Well, I was going to wait until the third chapter was done before I submitted chapter 2, but then after having this complete for so long and me finding it difficult to write the next chapter at times, I've decided to say "Screw it!" and upload the 2nd chapter early. So, I hope you guys like this one.
Kris stood before the edge of a rocky cliff, overlooking a strange drop that was shrouded by mist. Above him was a clear sky full of stars and a full moon. Around him however, was an even thicker fog, almost like something he'd see in one of those haunted house attractions. There was a rusty rail going along the edge, presumably to keep wandering visitors from plunging off to their doom. He walked up to the ledge, although he didn't recall his mind telling his body to move. He just observed the world as the vessel that was his moved, the same way one would observe a movie on a TV screen.
He looked downwards, into the mist. He couldn't see any sight of where the drop would end, should he fall from his place. He could hear waves crashing against a surface though, so if he had to guess, there was some sort of body of water beneath the mist. Although, before he could turn around and walk away, he started hearing faint whispers from below. Voices that sounded familiar to him, but at the same time, eerie and unnatural.
"Kris... down here." One voice would whisper.
"Jump..." another would follow.
He took a step back in shock, replaying what the previous voice suggested to him. To jump off the edge, to join the choir of whispers, to, possibly, die. Kris shook his head and turned around, only to be faced with a ominous sight. One that shook his very being to the core and made his blood run cold.
Kris saw the silhouettes of his friends and family in the fog. No features, no expressions, just black figures that were standing before him, their outlines taking familiar form to him. He recognized the shapes to be Susie, Ralsei, Noelle, his mother Toriel and his father Asgore. Kris held out a hand to the figures. "G... guys?" he asked the voices.
Just as suddenly as they appeared, Susie's silhouette ran at him, her footsteps echoing around Kris as she got closer. Kris moved his hair away from his eyes to get a good look at her as she approached. When she was a few feet away, her features became visible, but they were horrific to Kris who recoiled in horror at the sight of her.
Susie had the same angry snarl on her face from when she threatened to bite his face off, except this time, her eyes were blood red and almost appeared to glow through the fog. Her rows of sharp teeth were visible through her enraged expression, jagged and ready to tear into Kris' skin. He also noticed some white froth at the corners of her mouth, looking almost like the rabies virus.
"KRIS!" Susie snarled, pure rage in her voice, her voice accompanied by a second that sounded a lot lower in pitch, probably about 4 or 5 semitones lower than her normal voice. This sound, accompanied with Susie's monstrous appearance and movements, was enough to make Kris, without a second thought, turn to the edge and run straight for it.
His foot got onto the rail and with all of his momentum behind him, he flung himself forward, away from the ledge and into the fog. His body turned as he fell, catching one glimpse of the others as they approached the ledge, before the mist consumed him. They had their same appearances from the real world (or rather, the Dark World in Ralsei's case), but with the same glowing red eyes and overall animalistic changes that Susie had.
Kris felt the wind rush through his hair and the seemingly endless feeling of falling. It was at this point he started wondering how high this drop was. It couldn't have been too high! He heard water beneath the mist a few minutes ago! Kris turned his body to face the ground, hoping he would see something rushing up to meet him, even if it was dark water. But what he saw was a thousand times worse.
There was water belong him, but there were multiple silhouettes within the water, frantically splashing around and desperately trying to reach for something above the surface, being pulled down by something beyond what Kris could see. The figures looked as though they were drowning, some figures breaking the surface and screaming for help, before being pulled back under, their open mouths swallowing water and air escaping their lungs as they continued to scream. He saw some of the figures being Berdly, Lancer, Rouxls Kaard, Jevil and a few other faces he had seen. Multiple voices called out, mostly cries for help, but there were a few deep voices, giving back verbal abuse to those who cried out.
Kris covered his face with his arms as he panicked, dreading the impact with the water, fearing that once he hit the surface, he'll become one of those things. Just as his body hit the water hard, he heard a voice, which sounded a lot like the King of the Dark World's, saying "You won't ever escape me, Kris!", followed by a mocking evil laugh as the figures gripped at Kris' ankles and began to pull him deeper into the water's depths, below him nothing but darkness. He could only scream as the light above him from the moon began to get smaller and smaller the deeper he was pulled. His hair danced frantically as he tried to fight against the hands, pulling him towards the dark, precious oxygen escaping his lungs in bubbles, being replaced with the waters, causing him to begin to drown.
He then looked forward to see Susie once again, her body the same as before, swimming towards him through the darkness. She reached out to grab him as her mouth opened up, revealing her teeth to Kris. Just as her mouth engulfed him and slammed shut, trapping him in even more darkness, Kris bolted upright, his eyes wide behind his fringe.
It took a few seconds of observing his surroundings before he calmed down, relieved he was back in his room, the nightmare he had finally over. He looked back at his bed, a human sized and shaped sweat mark was drenched into the mattress cover, especially around where his arm pits and his head were. He remembered that he had felt hot in his normal clothes while under his bed covers, so he quickly got out of bed, changed his clothes into a white tank top and his boxers, before climbing back into bed. With the amount of sweat that was dried into his bed, who knows how long he was in that nightmare for. But Kris was out of his nightmare now, and to him, that was all that mattered.
He got out of his bed, taking note that it was still dark outside. He then saw the glow of the digital clock on Asriel's side of the room, reading 00:15, Asriel's bed remaining empty, just as it did earlier that day. Kris walked over to the window, pulled back the curtains that Toriel more than likely closed while Kris was asleep and looked outside. The moon shone brightly in the night sky, casting an almost ethereal glow onto the neighborhood, basking it in faint blue light. He couldn't help but smirk a little. The way the moonlight reflected off the houses and the empty streets reminded Kris of being back in the Dark World. Back with Susie and Ralsei, back with his friends, back to his adventures overthrowing the King and so on. Some moonlight leaked into the bedroom, casting a glimmer of light into the otherwise pitch black room.
With a head full of thoughts, mostly consisting of memories with Asriel and his friends, Kris turned around, planning to go back to bed, despite the fact that his dried sweat would more than likely leave a horrid and clammy feeling on his skin. But before he could lift the bed covers, he felt a dryness in his throat. He quickly but quietly walked over to the bedroom door and gently pushed it open, to be greeted by a dark hallway.
After making sure that Toriel was still asleep, he walked out of his bedroom and made his way down the stairs, making sure every step had no potential of making any noise that would wake up his mother. At the bottom of the stairs, he proceeded to turn to the kitchen. He looked around for a cup or a glass, but there were none visible to Kris. He felt as though it were too dangerous to start looking inside the cupboards for one, since the Dreemur household has so many other things, that if one were to fall out of their resting place and hit the floor, whether they shatter or not, the noise would wake Toriel up and draw attention from her. And should that happen, Kris would be dead.
He sighed quietly to himself and was about to walk back upstairs, when he noticed a single glass left in the sink. The pie Toriel mentioned earlier sat on the stove, where he last saw it. It was tempting to take a piece right then and there, but he felt like Toriel would scold him if he did such a thing. So he just walked up to the sink and took the glass. He slowly turned on the cold tap, allowing a stream of water to rush out of the appliance into the glass, complete with a soft hissing sound. After a few seconds, the glass was full and Kris turned off the tap, returning the house to dead silence.
He walked into the living room, glass of water in hand, and sat in the arm chair his mother was sitting in earlier. He let his thoughts run wild for a while as he sat, occasionally taking a sip out of the glass, his eyes glancing at the moonlight outside the window. Ever since he was a baby, he always enjoyed sitting in this armchair. It just felt so comfortable to him, for whatever reason. Maybe it was the feeling of the cushions upon the frame of his body, or maybe, it was the way the chair felt whenever he would lean against it. Kris could easily fall asleep in this arm chair. In fact, he had done, multiple times.
He would feel so embarrassed whenever Toriel would wake him up after she found him asleep in said arm chair, although sometimes, Toriel had found him asleep in the arm chair and just left him there to sleep. While he appreciated not being disturbed, it still was embarrassing whenever he would wake up and find himself still in the chair. Usually, it would happen either shortly after Kris and Toriel got home after school or after dinner. Kris would sit down in that arm chair while Toriel sat in either the opposite arm chair or on the sofa, watching television. Kris would find himself feeling tired or notice he was dozing off constantly. He would try and fight this urge to sleep, but more often or not, he would end up dozing off. Sometimes, when he woke up, if he wasn't still in the arm chair, he'd be in his bed.
Speaking of dozing off, Kris started to feel his eyes slowly close the more he sat in the chair. Unlike most times where he sat there, trying to fight it, he quickly got up. He quickly finished his glass of water before returning to the kitchen and gently placing the glass back into the sink. He then paused, seemingly deep in thought once again. He took a look at the front door, pondering if it was worth going for a walk or not.
This was another Kris would do whenever we woke up in the night. He would grab his house keys, along with his coat from his bedroom (as well as get dressed of course), and go for a long walk. He would take in the surroundings, how the area looked (which he knew like the back of his hand at his age) and wondering about how people are doing in their lives. More often or not, he would ponder about specific people and events in this life whenever he passed their home or wherever the events took place. He would think about his father, Asgore Dreemur, whenever he passed Flower King, his father's shop. He'd think about Noelle whenever he passed the gate to the Holiday residence. About Mr. Holiday whenever he passed the hospital. About him and Asriel's misadventures at QC's Diner and Ice-E's P"e"zza whenever he passed those places.
But tonight, Kris wasn't in that mind state. Instead, he just made the short journey back to his room. Once back in his room, he closed the curtains, shrouding the room in almost total darkness once more, before climbing back into bed, ignoring the rather pungent smell of dried sweat and the vile clammy feel of said dried sweat on his skin.
Kris awoke early the following morning. Very rarely did he ever wake up that early, especially on a school day. Normally, he would go right back to sleep, but that morning, he felt far too awake to even attempt doing so. He sat up in his bed, making sure he was fully awake before he would even attempt to get up. He didn't want a repeat of when he got up half asleep, fell and banged his head against his nightstand. He had Toriel worried sick about his injuries after that!
He looked towards Asriel's side of the room, his clock reading 6:30. After a few minutes of sitting there, Kris climbed out of bed, opening a dresser and taking out a towel. With the towel in his hand, he made his way out of the room, en route to the bathroom.
He knew Toriel would come into his room within the next hour or there abouts, so he decided to get his shower, breakfast and clothes done before then.
"Another day, another boring class." Kris thought to himself, as he sat, listening to Ms. Alphys drone on about some stuff he probably won't remember by the end of the day. He had a look around the room. There were various certificates hung on the hall to the left of the blackboard, what they were for, Kris could only guess, since where he sat made the writing on them almost unintelligible. Next to the classroom door was the clock, forever stuck at 2 o'clock. The battery on that clock had died so long ago and Alphys did say that she would replace the batteries soon, but even now, she never did. Whether it was due to lack of time or any other reason was anybody's guess. A lot of students, Kris included, would sometimes look at that clock and be excited that the day was almost over, before remembering that Alphys never changed the batteries and sinking back into their disappointed slump as they continued with their work.
Once he took in the classroom's set up, Kris started looking around at the other classmates, sitting in desks that surrounded his own, facing the front of the class, just like his. To his right, from the front row to the back row, was Temmie, a... thing that was planning to go to "colleg" as she puts it, but is often considered to be the class idiot by others, Monster Kid, who was one of the more focused individuals in the class (he certainly seems to have a bright future ahead of him, despite his lack of arms) and Snowy, a snowdrake who, for some reason that Kris didn't know nor cared about, felt the need to speak in some stupid cowboy accent. Whenever he did speak, it was usually accompanied with the most God awful puns and jokes.
To Kris' left, going from the back row to the front row, was Jockington, a snake with a 'cool hat' and a speech impediment, which causes him to pause mid sentence, Catti, the sister to the Dreemur household's neighbor Catty, who pays more attention to her phone more than anything (Kris always wondered why Alphys never takes the phone off her when it's so blatant) and Noelle. In front of him, just before the blackboard where Alphys had finished writing and had sat down at her computer, was a desk belonging to Berdly.
Ugh... Berdly. The self proclaimed 'smartest guy in class'. The straight A student that feels the need to rub his academic successes in EVERYBODY'S faces. Maybe that was why he was such a loner outside the classroom. No, scratch that. That was more than likely why he was such a loner. Most students just learned to ignore him, especially when he goes off on his tangents about how his high grades are gonna get him into the best colleges, how he's high and mighty over everyone else because he put in the 'effort' to study. Maybe it was true, but every time he opened his mouth, the words that would be released came off so damn condescending.
Noelle was often partnered with him whenever they had a project to work on. Of course, he was hard working and he did the project with Noelle near flawlessly. But my word, none of that mattered when he came off so self-obsessed due to his grades. If she had the choice, she would avoid being with him for school work so often, but she learned to put up with his behavior, no matter how self righteous he was.
Kris on the other hand, couldn't stand the bothersome, ego-maniacal bird! When Berdly rejected the idea of Kris being his project partner on the grounds of him apparently not being smart enough to earn an A grade, his blood boiled. If the classroom was empty (or at least, if Ms. Alphys wasn't there), Berdly would've been on the floor with a black eye, maybe a broken beak. You see, Kris knew Berdly was only strong in the academics department, not in the physical field. If Berdly and Kris somehow got into a physical fight, Kris knew he would be able to beat Berdly up easily. But the most Kris could do in the classroom is give a snarky response to Berdly whenever he would get big headed, resulting in some laughs from his fellow classmates. One time, even Ms. Alphys had to walk out of the room because of something Kris said. He didn't know exactly why, but he was sure it was because Alphys knew it would be inappropriate to laugh.
Behind Kris was Susie, once a feared bully to the classmates (well actually, she still was), now one of Kris' close friends. She was at the back of the class, so a lot of the time, she wasn't paying Ms. Alphys any attention, usually on her phone like Catti or drawing on her desk. Kris took a glance back at Susie, admiring her face behind her hair as she scribbled something onto her desk. He didn't look back to the front, until he noticed Susie had looked back up and the two's eyes met.
"Dude, are you okay?" Susie whispered, low enough for Alphys not to hear. Then again, Alphys had earphones in, more than likely watching that Mew Mew Kissy Cutie thing Kris heard so much about. He responded with a quick nod, causing Susie to go back to her scribbling. Kris took notice of Noelle taking notes, her mind focused on the lesson in front of her. He remembered how much she had a crush on Susie and felt like he should give her a hand in giving her a little push into getting to know her. Kris took a small piece of paper out of his desk and with a pen on his desk, quickly wrote down a little message onto it, glancing at the front to make it look as though he was taking notes. Once he was finished, he put down his pen and took a look upon the note...
And frowned, when he realized that what he written down was an unintelligible scribble, not one bearing resemblance to any word in the English language. "Damn it." he muttered to himself as he scrunched up the paper and threw it aside. He took a fresh piece and wrote down his message, making sure to focus entirely on the message itself. Once done, he took a look at the note, happy this time that the message was now clearer.
"Meet me and Susie in the lunch hall. Kris."
He took a quick look around. Every one else seemed so focused on their work. And by everyone, Kris meant Noelle, Monster Kid and Berdly. Temmie was reading a comic book, hidden from Alphys behind a normal school text book, Alphys was too engrossed in whatever was on her computer screen to focus on the class and Catti was on her phone like usual. He couldn't see what Snowy and Jockington were doing behind him, but he didn't really care to begin with. When he was sure everyone wasn't paying attention, Kris looked over at Catti and whispered a small "Hey, Catti." at her. Her eyes didn't move from the phone screen though as she continued to text away.
Kris fidgeted in his seat, sitting up straight and his right elbow resting in his left palm, the note caught in his index and middle finger. He made a glance at Catti and clicked his tongue, causing her ears to perk and twitch at the sound. It seemed to catch Berdly's attention too, since he briefly stopped working, took a look around, mostly at the ceiling, before going back to his work, more than likely assuming the noise he heard was nothing. Catti on the other hand, was able to locate the source of the noise as her eyes raised from her phone to Kris, her disinterested expression not changing one bit.
"Hmm?" Catti replied, sounding tired, just like normal. Kris, with his free hand, firstly pointed at the note between his fingers, then pointed at her, then across to Noelle, his arm not once leaving the desk. He didn't want to be noticeable after all. Catti raised an eyebrow, clearly not getting the hint, causing Kris to repeat the actions. She let out a sigh, rolling her eyes as she now understood Kris' request. He leaned towards her, note still in his fingers, to which Catti also leaned towards him, taking the note from his fingers. Both of them returned to their normal seated positions and paused. They both wanted to make sure the transaction wouldn't get either of them into trouble with Alphys. Kris glanced back at Susie, who was no longer scribbling and sitting up straight, eyes wide open and focused on the note in Catti's hand, obviously taking interest in what was going on.
Catti then reached forward, tapping Noelle on the shoulder. The deer girl briefly stopped working and looked back at the cat, who held the note to her. Noelle took the note and after moving her pencil case to hide the note from prying eyes such as Alphys or Berdly (God forbid), she opened up the note and quietly read it to herself. She then looked back at Kris, who silently gave her a thumbs up, his eyes visible behind his hair.
"Still making notes for your girlfriend Noelle, huh Kris?" a voice whispered in front of him. Kris turned his head from Noelle to Berdly, who had apparently noticed Noelle looking at Kris and was now turned to face Kris himself. "Oh God no, not him." Kris thought to himself before Berdly continued, a smug smile plastered onto his face. "You keep that up, it'll be the ONLY thing you'll end up passing in this class!"
Kris had hoped Berdly wouldn't notice him passing the notes to Noelle, so it pissed him off when he heard Berdly speak to him like that. Noelle seemed to have caught some of Berdly's remark as well, as she was blushing profusely, possibly at the mention of her being Kris' girlfriend. Kris sighed before whispering back one of his usual quips.
"Well, at least I'll be passing something Berdly, which is more than can be said for you and gym class."
Noelle giggled a little at the remark and Kris noticed Monster Kid stifle a laugh, seemingly after listening in to their conversation. Berdly on the other hand, looked offended at the remark. If the classroom was empty, he could've stood up and swung a fist at Kris. Not that it would change the outcome, he'd still be on the floor with Kris standing over him. But anyway, the blue bird nerd raised a finger to point at the human, seemingly about to say something in retaliation, but after a pause, he apparently couldn't think of anything as he growled to himself, putting his finger down and turning back to face the front.
The lunch hall was crowded as usual for a school day like this. A lot of the students and teachers were seated somewhere in the room, either eating their lunch or talking with their friends. Some were even talented enough to multitask both of those actions!
Kris and Susie both sat at one table, talking amongst themselves as they ate their lunch. Kris had a small paper bag with a single sandwich and a piece of the pie Toriel had cooked the day before. Susie on the other hand, had a small tray of what looked like some sort of meat pie with mashed potatoes and a few selection of vegetables, although given how a majority of school cafeteria food would look, you wouldn't find it appealing to look at, let alone eat. Maybe that was why Susie wasn't eating much of it, or maybe she was just so engrossed in her conversation with Kris.
They were so focused on their conversation that they almost didn't notice the deer girl when she took a seat next to Kris. "Hey Kris, you wanted to see me?" Noelle asked her friend as she sat down, her hands holding a plastic tray of pretty much the same thing as Susie. Kris nodded his head with a simple "Mmm hmm." before gesturing to Susie. Noelle's eyes glanced over to where Kris had gestured and upon meeting eyes with Susie, her face suddenly turned red, obviously indicating that she didn't notice her at first when she sat down.
"Hey there Noelle." Susie said nonchalantly, a smirk growing on her face. "Kris has told me a lot about you." she continued, making Noelle's blush even redder. She never expected her crush to be interested in speaking to her, let alone saying her name! "S-S-Susie! I didn't expect you to be...!" Noelle began, her voice full of panic before Susie laughed. "Noelle, chill. I'm not gonna do anything to you. Kris told me between classes that you wanted to get to know me more and I thought it would be awesome to meet you." the dinosaur explained, causing the deer girl to calm down. She was still a little shaken up about seeing her crush face to face. I suppose anybody would be.
"Yeah, that was why I gave that note to you. I know how much you want to get to know Susie, so I figured why not have you both meet in person?" Kris added, gently holding his friend's forearm to comfort her. "It's not like she's gonna bite your face off if you look at her funny." He added, glancing over at Susie. Susie paused before replying "Y-yeah! I don't actually bite people's faces off. I use more of a threat to people who piss me off. Very rarely do I actually do it."
"W-what happened last time you did that?" Noelle asked her. Susie was about to open her mouth and explain, but quickly shut it upon noticing Kris slowly shaking his head at her. "You... Actually, it's probably best you don't know Noelle." she said. Kris then removed his hand from Noelle's arm as he spoke. "Like I said yesterday, she's rough around the edges, but she's really nice once you get to know her." He said.
"Didn't you also say she was mean-spirited?" Noelle asked him, causing Susie's smile to drop. "Kris... out of all the things you could've described me as, why did you go with mean-spirited? You just said I'm nice once you get to know me!" Susie queried, feeling a little hurt. Kris raised his hair from over his eyes to look Susie in her eyes. "C'mon Susie, you picked me up by the shoulder and slammed my back into a locker. You're lucky that all I had from that impact was a bruise." Kris replied back, Noelle covering her mouth in shock.
"Oh my God Kris! And I thought it was bad, actually seeing it happen right outside our classroom!" Noelle exclaimed. She then paused, as she thought back to the day before, the events leading up to Kris and Susie missing that class and the horrors that she saw.
"So, does everyone have a...?"
Alphys was starting her lesson like normal. Noelle sat in her usual place, in the front row desk, furthest from the door to the classroom. Next to her was Berdly, whilst Catti was behind her. She was worried that Kris wasn't going to arrive that day, since the project the class was going to work on was very important to their final grade. If he missed this class, then he would struggle for the rest of the year, just to catch up. Thank goodness she was there to help him, mostly with his homework assignments. She would give him a hand with the project itself, but Berdly already made the declaration that she would be working with him. She would've spoken against it, but all she could do was curse her timid nature.
A loud click took everyone's attention from Alphys as everyone turned to the door, which had opened, revealing Kris standing in the doorway. "Sorry I'm late." Kris said to Alphys as he walked into the classroom, closing the door behind him. Alphys, who seemed quite shocked seeing him, could only reply with a "Oh... K-Kris...! We thought you weren't coming today!".
Kris glanced over at her, his eyes visible behind his hair. "Yeah, it was my fault. I must've forgot to set my alarm last night and I overslept. Nothing serious. Do we have any assignments today?" Alphys seemed to flinch a little upon meeting Kris' eyes, though she tried her best to hide it. She wasn't sure if it was just that Kris' eyes looked so uncanny compared to other kids (especially considering there were no other humans in her classes), or if it was just the lighting in the classroom that made him look off, with his hair casting a shadow over the top half of his face so that when he did reveal his eyes, they gave off the appearance that they were glowing, but there was something there when Kris glanced at her that gave off a sort of... foreboding vibe, like Kris was waiting for a sign of weakness from Alphys, so that he may pounce on her like an animal on its prey.
She paused briefly, maybe trying to regain her composure, before she answered. "We're doing group projects this month... Uhhhh... so, walk around and find a partner, okay?", the response Kris gave back was a simple "Hmm." as if he had heard her say this a thousand times before.
Noelle could only watch as Kris moved around the classroom, asking different students if they'd like to be his partner. The first classmate he asked was Temmie, who replied that she "already have partner", placing a black and white hard boiled egg onto her desk with some unforeseen white appendage a few seconds later. Even Kris seemed confused as he looked upon the egg, but sighed and moved on. Monster Kid turned him down, since he already partnered with Snowy and Jockington and Catti were already partners, although Kris had the feeling that he was gonna end up doing most of the work between them while Catti was... well, Catti.
Noelle heard Kris sigh before walking up to Berdly, next to her. While she didn't hear the conversation Kris had with the others, she clearly heard the conversation between Kris and Berdly. Kris walked up to him, despite Noelle shaking his head at him telling him not to. Either he didn't see her or he ignored her as he reached an arm out and tapped Berdly's shoulder, drawing his attention. "Oh no, here it comes." Noelle thought to herself as she saw Berdly grow his almost trademark smug smirk on his lips.
"Ah, Kris. Late again, I see." Berdly began. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Do you have a partner or not?" Kris interrupted him, clearly getting annoyed. Berdly's eyes opened wide in faux surprise. "Hmm? You need a partner? Sorry, I'm already partners with the 2nd smartest student." he said, the smugness not once leaving his voice. To add insult to injury, he also used his thumb to point over to Noelle upon mentioning her being second smartest, possibly to drive his point home. Kris glanced over at Noelle, who could only look apologetically at Kris and whisper "I'm so sorry Kris.", to which Kris replied with holding his hand up to her, as if to say "Don't worry about it." to her.
"Though... wait!" Berdly suddenly spoke up, getting Kris' attention. "Kris, now that I think about it, your unique skill set might help a LOT on this assignment!" he added, sounding upbeat and hopeful. Kris also looked just as hopeful as he asked him "Really?", noticing too late that Noelle was quickly moving her arms in a horizontal motion while whispering "No! No!" at him. It was only when Kris heard a "Pfft, NOT!" from Berdly, did he realize what Noelle was trying to warn him about. "I actually want to get an 'A'!" Berdly finished. Kris glanced down at him, a dirty smug look plastered onto his face. If it was him and Kris alone in that room, it would've been Kris' fist plastered against Berdly's stupid face! Kris could only point at him, trying to think of something in return, but gave up as he dropped his finger with a slight growl and walked over to Noelle, Alphys only watching from where she stood with a apologetic look on her face, either unable or unwilling to help out. Kris only hoped it was the former.
"I'm really sorry Kris, he had already asked me to be his partner before you arrived." Noelle explained. Kris smirked a little. Despite saying that Berdly asked her, he knew what really happened. "Did he actually ask you or did he announce it again like last time?" Kris asked her. Noelle paused, not wanting to escalate the situation. She glanced over at Alphys before she had an idea. "Hey Kris, umm... I could ask Ms. Alphys if we could make a group of three! I'll ask if you're sure." Noelle explained.
Kris looked back at Berdly, who seemed to have heard Noelle's suggestion. He glanced up to look Kris in the eye. When the two made eye contact, Berdly slowly shook his head and mouthed the words "Don't do it." at him. Kris smirked back. This was his chance to get back at Berdly for all the BS that he gave to him, not just today, but throughout the school year. Kris turned back to Noelle and said "Yeah Noelle, please do.", earning a "No!" whisper from Berdly.
"OK, I'll ask!" Noelle replied, turning to face Alphys. "Noelle, we don't-!" Berdly began to protest before Kris interrupted him. "She didn't ask you Berdly. Keep your fat mouth shut." Noelle, having a strong feeling things were about to escalate, quickly called out to the teacher. "Ms. Alphys! Umm, is it OK if we have groups of three?" Berdly quickly reacted in shock to this, as he spluttered out a quick "Hey! I do NOT approve of this! ABORT!", adding in the last command like a robot. Kris, who had a smile on his face, quickly turned to face the nerdy bird, his smile melted off at this point. "Quiet!" Kris demanded from him, causing the other classmates to take notice, as he turned back to face Ms. Alphys. "I'm sorry Noelle, what were you saying?" Alphys asked her, somehow not hearing Noelle's question the first time.
Noelle opened her mouth, but Berdly quickly butted in. "She was just saying we're FINE being alone!" Kris turned back to the bird, pure venom in his eyes and his teeth gritted together. "Shut up!" He barked at Berdly, causing him to jump a little. It might've been possible that Alphys and Noelle jumped at this too. The other students looked on in shock, Catti seemed to have stopped texting and was holding her phone horizontally, possibly aiming the phone's camera at the two in hopes she'll catch a fight between Kris and Berdly. "Actually, I just wanted to know if..." Noelle said quickly, wanting to ease the situation. She felt as though a fight was inevitable between the two boys and wanted to do her best to diffuse the situation, however she was so afraid of the possibility of a fight breaking out, her voice could barely be heard to Ms. Alphys. It also didn't help that Noelle had NEVER seen Kris get this angry before all the time she's known him.
"Noelle, can you PLEASE speak up?" Alphys asked her. She was trying to put some authority into her voice, but it was clear that she was just as frightened as Noelle was. "I-." Noelle began. However, Berdly, yet again, tried to change the situation by stealing the words out of Noelle's mouth and changing them to benefit him alone. "Noelle was just saying that-!" Berdly began, before Kris, to the shock of everyone around him, grabbed a glass of water from Alphys' desk and threw the contents at the bird. Most of the water ended up on Berdly's button-up shirt, but some of it caught him in his face, temporarily blinding him. "Kris!" Alphys spoke up, intending on scolding him, but she suddenly backed down when Kris, almost robotically, turned to face her. Again, that foreboding vibe came back in full swing, causing her to back off. Noelle sat shocked at the events going on beside her. She knew that at this point, a fight was gonna happen.
"You know, just because you're the smartest kid in the school doesn't mean we all wanna hear you smart mouth the rest of us, bird brain!" Kris snapped, Berdly looking over the water damage on his shirt. "This is my favorite shirt, Kris! Do you have any clue how long it's gonna be until this dries?!" Berdly yelled back, his voice, once filled with snark and arrogance, now replaced with almost total fury. "Guys! We don't need to fight over this!" Noelle spoke up, afraid but still trying her best to stop the fight before it starts. Kris seemed to have the perfect comeback ready, as he quickly spun back to face him and say "I don't know. Probably the same amount of time it takes for you to keep your damn mouth shut! Then again, I guess you wouldn't know that, considering how often you run your mouth about your grades, as if they mean anything!", getting a collective gasp from Alphys and Noelle, an "Oooh!" from the rest of the class and a small laugh from Jockington, WAY at the back of the room behind Catti, who was still holding her phone recording them both.
Then Berdly did something nobody else thought he would do; he stood up from his seat, his height matching that of Kris, who was staring daggers into his eyes. "I'll have you know that the grades I've gotten during my time at this school will get me into the best colleges and universities once I leave this place!" Berdly shouted into Kris' face, a finger pressed hard against Kris' chest, poking it with certain syllables for added emphasis. "Berdly! Don't-!" Noelle shouted at him, trying to defuse the argument between her best friend and her work partner, Kris was too quick on the reply before she could finish though. "Maybe so, but at least I'm not putting down others like you do when I talk about my grades! So unless you have something better to say to my face, I would suggest you sit back down and shut the fu-!"
Kris' tirade was sharply interrupted by a loud bang from the door to the classroom, followed by a tense silence. Everybody's attention turned to it and upon seeing her, almost everyone's collective blood within the room turned cold. Even Alphys, who just a few seconds ago, was trying to settle things down between Kris and Berdly, was now cowering in fear at this new face that just walked in. "H... hi Susie." Alphys greeted Susie, her voice now a cowering whisper.
Susie took one step into the classroom, all eyes wide and on her. Berdly's face had gone pale, Catti quietly stopped recording her video and put her phone away and Noelle's heart was racing. Kris on the other hand, held virtually no reaction to her, almost as if there wasn't a trace of fear in his body. Susie took a long glance at everyone in the room, her eyes invisible behind her hair, much like Kris'. "...Am I late?" she asked, her voice deep and rough, looking over at Alphys. The sound of her voice was almost fitting for her, given her demeanour and her grand entrance. Susie absolutely TERRIFIED Alphys. With Kris, him meeting eyes with her gave off a foreboding vibe in her, but she knew that Kris wouldn't think about hurting her in any way shape or form. Meeting eyes with Susie on the other hand, gave off a sense that she was in danger. It was as though if Alphys dared to make one wrong move and piss off Susie, then the purple girl would have NO problems seriously hurting her. Maybe she'd even KILL Alphys if she was especially pissed off and lucky enough to find a weapon.
"Ohh, n-no! You're fine! W-we were just, uh... ch-choosing partners for the next group project, and..." Alphys began to explain, quickly looking over the classroom, all eyes focused on her instead. So much so, that they didn't even notice Susie reach for something below the blackboard, grab it and put the object in her jacket pocket. Her eyes briefly locked with Kris, before turning back to Susie, ending her talk with a quick "Ummm, Susie, you're with Kris!". The purple monster girl looked over at Kris and the two's eyes met through their hair. To Susie, Kris was just another student who had no major importance to her, not that she cared anyway. But to Kris, something clicked in his head upon meeting eyes with her. He didn't know at the time, but this was the start of something more between the two. "...Great." Susie muttered, before she walked over to her seat, behind Kris' right at the back.
Another tense round of silence followed before Alphys spoke up again, this time talking to Kris and Berdly. "And ummm... Kris, if you would like to return to your seat please? I w-would like to speak to you and Berdly after class." she said. Berdly sat back down as Kris walked to the front of his desk, looking Berdly dead in the eyes, venom still present in them. "You say the wrong things to someone one day, they're gonna beat the shit out of you." Kris whispered in an angry tone through gritted teeth. Berdly didn't say anything back, he just curled his feathered hand upwards at the human, giving him the finger, putting it down a few seconds later. Kris, still glaring daggers at him, moved passed his desk and sat back down at his own.
The tense silence came back for round 3 after Kris sat down. Even though Kris and Berdly didn't have that fight in there, they might as well had since there was still a lot of tension in the air. "N-now that everyone's here and we've all c-calmed down, I'll write the assignment!" Alphys announced. She walked behind the desk, intending to write on the blackboard, but when she reached for the chalk she had, she was surprised to find the holder empty. She had a quick look on the floor in case they had somehow fallen out, but there was nothing. "Uh... has anyone seen the chalk? This is the third time it's gone missing and... y-you all know I can't start class without some!" She began, causing everyone to start looking around at the other students, under their desks and all over the floor. Everyone, except Susie, who was sitting in her chair, looking nonchalant about the situation.
After a few seconds, everyone looked back at the front. None of them found it, either showing it by out right saying it or by shrugging. "H-how about this? If no one speaks up... e-everyone gets in trouble!" Alphys said. Berdly could only smirk, Catti rolled his eyes and Jockington could be heard snorting and giggling a little. Pretty clear indications from the class that Alphys couldn't make the whole class in trouble. She could barely get Berdly and Kris to behave a few minutes ago! "A... anyone? P... please?" Alphys begged in a pathetic manner.
"Hey, there might be a box in the supply closet..." Noelle spoke up, finally finding the voice she desperately needed when Kris and Berdly were fighting. "Miss Alphys, why don't Susie and I...?" she continued, but for some reason, Noelle's voice trailed off, a crimson blush slowly appearing on her face. Without any other details, Alphys was left on her own to fill in the blanks. "G-good idea, Noelle! Susie, s-since you came in last... why don't you go get it for me?" Alphys suggested. Kris turned around to watch Susie's reaction, who sat there not saying another word. She was quiet for a while before she replied with a bored sounding "Whatever.", proceeding to get out of her desk, walk to the door, open it and leave the classroom, the door slamming shut behind her with the same amount of force she had when she first arrived in the room.
"And K... Kris? Can you go with her and make sure she... um, actually gets it? And, um, stays out of trouble?" Alphys then asked Kris. He replied with a shrug and a simple response.
"Alright, but if anything happens to me, you're gonna be held responsible."
Kris then stood up and made his way to the door. "Thanks Kris! See you later!" Alphys called after him as he walked out of the room. After a few seconds, Alphys turned to Noelle. "Now Noelle, before Berdly and Kris had their little... disagreement, w-what were you trying to ask me?" she asked, Berdly glanced over, his face with a tired expression, as if to say "Are we really going over this again?" without any words. Noelle looked over at Berdly before answering. "I was trying to ask... if it was okay, if me, Kris and Berdly worked together as a group of three. But... seeing as how hostile the boys get with each other, I guess that's out of the question by this point."
"W-well... like you said, it might be a little late now." Alphys began. She turned to face Berdly, whose smart ass smirk had returned to his face, now hearing that Kris wouldn't be a part of him and Noelle's group. Alphys glared at him briefly before continuing to speak with Noelle. "But if it makes you feel any better Noelle, if I had heard your request the first time, I would've allowed you to work in threes with Berdly and Kris."
Berdly raised in shock with a "Huh?!" at Alphys answer, while Noelle smiled at the notion. Once it all registered to him, he sighed, resting his head in his palm. "Oh, this is completely ludicrous. When has Kris ever put in effort to the class work?" Berdly protested, sounding more bored than frustrated, even though he tried to pull the latter mood off. Noelle looked over and replied with an annoyed "Oh shush Berdly!"
Alphys then turned to Berdly, seeming to want to say a few words as well. "As much as Kris acted out of order a few minutes, h-he did have a point about you bragging about your grades. Y-you might be one of the highest working students in the class but..." she said before trailing off, apparently having run out of words to say to the nerd. "Damn right I am! Do you know how long it took me since the beginning of the school year to get to where I am academically now? My parents had put me through multiple contests in various subjects during 5th grade. At first, I thought it was pointless, but then I learned that the more smarter you got, the better your chances in life are. By the time I left that school and came here, I knew that school's curriculum, front to back, forwards, backwards, etcetera, etcetera! You think that Kris, or anybody else, takes that into consideration? They don't. Need I remind you, that Kris only got into this school, because his mom, Ms. Toriel, got a job here and has worked in this school for the last 4 years, teaching the kindergarteners up to the second grade!" Berdly ranted, the only response he was getting for his speech being groans of annoyance and eye rolls from the other students.
"Are you finished?" Noelle asked him, clearly frustrated that Berdly was acting so self-entitled. "I mean, I know Kris got here because of his mom, but that doesn't mean-."
BANG!
A sudden and loud bang from outside the room interrupted Noelle's response, startling her and Alphys, followed by some light rattling sounds. It almost sounded like something large had slammed into the lockers outside the classroom. Everyone's attention, which was focused on Berdly and Noelle, suddenly jerked to the door where Kris and Susie had walked out of earlier. Even Berdly, who a few seconds ago was acting so high and mighty, was now glancing at the door, a concerned look on his face. "W-what was that noise?" Monster Kid asked, sounding concerned. The answer came almost immediately to him and the rest of the class. It was muffled, but it was clearly Susie's voice outside.
"Quiet people piss me off."
Temmie, who was closest to the door, seemed to notice something, as she suddenly looked through and her expression dropped from her usual cheery self. "Suz... has Krisp... on locker!" she shouted in her usual broken English. The class responding to this with a cacophony of various "Huh?!" and "What?!" responses. After a few seconds, Snowy got up out of his seat, and despite Alphys warnings, ran over to the door to look out the window. He watched for a few seconds, before turning back to the class. "Par'ners, that girl's got him pinned ta' da lockers!" Snowy shouted in his make believe cowboy accent.
Almost immediately, nearly everyone in the classroom got up and walked over to the door, the only ones not there were Berdly, Alphys and Noelle. Berdly scoffed. "Typical, the moment some conflict arises, EVERYONE takes an interest." he muttered. Susie's voice from the other side of the door continued, aimed at Kris who, according to Snowy, was pressed against the locker doors that made the wall. "Come on Kris. Don't act shocked. You know it's true. Everyone's waiting for it. Everyone wants it."
Almost immediately after that phrase left Susie's lips, it seemed she did something outside to scare the classmates, since they quickly backed away from the door in terror, some with a few screams. Noelle took an interest in the sudden reaction. "What? What just happened? Did Susie hurt Kris?" she asked. Monster Kid looked back at her. "No! After she said that, she just glanced at the door's window. It was like she could see us behind it!" he said, pure horror in his voice.
Noelle quickly got up out of her seat, now fully worried. Berdly rolled his eyes at the action. "He's not in our group Noelle, just leave him be." he said, still sounding annoyed. It seemed like he didn't want anything to do with Kris at this point. But after an argument like the two had, who could blame him? Noelle turned sharply and replied with a serious tone. "He might not be in our group, but he's still my friend!" She quickly then turned back to the door and approached it, the fellow students not far behind her. What she saw was horrifying to say the least.
Susie had her hand tightly gripped on Kris' left shoulder and was holding him against the lockers just like Snowy had said she was. Kris appeared to be struggling against her grip as she spoke, although now, she was speaking so quietly to Kris, it was hard for Noelle to hear exactly what she was saying. Kris' legs kicked about as he slammed closed fists into Susie's arm, hoping in vain that the blows would weaken them enough to drop him.
"Noelle, I think some teacher will help Kris. I-I think it would be best if you-." Alphys began. She couldn't finish the sentence though, because Noelle quickly answered to the suggestion she had. "I can't just let Kris get hurt out there! I need to get out there and help him!" she said panicked, as she went for the door handle, grabbing and turning it. She pulled back, hoping the door would fly open so that she could go out there and confront Susie, even if it meant she would die in his place. But to her horror, the door wouldn't budge, no matter how hard she pulled at it. "Guys! The... the door is jammed!" Noelle screamed to her classmates in a panic. Snowy quickly moved forward and tried the door too. He was pulling hard against it, but the door wouldn't move, almost as if fate was refusing to let the class intervene with the assault outside.
"Kris..." Susie's voice said again, outside. As Snowy continued to try and open the door, Noelle could only slam her hands against the window, desperately trying to get either of their attention. "Susie! What are you doing?! Get off him!" the deer screamed through the glass, timing each hit on the window with her words. The door shook with every hit and every attempt to be opened. For a second, Susie seemed to stop what she was doing and turned her eyes towards the door, almost seeming to meet Noelle eye to eye, which caused the deer girl to cease panicking and put her in a sense of awe at how Susie's eyes looked underneath her hair. Kris seemed to notice as well, since it wasn't long until his eyes darted over to the door as well, appearing to notice Noelle also. "The door isn't budgin'!" Snowy yelled, but Noelle hadn't took notice, too entranced by Susie's gaze at her.
Still glancing over at Noelle, Susie continued, speaking to Kris. "How do you feel...?" And with that, Susie's mouth grew into a malicious smile, complete with sharp yellow teeth. Kris, who's attention was on the door, now turned back to face Susie. He stopped struggling the moment he saw the teeth, seemingly terrified. Susie turned back to look at him, dead in the eyes, ignoring Noelle. With the row of sharp teeth, Susie finished her question.
"...about losing your face?"
Those words brought Noelle back into panic mode, as she suddenly tried the handle again, desperately turning it and pulling on the door. Still, the door wouldn't move. Then, the worst of it came about, even Snowy had noticed. Susie's mouth slowly opened, pulling Kris towards her, intending to bite into his face and cause who knows what kind of damage. Noelle, upon seeing this, turned more desperately at the handle, practically screaming at Susie not to hurt Kris. Snowy quickly caught wind of it and pulled Noelle away from the door along with Alphys, despite her protests. If what she thought was going to happen WAS going to happen, the last thing Noelle needed was to actually see it. At least, that's what Snowy must've thought.
After a few seconds of struggling, Noelle broke free of Snowy and Alphys' grasps, in time to hear a soft thud outside. Noelle's heart sank at the sound, fearing the worst. "No. No, no, no, no! No! No! Please no!" she exclaimed, trying to get back to the door. Snowy quickly grabbed Noelle once again and held strong against her trying to pull away. "Noelle dear, ah can't let ya see wha'ever Susie did to ya friend! Ah dunno if ya'll be able to handle it!" Snowy said back to Noelle's protests. "Please! I need to know if Kris is okay!" Noelle pleaded with him, tears starting to brew in her eyes. Monster Kid walked up to the window and looked out. After a few seconds, he turned back to Noelle and the others.
"He is! Kris is fine! A little hurt, but he's alive!" he said. Noelle, finding another surge of adrenaline, broke free from Snowy's clasp on her and ran to the door. Susie had taken a few steps back away from Kris, who was now sitting down, clutching his shoulder where Susie was holding it, a look of pain on his face. "Alright, let's get this over with." Susie said to Kris, Noelle listening in. "We'll get more chalk, mosey back to class, and then Kris... YOU'LL do our project." she explained, pointing a finger at Kris when she mentioned the project. Noelle scowled at Susie. How was it fair that they were assigned projects, and immediately, Susie makes Kris do the work?! What was she planning to do during that time?! "How does that sound?" Susie asked, putting her finger down, before Noelle could make another thought.
Kris removed his hand from his shoulder. "I think that you're-!" Kris began, possibly with the intent to insult her based on the angry tone of his voice, before Susie interrupted him, holding out her hand to him. "Don't bother answering. If you haven't gotten it by now, your choices don't matter." Susie said, almost matter of factly. She then took a few steps forward, down the corridor, stopping briefly. "Let's go freak." Susie said over her shoulder at him. She then proceeded to walk off as Kris stood up, trembling a little. Once he stood up fully, he placed his hand on his back, presumably trying to ease some of the pain from being slammed into the lockers.
Noelle saw that Kris mouthed something to Susie, but she couldn't tell what it was. Besides, Susie was probably out of ear shot to hear him. Kris took a minute and turned to face Noelle through the window. He looked a few seconds before speaking directly to her through the window. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." he said, giving some reassurance to his friend. He then tried to ignore the pain of his back, as he quickly went after Susie down the corridor. Noelle, feeling thankful that Kris was okay, turned back, sighed a breathe of relief and sat back down in her chair.
"Okay, you got me there. And hey, I said I was sorry this morning!" Susie argued to Kris, who had finished the sandwich and was now focused on the pie Toriel had baked the night before. This appeared to snap Noelle out of her memory. Horrifying, considering what could have happened with Kris being with Susie. "Yeah, but it still scared the life out of me! And don't get me started on the bruise you gave me! You know how difficult it was to explain to my mom that I got it while playing soccer with you?" Kris replied back to her, a mouth full of pie. Noelle perked up at this mention.
"Kris, you don't play soccer though." she added. Kris swallowed the pie he had eaten and turned to Noelle. "Honestly, if my mom figured out that I got that bruise from her, she wouldn't want me anywhere 10 feet from her." he replied, referring to Susie. There was an awkward silence that hung over the table after Kris stated that fact. It seemed like the three weren't sure where to take the conversation after all of that build up. After a few minutes, Kris cleared his throat, still intent on starting up a conversation between Noelle and Susie.
"Hey Noelle, did you hear that new album?" Kris asked Noelle, who turned to him, raising an eyebrow. "Hmm? What new album?" She asked him. Kris gently nudged Noelle's arm as he replied. "You know, that new album by that band you like? 60 Minutes to Saturn?" With the mention of the band, Susie, who was focusing on the mashed potatoes, looked up to face Noelle. "You like 60 Minutes to Saturn?" she asked in surprise, dropping her fork onto the lunch tray. Noelle jumped a little at the sound of the question, turning to Susie with her face flushed red. "Y-yeah. They're... one of my favourite bands. Are you-?" she began to ask, when Susie's face lit up. "Dude! I love that band! I used to blast their music out my radio all the time when I was a kid!" she exclaimed, her voice being similar to a child telling their parents about meeting a celebrity.
Kris smiled to himself. He knew that shared interests were key to starting and keeping friendships, and right now, the girls found something they had in common. "Really?" Noelle said, now having found some confidence. "Yeah! I remember when they first got that big hit a few years ago! I think it was called... damn it! What was it called?!" Susie said in excitement, which turned to frustration upon losing track of what the song's title was. After a few minutes of thinking, she then looked up at Noelle and spoke. "Here, the melody went something like this." She then began to mimic playing a guitar while humming a heavy sounding guitar rift. Sure, maybe her voice wasn't doing any favours for the melody, but it seemed Noelle recognised the melody from Susie's humming of it.
"Oh! It was called... umm... 'Born Unalive'!" Noelle said. Susie stopped, slamming her hand onto the table, the sound bringing everyone's attention to them. "Yeah! That's it! I love that song!" Susie said, pure excitement filling her mind. Noelle smiled. "I do too! When we were 13, Kris and I would blare that song through our radios and rock out to it in our bedrooms!" Noelle said, pulling Kris into a side hug, all the while sounding just as excited as Susie. She quickly calmed down as she added with a blush "Although, we had to tone it down when our parents came up and complained. Mostly Ms. Dreemur, my mom and dad knew I was going through a kind of punk phase." Kris smirked at the memories.
As the two girls discussed the band, Kris thought back to when the two would rock out to the band. The two would go up to one or the other's rooms, put in the CD the song was on, which was named 'A Chaotic Order', probably the best oxymoron for an album title that Kris had ever heard, skip straight to track number 3 and turn the volume up to levels that surprising enough, weren't damaging to the two's ears. He remembered they'd belt out the song's lyrics, scream the words to the chorus of the song with front man Gerald Lato's recorded vocals and dance quite aggressively to the music itself. Kris would even pick up an object like a bat or a piece of wood and air guitar with it once the electric guitar solos kicked in. Sometimes, if they were doing this at the Dreemur residence, Asriel would join their little bedroom concert, although if this were the case, it would be a matter of time until Toriel would knock on the door, asking them to turn the music down.
Kris snapped back to reality when Susie called out to him. "Yo Kris! Noelle was wondering about their new album!" Kris took a second. "Huh? Oh yeah! They're experimenting with new sounds on it, but if you ask me, I like their older stuff a lot more than their newer stuff. I mean, do you remember their third album 'Animal Kingdom', the one with the roaring leopard face on it? Man, that's a heavy and awesome album!" Kris explained. Susie raised her hand for a high five, which Kris returned with pleasure. "Ah hell yeah that's a rockin' album!" Susie laughed, Noelle joining in, obviously enjoying the conversation she was having with her crush. She felt even more happy that the two shared some interests.
"You know Kris, I think it's awesome you've become friends with Susie. I wish I was as confident as you." Noelle said to her human friend. Susie looked at her, raising her hair so that Noelle could see her yellow eyes. The deer's heart skipped a beat upon meeting eyes with the reptile. "You seemed pretty confident around me when you brought 60 Minutes to Saturn up." She said. Noelle's cheeks once again, turned red. "Y-yeah! But, to be honest, I'm actually a really shy girl." Noelle explained. Her voice seemed to drop into a saddened tone as she continued to speak. "I don't talk to people unless they speak to me first. Even then, they don't hang around too long because of my shyness. They think I'm just antisocial, when I'm really not. Kris was the only person who was willing to put up with my... anxieties. He's been my best friend ever since kindergarten."
Susie took in every word that Noelle said, so she was surprised when she found herself feeling sorry for the deer girl. "Damn, I couldn't imagine something like that happening to me." Susie muttered, resting her head in her hand. A few seconds passed, before Susie had an idea. "Hey Noelle." She said, attracting Noelle's attention. "Me and Kris know someone that I think you'll get a long perfectly with."
"Really?" Noelle asked, her interest peaked. Susie replied with a nod before continuing. "Yeah, he's a really sweet guy. He's a little shy around strangers, just like you. And his cheeks flush red just like yours do all the time." She added, a small laugh added to that last comparison of Ralsei and Noelle. Noelle quickly placed her hands on her cheeks, feeling they were warm. She blushed even harder upon realising this. "Oh! W-well... when can we meet him?" She asked.
Susie quickly stood up. "We can meet him right now. To be honest, we've seen him a few times already and it's been a good few weeks since we last saw him. How long has it been Kris?" She asked. Kris placed a hand on his chin. "I think about nearly 3 weeks?" he answered. Susie then continued with a "Yeah! So I think we should go and see him right now!" she said. Kris stood up also, shortly followed by Noelle. Although she was getting up a lot slowly, as though unsure about Susie's plan. "What, right now? But we've got another lesson to attend!" Noelle protested. The purple reptile just gave a "Tsss!" at this, while Kris added in his two cents. "C'mon Noelle. Next lesson is religious education. None of us are religious, so why does it matter to us?" he said, as he took Noelle's hand and led her out of the lunchroom, Susie following behind. "But... what if someone catches us out of class?!" Noelle protested once more. "We'll just tell them we have to leave in a hurry! Just say you've got a family emergency!" Susie said.
The three of them stood in front of the closet door. Kris and Susie were about to head back into the Dark World with their friend Noelle. The anticipation was killing them. Noelle was more confused though. "So... this friend. He's in the school closet?" the deer asked. Kris held out his hand, palm down, and rotated his wrist, causing his hand to wobble side to side. "Kind of. We went through here and after some things that we can't explain, we kind of met him." Almost as sudden as Kris finished his speech, the door swung open, startling Noelle. She looked around, looking for a source of a breeze, but found none. "How did the-?" Noelle began to ask, but stopped when she noticed the school seemed to get darker. After a few seconds, the floors and the walls had turned blue with shadows close to the ceiling. "H-how did it get so dark suddenly?" Noelle said, concern in her voice.
Even Susie seemed a little on edge. "Me and Kris don't know either." She explained, looking around at the darkened school. Kris took a good look around too. "It's like we've gone forward in time or something." After a few seconds, he looked dead ahead, into the dark closet. "Alright, let's go." Kris said, walking into the darkness. "W-Wait! We're actually going in there?!" Noelle said, panic settling in her voice. Susie took a step forward, then looked back at the deer. "Yep. You're more than welcome to wait out here if you don't wanna come with us." she explained, before turning back and walking after Kris. Noelle was all alone in the corridor, which now looked alien to her with the new colour scheme. She couldn't help but sense the feeling of dread wash over her. "Guys! Wait for me!" She finally exclaimed, running after the two.
The only light coming in was from outside, which had now turned bright for some odd reason. Pieces of paper lay on the floor, causing Kris to smirk. He knew exactly what was coming up. Susie knew as well. Noelle on the other hand, had no clue what was about to happen. "We'll need to move further in." Kris said, causing Noelle, who this whole time was observing the darkness, to look ahead at him. "Ahead? This closet isn't that big." Noelle said. She then noticed Susie's face creating a smirk, very similar to Berdly's. "Just you wait." she said, confidence in her voice.
The three began their trek into the closet. As they walked, Noelle noticed how big this closet was, Kris and Susie's reactions hadn't changed one bit while they walked in. "How big is this thing?" Noelle asked nervously, to which Susie shrugged. "We don't know. We didn't get far into this place before it happened." Noelle stopped upon processing what Noelle just said. "Before what happened?" she asked. The two didn't respond. Instead, Kris stopped a few feet in. "Okay, this far should do it." he said.
"Guys, if you're playing a joke on me, this isn't funny." Noelle said, her voice shaking slightly from her nervousness. Susie turned to face her, her eyes almost glowing in the darkness. "We're not joking with you. But if you really don't believe us, you're more than welcome to go back." She explained with a smile. Noelle was starting to get annoyed now by these cryptic answers from the duo. "What is it that I should believe?!" she asked, frustrated, placing her arms outward. It was then she realised she couldn't feel any walls around her. "Okay, this is freaking me out! I'm leaving!" Noelle finally muttered before turning around to walk out. Susie watched her as she proceeded towards the door, the smirk still plastered on her face.
Noelle could see the school corridor through the closet door. Before she had a chance to step back into the real world, the door to the closet suddenly slammed shut, leaving the trio in near total darkness. Kris and Susie stopped walking as Noelle jumped back. "W-what just happened?!" she exclaimed in shock. Moving quickly, she ran to the door, placing a hand upon it. "Hey! We're still in here! Let us out!" She screamed at the door, desperately banging on it with her fists, hoping to get someone's attention. "It's funny Noelle, that was the exact same reaction Susie had to this happening the first time we were in here." Kris said to her. The deer quickly stopped the banging and looked back at them. "Huh? What happened the first time?"
As if to answer the question, the papers on the ground beneath her feet began to shake. She looked down in shock as she backed away from the door, back into Susie and Kris. Kris took one look at the papers and said "Okay. Now Noelle, I need you to trust me on this.", causing her to look back at him. "Kris, what is going on?!" she asked, worry starting to settle in. Susie suddenly took the timid girl's hand, causing her to blush upon realising. "S-Susie...?" Kris stood in front of Noelle to make sure she could hear him. "Listen to me, I need you to take my hand." He said to her.
Noelle shook her head. "No, no! What if we get hurt because of this?!"
"You're not going to get hurt. You can trust me. I wouldn't lie about something like this." Kris said, holding out his hand for her. Noelle waited a few seconds, taking in the situation before reaching her free hand out and placing it in Kris', who then moved to stand next to her. "Okay, now whatever happens between now and when we get to the Dark World, do NOT let go of my hand! You hear me Noelle, don't let go of my hand!" Kris explained to Noelle.
Noelle didn't have time to ask why, before the answer came to her. The floor gave away, causing the pieces of paper to plummet into the darkness below. It moved upwards towards the trio, who were standing in place, Susie's hand clasping onto Noelle's right hand, while her left was clasping to Kris'. Noelle panicked as she started to back away, Kris and Susie standing right where they were, no worry at all on their face. Susie looked back at the timid deer and smiled. "Don't worry. This is part of the process. It'll be over before you know it. Just don't let go!" the tough girl reassured, before the last piece of paper gave way.
Almost immediately, gravity did its job, as the three began to plummet downwards. Noelle's grip on Susie and Kris' hands tightened as she felt herself fall with them. "Don't let go! Don't let go! Don't let go!" Noelle silently repeated to herself as the darkness swallowed her and her friends. Little did Noelle know however, that this was the start of a new adventure for her. One that'll change the group's lives forever.