Chapter 4: A Kind Ghost

When I entered the next room, I expected another puzzle, but was met with the smallest room I had seen yet, with nothing in it except for red leaves and a doorway. And… something else strange was there. In the middle of the doorway, on the red leaves, lay something white. As I got closer, I realized that it was a ghost. It looked very much like you would picture, not like a transparent human, but more like the generic "sheet thrown over a person" Halloween ghost. It was lying on its back with its eyes closed, but it didn't seem to be sleeping. It was literally saying "Z" out loud over and over.

I had no clue what I should do. I had to get through the doorway, but I didn't want to bother the ghost. I decided to try sneaking around, but when I attempted, there didn't seem to be enough space between it and the walls. I needed to get it to move.

I knelt down and nudged it gently, trying not to anger it. "E-excuse me," I tried in a soft voice. "Could I possibly get around you…?"

The ghost opened its eyes and hovered upright. I was startled as I saw my Soul appear. The ghost stared at it, too. "Y-you're human… huh…?" It said in a depressed-sounding male voice.

I nodded slowly. "Y-yeah. I'm just trying to get home."

"You must have lots of friends at your home…"

I paused at the subject. "U-um, not really."

The ghost looked down in shame. "Oh… Me neither…" Tears started to form in their eyes. "I'm not really good with people…" The tears fell, but instead of plopping on the ground, they started floating around randomly. I flinched as a stray one grazed the knee of my hurt leg, burning the fabric.

"H-hey, don't cry!"

The ghost looked at me with a depressed frown. I smiled, trying to make them feel better. "Look, I'm not judging you. I've been in the same situation."

"You have…?"

I nodded. "Yeah." I started remembering back to my life on the surface. "I felt like you do for a long time. Where I come from, people don't really like me. I'm a really quiet kid. I'm usually that person that will just be able to sit there and no one will notice until someone bumps me over."

The ghost blinked. "You don't seem bad... You know how to talk."

I was silent for a moment. "I've had to talk more since I've been down here." I saw the ghost looking at me worriedly, and shook my head. "But hey, that's alright. I kinda like talking when people don't ignore me."

"People ignore me…"

"Maybe they wouldn't if you talked to them."

They stared at me curiously. "Really…?"

I gave the ghost a friendly smile. "Yeah."

To my relief, I got a tiny smile out of them, too. "Well… Thanks… My name's Napstablook, by the way…"

Napstablook, I repeated the strange name in my head, and inwardly giggled. "That's a nice name. I'm Frisk."

"That's a nice name…" Napstablook looked at the ground shyly. "Can I… Show you something…?"

I nodded. "Of course." To my alarm, more tears floated from Napstablook's eyes. "W-wait, don't c-" I started to console them, but then I realized that the tears weren't floating randomly like before, but were going upward. An object began to form atop the ghost's head, and I realized that it was becoming a little, white, top hat. I broke a smile and chuckled.

"I call it 'Dapper Blook'. Do you like it…?"

"Yeah! That's really cool!" I complimented genuinely.

"Oh…" The hat disappeared. "I… I usually come to the Ruins because there's no one around… But today I met someone nice…"

I smiled at their comment before a small fact in their words caught my attention. "Wait, you come to the Ruins? Does that mean there's other places than here?"

The ghost nodded. "Yeah, there's a lot… There isn't really anyone here, anymore. They all left a long time ago…"

Hope blossomed inside me. "Do you know the way out of here, by any chance?"

Napstablook gave a small nod. "Yes… It might be hard to get there since you're not a ghost, though…"

I kept eye contact, waiting for them to continue.

They looked at the ground absently. "Toriel knows… She guards the door… And I don't think she lets just anyone go through…"

Toriel. I wondered why she hadn't told me about a door that would lead me back home. I shrugged it off. I got what I needed to know, now I just had to find Toriel. I smiled at the ghost. "I didn't know that. Thank you for telling me, I'll go talk to Toriel about it. I need to find that door so I can get back home."

The ghost looked alarmed. "I… I wouldn't do that if I were you… She's kind of intimidating…"

"I can handle it," I reassured them. "She's not too bad, really. Besides… I'm determined to get back home. I'll do whatever it takes."

They hesitated, then nodded again. "Okay… I'll get out of your way, then…" Quietly, the ghost faded, and I was alone once again. At least the path was cleared, now, and I didn't have to fight anything.

I walked forward, and was met with a split in the path. The room ahead of me looked small, so I decided to investigate it first. When I entered, There was literally nothing there except a small wooden sign and some spider webs. Spider bake sale, read the sign. All proceeds go to real spiders. I chuckled at the silly concept. There was no bake sale here; some monster must have left this sign as a joke.

Suddenly a shiver went up my spine as a big purple spider crawled over the back of the sign and down the post. The strange thing about it wasn't just that it was purple but that it was carrying something much bigger than a spider should be able to. It was… a donut. I nearly had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't seeing things. The spider carried the small pastry over to one of the webs near the all and just sat there. It seemed to be looking right at me.

I simply stared at it for a moment. It never looked away. "What?" I asked. The tiny creature set down the donut and picked up a white sign. Spider donut, 7g, it read. My mind instantly went to the money I had picked up earlier. "Oh," I realized what it wanted. I pulled out the seven coins from earlier. "You want money for the donut?" The purple spider twirled the sign around. A happy face was drawn crudely in black marker. I laughed and crouched down in front of the web. I set down the gold and the spider quickly gathered it up, then scooted the donut in my direction. I took it and put it into my pocket. "Thank you." I walked away thinking I was a little bit insane.

As I exited the room, I turned into the other one and found that there were three Frogits in its long expanse. One seemed to recognize me, and it ribbited a "hello". The others copied its ignorance toward my "human-ness" and none bothered to attack me. I smiled at the first one as I passed through the hall. Before I went through the door, I saw the frog monster hop toward me, and I stopped to hear what I had to say.

"Hey, human," it croaked. "It's good to see that you're still doing okay."

I nodded as I crouched down to its height. "Yeah, I'm alright. Just a few minor injuries, but they were from misunderstandings. Your advice is working, by the way."

It puffed its chest in pride. "Well, I'm glad. I thought it might."

"Thanks for trying to help me. I really appreciate it."

"Aww, it's no problem," it said with a blush. "I'm happy to help."

I smiled. "Well, I'm on my way to find Toriel. I need to ask her about how to get out of here. Do you know if she went this way?"

The Frogit nodded. "Yes, her house is at the far end of the Ruins. If you just keep moving forward, you should find it."

I stood up. "Thank you. I should go, then. No offense to you, but I want to get out of here as soon as I can."

The frog monster began hopping away. "No problem. Good luck on getting home!"

I continued on my way through the next door. Not to my surprise, there was another puzzle. The room had six spots on its floor that looked like they could crumble away, just like the maze room from earlier. A sign on the wall read: There is only one switch. The far door was blocked by spikes.

As I knew to do from earlier, I went over to the nearest cracked spot and used my foot to cause it to crumble. As I looked through, I saw some leaves sticking up through a patch of dirt. They were moving, so I assumed it was some type of plant monster. There was no switch in the tiny room, so I moved on to the next hole. I tried one at the far end of the room, and there was nothing there but red leaves. The other one at this side also held a plant monster.

I decided to try the other one at the beginning of the room. There was no switch in this one, either. But… There was something. It was thin and pink, and I couldn't see it too well from how high I was. I wanted to pass it by and try to find the switch, but something about it drew me to investigate. I lowered myself through the hole and dropped to the floor, the red leaves softening the landing.

I knelt down by the object and scooped it up in my hands. It was a tattered and faded ribbon. "Huh… I wonder how this got down here," I wondered allowed. Feeling a strange empathy for the old ribbon, I decided to tie it into my hair as a little accessory. It reminded me strangely of home.

I climbed up through a small tunnel, which led me back to the main floor. There were two more holes to check. I went to the cracked floor on my left and caved it in. I almost laughed when I saw Napstablook lying on the leaves at the bottom. They stared blankly up at me for a moment, then spoke. "Um… I fell down this hole… Now I can't get out…"

"Can't you just fly?" I asked.

They blinked. "Oh… That's right… I can, can't I…" Slowly, they hovered off the ground and floated up through the hole. "Sorry… I have to go home, now… Thanks for the help…"

I gave them a kind smile. "Sure. Maybe I'll see you again sometime before I get out of here."

For the first time, they truly smiled. "Yeah… Maybe." With that, they rose up and disappeared.

I kicked the last hole in. Below it was the switch I had been looking for. I breathed a sigh of relief. After dropping down and pulling the golden mechanism, I heard a clanking sound above the small room. I crawled up through the tunnel and found that, back in the main room, the spikes in the doorway had disappeared. I walked through, twirling the ribbon in my hair in triumph.