Hydrangea, a flower that means a gratitude for being understood, but also can symbolize vanity. These flowers contain cyanide, so if too much is consumed it can be fatal.
"You have to believe me!" You yell again, gripping the metal bars on either side of your face. Papyrus, the twisted and darker version of the one you knew, didn't acknowledge your pleas. He hadn't the entire time he hauled you back to Snowdin. You weren't expecting much from him, having already run into his equally edgy brother, but you couldn't think of anything else to do. Trying to feed him some BS story to explain away your presence wasn't working.
Papyrus, in the middle of gathering many of the sharp metal bear traps and barbed wire around the shed, finally turns your way. You perk up, hoping he'd finally talk, give you something to work off of. He seems to get that's exactly what you want and he only smirks, flashing his jagged boney teeth, before turning and slamming the door behind him. You sigh loudly, hanging your head.
You supposed you were waiting for Sans to appear and enact his revenge for what you'd done to him in the alley. You couldn't think of any other reason you were just left here. The brothers had a plan, you're sure. Whatever it was though, you didn't want to be here when they saw it through.
This version of the Underground was twisted. While Papyrus practically dragged you back to his house, any monster that witnessed threw a blind eye. Not one of them cared or answered your cries of help. Instead you watched one of them turn around and pickpocket the monster next to them. The monsters in this underground were scarred and rugged. The smaller ones coward in fear while the stronger ones stalked the streets with terrifying confidence. You were positive when you passed one of the alleyways you saw a monster get dusted. The memory makes your stomach roll and cements your will to escape before either monster comes back.
You were in a shed. You'd seen it in passing multiple times, but you can't remember ever having been in it before. You wonder if the shed in your timeline is anything like this one. You hope not. This one had walls covered in stained tools. You're sure the neither of the brothers used them for their actual purpose. Saw blades of all shapes and sizes were on the table against the tool wall. It looked like someone had been in the middle of sorting them before they'd been interrupted.
Heading to the bars you reach your hand out through them. It's then that you really notice how far apart they are. Maybe you didn't need some grand plan to get out of this place before one of the brothers came back. Slipping your shoulder out, you follow with your head and then with your left side. Out of everything you've seen of this new Papyrus, the way this cell was built was probably the only familiar thing. Your Papyrus was just as… Forgiving with his trap details. Having bars too spaced out was a trap you'd stumbled upon multiple times with Paps.
You move to pull your leg out with you but you jerk back. You frown, twisting a bit more to try and pull yourself out. When you don't budge you try pushing back but you still don't move. You… had gotten yourself stuck.
Feeling heat in your cheeks and a sinking feeling of embarrassment you try to forcefully move yourself in their direction. It only starts to hurt your hips. Just as you start cursing you hear the click of bones on the door.
Sans is in the doorway, his back to you. "I got this boss." He says to whoever's outside. They don't reply, all you hear is a growl, before Sans is turning your way. You try one final time to get unstuck, but it's futile.
"Looks like my bro caught you like the rat you are." Sans says, voice sounding like he'd had one too many cigarettes. When his eye lights catch you, stuck between the bars, his voice catches. He stares for a beat before he bursts out laughing. It echoes in the shed and you feel your face grow hotter.
He takes his time walking over to you. As much as your instincts were telling you to get as far away from him as possible you refuse to struggle while he watches. Sans grabs your chin. His phalanges were sharper than normal bones and they dug painfully into your flesh.
"What was the plan? Huh, doll face?" He shakes your head. You feel the bones slice into your cheek. "To just walk out of here? You didn' think we had someone out the door waiting to cut ya if you tried anythin'?" He laughs again, skull turning red with his morbid delight. He pats your cheek roughly. "Y'ur kinda stupid. Cute."
"And you're kind of an asshole." You bite back, shaking your face loose from his grip. His toothy smile only gets wider.
"Since I was the one ta find ya, I feel like I gotta take care of ya." You don't like the way his smile twitches or how his skull gets redder. "So here's a lesson, pipsqueak. I didn' like how ya treated me the first time we met. 'Round here you'll learn it's always an eye for an eye. " His hot sweaty hand grabs your cheek this time, his thumb ghosting next to your wide eye. "Some fancier tykes might call it quid," His thumb starts pressure below your eye. "Pro," He moved it up and you feel it start digging into your socket. You make a whine of pain that starts to grow more into a yell as his thumb presses in. "Quo." You scream when he flicks and you feel your eyeball bulge out of place.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" You hadn't even heard the door open, but the looming shadow lets you know that Papyrus was definitely inside. Sans freezes up, thumb still pressed against your eye. You notice beads of red sweat start up on his forehead.
"I said I got this, boss." Sans spits, but he doesn't turn around to face his brother. Instead he retracts his hand and you pull your face as far as you can from him. Your eye feels hot and you keep it closed, not sure what damage he'd actually done to it.
"MINDLESS TORTURE WAS NOT THE POINT OF ME LETTING YOU IN HERE, SANS." Papyrus says crisply as he starts his way over. His mouth seemed to be shaped into a cracked frown. You don't know if it'd even be possible for him to smile.
"I know-" Sans starts, but chokes on his words as he's pulled away from you by the scruff of his oversized coat.
"IT WAS TO ASK QUESTIONS." Sans grumbles something under his breath, glaring at his brothers back as Papyrus approaches you. His pinched expression seemed to sour more as he looked over your stuck form between the bars.
You avoid his look and start hotly, "I already told you-"
Papyrus's fist flies into the bar next to your head with a horrifying noise. You bite your words off as you see the mangled metal under his fist.
"THE HORRIBLE PAPYRUS IS LETTING YOU LIVE, FOR NOW, AS LONG AS YOU ANSWER MY QUESTION." He crosses his arms behind his back and leans down to your level. "WHERE IS THE SMALL HUMAN?"
"Small… Human?" You assume he must be talking about Frisk. It seemed any human that was in these alternate realities always ended up being a version of Frisk or Chara. "Why?" You stare up at Papyrus and Sans and feel something twist in your heart. You smile at the two skeletons. "Is the horrible Papyrus asking for help?"
"NEVER!" He snaps at the same time you see Sans roll his eyes behind him. Papyrus straightens, setting a latex red glove against his chest. "I, THE TERRIFYING AND HORRENDOUS PAPYRUS, WOULD NEVER ASK FOR HELP. ESPECIALLY FROM A HUMAN." He puffs out his chest as he speaks. As different as this skeleton was from yours, you knew exactly how to handle him.
"I heard a lot about you. Monsters kept telling me to beware of crossing your pass." Papyrus shifts in his boots. "They kept saying you were the most terrifying monster down here. I see why." He snorts through his nose and seems to grow three inches taller with his inflated ego.
"I DO HAVE A REPUTATION AS THE MOST EVIL MONSTER."
"You do. Which is why…" You trail off, waiting for the pause to catch his attention. "I'll tell you where the other human is." Papyrus grins. He flashes Sans a look, who ignores it stubbornly.
Papyrus grabs your face between his red latex fingers. "SELL OUT YOUR FELLOW HUMAN, HUMAN."
"Core." You squeeze out even as his fingers squish your face. Papyrus's cracked grin turns wicked.
"CORE? OF COURSE." He snaps up, wiping the hand that had touched you off on his scarf. "COME SANS, WE MUST MAKE HASTE If WE ARE TO CATCH THE OTHER HUMAN OFF GARD." Sans socket's narrow at his brother's exclamation, red eye lights flickering to you. You feel a chill go down your spine as he glowered.
"This is stupid as hell boss. I'll jus' wait here and watch the kid." He pockets his hands, keeping eyes on you.
"NO SANS, YOU ARE COMING WITH ME." Papyrus grabs up the back of Sans coat, hiking the bulky skeleton up like a misbehaving kitten. "IF WE HANDLE THIS RUNAWAY HUMAN BEFORE THEY REACH THE CAPITAL, THE KING WILL SMILE ON US." Papyrus turns and kicks open the shed door before unceremoniously chucking Sans out of it too. You hear the pop of bones as he lands and cringe at the noise. Papyrus doesn't spare you another glance.
"Wait, you're leaving me here?" You struggle between the bars. "I can help find them!"
"I DO NOT NEED HELP FROM A HUMAN." Papyrus bites again, back towards you. "IT IS NOT LIKE YOU ARE ABLE TO LEAVE, ANYHOW. I WILL COME BACK TO HANDLE YOU SOON."
Papyrus slams the door behind him, leaving you in silence.
You strain to listen to the skeletons outside the shed.
You hear Papyrus yelling at his brother and the shifting of snow as they tread through it.
You don't breathe until you can't hear either of them.
They… completely left you alone...
You grin.
Perfect.
Twisting sideways you're able to pull yourself up and free, thanks to the twisted bar Papyrus had left you with. With the mangled metal pushed back so much you're even able to climb out completely from the celled half of the shed.
You hurry to the shed door, pressing your ear to it. Sans had mentioned having left a monster outside to handle you if you escaped. Having only been in this world for a few hours, you couldn't fathom the brothers trusting anyone but each other in any scenario. Even if it was to help guard a human. Hearing no one outside you crack the door open gently, peeking around. Seeing not a single soul you step out into the cold.
Snowdin looks barren. Especially at the edge where the skeleton's house sat. You assumed not many dared get close. Subconsciously you put a hand over your throbbing eye and then head to the front door.
There were a few places you could check for a soul piece. You could always go to the core or the secret lab further underground. Maybe checking the castle would even be a good spot since Gaster and Asgore had apparently been close. However, you also knew Gaster and the skeletons were connected, somehow. Maybe that's why no matter what reality you went to they were always the ones giving you the most trouble.
The front door is, unsurprisingly, locked. You assume the windows are in the same shape and by looking at the shadows in them they might even be barricaded from the inside. You're not phased. Instead you fish around in your pockets, pulling out lint and wrappers until you find the single paperclip you had stashed. You don't remember where it was from, but you did remember feeling it once or twice poking into your leg while running around.
Untwisting the metal and then reforming it into a shape you were more familiar with, you kneel and start picking the lock. It was a skill you had learned when you had been locked out of your house once or twice by your drunk and angry mom. To you it had upset you that you had to learn how to do it. To Frisk it had been a magic trick when you were able to get back inside. In the long run, it was worth it.
The lock clicks and you drop the metal in the snow as you slide inside. Just in time, too, as you'd started to hear the faint noise of voices approaching. It was definitely neither of the skeletons, but you didn't want to be caught by any monster in this world.
You lock the door behind you and survey the home.
It… wasn't very homey.
You had been right about the windows. Wooden chipped boards were nailed across every paine of glass. The house was dark even with the lights on and it was too cold. Somehow even colder than it was outside in the snow. It was all too quiet.
Then, through the silence, you hear it. A soft, unrecognizable voice. No words, no sound, but the voice calls to you, begging you to find it. It was quiet, muffled by something. Your eyes catch the doors on the second floor and you're hurrying through the living room.
The floor creaks under your footfalls and it echoes unnervingly through the house. You wanted to hurry up and get out of this place.
You go to Papyrus's room first. Not only was it in the same place from where your Papyrus had his room, but this skeleton seemed to have the exact same kind of decorating sense. There was caution tape covering the outside of the door and multiple signs with colorful threats. You go to head in but bump into the door when the knob doesn't give.
Locked? You… Hadn't expected them to lock their bedroom doors too. There's no keyhole to Paps room, so you can only chalk it up to magic or whatever. Pressing your ear to the door you listen for the soul. However, you can't hear it from Papyrus's room.
Quickly, you head down the hall.
As far as you remembered, Sans always kept his room locked. However, you felt like you were running out of time so you tried his knob for the sake of it before you moved towards a more brute force option.
But his door clicks open.
You hesitate, not liking how easy it was to get inside, but you start in when you're reminded of your time restraint.
Your memory, as always, is foggy. You're sure this is exactly how your Sans's room looked. Other than the color scheme it felt like you were back home for a second.
Of course the shine of metal blades stuck into the chest of drawers ruins that feeling almost immediately. You can't help but sigh.
The voices are definitely louder in here. You follow the calling and whispering, letting them pull you towards Sans's closest.
It's filled with large black detailed coats and multiple red turtle necks. Knowing the piece of soul would be your ticket out of here and you'd face little consequences otherwise, you start tearing through. You hurl the coats and sweaters behind you, digging into the pile of clothes that laid at the bottom. Anything and everything was tossed over your head.
The voices yell into your ears, pleading to look closer, look harder, to pull them free-
Then, you see it, tucked around the corner of the closest, stuck to the wall, hidden nearly completely out of sight. You grab the edge of the book and pull. When you do, the voices scream. You keep pulling, ignoring the ear numbing shouts until the book finally pops off the side with the sound of tearing flesh. The book in your hands immediately starts to melt. The cover wasn't plastic or paper, but rather a black shimmery ink that, when you touched it, coated your hand and dripped like congealing blood. The book melted around your palms but also started to melt… up? The goo of it's matter starts to drip upwards, floating towards your face.
The voices whine in pain before they realize that you held them. They coo to you, asking you to open the book that constantly melted into and out of reality. They whispered of knowledge, of answers, questions unasked and theories unknown.
Pulling your hand out from under the liquid of the book, shaking off as much ink as possible, you touch the front, beginning to peel back the cover.
Suddenly the air is heavy.
You taste something metallic.
There's someone behind you.
You feel your sins crawling down your back.
"There you are, rat." Bones grab at your arms and hurl you backwards. The book goes flying from your hands. "I knew you were gonna be trouble." Sans bites, manic grin on his face as he watched you struggle against the wall he pinned you on. "Took forever to ditch the boss."
"Wait no- Let me go!" He laughs at your plea. Instead, keeping you where you were, he picks up the notebook you'd been holding with his magic. He drops it into his waiting hand with a grossed out look.
"What ina hell were you snoopin' around for anyway?" He turns the book around in his hand, opting to hold it with his magic, shaking the gook off of his bones. "Where'd you even get this shit?"
"Just- Please!" You throw yourself against the hold of the bones and wince when he presses them harder against you. He smiles viciously at you.
"Cute. Keep beggin'. Won't do ya any good but it's fun ta hear." You groan as he laughs.
You had been so close to escaping. Just a literal page turn away!
A page turn away...
You look at the book floating in the air and then down at the red skulled Sans.
"Just don't open that book." You finally say, hanging your head slightly. "Do whatever you want to me, but don't open that book." Sans's laughter petters off. He looks between your sullen face and then the book.
He grins wildly.
"Open… This book?" He drops it into his hands again. When he teasingly peals at the cover you send him a look of horror.
"You can't! Whatever's inside, you can't look at it!"
"Ha! So you don' even know what inside?" He makes another loud ugly laugh before he tucks his thumb under the cover. "Why don' I let you see it then, ya know, before I take y'ur eyes." The red lights in his sockets glow as he ever so slowly opens the melting book.
The moment the cover is off and he turns it to read what's inside, the pages burst with a blinding white light.
"What in the hell-?!" Sans grunts and tosses the book as the light spills out to engulf the room.
You feel the familiar tug of your soul.
The voices of the book fill your ears, they tell you of their owner's pride of his knowledge, the dark secrets he knew, and the ever present fear he felt when he knew everyone relied on him. You feel his fear of knowledge.
The world dissipates and you're left with an empty void inside of you as you're moved to the next reality.
You're in Waterfall.
At least, you're pretty sure.
The area is dark, bathed in blue lights from the glowing waters in the distance and the speckles of faux stars above your head. The once beautiful foliage was overgrown and dead.
It was silent. So silent you could hear your breathing and heartbeat pounding in your ears.
You get to your feet, trying to stay quiet in the new area. You wondered if it was quiet just because no one was there or if there was another reason. A more frightening reason.
You start on, knowing nothing good would come from you standing still.
That last reality was… terrifying. But it's over now. Now you just had to focus on this next place, this new piece, and everything would be fine.
You stumble onto a stream. It doesn't glow the bright blue you're used to. Looking closer you realize it's not moving. It's stagnant water, a layer of grime and filth coating it.
It's then that you realize you couldn't even hear the rushing waterfall. You could usually hear it all throughout Waterfall, no matter where you were. That's why it was so silent.
Something snaps behind you.
You lurch, spinning around, just in time to get a face full of a bony fist. You swipe your hands as you stumble back, grabbing onto your attacker's coat just as you fall back into the river.
The water is freezing. Your head goes under and you make the mistake of gasping. The filth enters your throat and you throw your head up to get out of the water. You hack and cough once you're out, feeling nauseous when you see all the trash and debris you had stirred up from the river bed.
"Ah fuckin' hell." You push yourself away from the voice, looking over to see another Sans. He's pulling himself out of the water, the brown liquid draining from the gaps between his bones. His coat and red turtle neck are soaked through, though. He sends a glare your way, gold tooth flashing in his sneer.
Wait. He… He looks exactly like the Sans from the last reality-
"Where in the fuck are we?" He exclaimed, throwing his hands up and splashing more water. "Las' time I checked, humans can't jus' magically teleport." The red lights in his sockets start glowing.
"I…" You trail off, looking between him and the area around you. "I'm in a different place. I know I am…" Your sentence ends in mumbling.
How had this Sans followed you. Was it… Was it because he was holding the soul? Because he was with you? None of this made sense and none of this was right.
"Y'ur crazy, arentcha?" Sans snorts as his right socket goes dark. "Doesn't matter ta me. You pissed me off." He raises his hand, red magic forming and you feel the starting tug on your soul.
You scramble, trying to pull yourself out of the heavy water and at the same time get away.
This wasn't fair! How could he have followed you when no one else had? Why did it have to be the murder-y one?
There's a loud splash behind you, you assume it's the beginning of Sans attacks.
"What the fu-" His words are cut off, muffled. You freeze up when you notice the new large shadow being casted over you. Slowly, you turn around.
Sans was in the air, being held by his face alone. The monstrous hand that held him was attached to the looming figure behind you. The skeleton was crouched down, sharp knees bent far above your head. He was massive.
His head suddenly snaps around and you jolt back at his face.
It was Papyrus. A… Papyrus. His eye sockets were shrunken on his face and his normal smile was now jagged, sharp, and stained red. He tilts his head, staring you through, before reaching out his other massive hand. You tense as it nears you, knowing you'd never be able to escape.