OFF: This is the first proper chapter. I hope you enjoyed the prologue and will like the first actual chapter!
Now for some notes...
Italics are thoughts and used for narration during flashbacks and visions.
Bolded text is dialogue belonging to some special characters as well as especially loud noises.
Hope this will help!
6FeetUnderTale
Into the Darkness
A long time ago, the world was plunged into eternal war. Two races competed to rule the world: humans and monsters. Since the dawn of time, they fought, neither able to gain the upper hand.
Times of peace and war came and went until someday, humanity struck a decisive blow. The monsters were defeated and the matter settled once and for all.
Humanity shown itself merciful though. Out of respect for their old rivals, they spared the monsters and instead of exterminating the survivors, allowed them to rebuild their civilization beneath the earth.
To prevent further war, the path between the worlds, , was sealed using the most powerful magic humanity could muster. The two races parted ways and life carried on.
Centuries passed...
He regretted it. He thought he was ready to leave this world. It had seemed like a good idea, like a way to escape the endless cycle that haunted his nightmares and his waking life. An end, an end to the screaming, to the fists, belts, rulers, and shoes that covered him in bruises. An end to the laughter, to the shoving, to the throwing of things.
The forest atop the mountain was untouched. No one travelled up it, no one dared. All those who climbed it never returned. And everyone suspect, no, knew why. This was the link between the world of humans and the world of monsters. Given they exist.
Still, the decision had been easy. Close his eyes, take a deep breath, jump down the hole, finally end it all. Yet midway through the fall, he had regretted it. It had suddenly dawned upon him what he had done, what was happening.
"I don't want to die I don't want to die I DON'T WANT TO DIE!"
He panicked as he fell. Suddenly, he didn't want to die anymore. But he could not take it back, having already stepped off the edge. All he could see was the walls racing by as he sunk and sunk and sunk and sunk deeper into the darkness. Yellow greeted him in the distance and at first, he found his heart pounding out of its chest at the idea of lava.
No, not lava. Flowers.
Funny. Flowers like those people put on the graves of people in the graveyard near the orphanage. Well, he probably would have found it funny and ironic if he wasn't terrified out of his mind because he's about to die. In fact, he probably wouldn't find it funny even if he was just sitting calmly in his room, thinking over the strange things grown-ups often did.
The flowers and ground up stones reached out to stop his descent. The impact set ablaze every nerve in his body, a sickening snap deafening him. He did not have the time to scream as a strange wave washed over his entire body and mind. The pain was gone, the feeling in his limbs was gone, and everything was washed over by a wall of solid black and crimson. His fear, his thoughts, everything vanished. His name, his very self vanished.
He lost consciousness practically instantly, every single bone in his body broken, nearly every organ smashed to a pulp. His heart tried to pump blood through him but given it currently held the dimensions of a pancake, it couldn't manage it. Not that there was a brain to pump blood to, the grey matter having shaken itself apart in his skull from the violent impact.
Regret did not matter anymore. What he had wanted had come to him, an end. Even though he no longer wanted it.
A heart, faded, with a bit of red to it, was all he could see. Massive cracks could be seen in it. What was this heart? What did it mean?
He didn't want to die after all. That was all a bad idea. If only he could take it back...
"You can."
What was this? He had heard some of the ladies at the orphanage say that when you die, you hear God's voice. Is this God?
"Well, if you want to call me this way, why not? Hehe."
He had pictured that God would sound a bit... more impressive though. The voice sounded oddly tiny.
"Hey, don't judge! Anyway, you wanna live, right? Well, I know a way you can. Have you ever heard of DETERMINATION?"
Determination? He had heard grown-ups talk about it. He had heard children whisper about it. Apparently, it has something to do with magic. Every time he asked about it, the ladies either became annoyed with him, told him to forget about it, or told him that he wasn't old enough for that.
"You don't have to die. Gather your DETERMINATION. Focus on what you feel, on what you want to feel. On how you wanted to live. Focus real hard."
He did so. Oh yes, he wanted to live. He wanted to live so much. He regretted throwing himself into that pit. He just wanted to be alive now.
"Good. Good..."
There was strange strands of red coming out of... somewhere in the ground. Another heart but this one far more vivid in color and somehow wrong. It seemed like pieces forming a heart rather than a full one and it looked semi-transparent. It was all so strange. What was wrong with it?
"Let's make a deal. You want to live. I like being alive too. Let's be alive, okay?"
He tried to speak. What kind of deal is that? It didn't involve actually offering anything or taking anything. But he couldn't speak. And well, he want to be alive.
"Don't worry, you can't talk to me yet and I don't need an anwser. Of course you want to live. See that weird fragmented heart? That's me. I can see you have some DETERMINATION but not nearly enough. You're too weak to be alive. But if you take my DETERMINATION, I can save you."
So he just take the weird heart's DETERMINATION? Sound simple. And he doesn't need to give anything? That was easy!
The cracked heart became as a vortex. The strands of red flowed and the fragments were sucked in. Bright red washed over the cracked, broken heart and merged with it, filling every damaged part. DETERMINATION flowed and before long, the heart was no longer a faint shade of red but a vivid color.
And then, a pulse. DETERMINATION. The heart pumped it powerfully.
He gasped, eyes shooting open. The world spun and before long, he found himself turning so he was on his stomach. Speaking of it, he couldn't control himself. He hurled into the bed of flowers, emptying it. His entire body hurt, everything hurts, his limbs shook incontrollably. Everything spun and was so, so blurry.
When his vision came to, a puddle, deep red and pale yellow, greeted him. His body felt empty and every part of him was hurting. However, despite how hard it was, he managed to stand. His blue and purple stripped shirt was in tatters, his shoes were a mess, everything was a mess. But he was alive.
The voice, it had saved his life.
"We are together now."
"You saved me..."
"I am asking only for one thing."
He froze. A coldness went through him.
"I'm just going to watch you. That's all. I'm just going to watch. Don't worry about me. In a few days, you'll have forgotten all about me. I just like watching."
"Really?"
"Yes. See you. And remember... stay determined. Even if your body give up, so long as you don't give up, no one can kill you. See you around."
And with that said, he had a strange feeling. As if the voice had somehow went away. What had all this been about?
It didn't really matter. He looked up and saw the columns, the flowers, and the sunlight filtering from so high, so high he couldn't hope to go back. How did he survive this fall? That voice, whatever it had done, had somehow managed to save him from that.
But while the happiness of being alive washed over him, he realized another thing. He won't be able to climb back out.
"Frisk, what mess have you gotten yourself in, this time?" he whispered to himself as the sheer extent of his mistake begun to dawn upon him.
It was tempting to just stay there. To let despair wash over him. But he was alive, wasn't he? He didn't really feel like going home but maybe being somewhere less scary would be nice. In fact, being in a house, somewhere warm, somewhere with food might be nice. Oh and maybe have someone do something about all of his bruises and all those other injuries he probably had by now.
Needless to say, if he just remain in that patch of flowers, nothing is gonna happen. So he got up and then looked around. The room was pretty featureless but stepping out of the patch of flowers, he saw what seemed to be a massive stone archway leading deeper inside.
On one hand, he really didn't want to get lost. On another hand... well, he knew he didn't have a choice.
So after gathering his courage, he took a deep breath and moved forward. "Stay determined" he reminded himself. "Stay determined."
Stepping through the archway, he found himself in an even darker room. It was so dark, he couldn't see even his own feet! At first, he really didn't want to move deeper inside but as he focused his gaze forward, he noticed that a bit of light was shining from the ceiling, illuminating an elevated patch of grass. Atop the miniature hill was a really, really weird flower.
Yeah, it was definitely weird. Since when are flowers supposed to have a head of a goat inside? One that was unlike any picture he had ever seen, actually just being as expressive as a human's, at that? Flowers also can't cry and certainly don't sound like kids.
A sad little flower? This was just surreal. Was this just some nightmare? Was he gonna wake up in his room back at the orphanage soon? Well, if he's dreaming, maybe it won't harm to approach the little flower.
Hearing his footsteps, the flower turned to face him and...
"WHAT DO YOU WANT?!"
Frisk almost jumped out of his shoes, hand grasping at his chest as his heart seemed to want to escape from his ribcage. He panted, trying to get ahold of his panic. How could something so small roar so loudly? And its face! That's scary! Even the giant monster from that movie he saw wasn't like this! This thing looked like it came from his worst nightmare!
"Huh?" The flower seemed really confused, its voice back to the soft tone it had been before. "Who are you?"
"F-Frisk..." he said slowly, unsure if he should stay anywhere near that creepy flower after all.
"Frisk? You're..." It looked him over then blinked a few times. "You're human, right?"
He nodded quickly twice. The flower seemed confused but as it stared at him some more, he could see the confusion wash away and a smile appear on his face. For some reason, he didn't like that smile. It reminded him of the smiles of the older kids back at the orphanage before they'd steal his toys and punch him in the face.
"You just arrived, didn't you? You just fell down a big pit and BAM, lost in there, right?" Frisk nodded again. It made the weird goat flower's smile widen. "No saves yet? No resets?"
"Huh? Hmmm..." Frisk looked to the side for a moment. He was really not sure what to say. Maybe... not lie? Lying is bad after all... maybe? "I really don't know what you're talking about."
The goat flower seemed overjoyed for some reason. "Perfect! Alright, give me a moment."
The flower bent its stem for a moment and when it lifted its head again, its face had changed. It was now a normal flower... well, as normal as a flower with eyes and a mouth like in a cartoon could be.
"Howdy! I'm Flowey the Flower!" Frisk raised an eyebrow. That... was a really dumb name. Apparently, the flower must have noticed his expression because it became annoyed. "Do you think my name is funny, you idiot?"
"W-well, it's kind of... well... a flower... Flowey..." he tried to explain.
"Fine fine! My name's Asriel Dreemurr! Happy now?!"
"Asriel? Hmmm... alright. That's a nice name. Still, why did you call yourself Flowey earlier?"
"Because if I went around telling everyone my real name they'd..." The flower stopped itself, giving him a flat stare. "You know what? Nevermind."
It rolled its eyes and rebecame all cheery-like. "Anyway! I'm Asriel! It's obvious you're new to the underground. Golly boy must you be confused! Well, someone got to teach you how things work around here! Since I see no one else around here, I guess good old me will have to do! Here we go!"
Before him, he could see white strands of magic rise all over the place. He felt his heart beat especially hard and as he looked down, he was surprised to see himself semi-transparent, the red heart from before now pulsating inside his chest.
"See that heart? That's your SOUL, the culmination of your love, LOVE, and Determination! In short, it's all that you are, all condensed in a cute little package. Of course, your SOUL start out weak but with love and LOVE, your SOUL will grow strong."
Love and LOVE? The two words seemed so similar and yet, there was a difference for some reason. Frisk spoke up. "Love? LOVE? You say it can make me strong?" Being strong sounds nice. If he was stronger maybe he wouldn't have to be afraid of people hurting him. Still, should he ask? That flower was quite creepy earlier. But then, well, it did seem to want to help him now and well, if he had learnt anything at the orphanage, it's that you don't reject help, no matter how mean the person was earlier.
"Can you tell me more?"
"Heh! I knew you'd want some LOVE! Alright!" Strands of white shot out of the flower and gathered above it, forming five small white spheres. "LOVE is shared around here using little... friendliness pellets. Here! Move around! Catch as many as you can!"
White balls? Frisk looked as the strange spheres begun to fly forward. At first, he was scared that Asriel would throw them violently at him but as he saw them fly, he noticed how slowly they moved. Well, this doesn't seem so bad. Maybe he can get stronger from them!
He walked to the left, finally feeling his fear start to go away. Even with their slow flight speed, he knew he probably would not be able to catch them all because of his bruises but well, if he got even one, then good, right?
He reached out to the one he could reach in time and closed his fingers around it...
Pain flared through his hand. The sphere tore his skin open. Frisk screamed, crimson liquid splattering down to the ground, his hand blasted open, the bullet having almost severed the fingers off his hand. His vision became blurry as tears flowed into his field of vision.
Why did he trust Asriel? Why did he give him a chance? He should have known he was going to hurt him! Just one more bully taking advantage of him...
"YES! You fell for it!" The flower's face became a deformed smile with visible fangs, his eyes glowing. Despite the pain, Frisk found himself frozen in fear, unable to look away. "In this world, for you, it will be to kill or be killed! They will want your SOUL! All of them! But I am lucky I got to you first, hehehe!"
The flower's voice wasn't friendly either anymore. It was a raspy, scatching voice, like the voice from a movie's bad guy. It occured to him that this wasn't a nightmare, that this was very real. Away! He had to get away! But as he tried to get back up and run, strands of white energy shot from Asriel like crazy and gathered all around him, forming a sphere of bullets. Every direction greeted him with a bullet. He was trapped.
"Your precious SOUL! The ability to FEEL! Finally! I will no longer be a flower! Your SOUL is mine, Frisk! MINE!"
The flower screamed in rage, closing in the sphere of bullets. But just as the sphere was about to hit him, a glow could be seen from the back of the room. Asriel turned in time just to see the fireball flying straight at him.
It slammed straight into his face, setting him on fire. "NO! I WAS SO CLOSE! NOW, I WON'T EVER GET ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY!" Asriel's monstrous visage disappeared as he sunk into the ground and with him did the bullets.
Frisk grasped his bleeding hand, adrenaline having dulled the pain. But while he found himself relieved that Asriel was chased away, a question haunted him. Where did that fireball come from?
Loud footsteps. Something huge, a gigantic shadow. Frisk's eyes widened and he froze as he saw a gigantic figure approaching. It was taller than any grown-up he had ever seen, taller than anything he had ever seen. And it had glowing, scary eyes. He found himself hyperventilating. What kind of crazy place is this? A flower tried to kill him and now there's some sort of giant monster?
Why did he come here? Why?
The figure stepped into the light, slamming a giant staff into the ground, its glowing eyes boring into him...
... and Frisk found himself with his mind blank of any thought. He struggled to grasp the absurdity of the situation.
What appeared to be the largest person he had ever seen in his life was standing before him. A goat-like figure, with huge hands and a horned head, long floppy ears by the sides of its head. Yet, despite its sheer size, the impressive robes, the wicked-looking staff that pulsated with light... its face was gentle, even motherly as it looked down on him with an expression had had so rarely seen. Pity. Actual, sincere pity.
"Don't worry my child." Its voice was so soft that if he didn't know the goat lady was the source of it, he wouldn't believe it actually came from her. "I will not allow this wicked creature to harm you further."
She glanced to the spot where Asriel had disappeared, her face stern. "Such a vile creature. One should never fight one so much weaker than you. Least of all an innocent child."
She then turned to him and approached him. She smiled at him, kneeling as to make herself less intimidating. "You're hurt. Don't worry, I will heal you."
She pointed the staff at him. Strands of green errupted from the small ball at the tip of it. For a moment, Frisk was afraid the lady would hurt him like the flower did... but as the green light shrouded him, he felt his weariness fade away like a bad dream. His bruises, his blasted hand, all of his injuries faded leaving him with a sense of great relief. He still felt exhausted but all of the pain just went away. He looked down and he saw that though dirty and blood-drenched, his hand was completely healed. In fact, if it wasn't from the sticky crimson liquid, one wouldn't be able to guess his hand had been injured at all previously.
He looked at it, amazed for a moment before looking up to see the lady smile gently at him, her free hand opened, as if offering to lead him. "Come my child. You have nothing to fear. I will protect you."
He grabbed the offered hand, lifting himself to his feet. As the goat lady led him out of the room, he looked on. For some reason, the cave ahead was well-lit despite the lack of any lamps or anything. In fact, it was all purple and stoney, like entering an old city like in the news about distant towns he'd probably never see.
The floor was cracked and covered in dust. Cracks could be seen everywhere as well as loose bricks. Ruins of sorts. A bed of leaves was ahead and he saw a great staircase leading even deeper in. The goat lady let go of his hand and left him a moment to gaze upon the entrance to the next section of the underground.
Frisk smiled. He focused on how kind that goat lady was, on the relief as she chased away Asriel, on how he would live and make sure to stay that way. He did not know why Asriel had spoken of taking his SOUL or why everyone would want it. Or why he had been so mean to begin with.
But it didn't matter. He would move forward with this goat lady. He would enter those ruins.
The sight of the ruins' entrance before him and his renewed resolve to survive filled him with DETERMINATION.
And a star errupted before the entrance. The goat lady had seen it too for she smiled and nodded knowingly to him.
He did not know what it all meant. Not yet. But he would remain determined. That, he knew.
TO BE CONTINUED...