Welp, enough stalling. It's time we got this dreaded chapter out.

"Well, that was creepy." I said, heading forwards.

"Don't let it frighten you." Chara responded simply. "Ignore him for the time being. Right now, we have to face the other dumb skeleton."

"Right." I passed by a welcoming sign, and entered into what seemed to be a town. Little buildings lined themselves to the left, and everywhere else was covered with snow. There were structures everywhere, but no people. Er… monsters. Where was everyone? It was like an abandoned town, eerie and quiet.

Determination. Chara whispered.

The first building I approached was a shop. On the counter was a note, which I ignored. I waited at the front desk for a storekeeper to show up, but nobody came. That's when I figured there wasn't one. Not feeling particularly guilty, since I didn't want to waste the store products, I took all the gold behind the counter. It was their own fault if they decided to leave it behind. Along with the gold were a couple more Cinnamon Bunnies and popsicles stuck together into pairs. Behind that, there were also a couple of bandanas and gloves.

"Just take a bandanna." Chara told me. "There's no use for the gloves. Take as much of everything else as you can."

I frowned. "As much as I can?"

"Why not? The shopkeeper won't be coming back."

I decided that what Chara said made sense, so I took a bandanna and stole a couple more buns and popsicles.

"How do you know they won't be coming back?"

"I know everything, partner."

Well, I was going to have to take her word for it. After all, she had never really been wrong before. Stuffing as much food as I could into my pockets, I started to eat one of the buns. It was still yummy, with the perfect amounts of cinnamon and sugar. The bread was soft and chewy, overall, a very good cinnamon bun.

"Where to now?" I asked Chara, stepping out the shop.

"Left." She said, pointing east. "To the box."

I headed to the familiar-looking box and peered inside. There were ballet shoes. "What are these for?"

"They improve your attack." Chara answered. "They deal more damage, since they're kinda pointy. Of course, you can still keep the toy knife, but I doubt you can swing and kick at the same time."

"Right." I nodded.

"Also, put the Snowman piece in the box. You won't need it for now, and it's just making your pockets heavy."

"What about the fight with Papyrus?" I frowned.

"Trust me, you won't need them."

I nodded slowly. Then I reached into my pocket to take out a slightly melting Snowman Piece. Depositing it into the box, I traded it out for the ballet shoes, and then I worked to untie the tennis shoes from my socked feet. "Where to after?"

"Igloo." Chara replied. "A little further ahead."

With ballet shoes on and tied, I threw my old shoes into the box. Maybe I could come back for them later, when all this monster killing was over. I then took a few steps forward, testing out the new shoes. They were more prone to cold, but I had to admit they made me feel incredibly dangerous.

I found the igloo, and stepped in, only to immediately slip. Yelping, I felt my behind drop onto the frozen ice as I slid forward into the darkness, further and further away from where I had entered. I felt myself starting to panick. "Ch-Chara!"

"Don't worry, I'm here." She was still floating next to me as I slid down the ice, and into the darkness. "This is just a shortcut."

The mention of shortcuts brought a chill up my spine, but I supposed it was because my behind was sliding across cold ice. When light started to appear in the direction of my destination, I sighed in relief.

Once I was finally out and exited through another igloo like the first, I patted my behind. It was cold as a popsicle. Sighing in defeat, I observed my surroundings. To my left was a large wooden shed, and to my right was a huge cabin. It was very well decorated and pretty.

"Do I explore these buildings?" I asked Chara.

"They're both locked." She answered promptly.

"...oh."

"There's nothing left for us to accomplish in this town. All we can do is to continue moving forwards, and find Papyrus."

"Okie." I continued through the snow, ballet shoes tromping through and my butt still feeling considerably frozen. I was never going to ride through that igloo thing again.

As I moved on, the snow started to fall faster. The wind blew stronger, the flakes grew wilder. Soon, giant drifts of snow were flying my way. It was like a blizzard. Chara seemed unaffected, since she was a ghost. But I had no satisfying layers of clothes. The cold seemed to pierce straight into my skin.

Ahead, there was a tall, black figure that stood out against all the snow. It looked a lot like Papyrus. I stopped once I was close enough to see his red scarf waving in the wind. I was going to have to be careful. It was a good thing Sans warned me about his blue attacks.

"HALT, HUMAN!" The annoying voice confirmed the fact that he was, indeed, Papyrus. Deciding not to obey his commands, I took a couple more steps forward. "HEY, QUIT MOVING WHILE I'M TALKING TO YOU! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE SOME THINGS TO SAY. FIRST; YOU'RE A FREAKING WEIRDO!"

"So you're not?" I smirked, feeling Chara's amused gaze on me.

Papyrus continued his speech. "NOT ONLY DO YOU NOT LIKE PUZZLES. BUT THE WAY YOU SHAMBLE AROUND FROM PLACE TO PLACE, THE WAY YOUR HANDS ARE ALWAYS COVERED IN DUSTY POWDER."

What was he talking about? Looking down at my clothes, I suddenly realized that he was right. I hadn't even noticed. My clothes had gotten so dusty from all the monster corpses that even someone as dumb as Papyrus had noticed. Feeling slightly disgusted, I started to pat down my pants. Now he knew the truth. Was he going to try to kill me now, instead of throwing useless puzzles everywhere?

I tried to keep my cool. "So?"

"IT FEELS… LIKE YOUR LIFE IS GOING DOWN A DANGEROUS PATH." Papyrus' gaze suddenly changed from aggressive to sympathetic. "HOWEVER! I, PAPYRUS, SEE GREAT POTENTIAL WITHIN YOU! EVERYONE CAN BE A GREAT PERSON IF THEY TRY!"

I felt a little shocked. "Are you suggesting the fact that I'm bad?"

Chara shook her head. "That naive idiot."

"AND ME, I HARDLY HAVE TO TRY AT ALL! NYEH HEH HEH!"

This was dumb, so absurdly dumb. If the skeleton couldn't see all the good things I was doing by eradicating the monsters to make the humans' world a safer place, then he was just going to die at my hands as well.

I stepped forward, and Papyrus' brow immediately frowned in worry. "HEY, QUIT MOVING! THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT! HUMAN! I THINK YOU'RE IN NEED OF GUIDANCE! SOMEONE NEEDS TO KEEP YOU ON THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW!"

"Me? In need of guidance?" I almost laughed at the stupidity. "I have Chara. You? You have no one. You're the one that needs guidance."

Papyrus blinked at me in confusion for a few moments, like he wanted to protest. "WHO IS THIS 'CHARA'?"

Chara hissed at me, and I realized I had just done something Chara hadn't wanted me to do. "Chara is a tree." I quickly lied. I couldn't tell if Chara was relieved or even more unamused. Her expression told me that she was disappointed in the fact that I had resorted to calling her a shrub.

"OH." Papyrus mused. "THAT IS OKAY, HUMAN! I HAVE TREE FRIENDS TOO!"

"You have tree friends?"

"SO WE BOTH HAVE SOMETHING IN COMMON!" Papyrus cheered. "WELL WORRY NOT! I, PAPYRUS, WILL GLADLY BE YOUR FRIEND AND TUTOR! I WILL TURN YOUR LIFE RIGHT AROUND!"

"There's no need. It's already going the right way." I stepped forward lightly, trying out the balance of my new shoes. How much damage would they inflict?

"I SEE YOU ARE APPROACHING. ARE YOU OFFERING A HUG OF ACCEPTANCE?" Only naive Papyrus would think I was about to do that. But no, he was wrong, as usual. "WOWIE! MY LESSONS ARE ALREADY WORKING! I, PAPYRUS, WELCOME YOU WITH OPEN ARMS!" He lifted his arms up in a welcoming manner, friendliness and hope filling up his face.

For the slightest moment, I felt doubtful. He was giving me mercy. I could leap right into those arms, be filled with his embrace, and-

No, no. That was wrong. Just the slight though of rebellion was enough to make me feel guilty. I couldn't trust monsters. He would probably just slice me at the last moment, betraying me. That's just like something monsters would do. After all, look at Toriel. Just thinking about what she had done made wary shivers go up my spine. I couldn't take the chance.

Stiffening, I felt my soul draw out, and I flew up into the air. Was Papyrus engaging a battle? Of course, once he has seen my resilience, he'll know he has no other choice. So now he was showing his true motives.

I waited for him to make his first move, but he just stood there with a hopeful expression on his face, still reaching his hands out to me. Waiting for me to take his so-called mercy. But it was all a lie, I knew. Right?

"Go ahead." Chara goaded me. "Attack him." I nodded.

It was now time to test out my new shoes. I approached Papyrus quickly, and his gaze glowed with happiness. He thought I was about to hug him. Well, he was wrong.

I quickly wiped that look off his face when I kicked him straight in the face, with three successive hits. His face was shocked, uncertain. A moment later, his head fell off.

I practically froze myself. I hadn't dismembered him or anything! That is, unless he was so weak that a single attack could kill him.

Papyrus was still holding his head in his hands. Literally. It was so creepy. "W-WELL, THAT'S NOT WHAT I EXPECTED..." It wasn't what I expected either, truth to be told. Papyrus' body suddenly faded, only leaving behind his head, laying alone in the cold. Falling snow was already starting to cover his head, but he kept talking. "BUT… ST...STILL! I BELIEVE IN YOU!" I stepped over to his head, which was still stubbornly speaking. I was growing sick of him. "YOU CAN DO A LITTLE BIT BETTER. EVEN IF YOU DON'T THINK SO!"

I felt conflicted. I had no idea what he was talking about, yet I felt as if everything he said made sense. It felt like there was hope for me. But what hope did I need? No, he was just making me confused. He was making me feel strange. I couldn't let him do that to me.

"I… I PROMISE-" I cut him off as I smashed my foot onto his head, and he disintegrated beneath me into just another pile of dust. My soul retreated into my body, signifying the end of the battle. A bit of sadness crept into me, but I quickly pushed it away.

"So." I regarded Chara, dismissing the dust below my foot. "Did that give me a lot of experience?"

Chara didn't answer my question, but grinned amusedly at me. "That was brutal."

I felt a need to defend myself. "I needed to shut him up."

"So you did." Chara noted, a playful tone in her voice. "I'm proud of you, partner."

My stomach was telling me otherwise, but I felt somewhat accomplished. "'Glad I could meet your expectations."

"Hmph, well you're definitely better than the last…" Chara paused uncertainly, not continuing with her thought. Before I could even question her, she was already moving onto a different statement. "And see? You're so strong now that you could defeat him in one hit."

I nodded slowly, and looked down at the dust. "But I was hoping he could be more of a challenge."

"Don't we all." Chara grinned before looking at the dust with me. "Hey, what's that red stuff?"

"Red?" I froze, looking around for signs of blood, but all I found was a red scarf half-buried in the snow. I sighed in relief. "It's just Papyrus' scarf. Don't scare me like that!"

"Scare you?" Chara smirked. "Blood scares you?"

"No! I was just… ugh! Nevermind." I bent down to scoop the scarf up in my hands. It was wide and long, and decently thick. It would certainly help in this snowstorm. I tied it around my neck, almost feeling immediately warmer. It was so long, it touched the ground. Or maybe it was just because I was short.

"Looks good on you." She complimented.

"Thanks."

"Well, it looks like we're done here. So we have two choices." She pointed from where we came. "Head back to town and warm up, or…" Chara pointed to the east. "Go forwards and continue on your journey. Which will it be?"

"Does it matter, really?" Chara shook her head. "Then I guess I would prefer to go back. I'm feeling kinda chilled to the bone."

Only after saying it did I realize what I had said. Chara gave me a death glare. "Do you want to die?"

I chuckled nervously, trying to push it off as a joke. "I was only kidding with ya."

Chara turned to the west and moved forward, unsettled. "Don't do that again."

I paused uncertainly before following Chara. I didn't want her to be mad. "Okay. I won't."

"Good." Chara floated ahead, leading me through the blizzard and back to the town. A little while later, the snowstorm turned to nothing more than just a light sprinkle, and we were back in town. It felt good to be safe and warm. Safe to be in town, warm in the red scarf. No wonder Papyrus wore it all the time.

Once we were at the igloo, Chara beckoned me to enter, but I refused.

"I am not going through that thing again."

Chara grinned. "Suit yourself."

Huffing and lifting my chin up in defiance, I moved past the shed and igloo, passing by the cabin. It all gave off a Christmas feeling, and the lights inside were bright and welcoming. It looked invitingly warm. "Are you sure it's not locked?"

Chara paused for a moment before shrugging. "Well, it was before. Although I must say, I'm not sure now. You can go and try."

"No harm in that." I agreed, going up the steps and moving to the brown door. I reached out for the handle, turning it. It was locked. "Welp, no harm done." Sighing, I started to move off the steps, about to tell Chara how I had failed the mission to open the door.

That is, until the door opened on its own.

"Papyrus?! Are you-"

Who said that? I turned around, and realized that the door hadn't opened on its own. In fact, it had been opened by another human!

Another human! It was a girl, wearing a purple jacket and staring at me with shock. I smiled in delight at the realization, hope filling me up again. I had another chance! I was given another chance to work with the people that could turn into my friends. I couldn't let this go to waste.

"Hello!" I introduced myself. "I'm Frisk. Do you live here?"

An incredulous look traced its way up her face. I wondered what was wrong with her. "W-what?"

Maybe she had short reaction time. "Do you live here?" I repeated.

"W-what, no! Papyrus does!" Oh. "And speaking of him… just what are you doing with his scarf?"

Chara gave me a look. Lie. She commanded. "Uhhhh he gave it to me. Because I was cold."

"He's still alive?!"

"Uh… yes?"

The girl took a huge sigh of relief. "Huh. I guess that seems just like him." She narrowed her eyes suddenly. "But he never takes that thing off, unless he's dating me. What in the world did you do to persuade him?"

I blinked, confused. I decided to let go of the dating comment, for now. "Well, what are you doing in his house?"

Her face slowly turned a bright red. "H-huh?"

"If this is really his house, then what are you doing here? Isn't it dangerous?"

"Dangerous?" A knowingness radiated off her figure. "So you know all about it. That one person who's killing everyone…" Her face scrunched up in uneasiness. "And to think it would be one of us…"

I was confused. "What in the heck are you talking about? What do you mean by 'one of us?'"

She frowned noticeably. "C'mon, let's get you in here. Then we can catch you up with details." She turned around from the doorway, looking into the house. "Hey, Sans! What are you up to?"

I froze. "Sans is here?"

Chara seemed just as frozen. "No! Not that comedian!"

The girl turned back to me. "Yes." She tilted her head. "Is that a problem?"

"Is it safe?"

"Is it safe?" She repeated. "Of course it is. At least, it is inside. But it isn't outside. You never know when that person's going to strike. Now stop standing there and get in! You look like a popsicle." She retreated into the warm home, and slightly confused, I followed her in.

It wasn't what I had expected, yet it was everything I wanted. The ground was patterned in wavy lines of blue and purple. A simple kitchen was ahead of me. A big green couch sat to the left, inviting me to sit down. It was a strange color choice. In front of it was a TV, seemingly off for the moment. Past that was what looked like a flight of stairs. So there was an upstairs to this cabin too.

Chara sniffed disapprovingly. "Smells like a skeleton's house."

I didn't know how she could tell, but I nodded in agreement anyway.

The other girl was now at the bottom of the stairs. "Wait right here. I'm going to get Sans." She started heading up the stairs. "Geez, where the heck is he? I swore he was just here a moment ago…" Her voice left us as she reached the top of the stairs and turned right.

"Let's run now." Chara suggested.

Smiling, I shook my head. "It's time to conquer your fears!~" I sang. She glared at me.

Seeing that I was going to have to wait, I headed over to the couch and plopped down. It made a jangling sound. Confused, I reached my hands under the cushions to feel hard, round things. Coins? Bringing them out, I realized they were gold. Excited from my find, I scooped out as much as I could.

Chara sat with me, or at least, floated above the couch cushions. She seemed unsettled.

I smirked. "Worried about seeing Sans again?"

"More than worried." She spat. It looked like she really had a deep hatred for bad puns. "Can't we just leave now? Staying here won't accomplish anything."

I shook my head. "You can't convince me, and you know it." I wasn't going to leave right after finding another person. This time, I was going to keep my eye on them, as to make sure they don't get murdered by another monster.

Right when I finished grabbing all the coins, the other girl was descending down the stairs. "Can't find him." She grumbled. "I don't get why he left all of a sudden."

"Good." Chara said.

"That's too bad." I translated.

"Well, whatever. We can do this without him." She moved across from me, staring at me with beady eyes. "Let's start with questions."

"Ok." Seeing her expectant gaze, I said, "You can go first."

"Are you going to wear that scarf forever?" She blurted.

I blinked. "Oh, I guess not." I was warm now, there was no need to wear it. It was actually starting to get a little hot. Untying the scarf from my neck, I set it onto the couch.

The girl immediately snatched it up and snuggled up to it. She clung to it like a teddy bear, like her life depended on it. It was strange. Why was she so in love with a scarf? Especially one that once belonged to a monster…

But then, she stopped. It was like she had froze. I watched her warily, wondering what was up. The girl slowly started to push the scarf away from her, and she stared at it with open eyes. She was acting as if the scarf were infested with termites.

"Finally realized that hugging a monster's scarf is gross?" I asked.

But there was a different look on her face. It wasn't of disgust… in fact, she looked terrified. But about what? "P-please tell me that's not what I think it is."

"Huh? What what is?"

"The dust." She answered. "The dust. It's not real right?"

"What?" I asked, "How can dust not be real? It's just normal dust."

"You're lying." She stood up, the scarf now pushed far away from her. "I know what that dust looks like, and this isn't it. What happened? Did something happen to Papyrus? Is he okay? Are you hiding something from me?"

I didn't get it. "Why are you so worried about him? He's just a monster."

"He is not just a monster!" She looked like she was on the verge of tears. "He's… he's…" She gulped. "Who does this dust belong to? How did you actually get ahold of the scarf?"

"He gave it to me."

"I know that's a lie." She said. "There's no way dust could've gotten onto it, unless you're lying about him being okay…" Her eyes widened. "You're not lying though, right?" Her eyes suddenly darted to my clothes.

I scratched the back of my head nervously. "Um… maybe?"

She didn't move for a few seconds. Just stayed completely still, like a statue. I was about to ask what was up, until she started to tremble slightly. Realization was flashing in her eyes. I could feel fury radiating off of her, coming in powerful waves of mourning and sadness.

She pointed a finger at me, her fierce gaze burrowing onto me. "You did it, didn't you?" I felt myself backing away. "You… you did it all. With all those excuses, and, just… Why hadn't I noticed it before? Why…" She sniffled slightly. "Why, Erisa? Why did you…" Her gaze hardened in anger as she stepped forward. "I am seriously going to kill you for this!"

"Run." Chara whispered.