Cover Art: FairyFan94 from Deviant Art
A little request to the readers: I am having trouble deciding on Charas gender, it reflects more than I like in my writing since I noticed that I often switch between she and their when I write about Chara OR Frisk. So I would like to know if you guys have a preference concering Chara? It would be nice to know what other people think about this and good for future chatpers. Unless Chara should stay genderless.
Note to the last chapter: It was supposed to be confusing, it doesn't matter if it is a good or bad kind of confusing. I also tried to correct all misstakes like missing words or grammar.
Note to this chapter: I appologize before hand if Frisk reaction seemed to be strange for some people but I am connecting it to the reason she went to Mt. Ebott and her background story I have for Frisk in this story.
Chapter 10 – A silver Key of Guilt
"WOWIE! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU MET METTATON! HUMAN YOU EVEN GOT AN AUTOGRAPH FOR ME!" Papyrus said hugging the small human child. Frisk on the other hand beamed up at him and giggled holding one of the two signed papers out to the taller skeleton.
"Come with me?" The little girl asked once Papyrus had set them down on the ground. The tall skeleton looked confused for a moment crouching down to the humans high.
"COME WITH YOU TO WHERE HUMAN?"
"MTT." Frisk said pointing at the TV. Papyrus looked at the human confused and tilted his skull to the side.
"DON'T BE SILLY HUMAN, EVEN I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, CAN'T GO INTO A TV." Sans stepped forward, chuckling lightly.
"The kiddo means that Mettaton invited them to his show." Papyrus looked at his short brother with wide eyes. "I think the kid wants you to come along."
"HUMAN!" Papyrus shot up and posed his best pose. "OF COUSE I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL COME WITH YOU!"
Sans watched how Papyrus soon scoped the child up once again spinning them around in the room. The short skeleton was slightly relieved now. Sure Alphys had told him that she would look out for the child but knowing that his brother was also going to be there, was an even greater relieve. Even though Sans, himself, was going to follow the kid anyway no matter what Alphys had said.
*clack*
Sans blinked. Papyrus and Frisk where frozen. One pair of eyes and two pairs of eye-sockets stared at the phone that lay on the floor in front of Sans. It was quite for a short while before the three burst out laughing at the fact that Papyrus had managed to spin them so much around that the phone in the childs pocket slipped out and smacked into the shorter skeletons face.
Frisk slipped out of the taller skeletons grip and walked over to the short. She stared at Sans for a while and Sans stared back grinning, ruffling the childs hair. The skeleton picked up the phone before the child could and dropped it in her hands. "It's not very phone-y to throw stuff at others kiddo."
Papyrus groaned loudly and Sans expected a giggle from Frisk but didn't hear one. Worried he looked at the child and noticed them staring at the phone in her hands. "Kiddo?"
Frisk was staring at the two keys dangling from the key chain on her phone. She knew one of them was supposed to be there. It was the one Papyrus had given her for the skeleton brothers' house for emergencies. But from where did the other key come?
Something about this key was intruding and once she had spotted it she couldn't seem to take her eyes of it. Somehow she felt like the key wasn't supposed to be on her key chain just yet. Something was telling her that she was supposed to get it much later yet it was there, hanging on the phone.
"Hey kiddo you alright?" Frisk head snapped up as Sans touched her shoulder staring at him in confusion. Papyrus frowned at the childs reaction and scoped them up in his hands staring at them intensely for minutes while Sans sweat dropped.
"HUMAN." The taller skeleton started. "I THINK IT'S TIME FOR BED."
Sans chuckled, even thought he was worried about the kid too. Watching the two the short skeleton couldn't help but wonder what made the child freeze like this. All he did was handing her phone back and telling a pun. Besides why had she stared at her phone?
Giggling and laughing was heard upstairs and Sans grinned. Whatever it was the child seemed to be better now, trust Papyrus to keep the child cheerful. The short skeleton waited for his brother to come down the stairs again. The taller skeleton looked at the shorter one and was about to tell him that Frisk was getting ready for bed but Sans was faster.
"Hey Pap. I am going shortly over to Alphys, I will be back in time later to read you two a bedtime story." Sans told his brother not waiting for an answer as he disappeared using one of his shortcuts. Papyrus only frowned. Worry was crossing his features for a moment before he shrugged and sat down on the couch going through his recorded MTT shows, trying to decide which one to watch with the child before going to bed. He was still excided that he was going to be on a show with his human friend and Mettaton.
Carefully the tall skeleton looked at each of his recoding tapes. He had various tapes, all with different shows he remembered and categorized by date and type of show. However… Papyrus was confused when he found five tapes that he couldn't remember nor categorize with any of his other recordings. He took one of the tapes and looked how he had labeled it.
"COOKING WITH A KILLER ROBOTER?" Papyrus was confused and looked at the date of the tape which confused him even more. On the tape was written, in his handwriting, that he had recorded it a few weeks ago but the skeleton couldn't remember doing that. Confused he looked closer at the label and his eyes went wide for a moment when he read the description he had put on it. Something deep within his mind and memories began to slowly surface.
Upstairs Frisk frowned as she pulled out her phone again, staring at the strange key. Something was stirring in the back of her mind and the human child didn't know if she liked it or not. A dizzy-spell was spoken over her once more and Frisk version blurred for a moment. A deja-vu kind of felling washed over the child before her surrounding became clear again.
Shaking her head Frisk glanced downstairs. The child turned around, her eyes landing on the only door where a colorful mist shined through on the bottom.
The stirring in the back of her mind got stronger and something told the child to try the strange key on this door. Confused the child tilted her head to the side. She didn't move an inch as the human kept staring at the door. She knew from Papyrus that this was Sans room.
"Try the key there…"
Frisk blinked and looked around for the owner of that voice. More confusion filled her head. Slowly and quietly she walked over to Sans door. The phone was still in her hands. Frisk eyed the strange key and slowly removed it from the chain. Holding it between her fingers the girl looked at it closer. There was nothing special, it was just an ordinary key. Slowly the human felt like she was falling in trance.
Her hand moved towards the lock, the key fit. A quiet click resounded and the door opened. Still in trance Frisk stepped into the darkness of the room, the door closing behind her.
"…light switch…"
Her hand moved to the side without her control and light blinded the child for a moment. She giggled seeing the chaos of the room and awed when she spotted the self-sustaining trash tornado.
"…the drawer…"
The giggling stopped and once again the child moved like in trance over to the drawer and opened it, staring at the silver key that lay in it. Slowly her hand reached out for it but before her finger tips touched the cold metal of the key, she froze.
"…take it…"
Frisk blinked breaking out of her trace like state and tilted her head in confusion. Why was she snooping around in Sans room? Glancing at the door the human child felt guilty and wanted to walk out but her feet wouldn't move. Frisk didn't want to be a bad girl, she didn't want the skeletons to be mad at her.
"…take it…"
Frisk shook her head. Regaining control of her feet she took a scared step back. Suddenly something dark warped around her, rooting her in place as the childs eyes went wide.
"TAKE IT!"
Scared of the voice booming in her head Frisk acted without thinking and took the key before running out of the room. She didn't stop and rushed into the bathroom shutting the door behind her loudly, her breathing heavy as she hold on tighter onto the key in her hand.
The child shut her eyes, still shaking in fear of that strange voice. A cold fear gripped her heart and Frisk felt like crying. She had done something bad. She had stolen a key from Sans room. Her eyes watered, slowly she opened her hand to look at the silver key.
'They will be mad at me…' The child thought fearful.
"HUMAN?" Papyrus voice rung through the door and Frisk jumped, fear filling them as they stared at the closed door. "HUMAN ARE YOU OKAY?"
Stepping back from the door Frisk could image the disappointment and anger the skeletons would have if they knew she took something that wasn't hers. After all these monsters were probably adults and every adult reacted the same when a child did something bad. That is what she had learned long ago.
The bathroom door opened and a worried Papyrus peeked in. Suddenly the human childs fight or flight instinct kicked in and the child dashed forward, running past Papyrus and down the stairs. She was out the door before the taller skeleton could really follow her. The skeletons eyes went wide as he hurried to follow the child but once he stepped out the door there was no sight of the child. There weren't even any helpful footprints in the snow.
"HUMAN?!" Papyrus cried out in panic his skull snapping from side to side. "HUMAN WHERE ARE YOU?!"
Not really knowing what to do Papyrus reached for his phone and did the only logical thing he knew to do… calling his brother for help.
All the while the little human child was right behind the skeletons house trying not to start crying. Guilt was consuming them and they couldn't help but fear that the skeletons wouldn't want to be her friends anymore once they found out.
Of course the child knew better than to just run out into the Underground without knowing where to go. She had learned from the last time she had run away. So Frisk wasn't going to do that once again, yet she was hiding from the tall skeleton that was calling for her and searching.
The child knew it was only a matter of time before one of the two brothers was going to find her and she feared that. How mad were they going to be? Would they tell her to leave and to never come back like her goat mother had done? Where they going to reject her like every other family had done in the orphan?
Teary eyed she stared at the silver key in her hand with hate. It was the keys fault. The child gripped it harder and stood up. Slowly her hand lifted up and she was ready to throw the key away right into the tree line and maybe even the river in the distance. But she froze in her movement as something cold and dark warped around her.
"The door."
The child glanced to the side to find a door beside them, her raised hand dropping to her side. But she refused to move. The voice in their head was causing them nothing but trouble. She was not going to listen to it, no matter how much it was going to scare her this time.
Suddenly they felt something warm next to them, replacing the cold and darkness. Their eyes went wide for a moment as there stood the older girl from her dream but she was transparent. The teenager was smiling at her, a warm feeling spread inside of the child as a transparent hand reached out to stroke her head.
"They won't be mad. There is nothing to fear for us."
Frisk blinked looking up at the transparent older girl who kept smiling. Reluctant she nodded staring down at her feet in shame. The older girl frowned a little but smiled again when she looked to the side.
"FRISK!" The childs head snapped up and she was engulfed in a hug. All Frisk saw was blue fabric and she froze.
"Kiddo, don't ever run away again… we are worried about you." The child recognized the short skeletons voice that sounded relieved. Something inside Frisk broke and she gripped onto the skeletons jacket, burring her face in his shoulder as she cried. The skeleton heard her mumbling through her sobs something about being sorry for entering his room and being a bad girl but he did not comment on it.
He was glad that Frisk was okay, yet he didn't know what he gotten into the child. It worried the short skeleton and he could see the same kind of worry in Papyrus face when he carried the child back into their home. Maybe… just maybe he and Alphys had been wrong and the child was not as fine as they thought she was after all.
The silver key, that was still in the childs possession, was forgotten in her hand.