Author's note: Hello everyone, 2021 writer here. I was pretty young and naïve while writing this story, so a lot of things in the plot might be a bit... questionable. Also please ignore the old weird author's notes, I don't know why I was venting and being so weird. I'm currently going back re-editing things, but I still want to keep the overall plot the same as in the original.

Also important: If you see a novel called Undertale Hateful Eight being sold on Goodreads, that is not my writing, it is stolen. I can't access the book so yeah, I'm not sure what to do about it. So if you find it somehow, it has been plagiarised. Either way, thanks for your interest, and hope you enjoy the story!

Long ago, two races ruled over Earth: HUMANS and MONSTERS.

One day, war broke out between the two races.

After a long battle, the humans were victorious. They sealed the monsters underground with a magic spell.

Many years later...

An illustration depicted a mountain in the bronze colouring, surrounded by a forest. Text read,

MT EBOTT

201X

A child with short, brown hair reaching the back of their head and wearing a striped sweater was climbing up the mountain. Text read, Legends say a child climbed up the mountain and disappeared, never to be seen again. More illustrations followed, showing the child disappearing.

"Since then, no one has climbed the mountain," Percy read in his dry, monotonous voice. He observed the odd illustrations. "No one knows what happened to the child." He frowned. "They couldn't have just disappeared. Something must've happened to them." He brought out his favourite notebook with a hard, purple cover and began taking down notes. "But what...? Did they trip down? Were they kidnapped?" He eyed his laptop. "Legends say that monsters live under the mountain. But monsters can't possibly exist. Can they? Perhaps it's a metaphor."

Percy continued taking down more notes. He was gathering as much information as possible, even though the internet wasn't always reliable. The only book he had was some old book that belonged to Melody's great-great-great grandfather or something. Who knows? Whatever the case, Percy was determined to find out what had happened to the kid who had the crappy fate of disappearing on Mt. Ebott. He was planning to visit the town's library and search it for books related to the topic - and some dorky comic books, of course.

Percy was about to leave when his best friend Melody entered. She watched him with her sharp blue eyes. She folded her arms.

"You've been in here all day, Percy," she told him. "Are you sure you don't want to come outside with the rest of us?"

"No, thanks," Percy replied, grabbing his research. "I was actually going over to the library to continue my research."

"By yourself?" Melody asked, raising her brow.

The library was a fair distance away. Percy nodded. Well, he was a very independent boy, especially with studying.

"Who's going out?" Brayden asked, popping his head in. He stared at Percy with his flame orange eyes. "Nerd boy! You've been in here all day! How's your nerdy stuff going?!"

"It's research," Percy sighed. "It's good. I'm going to the library."

"BORING!" Brayden commented, blowing a raspberry. "Come on, dude! You don't have to study all the time! This isn't even school-related!"

"I'm investigating, not studying." Percy protested, dipping his head. He adjusted his cloudy glasses.

"Let him do what he wants, Brayden," Melody sighed. She stared at Percy. "Please ask my mom if you can leave. I don't want you getting into trouble."

"Trouble?" Now Clover was in the room, leaning against the wall. She adjusted her cowboy hat. She had a pistol attached to her hip. She wore a pale brown and yellow striped sweater and a yellow bandana around her neck, as well as long brown pants.

"No one better be in trouble." She stared at Percy. "Howdy, pardner. Haven't seen ya all day!"

Percy flushed, turning away. "I'm going to the library."

"I like the library." a quiet voice spoke up.

It belonged to Faye, who was followed by Cody. She had pale blonde hair tied up by a faded red ribbon. She wore a white t-shirt with light blue stripes. She had pale skin and long, brown pants.

"Libraries are nice," she spoke. "I like the quiet and the big bean bags you can sit on. Then on Saturday mornings the library staff read stories to you. Once, this lady read a story about-"

"Yeah yeah, libraries are cool, blah blah," Brayden interrupted, not interested in hearing about libraries. "You know what!? We should ALL go out! Not to the library but to the PARK! THE SWING IS THE BEST!"

He flexed, trying to be tough. Melody sighed. Brayden could be annoyingly immature. Especially with that silly 'manly' bandanna he always wore over his messy, brown hair. He also wore shorts and a pale brown tank with orange stripes over his pale skin.

"Going out sounds like fun." Cody commented, smiling. "We could go to the bakery!" His eyes lit up. He was good friends with the baker's son, since they were both cooking-obsessed. Cody loved cooking so much he always wore his favourite stained apron over his white-and-green striped sweater and long, black pants.

Cody hesitated. "Um, well, if you guys want to, that is!"

"Goin' out sounds dandy." Clover agreed, eyeing Cody - her twin brother.

She was an extremely over-protective sister, and because of this, no one ever messed with Cody. They didn't want have to deal with his scary sister. She and Cody looked similar, too: they both had dark olive skin and dark brown hair. Except their eyes were different. Cody's were a darkish green while his sister's were yellow.

"I like the sunshine on days like this." Faye commented, staring at the ceiling. "Birds are singing and flowers are blooming. It's a perfect day for a game of catch."

She was always getting distracted by everything around her. She took the time to observe her surroundings, since they were often really cool.

"Very well, we'll go out," Melody said, adjusting her bun. She was basically an uptight, but not as aggressive version of Clover. She valued right and wrong. And she was pretty nice... to people she trusted. "As long as my mom says we can."

"Do we have to ask your mom?" Brayden asked irritably.

"Yes," Melody replied, glaring at him. "It's very important."

Brayden sighed. Melody could be a prick.

Melody's mom said the kids could go out as long as they stuck together and didn't screw stuff up. Brayden was usually pretty good at that (unfortunately) so Melody had to chaperone him. Everyone else was okay, though. Unless someone bothered Cody. Then they would get hell from Clover.

Anyway, the kids went out into the town. Percy wanted to go straight to the library. Brayden wanted to go to the park. Faye didn't mind. Cody said he didn't mind, but he secretly wanted to go to the bakery. His sister wanted to check out the police station - to admire it, mostly. Melody wanted to go to some music store and jam out to some sick tunes. No one could agree on anything (aside from Faye who wasn't fussy).

Eventually they decided to go to the bakery, since everyone was sort of hungry. Cody had a secret victory party inside of his mindscape. So the kids went over there, talking to each other on the way. They mainly talked about the weather and why the park was cool and the food at the bakery and etc. Now, my readers, the exciting part starts here. To get to the bakery, the kids had to cross a road. Melody made them line up responsibly and wait until it was safe.

"Don't be stupid, Brayden." she scolded Brayden who looked like he wanted to run across the road for the sake of it.

He muttered a curse he learned from some edgy group at school he used to hang out with. Finally, the children could cross. They did. It was all going well until Faye dropped something on the ground.

"Oops, my toy knife." she muttered, leaning down to pick it up. She didn't see the car speeding towards her.

"FAYE!" the kids screamed.

Faye was about to be hit. It was too late.

It was over.

... or was it?

Suddenly, something leaped out of nowhere and pushed Faye off the road, saving her life. It was a quick flash of red, something speedy, something like that. They crash-landed on the other side, banging into a bin. Faye's saviour was holding her tightly, and carrying her knife, too. They helped her stand up.

Faye was too stunned for words. She accepted the toy knife from her saviour. Their eyes appeared to be closed. They had short, brown hair reaching the back of their head, yellow (?) skin and a blue and pink striped shirt. They were wearing brown pants. They were holding a stick for some reason.

"FAYE!" the other kids raced over.

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!?" Brayden yelled, freaking Faye out. She didn't like being yelled at.

"YOU COULDA BEEN KILLED!" Clover agreed, looking just as furious.

"I... I'm sorry..." Faye whimpered quietly, sinking to the floor.

"YEAH, YOU BETTER BE!" Brayden yelled.

He punched the bin they had crashed into then gave Faye a tackle-hug. Clover gave Faye a hug too and glared at the speeding car. They were already driving away. Clover reminded herself to go to that police station.

Meanwhile, the other kids were speaking to Faye's mysterious saviour.

"Thank you for saving her," Melody told the saviour. Cody gave them a big hug and Percy gave them a nod of approval.

The saviour smiled but did not speak.

"YEAH, YOU RULE!" Brayden said brightly, lightly punching the saviour on the shoulder. "You're the best, punk!"

"Nice to meet ya," Clover said, shaking the saviour's hand. "Thanks for saving my friend back there. Golly, we sure do appreciate it, don't we, Faye?"

The stunned blonde-haired girl nodded in response.

Clover grinned at the saviour. "Yeah. What's your name, by the way?"

The saviour shrugged, not moving their lips or eyes. They weren't very talkative.

"Are your eyes closed?" Brayden asked. "How can you see?"

The saviour shrugged again.

"Not much of a talker, are ya?" Clover asked, raising her brow.

The saviour shrugged one more time.

"Well, talker or not, they're a hero," Melody said, folding her arms.

Clover faced the saviour. "Whoever you are, thanks again."

The saviour nodded and turned away. Suddenly Percy gasped, observing his book. He ran over to the nameless child.

"You look disturbingly similar to the child in this book," he told them, showing them the book.

He himself looked a bit like the kid, too: he had short, black hair (like them), pale skin and a striped sweater. And long pants. But the saviour was far more similar. They looked almost identical, besides the fact that their sweater had two stripes and the child in the book only had one. Percy's purple sweater had black two stripes on the arms and one on his chest. He also wore glasses, and as far as he could tell, neither the saviour or the child in the book had those. The saviour stared at the book for a moment, like they were contemplating something.

"It could be just a coincidence, but..." Percy began taking down notes. Suddenly, the nameless child ripped all of Percy's stuff (including the book and Percy's notebook) out of his hands and ran away at top speed.

"Hey!" Percy didn't like it when people took his notebook. It was his precious. He didn't run very much (he didn't like running) but this was an emergency.

No one stole his precious. He chased after the eighth human. Wait, why was he suddenly he referring to the saviour as that?

... somehow, it made sense. Where had he heard it before? He couldn't put his finger on it...

"Holy crap, Percy can run!" Brayden exclaimed. "He never runs!"

"We're not gonna stand around and watch 'em, are we?" Clover asked, folding her arms. "This kid's up to something. We'd better find out what, y'all!"

Soon she joined in on the chase.

"WHOOO!" Brayden yelled, also running.

He was easily the fastest runner out of the group. Melody eyed Cody and Faye. She stared at her pink ballet shoes. She could run, but she was better at jumping. Running sort of sucks when you're wearing ballet shoes.

"We should keep them out of trouble," Melody told her friends.

She flattened her light-blue and dark-blue striped shirt out. It was pretty much her ballet uniform, since she was wearing her pink tutu as well. She wore these over her dark brown hair and dark skin.

"Let's go," she snapped.

"Coming!" Cody said, racing after Melody, his apron flowing in the wind.

Faye didn't run. She hated running even more than Percy did. She only ran in two (technically three) situations: life or death or for physical education. And most P.E lessons she didn't run anyway. She was not good at any sport whatsoever. So she stuffed running.

Although Faye knew Percy really cared about his stuff, she suspected he would be fine. I mean, the eighth human had just saved her life a few minutes ago. They must have something good in mind. So she trailed behind, looking at all the random stuff around her. It really was a nice day today.

Meanwhile, where all the action and cool stuff was happening, the kid with a stick and Percy's stuff was still running. Percy didn't care where they were going, he wanted his stuff back. Clover and Brayden were catching up.

"Why are you taking it from me!?" Percy yelled, clearly annoyed. He leaped over some kids on their iPads. "Stop running!"

The eighth human didn't stop running. They just kept going, turning here, turning there, kicking people out of their way, etc.

"So... tired..." Percy groaned, his legs feeling like fire. He glared at the kid running off in the distance. "But I can't... give up!"

"I dunno what that kid's doing, but I don't like it," Clover commented, appearing next to Percy. She was tired too.

"Give me back my stuff!" Percy yelled, running after the kid again.

"YEAH! RUN PERCY RUN!" Brayden cheered him on.

The kid eventually led everyone to this big mountain called Mt. Ebott. The mountain Percy wanted to study. They finally stopped running there and began walking instead. Climbing up the mountain like they did it for breakfast. Shoving past all those annoying trees and bushes.

"Stop!" Percy croaked, extremely tired.

He followed the eighth human the mountain, panting. He hadn't done so much running since that torturous cross country at school. He wanted to collapse and sleep until next week, but his stuff was more important. That kid was determined, but so was he. He wouldn't give up yet.

"Hey!" Brayden shouted, reaching Percy.

The others (aside from Faye who was really behind) were there too, eyeing the scene strangely.

"That was awesome, Perce!" Brayden grinned. "Run like that more often!" He fist-pumped the air. "I heard there are monsters on this mountain! I bet I could TOTALLY beat up some monsters!"

"Monsters...?" Cody asked nervously, gripping his frying pan (yeah, he carried that around too).

"Oh, he's only trying to scare you," Melody told Cody, shaking her head. "Monsters aren't real."

"Yeah, that's 'cause you're too scared to admit they are!" Brayden teased. He made a stupid face. "Ooh, Melody! Watch out, I'm a monster! I'm gonna eat you alive!"

He raced back down to Melody and tried to fake-tackle her or something like that. She pushed him away, rolling her eyes. When he got too annoying she took one of his tough gloves off.

"HEY! GIVE IT BACK!" Brayden growled.

"If you stop annoying me I will." Melody replied. She gave him a serious look. "But you have to promise."

"Yeah, yeah, I promise, just gimme my glove back!" Brayden grumbled, trying to take the glove from her.

Melody let him have it back, sighing.

"Where are you leadin' us?" Clover asked the eighth human.

They'd given Percy his stuff back and were gesturing for everyone to follow them. They didn't answer Clover's question and kept walking.

"I don't like this path very much," Melody commented. "My mom wouldn't like us climbing this mountain."

"Just lay off your mom for ten seconds!" Brayden told her, giving her a look. "We're just following that kid! They're probably showing us something awesome like..." He made a scary face at Cody. "MONSTERS!"

Cody yelped and held out his frying pan. He ran up to his sister, who glared at Brayden.

The eighth human stopped in front of a cave. But not any old cave.

"Oh," Percy gasped, taking notes. "It's the cave in my book!" He eyed the eighth human. "Have you been here before?"

The child didn't answer.

"Are there monsters in there?" Brayden asked, running up to the cave. Cody grabbed his sister's sleeve and tried not to whimper. Brayden yelled at the cave, "COME OUT AND FIGHT ME YOU MONSTER WHIMPS!"

But nobody came.

"This is stupid," Melody grumbled, walking up to everyone else. They were surrounding the cave. Melody faced the eighth human. "What did you want to show us?"

They entered the cave. The kids followed them. Percy kept fangirling, because it was another place in his book. He kept taking notes.

"COME AND FIGHT ME, YOU MONSTER COWARDS!" Brayden taunted, parading around the cave like he needed to pee. There was a large, dark hole there that led somewhere. Percy remembered the vines and plants in the dark cave. Did the child trip and fall? He took more notes.

"Be careful, Brayden," Melody warned Brayden, holding his arm. "You'll trip and get hurt."

"I'll be fine, Mel." he groaned, shooing her off.

"This cave's a little creepy, guys." Cody commented, standing next to his sister, his brow creased.

"I wanna know why we're here." Clover said, eyeing the eighth human.

They were looking at the hole. They leaned down like they were trying to see something. Then, suddenly, they tripped. They fell into the hole. That was before Clover grabbed their hand. Cody yelped.

"Don't worry, kid!" she told them. "I've got ya! Just hold on!"

The kid looked down at their stick which was in their other hand. Then, for a second, they thought they saw something else in the darkness. Something shocking. Their heart stopped and their lip quivered. The blood rushed to their head. It was a child. Another child below them. The child in Percy's book.

They whispered a single word, "Chara".

Then they let go of Clover's hand, falling into the darkness.

"Kid!" Clover shouted. She adjusted her hat and jumped in after them.

"Clover!" Cody whimpered, terrified. He raced in after his sister. He didn't want to loose her.

"What..." Percy was writing down notes like a madman. Suddenly he tripped on a vine and fell in too.

"Percy!" Melody exclaimed, not wanting to loose her best friend. She jumped in, sweat beads covering her face.

"WHOA! MELODY!" Brayden yelled. "YEAH! THAT'S THE STUFF! GERONIMO!"

He jumped in after everyone. After he jumped in, Faye arrived.

"Oh... oh no..." she said sadly, her light blue eyes widening. "All my friends are gone..."

She looked around. She didn't want to jump into the hole. It was too scary. She thought maybe she could wait up here for her friends to return. She sat down on the edge of the hole and waited patiently. Until the ground under her butt cracked and she fell in too. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is where our story starts.