Jeremiah made his way through the monastery as fast as he could. Which was actually quite slow on account of his poor athletic ability. The fact he was carrying a large stack of books he couldn't even see past didn't help either. Despite the current obstruction to his eyesight, Jeremiah knew exactly where he was going. He expertly navigated the many twists and turns of the monastery without having to stop once. He even managed to avoid a loose piece of cobblestone that just barely stuck out of the floor, it had been the downfall (in the most literal sense) of many monks over the years.
It didn't take Jeremiah very long to reach his destination. He couldn't see it, but he knew there would be a wooden door in front of him at the moment. He went to knock on the door, before quickly realizing the books would fall if he tried that. Jeremiah let out a frustrated sigh and leaned his back against the wall, then lightly kicked the door in an imitation of a knock. "Come in." Father Caiaphes said from the other side of the door.
"Can you open the door for me? My hands are full." Jeremiah asked in reply. Jeremiah could hear his teacher get out of his chair and make his way to the door. Then with a simple pull of a knob, the door was open. On the other side of it was a smiling middle-aged man. His once blond hair (Jeremiah could only barely remember what it looked like) was almost completely white now, but balding still hadn't begun yet. His hair still wasn't as white as Jeremiah's though. He was also rather bulky and tall, if Jeremiah had to guess he would be the tallest man at the monastery.
The man leaned down and reached under Jeremiah's hood to ruffle his white hair. Jeremiah tried to protest this, but it was to no avail. Then before he knew it, his teacher had taken the books out of his hands and was walking inside his study. He placed them onto his desk, just adding even more confusion to the organized chaos that was his desk. He then turned around and gave Jeremiah an expectant look. Jeremiah quickly took the hint and walked inside, making sure to close the door behind him. His teacher, smiling once again, said. "You can sit anywhere you like." Jeremiah's red eyes widened like saucers. "Anywhere?" He asked in hopeful wonder. His teacher nodded, causing Jeremiah to let out a small squeak of joy. He then quickly darted over to his teachers chair and practically jumped onto it. With his hands raised high in the sky in victory, he spun himself and the chair around a few times, enjoying the thrill ride that was his teacher's ancient and rare swivel chair.
This was only his second time using it, the first time had been two days ago. He had actually snuck in to try it out, but Father Caiaphes quickly caught him in the act and gave him a rather polite warning to not use other people's things without permission. Jeremiah had been pretty embarrassed and ashamed at the time, that was the first time he had ever actually done anything like that. But now that he was having the time of his life, that seemed like a distant memory. His teachers laughter on the other hand, didn't seem quite so distant. He quickly stopped his spinning, (even though his vision took a while to catch up to that) and glanced at his teacher, his cheeks now as red as his eyes. His teacher waved his hand at him. "Go on, it's fine." Jeremiah embarrassment only grew once he noticed how his teacher was trying to bite back even more laughter. So Jeremiah began to spin himself again, far slower this time and much more dignified.
After what seemed like forever to Jeremiah, he got far too dizzy to continue spinning. So he forced himself to stop his spinning. Jeremiah closed his eyes as the chair slowed down to a stop, hoping that by closing them he would stop the migraine. After a few seconds past, he opened his eyes and didn't like what he saw. Despite the fact that neither him or the chair were moving anymore, the world still seemed to be spinning around him. He rubbed his eyes for a few seconds before looking again. The spinning seemed to be slowing down slightly. "Feeling a bit queasy there Jeremiah?" His teacher asked, sounding quite amused. Jermiah nodded slightly. "Well you should try to focus on one thing until that feeling fades away." So Jeremiah did his best to keep his eyes facing towards his teacher.
His teacher sat there quietly and patiently until Jeremiah told him the spinning was gone. Once he did, his teacher reached underneath his desk and pulled something out. He then placed whatever it was on the desk. Jeremiah looked at it in curiosity. It was a rather large leather knapsack with about six different pockets. "Happy sixth birthday." His teacher said with cheer. Jeremiah's eyes brightened. "That's today?" He asked in equal parts confusion and excitement. His teacher nodded and told him to open up the knapsack. He quickly complied and pulled the main flap open. He reached inside it and immediately felt a book. His heart leapt in amazement and he wondered if it could really be.
He pulled the book out and gasped. Judging by the title branded onto the leather cover, it was a copy of the Bible. Jeremiah stared at it slack jawed. He slowly started to flick through its thick and heavy pages. Each word inside it was handwritten, and he noticed several notes at the bottom of each page. After a while of doing this, he remembered the other person in the room. He looked up, blushing slightly from embarrassment from possibly seeming ungrateful. His teacher was still smiling however. "I'm guessing you like it? Almost the entire monastery helped to make it over the course of the past year. If you look at the bottom of some of the pages you'll sometimes find a note, everyone who helped make this for you added at least one." Jeremiah said nothing. Instead he got out of his chair and walked towards his teacher. He then wrapped his hands around Caiaphas and said. "Thank you."
Then, the memory faded all around him.
Jeremiah opened his eyes and saw only darkness. "Father Caiaphes!" He shouted, full of panic on account of still clinging onto the memory. When no reply came immediately, his panic doubled. "Where am I? Is anyone else here?"
He was just about to start running around in the void in the hopes of finding someone, when someone decided to save him the trouble. "Greetings. I am Chara. " Chara's voice was cold and neutral, causing Jeremiah to freeze. He never heard someone sound so... emotionless. "Calm down. Just because they sound creepy doesn't mean you should be rude to them." Jeremiah thought to himself. So, against his better judgement he turned around.
Someone he could only assume to be Chara was standing a few feet behind him. The thing that caught his immediate attention was their odd clothing. Chara wore a green and yellow striped wool shirt, it had sleeves that only went up to Chara's elbow. Their brown pants were much the same, just barely going past their knees. Jeremiah could only wonder why someone would wear such short clothing, just wearing it would be begging to get sunburnt.
After spending quite a while gawking at Chara's horrible taste in clothing, Chara spoke up. "You know it's rude to just ignore and stare at someone, don't you?" Jermiah jumped slightly upon hearing that cold monotone voice once more. He then muttered out an apology and looked up, his pale face now twinged with red from embarrassment. He was just about to introduce himself, but as soon as he made eye contact with Chara, the words died in his throat.
Chara's eyes were just as red as his own.
That wouldn't normally be a problem for Jeremiah, because plenty of people have the blight, so red eyes weren't something unheard of. What was unheard of however, was someone who had the blight but didn't have white hair. Chara's hair was a chestnut brown and came all the way down to their shoulder. Of course the smile that seemed to stretch all the way across their place and freckled face didn't comfort him either.
Jeremiah tried to push past his fear, reminding himself God would protect him and forced himself to speak. "Uhh… howdy Chara. My name is Jeremiah." Chara's smile seemed to lose its creepiness as he spoke, it almost seemed like Chara was feeling nostalgic. But as soon as he was done introducing himself, the creepiness returned. Chara did nothing for the next few seconds, before suddenly taking a step forward. Jeremiah couldn't help but let out a small squeak and jumped back slightly.
He looked back up at Chara, fully expecting to be murdered in some strange black void. But when he looked back up at Chara, they were no longer smiling, they were giggling instead. Jeremiah stared at Chara, his terror slowly morphing into confusion as Chara's giggles turned into laughter. It eventually got to the point Chara was doubled over laughing. Eventually Chara's laughter died down and they straightened themselves back up, making sure to wipe a tear away from one of their eyes. "Oh man, I'm sorry for that. It's just that its been so long since I last got somebody with that trick." Chara's voice was no longer cold and lifeless, it now sounded bright and lively. With Chara actually talking like a normal person, Jeremiah realized that Chara was in fact a girl.
Jeremiah wanted to tell her what he thought of the joke (his opinion of it was quite low) but he remembered that he had much more important things to worry about at the moment. So he ignored his desire to rant at her and instead asked. "Do you know where we are? I was just at the monastery with my teacher when I suddenly showed up here."
Chara raised an eyebrow, her cheerful disposition fading slightly. "Pretty sure that was just a memory you were dreaming about." Jeremiah's eyes widened and he asked her what did she mean. She rolled her eyes at this question, her cheerfulness now gone and replaced by very mild annoyance. "You fell down a hole and met me. Then you proceeded to ignore me when I tried to help you out and almost got yourself killed by a talking flower. Actually, you would've definitely died if my mo- I mean Toriel didn't help."
Jeremiah was confused for a few seconds before the memories hit him like a truck.
It took him a few minutes to gather his bearings, but once he did, he glared at Chara. "You're not real." He stated coldly. This caused Chara to groan and mutter something about stupid humans. He was just about to turn and walk away, but he stopped once Chara snapped her fingers and declared. "I know a way to prove to you that I'm real." Jeremiah was just about scoff at her, but she continued before he got a chance to. "I know things you don't. I can tell you about those things, so once you find out about them yourself, you would know that I'm real. Because if I'm just a figment of your imagination, how can I know something you don't?"
That was enough to get Jeremiah to stop. He looked Chara up and down suspiciously and slowly asked. "What sort of things?" Chara smiled slightly. "I can tell you who saved you when you were unconscious." Jeremiah had to admit that he had no possible way to know about someone he never met before. He shrugged. "Sure. If you can tell me that I'll give you a chance." Chara's smile widened and she did a fist pump (the fist pump just confused Jeremiah, because he had no idea what it meant). "Ok, first things first. Her name is Toriel and she-" Chara was interrupted by Jeremiah suddenly vanishing.
Jeremiah was surprised. "Where's did she go?" He asked himself, because as far as he was concerned Chara was the one to suddenly vanish. He was answered by a giggle that seemed to come from nowhere. "Aww, I didn't know you actually cared about me." Jeremiah rolled his eyes and Chara continued, now sounding slightly more serious. "To actually answer your question, I didn't go anywhere, your the one who decided to wake up." Jeremiah was confused by that until he noticed several things at once.
To begin with, the darkness around him wasn't nearly as thick compared to earlier, and he could even make several shapes in the dark. He also realized that he wasn't standing anymore, he was laying down on something soft. He wasn't sure what he was laying on, it certainly wasn't the straw mattress he usually slept on. He tried to think of what it could possibly be for a few minutes, before deciding since he's already humoring Chara until he had definitive proof she was just a voice in his head, he might as well ask her. "Chara do you have any idea what I'm laying on right now?"
Chara snorted and replied teasingly. "It's a bed, you dingus." Jeremiah could speak ancient English fairly fluently, but he had never heard the word, "Dingus," before. He thought it was safe to guess based off Chara's tone of voice it wasn't anything nice. He laid there, slightly annoyed and trying to come up with a good comeback. Eventually, he realized he couldn't come up with one, so he gave up. "It's too soft is what it is." He angrily mumbled as he sat up on the bed. He then ignored her snickering and began to study one of the strange shapes in the dark. After spending several minutes trying to make out the shape, he realized it was a cupboard. After that, it wasn't too hard to figure out the rest of the shapes were other pieces of furniture and a door.
He sat there a little longer, unsure of what to do next. Chara, sensing his apprehension, spoke up. "I could tell you some more things about Toriel besides her name. That way, you won't have any excuses when you see that I'm right." Jeremiah sighed. "Go ahead, it's not like I'm doing anything else right now." So Chara began to tell him all about this, "Toriel," woman. According to Chara, Toriel was a nice lady, albeit slightly overbearing, who liked to bake pies and tell puns. Jeremiah tried to ask Chara what Toriel looked like, but Chara claimed he wouldn't believe her. Jeremiah thought that was foolish, because he already didn't believe her. He was just hoping that by disproving Chara's claims she would leave him alone.
After spending some time describing Toriel to him, Chara suddenly changed subjects. "Can you leave this room and meet Toriel already, I'm bored." Jeremiah raised an eyebrow at the sudden change in subjects. "You promise to leave me alone once I prove you wrong?" Chara snorted. "Sure, but you have to promise you won't ignore me again after you meet Toriel." He was about to agree but found himself hesitating. He couldn't help but worry about the implications that having another person inside his head would mean, would that mean she was some sort of demon? She hasn't told him to do anything bad… yet. But what else could she be, people didn't just get stuck in other people's minds like this. "I'm pretty sure I'm a ghost. Boo!" Interrupted Chara far too cheerfully. Jeremiah was surprised by the interruption at first, but once he gathered his wits he just rolled his eyes again. "Ghosts don't exist, you either go straight to heaven or hell."
Despite saying those words with conviction in his voice, a small part of him doubted them as an absolute. That part of him recalled first Samuel chapter twenty eight, in which Saul, the first king of Israel, had a witch summon the spirit of the prophet Samuel for advice in the coming battle. Of course, Jeremiah knew the summoning only resulted in Samuel reaffirming God's future punishment against Saul, but it did imply that such a thing may be possible. Then again, other verses implied such things as necromancy and speaking to the dead were impossible, but Jeremiah supposed such things could happen if God made it so. Which would mean if Chara's claim of being a ghost were true, that would mean God decided to put her spirit inside his head for some unknown reason.
He shook his head, it was far too early to be worrying about such things, he still didn't even know if Chara was real or not. So with a sigh, he answered. "I won't ignore you if that happens… unless you turn out to be a demon." Somehow, despite not being able to see her, he knew Chara was shrugging. "Fair enough." With that, he pulled the blankets away from him and hopped off the bed.
He was quite surprised when his left foot went through something cold and slimy once his feet touched the ground. Chara gasped and said in a rather shocked and appalled manner. "You just ruined mo- I mean, Toriel's pie. You monster." He looked down and saw that he had indeed just ruined what seemed to be some sort of pastry. If Chara was to be believed, that was more than likely one of those butterscotch cinnamon pies Toriel supposedly loves to make. Regardless of whether or not it was a pie, or if Toriel was the one who made it, obviously someone must've saved him and left him that pastry. So he couldn't help but feel guilty about the fact he ruined it. Chara muttered some drivel about sins crawling up his back in her creepy monotone voice from earlier. Jeremiah just ignored that little piece of commentary.
He also tried to ignore the travesty he had just created, but when he took a step forward he got bits of the pastry all over the floor. "Damn it." He angrily muttered to himself before smacking the side of his head. "Don't curse." He looked around the dark room, straining his eyes for anything that could clean up his mess. Eventually he saw it in a dark corner of the room between some sort of box and an odd unlit lamp, his robe. He was just about to walk over and grab it, before remembering what happened last time. So instead of walking towards it, he began to try hopping on his one clean leg towards his robes. Try being the keyword in the last sentence. He had only managed to hop once before immediately falling face first onto the ground. Chara let out a bark of laughter while he just gave a pitiful moan of pain. He slowly looked up, seeing he was now right in front of his robe. He felt the blood begin to trickle from his nose. Chara immediately stopped laughing and asked him if he was ok, he just ignored the question and angrily grabbed his robe with one hand, using the other to pinch his nose to stop the bleeding. He then pulled himself into a sitting position and began to use his robe to clean off his foot before cleaning off the floor.
After spending a few minutes cleaning the floor, Jeremiah heard a low growl. He jumped slightly upon hearing it and his eyes darted around the room, searching for any possible coyotes or mountain lions that could've broken in. (He still remembered that night when a coyote bit brother Josias, poor man contracted rabies and died shortly after. On the plus side he got to try meat for once, but he thought the coyote was a little bit on the chewy side.) He heard the growl again, but instead of causing him to panic, it just caused him to sigh. "It's just my stomach," he told himself before letting out a small chuckle. "If only I didn't step in my food." His eyes then landed upon the strange pastry. It was currently a mashed up and leaky mess. He let out a sad sigh at the sight and his stomach growled again. "Just eat the damn pie!" Jeremiah jumped slightly at Chara's sudden shouting. But once he gathered his wits, he pointed out the obvious. "Didn't you just watch me put my foot right through it? Eating it now couldn't possibly be healthy." He could feel Chara rolling her eyes at him. "I just had to watch Toriel spend a couple hours trying to scrub the dirt off you. I'm pretty sure your foot is cleaner than it has ever been before. Seriously, have you ever even taken a bath before? Because you were covered in filth." Jeremiah blushed and quietly muttered. "Everyone at the monastery made sure to get bathed at least three times a month."
Jeremiah hoped that would satisfy Chara, because that was far above the hygienic standards in Murisuna. Water was rare and could be used for better things, like drinking and watering plants after all. But his hopes appeared to be in vain once Chara began to make gagging noises. He decided it would be best for his self esteem if he just ignored her for the next few minutes, she was just a delusion of the mind after all. Out of curiosity, he lifted his foot up and examined it. It was far cleaner than he ever remembered it being. His stomach growled once again, and that was the last thing needed for him to make his decision.
He slowly lifted the plate up. He eyed the strange, mushy, pastry sitting on the plate and shrugged. He took an experimental bite of the pastry, the taste was a far cry to the stale bread he was used to eating back home. This was far sweeter than anything he had tasted before, even honey, and it even had a slight hint of spice to it. So that's why he almost immediately spit it back out. "Why in the world would anyone make something so sweet?" Chara began to sputter in indignation before screaming something about sacrilege, but he was still ignoring her. He placed the plate back on the ground and quietly resolved to ask whoever saved him for one more thing, some nice hard bread, maybe some water too. He would have asked for butter as well, but he didn't want to push his blessings.
He smiled at the thought of some normal tasting food. But as he imagined how good it would taste, he felt an odd emotion he couldn't quite name begin to well up inside him. It felt like he wouldn't let anything stop him from getting proper food. He paused and tried to think of the word, at least until Chara gave it to him. "I believe the word you're looking for is determination." He perked up once he heard this. "Determination?" He muttered the word out experimentally. A few seconds ticked by and he smiled and muttered out the word again. That word seemed to fit what he felt perfectly.
So filled with determination to get normal tasting food, he finished cleaning up his mess before standing up and making his way towards the door.
Once he reached it, it took him a little bit to find the handle. When he finally found the handle, he pulled it down and pushed the door open. On the other side of the door was a dark hallway. "I wonder why there isn't any candles?" He asked himself as he stepped into the hallway. He was answered by a sudden flash of blinding light that filled the hallway. Jeremiah normally would've marveled over such an oddity, but he was far too busy falling down on account of his sudden blindness to care.
He spent the next few minutes sitting on the ground, trying to rub the pain and blindness away. Meanwhile, Chara was laughing at his misfortune.
Once he was able to properly see again, he was able to worry about the mountain lion in the room. "Where in the world did that light come from?" He asked himself worriedly. He hadn't seen any windows when he first looked at the hallway, but it was dark. He was just about to look up and see if there were any windows, when Chara interjected. "First off, why would there be windows in a house underneath a mountain? And second, haven't you seen a lightbulb before? I know you apparently don't bathe wherever you're from, but I would hope they at least would have electricity."
Jeremiah was just about to point out that the idea of a house underneath a mountain was silly in of itself, when he realized something very important important about what she had said. "Wait, did you just say that light came from a lightbulb?" He could feel Chara's surprise by the suddenness of the question. "Yes. Also, I guess I should also apologize for not warning you about the automatic lights." Chara's voice was hesitant as she said this. He didn't pay her apology any mind however, because as soon as she said yes he looked up and couldn't believe what he was seeing. All along the yellow walls of the hallway were glowing lamps.
He almost immediately shot up from the ground and stared at one. He ignored the strain it caused his eyes and instead focused on what lay on the other side of the glass. Instead of a flame, there was a little glass… bulb of light. "I can't believe there would be such a priceless relic of the old world down here of all places." He muttered to himself. "Old world?" Chara asked but he just ignored her, he was far too captivated by the miracle in front of him.
He was shaken out of his stupor by the feeling of something warm in his hands. He looked up and realized he had his hands clasped around the lightbulb. He must've reached out to touch it without realizing. He knew he shouldn't be holding something so precious, but it's gentle warmth almost seemed to be inviting him to hold it. But eventually he came to his senses and let go of the light. He took a few steps away from it and suddenly found himself very interested in seeing his savior now, at the very least to see what sort of person would choose to live underneath a mountain, if they knew how to make and power light bulbs.
"Seriously, what's the big deal about lightbulbs?" Chara asked him exasperatedly. Jeremiah didn't bother with answering her question, instead he marched down the hallway. He passed by a staircase that was right across the hallway from a door. "That door leads to the rest of the ruins, and those stairs led to the only exit of the ruins." Chara said as he passed them by. Eventually, Jeremiah found himself at an entrance to another room. He was just about to enter when he heard something that caused him to stop. Someone, probably a woman based off the sound of their voice, was humming lightly inside the next room.
The tune they were humming seemed to be bright and cheery at first. But the longer he listened to it, Jeremiah couldn't help but notice a hint of something melancholy in the song. He stood there quietly, not really wanting to interrupt whoever was making the noise. He didn't notice how he had begun to hum as well, although much quieter and way more offtune than the original.
Finally, the song ended and all went quiet in the other room. That silence was quickly destroyed by the sound of an older woman speaking happily. "That song was simply beautiful Napstablook!" There was a pause for about a minute before this, "Napstablook," person gave a reply. "Oh… you actually liked it? I normally make spooky music, but I figured I should make something for you. I'm glad you enjoyed it… unless you're just lying to make me feel better." Napstablook let out a sad sigh. "That's what you're doing, isn't it?" Napstablook didn't sound accusatory or angry, he just sounded sad and accepting.
Despite knowing not to interrupt other people's conversations, Jeremiah didn't want Napstablook to think so lowly of such a wonderful song he made. "I thought it was a wonderful song." The other room became suddenly silent. There was no noise for several minutes and Jeremiah couldn't help but worry if he made a mistake. After a few awkward minutes of silence, Napstablook spoke up. "But you weren't wearing any headphones. How could you possibly know what the song sounded like?" Napstablook's voice was blank and questioning. Jeremiah had no idea what headphones were, but he was quick to respond anyway. "I could hear the lady in the room with you humming it." Napstablook was far quicker to respond this time, albeit with significantly less words. "Oh."
The awkward silence came back with a vengeance, lasting much longer than before. Thankfully, after what seemed like forever, Napstablook spoke up again. "Oh, wait… you're that human Toriel saved, right? I… I should leave." Normally Jeremiah would have protested this, but he was far too concerned about two different things Napstablook just said. The first and most important of those things being the name of the person who saved him. Because if the person who saved him was really named Toriel, that would mean... "Take that! I told you I was real!" At the very least Chara was happy to hear that name. Jeremiah just sighed sadly. "You sure are." He muttered quietly to himself. On the plus side, he now knew he wasn't insane, so there was that.
Then there was what Napstablook had called him, he had called him "That human." Jeremiah certainly didn't expect any of them to know his name, so he would've understood being called that boy, or even that kid. But what he certainly didn't expect to be called, was "That human." Seriously, what else would he be? "Wait you haven't heard any of the legends?" Chara suddenly asked, sounding quite surprised. Jeremiah raised an eyebrow and shook his head. "No I haven't. I've never bothered with learning the various tales that savages tell each other." This seemed to leave Chara utterly baffled and quiet. Jeremiah was quite thankful for the second thing, because he was now able to focus on Toriel and Napstablook's conversation, or rather their lack thereof.
The other room was silent yet again, and this time the silence was ended by Toriel. "Oh dear, he left his headphones." She sighed before continuing. "I suppose I'll just have to return them next time I see him." She then let out a gasp and he heard the sound of footsteps rapidly approaching. "I'm so sorry, my child, I almost forgot that you were out here." He was just about to tell her not to worry about it, when she stepped into his view.
The words died before they could even leave his lips. Instead of speaking, he stared in shock at the near seven-foot tall bipedal goat woman, who was smiling at him. Her smile revealed her long and sharp teeth.
Seemingly ignoring his shock, she continued speaking in a rather chipper manner. "My name is Toriel. I am the caretaker of these ruins and this is my home. What is your name, my child?" Jeremiah was in such a state of shock, he never even noticed the fact he was speaking. "My name is Jeremiah."
(AN) That chapter took me a long time to make, it's totally because I've poured my heart and soul into it, and not because I got distracted with playing the outer worlds. But in all seriousness, I really do think this chapter turned out well, thank God for that. I hope anyone reading this gets some enjoyment out of it. Also any and all reviews are welcomed and appreciated, even if you absolutely hate this story please leave a review and let me know any thoughts or criticisms you may have. I fully acknowledge that I'm not very good at writing, and I full-heartedly believe criticism to be a crucial part in how I could improve as a writer. And being fully honest here, I really enjoy seeing what people think of my work, regardless if they like it or not. God bless.