Chapter 6

Mask could not believe it. Right there alongside Frisk, Mask saw what Toriel looked like without her mask, yet Mask still could not believe what he had seen. It wasn't a matter of how or why Toriel was faceless that flooded Mask's thoughts, but a matter of what would happen to Frisk if Toriel knew that Frisk had a face hidden behind her own mask.

As if suddenly remembering that she was still not wearing the mask Flowey gave her, Frisk rushed away from the door, scooped up the mask, and put it on so quickly it was as if she feared Toriel could sense from the other room that Frisk was not wearing it. When the mask was once again on her face, Frisk collapsed to the floor. She then began breathing so quickly Mask feared she was starting to hyperventilate.

"Are you okay?" he asked, flying close to Frisk. "Frisk, calm down. You need to breathe slowly. You're not going to do yourself any favors by losing your head."

"But how am I supposed to remain calm when I'm at risk of losing my face?!" Frisk snapped, speaking loud enough to seem like she was yelling but still softly enough that Toriel should not be able to hear her from the kitchen. "If Toriel sees me without my mask, she's going to rip my face off and wear it as her own!"

To that, Mask did not have a response. It sounded ludicrous, like an insane stretch of Frisk's imagination. Yet the more Mask thought about it, the more Frisk's words felt . . . familiar. Mask, most likely, was from the forest; if that was the case, Mask had to know a lot more about its residents than he could remember right now.

Still, that did not mean Mask was going to let Frisk's mind run wild.

"How do you know that is what Toriel will do?" Mask challenged, though not unkindly.

Even though Frisk's face was now hidden behind the mask with the bored expression, Mask was sure it could hear Frisk's lip wobble as she replied, "I saw it once before."

Taken aback, Mask did not have a response. Mask wanted to ask what happened, but he could neither find the right words nor the strength to speak them. Besides, Mask was sure this would not be a story Frisk would tell easily.

"Seven people have gone into the Ebott Forest . . . ," Frisk said slowly, reluctantly. "None of them ever returned. Well, none of them ever returned . . . alive."

"And you, knowing this legend, went into this forest regardless?" Mask asked, getting closer so that he was a mere foot away from Frisk.

Nodding slowly, Frisk answered, "I was desperate."

Before Mask could ask what would lead Frisk desperate enough to go someplace from where nobody could ever return, Frisk quickly jumped to her feet, marched towards the other wall, and pointed at a family portrait.

"This mask matches the one I'm wearing," she said, finger pointed onto the kid with the bored expression mask. "Flowey said that the mask he gave me belonged to someone special. Do you think this is the same mask? Do you think Flowey might have been friends with Asriel and Chara? Maybe he knows what happened to them."

Mask knew what Frisk was doing. Instead of confronting what had happened, she avoided the topics - of those who had possibly died in the Ebott Forest and what led her to this place despite that knowledge - by changing the subject. As she made a point in her observation, he allowed the topic to change.

"As he appears in only a handful of the family portraits," Mask observed aloud, "he must have been a recent addition to the family. Maybe a nephew they took in, or if Toriel's willingness to give you somewhere to stay till she finds your family indicates anything, a lost child the family adopted."

Frisk crossed her arms and did not speak. If she did not wear the mask on her face, Mask was sure it would see her eyes flickering about as she mentally tried to solve the problem laid out before them. Who Mask was, what happened to Asriel and Chara, if Mask was somehow someway a part in those children's ill fate - all mysteries alongside why Toriel, and possibly others like her, did not have a face. This was not what Frisk agreed to help Mask solve in exchange for his helping her leave. However, it seemed that to answer one question, all the other questions would have to be answered as well.

"Flowey is our best bet if we want to learn anything else," Mask said.

"I think so, too," Frisk agreed, "but how do we find him? Where do we begin to look?"

Mask thought about Frisk's questions. Finding Flowey might have sounded simple enough, but in a forest this big filled with a multitude of monsters, there was no knowing how long searching for one monster out of hundreds would take.

"Wait, I just realized something," Mask said as he thought back to their encounter with Flowey. "When Flowey saw you, he saw your face. Instead of attacking you, he gave you Chara's mask so that you would not be attacked."

Frisk hesitated before weakly saying, "It's a good thing he found me before Toriel did."

"Yes, but why did he not attack you? Would not all monsters rip off your face if they laid eyes on it?"

Shaking her head, Frisk said, "I don't know, but I don't want to take any chances. I know some monsters will steal my face to wear as their own. Which monsters will and which won't is another thing I don't need to find out."

Before Mask could respond, there was a knock on the door, and Toriel's voice called from the other side.

"Frisk, are you awake?" Toriel asked from the other side of the door. "I believe I heard talking."

Stone still, visibly Frisk tried to swallow then answered, "Yes, ma'am, I'm up."

"Who are you talking to?"

"Only a ghost you cannot see," Mask said, loud and clear for Frisk but unheard by Toriel.

"Myself," Frisk lied. Aware it was suspicious enough already that she conversed with seemingly no one, Frisk quickly moved to open the door.

Toriel stood on the other side, her hands folded in front of her. She looked down at the child. Mask knew Frisk tried to not think about the faceless figure behind the goat mask.

"I trust you slept well," Toriel began. "Have you remembered anything now that you had an opportunity to rest?"

Frisk was silent for a moment before she replied, "I'm afraid I don't remember anything at all. Other than my name, I don't know anything about who I am or who my family is."

Mask hummed but said nothing about Frisk's claim.

"Oh, dear," Toriel covered the mouth of her mask with one of her hands, "you poor child. No idea who your family is at all?"

Frisk shook her head.

"What a terrible circumstance for such a young child. . . ." Toriel was silent for a moment before she declared, "I am afraid, my child, that your visit here may remain longer than originally anticipated. With no means to find your family, I am afraid we will have to wait until we hear of them searching for you. Until further notice, I am afraid I see no other alternative."

"That is all right," Frisk said with feign reluctance, even though the thought of sleeping under a monster's roof must have been unsettling to her. Mask knew Frisk was leaving herself in a potentially dangerous situation to help him. He started to be unsure if this was truly worth it.

"I promise to care for you as if you were my own," Toriel said, reaching out.

Frisk froze stone still as Toriel reached out. Yet as Toriel began to stroke Frisk's hair, the human child began to relax. Mask was confused, as he was sure so was Frisk. This woman acted as a mother, not a monster. Despite the lack of face, perhaps Toriel was no different from a kind, caring human such as Frisk.

"You may remain for as long as it takes," Toriel said, returning her hand to her side. "Until then, I promise to care for you as my own."