Charatale: A Prologue: Chapter 3
You wipe your eyes on your sleeve and stand from the bench. You're sore from staying there all night, and you have to stretch before you begin to walk home. Alone. You had forgotten your stick in your haste to meet your mom at the bus stop. Normally you always kept your walking stick when you were out alone, since there was no need of it when mom was there. Walking back without it was a little disorienting, to be honest.
It… doesn't feel like anything. You do your normal routines, but there's an overlying melancholy that refuses to go away. It's not like your mom's gone forever, anyways, right? She'll be back, just not on time. So what if she's a couple days late?
You keep telling yourself this, but it doesn't seem to be helping. That confuses you. Normally any problem can be solved by keeping positive, so why is this time any different? It just doesn't make any sense. You know logically that nothing really bad could ever happen to you. Why would it? You've never done anything, so wouldn't it make sense for you to be safe from anything really bad happening?
You've already had bad things happen. Like going blind. You should be done. So therefore nothing bad has happened, now, and nothing will ever change that. So why are you still so upset? It's making you angry, now. You need to stop being such a baby!
A few days later you're listening to the TV and pouring yourself a bowl of dry cereal, since the milk had run out. You sit down at the counter to eat it, but realize that you forgot a spoon! You hop off of your stool, and hit your knee on the other one that you hadn't put away. "Ah!" You yell in surprise. You fall onto the ground, and you're pretty sure it's bleeding. Yeesh, that's not good!
You sit with your injured knee to your chest, and send your soul sensing out to see if there's anything around to help. It's starting to really hurt! You put a finger on it, and it comes off wet. Yep, you're bleeding.
There's a first aid box in a drawer on top of the counter, but to reach that you'd have to stand up. You try putting weight on the leg, but hiss in pain. It's also bruised, you're pretty sure. You carefully stand on one leg, the uninjured one, and balance. You open the drawer and pull out the box, and then sit back down on the floor.
Searching through it with your hands tells you that there's not much in it. You kind of get hurt a lot, but recently not as often. Your mom seems to have not restocked in a while.
At least there's a band-aid in here. It's one of the big square ones, so it'll probably cover your whole knee, at least the bleeding part. But aren't you supposed to wash it first, or something? You frown. That could be difficult. But if you don't, then you'll get it infected. It's worth it.
You decide to just carefully scooch around the kitchen until you're in front of the sink, and then carefully wash it, keeping hold of the band-aid the entire time. Then you stick it on, and by then the pain's died down a little bit. You think that it might be okay to walk on, now.
But for now you decide to go back to eating your cereal. You tentatively grab a spoon and sit back on top of the stool.
After a few bites you hear a knock at the door. You drop your hard-earned spoon onto the ground in surprise, and go as carefully but quickly as you can to the door. Finally! Took her long enough!
You open the door grinning. "Mom!" You say. You have no reason not to think that it's her.
"Hello, are you Fransisca?" A voice asks. That's not your mom. Your mom doesn't call you that. You can feel your face fall, as you realize that this isn't her. "I'm here to help, I'm a police officer. My name is Stephanie," The lady who isn't your mom says.
"You're a police officer?" Is all you can say in your dissapointment. "Am I in trouble?" The lady laughs.
"No, no. No one's in trouble. May I come in?" She asks. You hesitate. You aren't supposed to let anyone in, that's what mom always said. But… she's not here right now, so it might be okay?
"Yeah." You move out of the doorway, and sense the police officer enter. You gently shut the door.
"Thank you. Were you eating this?" She asks. You tilt your head, wondering what she's talking about. "The cereal?" She asks after a moment.
"Oh! Yeah." You nod, and reach out for the stool before very carefully hopping up onto it. You don't want to jostle your knee any more than is necessary. You hear the second stool scrape on the floor as the police officer sits next to you.
"No milk?" She asks. You shake your head.
"I'm out of milk," You tell her.
"Interesting," The officer mumbles, and you hear a scratching noise. It's familiar enough to know what it is.
"Are you writing this down?" You ask.
"I am. Francisca, how-" She starts to ask, but you cut her off.
"Nobody calls me that. I'm Frisk," You correct her.
"Sorry. Frisk, how long have you lived here alone?" She asks. You frown. What does she mean?
"I don't live alone. I live with my mom," You explain. What a weird question. Was that why she was here? Did someone tell her that you lived alone? That would make sense. If a kid was living on their own, then you'd want someone to come get them, too.
"Right. And where is your mother?" She asks.
"She went on a business trip. She'll be back, soon," You lie. Wait, lie? What do you mean? Do you not believe that she'll be back? ...No, of course she will, don't be silly. Stop thinking like that.
"I see. When did she leave?" The officer asks, a strange tone of disapproval in her voice. You hear her writing more things down.
"Um… Three days ago?" Has it really been that long? It felt simultaneously longer and shorter than that.
"And where did she go?"
"On a business trip! To the city on the other side of the mountain," You say. You're not sure that you liked this conversation.
"To Ebbott? That's where I'm from," She tells you. "You're sure that you don't know why she went?"
"I'm sure. Why? Is she in trouble?" You regret asking that the second it leaves your mouth. How could you ask that when you know she's fine? Nothing bad happened, remember? Are you seriously doubting that now?
The officer sighs, and doesn't talk for a little bit, like she doesn't want to say something. "Frisk, look… Your mom won't be coming back for a while."
"...What do you mean?" You ask, because you just can't find any meaning in that statement.
"I mean… Well, she's going to be gone for a long time. Too long for you to be left alone for. I'm sorry, I don't know how to put this…" She hesitates. "Well, she's not coming back. Ever. I'm sorry you had to find out this way."
"I… no, she is. Don't worry, she'll be here soon. If you just stay here, you'll see," You explain to her. You blink your eyes a few times, because it's still hard to comprehend what she's saying. Your mom… Isn't coming back? Why not? What happened?
The other stool scrapes against the floor again as the officer stands up. "I'm sorry. I've done my job here. Someone will be by to pick you up tomorrow. Goodbye, Frisk."
You're in a bit of shock. Through the buzz in your mind, you hear the front door open and shut. The officer must be gone. You sit still for a little while, trying to process what you've been told.
...Your mom can't be gone, though, remember? It's just not possible. She's in Ebbott, just over the mountain. That's not even that far away, to be honest. It's probably within walking distance.
Wait, within walking distance? That gives you an idea. You climb down from your stool and go to the front door, finding your walking stick standing next to it.
You leave your house, and start walking to the bus stop at the base of the mountain. It's a long walk, and you can feel the sunlight gradually fading, even though your watch tells you that it's only three in the afternoon.
There's a slight chill in the air, and a few unseasonal breezes flow through the air. It's quieter than normal. A few raindrops begin to fall, explaining the lack of sunlight.
But despite everything, you're going to go and find your mom. Even if that means climbing the mountain in the rain.
Halfway there you start thinking, instead of focusing on walking. What are you doing? Where are you going? To the mountain? ...You've never been to the mountain, and the closest you've ever gotten was the bus stop at the base. You figure if you just follow the road that the bus takes, it'll take you over the mountain. That makes sense, right?
You're not sure if you're thinking clearly, or rationally. You're not sure if you've been really thinking at all over the past couple days. Alright, let's look at it logically, then. Your mom didn't come back, and hasn't come back yet. Why is that?
Your walk continues down the road, until you're sure that you're on the mountain and heading up. It keeps getting colder. You almost trip over a rock, but your walking stick catches you. You grimace, not needing any more scrapes or bruises. You feel a couple of raindrops, so you send your soul sensing out to look for shelter. Luckily, there's a cave nearby. You go off the road and head towards that.
You are positive that she loves you. She always takes care of you and stresses over you, so she probably didn't leave you, right? Unless… She got tired of always focusing all of her attention on you. Maybe she thought of you as more of a liability. Could that be it?
...No. Your mom is a good person. She wouldn't do that without any warning. So what happened? The police officer said that she wasn't going to be back for a while. Or, ever, in fact. She… She couldn't be… dead, could she? You shudder at the thought, and your mind vehemently rejects it. But you have to start considering the possibility, right? And other things could have happened, too… None of them good.
You enter the cave and sit down on a log your stick hits and take a deep breath. Now that the thought has entered your head… You can't stop thinking about it. She wouldn't leave you if something terrible hadn't happened.
You sniff, and wipe your face on your sleeve again. You haven't changed out of your pajamas since she left. They probably smell terrible and look dirty, but you don't care about that at all right now. Your mom would have yelled at you to wash them by now…
You can't help it, anymore. Once tears start flowing, they don't stop easily. You bury your face in your sleeves as your shoulders shake.
As the shaking and sniffing subsides a little while later, you take a deep breath and stand up slowly. While you were thinking so hard, you kind of lost track of where you were. What happened to the road? You don't even really remember how far you went.
That doesn't matter anymore though, because you can hear the rain pounding down on the ground outside of your little cave. It looks like you won't be able to leave for a little while.
As you take a step from the log, your foot hits something and hear your walking stick clatter to the ground from where it was leaning. You can hear it roll a little bit, and so you sigh. You slump down to your knees to search for it on the ground, but it doesn't seem to be in your immediate vicinity. You crawl a little more, and still don't find it. Where did it go?
You slowly move deeper into the cave, until you take a step forwards and your hand doesn't land on solid ground. You tumble forwards, too late to catch yourself, and fall.
You hit the ground pretty hard, and feel your consciousness slipping away. You flop your hand as your last move, and feel your stick laying next to you. You guess one thing went well today, you found your stick.
And then, you're pretty sure, you die.
100-ish years prior…
To be honest, I don't really regret killing my mother. I'm probably better off without her, really. But I feel a little horrible thinking that. ...Well, I'm over it. She didn't care about me, and the feeling's mutual.
Someone who really cares about my actions, however, is my father. And literally everyone else at this stupid party. I turn from the railing to face the glass door, and find several people staring at me with wide, horrified eyes.
I wince. That's not going to be fun to deal with. But there's no time like the present, right? I cautiously slide open the door, and walk inside. Everyone who saw is too shocked to move. I walk around them, and decide that I'd better start moving towards the exit. I don't want to deal with my father, right now or ever, really. But especially not right now.
And yet. Life seems to hate me. People finally start to move again, and rush past me to get to the balcony. I keep walking, slowly. Moving too fast would only draw more attention. Finally my father arrives and sees me, and automatically starts blaming me.
"What did you do?" He asks angrily, glaring at me as he heads to the balcony. "Don't give me that look, I know you did something!" I continue to walk away. I don't want to deal with this.
I've always kept a backup plan for running away, just in case. It's not much of a plan, though, to be honest. I've heard that on the other side of the mountain there used to be a small village, but it was destroyed several centuries ago, just ruins now. Or so I've heard. I've never been there. For all the wealth my family has, we've never really traveled. I'm fine with that, I'd rather stay where I knew and could expect what would happen at any given time.
I figure that this act will be what sent my life over the edge. I won't be welcome in my own home ever again, that's for sure. I'll have to count my losses of my sketchbook, which is unfortunate seeing as my father will probably burn it. But I can't go back and take my things before I leave for good, so I'll just have to make peace with that.
I'm a few feet away from the doors when somebody finally notices what I'm doing. "Hey! Where are you going!?" A man I don't know asks, turning from the glass door to yell across the room. I wince. "Did you do this?" He accuses.
"He did! I saw it, he pushed her!" A woman says. More people turn, including my father, who looks furious. It's the most emotion I've seen on him in years. More people start yelling, more than I can keep track of, and some start to move towards me. I can't have anyone stopping me, so I run the few more feet to the door, and shove it open.
"Get back here, demon!" Someone yells. I guess they're right calling me a demon. What other kid can actually time travel? What other kid is immune to death? Only a demon could kill without remorse. I come to the split between going down the elevator or the stairs, and decide on the elevator. I'll be safe in there, and there's less running. I'll need to run more later, so it's best to save my energy for now.
I call the elevator, which is conveniently already on this floor because of all the guests, and dart inside. I press the 'close doors' button as fast as possible, and see someone come out of the penthouse apartment as the doors slide shut.
The elevator ride is a little agonizing, but at least I feel safe for the moment. The people in there all surely want revenge, and that definitely doesn't mean well for me.
The elevator arrives at the ground floor finally, and I race past the confused desk secretary and out of the building. Luckily the balcony was on the other side of the building, and it's unlikely that I'll have to face my mother's body. The bad part: there's already police on the scene.
I have to duck past a couple that are approaching the door, but I slow to a walk to avoid suspicion. If I run, they'll chase me. I'm too young to to go jail. They don't even notice me. Score one for Chara. ...I'm not really sure about that name, to be honest. It could be short for Charles if you stretched it, but I don't think that I could convince anyone to call me that. It sounds to feminine, but that's kind of what I liked about it?
Anyways, I'm on the run. I probably shouldn't space out and forget that, anymore. I look nervously around the neighborhood, it's not one that I recognize. It's a rich neighborhood, that's plain to see, with all of the luxury apartment buildings around and the reasonably sized park in the center of it all. There's only a few trees there, but that might be a good place for me to hide out for a bit. I know that I won't be able to avoid the police forever.
I go into the little park and crouch next to some bushes. It's almost 9 at night, so it's pretty dark and my chances of being seen are slim. That's good, better to hide. I glance around nervously, there's a lot of police cars here by now. They're going to be looking for someone, and, after they talk to the party guests, they're going to be looking for me specifically. Maybe now's not the time to hide and I should get as far away as I can while I can.
Having made a decision, I stand up carefully and start walking quickly away from the scene of the crime. It seems that no one's noticed me yet, but it's only a matter of seconds before someone does.
I make it to the edge of the neighborhood of apartment buildings, and round the corner. From there, out of sight from the police and anyone else, I start to run down the sidewalk. The street's a little busy, nothing like rush hour, but no one seems to think that it's weird to see a child sprinting alongside the road.
Finally I'm a few streets down, away from it all. I look around and find I've been heading towards the mountain, which is odd. I hadn't made that decision consciously, but now that I think about it… Where else could I go? No place would ever take me in, no human could ever be that kind. There's really no place for me in this world anymore. Never was, honestly.
The thought darkens my mood. I don't belong anywhere, so maybe it'd be best to just… Disappear.
I continue walking, now with a vague destination in mind. Thunder sounds overhead, and I glance up nervously. It hadn't been that cloudy today, so this was a little strange. Then again, there was already nothing normal about this night. I had sensed it all day, a feeling that I couldn't quite name.
Finally I arrive at the base of the mountain. There's a faint dirt road going up it, but it's overgrown with grass and almost swallowed completely by the woods. I look at it cautiously, and keep going up. I almost can't see anything, with how dark it's getting. I wish I had a flashlight.
Then it finally begins to gently rain. The woods don't provide nearly enough cover, so I start moving faster. With luck, I can find something before the rain gets too heavy. I don't enjoy being soaked.
A mile or so in, I realize that I've severely miscalculated the distance and size of the mountain. It's much larger, and much taller than I'd thought. I'm out of breath by now, too, and the rain's only gotten harder. Yes, this giant mountain could be the perfect place to get lost on.
But now I start looking around for shelter, and in a flash of lightning see a cave entrance. I briefly wonder if there might be bears in there before another bang of thunder sends me dashing inside.
At least it's drier in here. I may want to die, but I don't want to be a soggy mess when it happens. I still have some sense of decorum. I sit on the floor, not bothering to keep my clothes clean anymore, and debate just sleeping in here for the night, and possibly the rest of my life. That sounds like a good idea, if you ask me. And I am asking me, so I guess I've made my bed for now. I would gather leaves and such, but everything outside of the cave is too wet to really use, so I'll just sleep on the ground. It's not the expensive, comfy bed that my mother tried to bribe me with to be a better child, but it's something.
I drift off to sleep pretty easily, all things considered. None of my actions seem to be 'keeping me up at night,' as people say. I guess they got it wrong. Or I'm just wrong. What was the word that one lady had used? Right, a demon. I'm probably just a demon.
The next morning I awake to sunshine and birds. The rain's stopped, and being a midsummer morning, it's already warm out. I still feel hollow. I've felt that way for years, but now… There's nothing to distract myself with. I look blankly outside the cave, and feel a sense of relief realizing that I have no idea where I am. If I don't know, then nobody knows. I smile.
I turn and look deeper into the cave. It doesn't go too far back, but it's far enough that it warrants some exploring. If I can see right, then it takes a turn or two the further from the entrance you get. There's gotta be something in here, right? A bear, maybe? Wolves?
I wander forwards some more, and almost fall before catching myself and taking a step back. I look at the ground in front of me and find that there is no ground. There's a huge hole, right in front of me.
Curious, I search for a rock to throw in, and see if I can hear it hit the bottom even though I can't see the bottom. I find a good sized rock and toss it in. I wait, but I don't hear a sound. It's a pretty deep hole, then.
Well then. It's now or never, I guess. I stand back up, and take a deep breath. I feel strangely calm, compared to what I've read about people crying when confronted with death. I feel more… comforted, than confronted.
I inch closer to the edge of the hole, and stretch my arms out for dramatic effect, and fall forwards.
I wake up. This is unexpected, to say the least. I blink, and see something blurry a little far off. The world sadly shifts into focus, and everything hurts. I'm laying on my stomach on the ground, and there's some dim sunlight shining on me. Ugh. This isn't what was supposed to happen.
"It sounded like it came from over here…" The blurry thing gets closer, not quite in enough light to see. "Oh! You've fallen down, haven't you?" Something asks. I look back up and see that the blurry thing is now closer and less blurry, but no less confusing. It's white, but not in skin color. In… fur color? It's covered head to toe in white fur, and it has long ears. Almost like a goat. My brain hurts, and I wonder if I'm dead after all.
I don't respond to it, of course. I just stare cautiously, and don't make any movements.
"Are you okay?" The goat thing asks. I don't know the answer to that. That fall was supposed to kill me, so if I'm not dead, there's a big chance that I'm close enough that I won't be able to move. This, obviously, is a worse fate. Especially if the goat thing is hostile. It hesitantly comes closer, and leans over me. "Here, get up…" It gently helps me to my feet, and pulls one of my arms over its shoulders. "What's your name?" It asks.
It's then that I notice I'm bleeding a little. Especially my hands, from instinctively trying to break my fall. I bend back down, and the goat thing lets me, and I use some of the blood to write on the ground. It watches in curiosity, trying to read what I've written. It's not my best handwriting.
"...Chara, huh?" It asks, pronouncing it differently than I normally do. But that's fine, and it's not like I could correct it anyway, so I nod. "That's a nice name. My name is Asriel," It says, pulling me back upright. Well, that sounds masculine, so… He.
"So… do you talk?" Asriel asks awkwardly. I shake my head carefully, trying to ignore the monster headache I feel. "Do you speak in hands?" He asks. I look at him in confusion. "Oh, here, I'll show you. Can you balance for a second?" I nod. He unwraps my arm from his shoulders, and makes sure that I can balance before stepping away. He motions with his hands, making weird gestures and signs, but I can gather that it's sign language. I had never learned it, since my parents didn't think it was necessary.
I shake my head at Asriel. His face falls a bit, but then brightens again. "That's alright!" He says, putting my arm back around his shoulders. "I know someone who can teach you! He taught me and my parents, and most monsters. He can't speak, either!" Monsters? Is that what these are? Where am I? I frown, but nod.
"Asriel!" Another voice says sharply. Another, taller, goat creature steps into view, and then gasps. "Asriel, what is this?" She asks. At least, she sounds and looks very feminine. But neither of these two are humans, so who can say for sure? I kind of wish that I could ask.
"I found them! I think they fell!" Asriel explains. The older goat lady gives me a calculating look.
"Asriel, that's a human," She says. I can feel Asriel jump a little bit.
"A human? Their name is Chara," He says uncertainty.
"Yes, well… Chara is a human," She explains, then frowns. "Though I suppose it would be impossible to return them… And if we did we might lose an advantage…" She mutters, seemingly to herself. I frown as well. Advantage? "Alright, we'll take them back home," The goat lady decides.
"Good. Chara, you'll live with us, now!" Asriel says excitedly. The older one, the one I'm going to guess to be his mother, leads the way out of the area where I fell. Asriel helps me along excitedly, and I guess… They seemed nice enough. Not dying couldn't be all that bad, right?
A long time ago, two races ruled peacefully over the Earth: HUMANS and MONSTERS. One day, a terrible war broke out between the two races. After a long battle, the humans were victorious. They sealed the monsters underground with a magical spell.
In the year [REDACTED], a small child scales Mt. Ebott. It is said that those who climb the mountain never return.
Seeking refuge from the rainy weather, the child enters a cave and discovers an enormous hole.
Moving closer 'to get a better look'... the child 'falls' in.
Now, our stories begin.
A/N: Extra long chapter for the finale! This was... Surprisingly difficult to write, especially considering I wrote the first chapter in one day. I'm not good at emotional things or sad things at all, so I hope that I did alright? If I didn't, I'd really appreciate it if you could tell me how to do it better! I'm always looking to improve my writing!