Welcome to the fourth installment of The Five Year Run, starring Frisk the Undetermined. In this chapter, things begin to take a turn for the worst, as Frisk's well controlled life begins to spiral out of her control. Enjoy.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Chapter 3: A Brush With Darkness
Unbeknownst to her, Papyrus was a bit taken aback by the sudden departure from his house. He hadn't been planning on leaving that second. Traveling some place through a blizzard rated very high on his coolness scale, but it should still be done with some level of planning. As such, upon ending up outside shivering in the cold, his first thought was to demand they go back inside and put on several layers of super warm clothes. But on second thought, decided against it. There was absolutely no way he was letting Frisk out adventurize him.
The next moment, however, all thoughts of movies, clothing, and even adventures was out of Papyrus' head. If it was possible for a skeleton to turn pale, Papyrus did. Instinctively, his hand tightened on Frisk's. Perhaps a little too much, as she winced in pain. He didn't let up though, pointing quiveringly into the blizzarding darkness with his other hand. "DO YOU SEE IT, FRISK?" He asked, his voice contorting in a mixture of franticness, anxiety, and hope. "ARE YOU SEEING WHAT I AM SEEING?"
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Despite everything else he had done, that one little word more than doubled the gravity of the situation. Papyrus had said "I", something that he had done only once or twice since deciding to call himself The Great Papyrus four years earlier. It had only been during times of deep distress or trouble. That meant that this moment would probably be life-altering.
Frisk peered into the darkness, barely managing to spot something black moving through the snow. "River person?" she wondered aloud. It was hard to make out in the darkness, but he was the only monster she could think of who even resembled the figure. She was getting way too cold. They needed to get inside soon. How long had they been walking?
"NO. THAT'S NOT WHO IT IS." Papyrus said, a cold confidence entering his voice that drastically differed from his usual bizarre self. Did ever monster in the Underworld have some kind of freaking split personality? Not that she was really one to talk. She may have shown only one personality over the last five years, but she still felt the other one was waiting, just underneath the surface.
Then Papyrus did something that Frisk was in no way ready for, he took off at a sprint towards the black monster. What the heck was going on? She found herself bumping her feet against rocks and roots, as she was pulled alone, unable to quite keep up with the rushing skeleton. However fast they moved, however, the being in front of them seemed just as far away. It almost seemed as if he was taunting them.
As Papyrus stopped, breathing heavily, so did the black figure. It turned slowly in their direction, and Frisk's eyes widened in shock. It was another skeleton! As far as she'd learned, from her hundred journeys, there were only two, Sans and Papyrus. Yet here in front of her, one was looking directly at them. The skeleton wore a suit coat, and had two massive cracks in his skull. One ran from the top of his left eye to the top of his head, and the other from below his right eye down to his mouth. As soon as it locked eyes with Frisk, it vanished as if it had never been there.
"FATHER!" Papyrus screamed from beside her, reaching out his hand to where the skeleton had been a matter of seconds before.
What? Sans and Papyrus had a father? That was the first thought to enter Frisk's head, and she immediately felt stupid for it. Of course, they had a father. They didn't just magically appear out of thin air one day. It's just… they'd never once mentioned him. And… why did he just disappear into the air like that?
Brr… Her thoughts were interrupted by a violent shivering spell "Papyrus," she said fretfully, "I hate to interrupt you at a time like this, but I can't just stand out here in the snow." Leaving the house in her current apparel had been a terrible idea. She was still wearing the t-shirt and short skirt. Sure she was wearing a shawl over top of them, but it wasn't doing much to keep out the cold. "We can either go to the movies or back to the house, but if we stay out here I might literally die."
Not that she was afraid of dying. She'd done it so many times it didn't really scare her anymore. It's just, she hadn't been filled with determination for a long time, and she had absolutely no idea how far back she'd end up going. That concerned her.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Papyrus immediately snapped back to the present and glanced around, eyes darting in all directions. He was not familiar with this part of town, and it didn't help that the blizzard seemed to have picked up in intensity. Visibility was near zero in this weather. Rushing off and paying no attention to what twists and turns they'd taken, that had been a really bad idea. Something that should have been beneath a skeleton like himself. He shivered, and his mind went into overdrive mode. He was freezing, which was very bad news. Because if he was unable to handle the weather without skin…
There was no time to be picky. Papyrus raced over to one of the buildings nearby and kicked the door ferociously. After several hits, the door burst open. Then he pulled Frisk inside. After closing the door again, he sat down and began to think. Despite never finding his dad's body, Papyrus had come to accept that his father was dead. The man had disappeared hundreds of years ago, for crying out loud. Yet there was absolutely no denying that that was who they had been chasing.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Cold… Too cold… Frisk collapsed to the ground next to Papyrus and closed her eyes. Although it was much warmer in here than it had been outside, it was still probably barely above zero in here. The building looked, and smelled, abandoned. It was unlikely anybody had been there in years. "I guess we can spend the rest of the storm in here. That enough of an adventure for you, Papyrus?"
As far as she could tell, the building was completely empty. Not only was there no furniture, but there was also no equipment, storage, anything. The floor was nice wood paneling though, and it still looked that way. Whenever, or for whatever, reason this had been built, it had been built with expertise.
"So, that's your dad, huh?" Frisk said, rolling onto her side and looking at Papyrus. "Kinda a bizarre skeleton. Like father like son I guess?" No response. That was odd. Sitting up and turning to face Papyrus, she realized that he was deep in thought. Wracking her brain, she couldn't think of any other time she'd seen him so… thoughtful. Better not to interrupt him.
Standing up, Frisk turned the other direction and stared into the building's vast interior. It was gigantic, probably factory size at least, and she couldn't see all the way to the back. It was way too dark. To be honest, it was unsettling. She'd gone through the history, and blueprints, of Snowdin on a number of occasions while at the library.
Call her paranoid, but she didn't want anything to be able to surprise her. Now that strategy was doing exactly the opposite. According to all the research she'd done, a building like this had never been built in Snowdin. "Uh… Papyrus?" She asked uneasily, "do you have any idea where we are?" Still no response. "Hello? Papyrus?"
She turned back to the darkness, and felt an unshakable urge to go deeper in. It was similar to the emotion that had kept her going time and time again during her runs. Curiosity. Killed the cat. The words popped into her head unbidden. And it had killed her more times than she could count. But she was immortal. And she wasn't going to leave anything in Snowdin unexplained. Well… besides Sans' house.
Turning back to Papyrus, Frisk opened her mouth to ask him to come with her. He still had that look in his eyes though, as if his mind were a thousand miles away. She didn't need him. The building may be crazy to most, but she'd had to deal with Flowey so many times that nothing really scared her anymore. Hopefully there were no monsters inside. If she ended up having to fight… She shuddered.
It was dark, but due to the time spent in the front of the building, Frisk's eyes adjusted rather quickly. She put her hand against one of the walls and slowly began to make her way into the darkness. Irony, her life seemed so full of it. The whole reason she'd ended up alone, wandering into the mysterious darkness, was because she had decided to go over to Sans' house. And she had decided to go to Sans's house because she hadn't wanted to be alone.
The further Frisk walked, the more eerie the building seemed to be. How long had she been walking now? Her hand reached into her pocket and gripped the pocket watch. She couldn't really see well enough to tell what was on it, but just holding it in her hand made her feel a little better.
There was nothing, anywhere. Just continuous floor and walls leading to who knows where. To be honest, it felt more like an enormous tunnel than any kind of building. Up ahead, far in the distance, a very faint light began to come into view. Light at the end of a massive building? Unless this really was a tunnel. Weirder things had happened in the Underworld.
Despite the bizarreness, Frisk would have smiled at the appearance of light except for an uneasy feeling she couldn't shake that seemed to have come along with it. She no longer felt like she was alone. She was being watched.
Frisk's first thought was the Temmies, a strange cat creature who wore "shirts" and had hair like humans. They enjoyed hiding in the dark and staring at people. Issue was, they were pranksters, good-natured ones. And whatever was watching her seemed to be radiating hostility. She'd had the experience way too many times to misread it.
Usually, it was Flowey. A pain-in-her-butt flower that liked to pretend it was all that. The two of them had killed each other many times over since they'd met on her first run. He enjoyed stalking her, watching from the shadows. However, if she turned around fast enough, she often managed to get a glimpse of him before he disappeared. She jerked around, and yelled out into the darkness. "FLOWEY!" …but there was no Flowey. There was no anybody.
That was when things got scary, even for Frisk. The entrance was no longer visible, and on quick glance, neither were the walls, or the floor. She was literally standing in empty darkness, black everywhere around her except for the light in the distance beckoning her forwards. She'd been in a situation like this a million times before, if this was supposed to be The Void. But that always had an opponent, and she still didn't see one.
No, this was still the Underworld. It would have been a lonely feeling, if not for the sinister presence. This was probably the one time in her life when she wished that was alone. There was no way out of this situation though. Going way into the darkness was a bad idea. The only thing to do was continue towards the light.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Within the gravity defying house, the girl was smiling. It appeared as if her many years of patience were finally beginning to pay off. Try as you might, you cannot win. I know the darkness inside of you far better than even you do. There is no escape. It's game over, Frisk. The girl thought the words with a creepy, unsettling grin crossing her face. Her red eyes flashed with excitement.
She hadn't just rested during those years either. She'd also spent quite a lot of her time training. She was far stronger than she had been the last time she and Frisk had spoken. She knew that she would need to be, if she was ever going to get Frisk back under her control. The way she was speaking now, directly into the subconscious mind, would come across as nothing more than a prompting feeling to Frisk's conscious one. "Deeper. You have to go deeper."
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
As she continued walking, Frisk began to wonder if continuing forward was any better of an idea than going back had been. Then again, if both of them possessed the same amount of danger, she would rather face it in the light than in the dark. For now, all she could do was keeping going deeper. Although the light was growing, it was doing so slowly, and Frisk began to wonder if it would take her years to reach it.
That wasn't the most disconcerting thing though. That would be the darkness. As in, the darkness around the light. Despite the growth of the light, the area remained just as dark and empty. A few steps closer, and Frisk began to hear something. After the silence that had haunted her for the last… hour? day? week? She'd long ago lost track of time. It was quiet, barely loud enough to even be noticeable, but any sound at all felt good. She instantly started sprinting towards the light.
As the sound grew to a perceivable volume, Frisk began to realize what it was. Voices, familiar voices. But they were still too quiet to discern. Were the voices coming from inside or without? Was she almost out of the tunnel and back to the Underground? She ran faster, her heart beating stronger and stronger. It was almost over. Soon she'd be back in Snowdin, back to her world, her friends, her family. "Everything will be ok," she told herself as she reached the light.
The light was probably the weirdest thing Frisk had ever seen, and she'd seen quite a lot. It appeared to have come straight out of some sort of fantasy novel. There was simply this small sphere of light, not much larger than a baseball, hovering in the air in front of her. The voices inside the ball were unmistakable now.
One was Sans, beyond a shadow of a doubt. And even though his voice was coming from inside a tiny hovering ball, just hearing it was enough to relieve her tension. The other was kinda weird. It seemed to be Flowey, but something was unmistakably off about his voice.
Frisk sighed. She had done such a good job of establishing a routine, of removing everything that could be dangerous. She'd felt so empowered, so in control. Now everything was haywire. She glanced back the way she'd come. Darkness. She glanced around, and it was the same on all sides of her. The only thing here was the sphere. Well, there wasn't anything else she could do. Reluctantly, Frisk reached out and touched the light.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
The light at the end of the tunnel. The weird circle. A mysterious visitor. Darkness, lots and lots of darkness. And Chara begins to act once more. 3:) Hope you enjoyed. If you did, please review and let me know. ^_^
