Chapter 7

"What did happen here?" Frisk asked as she walked deeper into what was left of Snowdin. All that remained was charred and blackened. There were piles of rubble, possibly from buildings that seemed to have collapsed in on themselves.

"There must have been a fire," Chara answered after he and Frisk spent a few minutes wandering the ruins. "I'm no expert on town destruction, but . . . ," Chara shrugged, "all the evidence points to a massive fire that destroyed everything."

"I don't doubt you," Frisk said, "but why was there a fire? Was it an accident, like a gas leak, or was it . . . something else? Did everyone make it out in time?"

Slowly, Frisk placed her hand on one of the blackened beams. "Whenever this fire happened, it wasn't recent," she told Chara. "This thing is as cold as the air around it."

Chara didn't reply, and Frisk decided against conversation. Until she knew what to do from there, Frisk dug in the snow in search of something to give any sort of hint about the fire. Chara all the while kept lookout, but Frisk didn't trust him enough for her to not keep an eye open for herself.

"What do you make of these?" Frisk asked Chara much later when she came across a bandana and a toy knife, both buried deep within the snow. "They both look a little, I don't know, human." Frisk snorted as she observed the items further. "This bandana has abs drawn on it. How manly."

After observing what Frisk was holding for no more than a second, Chara looked away and said, "I think you should discard them."

Frisk frowned. "You hardly looked at them."

"I don't need to inspect them to know you don't need them."

"But what if I want to keep them?"

"Certainly you don't want such useless things taking up room in your inventory. Throw them away."

Furrowing her brows, Frisk pointed out, "You know a thing or two about these items, don't you? I mean, you won't even look at them, and you insist I toss them aside. You know something you're not telling me."

Without looking at Frisk, Chara replied, "In case you have forgotten, you and I aren't the only humans to have fallen Underground."

Something about Chara's words made Frisk's heart stop. He had mentioned it before, but only now did Frisk have the mentality to begin processing what he had said. The two of them were not the only ones in the Underground.

"There are others?" she whispered.

"Were others," Chara corrected. "Some have met the same fate as me, and the rest weren't as fortunate. You aren't the first human Toriel has taken in, but each one has left, and every one has died. Well, your story isn't finished yet, but I think you see where I'm going with this. That's why I need you to throw away the toy knife and the manly bandana. I don't . . . want reminders following me around."

Frisk didn't press Chara for any more. Doing as he requested, Frisk buried the items back under the snow and continued searching the remains for anything else. Finding an area on the edge of town, Frisk begun digging. The scraps she did find told her that this used to be a home, a thought that saddened her. Yet nothing prepared her for what she found.

"What are you screaming your head off about?" Chara demanded as he casually walked towards Frisk, who was shrieking as if she had been stabbed.

Tears rushing down her face, Frisk wordlessly pointed at the bone she had dug up. When Chara didn't react, she almost wanted to scream at him. Why can't you see how awful this is?! Someone didn't make it out! Someone was burnt alive, and you don't even care?!

"Don't you see this?" she whispered in horror instead, heart racing.

Chara walked closer and knelt by the bone.

"Wipe away more snow," he told Frisk. At the sight of her paling face, Chara demanded, "Just do it, okay? I'm not telling you to touch the bone. Just the snow around it."

Suppressing the urge to vomit, Frisk reached out and did as Chara ordered. She gagged when she saw more bones, but Chara insisted she keep going. Frisk kept digging and digging, unveiling more bones. Yet the more she dug, the less sick she became. All the bones didn't make up a skeleton. All the bones resembled femurs.

"Hmm," Chara hummed. "Exactly as I thought."

Frisk wrinkled her nose. Just because this wasn't a skeleton didn't mean the bones didn't come from something dead. "Aren't you at all disgusted by this?"

"Not really." Chara didn't sound anything beyond uninterested. "I knew a skeleton monster once, back when I was alive. Those types of monsters can magically create bones to use as weapons. Down here, a pile of bones doesn't necessarily come from a dead individual. For all we know, a skeleton monster just happened to live here."

When he saw Frisk gagging, Chara huffed and added, "You remember how Toriel died, don't you?"

A sharp pain pierced through Frisk's heart. "Please don't remind me," she whispered.

"No, you need the reminder," Chara stated. "She turned to ash and scattered to a million pieces, did she not?"

Now Frisk really felt as if she were going to vomit. "Yes, she did."

"That's what happens to all monsters when they die," Chara continued. "They turn to ash and scatter in the wind. If anyone died here – well, any monster – you wouldn't find any remains for a body because there wouldn't be one. Anyone who died here is long since ash now."

Frisk knew she was going to spill up her lunch if she didn't start thinking of something else. Instead of dwelling on Chara's claim, she chose to continue her searching, careful wherever she dug. Fortunately, there were no more bones to be found after that incident.

After an hour of digging, the things Frisk discovered that she chose to take with her were a rock, a cat-girl action figure, and a note not too badly damaged by fire with handwriting she could not decipher. She showed the note to Chara, but he couldn't make out the penmanship either. Nothing about these items was special, but the sight of them surviving such massive destruction filled her with determination.

"Why are you taking those worthless items?" Chara asked after Frisk finished searching and began to move forward again.

Shrugging, Frisk answered, "I don't know. Maybe I want something tangible to hold onto, something that proves there was life here once. Whether or not the residents made it out alive, nobody lives here now. I think that alone is really sad."

"Your whole life is really sad, Stripes."

"Come on, Chara. You don't usually aim that low."

"Oh, so you're encouraging me to torment you now, Stripes?"

"I'm just trying desperately to grasp onto something normal, whatever normal is."

As they made their way out of the dead town, Frisk chewed the inside of her cheek. The town was her only hope of finding someplace to hide until she figured out her next course of action. The journey to the surface was not going to be a short one, Frisk knew that much, and the only strategy she had to hold onto was to make everything up as she went along.

To her surprise, it wasn't much longer before the end of all the snow came in sight.

"Am I hallucinating," she asked Chara, "or are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

"Spring has arrived at last," Chara replied. It pleased Frisk that even he sounded relieved. "Waterfall is up ahead. It's dark and murky, but it's way more of a sight than all this snow."

Whatever fatigue Frisk thought she felt immediately vanished the way it did when she first came across what was left of Snowdin. She began running forward, discarding all safety precautions. It wasn't a town, but it was a change of scenery.

"What's that smell?"

Frisk stopped, heart in her throat. Oh, no. Not again.

Two large, cloaked dogs emerged from the shadows. Even from a few yards away, Frisk knew they would stand over her. Both wielded large axes, their cloaks were a bright red, and neither looked particularly friendly.

The larger of the two dogs took a massive step forward and said in a voice exactly like a growl, "Identify yoursmelf!"

All Chara said was, "You know, I used to like dogs until today."

Knowing the standing still trick would not work on these two, Frisk turned around and ran in the opposite direction. Neither dog hesitated to give chase. She heard them getting closer. As she returned to the remains of the burnt town, all Frisk could think was the same thought over and over. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die.

Not again.

"They're gaining on you," Chara said, running alongside her. He didn't seem concerned. Only amused. "Might as well give up. You'll come back anyway, so why not be their chew toy for a little while."

"You'd just love to see that, wouldn't you!" Frisk spat. She didn't listen to hear if Chara responded. Instead she heard her own screams tear out of her as white and blue hearts shot at her, shredding her skin and choking her with pain.

She stumbled, but Frisk regained her balance and kept running forward, again entering Snowdin's remains. Blood soaked through her sweater, and her leggings were now as cut up as her legs. As hurt as she was, she was not dead. That alone was motivation to keep going and to find some way of escape.

Only escape didn't seem evitable. She could almost feel the dogs' hot breaths against the back of her neck. Chara's taunting laughter rose. There had to be another way out, and Frisk had to find it fast.

Without thinking, Frisk picked up a lose board the size of her arm, one end pointed. She spun around in time to see the smaller dog, ax in hand, lunging at her. There was no time to do anything save react. Not even a scream came from Frisk as the strike hit.

The ax dug into her side, resting just above her hip. Blood poured out immediately and quickly. Yet she didn't feel the pain. What had Frisk's attention was the dog before her, frozen mid-swing, staring at the human girl with disbelief.

Drowning in her own doubt, Frisk looked down. Buried deep inside the dog's chest was the broken board, the sharp end submerged in the dog's body. Holding the board were hands that looked like Frisk's, and they were connected to familiar arms connecting further to Frisk's own body.

No.

A single tear falling from the dog's eye, the dog made a pained whimper before turning white and falling away into tiny pieces, never to be put back together.

"No," Frisk whispered, unaware of the ax falling out of her side, prompting more blood to flow from the wound.

When she noticed the other dog behind the vanished one, watching with just as much shock as Frisk , she expected the remaining dog to lurch forward and deliver the killing blow. Even so, she didn't raise the board to threaten the dog against such actions. She didn't even drop it despite how heavy her arms were becoming. All Frisk did was stand there, too stunned to do anything.

"My wife," the remaining dog whimpered. "My hot dog. . . ." What Frisk expected was for the dog to avenge his wife right then, but he surprised her further by throwing down his ax and saying, "Finish it already. If you have any mercy within you, take me out of this world where my beloved isn't."

Dumbstruck, Frisk merely muttered, "I-I'm sorry. I di-didn't mean to. It was an acci-cident." Her vision grew black. It wouldn't be long before she died again.

"If you won't deliver the blow," the dog said, picking his ax back up, "then I will."

"You better run if you want to live," Chara advised, but Frisk ignored him. He didn't see what she did. He didn't know and couldn't predict what was obvious to Frisk.

"Don't!" Frisk shouted, lurching forward, but it was already too late.

Without a second's hesitation, the dog fell onto his ax. Frisk gaped in horror as this dog, too, became chalk white and broke apart into millions of little pieces. This time, Frisk really did vomit.

Dropping the board and falling to her hands and knees, Frisk retched and retched until there was nothing left in her stomach. Then she began to cry. What was left of her ever-darkening vision was lost to the burning tears that spilled from her eyes.

"What are you doing?" Chara demanded roughly. "It was them or you. Why are you so upset that you lived and they died? There was no other way this could have ended."

Maybe it was the weight of the guilt, or perhaps it was the loss of her blood, but Frisk could not put her thoughts into spoken words. They didn't have to die. No one did. I would have come back, but they're gone forever. It didn't have to be this way, so why is it this way?

"I see," she heard Chara's voice say as the world grew darker still. "This was your first, wasn't it?" He sighed. "I understand. I really do."

With no fight left in her, Frisk collapsed into the snow, beside the pile of ashes that would soon mix with the snow and leave no evidence that the dogs ever existed. She kept crying and crying, barely able to breathe. If Chara spoke to her, she didn't hear it. There was no world outside of the recent deaths and her sobbing. Soon enough her own death would follow, but her guilt and shame would not die with her.

Then the footsteps came. They couldn't have belonged to Chara – Chara didn't make footsteps, let alone leave footprints. Someone might have come to avenge the dogs. Frisk was okay with it. There was no reason for her to care about anything anymore. All she did was quiet her sobs enough to listen to the new arrival. Thanks to the blood loss, her vision was already as good as gone.

Approaching footsteps.

Stop.

A sigh.

Nothing.

More footsteps, closer now.

Stop.

A shift of weight.

Frisk accidentally let out a hiccup when something reached under her and pulled her off the ground. Her thoughts were muddy. What's happening? Where's Chara?

Cradled in what felt to be a pair of arms, Frisk peeled open her heavy eyes to see who carried her. The face, or what she could see of it in her state, looked familiar, but Frisk was too tired to remember who it belonged to. She was too tired to care if it mattered. As she closed her eyes again and her head fell to the side, she heard a voice as familiar as the face say one simple thing, the last thing she had to grasp as the void pulled her under.

"Everything's gonna be okay, kid."