Behind Closed Doors: Chapter 9 - The Itch

[Warning:Unintentional+Intentional Self-Harm]

"you oughta get going. he might come back, and if he does.." Sans grins again with an eye closed. "you'll have to sit through more of my hilarious jokes." You smile a little less with raised eyebrows, quipping back, "..and that's my queue. See you later, I hope?" You ask rhetorically, walking through to the next area. Another one of those odd, glowing star, things. You once again put your hand into the center and you're filled with a sense of well-being, and this spot now feels oddly familiar. After the pleasant feeling subsides, you're left with that heavy feeling again, the same one from the discussion with Flowey. You make an attempt to continue forward, but two steps in, the feeling gets heavier and heavier.

Your head lowers and your shoulders slump. It feels like someone tied a 20-pound weight to your upper-half, and when you press your hand against one of the pine trees for support, it slips against a sharp already-snapped twig, cutting your right palm a bit. You wince and suck in air through your teeth, but oddly enough... after the initial sharp pain you feel a little more clear. You reach into your pocket and remember the small paring knife from earlier, pulling it out and staring at the small, thin blade.

There's no way this thing could do any serious damage to anyone. It was too flimsy for that, but out of curiosity you press it to the same spot in the middle of your palm and just hold it.. You contemplate the ACTion you're about to take... but the moment you rest the hand holding the knife, the blood already there causes it to slip and deepen the cut. The sensation causes a quick aggressive grunt from your lips. Soon after the pain subsides, a warm light feeling floods your heart from the aftermath of the action. It feels really, really nice.. like you can think and function normally. Half a minute passes before the clarity subsides and the weight resumes it's place on your chest. You seem to be a little disappointed that it didn't last longer, but it didn't matter. You place your hand on a clear-looking patch of snow to clean the blood from your palm and fingers, scooping up handfuls until a small, half-melted pile of pink snow is present. You take a deep, deep breath, pocket the paring knife and continue forwards finally.

Once you pass the fork in the road, you see the two skeletons facing each other and talking. Instead of standing back, something inside you tells you again to keep moving forward. "...SAYING ABOUT UNDYNE-" Papyrus stops talking, stares at you, and back at Sans, who seems to do the same thing for about fifteen uninterrupted seconds.. during which you kind of just stare in disbelief until they stop. "SANS! OH MY GOD! IS THAT A HUMAN?!" Well shit, here we go. At least, that was your mindset until Sans spoke. "actually, i, uh, think that's a rock." You glance a little behind your shoulder and see a small boulder behind you and glare back at Sans as your shoulders drop. The taller skeleton miraculously replies simply with "OH." and his eyesockets narrow. You're practically mentally screaming 'WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS SKELETON!?' before Sans asks, "hey, what's that in front of the rock?"

"OH MY GOD!" Before he even continues, he hunches over to his side and places one of his gloved hands to his cheekbone before whispering loudly "(IS... IS THAT A HUMAN?)" to which Sans simply says "(yes.)". The ridiculous scenario is almost too painful to be a part of, but Papyrus exclaims in extreme giddiness. "I FINALLY DID IT! UNDYNE WILL-.. I'M GONNA-... I'LL BE SO... POPULAR, POPULAR, POPULAR!" He briskly shakes his skull before putting a fist to his teeth and clearing his 'throat'. "*AHEM*. ATTENTION, HUMAN! YOU WILL NOT PASS THIS AREA! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL STOP YOU! I WILL THEN, PROCEED TO CAPTURE YOU, YOU WILL BE DELIVERED TO THE CAPITAL, AND-.. I'M NOT ACTUALLY SURE WHAT'S NEXT. ...IN ANY CASE- CONTINUE IF YOU DARE!" He abruptly shows a bright smile and laughs admittedly the most heart-warming laugh and races off. "NYEH HEH HEH...!"

"...well, that went well." Sans smiled as you regain your former composure and approach with a puzzled expression. "He's not, uh.. going to beat the crap out of me or anything, is he?" The small skeleton shrugs with closed eyes for a moment, before looking back up at you. "i wouldn't rule it out, but don't sweat it, kid. i'll keep an eye-socket out for ya." Sans turns around and walks off, and you go to follow. Once you start however, you pick up your old habit of looking behind to see if anything was there. Out of the corner of your eye, you could've sworn you saw something staring at you in the forest.. It looked like.. like that thing in your dream. The ink-guy.

"Hey Sans, wait, did you see-" As you turn around mid-sentence, you stop, realizing that Sans was just.. 'gone', not even far ahead, just gone! Was he that fast? You blink a couple times, still in a bit of surprise from the disappearance, then shrug it off and start forward again. Encountering a few more... odd but memorable enemies. A large owl-like monster that enjoys telling jokes, one who has a thing for hats, and a poor guy who had been pranked hard! You can't tell 'exactly' when, but at some point during the separate encounters you had stopped calling them monsters and had begun calling them just.. people.

They were normal folk living their lives.. you can't really blame them for seeing you and outright attacking you, after all. Even with all of their attacks, you couldn't really bring yourself to fight back.. If they were as weak as Toriel said compared to humans, it would be just... cruel.

Maybe someone else could bring themselves to do it in some horrid, 'justifiable' way of saying it's a mercy for being trapped here, but not you.

After your final encounter with an admittedly funny blind dog and Sans explaining... 'ice physics' in a bizarre way, once again you come upon the skeletal duo facing you across a cleared-out field. The banter and situation goes on like normal, until Papyrus notices you and gains a bright smile as he explains the apparent puzzle before you. "OH-HO! THE HUMAN ARRIVES."He seems really, really happy for someone who has to hunt a human down, but that may just be how rare the occasion is? You contemplate that as the tall, extravagant skeleton explains the Electricity-Maze as it's so elegantly called, but even after he tells you to start, you notice something and ask. "I, uh.. shouldn't.. 'I' be holding the orb, if it's supposed to shock me?"

Papyrus glances at the orb, the back at you for a moment. "OH! YOU'RE RIGHT, HUMAN! THANK YOU FOR REMINDING ME. THAT WOULD'VE BEEN A SURPRISE TO SAY THE LEAST." Papyrus trots over to you, THROUGH THE MAZE, no doubt, and places the orb in your hand, then rushes off in the same pattern. After noticing the path he left, you gaze at Sans with a smirk and a raised brow. He responds with two closed eyes and a shrug, and you start your way slowly through the maze

. Regardless if you had the path or not, you had no idea just how wide or narrow the passage was, and about halfway through your shoulder gets more-than-a-hardy shock. You remembered being an apprentice to an electrician for a year or so, but you don't remember getting shocked this painfully. It causes you to clasp your shoulder with your right hand and squeeze, only to recoil further in pain as the gash in your palm re-opens a little. When you rip your hand away from your shoulder it causes several droplets of blood to drip across the electricity maze's floor, and Papyrus simply gives a devious but still hearty laugh. "NYEH HEH! IT ISN'T AS EASY AS YOU THOUGHT IT WOULD BE, HM?"

Through your pain you grit your teeth and shudder before standing back up. "Y-...Yep, this is a really clever puzzle, man. I'm surprised I even got this far..!" You meant that as a half-jest, but the skeleton's eye-sockets widen and his smile somehow gets even brighter. "W-WOW, REALLY?! YOU MEAN THAT?" You seem a little surprised, but you nod and can't help it. "Yeah, it's clearly very well-thought-out." Papyrus stares at Sans who grins back lazily. "see, bro? told you it was a good one." Something about Papyrus made you feel as though maybe you didn't truly need to.. well, fight him? You certainly didn't want to, anyway.. just look at him! After a few more well-acted steps to make it seem like you were going to walk into a 'wall' again, you made it through following his faint footprints.

"INCREDIBLE..! YOU SLIPPERY SNAIL!" You smile lightly, gazing at your palm and responding while slightly out of breath from the small amount of pain. "Yep, that's me..!" Papyrus placed his mitten-clad hand on his jaw and ponders for a second. "YOU SOLVED IT SO EASILY... TOO EASILY! HOWEVER, THE 'NEXT' PUZZLE WILL NOT BE SO EASY! IT WAS DESIGNED BY MY BROTHER SANS! YOU WILL SURELY BE CONFOUNDED! NYEH HEH HEH HEH!" He laughs triumphantly for someone who had their first puzzle solved, but you shrug it off. You again approach Sans and scoop up a small handful of snow, packing it for the moment in your right hand and holding the snowball against your gash. "hey, buddy. thanks for this, my bro looks like he's having fun. by the way, uh, last i checked, getting shocked at that rate doesn't tear skin. you alright?" Your heart stops for a moment and you respond on-the-spot. "OH, yeah, I placed my hand on a pine-tree eariler and didn't notice that there was a sharp twig. Pressed down too hard and slipped."

The skeleton takes a gloved bony-hand and moves the snowball for a second before slightly wincing. "that's a pretty deep cut, you should really eat something." You don't really piece the two statements together and you look at him with a puzzled expression. "I.. what? How would eating-" You pause and recoil 'very' slightly, using your left hand to grasp your stomach. It had been quite some time since you last ate, and even then, all you had were some scrambled eggs. "Oh god am I hungry.." Sans chuckles twice and only replies, "hey, if you make it to snowdin town try the cinnamon bunny, it's actually not bad." You gaze down at your palm, then back up to Sans. "I guess so, but that doesn't explain how eating will help my cut-" Once you look back up, he seems to be gone again! You groan out of frustration and shout "SANS!" for a moment, before sighing.

I felt like I was on a bit of a roll, so I wanted to keep going! Two chapters in a short while, I'll probably work on a third too! I hope you all enjoy the story so far. It'll get even more interesting further in!

-RampantMemory