THE UNSEEN

Mt. Ebott isn't one of the greatest mountains in the range, but there is a great legend that lurked beneath the entire mountain range… the entire surface. A secret world that hundreds of years ago was split away from the world. It wasn't just that it was under the ground, but hidden away in some other dimension. There are ancient buildings and stones that date back 1000 years, and there are caves, but none of them deep or complex. There is one place where at first glance might be a stairway, in a simple square building with a pavilion out looking the entire mountain… but if there ever were a stairway, there is now no trace. Only a solid rock wall several feet thick. Archeologists studied the sight between 1957 and 1998, but after discovering too little, the place was let lie, and recorded still. Perhaps one day, a secret passage will be found, and there will truly be a world Underground revealed.

The place isn't actively studied anymore, and now trails weave around the monuments as a scenic view for runners, bikers, and tourists.

Frisk sat at the base of a tree, with a green book between her knees. Several shadows fell over her. Suddenly alert, she looked up, shoved her glasses up the bridge of her nose to see four boys. Two of them were bullies from school, one she wasn't all too familiar with, but she did recognize Wilson. He seemed really anxious, his jaw clenched, and avoiding her gaze. Two boys had cigarettes.

Frisk coughed.

"What a way to track someone down."

Frisk coughed again, "How long have you been doing that, now?" she shielded her mouth and nose with a sleeve, scowling. So they're the ones who have been making me cough for the past seven minutes. Why am I not surprised?

"Whatchya doin all the way up here? You by yourself?"

Frisk looked between them. "Are you?"

"You like questions, don't you?"

"As much as you do- hey!" a boy with a yellow shirt jumped forward and wrenched the book from Frisk's hands. "Give that back!" Frisk scrambled up but someone kicked her right shoulder and she fell back with a cry.

The boys jeered, and began looking through her book. "What is this… fairy tales? Ha- what? Mt. Ebott is crawling with monsters underneath the ground?" he chuckled. "You really believe that? What are you reading this crap for? It's not real. Just a bunch of smart-ass people trying to fool you."

"I know it's not real."

"Then why bother?"

"I think it's cooler than..." she looked away, scowling.

"Na, cooler than what?"

"My life…" she mumbled.

The boy stared at her for a moment. "Huh… Yeah, I guess so…" he held out the book to her, pages facing the earth. Frisk watched him for a moment, slowly extending a hand. "Go on." He said. When her fingers were about to brush the hard cover, the book slipped from his fingers. "Ooops." Frisk had her hand over the book, but a shoe came down on it, and ground her hand and the book into the dirt.

"Ow-ow-ow HEY!" she used her other hand to smash into the boy's leg and dig her nails into his skin. He yelped, jerked away and fell over. The other boys went to him and tried to help him up.

"Hey, you okay?" Pudgy was trying to help him up. Wilson was looking between Frisk and them. The extra had his eyes trained on her and was surging forward with a look of murder on his face. Scrambling, taking rapid breaths, Frisk was scooping her book and small bag and racing down the hill. The boys followed. With a heavy burst of adrenaline, Frisk raced down a swerving path, angling carefully as she took a curve that might have thrown her into a ditch. She took another path to her left, darting into a way that wound through some of the forest.

She heard the boys cries behind her, and she raced further and further into the woods, heart thumping wildly and almost painfully in her chest. Her vision was getting blurry, and she fought to keep her glasses in place. She was getting tired… Once she was in thick enough foliage… she tested some trees, and finally picking a tall oak with enough handholds, she made her way up the trunk. She climbed high up into the boughs, until she was sure she couldn't be seen. She clung to the branch, just trying to calm herself and breathe more softly so no one could hear her.

Ants made their way up and down the trunk, and a few fluffy jumping spider's went about their merry way as well. After watching them scurry between cracks for a short while, she heard the boys shouts and she jumped, and looked around. Thankfully, she couldn't see all that well through the trees… good… they wouldn't likely be able to see her either. Frisk realized her breathing had calmed down, and she sighed a little.

It sounded at first like the boys were coming up the path she had taken, but because she had found a tree far from the beaten path, she hoped it was less likely they would check. They came nearer and nearer, but then their voices grew more and more distant until she could barely hear them at all.

Relieved, Frisk sighed, and looked down at her book. She held on to the tree with one hand, and her feet propped up on others while she sat on another. Wearily flipping open the pages, she looked over the damage that had been done to them. The sight of the dirt ground into the wrinkled and bent pages made her stomach knot. Tears came to her eyes. She sat the book on her knee, using her free arms sleeve to wipe at her eyes. Despite how careful she was trying to be, the book suddenly plopped out of the tree and onto the leaves.

"Argh." She stared down at the green cover. At least the poor thing had landed on its backside. Waiting a moment, she thought of a careful way down, and began to slip down through the tree. Suddenly, her hand slipped, her feet rocked and she tripped and twisted down through the tree, some 5 feet down she caught a branch with one hand. The bark dug into her hand, and from the sting she fell another three feet and plopped on her knees and hands in an uncomfortable bed of leaves and damp dirt. "Oof!" she sat still in shock from the pain, and looked beside her, mind feeling numb. Something had shaken her down?

Before her, strangely scattered and impressioned in the shape of a rectangle, there was no green book. Frowning, and scooting her glasses back up the bridge of her nose, Frisk stood, wheeling about in confusion. Her legs and hands ached from the fall. Glancing at her hands, she saw they were scuffed and bleeding. Her jeans however, were covered in muddy stains and clingy pieces of wet leaves. Feeling at the skin under the thin jeans, she felt small pangs of burning and bruising. It would probably hurt more later, too…

Overhead, the sky was darkening with a thin layer of clouds. They were quite high, and the sun was still visible as it was setting in the east- the direction of the path she would take to get out of the woods. It was beginning to drizzle.

Reassessing the area, she took a breath, scooted her red glasses up her nose. Looking down at the spot she had dropped the book, then looked beneath her, Frisk realized with complete bafflement that her book really was gone. But it didn't make sense unless it got buried in the leaves. She kicked at some with her shoes. Maybe someone had hidden behind the trees? But… the leaves were so thick, even the slightest shuffle created noise. Whoever had stolen her book had to either be the wind knocking over leaves, or a complete ninja. But again… there had been no tossing of leaves. And she could see no footprints other than her own.

In the distance, the boys were yelling, arguing… maybe more. Had they felt the tremor too? There was another tremble, and Frisk staggered. She put an arm out to the tree to keep herself up, but when she expected to feel the bark of the tree, she instead felt something soft that cradled her own hand- another hand. When she looked, her hand was in mid-air, holding nothing, and her balance was regained.

Frisk slipped her hands under the straps of her backpack over the fore of her shoulders, and held tight, knees and back bent in a crouch. Her thoughts had gone as quiet as her breath, and now she only watched and listened. The boys were gone; of that she was sure. But someone else had grabbed her hand, taken her book, and disappeared without a sound. It felt as though there were eyes on her back, but as she circled, she could see no one but trees and the leaves rustling in the wind.

The impulse to suddenly start running was beginning to make her blood pound in her ears. I can't even see anyone. "Uhm…" Frisk took a step back, looking over the forest with wide eyes. Not a second later, she was turning around and running back onto the path. It was getting so dark. I should call Mrs. Anne… she said she was going to be back… she's probably worried sick!

Her feet thudding lightly across the ground, she was upon the trail in seconds, and was nearly at the end of it where it joined with the main road, and suddenly she was flying backwards and rolling across the ground. As she scrambled backwards and clumsily got to her feet and faced the gap of space- where no one stood, and yet she knew from the ache in her arms and the burn of her stretched skin that someone had grabbed her and thrown her away.

There was a cigarette on the path. Had the boys come this way? The wind blew from the left, and the leaves from off the path were flung over the cigarette. It caught fire, lighting up brightly and like a wall. "Whoa!" Frisk turned and ran the other way, face already burning from the heat. "But it can't do that!?" she cried as she glanced over her shoulder. Ahead, there was a small tree with arching branches so high up it would have been impossible to vault over, so she turned left, and scurried up the hill. She attempted another left path, but this time she was thrown yet again backwards. There was a path to her right, further up the hill.

Glaring at the empty space, Frisk stood, charged forward. This time, she passed, and then she paused, and looked around. "Am I just crazy or something?" she gawked at what was going on. Through the trees on the other path the fire was dimming. Well, I'll just go back that way… She took a step back, when she felt her shoulder and arm grabbed, and she was flung further up the trail she hadn't taken.

Arms and legs battered and jerked across the dirt and small scattered stones. "Ow…!" Her knees felt awful. Looking around, she still saw no one as she stood, but even still, a hand wrapped around her side and she was picked up from the ground and shoved forward on her feet. "Wha-?!" she stumbled, glancing over her shoulder.

With not much left to do, Frisk started running; and only up further into the twisting paths of the mountain. She could stop and rest for a moment, but if she took too long, she would be thrown forward, but not harshly so she was hurt. If she tried taking any path that led away or down the mountain, she would also find herself thrown back and flung across the floor in a way she'd be skinned by the ground- a few times trees. Eventually, she lost her bag, and it too had disappeared, and when she tried to go back for it, she was also shoved back.

"Where are you taking me?! Let me go home!" she growled, but now she had evidently ticked whoever this phantom was, and she was being thrown and dragged. Eventually, she started running on her own. "Fine! Fine! I'm going! What do you want from me!?"

A grey framework dug into and jutted out of the mountain, carven with intricate images. "Were… these always here?" she studied them, and went on, brushing her hands over the etchings.

Monsters and humans were divided, and one descended amongst them with wings. What was all this supposed to mean? She was shoved forward. "Okay?" she gasped, and kept walking, this time approaching a doorway she recognized. "This is from the book? But- why- why is there an actual door here?!" she was shoved forward again, and she began to scurry down the steps. They cracked and creaked beneath her, even though they were stone. She crept carefully over them, not wanting them to break, although she hurried because she didn't want to be shoved forward for going so slow… but that never happened. She followed the sloping stairs, watching as she made her way down only one side of a bowl like cavern of fair size, maybe 30 feet wide and tall. It circled around a body of clear blue water sparkling with flowers of blue petals and stalks.

The whole place whispered, as though it were some sort of resting ground, and she felt as though it would be wrong to speak, so she remained quiet. and when she reached the base of the stairs, she stepped onto a mossy ground. She stepped carefully between the flowers that were almost as big as she was, aweing at how they sparkled, and how the whisperings seemed to emanate from them. There was a massive crater in the ground in the center of the cavern.

Cautiously, Frisk came towards it, and looked down. It was dark, but there was a light from above that shone down into it, but no light struck the bottom if there was one. Hands pressed on her back, and she was being shoved forward. Her shoes dug at the edge of the crater, and rocks and dirt crumbled into the hole. "H-hey!" she waved her arms to keep from falling. "This isn't even supposed to be real!" she exclaimed on the verge of tears, deep blackness that threatened to swallow her up.

Hands clasped around her shoulders and she was unable to turn and look back. "I thought you wanted an escape from your reality? Don't you want to find your Neverland?"

"Whoa- whoa- wait! I don't want to die!" Frisk shrieked as her shoes slid over the rock, and as she fell, the wind tossed at her hair and clothes. She just kept falling and falling, and the panic of being unattached to the ground for more than a few seconds began to overwhelm her. Soon she was falling so fast, she could barely breathe through all the wind, but she didn't want to hide her face with her hands, because she wanted to be ready to catch whatever she fell into. If she survived. This was nothing like the feeling of swinging, or jumping… this was being swallowed by a vacuum, a hungry maw of darkness and death.

In moments, Frisks' screams deafened her own ears, and she was swallowed by the abyss so that all she could see was darkness, and all she could feel was the sudden catch and jerk of her body as hands caught her once again… and all was quiet, dark, and still.