Chapter 23: Arial's jealousy
Occasionally Arial would drop in with a tray of snacks and coffee. Most of Dr Aster's time was in the lab and she was beginning to suspect he was cheating on her. One day Arial had peered in the lab and noticed Alphys and her husband sitting very close together.
He handed her a vial of red substance, his fingers brushing against hers.
She flinched.
"Uh sorry. I-I am so clumsy," she said, chuckling nervously.
Arial fumed.
One day Sans had come home after picking up Papyrus from school and caught her outside the lab.
"Mom, what are you doing?"
Arial backed away from the door as if it scalded her.
She let out a strained chuckle.
"Nothing. I assume you've picked up Papyrus from school?"
"HEY MOM, DID YOU FIX SPAGHETTI AGAIN? I CAN'T FIND ANY LEFTOVERS IN THE FRIDGE."
"Whoops. I knew I forgot something."
She cringed before she ran in a panic towards the kitchen.
Sans sighed before he peered into the lab after hearing laughter coming from inside.
He saw Alphys and his father talking at the table.
'What are they doing?' he thought curiously.
"Are you alright? You ought to be more careful or you might get severely injured."
Sans saw his father wrapping a bandage around Alphys' hand. Alphys looked extremely red in the face noticably avoiding his eyes.
When Arial had finally finished cooking dinner, Alphys and Aster joined with Papyrus and Sans who were seated at the table.
"Er...Arial can you pass me the salt?"
"I'd have thought you'd prefer hot sauce since it's become so chili in here," Arial said, coolly.
The air was frigid. Even Sans and Papyrus' expressions were cold.
"Come on lighten up it's hard to eat when everyone's in a frosty mood."
Still the atmosphere didn't fade.
Suzy sighed and put her empty plate in the sink before leaving the kitchen.
Alphys followed her to the guest room, leaving her unfinished plate on the table.
She knocked on Suzy's door.
"Come in," she said.
Alphys shuffled inside closing the door behind her.
"What's going on?"
"So you noticed," Suzy said.
"How could I not?"
"Do you know why they giving you those deadly looks?"
"No idea."
"The only thing I could see is that their mother is jealous but I've been here plenty of times. It was never a big issue."
Suzy chuckled.
"That's because Arial tends to look herself in the bathroom when she's stressed. Odds are they haven't taken a shower in weeks."
"That does shed the light on a couple of things. Maybe I should take a break. Y'know I haven't shown you my place yet, have I?
"No you haven't. Maybe we could go right now. This atmosphere is a little too suffocating for my liking."
The two headed out meeting Arial on the way.
"I'm headin' out with Alphys. I'll be back before bedtime."
Arial's smile twitched.
"I hope you have a good time, dear."
It wasn't long before the two had arrived in Waterfall. Alphys' house was near the dump.
The inside of her place was cluttered full of bottlecaps, flags and posters of anime. There was one chest on the right that had a padlock on it.
"Wow, where'd you find all this?" Suzy asked.
"It was in the dump."
"Wow I knew humans were wasteful but not this much."
"There's something else I wanna show you."
Alphys took Suzy to an ice chest and opened it.
"What are these?"
"These are Astro bars. They work alot like monster food except this chest keeps refilling itself. It wasn't functioning this good before. It was only freezing food."
Suzy picked one up.
"What are these made of?"
She looked at the packaging ingredients.
"Astroberries? I've heard of it, my parents told me it was a fruit grown on the surface through genetic engineering."
"Your parents must be smart."
Suzy snorted.
"If they were smart they wouldn't treat me like such a baby."
A couple of days later Suzy had packed some astro food she had got from Alphys in her bag before knocking on Sans' door.
"Are you ready to go?"
"Sure, have you woke Papyrus?"
"Working on it."
She knocked on Papyrus' door.
"Rise and shine."
Papyrus answered the door.
"WOW YOU TWO ARE UP EARLY, I'M ALREADY READY TO GO."
He had a backpack slung over his back and the two stopped by Waterfall to pick up Skelesus. Napstablook was cleaning it's bones when they arrived.
"oh did you need to borrow the horse?" he asked.
Both skeletons hid behind Suzy.
"What are you two doing?" Suzy asked.
"Well talk to it," Sans said.
"You are the one who wants to borrow him."
"i'm sorry did i scare you two?"
Suzy felt their bones rattle behind her.
"So you're scared of ghosts, huh?"
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"I'M SCARED PLEASE HOLD ME."
"it's all my fault. i'm sorry for scaring you."
Suzy snorted.
"It's alright. It's not their fault. So can we borrow the horse?"
Napstablook opened the gate of the stable, pulling Skelesus out of their pin.
"take good care of them."
Sans took a saddle off of the fence, placed it on their back and hopped on.
"You're gonna ride on that?" Suzy asked. "Can't you just teleport?"
"I haven't tried teleportation with two people and I don't wanna risk it. Papyrus are you coming?"
Papyrus nodded and tried to climb on the horse's back but he slipped and fell to the ground.
Suzy chuckled heartily.
"Ah Pap, you fowled it up."
"NOT FUNNY, BROTHER."
"Well you don't want to be 'horsing' around, we don't want to keep them waitin'."
Papyrus sighed before he got up and dusted himself off.
"DON'T BOTHER, I'M WALKING."
Suzy walked closer to the horse and Sans pulled her up.
She sat in front of Sans.
"Hold on tight."
"To what?"
"The vertebra should be good. Giddyup."
The horse trotted away leaving Papyrus in the dust. Once they arrived at Clam's house, Sans knocked on the door.
A monster that looked like Clam answered the door. Their shell was orange.
"Excuse me, did you need something?" They asked.
"We were told to meet up with Clam," Suzy said.
"Hold on a minute," they said before they headed back inside. Minutes later the monster returned with Clam.
"Oh Sans, Suzy, you're both here. Thank goodness I thought you'd bail on me. Follow me."
Sans and Suzy followed him outside a large factory. The door was barred by a large lock.
"This is it."
Clam fished out his keys and unlocked the door.
"WAIT!"
Suzy turned just as Papyrus was just catching up to them. He looked exhausted and nearly out of breath.
"That has to be a new record, bro."
Clam opened the door and the four headed inside. A red light reflected on the ceiling pipes. None of it's light could be seen from the bottom where it was shrouded in darkness.
Stil the light from the ceiling was bright enough so that they could see the path.
"Hahahahaha."
Laughter echoed through the walls.
"Wha-What was that?" Sans stammered.
Suzy turned and saw him shivering looking around restlessly.
"SANS ARE YOU ALRIGHT? YOU LOOK A LITTLE SPOOKED," Papyrus said.
Sans chuckled nervously.
"Who me? I think you got it backwards. I'm a skeleton. Usually little kids are scared of me. I'm not spooked just caught off guard that's all."
The four walked deeper in the factory coming across a door at the end of a long hallway. The path split to the left and right.
"What's that room lead to?" Suzy asked.
Clam let out a strained chuckle.
"Nowhere, I was told never to go in there. Some of the workers went inside but I've heard none of them returned."
"NONE?"
"None."
Papyrus gulped.
Sans shrugged.
"I'd try to offer any reassurance but you know I'm not good at that sort of thing."
"Ah," Suzy said. "It can't be that bad."
Before anyone could stop her, Suzy opened the door and headed inside.
"WAIT!"
"Don't do it, kid."
The two skeletons lunged for the door however it closed before they could stop it.
Sans tried to open the door.
"It's locked."
"I knew this was a bad idea," Clam said.
"She's not dead yet," Sans said.
Five minutes passed before they heard a loud shriek.
"Oh dear."
"Is there any way to bust the door? We can't just let her die in there."
Clam shook his head.
"My dad made it magic proof."
Suddenly they heard something smack the door and there was something that squeaked.
The two skeletons took a step back from the door.
Suddenly the door opened, creaking very loudly.
"Wait," Clam said. "Wasn't the door supposed to be locked?"
Loud laughter echoed through the factory.
"Boo!"
Sans jumped behind Papyrus. Suzy laughed.
"You should have seen your faces, you all were totally spooked."
Sans and Papyrus looked on with their mouths agape.
"Relax there's nothing. It's just an empty room with a hammer, an axe, a chainsaw and a puddle of blood."
No one noticed how spooky that sounded as the same bonechilling laughter from earlier blazed through the air.
"So you came back. I knew you would. I'd never forget the monster who stole from me."
The sound of laughter was eerily close to Suzy's ear.
She turned and saw a spider with curly blonde hair that reached past her shoulders. The spider also wore a blue frilly dress and brown boots. Her body was see through.
"You're a spider."
"Yes, that is obvious."
"Why are you here? Your body is see through too. Are you a ghost?"
"You don't look like the monster who stole it. I'll tell you. I'm no ghost at least not entirely. Something was stolen from me. They're other monsters here also looking for the things that this monster took from us. Many want revenge. I simply want my possessions returned."
"What was stolen?" Suzy asked.
"A gold ring with a ruby stone and a silver ring with a sapphire stone. I was supposed to save them for a marriage with my best friend's daughter."
"Oh."
The spider's eight eyes lit up at the sight of something around Suzy's neck.
"What's that trinket around your neck?"
"You mean this?"
Suzy pulled out a red heart shaped locket from under her top.
Sans glanced at it in shock.
"Kid, where did ya get that?"
The spider looked at it, eyes filled with awe.
"What a beautiful locket? I must have it."
"Not so fast," Suzy said. "This was my mother's. I can't just part with it."
"I'm sorry but I find it hard to take 'no' for an answer."
Suddenly webs shot from her hands binding all four of them.
"Oh don't look so blue. When you find my loot, I've give back your precious locket."
Just then a bone cut through their bindings. Suzy struggled to get herself loose. Unfortunately Suzy had never leared any control over her magic so she couldn't just free himself with magic.
The spider reached for her locket but a bone blocked her path.
"What?"
"I won't let you get it that easily."
Suzy conjured a red flame in her hands and shoved it in the spider's direction. The spider screamed before she disappeared.
"Wow amazing How did you get free? That must have took tremendous practise to control your magic like that," Clam said.
Suzy sighed.
"It wasn't me. I might know a lot of magic but my parents say I lack control."
She glanced at Sans and Papyrus and wondered who had saved her.
Just as she was about to ask a mouth of sharp fangs dug into her side.
"YOU!"
Suzy gasped.
"Foolish simply foolish. You think a little fire is gonna work on me? I'm only part spider and entirely ghost."
She felt something bitter in the back of her throat and coughed. Something splattered on the ground.
"WHAT IS THAT?" Papyrus asked.
"Is that blood?" Sans asked.
"SUZY!"
Papyrus ran to Suzy's side as she collapsed.