Chapter 2 - Flower

"Howdy!"

I turned back around and, just as I did, the sound of some cutesy 8-bit music started playing. Where the hell is it coming from though? There was nothing behind me.

Well, nothing besides the kid, barely discernible on the other side of the dark cavern. To my surprise, the kid was staying a decent distance away from me. I looked up at the light that came from the surface, hoping to discern some source of the music and voice, but even if the source was there it was too bright to see. Was it the kid who just now spoke then? Their blank expression made me think not. And, again, that doesn't explain where that damn music was coming from.

"I'm FLOWEY. FLOWEY the FLOWER!"

At the mention of flowers, I instinctively looked down.

A single yellow flower had bloomed directly under the light. The ray of sunshine glistened on the silky petals creating the illusion it was golden. Looking at it from just the back, it didn't seem like anything special. Just a regular flower, green stem, the yellow petals and two green leaves that slightly swayed with the exchanging breezes from the doorways. Just seemed like an average flower, despite its strange and sudden appearance.

Still, a flower just happened to spring up when a random voice introduces itself as "Flowey"... the "flower". I was pretty sure it wasn't there before, though truthfully I hadn't been paying much attention to the ground. The only thing I had been focusing on was getting out of the dark space as quickly as possible. The blackness was still creeping me out, and now with that mysterious music, it just made my flight instincts somehow even more insistent.

Focusing back to the voice at hand, I couldn't shake the feeling someone was pulling a strange joke on me.

"Okay kid, someone tries to pull your legs? You kick them in the face and move on. Let's go." I asserted, waving towards the gaping doorway. I turned back around to continue through the entrance.

"Hmmm…" the voice continued. Chills ran down my spine. I looked back behind me to find the kid hadn't moved. In fact, it was now staring directly at the flower. I rubbed my arms to get rid of the goosebumps, my eyes darting back and forth between the kid and the flower.

So now the kid decides to stay? Just my luck.

"Come on..." I began to quietly whine under my breath.

"You're new to the UNDERGROUND, aren'tcha? Golly, you must be so confused."

I again looked around for the source of the voice. Were there speakers in the dark corners I couldn't see? What the hell was going on? I turned back and walked over to the kid, intending to take their arm to pull it along like before, yet, somehow, as I began to pull, a weight pulled back. The kid wasn't budging. I might as well have been trying to pull a block of solid concrete with me. I couldn't even lift the kid's hand from where it laid at their side, something I know I could do just a moment ago. It left me absolutely puzzled and even more weirded out. The kids focus (or what I assumed was focus) was directly solely on the flower.

"Someone ought to teach you how things work around here!"

I faced forward, finally following the kids' gaze.

The flower has a face.

"I guess little old me will have to do."

It's mouth moved, stretching like there were muscles under it's cream yellow face, shifting to some monstrous form. A smile I think, some distant part of me gladly interpreted. The flower had two glossy black lines for eyes. No pupils. No nose. And were those teeth?

What the fuck?

"Ready? Here we go!"

A sudden wrenching had me on my hands and knees gasping. A darkness flashed around us rapidly, consuming the cavern space like someone was turning on and off a light switch. A panic flooded my senses, but the darkness enveloped everything. My eyes shut automatically in fear as I curled up. My heart was beating heavily inside, and I suddenly found it difficult to breathe. My whole body was shaking, ready for some great emptiness to bear down upon me.

…

...

But nothing happened.

I slowly reopened my eyes. The whole cavern was pitch black, and I sucked in the stale air. My eyes caught something brilliant before me.

There was a glowing red orb. A pulsing red light just… floating there. I raised my right hand to touch it, and the closer my hand got, the hotter it felt, until I couldn't bear the heat and took my hand away. It was a burning flame of warmth and light and comfort. A hearth in the otherwise cold and foriegn space.

Other figures slowly came into my awareness as my eyes adjusted. I could barely make out the shape of the kid, and the flower was a clearly discernible black and white, having completely lost all of its color.

A white box faded in surrounding the heart, trapping it within a defined space. The box seemed flat. In fact, taking a closer look at the orb, it too had become flat. 2D almost, and kind of heart shaped? What looked to be stats appeared underneath it.

LV 1, HP with a yellow bar, and 20/20 next to the HP.

Confusion and fear mixed in me to make a strange concoction of emotion with the panic and anxiety that was slowly starting to ebb from me. I took a step closer to the heart, its promise of warmth attracting me. I didn't understand what was happening. Was this a game? How… what even is this?

"See that heart? That is your SOUL, the very culmination of your being." My attention snapped back to the flower. The talking flower. SOUL it said. Soul, as in the hypothetical eternal core of a person? Was this my soul? It's beautiful.

"Your SOUL starts off weak, but can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV."

Level? So this was a game. Okay talking flower, that's something I could accept. A game, some elaborate really realistic game. The fear ebbed away as the confusion of the situation made way for a more comprehensible concept I could grasp onto. What's the objective? Clear the cave and find your way out? There must be cameras somewhere then, no way something this elaborate wouldn't be broadcasted or at least recorded. This… SOUL was currently being caused by some kind of hologram or lighting trick with fire or hot air then.

Even as I accepted that line of thinking, something in the back of my mind informed me that something was off. This was too real to be faked. I crushed that thought and threw it to the very recesses of my mind. I shifted all my focus to the box before me.

"What's LV stand for? Why, LOVE, of course!"

Of course. Of course it wouldn't be as simple as standing for level. I noticed arrows pointing in the cardinal directions surrounding the heart. This system wanted me to move it? How? I didn't see any controller or keyboard. I tried waving my arms around, but all that was accomplished was me feeling ridiculous.

"You want some LOVE, don't you?"

I turned my gaze back to the flower. It seemed the flower was moving back and forth with the music. God, I want out of this acid trip.

"Don't worry, I'll share some with you." the creepy flower stuck out its tongue and winked.

I cringed. I didn't think I could be more disturbed by a talking flower, but somehow that beat it.

I looked back at the heart. SOUL. Whatever it stood for. And noticed it had moved while I had been paying attention to the flower. How? I leaned forward towards the heart and it warmed me slightly from the cold. Had I done something? I backtracked my steps in my head. I had thought the flower was creepy, I cringed and- whoa! It moved down again. Emotions? Is that it? No, that made no sense. Then again the flower was talking about love. Maybe it was a clue.

As I was trying to figure out how to move the SOUL, the flower continued.

"Down here, LOVE is shared through...little white…'friendliness pellets'."

I looked over to the flower and noticed five white pellets appearing above the flower's head.

friendliness pellets…

My SOUL moved away from the flower. This time I felt it. It wasn't just a command, it almost felt… Well, sort of like moving a limb. Can't just command yourself to move, or just will it to happen. It's more like… you just... do it. As a part of yourself, as an extension of your being.

I managed to move the soul around in a circle, a giddiness building in me. This was amazing!

"Are you ready?" The flower asked happily. Yes, yes I was, all I had to do was catch the pellets, right? I guess if I get enough EXP that eventually increases my level, sorry, "LOVE". They did look a bit bullety, but hey, here's a talking flower, so who am I to judge? I tense, moving the SOUL around to keep practicing. Let's go.

"Move around! Get as many as you can!"

The pellets shoot towards the box faster than I expected. A quick danger-flee instinct flashes in my head before I manage to ignore it and direct the SOUL directly in the path of one of the pellets.

The pellet hits and the SOUL's flame seems to dim to a significant degree and flicker as I hear an 8-bit whump sound, silencing the music with it. To my horror, the HP bar decreased dramatically to read 01/20, leaving a small sliver of yellow left in the bar. A shiver ran down my spine.

"UH!" A pained sound echoed from behind me. I shot around. The kid was clutching their chest and had collapsed. I rushed to crouch over the kid, hands quickly finding the pulse at their neck and monitoring the signs. Elevated heart rate, shaking, extreme pain in chest, pale, growing paler by the minute. Tears began to fall from the kids' eyes.

Fuck, I don't understand, what just happened?

"You idiot. In this world, it's kill or BE killed." My head turned back to the flower. The thing's mouth was stretched enormously over its small face, white teeth baring in some twisted expression of joy. I blanched at the sight.

The realization hit me. That wasn't my soul, it was the kids. And I had just put a kid's SOUL in front of actual bullets. The implication passed through me coldly as I distantly noticed I was shaking and tightly gripping the kids shoulder.

Fuck, what had I done?!

"Why would ANYONE pass up an opportunity like this!?" The damn flower laughed. Its eyes narrowed into sunken hollows as its teeth bagan melting into its face like goopy tendrils, leaving a gaping grinning maw. Bits of its face were flying off from the force of the things' laughter. An array of those bullets suddenly surrounded us. Us, not the SOUL.

I froze.

"Die"

A/N: I haven't abandoned this story! Comments would be appreciated! Just not sure if people are actually interested? Following or adding it to your Favorites will also let me know it's worthwhile to continue. If not, I'll just shorten it, and post whenever I feel like it.