Chara felt uneasy as she stared at the gray door. She wasn't sure how much time had passed while she stood, unmoving, in front of the door. She glanced to the left and right to make sure that the ends of the short passageway still ended in dead ends. She grimaced as she saw that they both still ended in blank cavern walls. Turning back to the door, she raised her hand and placed it on the doorknob. She could feel her heart beginning to beat faster in her chest, as sweat gathered on her forehead.

Whatever was behind this door, something was telling her to leave it alone, and to be anywhere but there. But there was nowhere else to go and so, after squeezing her eyes shut, she twisted the doorknob, opened the door, and stepped through.

Opening her eyes, she thought she had stepped into an empty, blank room. She quickly realized that it was in fact not empty, and the room was anything but blank. Standing in the middle of the room was a humanoid looking creature. She couldn't make out any details about its body, but it seemed to have a pair of white hands with a large hole missing from each palm. Its head was white as well, and it had black empty eyes and a black empty mouth in the shape of what appeared to be an open mouth smile. There was a large crack leading up from its right eye and another leading down from its left eye.

The floor they were standing on was gray but, Chara couldn't tell what it was made of, only that it was solid. There were no walls surrounding the floor. Looking out there appeared to be nothing but dark void at first, but as she looked closer, she gasped. There were countless versions of the exact same room she was standing in spanning across the void, randomly appearing and disappearing every second, like stars twinkling in the sky. And each and every one of them had another Chara and another creature.

Chara's heart was pounding in her chest as she began feeling sick. She looked down at herself and stared in horror as her body had started to rapidly de-age until she was back to the size of an infant, before immediately reversing and aging back up again until her body was old and frail. She cried out as her whole body was radiating pain, falling to her knees, arms around her torso. Just off to the side of her, she could make out a dialogue box whose words were appearing, disappearing, and changing rapidly. She fought through the pain and could just barely make out that it was her LOVE, violently increasing and decreasing.

As Chara turned away from the box, while trying to shut out the pain, she heard a noise like a soaking wet towel being dropped onto concrete. She slowly looked up as her heart began to beat even faster, hammering the inside of her ribs.

The creature in the middle of the gray floor had begun to move towards her. It was reaching out with its arms towards her as it sluggishly slid over the floor like a slug. A black substance was sloughing off of its body, and its smile seemed to grow wider as it got closer to her.

Clenching her teeth, Chara gathered her resolve and shouted. "Stay away from me!" With each word she uttered, her voice ranged from that of a small child's to that of an old woman. But the thing seemed to not care as it continued to make its way towards her.

It was only a few feet away from her now. She tightened her grip on her knife and swung it at the thing, aiming for any part that she could reach. Her knife simply passed right through it as if it wasn't even there. Before she could even hope that it was just a hallucination, it grabbed ahold of her and lifted her effortlessly off the floor. Its arms were as cold as ice and felt wet.

Chara began to panic as she tried to stab it in the face with her knife with all her strength, despite the agonizing pain she felt throughout her body, but her knife passed right through as well as her arm. She struggled to break free from the things grasp but more hands appeared from its black amorphous body, grabbing her wrists and ankles preventing her from moving. The thing slammed her onto the ground and pinned her down with its hands. Its face was slowly inching closer and closer to her own, as the black substance continued to drip off of its body in large clumps onto her.

Chara continued to struggle as her body began to feel cold and her nerves continued to radiate pain, but its grip was too strong. Its face was now so close to her own that she was forced to look straight into its black, bottomless, eyes. After a few seconds two dots of light appeared in the things eyes.

Chara heard a voice both with her ears and in her head, yet she couldn't make out was it was saying. "✡︎ ︎ ︎ 👍︎✌︎ ︎ ︎❄︎ 👌︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎📬︎ ✡︎ ︎ ︎ 💧︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎👎︎ ︎ ︎❄︎ 👌︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎📬︎ ✡︎ ︎❄︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ✡︎ ︎ ︎ ✌︎ ︎ ︎📬︎ ✌︎ ︎👎︎ ✋︎ ︎ ✡︎ ︎ ︎ 👍︎✌︎ ︎ ︎ ︎❄︎ ︎ ︎ ︎📬︎ ❄︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎✌︎ ︎💧︎📪︎ 💧︎ ︎ 👍︎✌︎ ︎ ✋︎✏︎"

Chara could only watch as its grin seemed to open wider and wider. Without a way to escape or defend herself, Chara did the only thing her terrified mind could think of.

She squeezed her eyes shut and screamed. "FRIIIISK!"

After a few moments she couldn't feel the things hands on her anymore. She hesitantly opened her eyes, and saw Frisk waiting next to the save point.

Frisk turned to look at her. "Chara are you com-" She gasped midsentence before Chara fell to her hands and knees, taking large gasps of the cool cavern air.

Chara's whole body was shivering, still feeling the icy cold substance that had been dropping onto her. Her eyes began to itch as tears started to blur her vision. She flinched when she felt a hand gently being placed on her back.

Looking up she saw it was Frisk, kneeling next to her, red eyes wide open and her whole face on the filled with worry and on the verge of panic.

"Chara, what's the matter, are you alright?!" Frisk asked her urgently.

Chara stared wide-eyed at her for a few moments before quickly wrapping her arms around Frisk and holding her as close as she could just as she began to sob into her shoulder.

"Whoa, Chara, what happened, are you okay?" Chara was unable to answer as she continued to cry in relief.

After a brief moment of hesitation, Frisk wrapped her own arms around Chara, and began to soothingly rub Chara's back. While they held each other, Chara could feel the warmth from Frisk seeping into her, quickly driving away the icy cold feeling that had permeated her body. After a few minutes, Chara had calmed down and gradually pulled away from Frisk, though she still kept a hand on Frisk's forearm.

"Chara... are you alright? What happened?" Frisk asked in a gentle voice.

Chara looked into Frisk's open eyes, and with how close they were, she could see all the fine details of Frisk's red irises. Looking into them really was like looking into the depths of a glimmering ruby. As she continued to gaze into her eyes, Chara could see that there was a slim darker ring of red around Frisk's pupil. There were also miniscule streaks of a darker, nearly black, red that branched out from her pupil, making it look as if her eyes were made of cracked glass.

As Chara continued to look into Frisk's eyes, she felt a lightness in her chest, as well as an emotion that had somehow managed to trickle through her LOVE's overbearing suppression. It was a feeling she had never felt before, but for just a moment, it felt as if time itself had slowed to a crawl, and all of her fear and uneasiness had drained away from the sight of those sparkling red orbs.

"I..." Chara started, wishing to answer Frisk's question. "I don't know."

"What do you mean?"

Chara was confused, she tried to think back to what had happened over the last few minutes, but the only thing she could remember was being cold and scared.

"I... I don't know. I can't remember."

"Well, you're alright now, Chara, you're safe." Frisk replied as she wrapped her arms around her in a quick but gentle hug.

After a moment of pause Chara gave Frisk a small smile. "Thank you, Frisk."

*Your LOVE has decreased!

Chara ignored the dialogue box that had appeared behind Frisk.

Frisk smiled back before helping Chara get back up onto her feet. "Come on, the monsters aren't going to free themselves, remember."

Chara nodded her head in agreement before walking over to the save point with Frisk and placing her hand on it.

*👍︎ ︎✌︎ ︎✌︎ ✋︎💧︎ 💧︎✌︎ ︎ ︎📬︎ ❄︎ ︎✋︎💧︎ ︎✋︎ ︎ ︎💧︎ ✡︎ ︎ ︎ ︎✋︎❄︎ ︎ 👎︎ ︎❄︎ ︎ ︎💣︎✋︎ ︎✌︎❄︎✋︎ ︎ ︎✏︎*