was getting. Maybe it really was for the best to call it a day. She went back home and quickly slipped into the bathroom to hide away for the time being. If she had already washed, that was one less excuse for her mother to call her out of her room.

When she opened the bathroom door though, her heart sank. Between her and the exit door stood a sinister-looking, obese dragoness. Her mother had very clear intent to have one of her serious talks with her, and left no room to escape through the front door. "Susan Abigail Darkshadow!"

She stomped Susie's way, every step shaking the floor under her weight and grabbed her by the collar. Making conscious efforts to put her teeth on display while addressing her. "What did you do?" She didn't respond. "What did you do? I knew something was fishy from the get-go!" She lifted Susie up and slammed her against the doorframe. "I didn't believe for one second that you had a 'friend'."

She tried loosening some of her mother's grip with her own hands. "Why not? Ma - maybe I changed!"

She roared with such a strength it blew against her, along with the stench of her breath. "YOU'RE A LOST CAUSE. I gave up on you improving, long ago. People don't change, just like that. And that 'playing card' shit, you think I'm stupid?" With one hand, she grabbed Susie by the throat and choked her. She tried asking what was going on, but she could barely breathe, let alone do that. "For two days, you start acting weird, and then two kids from your class disappear! You've got something to do with it, don't you? Spit it out!"

She choked Susie too much. She couldn't breathe. She tried saying 'Let go', but it never vocally carried over. Not loudly enough for her mother to register at least. "I'm starting to get fed up with you! You know I could just mangle your face so easily if wanted to! Remind you who's got the bigger teeth around here."

Susie reached for her mother's hand in an attempt to struggle free, but all that accomplished, was that her mother started using both hands to hold her up by her throat, bare her teeth and move in closer. Wind her jaws over Susie's face, bring herself in position to carve the scales off the right side of her face and rip out her right eye.

Susie begged for her to stop, and especially when she felt one of her mother's teeth dig into her upper eye-socket along the side of her eyeball, her attempts to break free grew all the more erratic. But the only reason she could feel this, without her eye getting dug into or being ripped out, was that her mother stopped there, and then pulled back again. "Not this time." She let Susie go, leaving her to drop onto the floor and too dizzy to get up.

"One of these days I'll actually do it. If this falls back on me somehow, I really will. Now get to your room. I don't want to see you right now." It was over as quickly as it had started, but it didn't hurt any less. Susie's mother retreated back onto her recliner and Susie crawled into her room. Sobbing half-way through. She only dared to get up when she had crawled far enough that she wasn't in her mother's sight. Just like that, an already bad day was ruined completely.

She held tight onto her cushion. She was scared of letting confrontations with her mother happen. They were a dire reminder that there was nowhere safe to go in her life. In school, there were all the students, waiting for an opportunity to get the jump on her, teachers breathing down her neck over every infraction. And at home, there was Mom.

She couldn't trust anyone, every place she went with anyone she knew around, was a hazard. There was only one exception she could think of. The dark world. Especially when they fought Jevil. Kris leading her and Ralsei by the hand, past all his attacks, somehow just knowing where to go at any times. For once in her life, someone proved that she could trust them.

She wanted this again. Why was she excluded from all things dark world? She wanted the safety of having someone she could trust nearby back. If Kris and Noelle showed up again, Susie swore to herself that she would not allow any room for her to miss the next time a portal to the dark world opened. All she could hope for, was that on the next morning, Kris and Noelle would be back.

But even after her dreamless sleep, even after she dragged her way to school, things didn't go back to normal like last time. They got even weirder. When she went up to the classroom, the lights were on. She made sure to get here early, and yet everyone was already here and in their seats. Including Noelle, even including Mrs. Alphys, but not including Kris. "Uh - good morning?"

Berdly and Noelle nodded her way. "Good morning. Where've you been?"

She made her way to her spot. Berdly and Noelle even went out of their way to turn their chairs just so they could face her. In face, everyone in class was looking at her. "At home, I guess?"

The deer girl giggled. "No, silly, we mean yesterday."

"...at school? You were there."

Everyone she could see shook their heads. "We were all there, but you weren't. Are you sure you didn't oversleep or something?"

Susie's scales began to feel itchy. What was going on? "No? I was at school yesterday! Stop it with this weird - whatever you guys are doing!"

Berdly rolled his eyes. "Oh my goodness, you are one more hopeless case than I thought." He picked out his phone. "What date do you think it is?" She told him. "Nope, check again." He showed her the display and pointed at the date. "See?" Something was wrong. It wasn't the next morning, it was two days later.

"Wait - that makes no sense..." She wasn't sure what to make of this.

Berdly took a moment to pick up on it before it occurred to him. "Wait a second..." When it did though, he laughed. "Did you oversleep for a full day? What messed up sleep-schedule do you have?" Everyone around began to laugh. "And of all days yesterday, too. First you're so obsessed with the dark world and then when things get serious, you don't even show up."

Wait, did he just mention the dark world, in front of everyone? "Woah there, I don't know what he's on about, you guys."

"We all know about the dark world."

Jocks, Monster Kid, no-one seemed confused about this at all. Not even Temmie. "yayA! in d4rk w0rlz tem hav lah2urr b33mz!"

"You all went to the dark world?"

Kid shook their head. "Nope, not all of us. After all the trips to the dark world, the Knight attacked us, Kris led the charge and we beat him. All the dark world stuff's over now."

That last part cast a cold shower over Susie's back. She needed a moment to wrap her head around all this. "Wait, okay, so who of you guys HAVE been to the dark world?" Slowly, Berdly raised his hand. Then Noelle. Then Mrs. Alphys laughed awkwardly and raised her hand as well. "Wait, aren't you a little old for that?"

Then a thick, clawed hand tipped her shoulder from behind. Squashed into the desk behind her, was Kris' father. Mr. Dreemurr sat in Kris' place, but Kris wasn't there. And what was more, Mr. Dreemurr was holding up his hand. "You? You're not even in this class! What are you doing here?" Asgore smiled and shrugged, but he didn't so much as open his mouth. "But how do the rest of you know about the dark world anyway?"

Noelle answered that one. "The Knight brought the dark world here and attacked us. And then Kris led us all into battle and we defeated him together."

"And all this happened yesterday?"

Everyone nodded. "Everyone was there except you."

Again, this was all a little much to take in all at once, so she lost track of the essentials for a moment. "Wait...where is Kris anyway?"

Berdly raised an eyebrow. "Where do you think? We just graduated yesterday after the whole thing. He's getting ready to go to university right now. Look, there he is!"

She got up to get a better look through the window in the back of the classroom. A bus stood on the street, empty save for the driver. And loaded with several bags and suitcases, there was Kris, struggling his way up the stairs. She opened the window to call for him. "Hey, Kris! Wait up!" He didn't react to her. Maybe he was too distracted with how much trouble his excessive luggage was giving him, maybe he was just too far away and didn't hear her.

She missed him. She missed everything. When it all started dawning on her, it began to wear down on her from the inside. It physically felt as if she was being pulled down. By her own inaction nonetheless. She jumped up from the wall, ran out of the classroom, down the hallway and onto the street outside. "Kris! Wait!". But it was too late. He couldn't hear her, as he was already inside, the door was shut behind him and the bus was leaving. An uneasiness overcame her that made her face tremble just enough for herself to be able to feel it.

The only friend she made was now gone, and they weren't going to hang out. She wasn't even sure how to get in touch with him. Now slowly, Mr. Dreemurr followed her outside. She was left stammering. "He's...he's gone."

Asgore met her eyes with a smile. "Don't worry. He still comes to visit us on holidays and between semesters. You two will meet again in no time."

She sure didn't feel this way. She tried to take his words to heart. In the following days - then weeks - then months - she lost count of how many times she stopped by the bus stop to see if the bus Kris used to go to university with had been there, or asked the Dreemurrs if he'd come back yet. Her life had stopped moving forward on that last day of school.

Eventually, she asked when he was going to come home, and Mrs. Dreemurr just told her that Kris came home a week ago. By the time she asked though, he had already gone back to campus and wasn't coming back for several more months. As the months passed, she fessed up to it. He was gone. All of high school life just rushed past her and she had nothing to show for it. Throughout all of high school, she only ever managed to make one friend. And now, he was gone forever.

Maybe he was never aware that she wanted a friend. After all, she never made any efforts to seek one out. Maybe if she had paid more attention, if she had made efforts to hang out with Kris when she still could, he would have known and taken the time to visit her. Now he - and life as a whole - had flown by her.

One more time, she made her way into the broken apartment she was doomed to spend the rest of her life in. Went to the bathroom to look herself in her stupid, pink face. "Well done. I hope you're happy with yourself." Driven by a sudden urge, she punched the mirror and broke it into countless pieces, cutting her fingers in the process. It did make her feel a little better, but now the mirror was broken, and she was going to get trouble for that, too.

Once she had calmed down, she sat down on the edge of the bathtub and stared at the dirty tiles on the floor. She took some time to try to process what she had lost and missed. And even after spending who knew how much time just sitting there, she came to no new insights. There was nothing left to figure out. It was all just over.

She thought and knew the same things she did back when she stood outside the school. Maybe, in another life, if she had just been nice to Kris and spent time with him, he would have taken the time to visit her. Hang out with her. She wasn't sure what, anything. Now all there was, was a painful void in her chest, that she knew there was no way to fill.

Maybe in another life, things wouldn't be this way, but in this one it was. She didn't like the thought of crossing that bathroom door back into the apartment and risking running into her mother. But this was her life. She had to face it.

What eventually stirred her from being frozen with her eyes glued to the floor, was the sound of music. Slowly emerging from the background noise of the building, she heard a choir of women sing. And it sounded as if it came from inside the apartment. Did her mother come home and put on some unusual music?

She got up, unlocked the bathroom door and went through, back into the rest of her mom's place. While still laced with the static of outdated music records, the singing was now clear enough to discern the lyrics. "...I'm so alone. Don't have nobody to call my own. Please turn on your magic beam, Mr. Sandman bring me a dream!"

She could only move one step past the door out the bathroom, as familiar beige, heavily decorated walls blocked her path any further past it. She was taken by surprise when the door slammed itself shut behind her, and spinning around like this, she realized that she was in a corridor. A corridor with a familiar, highly detailed painting depicting some religious iteration of 'hell'. It took her a few moments to realize it. "Motherf-"

With a distinct clicking, the music turned off. To her side, black clouds appeared in the air of the hallway, grew thicker and converged before blowing away, revealing the owner of the hotel she was in. In his usual formal white attire. Dr. Luxon smiled with his face turned back to it's normal black goat monster self and tipped his tophat at Susie.

"Susan! Welcome back, what a pleasant surprise." He had an umbrella in his hand that was so soaked with water, he must have witnessed some giant storm with it. He let go of it and it dispersed into black smoke before vanishing completely.

She pointed at the devil and dug her claw into his white shirt. "You lied to me! Kris and Berdly were in the dark world and met you! This IS the dark world."

The dealmaker stepped back and shrugged. "Don't put the blame on me. I am but a humble hotel owner. I was merely making inferences based on the very things you told me. Speaking of which, standing around in this empty corridor must be such a bother." He withdrew and opened the door behind him, leading the way back into the big, loaded hotel room from last time. The 'Suite for the Longing'.

With swinging motions in every step, the goat man rushed to his chair and summoned his pen and clipboard. "Do take a seat. It can only have been a day or two since you last were here. How has your day been treating you?" For a moment, she wanted to keep pressing him on his lie, but the thought of lying down and getting stuff off her chest was too tempting. She sighed and took up her place on the sofa. "So?"

"I know what you did, you know."

"And that would be?"

"They had a whole city there and you destroyed all of it."

The devil shrugged. "I was merely keeping my end of a bargain that - mind you - those two younglings were not a party to." He summoned a pair of glasses - entirely for effect - and cleaned them with a handkerchief. "I take my deals very seriously."

She took a moment to make herself comfortable and lay on her back with her head rested on her hands. "So, what is it now, you've got to be real if Kris and Berdly met you. So is this a dream and I just dream stuff that exists in the dark world, or did I somehow get zapped here?"

The devil shrugged again. "Between the two of us, you're the lightner, not me. You know more about what the light world is supposed to be like, and have everything needed to make a judgement on that. Why don't we find out together? Tell me about your day. Go back to parts of it of which you know for certain that they were not part of a dream. Better yet, go as far back as possible. What do you remember happening after I gave you that little shock?"

"I...I woke up. I woke up, so I thought it was a dream. But it can't be if Kris and Berdly know you." She continued telling him everything that happened in the light world, up to when she and Berdly gave up looking for Kris and Noelle. "So then I went home." She stopped. She preferred skipping the next part. "And then I went to bed. And the next morning I had the weirdest day ever. School was over, Noelle was back but Kris was already going to college."

"College? As in university? The Kris I saw couldn't be older than fifteen or - at most - sixteen. But even that's a stretch. Don't you think he's a little young to go to college? Don't you think a little more preparation in a secondary school would be in order before treading the scary waters of higher education?"

"I mean yeah, that's part of why it's so weird. And his dad was at school, warming his seat, even though he didn't fit in it and Kris wasn't coming back anyway. Oh and everyone had seen the Knight and a lot of them had been to the dark world. All of it without me. And after that - I really wanted to hang out with Kris - because we were friends you know - but the months just went by like they were nothing and I..." She slowed down towards the end. "I missed him. No matter what I tried I never met him again."

Throughout her narration, the shrink was taking notes, which he seemed to come to an end with now. "You make it sound as though that bothered you. A lot."

"Well, duh. We're friends. I really wanted to hang out."

"Why not give him a phone call? I do recall you saying you kept him in place to exchange numbers. I noted it down because you seem like the kind of person to do anything they can to push people away, and this was a deviation from that. Active efforts to keep contact. You wanted to keep contact and were not afraid of letting him know. Clearly a development - an improvement on the issues that bring you here. But that aside - point being, you clearly had his number."

"Well I...I...I didn't think of it. Why didn't I think of that?"

The black goat chuckled. "Susan, dear. Here's one theory. You had your two or three realistic and - somewhat ordinary - days. Then you went to bed and you haven't woken up since. That 'last day of school' was so strange, because your hormone-addled mind cooked it up with ingredients drawn from your thoughts and fears. Those months afterwards went by so quickly, because they never. Really. Happened. You're still in bed from after you came home from your search for your missing classmates. Your descriptions got a lot more hazy from there, so we can assume everything up to that point actually occurred."

Susie covered as much of her mouth as she could with her hands. "Oh god, Mom, then that - fuck."

For a few seconds, the room fell silent. "I beg your pardon?" the shrink eventually asked.

"What?"

"You just said something about your mother. Is there some detail you left out?"

"No."

"Then why would you bring her up? It really sounds like there's something worth talking about. Especially with young, malleable minds, parents are crucial to-"

"No!"

Dr. Luxon kept his mouth shut, but gave off a demonstrative snort. "Fine." He announced his next notation. "'Mother, questionmark." And circled it several times. Then he sighed. "So, several pages. Those were quite the days you've had, even the ones that were real. And still, you found your way back here. So what issue brought you here the first time, hasn't been resolved yet."

"Well, duh. I never really made it to the dark world."

"Technically you did. Twice by now."

"With Kris I mean...I mean the normal way. You know, portal and all that."

"And for a lightner with a whole, very bright world to walk out into, you seem rather obsessed with our not so bright world down here. Which brings me back to where we left off last time. You said you feel safer in the dark world, in spite of there being no danger in the light world as far as I can tell. It does sound like knowingly or unknowingly, you want to hide from something in the dark world, but you failed to mention what that is."

Susie groaned and shifted around to face the back side of the couch. "Refusing to face your issues won't do anything to resolve them, Susan." He gave it some time to see if she would answer, and then sighed when he realized she wouldn't. "Back to our coping mechanisms I'm guessing. So, you really really want to visit the dark world, why? Take some time to formulate your response and make it short and to the point."

She did. But what she came up with was: "That first time was the best time I'd had in - I don't even know how long. Maybe forever."

"Mhm. So an adventure in the dark world is what you crave so much. That's why it's the suite for the longing that you wind up in. You really want to escape from the hardships of reality, into the comforting arms of your precious dark world adventure."

"Well, duh." Even Susie could tell this was an awkward way of putting it.

The devil's sudden grin widened. "How badly do you want this?"

At the first sign of hope, Susie pushed herself back up and faced him. "A lot."

The dealmaker dispelled his clipboard and pen and leaned forward, resting his head on his hands. "Is that so? As chance would have it, a new opportunity has opened up for you to get exactly what you desire. And I am willing to offer it to you as part of a special deal. The kind of deal I usually don't make. Here it is in summary. You will get a prime chance at the dark world adventure you desire. But of course, one hand washes the other. I want something in return. Only this time, you get to know ahead of time, what that is."

Her excitement immediately waned at the mention of a catch. "Uh huh? And what would that be?"

"Things have occurred since your last visit, that have piqued my interest in one of those new friends you made in the dark world. His name is Ralsei. The prince without a king, the ruler of an empty kingdom. I will ensure that you get the dark world adventure you desire, but your part of the bargain is that you venture out both in the dark world and the light world, to seek out anything you can find out about him. Any secrets he might be hiding."

"I don't think he's got any big secrets. He's just a lonely little goof."

The devil wagged his finger at her. "Young lady, for a start, he spent the majority of his time with you in disguise. Cloaked and altered his appearance with an enchanted hat which he never took off until the very end. Speaking of, try to think back, you're the only one between us who has seen his real face. What can you tell me about what you saw?"

She leaned back and tried to remember. "See...he looked all soft and wimpy. But I already knew he was, it's just he was...more soft than when he had his hat on. He had a more round face. And bigger eyelashes. And his horns were red-ish and the wrong way round. Boss monster horns are supposed to be more like yours except white, but his weren't. But still, he's just a little goofball. Not someone with big secrets."

Dr. Luxon shook his head. "Are you sure about this? He already alters his appearance with an enchanted hat, and wears a robe at all times. For all you know, the robe is enchanted as well, meaning he alters his appearance AND his voice. He never allowed you to enter his castle, you don't really know what he looks like, nor do you know with certainty what he sounds like. What exactly DO you know about him? Not an awful lot it seems. That, I want to change."

"Wait, that's it? All I have to do is try to find out stuff about Ralsei?"

The devil got up and offered her his hand. "Yes, that is the deal. You get a chance to find happiness in the arms of your dark world adventure. And in return, you will seek out any information you can find about the prince, and tell me of your findings the next time we meet."

She stared at that hand of his for a few seconds, but soon got up to shake it. "We got a deal. Finding out new stuff can't hurt. So how do we get to the dark world?"

Samuel clapped his hands and went for the door. "Well, technically, we already are in the dark world. The trick is to get you to where your adventure is. He spun around to face her by the time he arrived at the golden elevator. "BUT, luckily for you, this hotel has been moved and we are not that far off."

"Say what now? How can a hotel move?"

"You lightners are capable of many miracles, especially when you are the least aware of yourselves making them happen. That wasn't the only miracle. Look here." He spun another full circle and took off his top hat. Susie braced herself for the shock of seeing that disturbing blurb his face really was again, but this time, that wasn't what followed.

His fur and horns turned white, the glow of his eyes and mouth faded, but now he had an actual ordinary boss monster face. And one that Susie recognized as well. "That's Kris' brother's face." She hadn't recognized his voice, but she couldn't really remember hearing Asriel talk much, she only knew his face from photos and seeing him from afar.

"Marvelous, don't you think? I am so beautiful now. All by the hands of lightners like yourself. Whatever you did after we last met, it has worked wonders for me." When the elevator doors opened, the devil tip-toed ahead of her. "And no, I am not Asriel, but you're not the first person to compare me to him. Apparently, the similarity is too uncanny to ignore. BUT, that should not distract you from the task at hand. The object of your attention should be the prince, not me."

When the elevator arrived at the top, he opened the path straight outside, into a blue-lit house, and onto the dark walls and pavement outside. "The prince that rules this now not-so-empty kingdom."

Right outside the little house the hotel's exit door had led to, was Castle Town, Ralsei's kingdom. But that made no sense, the last time she was at that hotel, that same exit door led to a giant restaurant. How did they end up here? "Wait...what?" The hotel's exit door apparently led right into the 'Inn' on the road to the castle.

"Questions over questions, and I want you to focus on answering them. The answer lies with my apparent new ruler. Find out anything you can. Why does he obscure his face? What is he hiding under that robe? He looks like a Boss Monster, too. Is he like me? In what ways? Is he modeled after Asriel, too? If so, how and why? If not, who else is the 'Asriel' to his 'Samuel'? Questions over questions over questions. Who can blame me for wanting to know a little more?"

"Yeah, I guess. So how does this work?"

"Come along." He led her down the road, to big golden door to the south. "The doors to his kingdom can be adjusted to lead anywhere we want them to. It's how you managed to get to the Card Kingdom from here in the first place, even though Castle Town is nowhere near the Card Kingdom. This town actually floats above the Kingdom of Taint, a place your friends were at just a while ago. They appear to have crossed an ocean since then."

The devil pulled out his phone to check something on it and then drew a circle in the air with his hand, leaving trails of light in its wake which connected to the door. For a few moments, he slowed down. "Curious, I have more freedom to move it about now. Whatever blocked it off before, appears to have been removed. I'll bring us as close to the human as I can."

When he opened the gate, it led onto a wide field of grass, shining blue in the dark of an eternal night. A little ahead of them was was a little trampled area around a barn. No farm or house next to it, just a wooden barn in the middle of nowhere. "You sure this is right? I can't see Kris anywhere."

"It is the last location he stayed at for long enough for me to pick up. Which was very recent. If he isn't here now, he must have just left." As the clueless dragon stepped onto the grass, the goat stepped back behind the door. "Just look around, I'm sure you'll find some manner of a clue. Have fun." As soon as he was on the other side of the doors, they began to close again.

"Hey, hey wait!" The moment Susie turned around, the devil held out his arm. From his palm, he cast a beam of light so bright, Susie whinged and held up her arms to cover herself. By the time the beam grew more narrow and vanished, the doors were closed and all she could do was bang her fist against the unrelenting rock door, which soon vanished into thin air. Leaving her alone and with nothing to do, but figure this out on her own.