FIVE-FINGER IMPRINT CHAPTER 13:
That night, after everyone else had fallen asleep, Frisk was still up with a lot on her mind. The only downside to having Gaster around now was not having the living room to mope around in. Instead, she curled up between boxes up in the attic with her journal and quietly scribbled in it by the light of a tear in time. She wrote about the new dreams, and the new powers, Gaster's arrival, and about Flora. With all of it happening at once, she was sure there was some connection. Had to be. It was too strange otherwise. Sometimes, just getting it all on the page helped to sort it out.
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At the moment, the issue of Flora troubled her the most. Sans's memories of the CORE rupturing were as fractured as her thoughts. What little there was didn't feel like him— it was more like the memory of something he'd seen on TV. Did it erupt? Explode? It had happened in that chamber, as far down as a monster could go, right? But the spire went up through the mountain, and the magma reached far above that. So did something burst outside that chamber, too? How else would Flora have been effected? How old was Flora, anyway? When had she been yanked away?
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Frisk tapped her pen on her notebook. Could there be more monsters who were gone? More who'd come back? She hadn't met every monster that lived underground, though. She didn't know if she could ever answer the question. She wrote down to ask Gaster about it.
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Her fingers hesitated on the page, red ink dotting heavily in one spot before she pulled it back. Her hand felt stiff writing the word "dad" on the paper. She read it over and over again until it looked like gibberish. "Ask dad". Underlined it. She smiled to herself. He was just downstairs. Real and solid and settling right in.
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She went back to writing, though her eyelids were getting heavy. Before she knew it, she was blinking awake, rubbing her eyes at the sound of a hissing whisper.
"Psssst. Pssssssst. Little sister? It's your coolest and tallest brother Papyrus, are you up heeeeere?"
"Mhm. Yeah," she said quietly. She coughed to clear her throat and then stuck her hand up so he could find her past the boxes and the treadmill.
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Bright-eyed, he leaned around a pillar of cardboard, then grabbed half of it to set it aside. He sat down on the smooth wooden floor and scooted over, tilting his head. "Are you doing okay? Why are you up here?"
She held out her journal. He took it hesitantly and looked her up and down. She stuck her thumbs up. He grinned and lifted her in his magic, pushing himself over into her spot. He let her down on his leg and held her with one hand as he held the book with the other.
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She fell asleep again until he squeezed her gently into a magic-charged hug. She blinked heavily and patted his arm.
"Are you awake enough to talk?" he asked.
"…Yeah." She rubbed her eyes and smiled up at him. "You read the whole thing?"
"Yes. Yes, definitely. Your spelling is getting better. It's just… Nyehhh…" He jokingly squished her head. "There's so much going on in this little space, isn't there!"
"Hah, yeah, I guess so," she said.
"What did you make of that dream in the weird place, with the weird Papyrus?" he said. "He wasn't cooler than me, right? Impossible! Right?"
"Bro, you're the coolest, you already know that." She smiled up at him sleepily. "You're such a goof. Don't worry."
"What?! No! It's just…" He tapped his fingertips together. "I mean. If I were less cool of a brother. I might, um… I might worry that… Maybe these last few days have been kind of rough. And maybe I wasn't as helpful as I could have been when things were happening and a certain little sister was going on weird time adventures. Nyeh. Heh. Heh…"
Frisk smiled sympathetically. "Man. Don't worry about that."
"Well, I mean, I know that almost everything that happened was objectively good, but still…" He frowned. "You didn't want me to come to meet the humans with you. Did you?"
"Whaaaat? What do you mean?" She grinned sideways but couldn't even attempt to keep it up when he raised his brows skeptically. "Oof. Um. No. I… I guess I didn't. But it's not… I mean. It's not like…" She rubbed her head and puffed. "Okay. Listen. I had a future dream, right? The one I was worried about. And this is gonna be hard to hear, but you and mom both died in it. There was a misunderstanding with the human guy and he kinda flipped out. Still not sure why, don't really care, honestly. What matters is I didn't want either of you anywhere near him."
"Wait, didn't he turn out to be nice, though?" he asked.
"Yeah, but that didn't really matter," she said.
"Why didn't you just tell me that?" he asked with a laugh. "Gosh, little sister."
"Because… I dunno. You always wanna be there for me," she said. "Which, honestly, is like the nicest thing ever. And I love that about you. But I couldn't… I couldn't let you remember that."
"But. Wait. I don't understand," he said. "You have to remember it, though."
"I can't help it," she said with a tired grin. "I'm used to it now. But the first time… Seriously. You don't wanna. I promise, you don't wanna."
"But, I mean, I do remember that it happened to me before, when it was just me and Sans." He tapped his chin. "Though. You are right, I don't exactly remember right at the moment of… Nyeh heh heh! Wow, that's really super morbid, isn't it?" He rubbed the back of his skull. "But, honestly, you shouldn't have to be doing so much worrying about me! I'm the big brother here, after all!"
"I know. I know." She hugged him around his ribs. "Hey. You missed it before, but, you wanna see the forest?"
He leaned closer, eyes wide. "Can we do that?"
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Frisk took him to the tear in time that glimmered on the other side of the room. She grabbed his hand. "This made Undyne feel a little sick, just to warn you. I, um, don't actually know how any of this works, but… We'll see."
"Oh! Okay, but…" He reached out and carefully touched the light himself. He winced in anticipation. Very quickly, his face relaxed and he grinned at Frisk. "Hey! I didn't start crying this time!"
"Sorry about that," she said with a laugh. "I guess whatever of me was out there was a bit rough, huh?"
"That's okay! It still sounds like you, though," he said brightly. "Okay! Show me."
She touched the light, held the world solid, and then focused through to that place again.
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All colour shifted to blue as grass spread out before them and the waning moon glowed bright, a silvery crescent high above them in the clear sky, surrounded by a blanket of stars. Insects buzzed gently in the air and a refreshing breeze rustled the plants around them. Papyrus squawked loudly and spun in place. He lifted Frisk up under her arms and stared her in the face.
"Could you always do that?!" he demanded. "Where are we?!"
"Dunno!" she said. "Cool, though, right?"
"Um! YES!" He stared upwards, his eyes glowing faintly. "Oh wow. It's so clear, here. You can see the stars so well!" He sat back in the grass and turned his face upwards. The moonlight made his bones shine.
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Frisk plunked down with him and leaned back.
"So where is this?" Papyrus asked.
"No clue," she said. "Monsters lived around here once, though."
"Wowie. Really? I wonder why an opening lead here. Maybe that's why?"
She shrugged. Papyrus wiggled his toes. Then, he jumped to his feet so abruptly that Frisk toppled back, startled.
"Hey!" he said brightly. "Little sister! Let's go exploring!"
"What? Right now?" she asked.
"Yes right now!" He beamed. "Come on, you said monsters lived here, right? There has to be some interesting stuff around, right? We could see that statue you wrote about, couldn't we?" He reached out and patted her head when her brow furrowed. "Don't worry! If we get too lost or something, we can just go back in time."
"I guess so," she said.
"Fantastic!"
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She pointed him in the direction of the statue and he took off. He was already out of sight before Frisk reached the bushes, but he quickly doubled back, grinning, and he grabbed her by the hand and lead her through the trees.
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True to form, he quickly found the statue she'd mentioned. He darted all around it, touching it with careful fingers, measuring himself up against it; even climbing to the top of it to take a look around. Frisk was just worried about stepping on a snake. The twigs and plants beneath her bare feet weren't exactly the most comfortable, either. Her feet had gotten a lot weaker since she'd started regularly wearing shoes. Maybe that wasn't so bad. Except for right now, of course.
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When Papyrus came back to earth, hands on his hips and looking rather proud of himself, he shot a glance off through the trees and then levelled a finger in a direction that didn't look too different from any other.
"I say we go that way!" he announced. "I have a good feeling about it!" He took her hand and walked with her for a few paces before changing his mind and scooping her up, helping her up onto his shoulders. "Maybe we can see the mountain from here if we go a little farther!"
"We're too far," she said. "You can't see it at all."
"What?! Really?! How can you tell?" he asked.
"Undyne climbed a tree," she said.
"What?! Oh! That's a good idea." He was up in the branches of the nearest, thick tree in an instant. "Hang on tight!"
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He clambered up and Frisk clung, white-knuckled, to his shirt and scarf. He surveyed the area and his jaw dropped.
"Weird, right?" Frisk said.
"Nyeh! What the heck? Where are we, then?! Oh. Wait. You don't know. Um." He put one hand up to his eyes. "Hey! Do you see that?" He pointed out into the distance to a spot where the trees gave. "Want to go over there?"
Frisk squinted. She recalled the stone something she'd seen the first time they were there, in the daylight. It looked really far away, though. Then again, she wasn't the one who'd have to do the walking. "If you want to. I'm kinda curious."
"Nyeh heh heh! Good! We'll have a little adventure! I can see it from here, so it can't be too far!" He let himself slide down the trunk and bounced back to the ground. "It'll be a nice walk! Or run! You can sleep up there, though, if you want! I won't mind."
"I'll try to stay up," she said with a laugh. "Not too hard where I am."
"Ugh, Frisk!" He rubbed his face. "You really do take after Sans, don't you? But less lazy."
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Papyrus strode with confidence through the dark forest, skipping over a little brook and hopping over felled, ancient trees. Even so, he never deviated from the path. No, he was sure he knew where he was going. Something in his bones told him what was the right way. Frisk wasn't sure if that was just a saying or not, but he insisted it was more literal than that. Something was drawing him to that crumbling place. It probably had magic in its stones, too, just like the statue of the ancient monster King that resembled Asgore.
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Frisk almost dozed off, her mind only snapping back into focus when she realized Papyrus was talking to her. "Hm…? Sorry, what?"
"Friiiiisk, did you fall asleep?" he teased.
"Um. Yeah."
He scoffed and snickered. "Like I was saying! It's so weird that we haven't run into anybody, don't you think?"
"It's like two in the morning out here, bro," she said with a laugh. "In the middle of nowhere."
"No, I know, it's just… I guess this whole outside thing is really a lot bigger than I realized. I mean. We had our town. And then the beach and the ocean. And then the big city. But nobody lives here?"
"The world is super big," Frisk said. "There's a ton of places nobody lives in at all."
"Oh! So there's plenty of room for monsters anywhere, then!" he said. "I mean, there's not all that many of us."
"Mmhm," she said.
"But I like where we are," he said.
"Me too."
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Heat prickled along the backs of her ears. She perked up and peeked around. Papyrus ducked to pass below a low hanging branch and she hurriedly copied him so as not to get beaned. The rustling of the foliage formed a rhythm in her mind, the wind like a distant flute. Frisk tapped on her brother's head and he stopped and leaned back a little.
"Yeeeeesss?" he said.
"Do you…? Do you hear that?" she asked.
"What?" he asked.
She shushed him and they stood in the quiet night for a little while. The sounds itched the back of the kid's head. Papyrus edged forward, his bare toes clicking against some stones beneath his feet.
"Ooh." His soul flickered. "I think that's some magic drifting around."
"Me too," Frisk said.
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Excited, the skeleton picked up the pace. Though the sounds didn't get louder, the tingling got a little stronger.
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The moonlight was trapped high above by leafy boughs, and the forest got deeper and darker the farther they walked. Even so, Frisk felt utterly secure. Papyrus lit his eyes, and though it wasn't much, the shimmer of amber was enough to pick out the ridges of tree trunks and the muddle of bushes he stepped over.
"This is nice," Frisk said quietly.
"Oh! You're having a good time? Nyeh heh! Me too!" he said. "I like a nice long walk sometimes! And with a mysterious destination, out in the dark woods, on a chilly night like this? It's great!"
Frisk snickered.
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The trees began to press closer together as they approached what seemed to be the edge out towards large mounds that may have the stones they were looking for. Papyrus took Frisk off his shoulders and into his arms and sidled sideways out of the forest. Suddenly, silver moonlight lit upon a crumbling wall of stones like a spotlight.
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Excited, Papyrus bounded up to the wall and put Frisk on it as he leaned over the top to survey the place. Beyond them, in ruins, worn down by wind and rain, was a castle partially in rubble, a crippled tower and more walls caved in around it. Much had been retaken by greenery. Leaves on the vines cradling the walls carried a moonlit sheen and a scattered bunch of flowers that shone pale blue speckled the ground near a sloping entrance.
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"Oh wow," Frisk breathed. She slipped off the wall and her feet met grass much softer than she expected on the other side. "Dude, look at this."
"What a find!" Papyrus vaulted over and stood on his toes. "Ooh! What's this?" He took Frisk's hand and raced over to a squarish block. "This looks like something, doesn't it? A puzzle, maybe?"
Frisk stared up at the hunk of stone. She put her hands on it and stood up taller. She climbed up and sat on the top of it. From there, she could see the ground and more stones embedded deep in, almost completely overgrown with that same soft grass. She also noticed something else— a strange shape on a similar block, off in the shadows of one of the broken walls. She turned to her side and gently felt through the vines. She could see there were chunks of stone that almost looked like the bottom of a shoe.
"It was a statue," she said. "It's broken, though."
"Hm? Oh!" Papyrus seemed to see what she had and then dashed over to the other one. "Oh! You should come see this! It's very cool."
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Frisk slipped to the ground again and moved to join him. He grinned wide and gestured to the statue as if he'd carved it himself. It was a horse. Aged and rough and covered in vines, but still standing proudly on all four hooves. The kid felt a thunk deep inside her.
"Um. Hey. Whose place do you think this was?" she asked.
"I have no idea! Someone who liked… this thing! What is this?" he asked.
"A horse," she said.
"Oh! A horse! Okay. I've never seen one on four legs before!" he said. "Interesting! Do you think horses lived here?"
"At least one," she said with a smile.
"Wowie. That's interesting," he said. "Hey. Do you think we can get inside there? Come on!"
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Papyrus dashed towards the dark opening of the largest structure, bouncing through the grass to avoid the blue flowers. He waved at Frisk to follow him. She was careful not to step on anything, too.
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There wasn't actually anything blocking the doorway into the ruins. Maybe there once had been— there was some metal that looked like hinges and some broken wood. There was a scuffed, threadbare carpet beneath their feet, dusted with mud, faded in spots, and entwined with creeping vegetation. Beyond that, they couldn't see a thing.
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Papyrus lit his eyes again, but it wasn't much help. He laid his palm against the wall and crept forward a hesitant few steps. A groove in the wall revealed a metal sconce, two spiralling bands that crossed each other until they formed a cone. The skeleton touched it and it let out a strangely melodic sound against his finger. Magic swelled. Frisk yelped and hopped back, holding onto her brother's leg as the sconce leeched some energy from his hand and brightened with an amber flame.
"What the heck?" He poked the metal cautiously.
Abruptly, the whole hall lit up, flames in the colour of his magic rushing along the walls and concentrating in more spiral holders.
"Oh wow," Frisk said, eyes wide. "That's nuts!"
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The skeleton scooped her up and held her up to the flame. "You try."
She looked back at him with raised brows, and he gave her an insistent nod. She gently touched the sconce and the flame burst bright. He yelped and pulled her back, just as the amber was dyed deep red. When the flame didn't stir again, he grinned.
"This must be where a monster lived, then!" he said. "Maybe a horse monster?"
"Could be," Frisk said.
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Papyrus strode down the hallway along the red rug without an ounce of trepidation. They passed two grooves in the walls opposite each other where something had once stood. Statues again, probably. There was only rubble and a vague shape of feet left there.
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Through the hallway, the fires lead them into a small room. Braziers near the door lit with the same amber fire. Objects in here hadn't weathered like things farther out, but the whole place was in disarray. Long, wooden tables were upended and chairs lay strewn about with broken legs. At the back end of the room, though, still stood a larger seat made in stone, the arms and legs carved with distinct, spiralling markings. It had a chunk cut from the side of it. The walls were scarred with puncture marks.
"Nyoo… This… looks a little less good," Papyrus remarked. "Look at this mess. Ugh."
Frisk's chest got heavy. Something bad happened here. She wandered up to the throne and took it in. The polished, pale stone was carved with intricate, knotted patterns and spirals. Some of them formed bones. She bit her lip. Carefully, she clambered up onto a purple cushion. She could see empty sockets on either arm of the chair. Cautiously, she reached up and touched the broken chunk.
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Her vision flashed over with red. She saw the light change to orange, her mind rushed, and she saw a strike of bone. She reeled back and fell onto the ground with a grunt. Papyrus was at her side in an instant, helping her up.
"Are you okay?!" he demanded. "What happened?"
"I… saw something," she squeaked. She pointed up at the gash in the rock. "A bone."
"A bone?" Papyrus perked up and he got to his feet, leaning in over the throne curiously. "A skeleton was here?"
"A… A l-long time ago," she said. "I guess m-maybe the energy was really strong."
"Must've been!" he said.
Frisk felt a chill of dread prickle her skin.
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The door to the next room had been battered off its hinges, which really did not help. The flames led down a short hallway and to another open threshold. Frisk peeked in and stepped cautiously over the old planks of wood. On the wall, between two of the sconces, hung a large tapestry, a little faded but still mostly intact. The story woven on it seemed to be one of skeletons. Famers and knights, horses and dogs, working together, growing trees covered in pink blossoms. The figures that stood out the most were three skeletons in the centre of the image that seemed to be surveying everything protectively. One in the middle, the tallest, in blue armour with lyre horns stood proudly, and beside her were, presumably, knights: a short skeleton with a big grin and small, triangular horns, and a tall one with a serious face and bigger horns, holding a bone spear and shield.
"Oh dang," she said.
"What?" Papyrus stalled where she had. His jaw dropped. "Oh. My. God. Is this…?!" He gently put his hands on the cloth and leaned in close. His touch brushed dust away, leaving the colours brighter. "Oh wow! Look at them all! Do you think these were real skeletons? Or just fictional skeletons for the sake of the picture? Oh! Look! This one's sort of round, like Sans!" His finger traced between a shorter skeleton that was depicted petting a dog and a skeleton with a mohawk of spikes who rode on the back of a brown pony. "And this one, look at those spines! And this one has horns!" He pointed to the one in the centre of the tapestry. "How weird!"
"Avenir had horns," she said.
"A… Avenir? Wait. Dad told you about…?!" His eyes shimmered like stars and he squealed excitedly and scooped her up into a tight hug. "Nyeh heh heh! Oh! That's good progress, actually. Hm." He held her in the crook of his arm. "So do you think skeletons lived here? Or maybe just some fans of skeletons?"
"Probably skeletons," she said. "I think that one in the middle, that could even be Avenir, maybe."
"You really think so?!" Papyrus looked thoughtful. "Well, I mean. She was a very important skeleton, actually, so that could be right! Ooh. So. Maybe some of these might be our distant cousins."
"Cousins?" Frisk tilted her head. "Dad said he didn't have any brothers or sisters though."
"Oh. Yes. Right," he said. "Too bad! Imagine being an only child?"
"Don't have to imagine," Frisk said.
He snuggled her reassuringly. "But never again, though!"
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Frisk was warmed to the core. Her gaze lingered on the old, woven pictures, and she looked up at her brother curiously. "So, like, you remember a bunch about skeletons, now, right?"
"What?" He looked thoroughly puzzled.
"Well, you guys seemed not to before dad got back, right?" she asked.
"HMMM." Papyrus cupped his chin and tapped his foot. "Well. Actually. Yes?"
"And mom didn't either. Remember? You guys had to explain your emotion magic stuff to her a couple times and she always said she didn't know much about skeletons. But that doesn't make sense, if she was such good friends with dad and is also super old, right?" she pushed. "You think she remembers, now?"
"HmmMMMM. So all remaining skeleton facts were erased with dad?! That's pretty dismal," Papyrus said. "Maybe it was just… the ones people learned from him? I don't know, honestly. Because other facts I learned from him didn't vanish, but then again, they weren't actually facts about him, were they?" He started along the carpet towards the upcoming threshold, frowning to himself. "Ugh, I wish all this timey-wimey-woowoo stuff was more consistent, I can't keep up sometimes."
"Same, though," Frisk said.
Papyrus laughed. "Nyeh heh! That makes me feel a bit better, to be honest."
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The next room was damaged, too. Battered bookshelves lined its walls, and there was another, open-centred level above them with yet more bookshelves rimming it. Intricate red carpets covered flagstones. The place smelled of warm ash, pine sap, and musty paper. A stone hearth beside a set of cushy, large pillows began to burn bright with amber fire. Despite the broken table, toppled chairs, and scattered books close to them, the place was cozy and warm.
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Frisk skimmed the room curiously. "Huh," she said, brow furrowing.
"What?" Papyrus asked. "Is something wrong?"
"Well, it's just… I dreamt a place a while ago that looked a lot like this," she said. "But… It for sure wasn't this place."
"Oh! How weird," he said.
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He gently put Frisk back down and went to inspect a bookshelf. Some of the books, though clearly old, looked rather pristine, while others were decrepit— just tattered, ratty covers with colours fading to grey slumped awkwardly onto the shelves. As he poked about with the tomes, Frisk noticed something else. One of the shelves was split straight down the middle. She crept up to it and cautiously touched the splintered wood. Red caught in her eyes again and she saw a sudden massive wall of bones slam into the shelf.
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With a yelp, she stumbled back. Papyrus shot her a worried look.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"I… I, um…" She glanced to the other side of the room. She could see parallel cracks in the stone. She gulped. "I saw more bones."
"Oh?! Wowie, that's interesting," he said. He took a step back and put his hands on his hips. His eyes skimmed the room overall. "Huh. I… suppose there was a fight in here?"
"I think in the whole castle," she said.
"Ooh. You know! I bet! You'd be very helpful at any old ruins, don't you think? If there was strong magic in it? That's really neat."
"Yeah, but I keep scaring myself by accident," she said with a sheepish smile.
He snickered and patted her head. "You'll be just fine, I'm sure of it. Hey! That means you'd be a great, um… What do you call it? Archeologist!"
"I guess that's true," she said.
He lit right up and grabbed her around the shoulders. "Imagine it! If people had a history question, you could just come right in and answer it because you can see it! That's really amazing."
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He squatted down and ran his fingertips along the rough edges of the wood until he tapped something metal near the bottom. He ducked down and found a box pressed up near the shattered edge. Frisk leaned in curiously over his shoulder as he lifted a dented, dark metal case.
"Oooh, mysterious," he said. He tried to open it, but it was stuck tight. He reached into the front of his shirt and pulled out his small gadget knife and held it up. "Do you think it'll have an un-sticker?"
"Umm… Probably? Unless that's a box with a magic lock or something?" she said, slumping over his shoulder. "You can probably just use the knife part. Or the nail file."
He flipped out the blade and wedged it in between the two bits of metal and, with just a tiny bit of pressure, it popped and released. With a grin, he clipped his gadget closed again and dropped it down his front. He waved Frisk in a little closer and opened up the box.
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Inside rested a polished, pale wooden cube, segmented and dotted with symbols, not unlike the Rubick's cube he had back at home. It wasn't colourful though, and had many more rows of small blocks connected to each other. Some didn't have a symbol on them at all.
"Is that a weird magic block or something?" Frisk asked curiously.
"Ummm… Nyeeehhh I'm not sure, actually," he said, lifting it up and turning it over in his hands. He twisted a row of symbols and, to their surprise, the ones he'd touched lit up with the colour of his magic. "Oh! Wowie, would you look at that?!"
"Oh, that's cool!" Frisk said.
He passed it back to her. She peered at it close as the symbols dyed her with a firelit glow.
"I've never seen symbols like this, have you?" she asked, running her fingers over them. "Oh. Uh. Oops. You don't think this might be like, a spell or something?"
"Oh! No no, it feels very weak, actually," he assured her, looking back over his shoulder. "I think maybe it's a puzzle! Maybe it opens something?"
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Frisk let out a quiet hmm and then stood back a little, her focus on the cube. She looked around, but it wasn't as if some door had popped open, and nothing else was echoing Papyrus's soul.
"Maybe it's just a game," she said.
"Ooh, do you think it'd be okay if we took it home?" he asked.
"Can't see why not." She took a moment to twist the little sigils into the shape of a heart on one of the faces and grinned when it lit up with red. She offered it back. "Here! You keep it."
"Oh! Nyeh heh heh!" He held it in both hands and grinned bright. "I think I might even keep it just like this for a little while!" He dropped it down the front of his shirt, too.
"Are your boxes full?" she asked. "I can carry that if you want."
"Oh! Yes, but don't worry about it," he said. "It's all very important stuff that I'd like to have close at hand." He began to count it off on his fingers. "A cookbook, a plate of spaghetti, a bowl of spaghetti, some dry spaghetti, some very cool nighttime sunglasses— Anyway! I won't bore you with that! Maybe there's more puzzles around?"
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As he crossed the room, his foot bumped on something and he stopped abruptly. He squatted down and lifted a book that had been on the floor carefully in his hands. All the text was in that old skeleton script. He flipped it open carefully. The pages were a little dusty, but intact otherwise. Frisk scooted over to look up. She noticed the door nearby that was slightly ajar, not broken like the others. There was a hand's imprint burned into the wood. She gulped. She wasn't sure she wanted to touch that one. She looked up at Papyrus, who was gently skimming through the book he'd found.
"What's that?" she asked.
"An old story book," he said brightly. "Ooh! It has a bookmark in it. I guess someone was reading this when…" He froze up. He ran his fingers over the red scrap of cloth gently. He gently closed the book. "Oh. That's… That's sad. I hope they'd read it before. So they knew the ending."
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"We'd read it many times." The voice came from behind and caught them both off guard.
Frisk spun around so fast she fell over, only to see their father at the edge of the room. He raised his hands apologetically.
"Jeez, you scared me," Frisk said with a laugh.
"I'm sorry," he said, coming closer. "When you two weren't home or… anywhere… I found your journal upstairs, Frisk, and I figured maybe you'd found your way here again. I saw the fire lighting the hallways."
"Wowie, that was a good guess, then!" Papyrus said. "Hey. Wait. But you just said…?"
"This was my childhood home." He smiled faintly. "I guess while I was out of time I was drawn back here."
"Is that Nimbus? Out front?" Frisk asked, wide eyed.
He chuckled fondly and shook his head. "Her grandfather. Tekton."
"The other statues, though—"
"It… doesn't matter," he said quietly.
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Papyrus frowned slightly. He handed Gaster the book he'd found, careful with it despite it not showing much age. "I… I guess you can read it again, now."
"Thank you." He smiled warmly and held it close to his soul. "We can read it together, if you want. It is a good story. It was one of my favourites, back then."
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"So, like, did you just sprint over here, or what?" Frisk joked.
"Ah. Um." Gaster's face flushed. "I was just concerned." He tented his fingers. "…Sometimes there's wild bears out here. Or there was. Probably still is."
Frisk snickered, but she felt a heavy sense of melancholy settling in over the tall skeleton. She reached up and held his hand in both of hers. "There was a big fight here, huh?"
"There was. They took quite a bit. Not the parts of the most value, though."
.
He carefully stepped around the others and knelt down near the rug that was closest to the next doorway. He rolled the carpet up. Papyrus leaned over his shoulder curiously. His eyes fixed on the wood of the door and he levelled his finger at the handprint.
"What's that?" he asked.
Gaster looked up. His face went blank. "Oh." He leaned forward on his knee and gently touched his fingers against the matching ones on the wood.
The door pushed away very slightly. He sighed and sat back on the worn stone floor. Papyrus and Frisk shared a look. He dropped down and grabbed their father into a tight hug.
.
Frisk sat down with them and looked at Gaster sympathetically. "Is this the first time you came back?" she asked.
"It is," he said.
The kid flinched. She looked at her hands. She rubbed her fingers against her thumbs. "Um. Do…? Do you want to know?" She pointed at the skeletal print. "I can, um… See."
He froze. He clenched his jaw. He reached for her hand and she held him gently. "Perhaps it would be… I'm not so sure that's wise, but…"
Frisk got to her feet. She felt her stomach drop before she'd even touched it.
"Wait," Gaster said. "Wait, Frisk. I… I can't ask you to—"
"It's okay," she said.
.
When she touched the mark, the room was orange with daylight and her hand was a taloned, skeletal one. It trembled. Her vision was cloudy and light-streaked. A jerk of her head directed her gaze onto a large man in a cloak of brown fur. She lurched upwards and put her hand across his snarling, bearded face, burning another print into him before everything went grey. A thought intruded into her mind, one in a determined voice not her own:
"You cannot be rid of me. I will make you see you were wrong to come here."
.
Frisk toppled backwards and blinked into the bleak darkness of the other room. She couldn't see much but a small bed back against the wall and scattered books, tossed haphazardly all around. She gulped and turned back to the others. Before she could say a word, Gaster grasped her into his arms and touched his brow against her head.
"I'm sorry. That was… That was so selfish. I'm sorry."
"It's okay! It's fine," she assured him.
"What happened?" Papyrus asked worriedly.
"She cursed a guy, maybe? If that's a thing?" Frisk said. "I… I think there were a bunch of guys. But she only focussed on one of them. And she put her hand on his face and said… Well, she didn't really say it. But she… wanted something to stick on him, kind of. It's hard to explain. She sorta said: I'm gonna make you see you were wrong to come here, and you can't get rid of me. But, like… In a feeling. It was weird. Does, um…? Does that help?"
.
Gaster stared down at her, wide-eyed. A tear slipped down his face and he began to grin. He snuggled her and coughed out a laugh. His soul spiked. He let out a long, voiceless breath, and he grabbed Papyrus, too, and hugged him tight.
"Oh! Is… Is that a good thing?" Papyrus asked.
Gaster nodded emphatically.
"So…? Wait. That was…? Grandma Avenir, right? Was that a curse? Can we do curses? Is that a thing?" Papyrus asked. "I thought we just did bones and other bone-related things. Was it a bone curse? Bad calcium? I don't think we should be doing curses…"
He held Papyrus's skull and gently bonked his brow against his. He took Frisk's hand and gently traced letters in her palm.
"Not a curse," she repeated. "Then what did she mean?"
He cupped her face and smiled at her fondly, and then playfully ruffled her hair. She pointed at his chest and let her hand flare with red sparks. He nodded.
.
It took a lot of focus, but she cranked his soul backwards a bit. He chuckled.
"Thank you," his voice was raspy and had a distorted warble in it. He got to his feet slowly and popped his shoulders. "As I said. Not a curse. She… used some of her last energy to try to impart her point of view. I have a feeling she succeeded."
"Oh really? Why?" Papyrus asked.
"Because all that time ago, there were rumours of a human man, with a scar shaped like a hand on his face, that helped monster children." He put his hand to his chest and was quiet for a second. Then, he smiled brightly. "Alright. Would you two be up for helping me gather a few things? There's a lot of books here that would be fantastic to read again."
.
Despite the centuries past, after the initial looting, the small castle seemed to have been left alone. Frisk and Papyrus were probably the first people there since Gaster had fled from the place. They'd come back another time, Gaster said. He'd show them the place in the daylight. Maybe even rebuild it someday. Tonight, though, they were happy enough with what they'd found, despite what had occurred there so long ago.
.
Papyrus took a special interest in the ancient kitchen. It had a big fireplace in the stone, shaped in an arch, hooks adorned with battered old cooking pans and metal pokers hanging above. Some empty pots were piled up at its side, and there was a hefty wooden bench near them, against the wall. Papyrus heaved open a drawer underneath it to unveil a bunch of old cooking implements. He looked over them thoughtfully, rubbing the back of his hand with his opposite thumb.
"Did you scrape yourself?" Gaster slid in to join him and gently grabbed his hand to peer at the bones.
Papyrus laughed. "Oh! Nyeh heh heh. No." He drew a line over the back of his hand with a finger. "Just a habit, I guess! I had a scar there in some of the time that didn't happen anymore. Human metal can leave pretty good gouges if you're not careful! But! It was for a good cause." He grinned.
"Ah, I see." Gaster thumped him on the shoulder. "You've found some of our old tools, hm?"
"Ah! Yes! I've never seen some of these things," he said. "Which must mean they're very old, since I'm a master chef nowadays, you know."
His father plucked out an an old, bent masher and brushed the benign dust off with his fingertips before setting it down gently on the table. "My mother was not a very good cook, so I spent a lot of time in here myself, before… Feel free to take anything you like."
"Wowie, are you sure?!" Papyrus asked.
"Absolutely. And maybe we can all cook together sometime," he said.
"YES PLEASE!" The boy's face flushed. "I mean. Nyeh. I'd like that." He puffed out his chest and put his hand against it. "You might even learn something from me!"
Gaster smiled fondly. "I'm sure I would."
.
Frisk, meanwhile, was still in the library. She was too short to reach much, but what she could find was mostly books she couldn't read anyway. She caught a glimpse of Gaster as he left the kitchen, and followed silently at a distance as he walked the old halls with quiet reverence. The only room he didn't want to enter, it seemed, was behind the door marked with the hand print.
.
Cautiously, she slipped inside. The fire didn't follow here, so she concentrated hard to create a red bubble of energy in her palm to light her way. There wasn't much, though it was clear it was a child's room. The bed was small, and patchwork quilts were tossed askew. A chest had been opened and books tossed about. There was a window with broken glass out of sight of the door, where plants had crept inside. Somehow, there wasn't any weather damage despite it.
.
With a bit more focus and a heavy huff of breath, Frisk made her orb float alongside her. It put a strain on her head, but she'd deal with it. She carefully checked inside the chest. There was an ancient plush dog on the inside. Put aside but treated well. Not much else was to be seen though, aside from a tin with a few small, chipped coins inside and something made of folded cloth.
.
"Frisk?" Gaster called from another room. "Frisk? Ah… Cá bhfuil tú?"
He mumbled something else in that language, but Frisk couldn't hear it. Not that she could understand it anyway.
"Over here," she replied. She stuck her head out of the room, her light dimming. "Sorry!"
"Oh!" Gaster hurried to her side and then looked around her into the darkness. "Were you in there? Tá tú an-chróga."
"Um." She tilted her head and smiled bashfully. Curiosity sparked in her eyes. "Hey. What language is that anyway?"
"What? Oh! I apologize. It's my native language. Creatlach," he said. "Old Skeleton, as it was colloquially called."
"Creatlach," she repeated, raising her brows. "Oh! Okay. Is…? Is that why your accent is so different from the others?"
"Partially," he said. "Apart from the usual small differences, I still carry that sort of cadence as well, if that makes sense."
"Yeah, I got it. I still got a lot to learn about monsters. I didn't even know there were other monster languages," she said.
"Not so many left," he said with an apologetic tilt in his brow. "Your brothers both know it. It was inborn. Do…? Do you understand it?"
"No. Sorry," she said.
"Would you like to learn?" His eyes brightened. "I would be happy to teach you."
"Lemme finish learning to read English first," she joked. "But, yeah, I think that'd be kinda cool!"
.
Gaster grinned. His eyes sparkled and he held her gently by the shoulder with one hand and patted her head with the other. "You are very good, a stór, putting up with an old bonehead like me. It would really mean a lot."
"Well then, that's even more of a reason to do it," she said with a smile.
.
The old skeleton smiled. He sat down on the floor with her, his cheekbones flushing. "I… I really need to thank you," he said.
"For what?" she asked.
"Well… I… I suppose I never expected you to accept me so quickly."
"Why?" she asked. "It's not like you're a stranger."
"Even so, to have some guy just show up. Even if he is your father… I don't know," he said, shaking his head. "I really don't have any right to expect anything from you. You've had to be independent for so long, I don't feel like I have any business stepping in and trying to… Honestly, you don't even have to call me dad if you don't want to. I'd never want to impose that onto you."
"I want to," she said. "What else would I call you? It's not like you had a different name or something I got used to."
.
Frisk was a little surprised by how thoroughly startled Gaster looked. "You know I love you, right?" she said with a worried frown. "You… do know that. Right?"
He froze in place. He gritted his teeth but his eyes began to glow softly. His words seemed to catch when he tried to speak and nothing came out.
"You know," she said, tenting her fingers, "when I remembered you, I… I was so sad for you. I was so mad at myself for not remembering. Because I knew you were nice, I knew you were there for me. I knew that look you got whenever we had to start again. I wanted so much for you to be okay after all that happened. And I wanted to tell you that I remembered everything now. And I felt… I mean, totally loved you. Of course. "
"Frisk…"
She laughed at herself. She rubbed her eye with the heel of her hand. "I was gonna invite you to live in the basement or the garage or something until we could figure out how to make people remember you! Silly, I guess, but… Well. Anyway. Then you show up and you're okay, and… And. Even if you weren't my dad at all. Still love you." She shot him a grin. "So, I guess what I'm saying is that when you told me that, it's just… I dunno. Even if you had just said, I'm your brothers' dad and I really like you, too, and I'm gonna stick around, that would've been more perfect than I could've ever imagined. But this, it makes me feel like a person. I never expected to ever know where I came from. Even if it is still super weird. I'm really glad you're here."
.
Gaster sighed quietly and wrapped the kid in a gentle hug. She leaned in gratefully. After a few seconds, she started to laugh. Her fingers were tight and sure.
"Aaah, it's so weird but so cool," she said.
Gaster grimaced and gently bumped his head against hers. "I love you so much," he said quietly. "I… God. I'm so sorry."
"Don't worry! Jeez." She looked up at him with a bright smile. "Love you, too."
.
He went quiet, content, his soul humming gently and warming the kid, even though the sound was awkward and sharp.
"Sorry if it's still a bit wonky," he said. "…A lot wonky."
"Doesn't matter," she assured him. "If it's yours, it's good. Have you heard mine?"
"Of course," he said with a laugh. "It's the only one I've heard for ten years."
"Really? Oof," she said. "Sorry, that must be annoying."
"Exactly the opposite," he said.
xXxXx
As the moon began to dip behind clouds and the splash of rain pattered on the ancient rooftops, the skeleton family prepared to head home. They only took some books, the kitchenware, the rolled-up rug, and the tapestry off the wall.
.
Papyrus was full of energy now after the jog through the woods with the cool water dripping overhead, and sat up with Gaster in the living room, keeping him occupied with stories as he treated his warping soul with more opera cakes.
.
Frisk, on the other hand, retreated to the bedroom with a heavy head and a lot to think about. She found that Sans had fallen asleep upright against a wall, and she grabbed a blanket and wedged herself into his lap and closed her eyes. Her mind was going too fast, though. She just kept replaying what she'd seen. She pictured what little she'd caught of Avenir and it hurt in her chest.
.
Sans ruffled her hair with a weak hand, a shiver in his fingers. She was surprised he had even woken up. Their souls shifted purple. He felt a little sick, but pretty content as well. Same for her.
"See you soon?" she said quietly. "Got a bunch to show you."
"…Sure," he said groggily. "Hey, uh… sorry to even ask, but…"
She lit her fingers up with red and hugged onto him. Magic lights like drifting embers in crimson and purple floated from her skin and tinted the room around them. His shoulders slumped and he let out a quiet, relieved sigh.
"No, don't, I'm glad to help," she said.
"…Thanks, kiddo." He was still cold, but it helped. Hoped wherever she'd been was warmer than here.