Our story returns once more to Frisk, fleeing the scene of her mother's death. Alone, and in desperate need of comfort, she turns to the only person she believes she can trust. But upon arrival… it becomes clear. Something is very, very wrong.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Chapter 13: Erase {Frisk}

Running out into the blizzard alone had not been a very good idea. She didn't even know where she was going. She just seemed to be running. At this exact moment, her flight instinct seemed to have overtaken her fight instinct. Flight and run probably weren't the best words to use in this situation, however. Those tend to imply speed, and Frisk wasn't moving very fast at all. The snow had gotten to be relatively deep, probably at least a foot, so moving wasn't easy, and was quite slow.

Her mind was in overdrive, overwhelmed with waves of fear, regret, shame, uncertainty. Toriel had always been the calming force in her life. She had always known exactly what to say to calm Frisk down. She could make her feel stable with just a glance, and a comforting word. It was because of Toriel that she'd even been able to cope with the world. Now she was gone, and the person who had killed her was still out there somewhere.

Wait… If the ash hadn't belonged to Megan, then did that mean she was still out there somewhere? Had she dragged Sans out of her house kicking and screaming shortly before she'd arrived? That would explain why he hadn't actually caught Kyle or Yellow. She chuckled for the briefest millisecond, before the truth of what was going on overwhelmed her again.

She stopped running as she suddenly found herself at Papyrus' house. Papyrus. He'd know what to do. And if Megan had dragged Sans' out of her house, surely this is where she'd take him. Maybe they were here as well! She turned the doorknob. It was locked. Odd… It wasn't typically locked while the skeleton brothers were inside. She started knocking.

But nobody came.

Frisk knocked for a full minute, becoming more and more frantic each time. "Answer-The-Door!" Her mind screamed out, as the tears began to flow from her eyes once more. Nobody came. Her eyes darted to the window, and she did her best to look through the drapes. She couldn't see anyone. Where was Papyrus!? She needed him to hold her in his arms, whisper to her like he had at the movies. Assure her that everything was going to be ok.

Waaait a second. Frisk turned back around, and stared out into the storm. Of course Papyrus wasn't here. He'd run off to collect together the members of the Royal Guard. He probably wouldn't be back here for a while. She facepalmed herself. How could she have forgotten that? It had literally just happened. Sans… on the other hand… was probably inside doing any number of things. Secret things with Megan, being chewed out with Megan, or just in that room where he seemed unable to hear anything not immediately outside of his door.

She reached over to the window, and pushed it open. It swung open slightly, just enough for her to be able to slip inside. Something she'd done on a number of occasions. She hoisted herself up and slipped inside. Her mind wasn't on how she would explain her actions if she did indeed stumble upon something she wasn't supposed to see. She had other things on her mind. Such as a murdered mother and a driving need to be near her friends.

Not a single light was on in the entire building, so Frisk pulled aside the drapes, allowing some moonlight to slip inside. Instantly, she froze. For a split second, even her heart didn't beat. Something was wrong, very, very wrong. She had felt it since the moment she'd discovered that the door had been locked. The room stank of the unease that had been haunting her for over a day now. What had caused her to freeze, though, was what she saw when the moonlight lit up the room.

The rock was gone, the one that had sat on the table since before she'd met Papyrus and Sans. It had been Sans' 'pet', and Papyrus had always loved to feed it. But it was no longer on the table. Turning her head, she noticed that the sock and note collection was no longer on the wall either. Unsettled, Frisk stepped backwards and collapsed onto the only chair in the room.

Her hand subconsciously reached for the creepy dimension defying physics and jokes book, but her hand hit wood. Turning nervously, she found that the end table was empty. Jumping to her feet, she began to give the main floor a thorough search. What she found sent a shiver running down her spine. Anything bizarre about the skeleton bros' main floor was gone as if it had never existed.

What was going on? The weirdness of their house perfectly fit the skeleton bros' whacky relationship and over-the-top personalities. They would never just decide to throw all of it out. Her hand instantly shot into her pocket and gripped the pocket watch tightly. Just feeling it under her hand caused her heart rate to go down. He'd given it to her when he'd noticed she kept asking about the time, and it felt… comforting.

She'd just ask Sans what was going on. He was probably in his room talking to Megan, and this was nothing more than a joke to freak out Papyrus. She wasn't supposed to be here, after all. The door had been locked. Maybe she should just leave? Her hand touched the plastic knife, and her eyes darkened. She wasn't going anywhere. If something had happened to Sans, and Papyrus, she was going to make whoever had done it pay. And even if Sans wasn't, he might be upstairs.

Frisk slowly began to climb the steps, going out of her way to avoid making any noise. However, upon reaching the top of the stairs, things became even more troubling. Although most of the area remained untouched, Sans' door was hanging open a crack. Never once had that happened. Sans was an expert at secrecy. She'd tried hundreds of times, if not thousands, to sneak a glance inside of that room. She'd never been able to get it open. There was no way that it being open was an accident.

The next thing she realized, however, was even more unsettling. Yes, even more unsettling than this impossible event of Sans' door being left open. There was no sign of any weird lights or sounds coming from beneath of it. It just hung there, behaving as if it were a completely normal door, rather than a portal to another dimension.

She took a step towards it, apprehensively. Another realization was bothering her, sending a shiver down her spine. The music in the house that had been so constant she'd learn to dismiss it long ago, that her subconscious had learned to label as nothing more than background music, was gone.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Chara's eyes widened, and her face grew tight with ferociousness. She was staring out the window of her house, breathing in and out in a rather terrifying sort of way. It could only mean one thing… rage, pure, unadulterated, unbridled rage. She wasn't freaked out, anymore. She wasn't scared. She was offended, and annoyed.

She had made plans for five stinking years, and now somebody was just strolling around screwing up her vengeance! Sans was one of the highest people on the list of monsters she wanted to cut down herself. She hadn't even been able to celebrate it last time, as Frisk had snapped into some weird self-denial mode. And now… it looked like somebody was making it so that she would never get that chance. When she found out who was messing with her, she would tear them limb from limb.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Frisk laughed nervously, holding tighter to the pocket watch in one hand, and the knife in the other. The pocket watch was the only thing keeping her sane at the moment, as all sorts of fears raced through her head. What would she see when she looked around the door? Maybe… Maybe this was a prank? Maybe he was just playing hide and seek, and when she came around the corner he would leap out and yell surprise. Megan must have put him up to it. They wanted to freak Papyrus. That's all. That had to be all…

The darkness of the room, and the silence of the house, were like an actual physical weight on her. It was pushing her back… Insisting she not enter the room… Insisting she run. It felt like a horror movie, the abomination waiting on the other side of the door. But there were times when she simply couldn't run, when what little determination she had inside of her, refused to let her turn tail. This was one of those times.

And then she was at the door. How could an ordinary, every day, wooden door be so terrifying? If anybody else had been there, they would no doubt have declared Frisk insane. And they would be far more accurate than they knew. She took a deep, calming breath. At least, that was the plan. It ended up not being so calming, coming out rather shaky instead. Why the heck was she so apprehensive? Of course it was nothing! What the heck did she think was going to happen in Sans' house of all places? Grabbing the door, she yanked it open.

The room was empty. Completely, totally, and in every way, empty. No bed, dresser, boxes, etc. There were four bare walls and an empty wooden floor. There was absolutely no proof that anybody had lived here, ever. Frisk stood, frozen, simply staring at the empty room. Her mind didn't know how to comprehend this. It was as if Sans had simply ceased to exist. Anything that had ever hinted that he might have been there at one point was gone. The room didn't just look empty. It looked like it had never been used. No scratches, marks, or stains.

Swallowing back her dread, Frisk stepped into the room. And then something happened, something peculiar. It was the sort of thing one would have completely expected from Papyrus' and Sans' house once upon a time. As ordinary as it was now, though… it felt out of place. It was as if the house was giving off one last gasp of bizzarity before passing away into legend.

A lump appeared in Frisk's pocket, the opposite one to where she kept her stopwatch. Left Frisk with a little bit of a quandary. Did she let go of the pocket watch to check the pocket, or did she let go of her knife? She wasn't feeling at all safe right now, but in a situation like this… which one really provided the most security? She released the stopwatch.

Instantly, her hand latched back onto it again. No way was she choosing the weapon. So, shakily, her left hand released the dagger. It reached into her pocket and gripped whatever this new addition to her clothing was. It felt… like a piece of paper. Pulling it out, she found that this is exactly what it was. A crumpled up piece of paper had magically appeared in her pocket.

When unfolded, it was only about half the size of a typical printer page. Five letter were written in the middle of said page in a generic handwriting impossible to differentiate from any others that she had seen. It seemed, if this was indeed from Sans' as she hoped it was, even his unique handwriting style had vanished. All the paper said was, "Erase."

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Chara froze, her racing thoughts pausing for a second. Erase. She knew the word all too well. It was her underlying goal, her purpose. It was the whole reason she had been born into the world, and when she had failed, Frisk had been created to finish the job. Chara had tried to convince Frisk of this many times, but she'd always replied with words like murder, kill, and demon. Except for during that one run, Frisk had been willingly blind to destiny.

They weren't meant to kill. How can one kill something that never existed in the first place? They needed to erase everyone, erase any guilt, erase the memories, and ultimately, erase the world. Thing was, some idiot seemed to think it was their destiny to do that now. Was it possible that Frisk had taken too long, and somebody else had been created to do it for them? Because Sans' room was definitely erased, and it most certainly wasn't by either of them.

"Screw up my plans. Steal my destiny. Toy with me like a puppet. Whoever you are… you have no idea who you are messing with," Chara thought under her breath. "You are going to die."

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Frisk stared at the note, eyes pale and face pale. A thousand memories connected like the synapses in the brain. All the times Chara had urged her to erase… She shuddered, and threw the paper back to the floor as if it were on fire and put her hands to her head, trying to shut out the memories that had… for a moment… broken through the dam.

All the dust, all the betrayals. It hadn't started as anything major, just an experiment to find out what would happen if certain monsters died. She'd always been able to go back in time if she needed to, unmurder them. At the time, she hadn't seen anything wrong with it. One could just undo the action, after all. But it had scarred her mentally… Caused her to forget the value of the lives of others… awoken the demon that she now constantly fought to keep buried.

Her head was throbbing, her thoughts racing, and it hurt. There had never been a time when Sans wasn't here. She'd cut down Papyrus before… and then left Sans to live here alone, but she had never left Papyrus by himself. This time it wasn't her fault… so why did she feel responsible for it? How would he handle knowing that Sans was gone? Would he?

The thought entered her head, and her mind began to panic. Toriel was gone. Megan was gone. Even Sans was gone… But she could go on… She'd find a way. She always had. She couldn't live in this broken world with Papyrus though. Turning, she raced over to Papyrus' door. That had to be the same, right? Come on… Race car bed, computer, action figures, box of bones, pirate flag. They had to be there… They just had to be. Please…

Reaching the door, she ripped it open… and instantly breathed a sigh of relief. The room was untouched. The race car bed was made like Papyrus did every morning. The action figures were set up in a duel to the death, aliens vs. wizards. It looked as if this time around, the wizards were winning. That was uncommon. The box of bones was even taller than the last time she had checked, though she didn't think by more than two or three.

The computer was left on, running the media creation program for The Papyrus Song. The pirate flag waved proudly off the back porch where she had helped Papyrus set it up a year or so prior. Absolutely everything was the same. This room looked like it hadn't even been touched by whatever had infected the rest of the house. For whatever reason, it was completely unaffected.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

So they'd left the buffoon unscathed. That was beyond odd, and it screwed up her theory about him being sent to replace her. Sure, Papyrus was an oaf, but he was still a being. She could see no reason why somebody who wanted to erase Sans' would leave his brother behind. Even if all they were after was some bizarre vengeance, anybody who had it in for Sans would know that the worst way to hurt him would be to do something horrific to Papyrus. It simply made no logical sense.

And then there was the paper. What the heck was it supposed to mean? Why in the world had it been made to magically appear in Frisk's pocket when she entered the room? And who in the world had left it? She doubted Sans would take the time to set up something that elaborate whilst in the middle of being killed. She was befuddled, and she hated feeling that way. Once again, her hatred for whoever was toying with her increased.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

The thorough relief of seeing Papyrus' room the same as always, allowed a respite from all of the terror that had been racing through her since entering Megan's house. The panic had finally begun to subside enough to allow for more orderly thinking. Frisk allowed herself to slide down the wall and sit.

She wanted to reset. More than anything she wanted to reset. But she couldn't… Not anymore. She'd always taken it for granted, forgotten that it was something she was merely being allowed to use. As such, it was something she could also lose the privilege to use. She didn't have determination anymore.

Things were bad for the first time in a while, and instead of feeling a burning desire to fix it… like she once had… all she wanted to do was run and hide. But there was nowhere to go. Everyone, and everything, that had felt safe was being eliminated, one after another. What had she done to deserve this?

'A lot', was the answer… but nothing that anybody knew about. So why did it feel like someone was out to get her? That she had an unseen enemy? Both Flowey and Yellow had mentioned she was involved in some sort of conflict… But she was utterly clueless as to why. It wasn't fair… "Please… Stop…" It was unclear who she was talking to. The world? Herself? …Chara? This unknown force? Even she didn't know…

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

The world crumbles, piece by piece. What is the goal? Why is Papyrus unharmed? Just what is this mysterious adversary after? And, with Frisk merely a broken shell of who she once was, is there anybody left who can stop him? Hope you enjoyed the chapter. As always, your fanship means a lot to me. Hope to hear from you.

~ Xanatos Stones