"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.

"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."

"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.

"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."

Alice Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

Somewhere deep down.

When she first came to be, all Frisk could see was utter darkness.

What's going on? she thought. Am I dreaming?

The next sensation she felt was an incredible pain. It spread out all over her body, both inside and outside. But it seemed to be the worst in her stomach and waist region. She also felt cold. Very, very cold, and the air had the smell of saltwater.

And blood.

"Ugh," the teenage girl muttered.

After a few moments, Frisk finally managed to open her eyes. All she could see at first was a dimly cyan glowing flower in the distance, surrounded by impenetrable darkness.

As her vision got clear, the luminous flower seemed to glow brighter and revealed to Frisk the rocky interior of the place. The ground around the flower, for the most part, was uneven, natural stone with the occasional grass or dying flower sprouting out. A high rock wall stood behind the glowing large flower that curved outward the higher it went. Despite this, Frisk noticed the ground she was lying on was very soft. When she looked down, she saw that she was lying on a wet beach, a cavern small lake behind her. Frisk concluded that this was some sort of an underground beach. She was as terrified, almost as much as she was confused.

"Wh-where am I?" Frisk said to herself. "What's going on?"

The only sounds she heard in this dark, cavernous place were the strange humming from the glowing plant and the distant splashes of waterfalls, which made Frisk realise this cavern was maybe more enormous than she thought.

"He-help!" Frisk shouted. "Anyone!"

There was no reply, none except the echo of her voice. If anyone were nearby, they would most likely have heard the echo.

But nobody came.

Frisk trembled not just from cold but panic as well. Not only was she seemingly alone, but she had no recollection of anything. Where was she? And what was with this incredible pain?

Frisk tried standing up, but it proved more difficult than she thought. It hurt so much. It was like she hadn't stood up in years. So Frisk immediately fell back down, landing her face in a shallow puddle. She muttered and tried pulling herself up again. But then Frisk became stunned when she saw the reflection of a horrifyingly mutilated face.

It was a female face that looked battered and bruised, with blue and purple streaks around one of her eyes and her nose broken. Little cuts and splinters also covered the face.

It was like the poor girl's face had been struck by a wooden plank.

Oh god! Frisk thought to herself. Is-is that my face?!

At that moment, Frisk became even more terrified.

A nightmare, she thought to herself. All of this has to be a nightmare.

But as she thought she had learned the worst part, she saw something covering the palm of her hand. Her palm was painted red with blood, her blood, despite only having a few tiny cuts. Even with her somewhat delirious phase, Frisk could tell that this immense amount of blood couldn't have come from just a few splinter wounds.

Then she realised that, just a moment ago, this palm was touching her waist, where most of the agony came from. At that moment, she finally noticed that something hard was sticking out.

Finally, she managed to sit up on her knees and then, scared beyond belief, she looked down to see what she had touched, praying to God that it wasn't her bone sticking out.

"Oh… oh god," she instinctively blurted out when she saw the source of her immense pain.

A large, shattered piece of wood stood impaled in her waist, and the crimson liquid was seeping from the gaps around it.

Dozens of questions filled her mind, questions like:

Where am I?! What the hell is happening?! Why is this happening?! Why is there no one around?!

And last but not least:

What the hell should I do now?!

But Frisk couldn't bring herself to ponder any possible solutions, or at least not at this moment, for this situation terrified her too much to think about anything except the present predicament. Instead, in an illogical impulse controlled by her fears, she put her bloodied hand on the wooden shrapnel piece and attempted to pull it out.

She only managed to pull out about an inch before a short but very sharp stinging pain caused her to stop and wince.

"Oh god, this hurts," Frisk said to herself, trembling.

The pain made her eyes water. After a momentary calm, she wiped some tears off her face and put her hands back on the wood.

"All right," she said to herself. "Let's try this again."

Filled with all the determination she could manage, she mustered immense strength and began pulling it out.

"Oh fuck," she instinctively said out loud.

Every pull she made worsened the sharp pain.

"Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck."

The wood was now halfway out, and now it stung so much her eyes began to water again.

More and more tears began running down her bruised cheeks as the pain increased with each inch. Now, Frisk pulled much slower, and a small but growing part of her begged her to stop. But despite the overwhelming agony, she stayed determined.

The wooden piece was almost out of her now—only a few more pulls.

"Almost," she reassured herself, her eyes now blinded by tears. "Almoooosssst."

And with great effort, she ripped the last inches out.

At the moment she did, overwhelming anguish spread from that wound and all over her body, causing Frisk to release from deep within her bowels a great, agonising wail. Her cries echoed throughout the deep cavern, further than any noise she had so far made.

But once again, nobody came.

After a moment, Frisk panted heavily and tried to calm herself. She looked at the half-bloodied stake in her hands that, just a moment ago, was impaled deep within her waist.

"Th-there," she said to herself, trembling. "It's done."

But her feelings of mild triumphs were short, as she noticed blood was now seeping from the wound in tremendous quantities. Panicking, Frisk tried blocking it with one hand while she attempted to rip a piece of her striped shirt with her other hand.

"Oh fuck fuck FUCK!" said Frisk in a mixture of irritation and panic. "What the hell was I thinking?"

Managing to rip a piece out after being forced to use her teeth for an assist, she ineptly tied the fabric around her wound as best as she could from her lacklustre medical knowledge and tightened it.

Thankfully, with what looked like a good thing happening for once, the binding appeared to lessen the bleeding quite a bit.

Frisk felt exhausted now. Her last few acts felt like the most gruelling things she had ever done, So she just lay there, down with her back on the ground.

"What the- what the fuck is going on here?" she asked herself.

She looked at the darkness above her, trying to see stars or anything that worked as a light source. The best things she could find were tiny shining dots far in the distance. Frisk wasn't sure these were stars, though, for much like the glowing flower, they seemed to fade and grow in brightness.

Staring at almost empty nothingness with no noise in her vicinity but her breathing, Frisk felt a soothing feeling grasp her.

Along with that, she felt numb and tired. Very, very tired. She wanted to rest. She had to rest.

Just a little bit, she thought to herself.

And then she closed her eyes and dozed into a short sleep.

Suddenly, a rush of countless memories flashed before her eyes instantly, and she jerked awake. Just a moment ago, she was scared and confused.

Now she was only scared.

She didn't know how or why, but she remembered everything now, her friends, her enemies, her purpose and all the events in the last few days in this strange world that led her to this agonising moment.

It was like waking up from a nightmare as she lay there gasping for air.

But the thing that most distracted Frisk was that she had somehow managed to forget this.

"How did I forget?" she said to herself, panting. "How the fuck did I forget?!"

Feeling an immense adrenaline rush, Frisk forced herself to stand up properly. Her waist and bones stung again as she did, but this time she ignored it.

Frisk painfully wandered back and forth as she tried to digest her countless memories and ponder dozens of speculations.

"I must have bumped my head on something when I fell," she said to herself. "Or maybe there's yet another time paradox bullshit. Or some nonsense like that."

Then her thoughts went elsewhere, to her friends and the awful event that led her to this dark place, for whatever caused her sudden amnesia didn't matter much to her compared to the earlier tragedy.

Frisk knew she had to go back to warn everyone and prevent the disaster from even happening, but she didn't know how. She could find barely anything in this place to help her load.

"I-I have to go back," she said as her mind began scrambling for ideas. "I need to go back somehow. I-"

Frisk stopped mid-sentence as she glanced at the cold, dark water. An awful idea popped into her head. An idea so terrible she couldn't believe she was even considering it. But it was the only way, the only way she could think of, that is. She spent a few good moments staring at the lake, trying desperately to think of other options, ones less painful and quicker. But the shattered wood wasn't sharp enough, and there weren't any loose rocks, so it was either the lake or waiting for hours until she bled out.

With that awful realisation out of the way, Frisk closed her eyes and began to mentally prepare.

"Don't worry," she said to herself. "It will all be over soon."

With her eyes still closed, she slowly walked towards the water.

"It will all be over soon, it will all be over soon," she repeated on and on while she neared the dark water.

She felt her feet touch the freezing water, and she shuddered.

"It- it will be over soon. It will all be over soon."

Frisk walked until the cold water was up to her knees. She winced as the freezing salt water seeped into wounds on her legs.

"It will-it will all be over soon. It will all be over s-soon."

She sat down on her knees in the cold water.

"It will all be over soon."

She laid on her back and floated lightly in the water. She breathed irregularly. It was cold, and she was scared.

Frisk stared at the endless darkness above her once more and closed her eyes. She was calmer now and breathed easier. She was ready.

Let's do this, she thought.

Then Frisk took a deep breath and pushed herself into the water. It wasn't that shallow this close to the beach, so it only took a few seconds before she reached the bottom. Even though Frisk wasn't trying to, the girl instinctively tried holding her breath. But after a few seconds, she stopped.

She opened her eyes as her body seemingly jolted awake from a bad dream. She saw nothing in the green, foggy water except for red smoke seeping from her wounds and to the surface. Bubbles floated from her mouth as she began gasping for air. A part of her tried to make her go up the surface, but Frisk held herself still and grabbed an underwater root to help keep herself down.

God, it hurts.

It was a constant struggle between her mind and body. Litres and litres of water entered her lungs, and she felt water pour into dozens of wounds. It hurt so much, but Frisk kept going, holding herself still as best she could.

She saw her life flash before her once more as her lungs filled with water. She saw friends, her family, the happy moments, and her worst days. But it was too late to stop now.

Her vision was getting dark, and she felt her body giving up. In the end, she saw light and then darkness. Then Frisk let out a last minuscule breath as her lifeless body floated gently to the surface.

Frisk saw nothing. Not blackness or a dark place without a hint of light. Just nothing.

Then she saw her soul, a red-coloured heart-shaped object floating in the emptiness. Then, there came a yellow, star-like thing that seemed to twist and change shape at every turn. Frisk felt a longing to reach out and touch it. When she did, her soul moved and absorbed the glowing form, and then the entire void filled with blinding light alongside all of Frisk's hopes and dreams, fears and horrors as she saw all her possible pasts, presents, and futures appear before her very eyes, if what she had in the void could be called eyes, in just an instance. But, at almost the exact moment they appeared, the flashes vanished from her sight and, once again, became distant, long-forgotten memories deep within the recesses of her consciousness. And then Frisk woke up.

"Ugh," muttered Frisk as she struggled to wake up. She felt herself lying on her back on something hard and wet.

Must be imagining, she thought.

Her blurry vision was getting better, and she had mustered enough energy to stand up.

I'm ready, she thought.

And when she managed to wake up, she became horrified beyond reason.

She was still in the deep dark caverns, lying on the rocky floor, a piece of wood in her waist.

"No!" she said. "No, no, no, no, NO! T-this can't be happening. Oh god, this can't be happening! I shouldn't have loaded here. I didn't save! I didn't FUCKING save! This has to be a nightmare, oh God, please let this be a nightmare, God, please, someone please-"

Frisk frantically tried standing up and immediately slipped on the wet stone, falling face-first into the hard floor. It hurt so much she couldn't breathe.

She began to cry as she sat down on her knees.

"HELP," she yelled into the darkness. "SOMEONE! SOMEBODY PLEASE… *sob*...HELP... ME!"

There was no answer but the echo of her sobbing voice.

"HELP ME PLEASE!"

She cried and cried uncontrollably as the grim reality dawned on her. She was alone in this cold, dark place with nothing but immense guilt and terror to keep her company. There was no one around, no one who could hear her cries.

"Oh fuck I'm so sorry," she muttered to herself. "Flowey, MK, Undyne, Gerson, everyone. I am so sorry. I have failed you. I was so clumsy a-a-and stupid that I fucked it up and failed you somehow. Oh god, I am so, so sorry."

Weeping, Frisk stumbled past the flower and slid down by the cavern wall.

"Oh god," she muttered.

She wiped tears and snot off her face with the back of her bruised hand while still sobbing.

"I wanna go home," Frisk said to herself.

But in the deep, dark recesses of the earth, nobody heard.

And nobody came...

The Shattering

An Undertale AU

Book 1: The Royal Hunt

*CHAPTER UPDATED*
01/08/2023

Author's note(written on the original version):

And here it is. The first(?) chapter of The Shattering. As you can guess, this AU can get very dark, but would you believe me if I told you this is perhaps NOT the darkest this story can get

So this cheerful introduction is basically my way of saying: "This is not going to be a happy story, and if you don't like that then you don't have to continue reading."
But anyway, I have been looking forward to making this story. I have like dozens of ideas for it, but I have planned a beginning and an end for it, so I'm not really just making up everything as I go along, although that might happen a few times. I have no idea when the next chapter will come out, but I have planned that one as well. One thing I wasn't happy about in AHTR is that I felt that the chapters were perhaps too long, and so I have instead decided to cut every chapter into a few parts, and releasing them individually.

So to finish this off, I hope you enjoy reading this fic and more will come soon.
(If you want more rambling, then you can check out the note on the first chapter of A Hunt to Remember which can be found in this collection (I think, I haven't been that much on this website))