Chapter Text
Cross never enjoyed having to fight while he was out on a supply run. He found it to be bothersome, and would much rather just get the job over with and go home.
But of course things were never that simple.
He was browsing through the aisles of some grocery store in a random Underswap au. He made a small mental note to grab the cheapest variants of the items Nightmare had written down for them to get, making sure to stay strictly on task and to not grab anything extra.
Killer on the other hand was picking up whatever caught his attention and tossing it into the shopping cart. Horror and Dust on another hand just walked silently alongside them. But every once in a while Horror would loom over his shoulder to examine the assortment of things in the cart.
If Killer found something that really piqued his interest he’d pick it up and show it off to Horror as well, then they’d closely examine whatever it was Killer had deemed interesting enough to share. This time it was a box of sugary looking cereal, the bright colors of the box stood out boldly against the dingy white tiles of the grocery store floor.
The cereal must have looked absolutely delicious, because it had the two of them seemingly stuck with the difficult decision of choosing between it or another concerningly sweet looking box of marshmallow filled cereal. The other box had a mascot of a strange looking human with ginger hair on it who was holding up a spoonful of the box's contents.
After a while of quiet debate and still no conclusion, the pair turned around and held the boxes out in front of Dust.
The hooded skeleton stopped in his tracks, almost stumbling back a bit as he stared blankly at them for a moment. (probably deciding whether or not to even bother interacting with the two of them.) He slowly tipped his head to the side as he looked over the options presented to him, his sockets nearly squinted shut as he eyed one box in particular.
After a moment of unnecessary tense silence he slowly extended his arm out from his hoodie pocket and pointed one of his gloved fingers towards the box of the off brand lucky charms.
Killer and Horror exchanged quick glances before both nodding in agreement at the decision. Killer discarded the other box on a shelf that had nothing to do with cereal, before tossing the chosen box into the cart, nearly hitting Cross in the face with it in the process.
Cross ducked out of the way, narrowly avoiding being smacked in the face by the flying box of cereal and shot Killer a pointed look as the teary eyed skeleton barked out a laugh. He glared at him for a beat longer before directing his attention down towards the box of cereal in the cart.
His eye lights stayed fixed upon the cardboard as he contemplated whether or not he should let it slide. The longer he stared the more his mind came to the conclusion that, nah, he wasn’t gonna let Killer have the satisfaction.
Scoffing, he rolled his eye lights and plucked the box of cereal from out of the cart. He raised his arm with the cereal in his hand, ready to dispose of it but was stopped by Horror.
The skeleton stared down at him with an almost pleading look, the face the other made was similar to a puppy begging for scraps underneath the table, it was a bit jarring in all honesty. The contrast between his face and the way he easily prevented his arm from reaching the shelf was…striking. He fought to break free from the taller’s grasp but knew it was likely in vain. Cross may have the magical advantage but Horror was twice as physically strong as any of them.
“No way, Nightmare gave us a strict list of necessities. He didn't leave extra money behind for snacks this time.”
Horror huffed and Cross couldn’t help but avert his gaze, okay—So maybe that was a bit of a lie, Nightmare did leave a few extra dollars in the envelope of cash he had given them before leaving. But—He never said it was for snacks or anything extra. Plus Killer had just thrown a box of cereal at his head, which he was pretty sure it wasn’t an accident, if Killer’s faint snickers and held back laughter told him anything.
He looked back up at Horror hoping maybe that would discourage him. But Horror, unfazed by this newfound knowledge continued to stare down at him, his gaze was unwavering and it was becoming clear he wasn’t gonna let up. At least not easily.
And Cross knew that, so with a drawn out sigh he lowered his arm as Horror seemed keen on stopping him from placing the cereal back on the shelf.
“Loosen up a bit Cross, it’s not even a snack anyways!” An annoyingly loud voice rang out from behind him, it was raspy and sharp but oddly smooth in a way that was annoyingly familiar. “It’s cereal, it’s a breakfast item.” Killer continued, his voice snark as he sneakily swiped the box out of his hand.
Cross puffed up in surprise and spun around towards him opening his mouth in protest, but the words got stuck in his throat as a splotch of ink collided with the back of his head. He stumbled forward, losing his balance for only a moment before whipping his head back so fast he was in all honesty, surprised he hadn’t broken his neck.
Now fully turned around he looked his attacker in the eyes and saw the last person he wanted to see.
“…Ink.” Horror’s gruff voice rang out, it was as low and grumbly like a growl but everyone understood what he had said. Ink was here, and not only him but so were Blue and Dream.
The trio stood parallel from them, all in defensive positions and looking fully prepared for a full blown battle.
Looking back, he saw that so were his teammates, glancing over to them he found they had already summoned their respective weapons and attacks, fully ready and prepared to fight. But Nightmare had told them to avoid any sort of confrontation for the time being, he made it clear that they needed to stay low, and this was definitely not staying low...
Cross knew he wouldn’t hear the end of it if he had decided to let a fight break out while he was in charge, especially if it was with the Stars. He grumbled, cursing under his breath as he stared them down, shifting through his opinions. He was not about to run the risk of taking his eyes off of any of them for even a second.
Not even as he ushered his teammates through the lopsided portal he had slashed open in a hurry.
The stars weren’t gonna let go of an au so easily and he really didn’t want to have to go against the bosses orders. So weighing his options he chose the safest and easiest one, leaving.
He’d just have to take them to another Underswap variant, it was no big deal.
Jumping through the portal, Cross made sure to watch as Dream, Ink, and Blue opened up their own portal and stepped through it.
He hit the ground with a soft crunch as his boots sunk deep into a thick layer of snow. The snow here nearly rose up to his knees, and the sudden drop in temperature sent a chill slithering up his spine and throughout his entire body. His limbs shook with such an intensity that he could faintly hear his bones rattling against one another underneath all the layers of clothing he had on.
The wind picked up speed and a strong gust swept past him, easily seeping into the thick fleece of his coat. It made him tuck his hands underneath his arms for warmth.
Where are we..?
Looking over the landscape, he browsed through the memories of the many different au’s he had previously travelled to, he tried to match up their descriptions with this one’s environment. But that proved to be difficult as he realized that wherever he was right now, it was most likely nighttime. Or at least he hoped it was because this au—Whichever one he may be in— was dark. Eerily so.
The darkness seemed to stretch outwards into oblivion, cloaking all it touched in a thick blanket of shadow.
Even the trees that were scattered about his vision blocked out what little light the moon reflected, all of them were enveloped in heavy sheets of snow making their branches bend downward towards the snowdrifts. Their already straining trunks groaned quietly in protest as they were swung about in the harsh wind.
Huh, that can’t be right—That portal was supposed to take us directly inside another shop…
Studying the snowy tree lines, his eye lights soaked in as many details as they could with all the limitations on his vision. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other as he straightened his posture and scoped out his surroundings. Despite the blistering cold wind soaring past him he untucked his hands out from underneath his arms, and subconsciously summoned a sharp jagged bone in one of his hands.
His grip around it was almost unreasonably tight as he scanned through the snow covered thicket and even up in the canopy, watching for any signs of movement within them.
There was something so clearly off about this place, the darkness that hung over the woodlands had a sharp silence to it, it felt as if something was going to jump out at him at any moment and it tugged at an old deep rooted instinct to run. He tried to shake it off and focus on something else, like why had that portal taken them here. He knew this whole predicament was strange but he didn’t know whether or not this was something he should be too concerned about.
Being teleported outside of where he actually wanted to go was strange, yes, but not that uncommon of an occurrence unfortunately.
He casted those thoughts to the side with a shake of his head and turned back towards the portal, unsummoning his bone in the process (It was draining more out of him than he’d like to admit for some reason.) as he readied himself to step back through, only to find nothing.
His portal had disappeared, but so did the surrounding objects. The few blades of grass that had stuck out of the snow were no longer there, neither was the small berry bush that stood just a few feet away, nor were the few small stones scattered about the snowy forest floor…They had all simply vanished—It was as if they had never existed to begin with. The only evidence of their existence was the faint sizzle and pop of leftover magic that twinkled in their absence, and even that was fading away quickly, being carried off by the wind.
He paused, eye lights blinking rapidly in quiet surprise at the now empty space. He tried to wrap his head around how the portal could have possibly closed without him feeling or noticing it…There was also the issue of things just disappearing.
He knew he hadn’t closed it himself and he most definitely wasn’t poofing things out of existence…At least not intentionally. That alone was already setting off alarm bells in his head, and the longer he stared at the empty patch of space the more his nerves seemed to rack up.
How long had that portal been shut? Was that why his magic was draining his energy so fast? Was there something messing with his magic?
He turned his head back to face the rest of the group, prepared to say that he had accidentally opened up the wrong portal and that they’d have to take a detour.
Instead he found Killer, far too close to his face for comfort and staring directly into his soul. He jumped back in shock at the unexpected intrusion, stumbling back a few feet and nearly slipping on the thin layer of frost that had formed over the few blades of grass left untouched by the snow—Though that wouldn’t be much of a problem later on as the downpour of snow seemed to be beginning to pick up.
“What’s got you so on edge? Don’t worry I won’t let anything jump out at ya.”
Killer stood just a half a foot away from him not bothering to step closer as he moved away but also not retreating back next to the others. The grin on his face was taunting as he watched Cross stumble about.
“Shut up Killer.”
Cross spat back, though there was no actual bite in his tone. He grumbled something under his breath about Killer being annoying as he raised his scarf over his face. Hiding the purple blush that seeped into his cheeks as Killer snickered behind him.
If anyone asked he’d say he was just cold.
It was unrelentlessly cold in this au, the wind howled past him in an unspoken fury as it wavered in-between the rows of blackened trees and through the viney thickets. The scrawny trees lined nearly every crevice of the snowy forest, twisting and turning in places they shouldn’t.
Now that he had noticed it—Why had they been sent to the forest? He had specifically made that portal so that it would take them directly inside the grocery store near the edge of an Underfell Snowdin..
“He’s right though.”
A voice, a raspy one, one that sounded hoarse from not talking much spoke up.
Cross’s eye lights instantly flickered over towards Dust, the skeleton in question had his hood pulled high up and his hands hidden deep within his pockets. The thick material of his hood casted a heavy shadow over his features, leaving only his mismatched eye lights to glow in their absence.
“What are you waiting around for..?”
Dust continued, tilting his head slightly to the left as he stared at him. The fabric of his hood followed suit, falling to the side and revealing a bit of his face. His expression was void, lips drawn into a thin line, seemingly uninterested in whatever he had going on. But Cross knew, he knew that the other was also curious or at least somewhat interested. If Dust questioning him didn’t give it up, then the way he let his head fall to the side as he stared intently, observing him as if staring alone would draw the answers out, did.
“Something’s wrong…My portal, it closed by itself and I don’t know what au we’re in right now.”
His phalanges coiled around the tuffs of fur that rimmed the edge of his hood, tugging at it as he stared at the now empty space that once occupied a red portal. He could hear Horror's slippers stepping through the snow, his footsteps were slow and quiet, almost too quiet, especially for someone of his size. The skeleton walked over and placed a steady hand on his shoulder peering down at him as he took in his tense expression. Cross tried to shoot him an encouraging look but it only made the other’s brows pinch tighter together, a frown now settled upon their face.
He knew Horror was already worried from the start. Even before they had left the manor he was already on edge; The food supply had been dwindling down faster than usual, as it so often did during the winter months, but it never failed to have the poor guy stressed out over it. It was part of the reason why all of them had come instead of just him. They’d thought it might ease his nerves a bit if he tagged along.
“That’s it?”
Killer raised a brow and smiled aloofly as if what he had just said wasn’t concerning information and rather some sort of small talk or joke.
“Don’t worry Crossy, I’m sure that strong magic of yours will get us all out of here in no time.”
Killer stretched out the word “strong” as he spoke, his voice taking on a cloying tone as he laughed around the nickname.
He shoved his hands into his pockets seemingly unbothered by the entire situation. The same manic grin that was always on his face widened, as if he enjoyed annoying him. (he most definitely did) Even as Cross shot him a pointed look and rolled his eye lights at the nickname, his smile never faltered. It had clearly amused him to see his small attempt to mess with the other was working.
Cross exhaled through his nose as he deadpanned at Killer, who in return sent him a mocking smile, the corners of his mouth nearly reaching up to his eyes
“Just stand back..”
Cross let the grip on the fur on his hood loosen before he let his hands fall away from his face completely. He extended his arm out, summoning his sword in one swift motion. The weapon glowed faintly in the dark, glistening against the pale snow and casting a low shimmering light over him and the others. The faint buzz admitting from his sword contrasted sharply against the eerie silence of the au.
Horror, having already moved away from him, was back at Dust’s side. The pair watched as he slashed at the air, striking it just as he would any other time. His sword slit through the atmosphere without a sound as he brought it down, when he looked up he saw nothing.
Nothing.
He tried again, fiercer this time, putting more strength into it as he swung his sword high and slammed it into the crisp air of the au, trying to rip open the fabric of reality itself.
But even as he poured all the effort he could into opening another portal, nothing happened.
“What, that can’t be right…Why isn’t it working..?” His sockets widened as he tried again, more aggressively than the last time.
But still, nothing happened, nothing stirred. Even the wind had stopped blowing, it was as if it was mocking him.
He clenched the sword in his hand so tightly that his knuckles stung, his teeth ground together as he tossed the sword to the ground. Watching as it disintegrated into magical particles then into nothing. Unsummoning itself without him having to as if knowing it was no longer of use.
He could hear the sound of snow crunching underneath footsteps as someone approached him from behind. He didn’t bother to look up as a pair of arms made themselves home around him, too busy staring at the freshly made gash in the snow.
A whine echoed from above him and he tilted his head back to find horror staring down at him with an even more worried expression on his face than before. Their arms squeezed around him tighter as he trapped him in a bear hug and Cross struggled to break free.
“Horror—it’s-i’m fine!”
Cross wheezed, his ribs rattling as he patted at Horror’s back. He was barely able to get the words out as they continued to squeeze the air out of his non-existent lungs. Through the chaos he could just barely make out the sound of yet another pair of footsteps coming up from behind him.
“Well isn’t this just great!” Killer spoke up not too far behind them, his tone didn’t quite match up with his words but his smile remained stubbornly plastered to his face.
He shuffled through the many pockets of his hoodie, pulling out random items every now and then, tossing them out as he continued to search for something. Finally he found what he had been looking for, his phone, presumably to call Nightmare to come pick them up. The group watched with slight anticipation as Killer’s phone rang out once, before the line picked up.
“What is it now Killer? You all better not have gotten into a fight.”
Nightmare’s voice rang out from the other side of the phone, crackling and echoing in ways that made it sound as if it were more than one person speaking. His voice used to always freak Cross out when he’d first joined, now he wouldn’t even bat an eye at it. He could tell based on his tone that he was probably busy, they had most likely interrupted his paperwork.
“Nope! But we do need you to come pick us up!” Killer emphasized the ‘o’ in nope and popped the ‘p’ as he talked into the phone. Amusement bloomed onto his face as Nightmare grumbled something on the other end before turning on his camera.
“Why would I need to come get you?” Nightmare asked, looking down at his phone with new found interest.
Killer made a sound of acknowledgment at the question as he strolled over to where Dust was standing. He was hunched over with his hood and scarf pulled up high over his face, and his arms wrapped tightly around himself as he shook stiffly in the wind.
Killer flipped the camera around tilting it towards Dust. Showing him off as if to present proof that they needed to be picked up as soon as possible.
“I see, but that doesn’t explain why I need to be the one to get you all back here, where is Cross, why isn’t he bringing you all back?”
Nightmare squinted his eyes as he peered down at his phone, his reading glasses sliding down his nose bridge as he studied the background. There was nothing to indicate or even hint at their location, nothing looked familiar, not even to him.
“Where are you all located?”
“Uhh we don’t know…” Killer shrugged with an idiotic smile on his face, looking utterly dumb in the eyes of everyone around him.
“What? How do you not know where you are? Where is Cross, bring the phone to him.” Nightmare groaned, physically suppressing a sigh as he stared at Killer with an exhausted expression.
This was strange, he always put Cross in charge of the supply runs for this specific reason. He could travel about the au’s freely with that sword of his. He thought he made it clear to him that he was to travel to ones that were familiar not to him but to the rest of the group as well. Made it easier to find them if they get stuck.
Complying, Killer skipped over to Cross who was still wrapped up in Horror’s arms, though he was able to freely breathe now, the other having loosening his grip on them.
“Boss wants to talk to you.” Killer said tossing the phone to Cross who barely caught it as his fingers were beginning to become rigid and stiff from the cold.
“Hello?” He peeked into the phone screen, glancing at the sludge covered skeleton that was his boss.
“Where are you?” Nightmare's tone left no room for questions, his words were simple and straight to the point.
“Uhm..”
Cross glanced around the snow covered terrain and tried to formulate an answer but every possible au that came to mind didn’t quite seem to fit its description.
“You don’t know, do you?”
It wasn’t a question, it was a statement, a true one at that; He didn’t know where they were, they were lost.
“No sir…” Cross muttered, his tone strained as he let the words fall from his mouth.
He couldn’t help but let out a sigh of frustration at his lack of knowledge on the whereabouts of him and his teammates. If he had been actually thinking about what he was doing rather than just trying to flee, maybe he would’ve had some useful information that could actually help get them all home.
“That’s fine, the trackers installed in the lockets you all wear can tell me where you all are.” Nightmare’s voice crackled loudly from the other side of the phone after a brief moment of silence, startling and almost making him drop the small device.
“Trackers?” Horror’s gruffly voice sounded a bit shocked, his interest more than piqued with curiosity at the mention of trackers.
His claw-like fingers picked at the silver locket tucked away underneath his shirt, the necklace had Nightmare’s initials engraved into it; The way their boss had taken the time out his day to carve out his name onto each pendant reminded him of one of those dog collars that wrote, “if lost return to__”, and he silently chuckled at the resemblance.
“I knew something like this would happen eventually, do you really think I wouldn't have prepared for something like this?” Nightmare’s said boredly as he raised an eyebrow.
“It’s been a tracker in here this whole time?!” Killer asked tugging at the silver plated locket as he leaned down and gazed into the phone.
“Oh of course, I hadn’t thought I needed any until I first recruited you. I soon realized that you couldn’t be trusted to not wander off and get lost, so I created these to keep tabs on you.”
Killer made an offended sound ready to defend himself, his mouth hung open like he was ready to say something, but was cut off by Dust’s snickers.
“You seriously ran off so much to the point boss had to put a tracker on your ass?” Dust cackled, his hood sliding off his head with the force of his laugh.
“At least-“”
Crunch
“…”
Silence descended upon the group and the only sound that could be heard was the faint blow of the wind.
“Did y'all…hear that?” Horror whispered, his scratchy voice low as he concentrated on listening.
“Hear what?” Nightmare asked, his voice laced with something boarding between curious and concerned. But the most noticeable thing about his voice was that it was breaking up—no. The phone was breaking up, his voice beginning to sound staticky and glitching out of control.
“Boss?” Cross shook the phone, tapping and lightly hitting it as if that would get it to stop glitching. Though it was all in vain he’d soon come to realize as the phone finally blacked out and stopped responding entirely.
He smacked his teeth in annoyance and quietly breathed out through his nose. He was about to tell Killer his phone was no longer of any use but Horror was quick to shush him. He watched as Horror let his arms drop to his sides, taking careful steps away from him as he pulled his axe out from its makeshift carrier on his back. His eye light gleamed dangerously as his glare burned a hole into the dark evergreens.
“What is it big guy?” Killer asked, his once chipper voice now wary as he squinted his eyes in the direction Horror was staring at.
His eyesight was always poor, (now more than ever thanks to the determination pouring from his sockets.) so he stepped forward to get a better look. He was careful to be cautious as he summoned a knife, the magic buzzed faintly, trying to hold its shape as if it were unstable.
Horror stopped him before he could walk past, blocking him with his axe all while never taking his eye off the shadowy cover of the trees.
“Stop…something watching.”
Horror wasn’t one of many words, he couldn’t really talk much, but that didn’t mean he was stupid. Far from it.
It was just difficult for him to string together long sentences with that gaping hole in his skull. So whenever Horror did feel like speaking, he meant it, his words may come off as straightforward and blunt but they left no room for questions. He didn’t waste time with lies.
raising his head he sniffed the air, his breath catching in his throat and his eye light shrunk down so small it looked like a sharpened pinprick.
Killer tilted his head back looking up at him, raising a brow he tried to guess what it was that he had smelled. He threw the others a questioning glance but only got shrugs in response so asked the question nobody else would.
“What is it-?”
“Blood…lots of it.”
Horror growled out, his stance somehow became even more defensive as he scanned the tree lines. The smell of blood was so potent that there was no doubt that whatever was bleeding or dead (preferably dead) was close.
Too close.
A rustle in the undergrowth startled nearly everyone in the group and all their attention was instantly shifted to one bush in particular. The thorny bush thrashed about aggressively as if something was trying to claw its way out. They all stared with bated breaths as squeals erupted from the prickly bush and a small animal came running out from within it.
A vole, small in size, was probably running from a fox if he had to guess.
Horror hesitated but lowered his weapon as the small rodent scurried past his feet without as much as a glance up as it escaped into the thicket on the other end of the forest.
“Huh…” Killer muttered as his gaze shifted from the ground to down at his hand, his knife was gone. He hadn’t unsummoned it…
“Dust, try something for me.” Killer asked, turning towards the skeleton in question and walking over to him with an unreadable expression, his smile dimmed.
“Try what-“
SNAP
Something snapped from within the same patch of vegetation the vole had just ran from, the unmistakable sound of twigs bending and breaking under the weight of something echoed throughout the dense silence of the woods.
There had been something following that vole, but whatever it was, it hadn’t been a fox…It was far too big for that.
It looked more like a monster, maybe a Muffet, a seriously injured and deranged Muffet. They clawed at Dust’s shorts, tearing at the fabric as they tried to drag him down towards their jaws; Their teeth, gagged, rigid, and sharp, snapped at Dust wildly like a rabid dog as they pulled at his leg.
He kicked at them, summoning an attack through the ground before he could even fully process it, the bones pierced through the monster's torso and whatever was left of their bottom half.
The spider let out a deafening shriek as the attack tore through their flesh.
It prevented them from grabbing Dust but nothing seemed to stop them from trying. Their hands, bloodied and clawed beyond recognition, scraped at the snow as they desperately attempted to reach them. Their body twitched and thrashed so instantly they nearly bent themselves in two trying to swipe at one of them. They dragged themselves (or tried to at least-) against the snow, leaving streaks of blood and magic everywhere.
Dust particles were flying off of every surface of their body yet they stayed aware enough to snarl and snap up at them. This didn’t make sense…
They should be dead.
“What the fuck…” Dust breathed out as the spider hissed at him. His hood had fallen off his head after he had kicked and gotten away from the monster, the beads of sweat treading down his forehead made it clear he hadn’t been expecting a sneak attack.
“Dust are you alright?!”
Cross, ever the worried, ran to his side the moment he got away from the deranged looking Muffet and placed a hand on his shoulder. Leaning over he examined him, searching for any signs of an injury.
Dust sighed, nodding his head. It wasn’t like he couldn’t handle himself, Cross worried too much.
“I’m good. It was just a Muffet…”
He flipped his hood back on and sidestepped back towards Horror, he stared down at him for an uncomfortable amount of time.
“Yeah a crazy ass Muffet.” Killer snorted, smiling down at the still thrashing spider.
They seemed to be in pain even as they reached out to grab at one of them. He scoffed and turned towards the rest of the group, served them right for attacking Dust.
“How are they…still moving?”
Cross spoke up, now grimacing at the disintegrating monster not too far away from him.
“The hell if I know.” Horror huffed out as he grabbed Dust by the sleeve and carefully yanked him up. Dust in return yelped in surprise and glared at the twice his size skeleton in front of him.
“What are you doing?!” He gritted out through his teeth as he struggled to wriggle out of his grasp.
“Can’t have you brushing off any injuries while we’re out here…Anything can be life threatening, we don't know anything about this place…”
Horror explained as he examined him thoroughly, his eye lights scanned him, making sure not to skip over any bits of bone that were exposed. Which wasn’t much—considering that he was bundled up in his scarf and hoodie, but his legs had been scratched up. Though it wasn’t nothing, a little healing magic would help. With that evaluated he slowly set the still squirming Dust down.
“I’m fine, it’s just a scratch…” Dust sighed already fed up with being fretted over, he brushed off the bits of snow that stuck to the fabric of his hood and pulled at the drawstrings.
“We know you are, just making sure you ain’t being reckless…”
Horrors voice was low and final as if he had already predicted what the other was gonna say before the words even left their mouth.
“Reckless?” Dust questioned, there was a slither of amusement that was clear in his tone as he spoke. “If anything Killer’s the reckless one—I mean look at him, he’s practically toying with zombies.”
Both Horror and Cross whipped their heads towards Killer and as promised they found him taunting and kicking at the zombie looking Muffet with a concerning amount of enjoyment.