Chapter 3
Sans, eyes locked onto Frisk, cocked his head to the side. For a moment, he and Frisk had a staring contest. Or Frisk thought it was a staring contest; it was hard to tell through the masks.
Finally, Frisk grit her teeth and stated, "I thought you were captured."
Chuckling as if it was the funniest thing he had heard since breakfast, Sans replied, "Please, I'm impossible to capture."
"Then where were you? Papyrus and I were so worried!"
"Look, I said I'm impossible to capture. I'm still fully capable of being caught up."
Frisk shook with anger. Ever since he was separated from their travel group back in Snowdin Lane, Frisk feared the worst for Sans. After Papyrus was forced to reveal her, Frisk believed that her worst fears for Sans were true. Now here Sans was, perfectly fine and not at all appearing concerned that he had worried them with his disappearance.
"Well, I will no longer be needing your services," Frisk said, again marching forward and making a point to circle around Sans. "Thanks for taking me so far, but I got it from here."
"Hey, wait a minute," Sans replied.
Refusing to listen, Frisk kept walking. Then something strange happened. Her legs had suddenly become too heavy to pick up. She tried to move, but her body was stuck in place. Sucking in a sharp breath, Frisk's heartrate skyrocketed as Sans, who had to be the reason she was now immobile, walked around so that he was again in front of her.
"I don't know where you think you're going," Sans said when he was once again before Frisk, "but I can promise you won't be getting very far. After all, the cat's out of the bag. Everyone knows you're human."
Wishing Sans could see the ugly look she was giving him, Frisk asked, "Are you going to turn me in? Or better yet, do the deed yourself?"
"Haha, yeah, right," was how Sans choose to answer. He released whatever magic he exerted to hold Frisk in place, and she stumbled before catching herself. Turning around, Sans began to walk forward and told Frisk, "Follow me."
As Sans didn't turn around to see if Frisk was following after him, she debated running in the opposite direction instead. However, Frisk knew it would be futile. It was possible that Sans could teleport just as Papyrus could, and he had already proven that he could keep Frisk from running away if he so desired.
"I do not think you have a choice," Chara said, voicing the conclusion Frisk was drawing. "See what he wants. I am certain that unlike Papyrus, Sans knew what you were this entire time. If he meant you harm, he would have done so by now. Besides, he is giving you the option to follow him instead of dragging you along with whatever magic he used on you."
I don't think that giving me the option to follow on my own makes this situation any better, Frisk thought. Forcing herself to pick up her legs, Frisk began to walk forward. Sans slowed his pace to give her a chance to catch up.
"So, where are we going?" Frisk asked, preferring to not walk with Sans in silence.
"Somewhere we can talk in private, and get some good food. I'm hungry," Sans answered.
"Aren't we a good distance away from the next town?"
"Don't worry, I know a shortcut."
When Frisk blinked, the area changed. No longer were they trekking through a dark marsh, but instead they were approaching the bar in what appeared to be a restaurant. Bewildered, Frisk looked around the sudden change in scenery.
They were inside a log cabin lit by the candles on the chandelier above. The smells of grilling meat and frying potatoes filled Frisk's nose. It was not an open space, but one with separators set around the building to give patrons a private place to take off their masks and eat. There were tables not hidden behind separators in which were occupied by those talking or playing card games. When Frisk looked at the window, the outside world looked an awful lot like Snowdin.
Realizing that they were back in Snowdin Town, Frisk halted in place. Her heart skipped a beat. She looked around, waiting for one of the monsters to see her, point out her presence, and lung at her for her face.
It was as if Sans read Frisk's mind, for he said, "Don't freak out, kid. Nobody here knows what you are."
"Nobody seems to either notice or care about your being here," Chara said. "It is as if your reveal in the town never happened. How interesting."
You can say that again.
Frisk was not too far behind Sans as he leaned over the counter and addressed the man with the bright red and orange mask that bore no distinct shape, "Hey, Grillby, how's it going?"
The man on the other side of the bar continued cleaning his glass without looking up or even acknowledging Sans in any way.
To Frisk, Sans asked, "What sounds good to ya?"
Not feeling particularly hungry, Frisk answered, "Some fried potatoes will be fine."
"Tasty choice." Back to Grillby, Sans said, "Hey, Grillby, we'll take a couple orders of the taters."
Silently, Grillby set down his glass and cleaning cloth and walked through the doors to the kitchen. Within a few minutes, he was back with two plates of friend sliced potatoes. He set the plates before Sans and Frisk before resuming his cleaning.
Picking up the plates, Sans told Frisk, "Follow me. We can sit somewhere a little more private."
As they were walking away from the bar, Frisk felt someone rush up behind her, touch her shoulder, and say, "There you are, Chara! I was wondering where you went. Hee hee."
Startled, Frisk spun around to see a boy about her age standing right behind her. He was a little taller than she, and his hair was snow white. The most striking thing about him, though, was that he wore a white goat mask. Frisk sucked in a sharp breath. The young goat mask was similar to Toriel's more mature goat mask, as if this was merely the younger version the young boy wore.
Seeing as he made a mistake, the boy quickly said, "I'm so sorry to bother you! I thought you were my brother. You even have extremely similar masks. I'll leave you alone now. Sorry again!"
As the boy ran off, Frisk could only stare in disbelief. Her heart beat so fast it was as if it was trying to leap out of her throat. Even without meeting the boy before in her life, Frisk still recognized him.
Asriel.
Before Frisk could decide whether or not to chase after him, Sans interrupted her thoughts by asking, "Friend of yours?"
"Umm, no. No, I don't know that kid," Frisk answered, desperately wanting to find Asriel again and talk to him but not wanting Sans to question anything. Although she did have her own questions about why the two of them where not only someplace but also sometime in which Asriel was still young and not missing.
"Very well." Sans spun on his heel and resumed his trip. "There's nobody in here. Let's get ourselves seated so that we can talk, shall we?"
Not having a response, Frisk swallowed and followed Sans. They walked behind a separator and sat at the table. As if being cut off from the rest of the restaurant wasn't enough, after Sans set down each plate on their respective sides of the table, Sans pulled up another separator from the table so that the two could not see each other as they ate.
There was a small sound of wood being placed on wood, and Frisk inferred that this was Sans taking off his mask and putting it on the table so that he could eat. Although she was unsure if it was wise to do so, Frisk also removed her mask and set it on the table. The fresh air against her skin felt as dangerous as it felt nice.
"This is the best place to get a bite to eat," Sans said, and Frisk could hear fork scrapping against plate. "Go on, try some. I promise it ain't poisoned or anything."
"That's what you say if the food was poisoned," Frisk replied, but she still picked up a fork and used it to cut into her sliced potatoes. She looked for Chara to get his opinion, but he was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly feeling alone and exposed, Frisk shrank in her chair as she forced a bite of potato into her mouth. Her jaw did not want to chew. Overwhelmed, Frisk could not taste the food.
"Good, huh?" Sans questioned.
"The best," Frisk lied.
After a brief moment, Sans asked, "Frisk, do you know anything about a talking flower?"
With a vision of Flowey popping into her mind, Frisk answered, "Yes."
"So you do know about the echo flowers," Sans stated, confusing Frisk. "They're all over Waterfall Marsh. You say something to them, and they'll repeat it over and over and over, like a broken record.
"You see, I think someone has been using those echo flowers to play tricks on Papyrus. He told me the other day that when no one else is around, a flower will speak to him, feeding him words of flattery, encouragement, and predictions. . . . Weird, right?"
Although Sans couldn't see her, Frisk nodded as she agreed, "Right."
"Yeah . . . Be careful, okay? Thanks."
When a few moments passed without Sans adding another word, Frisk decided that it was her turn to ask questions. "When are we?"
Sans was silent for a moment before he chuckled. "Don't you mean where are we?"
"No."
Silence, and then, "About a week before all hell broke loose in Ebott Forest."
"So you can teleport to the past then."
"With strict limitations. I cannot change anything that has already happened, even if I wanted to. No matter who we interact with and what we say and do, life will continue to go on as if we were not here. We will be forgotten the moment we return to when we belong."
"Your magic is incredibly fascinating," Frisk said, poking at her still full plate of potatoes with her fork.
Sans laughed before adding, "If this is what I can do with a mask, imagine the kind of magic I could express if I had a face!"