Chapter 3
"Do you think the human came back?" asked a voice that was both high-pitched and nasally.
"Like I know!" a second answered. It sounded angry. "The Royal Guards just said go back and check. Hmph! Who do they think they are to boss us around like that? Just because they're bigger and stronger does not make them better."
"But what if the human is down here?" The first again. "How do we stand against it?"
"On your feet, dummy!"
"You're one to talk, dummy!"
"You have got to be kidding me." Chara ran his fingers through his hair and walked out of the kitchen, scaring Frisk until she remembered that the monsters would not be able to see him.
He's probably checking out the area, she told herself, chilled from both fear and the still working fridge. Chara will let me know when it's safe to come out. There's no reason to worry.
The two voices continued to argue as they came into the kitchen. Frisk melted into the fridge and peeked through a small opening, hoping and praying that the two would be too deep in their argument to know she was there. So far, so good.
One monster had a yellow, mouse-like face. It wore a purple pointed hat with a red ribbon and a purple outfit with a collar so large that it fell over where the monster's shoulders would be. Its arms were nothing more than floating cerulean orbs, and its feet simply boots floating under the body. This was the monster with the nasally voice.
The other monster was a dummy. A literal dummy. The dark yellow creature had two eyes on one side of its face, and teeth separated its torso. A red bandana was tied around its neck. The dummy was the angry one, and it swore after every other word it said to its partner. Everything Toriel ever said about such language came back to Frisk, making her heartsick all over again.
"I wish I was still assigned with Knight Knight!" the first monster eventually snapped. "She may have slept a lot, but she was still a better partner than you will ever be!"
"Well excuse me for not liking this any more than you, you jinxed weasel!"
The first monster gasped. "You take that back."
Laughing, the dummy replied, "Make me."
"All right, but you asked for it. Abra cadabra!" As soon as the words were spoken, glowing orbs manifested around the monster. The creature crackled as the orbs began to chase the dummy, leading the dummy to swear even more.
"I'll show you!" the dummy shouted as it levitated away from the orbs. "Dummies, go!"
Dummies similar yet smaller than the angered dummy came from out of nowhere and began to charge towards the orbs. However, the magical balls must have scared them, for each little dummy fled the orbs and tried to return to their master. He yelled at them to go away, but they didn't listen to him. The dummies escaped the wrath, but the cost was the big dummy getting hit by every single orb the first monster sent after it.
"Dummies! The whole lot of you!" The Mad Dummy was so angered that Frisk could have sworn that it was steaming. "Just you wait, Madjick. You're going to regret ever meeting the likes of me."
"Too late. I already regret meeting you."
Unfortunately for Frisk, the fridge door chose that moment to completely fall off its hinges. She gasped as the heavy door thudded on the ground. Her goosebumps rose even more. Both monsters turned their attention towards her. They stared at her. She stared back. They stared some more.
"Is . . . ," Madjick trailed off and started again. "Is that a human?"
"Of course it's a human!" the Mad Dummy snapped. "Disgusting creature! Wait till I take it to King Asgore."
"Not if I take it first," Madjick cut in. To Frisk, "Your soul is mine!"
Thinking fast, Frisk pointed behind them and shouted, "Is that a butter dragon?!"
While the monsters were distracted, Frisk bolted for the exit. "Hey!" the Mad Dummy yelled as it and Madjick gave chase. "Come back here!"
"I'll get the human first!" Madjick claimed.
"Not if I beat you to it!" the Mad Dummy replied.
Frisk forced herself to run faster than she had ever run before. Since there were no footsteps to tell her how close the monsters were behind, it took a lot of willpower to keep from turning around. Instead she kept her gaze focused forwards as she fled her home and began to run aimlessly through the Ruins.
"Would you please stop that running?" Chara demanded, suddenly running alongside Frisk. "I can't be too far from the locket before it starts dragging me along with it."
"No stop. Keep going. Monsters after me." Each word came out in a huff. Frisk still not dared to look back. The tactic seemed to be working. Complaining loudly, the monsters were getting further away from Frisk no matter how they tried to catch up.
Running into the dead woods, Frisk hid amongst the hollowed trees. She doubled over and tried to catch her breath. "Where . . . were . . . you?" she asked between breaths.
"I wanted to find the exit," Chara answered, not at all amused. "That's where those idiot monsters came from. Shamefully, my limits did not allow me to explore the basement as much as I would have liked, but they seem to be alone."
Chara huffed. "It's possible that those monsters sent to look for a human were only given that task just so whoever was dealing with them could get a break."
"Here, human, human, human," Madjick called before Frisk could reply to Chara.
"We're not going to hurt you," the Mad Dummy said. "We're only going to rip your soul from your body."
"Just back away really slowly," Chara advised. Frisk obeyed, but she stepped on a large stick that immediately snapped under her weight. Her heart caught in her throat. The monsters crackled.
"There's no escaping now!" Madjick exclaimed. Frisk looked from behind the tree in time to see a number of orbs manifesting around Madjick.
"I won't let you get the human before me!" Mad Dummy shouted. "Dummies, go!"
With no time to swear had she wanted to, Frisk turned on her heel and ran again. Both orbs and dummies chased after her. Some collided with the dead trees, and others exploded on the ground only steps behind Frisk. Pushing her legs to carry her faster and farther away, Frisk could feel nothing beyond her pounding heart and heaving breaths.
She didn't run fast enough. Whether it was an orb or dummy, Frisk did not know, but something hit her in the back, exploded, and threw her forward. Frisk landed on her side and rolled recklessly until her body slammed into a tree, putting an abrupt end to the momentum. Her body ached all over, and her ears rang. Chara stood over her. His lips were moving, but no words seemed to be coming out.
Madjick and Mad Dummy were approaching Frisk. They seemed to be bickering over who it was that hit the human, but Frisk was too injured to take the opportunity to run away. All she could do was reach out, wrap her fingers around a long stick not far from her, and push herself to her feet.
"Stop right there!" Mad Dummy shouted, his words muffled. "I'll have another one of my dummies knock you out if you try anything."
"For the last time," Madjick said, irritated, "it was my orb that stopped the human!"
Knees so weak that she had to lean against the tree to keep from falling, Frisk stood her ground and held out the stick. There was nothing threatening about a battered and bruised teenage girl holding nothing save a stick as a means of defense, but it was all she could do now. Toriel was not coming to save her, and Chara appeared to be nothing more than a bystander in all of this. All she had was her determination. Frisk hoped that would be enough.
"Whatever!" Mad Dummy turned away from Madjick. "It doesn't matter who hit the human, because I'm going to finish it. Dummies-"
"Wait!" Madjick shouted upon turning its attention to Frisk. It studied Frisk for a moment, its focus mostly on the stick in Frisk's hand, before saying mostly to itself, "A fellow wizard, I see."
To Mad Dummy, "We can't take this human's soul. It is against the laws of sorcerous beings to take the souls of associate wizards."
"Fortunately, I'm not a wizard!" Mad Dummy crackled and danced around. "You go ahead and obey your silly law. I'll take care of the human."
"But it's a wizard!"
"The humans used their wizards to lock us away under this mountain! I have no sympathy for such creatures." Mini dummies appeared around the gleeful larger dummy. Mad Dummy danced. "Last attack, dummies. Make it good!"
"Francis!"
The Mad Dummy froze, the smaller dummies halting mid-attack. Another dummy flew in front of Frisk. Unlike the Mad Dummy, this one looked like a regular old training dummy. Frisk frowned. This was the same dummy Toriel had used to teach Frisk to talk to monsters. Never would Frisk have imagined that it was alive this whole time.
"Francis," the newly arrived dummy began, "what do you think you're doing? And why are you so angry?"
"Can't blame him. I would be pretty mad too if my name was Francis," Chara said. Frisk sucked in a breath before shaking her head at herself. She had forgotten only she could hear him.
"I'm taking this human's soul!" Mad Dummy – Francis – replied. "Once I have that soul, I'll be able to supply King Asgore with his seventh and final human soul. With it, he will become a god and destroy the barrier. We can be free!"
"Freedom should not come at the cost of destroying an innocent!" Dummy replied.
Francis laughed without humor. "You've always been a passive, bashful one, Shelby, but I've never taken you for a Blue."
"This isn't about Reds or Blues," Shelby claimed. It or she or whatever sunk in on itself before letting out a deep breath. The Dummy flew forward with forced confidence. "This is about doing the right thing! I met this human her first day here. I was too timid and scared out of my body when she first spoke to me, but she has never done me harm. Actually, Frisk has never hurt anyone the whole time she lived here. This human grew up in the Ruins. She belongs here just as much as I do."
Silence lingered for a moment or two. None of the monsters said anything. Frisk dared not move lest the attention shift back to her. Chara merely whistled a tune.
Finally, Francis spoke. "That's really touching, Shelby. It really is." Francis crackled again. "Too bad I don't care!"
Before he could say or do anything else, rain began pouring from the sky. "Ouch! Ooo. Ow. Oww!" No matter how Francis danced around, he could not avoid the downpour that landed on him. Frisk, Shelby, and Madjick all stared at each other before returning their attention to Francis. Whatever fell on him was not affecting them at all.
"That's it!" Francis declared after avoiding the rain proved futile. "You three can hold hands and sing Kumbaya all you want, but we will break that barrier, and we will use the human's soul to do it. You haven't escaped, human, only postponed the inevitable."
Disappearing into thin air, Francis laughed some more as his figure faded from view. After he had vanished, Madjick exclaimed, "You don't know how long I've been waiting for him to get out of my sight! Thank you!"
"I wasn't trying to make him leave," a ghost said as it descended towards the others. "He wanted to hurt Frisk, so I thought I would help you guys talk it out with him. I didn't mean for him to go away."
"No, Napstablook." Frisk pushed herself away from the tree, dropped the stick, and stumbled towards the monster. Wrapping her arms around Napstablook, she said, "You really helped us out. There was no way we were going to get out of that without a fight, and it's better that no one else got hurt."
"You're . . . glad that crazed dummy didn't get hurt?" Madjick questioned. He moved so that he was levitating beside Frisk, who now rested her weight on Napstablook. "I have always been told that humans love violence and would gladly kill any monster they came across."
Frisk shook her head. "That's the same as saying all monsters hide under human children's beds so the monsters can eat the children at night."
Gasping in horror, Madjick jumped back as its orb arms flew over its head. "But monsters would never do that!"
"I think what Frisk is trying to say," Shelby said quietly, "is there is a big misunderstanding between monsters and humans. After the death of both princes years ago, very few monsters have been willing to give humans a chance."
"'Both princes'?" Frisk questioned. "The king . . . King Asgore had sons?"
"He wasn't always the monster he is today," Shelby replied. "Loss can do things to a person. It can even twist them until they are no longer someone their loved ones recognize."
The thought of the king losing his children caused Frisk to suffer heartache for the monster. Humans had to be responsible for the death of the princes, Frisk knew, unless King Asgore's blaming humanity was unjustified. No matter the case, sympathy welled up for the one who would not hesitate to kill her if he ever got the chance. Frisk looked to Chara to see if his expression gave away what he knew of the deceased princes, but he was nowhere to be found. Frowning, Frisk made sure the locket was still around her neck. There it was, resting on her breast. If Chara was gone, he had wondered off on his own.
"I need to go to the surface," Frisk said, the words struggling to come out of her mouth. "It's not safe for me here. Toriel . . . Toriel's last wish is that I escape. I must do as she asked."
Frisk's knees gave out from under her. Without thinking, she held tighter to Napstablook. However, his perfectly smooth body gave Frisk nothing to cling to, and she slid until landing on the ground.
"I'm sorry," Napstablook apologized. "I don't have the arms to catch you with."
"You can't go to the surface under that condition," Shelby told Frisk. "You won't last long if you do."
"Yeah," Madjick chimed in. "Any Red who sees you won't hesitate to kill you and take your soul."
"I can't wait," Frisk replied as she pushed herself into a sitting position. "That dummy – Francis will tell the Reds where I am. If I linger, it won't be long before they come find me."
"Hahaha, I wouldn't worry about him!" Madjick seemed to dance with delight. "If our commanding officers knew we saw a human and let it get away, the punishment would be unimaginable. That dummy will do no talking if he knows what's good for him! However, he might try to get you again. He knows you're here in the Underground, and that's better than the rumor that sent us here in the first place."
There was so much Frisk wanted to ask. There was so much that didn't make sense. Reds. Rumors. King Asgore's deceased sons. While Toriel protected her from the dangers of the Underground, she also sheltered Frisk from the Underground's very history. All Frisk knew at this point was that the Underground history was not a happy one.
Travel would be hard. Even if Frisk knew all that there was to be known, that knowledge would not protect her from another attack. Suddenly, something Toriel said with her dying breaths was pulled to the front of her mind, something that Frisk was too grief-stricken to really hear as her mother lay dying.
"Find my friend. He will protect you."
"Toriel's friend," Frisk said as she rose to her wobbling legs. Ignoring Shelby's plea that she ought not to stand in her condition, Frisk said, "I need to find Toriel's friend."
Whatever everyone else's reaction was, Frisk could not see. The world around her grew darker and darker until it was consumed by darkness. Again Frisk's legs gave out from under her, and as she fell into the abyss, she could faintly hear someone calling her name.
When she came to, Frisk was in her bedroom. She sat upright, looked around, and saw that everything was in place. The corners of her lips pulled into a frown. It was all a dream – no, a nightmare, she thought. A vivid nightmare, but a nightmare nonetheless.
Yet as she pulled back the covers, her joints felt as if they had exploded in her arms. Frisk studied her limbs to find bruises scattered across her skin. A red locket swung from the chain around her neck, reflecting the little light that peeped from under Frisk's door. Unable to stop herself, Frisk started to hyperventilate. It wasn't a nightmare. It was all real. The monsters. Toriel's death. Chara.
At the thought of the human, Frisk whipped her head around the room in search for him. Chara was nowhere to be found. Frisk had not seen him since the forest.
Frisk stood on sore feet and slowly walked towards her bedroom door. Bracing herself, she entered the hallway, but everything was as it should have been. It was as if the break-in never happened, but Frisk's aching body and the locket resting on her breast both proved the horrific events had indeed taken place.
Voices came from the living room. Frisk froze with fear before melting at the familiarity of the speakers. She forced her protesting body to move forward, and there, sitting on the top of the stairs, was Chara.
"Oh, you are awake," he said. There was no emotion in his words, as with nearly everything he said. When he spoke the words, he was merely making an observation.
"How long have I been unconscious?" Frisk asked. She stopped walking and leaned on the railing for support.
"About a day," Chara answered. He looked her up and down, studying her recovery. "Nobody knew what to do while they waited for you to wake up, so they cleaned the mess the Reds left."
Looking at his feet, Chara mumbled, "It looks as if the Reds never came."
"Did you . . ." Frisk swallowed the lump in her throat and tried again. "Did you witness the whole thing?"
Chara nodded. "Of course, I could do nothing to stop it."
He wrapped his arms around himself. Suddenly he no longer appeared to be the cold presence he was when Frisk first met him. Now he seemed to be just like she – young, uncertain, and afraid.
"Only those who wear the locket can see and hear me," Chara said, the words just above a whisper, "but that's it. Nobody can touch me, and I can't touch anyone. Even you, while you wear the locket, can do nothing beyond communicate with me. I'm less than a ghost."
At a loss for words, Frisk rested her head against the railing. They were both helpless. If another Red attacked, it would be the end for both of them. Frisk was too weak to fight, and nothing Chara could do would help. This was a losing battle, and that was why Frisk knew the only way out was to escape the Underground for good.
"It's your fault, you know."
Looking up, Frisk saw Chara glaring at her. "If you had not upset Toriel so much," he continued, "she might not have been too distraught to defend herself."
Frisk felt as if she was going to fall over again. "She didn't fight back?"
"She didn't even try." Chara rose to his feet. "It's all your fault she's dead. Had you never run off the way you did- No, had you never come here in the first place, the Reds would not have come. Toriel would still be alive. Everyone would be better off."
Ashamed, Frisk tore her eyes away from Chara and looked towards the ground. She gripped the railing so tightly her knuckles turned chalk white. Tears streamed down her face. Chara was right, and it was a weight she would have to bear for the rest of her life.
"Frisk?" Napstablook levitated towards her. Madjick and Shelby followed close behind. "We thought we heard you over here." When he noticed the tears, Napstablook asked, "Are you okay? Why are you crying?"
"I'm fine. I'm fine," Frisk answered, the lie heavy in the air. "It's just . . . when I woke up, I almost believed everything that had happened to be a dream. But it's not. This is real. Toriel is dead. I'm in danger."
"And everyone who tries to protect you is in danger, too," Chara added, causing Frisk to wince.
"Which is why the sooner you leave, the better off you will be," Shelby said softly.
"You, my fellow magic wielder," Madjick began, "have a more dangerous mission ahead. If I were you, I'd stay low. Go to a small town and hide out until you can figure out a plan."
"But other monsters." The argument was out of Frisk's mouth before she realized her lips were parted.
"Not every monster wants you to die," Madjick said. "Monsters dressed in blue are good for you. Monsters dressed in red will want you dead."
Madjick danced in a circle. "You like that rhyme? I made it up just now."
Despite herself, Frisk smiled. Then she frowned. "But what about you guys? What will become of you? And who will take care of the Ruins?"
Shelby came forward. "I admit I had always been rather bashful, but what is happening is something I can't keep quiet about. Now that I have started to come out of my shell, I can feel the momentum of bravery for what it is I need to do. With Toriel no longer among us, someone has to care for the Ruins."
"I'll stay behind to help," Madjick said. "If any of the Reds know I helped you, I'll be labeled as a traitor. It would be better if I stayed here and helped protect everyone if the Reds do decide to come back."
"And you?" Frisk asked Napstablook.
"I'm going back home and living life as normal," he answered. "I'm not cool enough to be any help in this adventure."
"Don't say that." Frisk reached out and touched Napstablook where she assumed his shoulder would be.
"Why not?" Chara asked. "He does seem pretty useless."
Frisk worded her statement carefully so that she could answer Chara and still address Napstablook. "If not for you, we might still be fighting that mad dummy."
"Which means you need to get out of here as soon as possible," Shelby cut in. "If another monster tries to stop you, there may be no getting away."
Nodding, Frisk left to again gathered her things. Before her final departure, she visited Toriel's room one last time. She dug around in the desk, and when she found what she was looking for, she ripped the page out of its binder and shoved it into her bag.
"What did you just take?" Chara asked, watching from the corner of the room.
"That's not important," Frisk answered. She shouldered her bag. "We had better get going. I don't want to put this off a minute longer."
After saying goodbye to the monsters, Frisk descended into the basement. The closer she got to the exit, the more her heart got caught in her throat. When she came to the large, purple door, she froze. Breathing was manual, and limbs shook as if an earthquake was happening in her core.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Chara demanded. He crossed his arms and tapped his foot. "I thought you didn't want to put this off."
"I don't." Frisk choked on her words. "It's just I've never left the Ruins before. This is all so new. I don't know what to expect." She looked to Chara. "Toriel left you as my guide. What can you tell me about the Underground?"
Chara shrugged. "It's been years since I was outside the Ruins. Anything could have happened between then and now. I can get you to the barrier, but what to expect on the way there is just as much a mystery to me as it is you."
Humming in frustration, Frisk said, "I wish I knew who Toriel's friend is. That would make finding him so much easier."
"She never mentioned a friend before?"
"There was a lot she never mentioned. I never knew until now how much she kept from me." Frisk shook her head. "Anything could happen out there, and that's a very, very scary thought."
"Are you afraid?"
"A little."
"Just a little?"
"I told you, I have a secret." Steeling herself, Frisk said, "Enough stalling. Better to go through the door before something comes through it."
Without waiting for a response from Chara, Frisk pushed open the heavy double doors. A cold, dead air blew through the cracks, and when Frisk entered the halls, she felt a chill crawl up her spine. It was pitch black. She almost turned back around to get a flashlight.
Frisk took a deep breath and forced her foot forward. Then the next. Then the next. Soon, she was walking. Chara followed close behind. Just as she was about to decide that perhaps this wasn't so bad after all, she stopped in her tracks.
"What are you doing?" Chara asked, sounding impatient.
Frisk didn't answer. Instead, she simply stared at the single golden flower before her. It swayed, but there was no wind to gently push it around. The flower was dancing because it was capable of movement all on its own. Frisk tried and failed to swallow her fear.
"So you came face-to-face with a couple of Reds, and you refused to hurt either of them?" Flowey questioned. From the corner of her eye, Frisk saw Chara take a step back.
"How noble of you," Flowey taunted, "but those weren't even the Reds you need to worry about. You may have spared a couple of lives now, but what about when you meet a relentless killer and can't seem to progress? Will you kill out of frustration? Or will you give up entirely? In this world, it's kill or be killed. You can't play by your own rules forever." Flowey laughed wickedly. "I'll be watching you, Frisk." With that said, Flowey sunk into the ground and vanished from sight.
Frozen in place, Frisk could feel her mouth opening and closing as words failed to come out. She had never forgotten the day she fell and Flowey almost killed her. At times growing up she thought she had seen the flower, but as her body tensed in fear, he was gone.
"Did that flower just talk to you?" Chara asked after a moment. When Frisk looked at him, she saw that his brows were raised as he stared where Flowey just was. It was the most emotion Frisk had seen on the other human thus far.
"Yes, he did," Frisk quietly answered. "He scares me. He has haunted me in my nightmares ever since I came to the Underground." Chara nodded and said nothing more.
Pushing the fear aside, Frisk forced herself to continue forward. The exit was in sight. It was a matter of seconds before she would leave the Ruins, the rest of her future falling into a spiral of uncertainty. Frisk allowed a feeling of farewell as she stepped into the world unknown.
