Chapter 10

Papyrus found me?! Frisk thought, her blood running cold despite the heat and humidity of this new area. After seeing that someone else was here, Frisk hoped to get away before she could be seen. Now not only was she seen, but the one who saw her was the one who revealed her.

Without hesitation, Frisk began to run away. She was not going to come this far only to get captured. She was not going to have anyone try to rip away her face again.

Yet as Frisk ran in the opposite direction of Papyrus, she did not make it ten steps before she ran into him. Her face crashed into his chest, and she bounced back and landed on her backside. Looking up, Frisk lost the ability to breathe as the man she was running from now stood over her.

"You betrayed me!" Frisk shouted, and she didn't realize that she was crying until she tasted the salt water of tears on her lips. "Ms. Toriel trusted you. I trusted you!"

"Frisk, please, listen to me," Papyrus began, reaching down and extending a hand.

Instead of accepting the offered hand, Frisk crawled away from Papyrus as quickly as she could while keeping her eyes glued on him. Although she couldn't see Papyrus's face behind his skull mask, she could see his hand drop slightly. It wasn't much longer before Papyrus dropped his hand back to his side and stood upright.

Frisk's heart raced within her chest. She struggled to breathe through her hot and heavy tears. It didn't matter that the mask was still on her face – Papyrus knew what was underneath, and there was nothing stopping him from removing her mask just before removing her face.

"I would never betray you!" Papyrus insisted, but Frisk didn't believe him. "I wasn't sure if you had a face, but I wouldn't have done anything differently had I known!"

Frisk didn't waste her breath. Instead, she kept crawling away as she watched Papyrus. She didn't know whether to be relieved or concerned that he stood in place.

"Sans and I have been caught hiding humans before, that is why we're on the run!" Papyrus insisted, his pleas sounding desperate. "We are not heartless monsters, Frisk, but nobody here trust humans! We have been killed by humans who forcefully remove our masks from our faces; even the human I called my friend had killed a few of us. Not everyone is going to trust you won't do the same!"

"So I'm the threat?!" Frisk cried out, her words almost strangled in her throat. "Me, a small child surrounded by monsters who will rip away my face if they saw it, is the real danger here?!"

"I don't expect you to understand," Papyrus tried, "but please, don't run away from me. I didn't want to betray you, but they caught me and knew that I was hiding someone. I had hoped you were out of the house and on your way to meet up with me again. I never would have led them directly to you!"

"LIAR!" Now that she was a few yards away, Frisk pushed herself upright and began to run in the opposite direction.

"Frisk, look out!" Chara warned, but it was too late.

Once again, Frisk crashed into Papyrus, and this time he caught her before she fell over. Frisk, held in Papyrus's arms, looked up into his skull mask. It did not look so goofy from this angle.

"He said that humans can kill monsters by forcing off their masks!" Chara exclaimed, pointing out what Frisk barely understood. "If you remove his mask, he won't be able to hurt you!"

Without thinking, Frisk threw up her arm and wrapped her finger around Papyrus's mask. His whole body went rigid. Frisk held onto Papyrus's mask just as tightly as he held onto her.

Yet instead of pulling away the mask as if it was her only hope, Frisk hesitated. She couldn't help but wonder if what Papyrus said was true. There was only one way to find out, but Frisk wasn't sure she could bring herself to kill Papyrus just for the sake of learning the truth, for the sake of saving her life.

They were at a standstill. Papyrus's tense body was proof enough that removing the mask would indeed kill him. There was no reason to remain still and wait for Frisk to remove the mask otherwise. He possibly didn't want to risk Frisk pulling away his mask as he tried to defend himself, or perhaps he was leaving her to be the one to judge his sins. Either way, Frisk knew in her heart that as hurt as she was by Papyrus's betrayal, she could not bring herself to kill him.

"What are you waiting for?" Chara asked, sounding something a combination between confused and scared. "Remove his mask!"

Instead of removing Papyrus's mask, Frisk quickly let go of his mask and grabbed the bandana around his neck. Yanking it off, Frisk pushed herself away from Papyrus and began to run away again. This time, Papyrus did not do whatever it was he did that led to Frisk running into him.

Pushing her legs to take her further and faster than they have ever carried her before, Frisk ran out of the snow and into the mush as ice became water and bitter air became steam. Soon, Frisk sprinted out of the fog. By the time there was no more white to be seen, Frisk stopped, doubled over, and tried desperately to catch her breath.

"I do not think he is pursuing you," Chara said once Frisk wasn't breathing so heavily that she wouldn't be able to hear him. "Perhaps your act of mercy was enough to get him to spare you . . . for now, at least."

"I couldn't do it," Frisk said once she had caught her breath enough to speak. "I couldn't bring myself to take off his mask, not if it meant killing him."

"So you took his bandana instead?"

"As a sign of what I could have done but didn't do, I guess." Now that her lungs were no longer screaming for air, Frisk inspected the bandana. As she noticed previously, six-pack abs were drawn onto the bandana. What she did not notice before was the name Brock drawn on with blocky letters.

"Do you see this?" Frisk asked, extending the bandana to Chara. "Do you think Brock was one of the humans?"

"I think it is possible." Chara answered.

Then Frisk felt something brush against her fingers. Gasping, Frisk pulled her hand to her chest. Her eyes were locked onto Chara.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I . . . I felt something," Frisk answered. "Did you . . . were you touching the bandana?"

"I . . . I felt myself reaching for it," Chara said, sounding almost dazed. "Here, extend the bandana again. I want to see if I can touch it."

Hesitating only a moment, Frisk reached out and offered the bandana to Chara. She could feel that something other than herself was touching the bandana. Then she felt the same thing as before on her fingers, and this time, she did not pull away.

"I can touch the bandana," Chara then said, sounding as if he did not believe his own words, "and I can touch you as well. Do you feel me."

"Yes," Frisk replied. As she felt the sensation travel, she commented, "I can feel you running up my arm and stopping at my elbow."

"I can touch," Chara then whispered. "I can feel. The velvet material of your dress – I can feel just how soft it is. I can touch your hand and feel how cold it is. However . . . it seems that although I can reach out, I cannot manipulate the world around me. I am trying to take the bandana now, but it is not moving from your grasp."

Frisk looked at the bandana. It remained still as if she was the only one holding it, but she could feel Chara touching it. He might have been able to touch and feel, but he still could not do much to interact with the world around him. For all she knew, only she could feel his touch. Chara may have been able to touch others, but there was no promising that they in turn could feel him.

"Hey, I just noticed something," Frisk said as she studied the bandana. "When Toriel gave me the ribbon that used to belong to a human, you remembered your name. Now that I have this bandana, you can touch. Do you think it's possible that the more items that once belonged to the humans who died here we collect, the closer we will come to solving your mystery?"

Chara was silent a moment before replying, "At this point in time, it is a strong possibility. Yet how will we find the next item? How will we know what used to belong to one of the humans who died here?"

"I don't know, but this the closest we have come to discovering who you are." Not knowing where else to put the bandana, Frisk tied it around her neck. "We should keep moving."

"We should," Chara agreed, and the two set off.

"You wouldn't happen to know how to get through Waterfall Marsh, would you?" Frisk asked.

"Actually, I think I know how to get through this area," Chara answered. "The memories of this forest are slowly coming back to me. I think going forward, I will be the only guide you need."

"Excellent, because I do not think we'll be able to find anyone else we'll be able to trust." Frisk frowned. "I guess now we're the ones on the run now, huh?"

"No, you are the one on the run," Chara corrected. "Nobody but you knows that I exist. If you were caught, I would only be caught by association. They really could not do anything else to me."

Not having a response, Frisk didn't say anything. They walked a short ways before Frisk felt her eyelids growing too heavy. Now that she wasn't fueled by adrenaline, she was starting to realize how tired she was.

Finding a quiet place in the bushes, Frisk settled under the shrub. It was not the most sanitary place to rest, but it would have to do. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"I will wake you if I have reason to fear that you will be in danger," Chara promised. "Rest easy knowing that I will be here to watch out for you."

"I will," Frisk replied, sleep already overcoming her. "Good night, Chara."

"Good night, Frisk."

End of Book Two