Cover Art: FairyFan94 from Deviant Art
Chapter 16 – Load, Repeat, Continue…
Sans eye-sockets snapped open. He sat up and looked around. He noticed that he had lain on the mattress of his room. His hands were shaking when he looked at them before he buried his face in them.
"A nightmare." Sans mumbled weakly.
"A… nightmare…" Sans repeated this time more slowly and confused. Looking up he looked around his room in confusion. Something… something wasn't right.
"GAAAAAAH DON'T LET IT ESCAPE!" Papyrus enraged yell rung through the whole house.
Hurried Sans jumped out of his bed and was out of his room only to chuckle. Slowly he went down the stairs watching how Papyrus and Frisk were playing tug of war with a certain annoying dog.
"SANS! DO SOMETHING TOO!" Papyrus shouted, holding on to Frisk.
"Howl should I help bro?" The short skeleton asked his brother before seating himself on the couch to watch them.
"SANS!" Papyrus shouted clearly not pleased with his shorter brother who only chuckled. The taller skeleton would storm up to the shorter one if he weren't holding on to the little human to get the bone back from the dog.
Sans chuckled more as he watch them. Frisk was laughing and smiling and looked like she had a lot of fun. The short skeleton was thankful for that. After all, the Mettaton incident was just a day ago and it had taken them a lot of time to convince the child that the robot was really fine. In the end Alphys had to recharge Mettatons battery and have the robot tell the child that he was really fine for Frisk to fully believe them.
The game of tug of war kept going in the living room once Papyrus also got a hold of the bone and the little human child. But with all three refusing to let go of the bone… it was going to be an endless game.
The short skeleton hoped off the couch deciding that maybe he should help them to win against the dog after all. Though… the dog suddenly let go of the bone, Sans blinked. A crash was heard and he turned to see that Papyrus and Frisk had crashed against the wall. The taller skeletons head was now sticking through the painting, disturbing the picture it held. Papyrus was already glaring at him like he knew what was on the short skeletons mind.
"SANS! DON'T YOU DARE"
"It looks like…"
"I AM WARNING YOU BROTHER!"
"It didn't go as you pictured it."
"SAAAAANS! WE DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR YOUR AWFUL PUNS!" Papyrus shot up, his hand resting on his hip bones as he glared down at his brother. "LOOK AT ALL THE CHAOS THIS ANNOYING DOG CAUSED!"
"Oh come on Pap." Sans grinned wider as he looked up to see a giggling Frisk. "Look the kid got the right idea so cheer up bro."
"NYEH?" Papyrus looked up and saw Frisk in the air, only now he noticed that he had thrown Frisk up when he stood to yell at his brother.
"Don't worry I got it." Sans chuckled stopping the taller skeleton from going into panic when he snapped his fingers. He levitated the girl back down to the ground. The smaller skeleton grinned when Frisk laughed like nothing happened and hugged him. Before holding the bone, she still had, out to Papyrus.
"Whelp, how about …"
"Breakfast!" The short skeleton blinked once again before he looked at the human child grinning at him and Papyrus. He chuckled as he ruffled Frisk hair. "The kid got the right idea again."
Papyrus took the bone from the child and smiled brightly. "OF COURSE I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS PREPARED THE GREATEST BREAKFAST BEFORE THAT DOG APPEARED!" he muttered the last part.
The short skeleton chuckled when Papyrus picked the two up and seated them on the table before disappearing into the kitchen to get their breakfast. Sans turned to look at the child that was seated opposite him. He grinned. He was about to say something when…
"So cool!" Frisk smiled brightly. Sans raised an eye-brow but shrugged it off grinning. Frisk stared at him for a while longer, seemingly thinking deeply about something.
"Something wrong, kiddo?" The short skeleton asked but Frisk shook her head and smiled brightly at him. She cheered happily when Papyrus came back with their breakfast from the kitchen. Sans chuckle a little.
A feeling of déjà vu hit Sans out of nowhere as he watched the child interact with his brother over breakfast. The skeleton shook his skull. He was probably imaging it.
.
.
.
.
.
Sans eye-sockets snapped open. He sat up and looked around. He noticed that he had lain on the mattress of his room.
"A… nightmare…" Sans muttered unsure. Something wasn't right.
"GAAAAAAH DON'T LET IT ESCAPE!" Papyrus enraged yell rung through the whole house.
Hurried Sans jumped out of his bed and was out of his room where he stopped confused. Slowly he went down the stairs watching how Frisk was playing tug of war with a certain annoying dog.
"SANS! DO SOMETHING TOO!" Papyrus shouted from the kitchen.
"Howl should I help bro?" The short skeleton asked, his eyes-lights never stopping in watching the child.
"SANS!" Papyrus shouted clearly not pleased with his shorter brother who only chuckled.
Sans chuckled more as he watch them. Frisk was laughing and smiling and looked like she had a lot of fun. The short skeleton was thankful for that. After all, the Mettaton incident was just a day ago… wait… was that really just a day ago?
The game of tug of war kept going in the living room once Papyrus also got a hold of the bone and the little human child. But with all three refusing now holding onto the bone… it was going end pretty messy
Sans let out a mute sigh, feeling like he knew what was going to happen when he closed his eye-sockets. A crash was heard and he opened them to see that Papyrus and Frisk had crashed against the wall, his head sticking through the painting, disturbing the picture it held. Papyrus was already glaring at him like he knew what was on the short skeletons mind.
"SANS! DON'T YOU DARE"
"It looks like…"
"I AM WARNING YOU BROTHER!"
"It didn't go as you pictured it."
"SAAAAANS! WE DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR YOUR AWFUL PUNS!" Papyrus shot up, his hand resting on his hip bones as he glared down at his brother. "LOOK AT ALL THE CHAOS THIS ANNOYING DOG CAUSED!"
"Oh come on Pap." Sans grinned wider but stopped whatever he wanted to say. The feeling of déjá vu hit him as he snapped his left bone fingers.
"NYEH?" Papyrus looked up at his brother confused before noticing that he was no longer holding the child but a bone. The taller skeleton was about to look around panicked when he heard his brother.
"Don't worry I got it floating." Sans chuckled stopping the taller skeleton from going into panic when he levitated the girl back down to the ground. The smaller skeleton grinned when Frisk laughed like nothing happened and hugged him, yet a weird feeling filled his mind.
"Breakfast!" The short skeleton raised a skeleton eyebrow as he looked at the human child grinning at him and Papyrus. He chuckled as he ruffled Frisk hair. "The kid got the right idea."
Papyrus took the bone from the child and smiled brightly. He picked the two up and seated them on the table before disappearing into the kitchen to get their breakfast. "OF COURSE I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS PREPARED THE GREATEST BREAKFAST BEFORE THAT DOG APPEARED!"
"So cool!" Frisk smiled brightly. Sans felt weird again but he shrugged it off grinning. She looked at him for a while longer, seemingly thinking deeply about something. A small smile appeared on her face. She cheered happily when Papyrus came back with their breakfast from the kitchen.
Sans just watched her wondering what was going on in the human childs mind.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Sans eye-sockets snapped open a fourth time. He narrowed his eye-sockets and stared at the ceiling of his room. Slowly the skeleton sat up, his right eye started to dip into a light blue color. He waited.
Papyrus yell would echo through the house any second now…
…but it never came.
The light disappeared from his eye-sockets as he got off his bed and walked out of his room. Going down the stairs he saw how Frisk sat on the floor of the living room playing with the annoying dog and a bone like nothing happened.
"SANS!" The short skeletons skull snapped to the side, lights returning to his eye-sockets. Papyrus stood there his hand resting on his hip bones as he eyed the shorter skeleton. "FINALLY YOU ARE AWAKE BROTHER! IT IS TIME FOR BREAKFAST! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WAS AFRAID I WOULD HAVE TO GO AND WAKE YOU UP!"
Sans chuckled, it was fake. He stuffed his hand in his pockets and shook his skull. "Sorry bro, there is something I have to take care off."
From the corner of his eye-sockets he noticed how Frisk looked up from the dog and stared at him. Worry lay in her eyes but Sans wasn't sure how to react to it. The lights in his eye-sockets turned back to his brother.
"Keep an eye on the kid for me." He winked and disappeared through a shortcut. Not seeing how red flashed just for a second in the human childs eyes.
Appearing in his laboratory he was going to question the golden flower named Flowey. His right eye was glowing blue but… the flower was not acting the way he expected it. The skeleton blinked as he saw that shivering mess that tried to make himself smaller as he already was.
"What the…" Sans blinked the blue light disappearing once again as he stepped closer to the shelf. Flowey looked up and the short skeleton was even more shocked to see him do something akin to cry. Muffled noises were heard through the tape that was still glued to the flowers face. Sans reached forward, his hand stopped inches before the tape, hesitating for a moment, before he ripped it off.
.
.
.
.
"LET ME GO!" He watched sadly how the transparent older girl struggled against his hold. The other child was hiding behind him the black chain still binding them to him. Fading marks of cracks appeared on the transparent girl.
"I NEED TO RETURN!" The girl yelled once more, trying to yank her wrist free from him but he only shook what seems to be his head. Tears started to roll down the girls' cheeks as she turned away from him shouting into the nothingness that surrounded them.
"SANS! PAPYRUS! UNDYNE! ALPHYS! MOM! DAD!" Her free hand reached forward fading more and more the further she reached but he yanked her back once more. The fading marks became deeper the more desperate she became, tinting her from in black cracks
"I NEED TO HELP THEM!" She yelled a last time before turning back into a transparent soul that he held tightly between what were supposed to be his hands. The transparent soul shook, tinted in black cracks.
The other child clung to his back, holding on to him for comfort. They didn't like seeing the older girl like this. She wasn't supposed to be like this. She wasn't supposed to be more than just memories. He didn't like it, if it continued… He needed to do something!
.
.
.
.
Dust.
There was yelling. But everything was black, her determination was getting unstable.
Dust.
The blackness was quiet again. Then a familiar voice calling her, she didn't want it to get any closer.
More dust.
The familiar voice grew louder. It sounded desperate. She wanted to scream at him to go, to leave her alone and to run away.
More dust.
More voices came, all familiar to her. No! She didn't want them to come any closer. She wanted to save them but everything around her was black and she had no control of her body.
Melting.
Dust and melting.
Everything was quiet again, an eerie silence. She wanted to cry. This wasn't supposed to happen.
She felt something a shimmer of hope and the world around her no longer was black. But… she looked down.
A red scarf and dust, so so much dust.
The air was filled with dust and there on the ground laid a red scarf.
She blinked and took a scared step back. Fear overcoming her as she stared at the dust before and around her. Frisk didn't know what happened all she knew was that she had been playing with the dog and now… she was suddenly standing here surrounded by dust and this scarily familiar red scarf that once was like a cape for its proud owner.
The knife, she didn't even know she was holding, fell with an echoing clank onto the ground. Tears welled up in her eyes and she shook her head, refusing to believe what just happened. There was no way she was cable of harming her friends.
"What a bad child you are."
Frisk trembled and fell to her knees. She made herself as small as she could, her eyes pressed shut and hands covering her ears. This wasn't supposed to happen. How did she even get that knife in the first place?
"They hate you and now they got what they deserve"
She shook her head violently, refusing to listen to the voice. Darkness warped around her, making her feel more cold and numb with every passing second. It wasn't her that did this. It was the owner of the voice.
"Oh? Blaming me now?"
Fear tore its cold fangs into Frisk soul and she felt like she was slowly losing more and more of herself. Sobs echoed, tears feel onto the dusted ground. She cried, cried for every monster that was turned to dust, for every time she tried and failed, for every live lost to these dusted hands.
"Just let me continue and there will be no more pain for you."
The world became black around Frisk again. Slowly she looked up to see something shining before her. Familiar letters were glowing brightly in the darkness that surrounded her.
Frisk LV1 327:33
Snowdin – Papyrus' kitchen
Load
With shaking legs she stood up. Sniffling Frisk wiped away her tears and felt disgusted seeing all that dust on her. She was not going to give up. Maybe she was in pain, but her pain was nothing compared to the pain her friends must feel. She just needed to make thing better this time.
"The outcome won't be different. I proved that to you, didn't I?"
Frisk shook her head reaching out to the glowing words. Trying to ignore the voice in her… the girls head snapped to the side staring at the child that stood next to her with a wicked smile.
"Ha? Finally noticed I am next to you?"
A cold shiver run down her back as she stared at a seemingly mirror like image of herself, staring with blood red eyes at her. Only that this childs skin was ghostly white, yet her cheeks were rosy. The other child was also wearing a green sweater with a yellow strip.
"I will make your and their pain go away. No more pain for anyone."
The child smiled friendly holding out their hand to Frisk.
She looked at the hand, hesitating in her decision. What was she supposed to do in moments like these? Was she supposed to take the hand and trust the owner of the voice that caused her so much trouble or was she supposed to ignore it and try to find her own way to help?
Coming to a decision her hand reached out.
.
.
.
.
.
Sans eye-sockets snapped open. A tired sigh escaped him as he sat up, closing his eye-sockets once more. But before he could reopen them again static washed over him. The skeleton opened his eye-sockets again and stared at who stood before him.