Jeremiah sat there, dumbly staring at the warm loaf of bread in front of him. Next to the bread was a small plate that had a stick of butter on top of it. There was a dull knife sticking out of the butter. Finally, sitting right next to his hand was a glass of water. Somehow, both the glass and water were clear and cold.
All Jeremiah could feel while staring at the food was disbelief, that wasn't on account of the food, however. The reason why he felt such a way was sitting across the table from him, smiling. "I hope you enjoy your food, Jeremiah." He just barely stopped himself from wincing when Toriel suddenly spoke up. Her voice was far too cheery to come from something that looked like it could easily rip him to shreds."Come on, if she wanted to kill you she would've done it already." Chara sounded rather fed up about his nervousness towards Toriel. He couldn't help but admit Chara had good reason to be fed up. He knew that she probably wasn't going to hurt him, and even if she did, that would mean he would go to heaven, so there was no real reason to be nervous. But despite how hard he tried to ignore it, there was still something about a seven-foot-tall goat woman who had sharp claws and fangs that made him nervous.
Despite all those thoughts and feelings, his body worked on autopilot. He cut himself a small piece of bread before smearing some butter onto it. He then took a bite of it and his eyes widened. The bread seemed to melt in his mouth alongside all of his worries. He gave Toriel an honest smile and said. "It tastes really good Miss Toriel." This seemed to cause her smile to widen. "I'm very glad my child." Jeremiah blushed, was he that worked up just because he was hungry? He certainly hoped that wasn't the case.
Jeremiah spent the next few minutes quietly eating the bread. It wasn't anything like the bread he had eaten at home. Toriel's bread was soft and warm, as opposed to the bread back home, which was almost always cold and stale. Jeremiah went to cut himself another slice, but stopped once he realized that he had managed to eat half the loaf. Toriel seemed to realize his hesitance and said. "I've already had my lunch. You can have the rest of it, Jeremiah." A small part of his brain wondered when he had told Toriel his name, but he just ignored it. He was too busy wondering if it would be considered a sin to eat an entire loaf of bread so as not to offend one's host. He didn't want to be a glutton, but he also didn't want to be rude either. Eventually, he came up with a compromise. "I'm not hungry anymore Miss Toriel. Do you mind if I save this for later though?"
Toriel nodded. "Of course, Jeremiah." She then got out of her chair and made her way to the kitchen. She dug through multiple drawers and cabinets before producing a strange paper-thin silver sheet. She brought it back to the table and began to wrap it around the half-eaten loaf. Jeremiah stared at the wrapping with confusion, unsure what the silvery wrapping was. Chara sighed. "It's tinfoil." That didn't really answer Jeremiah's question, so he began to debate with himself on whether it was metal or paper. "Pretty sure its metal," Chara said tiredly. Jeremiah immediately stopped his mental debate. "Can you hear what I'm thinking?" He slowly thought to himself in slight terror. Chara laughed. "Yep." Jeremiah shuddered, thankfully Toriel never noticed.
Once she was done wrapping the bread, Toriel sat back down in the chair. "I imagine you have plenty of questions." Jeremiah blinked in surprise at the suddenness of Toriel's statement. He shifted in his seat, suddenly feeling slightly uncomfortable. Sure he had plenty of questions, but he was worried that some might offend her. But as soon as he started to worry, the same warm feeling he felt while eating the bread flowed through him, melting all of his worries away. He let out a relieved sigh and looked at Toriel. "I have a few." He was surprised by the sudden confidence his voice possessed, but that warm feeling made sure he didn't worry about it. He waited a moment to see if Toriel had anything to say, she didn't, so he continued. "The first of those being, and I'm not trying to be rude, is what exactly are you? You certainly aren't human."
Toriel didn't seem offended by the question at all, she actually laughed at it. "No, I'm definitely not a human. I am a monster, specifically a boss monster." Jeremiah raised an eyebrow and asked. "What exactly is a monster?" It was Toriel's turn to raise an eyebrow. "You haven't heard any of the legends?" Jeremiah was slightly annoyed by people asking him about the tales of savages twice in one day. However, instead of telling her his opinion on legends, he simply shook his head. She sighed. "Well then, that means I'll have to do a whole lot more explaining then." She then visibly brightened. "Which is a good thing, I've always enjoyed teaching others." Jeremiah smiled as his opinion of Toriel rose even higher than before.
Suddenly, Toriel got out of her chair, confusing Jeremiah. She then made her way towards a bookshelf, and he suddenly understood what she was doing. She pulled a rather large book out of the shelf and brought it towards the table. She placed it between them and he saw the title. "A brief history of Monsters and the underground." Underneath the title was Toriel's name, which was apparently just Toriel. "She does have a last name, its Dreemurr." He would've normally asked Chara why Toriel wouldn't write down her last name, but he was far too busy staring at Toriel in amazement. "You wrote a book?" He almost shouted. Toriel shot him a slightly smug smirk. "I've been living down here alone for quite a while now, I needed something to do."
She then opened the book and began to read. "A long time ago, in days of yore. Two races ruled over the Earth: Monsters and Humans. One day, war broke out between the two races. After a long battle, the humans were victorious. They sealed us monsters underground with a magic spell." Jeremiah frowned as she read the book. The book seemed rather light on details such as dates after all. But his frown only deepened when she mentioned magic. She noticed his reaction and asked. "Is something wrong?"
Normally he would've just shaken his head, there was no reason to be rude after all. But that same warm feeling overtook him yet again and caused him to blurt out what he was thinking. "Yes, I do have a problem. That problem being that your book seems rather light on details." Toriel looked surprised at first, but she quickly adopted a pleased expression. "That is very astute of you Jeremiah. It is indeed very short on details about the war, but that's pretty much all of the facts we really have. If it makes you feel any better, the war happened long before the first of the Europeans arrived on the continent."
Jeremiah sat there in thought for a moment, before nodding. "That would certainly explain why there is no mention of your people in any of our history books. But that still doesn't answer my earlier question, what exactly is a monster?" Toriel was quiet for a moment, as if in thought. Eventually, she answered him. "Well to make it as simple as possible. Humans are made up entirely of physical matter, such as flesh and blood, so their souls are tied closely to this world than us monsters. Monsters, on the other hand, are almost entirely composed of magic, so our souls are tied to the unseen realms of magic. So in this world of physical matter, humans are far stronger than us monsters in almost any circumstance."
Jeremiah couldn't help but frown at all the talk about souls, magic, and unseen realms. He wasn't sure what any of it meant. Well, he knew what all of those words meant, but he wasn't sure what Toriel meant by them. "Did you just say monsters were made of magic Miss Toriel?" He asked hesitantly. She just nodded and smiled patiently at him. He sat there, trying to absorb the idea. Chara sighed and interrupted his thoughts. "It's not like witchcraft." She said, sounding bored. He was about to ask Chara what magic actually was then, but then he realized Toriel would probably know more about it than Chara. So he asked her instead. "What exactly do you mean by magic Miss Toriel?" Toriel didn't immediately respond, instead, she looked side to side, as if she was making sure nobody was there. This confused Jeremiah, but his confusion only increased once she lifted one of her paws in the air and shot him a smile as if she was sharing some great secret with him. Then out of nowhere, her paw was set ablaze.
If it wasn't for the warm feeling suddenly overtaking him again, he would've tried to put the fire out with his half-full glass of water. But he didn't, instead, the warm feeling forced him to sit there calmly and realize her paw wasn't actually on fire. The flame was actually floating an inch or two above her paw. He stared at the flame blankly. His mind was busy thinking of all the stories he's ever heard of witchcraft before. Stories of people cutting their own limbs off in the hopes of using a spell, entire villages sacrificed in the name of some demon, and an ancient story of a witch luring in two children in the hopes of eating them.
The warm feeling tired to stop these thoughts and worries. But all it could do was dull the feeling of his imminent peril, not his knowledge of it. So feeling no panic, but knowing he should, he told Tor- the witch. "I'm sorry, but I must lay back down." The fire instantly vanished and the witch looked at him with mock concern. "Are you alright Jeremiah?" He suddenly realized he couldn't remember ever telling her his name. "I should be. I believe I am just tired at the moment." Toriel gave him a small smile and replied in that motherly tone of hers. "Let me know whenever you're feeling better and we could maybe do some reading together."
Jeremiah just nodded at her, before getting out of the chair and calmly walking out of the room. He supposed that was one benefit to the warmth, (which he was now almost certain was some sort of spell) it stopped him from running away in a panic. Which would be bad, because doing so would reveal to the witch he caught onto her scheme.
He passed by the staircase and door, he was tempted to either just rip the door open and run outside, or to try bolting down the stairs. Two things stopped him however, the first and foremost of those being that the witch would notice the noise and track him down. The second being that he had no idea where his knapsack was. Most people might consider worrying about a knapsack in a life or death situation silly, but they would quickly change their opinion if all of their worldly possessions were inside it. Suddenly out of the blue, Chara answered his question. "It's inside your room, right behind the shoe box." Jeremiah was surprised by Chara suddenly speaking up after being quiet for so long, but he gave no reaction. "And how would you know that?" He asked, slightly curious. Chara sighed as he grabbed the door handle and pulled the door open. "As I said before, I had to watch her basically nurse you back to health."
He took a step into the room and was about to look for his knapsack when Chara let out an irritated chuckle. "Are you really going to just leave her like this?" Her voice was barely above a whisper and was filled with an emotion he couldn't quite identify. He raised an eyebrow at the silly question. "Of course I am. She's obviously a witch and is planning to murder me." Chara let out a huff. "You really believe if she was going to kill you, she wouldn't have done it already? You were about to die and she went out of her way to save you. Not only that, she's spent two days trying to nurse you back to health. Can you please explain to me why she would do all that if she wanted to kill you?" As she spoke, her voice slowly picked up in volume to the point she was almost yelling. Jeremiah was now able to identify the unknown emotion in her voice, it was anger.
He winced as she asked her final question. Her logic was hard to argue against, to the point Jeremiah wondered if he was overreacting. But then he remembered the foreign warmth he felt, and the fact Toriel confessed to using magic. Then again, maybe the warmth he felt was something natural, or maybe even something divine? It hadn't actually done anything to harm him, honestly, it had been quite helpful. It was also possible her claim of being able to use magic was just a translation error. There was no logical reason to expect somebody from a secret civilization that existed since before the Europeans arrived, to be able to speak perfect ancient English. Then again, there was no reason to think somebody from such a civilization could be able to speak ancient English at all, let alone be able to have a conversation with a fluent speaker of the language and only make one mistake. Plus the fire she summoned would be hard to explain away as anything besides witchcraft.
He let out a sad sigh. "Chara, I'm sorry to say this, but all the evidence seems to point towards Toriel being a witch." He really was sorry to say it. Despite her very intimidating appearance, he had started to think of her as somebody wise and kind. But he supposed that could have been the work of some sort of spell. Chara just scoffed. "So what if she is a witch? Why can't a witch want to help someone?" Jeremiah rolled his eyes at the question. "A witch wouldn't want to help someone because witches are evil." He hoped that would be enough to satisfy Chara so he could end this conversation, but he soon found out it was far from enough. "What the hell type of logic is that? Nobody's just pure evil, everyone has some sort of good in them! So even if she was a witch, and we're using your witches are all evil logic, couldn't she do something good at least once?"
Jeremiah was starting to get annoyed. Why couldn't she get it through her thick skull that witches are just evil? "Oh, so my skull's thick now?" Jeremiah cringed at her sharp and scathing tone. "I'm sorry, I forgot that you could hear what I was thinking." He could tell that Chara didn't believe his apology, but she didn't make any mention of it. Instead, she resumed her rant about the original topic, Toriel.
Jeremiah tried to debate her for a few more minutes but eventually came to the conclusion that there would be no changing her mind. So instead of standing there, debating the morality of sorcery, he decided to just find his knapsack. He sighed and asked. "Where did you say my knapsack was?" Chara was silent, yet he could feel the smugness from her small victory radiating off her. "It's behind the shoebox and in front of Mr. Fluffy and Mr. Hope Killer." He was about to ask her who in the world was Mr. Fluffy and Mr. Hope Killer, but Chara answered his question before he could even ask. "Their stuffed animals. Please don't ask why they're named that." Jeremiah felt surprised at how embarrassed she sounded, so he didn't ask.
He walked towards the shoe box and looked behind it. Just like Chara said, there were his knapsack and two large stuffed lambs. One of the lambs was the same shade of red as the walls of the room, while the other lamb was just white. Despite their color differences, they shared a lot in common. Like the fact they both had two black button eyes or the fact, they were both covered in a thin coat of dust. As he looked at the two lambs, a sudden feeling of sadness and longing began to creep upon him. He wondered why two old stuffed lambs could inspire such feelings in him, but he quickly realized they weren't his feelings, they were Chara's. He was about to ask what was wrong, but yet again she answered before he could ask. "Please just grab your knapsack and leave." Her voice was barely above a whisper, yet even he could detect a hint of bitterness in it. But there was a hint of something else, it was almost like she was pleading with him. This just confused Jeremiah, didn't she just waste both their time arguing about Toriel, what caused such a sudden shift in attitude? He found his eyes being drawn to the shoebox for some unexplained reason. He looked at all the shoes inside it, taking note of their many shapes and sizes. He then let out a gasp as he realized what Chara must've realized first. The shoes… they were the shoes of children who fell down here before him, children who Toriel murdered for some occult ritual."It's not that Jeremiah." He winced internally when he heard Chara's almost broken sounding voice. "What is it then?" He asked her, genuinely worried for the ghost inside his head. Which was a situation he never would've thought or believed he would be in (not that he fully believed it even now). Chara was silent for a moment, but she eventually answered his question. "It's just… there's too many memories for me here. I thought I could've handled it better than this, but I don't think I can take it much longer."
Her explanation caused a dozen different questions to spark inside his mind, but out of pity, he never asked her any of them. Instead, he began to try answering them on his own using the information he had."Chara is a voice inside my head who claims to be a ghost. Chara knows a lot of stuff about Toriel. Chara apparently has too many memories of this place. Toriel lives here and is a witch. Possible conclusions? Chara is some sort of demon or spell that's working with Toriel." He paused, considering that possibility. It seemed like the most realistic explanation. It wouldn't require him to believe in ghosts, and it would explain how she knew so much about Toriel and defended her so much. But he then thought about how miserable Chara felt, and decided that demons and spells probably couldn't feel emotions like that. So he decided to file that under a possibility he would need to pray about later. "Assuming that she is actually a ghost, maybe she used to live here? That would probably mean Toriel murdered her, but why would Chara defend her murderer?" He took a minute to think of a possible answer. "Toriel could've used some sinister spell to make her forget being sacrificed. Yes, that makes sense, Chara would only remember the act Toriel put up." This theory, while admittedly seeming very silly, made some semblance of sense. So Jeremiah decided it would be best to go forward under this assumption, until he can prove or disprove it.
"I should probably tell Chara about this after we leave." He thought to himself as he opened the door. "You forgot I can hear what your thinking." He jumped slightly when Chara spoke up, her voice an odd mix of sad and teasing. His eyes darted to the floor. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean for you to hear any of that." Chara gave him a halfhearted chuckle. "Don't worry about it, honestly it was kinda funny." Jeremiah started to walk, but kept his eyes facing towards the ground. "What was so funny?" Somehow, he could feel Chara smiling at him, yet he could also tell it was a hollow smile. "You wouldn't get it." With that, they both became silent until he reached a sort of crossroads. On one side of the hall was a wooden door, on the opposite side was a staircase. "The exit to the ruins is downstairs. If I was you I would tell Toriel I was leaving, but I-" Before Chara could even finish speaking, Jeremiah began to walk down the stairs. Chara sighed. "I knew that was going to happen."
He was at the second to last step when he heard Toriel shouting from upstairs. "Where are you, Jeremiah?" He froze, hoping that she didn't realize he was down here. He waited there for what seemed like forever. He knew waiting was stupid, but he wasn't sure if she could hear him walking down the steps. So he stood there, unsure of what to do now. But Toriel answered the problem for him, by suddenly shouting. "Don't go down there Jeremiah!" Which was followed by the sound of someone running above him. This managed to wake his legs back up, causing him to bolt down the remaining stairs and through the hallway.
Unfortunately for Jeremiah, he wasn't athletic in the least. So despite his head start, he didn't get too far down the hall before he felt a paw land on his shoulder, causing him to stop. There was no point in fleeing anymore, after all, his fate was sealed. He could hear her gasping for air while trying to speak to him, but that seemed to slowly melt into his subconscious. Instead, his mind was busy thinking of countless ways Toriel could murder him. Possibilities like being slowly skinned alive, or maybe being ripped to shreds with her claws and teeth, caused fear to began bubbling up within him. But thankfully that foreign warmth flowed through him once again, turning his ever increasing distress into a calm acceptance. He sighed. "Don't be stupid. It doesn't matter how I die or how painful it is, all that matters is that'll I be with my redeemer soon, and they'll be no more pain or tears."
"You're not going to die." Chara muttered. He just ignored her, instead focusing his thoughts on what life would be like once he was freed from this wretched world. But his thoughts of wearing a pure white robe came to a crashing halt once he considered the fact he hadn't even converted anyone yet. While he was sure he would be let into heaven based off Jesus's sacrifice for him. He really didn't want to face the Father and be told he hadn't really done anything for the Divine Trinity, that would be embarrassing. He lamented this fact, but tried to comfort himself with the idea that if God was going to use him to convert people, he wouldn't have fallen down into this witch's lair. But as he thought about that, a thought that surely must've come from the divine himself struck him. "You have someone you can convert right behind you."
The thought seemed brilliant to Jeremiah. It would explain almost all of the insanity that happened to him, all of it would be a part of God's plan. It meant he fell down here to show Toriel God's divine light, or at the very least give her a warning.
She had been standing there, patiently waiting for an answer for quite a while now. She had tried asking him why he had run down here in such a hurry, but after several minutes he still hadn't answered. She was actually starting to get worried about the child's mental well-being. So she felt relieved when he wiggled out of her grip and turned around, giving her a smile. But that relief quickly turned into confusion when he spoke. "I know that you're a witch and planning to murder me. So there's no need to lie." Toriel started at the child, rendered speechless by his claim. "I also know that you murdered other children before me. I believe one of them was named-" He suddenly winced and stopped himself. He was slow to compose himself and muttered. "I guess you wouldn't care about hearing their name."
He then let out a sad sigh. "I realize that there's nothing I can really do to stop you from sacrificing me to some demon. But I have two requests for you. The first being to allow me the chance to give you the best news you'll ever hear. This news can deliver you from the demon that you serve, the one who has trapped you in such a monstrous form. My second request is that if you for whatever reason, reject this news of redeeming grace, please make my death quick, so I can see my master sooner." He then closed his eyes and seemed to brace himself. Toriel just stared at him.
Being honest, she was completely puzzled on how to handle such a bizarre and horrific scenario. All of the other children who fell were never this… paranoid. They were all so trusting and eager to see the world around them. But Jeremiah was obviously different, she was able to guess that as soon as she met him. Getting called a demon and having a glass bottle flung at you made such things obvious. Him going into shock when he saw her after waking up only confirmed it. What made this confrontation so utterly baffling was that it happened so soon, she had just casted a calming spell onto the bread she made him after all. The spell was supposed to have lasted for a week, by then he would've hopefully been comfortable enough around her to avoid this very scenario from happening.
But here they were, her staring at him worriedly, while he stood there silently, as if he was some sort of sacrificial lamb. She wasn't sure if she would've preferred him trying to kill her out of his paranoia instead of just accepting his supposed fate. It was disturbing to Toriel, seeing a child so young just accepting their death like that. A small part of her couldn't help but wonder if the others acted the same way. She shook her head, trying to push the disturbing thought out her mind. It wouldn't do anyone any good if she kept thinking about the past instead of helping the child in front of her. But that brought about another problem, how would she calm him down. She gave it a moment's thought, before concluding she should ask him what exactly made him believe she was a witch.
So she slowly made her way towards him and placed a paw on his shoulder. She frowned slightly when she saw him flinch at her touch, so she pulled her paw away. She let out a sad sigh and gathered her wits. "What makes you think I'm a witch?" Her voice was soft and gentle. It was Jeremiah's turn to sigh as he opened his eyes. "I've already told you, there's no need to lie." Toriel wanted to let out a groan at his response, but she knew she had to be patient with the child. "Jeremiah, I'm really not a witch, nor am I planning to murder you. If I've done something to frighten you however, please let me know and I'll avoid doing it in the future."
Jeremiah's red eyes glared at her warily. "Fine, if you want me to explain how I figured this out, I will." She was surprised by the underlying venom in his voice. "I realized what you were as soon as you showed me that hellfire that even you confessed to be witchcraft." Toriel blinked and asked surprised. "Witchcraft? When did I ever claim it was that? I told you it was magic." Jeremiah rolled his eyes. "It's all the same. But let's get back on track. Once I realized what you were, that calming spell you cast upon me made itself obvious." Toriel was shocked that he noticed it, but she did her best to hide her reaction. Instead, in order to put his concerns to rest, she decided to explain why she cast that spell upon him. "I only used that spell to stop you from panicking once you woke back up."
Jeremiah's glare sharpened and the next words out of his mouth sounded far more venomous than before. "Of course you cast the spell to stop me from panicking. But the more important question is why would I have panicked in the first place?" He paused for a moment, appearing to give her a chance to answer. She was just about to tell him it was because of how unusual her appearance was, but as soon as she opened her mouth, he continued. "It's because you were planning to sacrifice me to some demon. I've read the reports about you and your satanic ilk. You savages go from town to town, butchering anyone who tries to stop you, anyone you capture is sacrificed to some demon you call a god in exchange for power." He then paused, seemingly trying to calm himself down. Toriel would've said something, but she was far too bewildered about all this talk of Demons and savages.
After a moment, he seemed to have calmed himself down. "I'm sorry if I lost my temper for a second." His voice was much less hateful sounding now. It was almost enough to give Toriel hope that this paranoid episode was over. But alas, the next words he spoke destroyed that hope. "But I suppose such anger is understandable when talking with a serial child murderer." Toriel's eyes widened in disbelief. "Child murderer?" She gasped. Jeremiah let out a sad sigh. "Can you please just drop the act so we can get this over with?" When she didn't immediately confess to multiple accounts of child murder, he continued. "I found all of those mismatched shoes in the room. They obviously all belonged to completely different kids, but you haven't even mentioned any of them. So by going through all of the facts I have logically, it makes what you want evident. Do I have to explain my logic to you again, or are you finally going to stop pretending?" When no response came, he continued.
"For starters, I know that using magic requires some deal with a demon, usually requiring some sort of sacrifice. Then I know you can use magic, which means you've made some sort of deal with something evil. Finally, there's the evidence that other children have stayed in your home before me, yet you haven't mentioned any of them once. So in conclusion, you're a witch who's made a deal with some sort of demon to sacrifice children, and you were planning to kill me as well."
Toriel just stared at him, unsure of what to say. But as she stood there, trying to think of a response, a thought suddenly struck her. "In a way, I have sacrificed them all." The thought left her paralyzed. "I let them leave my home, the only safe place in this whole damnable prison. I just let them all march out to their deaths, one by one, even though I knew what would happen. Even when some of them realized their mistake and tried to come back, I wouldn't let them back in. No matter how much they kicked or screamed at the door. I should've confronted Asgore after the first one, Emily. I could've easily deposed him and put an end to the madness. So why, why didn't I do anything? Was it because I want Asgore to win?" She felt something cold and disgusting well up within at the thought. She shook her head and felt something wet slide down her cheek. "No it's not that. It's because I'm a coward isn't it? I'm too afraid to face my people, let alone him." Then she burst into laughter.
Jeremiah stared at the clearly crazy women in front of him. That whole speech was meant to reveal to her the extent of her sins, then once she realized them, he would tell her about Jesus and how he can cleanse her sins away. Hopefully she would've accepted his master's blood and be saved from hellfire. Then again, Chara did warn him mid-speech that Toriel would probably just laugh all this off and let him go. Despite Chara's warning, he hadn't expected her to burst into laughter like this. He wanted to ask Toriel what sort of freak she was, because who laughs about murdering children like that, but he didn't, because that probably would be rude and unhelpful. He also wanted to run away, he probably wouldn't get another opportunity to escape, but he didn't, because he had a job to do. So he stood there, patiently waiting for the clearly psychopathic woman to calm down and stop laughing. Eventually, she did just that.
Toriel slowly straightened herself back up, Jeremiah took notice of how her eyes were watery. "You're right. I did practically kill them."
Jeremiah nodded, feeling a small measure of internal relief that he wasn't going to have to repeatedly explain the same thing over and over again. Chara, who had been silent since she yelled at him to not tell Toriel her name, didn't seem to share in this relief. "What?" She sounded quite confused and betrayed. Toriel, not being able to hear Chara, continued. "There were six other children who fell down here before you. I let each one of them leave the ruins, and every single one of them was killed."
Jeremiah's relief crumbled into dust. He was about to accuse her of shifting the blame, but she continued, seemingly ignoring him. "Every single one of them were murdered by Asgore, the king of Monsters and the Underground. Once you leave these ruins, he'll seek to murder you and claim your soul." Jeremiah's eyes widened. "Soul?" He asked in shock. "Father?" Chara's voice was barely above a whisper and sounded utterly crushed. He wanted to ask her a lot of questions about this supposed father of her's, but he decided, mostly based on the confusion and sadness coming from her, asking such a question wouldn't be the wisest of choices.. "Yes, your soul." Toriel answered. "He's already claimed six of them, his goal is seven." Jeremiah began to sputter, trying to come up with a response to all of this sudden and new information. Toriel just gave him a sad smile before suddenly wrapping him up in a hug. He tried to break free from her grip, but it was no use. "Please be safe my child." With that single sentence, she let go of the hug and began to walk towards the stairs. He looked at her, confused, and asked. "Where are you going?" She turned around, still wearing that sad smile. "Not where I should be going. If you still desire to leave me, the exit to the ruins is down that hall. Goodbye." Then, she walked up the stairs and out of his sight.
He stood there, utterly befuddled by what had just transpired. Chara was silent. He stared at the staircase for what seemed like forever, until eventually he turned around and walked away, not saying a single word.
He made his way down the hallway made of purple stone. The only noise to be heard was the sound of his shoes hitting the floor. The whole time, he couldn't help but wonder if he had been too harsh on Toriel. He was even starting to wonder if she was even a witch at all. Her reaction didn't seem that evil, at least to him.
But before he could make up his mind, he turned around a corner and saw a set of heavy doors. They were made of the same strange purple stone as the hallway, but he noticed something odd about the doors. They had a strange emblem carved into them. "It's called the Delta Rune. It's supposed to represent the angel of prophecy." Chara still sounded miserable and he had no desire to try prying answers from her. Instead, he just said. "Thanks." He couldn't help but smile when he felt Chara's mood improve slightly.
He made his way to the doors and placed both hands upon them. The stone felt cold. Right before he pushed them open, he couldn't help but wonder what lay beyond them. If Toriel had been telling the truth, that would mean there was an entire kingdom's worth of monsters. And every single one of them wanted to murder him and steal his soul, Lord knows for what purpose. He felt fear course through his veins at the thought, so he hesitated. "Should I just stay?" He asked himself. Sure Toriel could've been lying to keep him down here, but some part of him knew she was telling the truth. Then as if by divine will, he remembered a verse. "The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen." As he finished reciting the verse to himself, he realized how there was no need to worry about his soul. God's one and only son was nailed to a cross in order to save his soul, so how could anyone steal it away?
If Toriel had been telling the truth, she probably was just being a tad superstitious and actually just meant human sacrifice. In which case, he had no real reason to be afraid of what lay beyond the door, because his Lord could have him die at any time or any place. Also, his earlier thought towards Toriel still stood. He left the monastery to convert savages, and now he was in a place potentially filled with savages just waiting to be converted. Sure he messed up with Toriel, but he had every intention to return and try again. So, being filled with Determination to convert any human sacrificing savages, he pushed the doors open.
(AN) Can't believe that I actually got this chapter finally done. It honestly feels like I've been writing this chapter for forever now. I'm proud to say this chapter has the highest word count of anything I've written so far. Also, here's a little bit of schedule for this story spanning the rest of the year. To begin with, I plan to remake chapter one because I personally find it unsatisfying. I also plan to release a mini-chapter that was originally meant to be a part of this one, sometime in December because I will be highly busy, holiday season and all.
I hope anyone reading this will enjoy this chapter, and please leave a review with any thoughts or criticisms, I highly appreciate them. God bless, Merry early Christmas