Susie forced her way through the crowded halls, stuffing her hands into her worn out jacket's pockets, both of which had holes in it preventing her from storing any valuable items. Most of the students were getting their bags from their lockers for the end of the day, something she didn't have to do so she could escape school without being stuck in a crowd of the younger kids. They begged and pleaded to go home to get their after school snack and play an hour of video games. All of that got to her every now and then.

Not bringing stuff to school was an easy way out of having to deal with that shit, not that there weren't other reasons she didn't bring anything to school, but that wasn't something to share. Not even with Kris who struggled to keep up with her from behind. He didn't bring many things with him either, specifically because he didn't care. Not that she was one to care either, that was for certain. That's what she would like to think anyway.

But none of that mattered because both of them wouldn't have to deal with school for 11 weeks.

"Slow down, will you?" Kris muttered between breaths, barely audible as per usual.

"Speak up, will you?" She mocked, but obliged to her friend despite the sarcasm, slowing down to meet his pace. The kid was a mess, he was heaving heavily and sweat was dripping down his face like some salty, leaking water faucet. Pretty pathetic. "Dude, the hell you wearing a sweater for in this heat?"

He looked up at her, still panting. By the way his mouth tightened, Susie could tell he was probably squinting with some sort of 'fake' anger behind his bangs. "I could ask you the same thing."

"Well, I ain't a wimp like some people around here."

"I am not a wimp." He paused, looking down at his sweater. He decided to wipe away some of the hair stuck to his sweat covered forehead as he did so. "It just reminds me of my brother," he pulled at the ends of his sweater "He wore this sweater all throughout highschool-"

Susie snarled in disgust "That exact sweater?"

"No, you know my mom makes matching ones." he laughed slightly. Susie didn't want to admit it, but hearing him laugh lifted her spirits every time. Just a little. He didn't laugh often. "He wore it even in the summers. I guess having fur helps with heat or something? Didn't seem to bother him. But it bothers me and I still wear it so, counterpoint, I guess that makes me-"

"Don't call yourself a badass."

"A badass."

She sped up immediately after that comment; she figured that there was no way he was going to say otherwise. After being friends with someone for a few months you start to be able to predict them very well. Or maybe it was just Kris.

A sense of pride flourished in her when she heard Kris huff from behind before hearing scattered steps trying to catch up. She walked at a steady stride and he sped walked beside her as if he was an old lady working out at the mall on a quiet Tuesday morning.

The majority of the rest of the walk was silent. The majority of their friendship was silence and that's what Susie appreciated about Kris. Being around someone who didn't judge, or cared enough to judge, was comforting to say the least. And there was no rush to fill the awkward still air because it wasn't awkward at all. Not to them.

She assumed Kris felt the same way about her. Being human, people tended to gawk at him. From what Susie observed, it seemed people talked down to him or were way too nice out of pity. It reminded her of how people treat those who are shy, something she experienced when she was younger before she decided to grow a pair.

Kris happened to also be the quiet type as well which didn't help his case.

However, she didn't give a shit about what Kris was or how much he spoke. And if he valued that then that's a win for the both of them.

But as they neared the street of Kris' home, he spoke up. "I'm going to miss you, you know?" His tone was somber, something Susie wasn't used to.

"Don't get all sappy with me, it's only for the summer."

He shrugged. "Maybe so, but it still sucks. Not having you in the Dark World is going to be weird." Susie winced "Plus I wanted to introduce you to Asriel. He's ecstatic about me making a friend instead of pranking Noelle on my free time."

"Just tell Lancer I said hi, 'kay? And I'll call you a few times a week, yadda yadda yadda. No big deal." It was a big deal. Susie really didn't want to leave town, even if it was a stupid town. For one, leaving the Dark World behind and Kris sucked ass. And second to that, she hated her mom more than her dad. But this was the routine. It happened every single summer and there was no escaping. So says the law. Say hi to mom and kiss everything else goodbye. Not that there was much.

Kris ignored her comment and simply held out two crumpled pieces of paper from his pocket, one folded nicely and the other crudely, but being shoved into a back pocket showed mercy to neither one.

She raised an eyebrow. "And those are supposed to be...?"

"Cards." He stated plainly. "Me and Noelle- actually it was mainly Noelle's idea. But we each wrote a letter for you to read when you're lonely being away and stuff."

"Lonely? Please." She took the letters from him. It made sense he would write one being the loser he was, but Noelle? Susie barely talked to her at all. But she was one to be overly nice to everybody. Shrugging it off, Susie shoved both into her back pocket, not trusting they would stay safe in her jacket. "Nice gesture but I'm a tough gal."

"Yeah, I know, but everybody loves letters, right?"

"Eh." She gave him a playful nudge. "But I appreciate it anyway, punk."

She anticipated that he was going to smile back, but instead he formed a frown and looked away, down the road. "Whelp, this is my street."

"...oh." That came out a bit more somber than she intended, but it stung. She didn't think it was going to be this hard to say goodbye. It was going to be only for the summer, and summers pass by fast, everyone knows that. "I told you to not be all sad about it. I'll call you as soon as I get the chance. So lighten up, your frown annoys the hell out of me." She chuckled, trying to push the discomfort away.

It didn't seem to work, Kris' smile seemed forced. "Y-yeah." there was no warning before Susie felt his arms wrap around her. "Goodbye Susie."

Susie's throat tightened. Hugs weren't her thing. It reminded her of things she didn't want to be reminded of. She laughed, trying to cover up her discomfort that was clearly emanating from her. "It's not goodbye, it's 'see ya later'. Ya know, like they say in movies." She patted his head in a hopeful attempt to get him off of her. It seemed to work, as he gave her one last squeeze before releasing her.

He wiped his eyes with one of his sleeves. To the average person it wouldn't be noticed he was trembling, but to Susie it was.

Oh fuck, he's crying? She thought.

"Y-yeah, you're right." He did another one of his pained smiles. "See ya later." Turning on his heel, he headed down the street evidently trying to not look back.

"See ya later." Susie didn't like to be sensitive, but seeing Kris hurt in turn hurt her. It'd be alright, only 11 weeks. He managed to get by alone for the first half of the year without her, and now he had Asriel to take her place for the summer. But something about 'see ya later' didn't seem right.

Susie washed away that stupid thought, it wasn't like some poorly acted drama film where they would get seperated due to some tragedy and never see eachother again. Life wasn't that predictable. It was just plain boring.

She took the atmosphere of the small town around her in. It may have been brutally hot, but Susie liked it. The green grass, the flowers, pools, fireflies. She headed home thinking about all those things, knowing it would be the only good things about this summer.

Ugh, great. It's locked.

Her dad must've forgotten to leave the door open for her. Most likely because he was in a rush to leave for work this morning after waking up from his usual hangover. He worked at some run down gas station at the outskirts of town, hence why affording to make a copy of the key was a bit hard.

Susie wouldn't trust herself with one anyway.

Whatever. She rounded the house, making sure to keep an eye out for any broken glass or syringes that were hidden in the grass. They really needed a good mowing. Susie gave a glance toward her old bike she would ride as a child, it sat on the side of the home next to the air conditioning unit; rotting away like everything else. The colors were dimmed and dejected.

She had no idea why her dad hadn't thrown it away along with everything else her mother had bought for her as a kid. Maybe that one specific thing was nostalgic for him? She remembered riding it around the lake when her parents were still together. When things were "better", which was predictable like Kris was. She proceeded to walk past the old bike toward her room window that she always left open for this exact situation. She had learned the hard way.

"Yo, dad!" Opening the window, she decided to call through just in case he may have been still home, passed out on the couch or something. There was no answer. Good. She pushed herself up, her threadbare boot landing on the ledge for support, allowing her to jump to the other side onto the stained carpet. Stained from what? She didn't know, it was like that when they moved in.

Considering they were in a poor part of town, she didn't want to think what may have stained it years ago. Probably something nasty.

Her room was an ugly eggshell color, some parts of the wall left unpainted. Everything was bare, excluding the dirty laundry. It reminded her of Kris' side of the room when they did homework together that one time. Emphasis on one. His mom did make a mean pie so actually working was freaking worth it.

Shoving random wrinkled clothes into her unused backpack, she thought about the food on the train. Some years they had quality tomato soup. It was a 7 hour ride so it had to be somewhat classy.

Susie bent down to grab the train ticket she left under her bed the other day. She made sure to keep it in a safe spot after printing it out in the library so she wouldn't have to go back there. Berdly was such an ass, even if he avoided eye contact with her. She hadn't punched him in awhile. She made a mental note to do that at the beginning of next year.

"Susie? Didn't hear ya come in."

Susie's head shot up to meet her dad's hard gaze. He had stopped in his tracks before passing her room, a whole bottle of vodka in hand.

"Thought you weren't home." She pretended to continue packing to avoid having to continue looking at him. "I called your name when I came in." Hopefully he would just go away.

"I just woke up."

He must've skipped work again. It was a miracle he wasn't fired yet. "Are you going to drive me to the train station in an hour or what?"

He rubbed his temple. "I thought you were getting a ride."

"Whatever. I'll just get a taxi." She shoved past him making sure to sneak some money from his wallet on the kitchen counter before leaving the home.

He didn't even bother to say goodbye. Neither did she.

Her nose wrinkled in discomfort. Maybe it was just Amina, but sometimes sunlight seemed to tickle her nose a little too much for her liking. When her eyes fluttered open she immediately shielded her face with her hand. The curtains were opened just enough to hit her face directly and nothing else. What time was it? By the way it looked, definitely not past 7 am.

Even on the weekend Amina's body wasn't willing to let her sleep in. There was no way she was going to be able to fall back asleep. Fantastic. Her body wasn't very fond of her sleeping schedule lately and she could feel it.

She felt underneath her pillow where she kept her phone at night with no luck. It better not have fallen underneath the bed again. Beginning to explore the sheets for it, she sat up hoping her fingers would wrap around it at any moment.

Maybe it was best to worry about it after breakfast. Amina wasn't in the mood right now. Aching, she stretched out with a yawn before looking around...the room? Not her room.

What the hell?

Amina observed her surroundings in a bit of panic. The walls were a pale orange and a neatly (probably knit) round carpet was in the middle of the smallish room on the wooden floor. If she was kidnapped, the person who kidnapped her had motherly taste. Or perhaps a grandma. There was a nice bouquet of flowers on the dresser next to a picture frame of a cute golden retriever. So the supposed kidnapper was a puppy person?

Okay, this isn't my home. Obviously, how much of a dunce am I? Baka. No, STOP being a weeb. That phase was 3 years ago. Calm down. What's the last thing I remember?

In a horrifying realization, Amina recognized her memories were a bit fuzzy. Not that she couldn't remember anything, just that everything was a static type blur. Her family had bodies but no faces and the room she fell asleep in was blue, her faceless father tucking her into bed. A blue wall was the only thing she could discern clearly.

Certainly not orange.

Uh, why did any of that matter? It didn't. She just needed to get her shit together and focus on getting out of here. Maybe she didn't remember much because she was insane or something? God, she wished that was not the case. She had never woken up so confused which meant something had to be wrong.

She took great precautions getting out of bed, the springs were much louder than she would've preferred considering she was trying to be discreet. Must've been an old bed. Or just plain cheap. Not to mention her whole body was itchy. She was wearing plaid wool pajamas. She would never wear wool, the fabric was way too annoying.

Sliding around the carpet with her socks on, she made a b-line for the door. It was cracked open just a bit, not enough for her to have noticed at first, but it meant that she wasn't locked in thankfully.

But the relief only lasted a split second. When she opened the door the hall outside was pitch black, excluding a nightlight in to her right. No windows. It was probably a better idea to just jump out her own but it appeared she was on the second floor and she would rather risk walking through a darkened hallway than breaking a leg. Whether it was a good choice or not, she was sticking with it.

"Amina?"

The lights turned on and her stomach sank. She didn't dare turn around. The voice was feminine and caring, but not familiar.

"What are you doing up so early?" The voice laughed, amused and proud sounding was the only way to describe it. "I thought your brother was the early bird, not you."

Amina did not have a brother.

Okay. New plan. This woman is insane and probably kidnapped me to play family. Like that one movie. What was that movie called?

Focus. Just play along and make an escape attempt when possible. She doesn't seem aggressive. Yet.

"I- I uh…" her voice came out weak with a bit of a shake to it. She could only wish the woman hadn't noticed. If her memories weren't playing tricks on her than her father had always told her not to show fear or weakness to those you fear yourself. She took a deep breath to gather herself. "I got hungry. Heh heh." her nervous laugh was stupid. "Can't sleep with hunger pains, right?"

"Hungry for breakfast? That's a first. How about I make you some eggs?"

False. Amina was always hungry for breakfast. "That'd be great."

A large hand planted on her shoulder, startling Amina so much she finally looked up to meet her kidnapper's eyes. "Are you alright?"

Never had Amina tried to hold back a scream so much in her life. The woman that stood before her was not human. She was a monstrosity of a being. Her mind immediately went to a walking talking alligator. A huge and wide one with claws that gently grazed her shoulder. Her smile held sharp pearly whites, so sharp that Amina would not be surprised if she filed them every morning after brushing her teeth. Her sharp pupils were somehow warm as they looked down at her with a bit of concern, some of her red locks falling in front of her eyes, but not much. The majority of her hair was pulled back in a messy bun.

She was a redhead. Like Amina.

"Oh, something is wrong. Are you not feeling well?" The gator woman felt Amina's forehead. It was hard but she held back from flinching.

"N-no. I just had a bit of a nightmare. I'm still waking up."

"If you say so. Now please go and wake your brother up for breakfast. I don't want him substituting a meal with cookies again."

"Sure." That added stress. She was going to have to search for his room without coming across as weird because clearly this- this monster assumed she knew exactly what was going on. "But do you mind if I go ahead and use the restroom first?"

The monster gave her a weird look. "Um… hm. You don't need my permission to use the restroom, dear."

This was not going well. She was probably coming across as crazy which may have been true. She was talking to a huge alligator after all.

"Haha, just messing with you." She shot out finger guns in an attempt to lighten the mood. She couldn't show fear. Plus finger guns was something she did often so if this monster indeed "knew" her than it would appear as normal.

"Haha indeed." The monster was very much confused but turned to head downstairs anyway after giving Amina another warm smile.

The restroom was directly across from her room, it was left open, giving her a quick escape. She slammed the door shut, locking it from behind. Her chest heaved up and down heavily, her heart racing. This had to be a dream. She wasn't crazy. Everything was all too real.

She looked at herself in the mirror. She looked the same. She was still human. Her long red hair was a mess and her brown eyes were wide with fear. She averted her eyes away from the mirror, she looked so scared she was beginning to scare herself even more.

Next to the mirror was a picture frame. She picked it up to examine it. Mainly to get a sense of what was going on. In the photo was that gator woman and that dog from before. The golden retriever. But it was standing on two legs and wearing clothes…

Was that her brother?

And the smallest one, between the two, stood a younger version of herself.

She hadn't been kidnapped, had she?