Kris could never get used to the large estate Noelle lived in. He'd seen it multiple times from the distance and up close, but it was so unfathomable to him that a small family lived in something this large. He knew it was mostly just benefits from Noelle's mother being the town mayor.

Noelle opened the large iron gate with a small dainty key and pushed it open. The gate looked heavy and screeched horribly, but it looked like Noelle barely noticed. She gestured for Kris to follow her, slipping into the large front yard of the house. Calling her home a house was a bit of an understatement at this point. It was almost like a mansion or a hotel with a large foundation and several windows with probably added floors too.

"What's the point of having all of these floors if most of them are empty?"

Noelle turned to him as they walked down one of those many empty hallways. The outside world was beautiful and covered in snow, and it was comfortably warm inside the building. Kris was holding a small little mug in his hands which smelt of nutmeg and cinnamon and chocolate.

She smiled. "Most of them are for decoration."

"It's a waste of space," Kris said flatly, lifting the mug to his lips.

"It's actually not. We try to keep them available for any guests, especially important ones from out of the town. My mom has a lot of diplomatic business with companies regarding the town's needs, and because Hometown is so far away from the city, most of the people stay here."

"Hm."

"Some of them are also memorial rooms." Noelle stopped in front of a door and stood on her toes. She looked through a peephole, then lowered to face Kris. "Want to see?"

He shrugged. Why not. Kris handed her the mug so nothing would spill and pressed his hands on the sides of the door. He pushed himself up to look, one eye pressed close to the little hole. Most of the room was dark. To the center he could see the faint outline of a bed illuminated with shining lights. There was also a sign he couldn't read.

"That belonged to my great-great-great grandfather," Neolle said, an inch of pride in her gentle voice. "My family's been here for a very long time. Almost as long as this village has existed!"

"I know."

"Kris?"

His attention snapped back to the present. Lifting his gaze up, he spotted Noelle watching him as she stood next to the front door of her house. It was wide open, and during his time spacing out, she'd probably done that.

Her mouth turned into a small frown. Concern. "Uhm... Something wrong?"

He shook his head quickly and walked past her, smelling the strong cleaner that was always visible in the front room. An attack of gentle colors blared around him. Kris kept his eyes to the ground, the carpet somewhat fuzzy. Little candy canes were etched into the fabric.

Kris heard Noelle's light footsteps. In his pocket, the little object from the burnt house ruins rubbed against his leg in the wrong way. He wanted to pull it out and plunged it into the ocean. So that he would never see it again. But he kept himself in control and kept on, following Noelle up the first set of stairs that led to a series of doors. One of them was her bedroom. Kris knew that from playing pranks on her.

"Wouldn't it be funny if you had ketchup on your arms right now and you were just strategically planning on pranking me?" she said, a laugh in her voice.

Kris cracked a tiny smile and just stayed silent while he followed her.

Like the rest of the house, Noelle's room was decked with seasonal ornaments. Little fake trees were on her bookshelves along with arrangements of her snowglobe collection that had increased each and every year. Kris saw a little tin of candy canes, tempted to steal one, but he realized they were pencils and kept his hand down close to his side. Noelle's curtains were pretty and depicted a snowy scenery with a town and trees and lights.

Kris stood in the middle of the little world he was allowed in. He felt odd here. Here, there was a life that was moving on from tragedy, even if the tragedy was paired with constant heartbreak. He looked at his hands as Noelle was gathering things together for the thing in his pocket. If he knew any better, reality was shifting and changing and lying to him. Noelle wasn't moving on as well as she seemed to. The conversation they had in the Dark World yesterday was stitched in his brain, taunting him and telling him to do something. Her internet searches that mirrored this pain that was her own demon that she couldn't do anything about...

"Where's Dess's room?" he asked out of the blue.

Noelle almost dropped a glass cylinder. It was probably something she got a long time ago for a chemistry project Kris vaguely remembered. She quickly set it down on her desk and looked at him, eyes widened. Then a wave of sadness covered her up like a blanket.

"It's where it's always been," she said. "But Mom locked the doors, so we can't go in. I-I don't even know if her stuff is still in there or if it was all thrown away or put into storage..." She looked at Kris, then at the ground. "She doesn't believe me when I say this, but I think Dess will come back. I-I-I think she didn't leave willingly... Maybe someone took her?"

"Kidnapping?"

"Y-Yeah! I don't know why someone would e-ever want to do that, and... And it makes me a bit disgusted that someone would want to take her out of anybody else."

He wanted to tell her something. Kris opened his mouth. Noelle shifted her attention to him, but his words were gone. He shook his head and turned to face the wall.

Noelle deflated. "You must think that's a stupid thing to believe in. Y-You probably think I'm thinking about some st-stupid wishful thought, but I can't help it... I think that you would feel the same way too, if Asriel suddenly vanished."

"Maybe."

Noelle scrunched her body together, arms wrapping around her chest and feet planted close together. There was this expression on her face that told him that she was trying her hardest not to cry.

Kris sighed. "I don't think that you're thinking stupid thoughts." She looked at him, and he continued, "I actually believe you. Someone probably took her, and she's still alive. But-"

She inched closer to him. "But?"

"...But if she was taken by somebody, how can we know she isn't dead? I-I mean, Noelle, it's been a few years."

"I know you were the last one who spoke to her."

Kris flinched. Then he went silent immediately. Noelle noticed the sign and she looked immediately regretful.

"I-I- Kris... Oh, I'm sorry!"

He shook his head. "Just forget it." He shoved his hand in his pocket and pulled out the object, dangingly it on his fingers by the tarnished chain. The thing on the end was round and covered in dirt and grime that hid away its original shape.

It swung like a metronome, giving Kris an odd sort of comfort. Noelle followed it with her eyes, the reflection visible in her large brown eyes. She recovered from the sadness before.

Kris raised his arm to her, the object bouncing with the movement. It took a couple seconds for her to take it from him, gentle fur brushed against the side of his finger. She held it in her own hand carefully as if it were something made of glass and just one wrong move with it would cause it to shatter into a million pieces. Her thumb stroked the round thing tenderly.

"Do you ever wonder what it was like for those people?" she asked, clearly lost in thought.

"Specify," Kris replied flatly. He decided to sit on her bed, the mattress making room for his weight.

Noelle placed it in that beaker, which was filled with a clear liquid that Kris thought was water at first. When bubbles appeared in the beaker, he realized it was probably some cleaning solution or rubbing alcohol. Or something. "I wonder, sometimes, what it was like to be alive all those years ago, where humans and monsters lived together in villages. Those sorts of societies must have been beautiful and full of coexistment. It's a little hard to see it though. Just- Isn't that something wonderful?"

Kris didn't say anything.

"O-Of course it would be hard, living like that without the benefits of the modern world." She sat on her chair very ladylike despite the dirt that still marked her clothes.

"There would be a lot of humans."

"Yes!" Noelle said, excited. "Yes! Wouldn't that be awesome?"

Kris let himself fall flat on the bed. "Not really. Humans are rude, disgusting and selfish."

She looked at him. "But you're not."

He couldn't respond to that. If he said he was, she would try to find any examples to debunk his statement. If he said he wasn't, Kris would be lying. So he didn't say anything at all, which worked in the end.

He tried to think back at all the times when he was a jerk to Noelle. Scaring her by spraying ketchup on his arms, calling it blood, and hiding underneath her bed for hours just to scare the crap out of her. Or what about all those times where he told her those stories about their favorite childhood characters secretly eating children at the dead of night. What about those times where he offered her food that was practically inedible just to see her reactions? Refusing to play her a song on the piano and just banging on the keys until she told him to stop? At this point, Kris was surprised that Noelle still associated herself with him. She either saw too much good in him and forgave him for all that torture, or she was increasingly tolerant of stuff like this.

Kris thought she was really tolerant. Well, if Noelle could handle sitting next to Berdly for the entire year of school and his annoying loud mouth, she could survive anything. Even a journey into the world that she concluded was just a dream.

What if he told her otherwise?

Kris didn't know if he was allowed, but he would do it anyway.

"Noelle."

"Hm?"

"It wasn't a dream."

She looked confused and taken back. "W-What?"

Kris sat up, hair swaying in his face. He turned to her. "It wasn't a dream."

"W-What wasn't?"

"That world that you were in. With me and Berdly and Susie. It wasn't a dream, Noelle. It was real." She didn't reply. "It was all real," Kris repeated.

"All of it?"

He nodded.

"Even... Even..." Her face turned red and she covered it immediately with her hands. "Even that ferris wheel ride with Susie?!"

He wasn't aware that happened, but nodded regardless.

She looked at him, eyes wide, mouth hanging open. "So you were really there! Not in a dream but real life! And you were dressed like a knight and you had a sword and I HAD POWERS?! A-And then there was Berdly with his outfit and Susie with her axe and that person who looked a lot like Asriel with the red scarf-"

"Ralsei," Kris corrected.

"Ralsei... And Queen?" Noelle spun onto him. "Queen was real too?"

"All of it."

Then she looked doubtful. "How do I know that you're not making up all this stuff?"

"I can prove it to you tomorrow."

"H-How?" Noelle sputtered out.

Kris got up from the bed, walking over to her. She relaxed a bit. "Come to the supply closet tomorrow after school. Bring Berdly too if you want, but no one else. Me and Susie will be there. And don't tell anyone about this."

"Okay..."

Kris looked over at the beaker. The object that was placed inside of it was now mostly clean. An old gold paint smiled at him, and Kris knew what it was. It was a locket, and engraved on its face, was the exact same symbol he saw in Ralsei's castle. Ancient ruins depicting a prophecy.

He needed to ask some questions.