Chapter 26: Sessions

No.

Everything would not be fine.

It had been over a week since Alexandra and Aaron had contacted me, and I was anxiously waiting for a message about when they wanted to have a session.

Right now I was sitting at the dining room table, taking a lunch break from one of my three jobs. Toriel knew I was working, just not three jobs, so I was grateful for the lunches she made up for me everyday.

I was just finishing up lunch when Sans popped in for a break at the house as well. I gave Sans a small smile before grabbing my satchel and heading out.

"frisk, wait." Sans' voice stopped me as I had my hand on the door knob. I turned to find Sans standing at the top of the steps, and slowly made my way back up. "frisk, what's been going on with you?"

A frown reached my face, "What do you mean?"

Sans sighed, and rubbed a tired hand over his face. "you know what i mean. we never talk anymore, never hang out. you're always off somewhere else, always busy with something. you're becoming more and more distant everyday. you're exhausted, i can tell. not to mention, you're hiding something."

I shook my head, "I'm not hiding anyt-"

"don't give me that bullshit! you haven't been the same since the day when you went missing, something happened that day, something that you're not telling us... kid, just talk to me, please."

I suddenly found my feet interesting. I thought about all of the things I could respond with... "Sans, what's my favorite color?"

Although I couldn't see him, I knew he must be confused. "wha- it's scarlet, why?"

I shook my head, "No, no it's not. My favorite color is Tiffany Blue. What's my favorite thing to do?"

"you love to shop, what else?"

"No. I love to spend time with everyone, and I love to mess around and have fun. What's my favorite book?"

"your favorite book is," Sans hesitated, "your favorite book is The Cruel Prince by Holly Black... isn't it?"

My voice was soft, "No, no Sans, that's not my favorite book. My favorite book is Hades, the second book in the Halo series by Alexandra Adornetto... Sans, don't you see? Those are all things that Pandora enjoys." My voice was quiet, "We just don't know each other anymore... We're strangers to each other."

Sans' face was pained as he reached for my hand, "frisk... don't say that, we're- we're best friends."

I let Sans hold my hand for a moment, relishing the feeling of his cool bone against my warm flesh, before gently pulling my hand away. "That's just the thing, Sans... We were best friends... I'm just not so sure we are anymore."

The silence that ensued after I spoke was excruciating, and I couldn't bear it. So I opened the front door and left.

I had a job to get to.

I was finishing up my third job, working as a waitress. For my first job, I also worked as a waitress, taking both the breakfast and brunch shifts, from 7:00 AM to 1:00 PM. That's when I got my break at the house. Then I dove back in, working as a cashier from 2:00 to 5:00. And then I went back to waitressing, but at a more lavish restraunt, from 5:15 to 10:30. My first job paid about $7.50 per hour, and I got whatever people tipped me. My second job paid about $9.15 per hour, and my third job at the lavish restraunt paid about $10.05 per hour. In all, I was making about $141+ per day. But even that wasn't enough to support mom with the groceries or the bills for the house. Not to mention, other monsters were struggling too.

So I was actually kind of excited when Natalie showed up to take me to the first testing session; they were going to pay me, and I needed the money.

When we got inside, I was told to take off all of my possessions and clothes. They gave me black leggings with a black tank top to change into, and advised me to put my hair up so it was out of the way. Then I was led to a large empty room, and was told to wait.

It had been over five minutes when Alexandra's voice crackled out from an intercom, "Thank you for waiting patiently, Frisk. If you'll recall, we told you that we'd have a numerous amount of tests to run. Right now, is one of those tests. We are about to let something in there with you, and you must find a way to stay alive. Remember, you agreed to this, and this is only a small test. Good luck."

"What do you mean you're going to let something in with me? Guys? Guys!" I waited anxiously, preparing myself to be face to face with something dangerous.

My attention was soon focused on the wall opposite me, where a door was slowly lifting up, revealing an irritated and riled up gray wolf. When the wolf caught sight of me, it tried to back away into the door, but it was roughly shoved inside with me, a padded up person behind the wolf was urging it to attack me.

"Guys, this isn't cool-" I was cut off when the wolf suddenly lunged, trying to get at me. I barely got out of the way, earning three deep jagged scratches on my right shoulder as a result. "You guys, seriously, stop!" I bit my lip, trying to ignore the stinging and throbbing of the wound. The wolf lunged again, but I was prepared and got out of the way.

Alexandra's voice crackled out again, "You have magic, Frisk, you just need to use it!"

I had somehow gotten myself cornered, the wolf closing in. "I don't know h-" I cut myself off, I had healed the other Sans, and I had teleported, I just needed to figure out what to do this time. Attacking the wolf was out of the question, I wasn't going to harm anything unless I had to. Think Frisk, think, what do you need when you're riled up? I shut my eyes and tried to imagine soothing soft gray waves being sent from me to the wolf. When I hadn't been attacked, I opened my eyes to see the wolf ssitting at my feet, waiting to be pet. I hesitantly pat the wolf on the head, and soon found that he wouldn't attack.

"Awww, look at you," I cooed. "Such a big tough wolf, who's a big tough wolf? You, you're a big tough wolf!" I was enjoying the wolf's soft fur, and rubbing the big guy's tummy.

I looked up to the intercom with a smile on my face, "Now what? Also, can I keep this big guy? He's just so adorable!"

Aaron's voice came out this time, "Now Natalie will escort you to get that wound taken care of. And unfortunately, no, you cannot keep him. But, you can visit him and take him out for walks around the compound if you'd like."

I gave a thumbs up, straightening up so the wolf's caretaker could take him away. "Sounds good. Is this all for tonight?"

Aaron's voice came out once more, "Yes, that is all for tonight. Now Natalie will take you to get that wound taken care of, and someone else will be in to question you on what you did."

I nodded and followed Natalie to another room across the hall, where two people waited. The first was the woman who was going to take care of my wound, the other was the man who was going to question me.

The woman immediately got to work on my shoulder, while the man questioned me. "Hello Frisk, my name is Zach, I'm the one assigned to you for questioning. Now, how did you calm Lune so quickly? He was attacking you one moment, and the next he was just calmly sitting at your feet. Could you describe what magic you used and how you used it?"

I winced as I tried to ignore the pain from my shoulder as the woman worked, "Lune, that's the name of the wolf? I like that. Okay, so I didn't know if what I did would work, so I risked it. What I did was actually really simple, I imagined soothing gray waves being sent to Lune, while simultaneously feeling calm."

Zach nodded and wrote this down, "Now, why didn't you use a shield or attack the wolf back? That would have been more practical than what you did."

I shrugged, immediately regretting it when the woman smacked my shoulder and told me to be still. "Well, I didn't want to attack the wolf unless there was no other way. And I was tempted to throw a shield up, but if the wolf lunged and smacked into the shield, it would've hurt him."

Zach gave me a questioning look, "So you're a... pacifist?"

I nodded, "Yep. I can't bring myself to physically hurt others, and I will not tolerate it when someone else does."

Zach nodded understandingly, although it didn't make sense to him. "So you're saying that if someone came at you with a knife or tried to fight you, that you wouldn't fight back? Or if someone were about to harm someone you love, you'd just... let them?"

I hesitated, "Well, I don't know. I guess I'll just have to rely on what I instinctively do."

Zach nodded, "Okay, guess we'll see. Well, I'm all done here, and it looks like Lauren is done with your shoulder. Natalie will take you home now. Bye Frisk, until next time." I waved as I followed Natalie, finding Zach to be an interesting guy.

I turned to Natalie then, "When will the next session be?"

It was Saturday, one of my days off. And while I would love to stay in bed and sleep the day away, I had promised Papyrus that I would go to that bookstore with him and Melody.

I was the one to drive Papyrus' red convertible (yes, Papyrus had somehow gotten hold of enough money to get his car), since Papyrus wasn't the best of drivers, and it'd been a while since I had driven a vehicle. It was good to refresh myself with something so simple.

Papyrus immediately jumped out of the car, enthusiastic about finding books about cooking. Melody hopped out next, and I hopped out last so I could make sure that the convertible was locked up and secure.

Papyrus and Melody ran into the store, squealing in excitement. I was about to enter the store when I felt a warm hand on my shoulder. I turned to see Pandora, Sans was a bit farther back, struggling with some shopping bags.

"Frisk, it's been a while!" Pandora's voice was cheery, until she more seriously said, "How's your shoulder? I heard about your session, they said you did well!"

I gave her as much of a genuine smile as I could, "Yeah, Lune did do a number on me, but it's all good! How are you and Sans?"

Pandora glowed, "We're amazing, everything's good! So I know you did something to get Lune off you, but they didn't tell me how did it."

I rubbed my arm, "It wasn't a shield or attack or anything, I actually just sent calming magic towards him."

Pandora gaped, "You were able to send calming magic just like that? None of the other mages were able to do that in their first sessions; man, you're really something, Frisk."

My eyes sparked with curiosity, "Really? I thought just anybody could do that. Y'know, like how I was able to teleport without having done it before, or healing S- someone when they were close to death. No one else can do that?"

Pandora's eyes widened even more, "You teleported on the first try? And you healed someone from the brink of death?! I'll make sure to tell Zach about that, he can tell your parents afterwards. Jesus, that's extraordinary!"

My cheeks heated up, "It's really nothing, I mean, I was in such bad shape afterwards."

Pandora laughed, "Yeah, no kidding. If anyone else had done that, they'd be dead by now!"

Sans joined the conversation then, "who'd be dead by now?" Sans looked at me with sad eyes, "heya frisk, how's it going?"

I started to back away, getting ready to go into the store. "Hey Sans, I'm good. But hey, Pandora, I've got to go, Papyrus and Melody are waiting for me. Catch up later?"

Pandora gave me a smile, "Definitely! Okay Sans, let's get going to the car."

I went into the store before I could hear Sans say anything else.

Inside, Melody was reading a science fiction book up on a window seat, while Papryus had arms full of books about cooking.

I decided to leave Melody for now, and went up to Papyrus. "Heya Paps, that's a lot of books, don't you think?"

Papyrus looked a bit guilty, "Yes, human Frisk, it is a lot of books. I was wanting to get all of them, but I've realized: We don't have enough money. Do you think we could get maybe 2 or 3?"

I gave him a warm smile, "Of course we can get 2 or 3. Now, which ones were you thinking of getting?" Papyrus handed me two books, but both were for advanced chefs. "Here, how about we get the beginner's books for now, and look into getting more advanced ones for later?" Papyrus nodded in understanding, and instead handed me one book that was Betty Crocker's Cookbook, and the other was Italian Cookbook For Beginners.

While Papyrus went to put the other cookbooks in their proper places, I went over to Mel, who had a pile of books with her. "Hey Mel, watcha got there?"

Melody's eyes were sparkling, "Frisk! Oh, I've found one of the best book series ever! It's called the Darkest Powers series by Kelley Armstrong, and there are three books in the series, and I've only read two chapters, but I already know that it's going to be amazing! And, oh Frisk, can we get it, pretty please!"

I couldn't resist saying yes, it was rare for Melody to love something so passionately. "Okay okay, but since you're going to get those three books, go ahead and tell Papyrus to grab another book of his choice. I'll be over here, I wanna pick one of these books, they look interesting."

Melody squealed with delight and went off to find Papyrus, leaving me to look through some books. While all of the books that I had found looked interesting, I only chose one that I wanted most. The book Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anne Blankman seemed extremely interesting; it was a historical fiction book told from the perspective of Hitler's niece, Gretchen.

Satisifed with my book choice, I went up to the front desk, where Papyrus was chatting with the girl there, and went to buy the books.

The girl's voice was soft as she finished scanning the books, "That'll be $52.24."

I bit my lip, pulling $60 dollars out of my wallet. I had spent too much on books, but the look of pure delight and happiness on Papyrus' and Melody's faces were worth it.

As we went out to the car, Papyrus said goodbye to the girl, whose name was Tabatha, and had apparently invited her to dinner sometime. On the way home, Melody teased Papyrus about his 'girlfriend', though Papyrus did not understand her teasing, for Tabatha was a girl, and was indeed his friend.

When we got back to the house, Natalie was waiting outside for me. I parked the car in the garage, told Natalie that I'd be there in a moment, and went inside with Melody and Papyrus.

Melody poked me in the arm, "Frisk, who's that lady out there? Is she why you're gone all the time?"

I ushered Melody to her room, "She's a lady for my work. And no, she's not the main reason to why I'm gone all the time. I've got to go now, tell mom and them that I was called in to work, and that I'll be back no later than 5:00, okay?" Melody nodded and slowly trudged the down the hallway to her room. "Melody, I promise I'll spend time with you soon. How does all day tomorrow sound?"

Melody perked up and smiled, "Really? Yes, that sounds amazing! Love you Frisk, good luck at work!"

I smiled and waved, before heading out the door and appraoching Natalie. I froze in my tracks though when I saw Sans questioning Natalie.

The subject was me. "what do you mean you're here for frisk?"

Natalie looked up at me, "Frisk, thank you for being quick. May we please get to the session now?"

Sans turned around to look at me, suspicion evident on his features. "frisk, what session are you going to?"

I gave him a small smile, "Oh, it's just work. I know it's my day off, but honestly, we need the extra money. I should be back around dinner time, okay?" I made my way to Natalie, and got in the car with her.

Sans knocked on the window, making me roll it down. "frisk, don't lie. just tell me the truth, where are you going?" His eyes were pleading, his usual smile a small frown.

I didn't smile this time, and very firmly said, "Work. I'm heading to work, Sans."

We drove away, leaving Sans behind.

I was back at the compound, already dressed and ready to go for whatever they had planned.

I asked Natalie a question as I was escorted to the room where my task would be. "Are you guys sure that I can't tell just one person? Just one, please?"

Natalie shook her head, "Frisk, we've been over this. Unless you want people to die, you can't tell anyone." Natalie's voice got more gentle, "I know that skeleton is your friend, but you just can't risk it. Your mother's instructions were very clear, keep this covert, or else."

Angry tears pricked my eyes, "Yeah, well she's not my mother. She's just Alexandra to me."

We were silent as we finished walking to the room, and I was locked inside once again.

Alexandra didn't need to give me instructions this time, and just threw me into action. The walls were closing in on me, each wall coming closer and closer to crush me each second. I immediately threw my hands and arms up, willing myself to stop the walls from crushing me to death. To my surprise, I instead summoned bones to rush up and meet the walls, and the effect was immediate. The walls stopped moving, straining, but failing to meet me. When the walls backed off and returned to normal, I willed the bones away and took a second to catch my breath.

I looked up at the intercom, "Now what?"

Alexandra's voice came out, "You're done for the day. Natalie will-"

I shook my head, "No, I wanna do something else. That wasn't enough. What's the next test?"

"Well, if you insist. How about this?" Alexandra cooed.

The room started to fill up with water so quickly, it was already to my waist. Instinctively, I summoned a rose pink bubble around myself, separating myself from the water. But the water didn't stop, it kept going, and going until the room was filled. A scream bubbled up in my throat as the bubble I had created started to crack. Okay Frisk, stay calm, stay calm. When they saved you in Grillby's, they all contributed, just think; was there a monster who had anything to do with water in there? The bubble was about to shatter any moment, I only had seconds to think about what to do. But I didn't even have that long, because the bubble shattered completely, leaving me to face the water. I gagged as I took in water at first, then closed my mouth and plugged my nose, having no air. With my eyes closed, I imagined moving the water away with my hands, or somehow making it disappear.

I was able to breathe again, coughing and gasping as I took in as much air as I could. When I opened my eyes, I saw that my extended arms had indeed shoved the water away from me, giving me a dry area where I could breathe. Curious, I tried bringing my arms back in to my sides, but immediately extended them back out when the water began to close in again. Within a few minutes, the water drained and the room was left as it was before, only having a thin layer of water on the floor.

I was twisting and squeezing my hair, getting as much water out as I could. "Now what?"

Alexandra's voice came out again, more curious this time. "More? After what just happened? Well, if you say so."

This time, a door opened up to show Pandora. Her face was blank and devoid of emotion, but her eyes showed me enough. She didn't want to do this.

We entered a fight.

I had finally collapsed, gasping for breath.

Pandora was on the opposite side of the room, clutching her side and breathing heavily.

Alexandra wouldn't let us stop until one of us couldn't go on. I was the first to drop since I didn't have much experience in fighting with hand to hand combat. And to put things simply: Pandora kicked my ass.

Pandora came over and helped me up, "Sorry Frisk, I'm just doing my job. No hard feelings?"

I nodded, "It's fine, I know that you were reluctant to do it. How's your side?"

Pandora opened the tear in her shirt slightly, I had only grazed her with the knife that I had accidentally summoned. "I'm fine, you really didn't get me all that much. You did give me one hell of a workout though. Where'd you learn how to dodge like that? You're so swift and quick on your feet."

I smiled, "Well, the monsters taught me, I guess."

Pandora's smile faded as she took a closer look at her work; Like I said, she kicked my ass. "I really am truly sorry for doing that. I should've stopped, or at least refused to fight you." She tilted my head to the side, and grimaced. "You're definitely going to have a bruise along your jaw, you might have a couple bruises here and there on your body, you might even have bruised ribs from that one blow. The split lip isn't that bad, but still... Man, Sans would kill me if he found out I did this." Pandora refused to look me in the eye; she felt horrible for this.

I took Pandora's hand, my voice gentle. "Hey, Pandora, it's okay. I'm not dead, and it was my own fault anyway. I was the one who wanted to keep going after the walls started closing in; I got what I asked for. Now come on, we need to go get checked out and I need to be questioned by Zach."

Pandora hesitated, but followed my lead to be checked out.

The woman couldn't do much for me but prescribe some pain meds, so she only had Pandora to work on while Zach questioned me.

"So Frisk, for the first task with the walls closing in, how did you summon those, what were they, bones?" Zach waited patiently with his pen and clipboard.

"I don't know." I was very hesitant with what I was going to say next. "There was an incident a while back where some monsters did something to save my soul from shattering completely, and I guess some of their magic transferred to me."

Zach dropped his clipboard, and Pandora's light chatter had stopped. Zach's voice was shaky, "Incident, with the, monsters?"

"It's- it's complicated. But it wasn't the monsters in this universe, the monsters came from a sort of alternate universe, of sorts?" I just fucked up really badly. "But I don't know how to get to the alternate universe, since I sorta died to get there the last time? Like I said, it's really, really complicated to explain."

"Alternate universe?!" Zach was now in hysterics. "We knew that there might be other universes, but to have it confirmed by you- not to mention, you're so young and you already have knowledge of an alternate universe, and you're very powerful as well. But as the supposedly most powerful of the mages, to also have magic transferred to you from monsters with their complex and unique attacks and magic it's- it's- Oh my God, I just- I think I need to sit down."

I hopped up from where I was sitting and led Zach to sit down in my place. "It's a lot for one person to wrap their head around, just take it slow, digest the information." I grabbed the clipboard from off the floor and took the pen from Zach's grasp. "I'll explain in detail how I did each task. You just sit, and try not to think."

I had gotten home around 4:35. Which means that I had been at the compound for about six hours. Each task, besides fighting Pandora, had only taken minutes to complete. The fight with Pandora had taken over an hour, since I refused to give up. The rest of the time was spent giving Zach a more detailed account of events leading to my death and entering the void, and ending with me getting back to our universe. I also visited Lune at the compound, taking him for a walk and playing with him. And of course, since I couldn't fight for my life, I was assigned someone who was an expert in not only hand to hand combat, but Judo and Muay Thai.

But now that I was home, I got to spend time with everyone.

Melody heard the door open and came running, "Frisk, you're home early!" She jumped up and gave me a hug.

I winced, I could defintely feel the bruised ribs right now."Yep, I sure am. Here, go upstairs for now, I'm gonna go to my room real quick."

I had shut my room door behind me and had taken off my shirt to inspect the damage from the fight, when Sans barged in.

"hey kid- oh shit, sorry, I didn't know you were changi-" Sans froze when he saw my current state, and his hands began to shake as he approached me.

I quickly threw my shirt back on, my attempt to hide the damage futile. "Sans, you need to knock, seriously."

Sans' expression was pained as he gently took my face in one hand, turning my head from side to side to inspect the damage.

"Frisk, what in the ever-loving hell happened."

WHOop, another chapter!

I still really don't have any idea what I'm doing right now, I'm just making things up as I go. But still, you guys seem to enjoy this, so imma keep doing it... I don't really have anything else to say, so.

Until Next Time~