Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Susie opened her eyes. Right away she winced at the sharp glare of the computer lab lights. Once she could regain her vision, she looked around the room. Her head was spinning. She was starting to get used to the out-of-place feeling she got when she left the Dark World, she thought, but it was still jarring and probably would be for a while.

Her eyes locked on Noelle, who laid, head down across the table from her. Her hair fanned out over top her arms and long braids adorned her head like sashes. 

Susie shook away the thought, instead turning to Kris as Noelle and Berdly began to rise. Kris, at least, was reliable. They were quiet. That pissed her off, originally, but she began to appreciate it. At least Kris didn’t make her feel anything that she’d rather not. At least Kris didn’t make her stomach twist and turn, worse than the time that she had eaten a box of chalk in one sitting. 

Kris looked up at her in vague disinterest, which was how they looked most of the time. They quickly turned their gaze to the others in the room once they realized Susie had nothing to say. 

Berdly was the first to speak, pushing a cluster of blue feathers out of his eyes as he did. “Huh? What happened...?” 

Noelle lifted her head and looked almost sad as she responded. 

“Oh, I guess it was a dream...” Her eyes, the color of hot chocolate on Christmas morning, Susie thought before quickly pushing the thought away again, glittered even in the unflattering yellow florescent lights of the room.

Berdly looked puzzled, staring at Noelle with a curious look in his eyes before he nodded. As he turned, his eyes glazed over Susie and Kris, before returning to Susie with a double-take. 

“Susie!?” He questioned, rising to his feet, the rolling chair spinning out from under him as he did. 

Noelle turned sharply. Susie could almost hear her neck crack. “Susie? Why are you here?” Her voice trembled as she stood, sweeping aside a few notebooks with one hand, balancing herself against the table with the other. 

Kris cast an amused glance at Susie. Well, she thought it was amused, she could never really tell with them. It could easily be angry, or annoyed, or mocking, or... Well, that isn’t the point. Susie smiled, showcasing a bear trap of sharp teeth as she did. 

“You invited us to study, remember?” She shoved her hands into her jean pockets, her purple plaid shirt, two sizes too big so that it could conceal her tail, had a few sticks of chalk sticking out of the pocket. 

“Oh, er, right- I uh-” Noelle stammered, a blush sweeping across her furred cheeks as she glanced away in embarrassment. Berdly let out a loud, condescending laugh. “What? Study with them? Noelle, heavens to YIKES! They’re... They’re...” Berdly trailed off as he saw that Susie and Kris were both giving him menacing stares. He wasn’t sure how he could tell with Kris, their eyes were always covered by hair or shadow, but he knew. 

“Well, I guess we could try it.” He turned his gaze back to Noelle but still felt two matching stares burning holes in the back of his skull. 

Berdly’s phone, (which had a spotless screen and an ATARI case,) started buzzing, playing what Susie recognized as the Star Wars anthem. She tried to marathon the movies, once in a time, but fell asleep near the beginning, so she only really knew the intro. Berdly picked it up, his eyes widening behind thick-rimmed glasses as he looked at the time. 

“Ahh, I’m going to be late for my shift with Ms. Boom!” He cried as Noelle turned to him in surprise. “Oh no, how is it that late already?!” Berdly didn’t answer but turned to the others as he swept his books onto one arm. “Adieu, everyone. I must gather my booklongings. Ahh, how I love the texture of freshly picked-up books.” Susie snorted. She hadn’t expected Berdly to be the type to make a pun, even if it was a terrible one. 

“Now, let us hasten, my dear Noelle!” He said, rushing out the door with Noelle in toe. For some reason, that made that too-familiar snake writhe in Susie’s stomach.

“Bye Kris, and, uhm,” Noelle froze, like a reindeer in headlights, “Bye, Susie,” She finally managed to say quietly, before turning to leave again.

“Uh, seeya,” Susie responded, and as per usual, Kris responded with silence. She noticed Noelle craning her neck to get a better look at Susie while her back was turned.

Susie spun around, a hand pulling the back of her shirt down over her tail, just to make sure, as she said in as menacing a voice she could muster in her flustered state, “What!? What is it!? Are you LOOKING for something!?” 

Noelle froze, her eyes widening, as she took a step back and darted for the door. “Nothing, sorry!” She said, almost an afterthought.

Susie let out a huff of air, turning away and propping her head upon her elbows. “Ugh. The hell is her problem, anyway? Way to treat someone who just saved the world.” As if she had just now realized that, she bolted upright, gripping Kris by the shoulders and shaking them. “KRIS! We just saved the world! We’re heroes! Like, real heroes, we deserve MEDALS!” Kris muttered back that she’d probably eat them, or at least attempt to. 

Susie snorted, playfully punching their shoulder, before responding, “Shut up, loser. But seriously, no one even knows how totally heroic we are!” Her expression fell, as she said, “Guess it’s better that way, though. People’d freak out if they knew the world was in danger, and they’d flip their shit if they found out a bunch of high schoolers was the only thing stopping it from being destroyed.”

Susie turned away, as she said, “Though, uh, kinda sucks Noelle has to forget about it too...” She paused, and Kris waited patiently, before she said, “Whatever, let’s just get out of here. How are we gonna get all this shit to the school closet without being noticed?” She heaved her shoulders, resigned with the knowledge that she’d either get arrested again or have to do a lot of heavy lifting.

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After a few excruciating hours of moving machinery and sneaking around town, (which involved a trip to the hospital where she had a conversation with Noelle’s dad that still left her rattled,) she stood, hands in her pockets, outside Kris’s house. Kris lingered near the door, as Susie said, “Alright punk, I get it. See you tomorrow.”

She turned to leave when the door clicked and swung open. She turned, and then stood straight as a board when a woman, Kris’s mom she assumed, stood in the doorway. She hadn’t really expected Kris’s mom to be a monster, and a goat one at that, but she also hadn’t really expected her to be a human either. 

Humans weren’t so common in this town. Not because of any prejudice or mistreatment against them, not to say that it didn’t exist, but humans tended to stay with humans, and monsters tended to stay with monsters. Kris was really one of the first that she had seen, besides the odd passerby or tourist. 

Susie thought herself tall, but she couldn’t deny just how much taller the woman in front of her loomed. She would have been intimidating, if she wasn’t wearing a purple apron, stained with flour, over a white turtleneck and fuzzy pants. 

“Oh, Kris, is this your friend?” She said, her voice warm and welcoming. Susie took a few steps back, awkwardly shoving her clawed hands into her pockets once again, as she muttered, “I uh- Really should get goin’...” The woman clapped her paws together, offering a warm smile as she said, “Nonsense! Come in, I can bake a pie for you two!” 

Well, that changed her mind. She hastily straightened up again, glancing at Kris and silently urging them to walk in first. “Well, uh, if you insist...” She muttered as Toriel hurried back into the house. She followed behind Kris, staring at the ceiling as soon as she crossed the threshold of their home.

“Susie, why don’t you go and wash your hands, and then I can teach you how to bake?” Susie’s eyes widened just a bit in surprise. She hadn’t expected to be the one making the pie. Knowing her, it’d probably turn out awful, but... “Yes ma’am,” She replied stiffly. Toriel laughed prettily. “Susie, you can just call me Toriel. I’ve heard a lot about you from Ms. Alphys, we’re colleagues you know!”

As Toriel walked into the kitchen, Susie muttered, “Oh, sweet...” Before punching Kris in the arm roughly. “Kris! You asshole, what’d Alphys say about me?” Kris shrugged. “Well, whatever. If anything bad happens, I can just tell your mom about Alphys’s cartoon book collection.” She snickered, giving Kris another soft punch to the shoulder.

Susie hurried off to the bathroom, passing Toriel in the kitchen with an awkward glance before she shut and locked the bathroom door behind her. 

Susie braced herself on the sink with both hands, claws scratching against the ceramic. Okay, Susie, breathe. Her stomach was tied in knots, as she ran a nervous hand through her tangled hair. It was stupid. It was so, so stupid, how could this get her worked up?

She never had a great mom, or a great dad, for that matter. She knew they sucked from a young age, she saw how the other kids played without care, felt her stomach growl each day that she went without lunch because her mom was drunk and forgot to buy groceries or her dad was perched in the kitchen, waiting for Susie to enter just so he could yell his head off at her. 

She saw how kind Kris’s mother was. She was jealous, she could admit that to herself when she was alone, and anger, resentment almost, flared in her gut. Tears pricked at the back of her eyes. It wasn’t fair. How come everyone had someone, Noelle had her dad, Kris has Toriel, hell, even Berdly has Noelle, (Thinking that sent a wave of some sort of unpleasant emotion through her,) But she had nothing? 

No family that cared, one friend that she’s sure barely tolerates her, and all of these feelings, feelings that she can’t describe and doesn’t want to. 

Sometimes she feels like she’s drowning, clawing at the surface of the water in spite. Like she was gasping for air, only for more salty water to fill her lungs and strangle her slowly. Sometimes she wished that she could drown faster. That the cold, uncaring embrace of death would swallow her whole, leaving a space that would soon be filled and memories that would soon be forgotten. 

But despite that, she swims. 

She swims because she’s scared.

She swims because maybe, just maybe, there’s a lifeboat out there, somewhere on the horizon.

Until she finds that boat, or she drowns, it isn’t over yet. She can still keep swimming until her limbs give out on her in exhaustion and she sinks to the ocean floor.

Oh, right. She was supposed to be washing her hands.

She bathed her scaly hands in hot water, taking deep breaths and feeling ridiculous at her sudden outburst. Damn it, she was gonna... She’s gonna go out there, make some delicious goddamn pie, and eat it! 

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She opened the door to the rest of the house after a few seconds of hesitation. Her worn black boots thudded against the hardwood floor and made every second of silence so much more awkward. Toriel turned, a pile of ingredients now stacked on the countertop, and smiled. “Susie! I was thinking maybe you and Kris could bake the pie instead!”

Honestly, she was happy. She knew it was selfish, but she didn’t really want to be around Toriel. She was just another reminder of something Susie didn’t have, and would never have. Something that she’s longed for since she was a tiny lizard and even though she hates it and wishes she could stop, would long for as long as she lived. Until the moment it became absolutely impossible, she would hope, and she would be disappointed at every jarring reminder that she would never have a good relationship with her mother. That her dreams would only ever be fulfilled in her head at night, only to be torn away from her when she opened her eyes.

Kris tugged on Toriel’s apron and muttered something. “Oh, you need to wash your hands too? Alright, don’t take too long!” Shit. Now she’d have to be alone with her.

As Kris stalked off to the bathroom, she could hear the door shut and the tap start to run. “Susie, could you get the flour for me? It’s just over there.” Toriel said, pointing at the counter. “Oh, uh, yes ma’am,” Susie muttered in a low voice, as she quickly rushed over, picked up the open bag of flour, and returned. 

One of the floorboards was loose. Her foot got caught on it, almost sending her tumbling over, but she managed to right herself. Unfortunately, a puff of flour flew up into her face and coated her nose. Toriel turned at Susie’s cry of surprise, glancing over her to make sure she was okay before laughing.

“You’ve got some flour on your nose, dear,” She said, raising a white paw to her mouth and stifling another snicker. 

Susie shook her head, sneezing loudly as she tried to rub off the powder with her shirt sleeve. 

“Where the he- Heck is Kris?” Susie asked, wincing as she censored herself. 

A few minutes passed by as Toriel tried to stall, slowly pulling the ingredients together.

“Where the hell is Kris?” Toriel said, her nose scrunched in suspicion. “Ms. Toriel-” Susie started to say in surprise, before cutting herself off. She hadn’t taken Toriel as the type to use that language. Sure, Hell wasn’t a curse word or anything, but Toriel seemed like the type of person to think that it was. 

Toriel sighed, sounding resigned as she said, “Well, I guess you’ll be making the pie with me.” Susie tried not to look too disappointed. 

They had gotten to mixing the ingredients before Toriel stopped. “I left something in my car, I’ll be right back!” Her voice was cheery as she rushed out the door. Kris returned soon after, looking... Out of it, Susie guessed.

“Jeez, where the hell were you? You look sick, should you like, lie down or something?” Kris only answered her with a vacant stare, one of their eyes exposed through their bangs.  

“...” Susie was starting to lose her nerve, but she bolstered herself, puffing out her chest in mock confidence as she said, “You loser, you left me here with your mom! I don’t even know how to bake, c’mon, help me out here.” 

Kris walked past her, into the living room, without a word. As they did, Toriel returned, with an expression of unease.

“Ms. Toriel! Uh, is there anything else I should do...?” She muttered, staring at the floor as she scuffed the hardwood with her shoe. Toriel stopped in her tracks, flashing a strained grin. “No, uhm, let’s pause for now. Susie, would you like to stay the night?” 

Susie wasn’t sure if you could pause in the middle of baking, but she didn’t have time to dwell on it. She was too surprised by the sudden offer. Honestly, she didn’t want to go home yet, and she wanted to keep an eye on Kris. Something seemed off. “Uh, yeah, sure...” 

“Perfect, can you go call your mother and tell her that you won’t be home tonight?” Toriel led her to the home phone. “Uh, yeah, just, calling, now, ringing the numbers on the phone...” Susie picked up the phone, as Toriel hurried into a different room. As soon as Toriel was out of view, she dropped the phone, letting it swing on the cord before putting it back on the receiver with a click. 

She stomped into the living room. She turned to Kris, punching his shoulder playfully. “So, what the hell, a sleepover!? I haven’t had one of those in years!” She didn’t like to think about the reason why. About how her house was so filthy, her parents so loud and angry or drunk all the time, and how when she was invited to one, she was always out-of-place. The kind of kid your mom tells you that you have to invite to parties since they don’t have any friends.

Susie threw herself onto the couch. “Come on, you don’t need to be told to sit down, do you?” She grinned playfully at Kris, who was standing near the doorway. They just gave a small shrug and sat down on the opposite end of the sofa. 

“Should be here somewhere, gimme a sec-” She muttered, shoving her hand into the crack between the couch cushions and rifling around. “Aha!” She cried triumphantly, tearing a remote from the cushions’ grasp. 

“There’s always hidden stuff in couch cushions, take it from me, Kris.” She didn’t usually try so hard to make conversation, but something was off. She wrapped one of her arms over the top of the couch as she searched through the TV channels. 

“Jeez, it’s dusty. When’s the last time you used this thing?” No response. “Well, anyway, what are we gonna marathon tonight!? Blood Crushers 3? Hell Busters? Invasions of the Cat Petters!?” She grinned, wide and pointy. The last one was her favorite. The first time she saw it, it made her blood run cold. Not many things scared her, at least, in a good way. That was something that Noelle mentioned earlier that she had a hard time understanding.

Noelle had said that she was scary in a good way. She supposed it made sense in some scenarios, like when you were at the top of a roller coaster, looking down at the sharp drop, or when you saw a horror movie with a lot of sudden jumpscares and blood, but how can a person be scary in a good way? All the people that she was afraid of, which wasn’t many, were scary in a bad way. They were scary because they were bad people. Because they hurt people, hurt her.

Was that what Noelle meant? That Susie was a bad person? That she only hurt people? She wouldn’t be surprised if that was what Noelle thought. It’s what everyone’s thinking. She knows that. But Noelle had said she was good, and she didn’t understand. She wasn’t sure if she could. 

She swept the thought aside, as she often did. “Heh, maybe ICE-E the Movie’s more your speed, huh, Kris?” She teased, bursting into laughter. She trailed off into silence at Kris’s lack of a reaction. She was used to Kris being monotone by now, but something was different about this.

It was the difference of the comfortable silence of laying in a grassy field, and the silence that set her teeth on edge. The silence that came along with darkness, with being alone and trapped. The screaming silence of the walls closing in.

The silence of the air leaving her lungs as she desperately tried to make a noise and alert somebody, anybody, that she needed help. A way to escape.

.

.

.

But nobody came.

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“It’s been a good day, huh, Kris?” She asked, expecting not to get an answer. 

“It’s.. Just  cool hanging out together, you know?” She leaned back a little further, kicking her shoes off. “That’s why, well... Don’t you think it’d be awesome if we could bring our friends to OUR world? Ralsei, Lancer, hell, maybe even Queen!” 

“Think about how cool it would be! We could all walk to school together, Ralsei could do our homework, Lancer could live under your bed...” Her eyes glazed over as she thought about it. “We’d be unstoppable, is what I’m saying.” 

“Ugh, wait, what if Ralsei became a teacher’s pet?” She wrinkled her snout in disgust. “Well, not if, it feels like, uh, only a matter of time. Hell, all I’m saying is that he better bring me an apple too.” 

Kris stared at the table. Susie thought she maybe saw them nod, just a little.

“So the festival is coming up!” She felt awkward. Right now, it was like talking to a brick wall. “That thing where the town... Becomes a carnival...” She said, confusion making her pause in the middle of her sentence. 

“Stupid, right? But uh, say you had to... Take someone? Who’d it be?” She asked, feeling nervous. Even if Kris said her, it’d probably be because she’s their only friend. Wait, is she their only friend? Does Kris have side friends that she doesn’t know about? Is that a thing that she should be worried about?

After another long moment of silence, she shrugged. “Yeah, I probably wouldn’t go either. Shit’s for babies, you know? We’re in high school, what’s the fun in walking through a busy street, watching a bunch of clowns (literally!) fall over each other? I mean, sure, there’s the carnival games, but they’re totally rigged.” 

She was really only saying that because she was terrible at them. She had perfect aim, sure, at anything except carnival games.

She remembered when she was younger, she saw a game with a prize that she really wanted. It was a stuffed animal, almost as big as her. A purple dinosaur. She would have killed for it. Her mom, who she had begged to take her, let her play once and dragged her off even as she protested after she lost. She had cried over that stupid plushie, until her mom told her to stop or that she’d give her something to really cry about.

She didn’t doubt that.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters appeared on screen as she absentmindedly flicked through the channels. 

“Now THIS is what I’m talking about! A giant monster movie special! Always liked them better than the giant human movies. THIS is something we can marathon! Are you ready Kris?” She turned to them, tossing the remote onto the couch and gripping their shoulders. “For twelve hours of building-bashing, car-crashing action!?” She shook him a little. “Cause we are LOCKED IN, got it!? I better not see you move until your eyes are bloodshot!” She laughed, releasing his shoulders and laying back on the couch.

“Let me just... Get comfortable here, and...” She muttered, adjusting her position on the sofa until she sunk into the soft cushions. “There!”

A few minutes of the movie passed by, and even as Godzilla roared menacingly, her eyes felt heavy. A blink turned into a longer one, and then it happened again, until she had her eyes closed, snoring loudly, an arm thrown over the side of the couch and her face pressed into the arm of the sofa. Drool dripped onto the soft material.

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She woke up a few times, but not fully. Most of them were normal, just the movie droning on in the background. It was dark, and Kris was asleep.

One of the times, she thought she could hear Toriel whispering urgently from the other room. “Officer, officer? Thank goodness, I finally got through... I thought I saw someone prowling around outside, and when I checked... The tires... They looked like they’d been slashed. Officer, if you could please come over... You will? Soon? Thank you...” She was concerned, of course, but still, let the warmth of sleep overtake her again. 

That was, until she blinked her eyes open again, and saw Kris, she thought, standing in the middle of the room. The door was ajar, the TV set on dead air, but what she noticed first was the metallic gleam of something sharp in their hand.

A knife.

She didn’t have time to react before they crouched, driving the knife into the ground, and inky darkness erupted from the wound in the floor.

She couldn’t even open her mouth to scream as the cold dark enveloped her.

She couldn’t see Toriel.

She couldn’t see Kris.

She couldn’t even see her own hands in front of her.

All she could see was a mocking grin, leering out at her on the TV screen. 

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Chapter Text

OKAAAY OKAYOKAYOKAY OKAY SO ! IM PROBABLY GONNA DELETE THIS ONCE I POST THE NEXT CHAPTER, I KNOW I SAID ID HAVE IT OUT BY TODAY, BUUUT I HAVE A LOT OF SCHOOL STUFF AND I HAVE TO DESIGN ALL THE NEW MONSTERS AND AREAS AND STUFF!!!

ITS GONNA COME OUT SOON, PROMISE

YEAH

(JUST MAKING SURE U GUYS KNOW I HAVENT FORGOTTEN ABOUT IT)

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Susie opened her eyes. She hoped that she would be met with the sharp glare of the computer lab once more. That she would hear the soft hum of the fluorescent lights instead of smothering silence. But she felt the familiar weight of spiked bracelets around her wrists and arms, now shackles tying her to this world. 

Her first thought was Kris. She stumbled forward, trying to regain her surroundings as she called out in a voice that cracked with desperation, “Kris!?” 

But nobody came. 

She became aware of Toriel a second later. She was standing near the edge of the room, clutching at the front of her new dress. It was a black color but shifted into shades of fiery red as the soft light from the TV reflected off of its surface. A rune was inscribed in the gauzy material that covered her chest. It burned bright, like pure fire, like lava. 

She looked at Susie like a deer in headlights. Like someone who’d just lost everything and wasn’t even aware of it yet. 

“Susie?” She asked, her words failing her even as she tried to speak. 

“Ms. Toriel, uh, I swear I can explain everything, but we need to find Kris!” Susie put her hands up, blackened claws glinting in the neon light cast from the crack in the curtains. 

“Where did they go?” Toriel asked, rushing up to Susie and grabbing her by the shoulders. As if she feared Susie would run, would leave before telling her anything about where to find her child. 

Toriel always thought she was a good mother.

She always thought she could protect Kris, that she was protecting Kris. But obviously, something big had been happening, and she was none the wiser.

That wasn’t true.

She knew something was off with Kris. They had been acting strange. She just brushed it off, hoping that it was just a momentary phase that they would soon pass out of. 

Now she wishes that she paid more attention. She wishes that she offered help, someone to listen, instead of waiting and hoping that Kris would come to her. 

There’s no time to think of that. 

Susie had been talking, Toriel realized, but she hadn’t really been listening. “I apologize, can you repeat that?” Toriel released her iron grip on Susie’s shoulders, shuffling back a little as she cast an embarrassed glance at the floor. She didn’t even know what was going on yet, it would do no good to assume the worst. 

“Yeah, uh, sure,” Susie muttered, flattening her bangs over her eyes with one hand, the other shoved into her pant pockets. “I know this is really sudden, but we’re in a place called a ‘Dark World’. It’s made by these fountains, and there’s this guy called the Knight that goes around and makes more fountains to try and bring this thing called the ‘Roaring’, and...” Susie trailed off, taking a few steps back and clearing her throat.

This is insane. Dark Worlds? Fountains? The Knight? The Roaring? Toriel couldn’t begin to comprehend what Susie was trying to explain. This had to be some sort of fever dream. She’s a damn teacher, for Christ’s sake, how was she supposed to anticipate this? Whatever Kris had gotten themselves involved in, it was something that she should have protected them from. Before this... Dark World... Swallowed them whole. 

“Sorry, ‘know it doesn’t make a lot of sense.” Toriel shook her head, giving a smile that looked more like a grimace. “No, no, it’s... I just need to know how to find them. I need to know where Kris is.” 

Susie shifted on her feet. “I don’t really know where they could have gone, but, if we look around, we might find them. They can’t have gone too far, they’re not that fast of  a runner...” She said, trying to crack a joke to lighten the air and failing miserably. That had never been a specialty of hers. 

“Yes, yes, you’re right.” Toriel finally started to look around, first grabbing the material of her dress between two fingers. “... This isn’t my usual fashion choice, but I suppose I'll have to put up with it for now.” She muttered. It was cut a little lower than anything she usually wore and was form-fitting until it tapered off near the lower parts of her legs, fluttering into a skirt that reminded her of a campfire. 

Her surroundings were strange as well. It looked as if they were still in her house, but it was more... Festive, in a way? Carnival decorations hung on the wall, giving the living room an air of a tacky children’s restaurant. Neon lights, cut into hazy shapes from the curtains that concealed most of the window, illuminated the dark room and glinted off of shards of glass.

 The TV was shattered. 

Toriel rushed off to where she knew Kris’s bedroom had to be, throwing open the door, hoping and praying that Kris would be hiding somewhere in there.

Nothing.

The room was different from the rest of the rooms in the house. Instead of being decked out in tacky technicolor decorations, it was monochrome. The walls were white brick. The floors were wooden planks that matched the same color. They were covered by a gray carpet. 

Propped up against opposite walls were two beds. Two beds much too small for Kris to fit in. Hung on the walls were childrens’ drawings. Some of them looked familiar. Drawings of yellow flowers and goat monsters and kings. One she swore looked like her. 

There was a wardrobe by one of the beds, whose door was ajar and revealed an array of yellow and green sweaters much like the ones that Kris was so fond of. 

Sitting next to that was a small bookshelf, and on top of its dusty surface sat a vase with a blooming golden flower and a picture frame. She didn’t want to approach. She saw someone in the photo that looked so much like her son when he was just a little kid. But she couldn't recognize the other child in the photo. They were wearing a yellow and green sweater, and their brown hair was cut into flat bangs across their forehead. They clutched at Asriel like an old friend.  

As if commanded by an outside force, she shut the door to the bedroom that felt so oddly familiar and yet so oddly dissonant. 

She stood outside for a minute or two, trying to conjure up a single thought and failing. She opened the door again...

And was met with a brick wall. Green vines crept out from in-between the cracks. 

Fear and confusion wracked through her body all at once, forcing her to her knees. She held a paw against the brick, claws scratching against it ever so slightly, as she tried to force back memories of a place she had never been.

Of a life she had never led. 

A life of kings and humans and magic, a life of solitude locked away behind a door strangled by vines. 

A life without Kris. 

And then, as suddenly as the feeling of deja-vu came, it went, and she was able to stand again. A dull ache thudded against her heart, but it was easy enough to ignore. Kris wasn’t here, but they exist, they are alive, and she still has to find them. 

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Susie searched around the living room, finding nothing but broken glass, dust, and festival decorations. She was relieved when Toriel came back. She hadn’t been gone for more than a few minutes, but Susie was eager to leave. Kris must have gone outside, but why wouldn’t they wait for her?

A fuzzy memory of a knife glinting off the light from the TV arose.

She shuddered. “We should get goin’,” She pointed her thumb back towards the front door. Toriel stared at her for a second, and then nodded, rushing forward. “If Kris isn’t here, they must be out there.” 

They lingered by the door, unsure of what they would be faced with once it opened.

. . .

Well, they didn’t expect this. Maybe they should have, considering all the festive props strung up through the house, but...

It was a proper carnival. Like the festival that happened each year. The buildings were familiar, yet not. Like the world they once knew had been taken and molded into something new. 

The streets were barren. Distant carnival music echoed down the vast expanse and reached their ears as a distorted garble. 

A flyer flew down the street, landing only a few feet in front of Susie.

She picked it up, and read aloud, her nose scrunching in concentration, “Carnie Twins’ Magical Circus, tickets half off...” Her gaze skimmed down the paper. “ ’Dedicated to the bleeding heart that brought us this new land: The Knight.’ ” Toriel leaned over Susie’s shoulder. “This Knight, you mentioned them too, do you have any idea who they are?” 

Susie shook her head. “Dude’s been mentioned a few times, apparently he goes around and makes new Dark Fountains? But... I saw something weird earlier, with Kris.” Toriel waited for her to continue. 

Susie gestured awkwardly with one hand, crumpling the paper up and shoving it into her pocket. “It might have just been a dream, but I saw them right before all of this happened. They had a knife, and I think... I don’t know, I think they made a new Dark Fountain. Shi-” She winced. “Shoot, I don’t like this.” 

Toriel’s expression was curiously blank. “How would they make a ‘Dark Fountain’? And how are they connected to any of this in the first place?” Susie winced, catching the thinly-veiled accusatory nature of her words. 

“Walk and talk. We need to find Kris soon.” Susie stepped onto the pavement and started walking. Toriel followed, not that she had much of a choice. 

Susie sighed, exasperated as she ran a hand through her hair. “So, Alphys needed chalk, right?” Toriel nodded. She knew of Susie’s less-than-usual eating habits. “So she wanted to send me to get some from the supply closet, But uh, to make sure I didn’t ‘try anything’, she sent Kris along too.” 

Susie conveniently avoided the part where she threatened to eat their face. 

“So, we get to the supply closet, and instead of supplies, there’s this huge fuc- freakin’ hallway, and it’s dark as heck.” Toriel stayed silent, waiting for Susie to respond as she looked around. The streets are too quiet. 

“Well, the floor drops from underneath us, and we’re in this new place, the first Dark World that we went to. We met this guy named Ralsei, who’s like, the prince of that place, and we fought a king, and we got kidnapped and...” Susie trailed off, seeing the concerned expression on Toriel’s face. In an effort to placate her, she added in a hurried tone, “Butwewerefinesodon’tworryaboutit!” 

That didn’t exactly convince Toriel to be less worried. 

“Uh, the gist of it is that we’ve been to two Dark Worlds now, and in both of them people have talked about this guy, the Knight. He’s going around and making new Dark Worlds, which, uh, could cause an imbalance or something? Sorry, I uh, zoned out while Ralsei was explaining it.” She said sheepishly, tugging at the spiked bracelet wrapped around her wrist. 

Susie opened her mouth to speak again but was cut off by a noise that echoed from a nearby alleyway. 

The ground shook as something tall and thin approached, half-obscured by shadow. 

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Toriel jumped, cursing under her breath before shoving Susie behind her roughly. Susie almost yelled at her, flailing her arms to regain her balance, before realizing what she was doing. Toriel was protecting her. Susie knew that she blamed her for Kris’s involvement in this, and yet, she still put herself first even in danger’s path.

The creature was tall, taller than anyone she had ever seen. It was easily... Four Toriels tall. Its face was a permanent blackened shadow, but a toothy grin still shined bright from the center of its head. It was wearing a clown suit, the kind you’d vaguely remember seeing from when you went to a circus as a kid. 

A ruffled collar hung around its spindly neck like a noose. Eyes hung from the fabric and turned their gaze to Susie and Toriel. Even though it lacked them on its face, the creature seemed to have an abundance of eyes, whether that be the tuft at the end of its party hat or the buttons leading down its costume, which hung off of its thin body like how decomposing flesh hangs off bone.

Its legs were stilts. It stumbled through the street, approaching them slowly but surely. Toriel tensed, unsure if she should run. 

It opened its mouth, piranha teeth scraping against each other, and revealed an unsettling pink tongue that unfurled out of its mouth and dripped a strange black substance. 

“Hellooooo? You  look so pretty, pretty, can I get a taste?” It called out, its voice raspy and thick as if it had something in the back of its throat. 

Toriel flinched, grabbing Susie’s arm and forcing her back as she tried to move towards it. “I know what I’m doing, let go!” Susie tried to wrench her arm out of Toriel’s grasp, but she was surprisingly strong. “You are a child, I can’t sit here and let you fight that!” Something about that made resentment and anger rise up in Susie's throat like bile. How dare this woman that she didn't even know try and command her to stand by, as if she knew anything about this world. As if she was better than her.  “Well, are you going to? Cause I’m the one that’s been in all these damn Dark Worlds! I don’t need you to take care of me, I’m not your damn kid. In case you haven’t noticed, Kris isn’t here, and I’m your only hope of finding them. So let go.” 

Toriel stared at Susie. Her words cut deeper than she had intended. Toriel held a sleeve up to her face as tears spilled down the sides of her face, taking a shaky breath in before letting go of Susie. “I’m sorry, I’m just so worried, they- Why didn’t they tell me? I’m their mother, I’m supposed to be there for them...” 

Susie wanted to comfort her, but the creature was moving forward, and she had to make sure that her and Toriel stayed alive so that she could apologize. Toriel flinched and took a step back as Susie conjured an ax, holding it tightly between her fists. “I’m gonna teach you how to fight, and we’re gonna get Kris back. Okay?” 

Toriel nodded. “Great, first lesson, don’t get hit.” Susie gritted her teeth, as the creature collapsed onto the pavement and contorted into a position that reminded Susie of a dying spider. 

“Eye see you!” It burst into manic giggles, launching itself off of the pavement and into the air. Its jaws snapped and its teeth clacked together, as it reached a long, gloved hand towards Susie. Toriel screamed, reaching to try and pull Susie out of the way, but she shoved her off, swinging the ax blindly. 

The flat edge collided with the creature’s head, sending it tumbling to the pavement with a sickening crack. She thought maybe she had killed it, but it just unfolded itself again and lunged once more.

If Ralsei was here, he’d be able to pacify it. If Kris was here, they’d be able to do something, say something to make it stop. If Noelle was here she could cast some sort of spell to make it freeze in its tracks. But they weren’t here. Susie was alone with someone who blamed her for the disappearance of their child, and the only thing she could do was put her capability of violence on display. 

Again and again, she hit it, each time sure that it would be the last, but it would always resume with fervor. It made some sort of a strangled sighing noise, coughing until a black blob splatted onto the ground. Then, it turned its gaze onto Toriel and attacked.

Susie wasn’t fast enough to hit it this time. 

She heard a sharp scream, and then a woosh, as a bright light illuminated the darkened street. A sudden heat from her left made her recoil. 

The creature was now ablaze, screeching and stumbling away into a nearby alley, and Toriel was standing in the center of the road as fire licked at her fingertips. 

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Chapter Text

Toriel stood, frozen in place, as red reflected in her eyes and fire ghosted the ends of her fingers. As if a candle flame extinguished by a stray breeze, the fire went out suddenly, leaving Toriel standing still, eyes agape. She looked helplessly at Susie, letting her hands slowly fall back down to her sides. 

“Tori...” Susie began, taking a step back. “That was SO RAD!” Susie ran forward, standing in front of Toriel and bouncing on the ends of her toes eagerly, hands balled into fists. “How’d you DO that? It took me like, FOREVER to figure out how to do anything besides fighting!” 

Toriel shook her head. The smell of smoke flooded the dim street and her senses, and her ears rang, even in the deafening silence that surrounded them. “I’m not quite sure, my child.” Her voice wavered. Susie danced triumphantly around Toriel, punching the air in defiance. “With you, we’re gonna be UNSTOPPABLE! That was so fu- Freakin’ cool!” 

Toriel didn’t want to discourage Susie’s enthusiasm. It’d probably be needed to keep them alive if everyone they encountered would be as aggressive as that. Instead, she clapped a paw onto Susie’s shoulder, stilling her movement as she grinned nervously. “Susie, perhaps we should continue onward?” 

Susie blinked, tugging on a tuft of hair with a clawed hand. “Oh, er, yeah. Right. Gotta find Kris.” She turned away from Toriel, tugging out of her grip before she could say anything... Motherly again. She rested her fists on her belt, the smooth metal spikes cold against her hands, which were still warm from the nearby burst of fire. 

“Ralsei should be here, if we can find him, we’ll be a full party!” Susie said this as if it was obvious, but Toriel stared at her, eyes wide and confused. “Who is Ralsei?” She asked.

“Oh, er...” Susie began, before pausing, unsure. “He’s a friend we made here.” 

“... Ah. And is he, uhm, like the last person we encountered?” Toriel wasn’t too enthusiastic on meeting any more inhabitants of this Dark World, even if they were friendly enough. Susie, however, seemed shocked at the implication, as she turned to her, yellow eyes wide with surprise. “Nah, of course not! He’s a total WEENIE! All fluffiness and smiles. Like, uhm...” She thought about a show she had seen on TV once. It was about technicolor ponies, but she didn’t remember much else. “A real ‘friendship is magic’ kind of guy!” 

Toriel seemed convinced, her strained expression softening into one of relief. “Oh, good. I’m glad you and Kris are friends with him, then.” Toriel was the first to continue walking down the street, with Susie in toe. The air smelled of sugar and sickly sweet candy. There was a touch of something else, too. Like grass after it rained. Like ozone. The kind of smell that left a vaguely metallic taste on your tongue and an unpleasant sting in your nose. 

Most of the doors were barred shut, but there was one, a building that the pair found all too familiar, that had its doors wide open.

The school. 

Susie approached the door tentatively, while Toriel lingered behind. Green vines laid limp on the ground. Some of the ends still clung to the crack in between the wall and the door, but they all were severed through the middle. 

Moonlight reflected softly off the tile floor, illuminating only a small path in front of where they stood. The pair entered the building. Susie half-expected the door to slam shut behind her once she stepped over the threshold, and let out a sigh of relief when it didn’t. 

Festival decorations were strung up along the walls, much like how they had been at Toriel’s house, and posters were pinned haphazardly to locker doors and corkboards. Toriel approached one of the posters, tearing it off of the surface that it clung to. 

It was another advertisement for the Carnie Twins’ Magical Circus. All of the posters were identical. They all bore a picture of two ominous figures, obscured by shadow, and a red heart in the center of the page. 

Just as Toriel dropped the flyer, watching it float gently to the ground, she heard something from a nearby classroom. A desk scraping across the floor, and then a shushing noise. 

She pushed open the door, which creaked and scraped across the ground. Susie followed with a questioning look in her eyes. 

Two silhouettes were hunched over, half-covered by a nearby desk. “Who’s there!?” Susie shouted, ax in hand. The figures gasped in sync, but only one stood, running out of the shadow and towards the group. Susie took a step back, preparing to swing, but she had to stop herself once she realized who it was.

“Susie!” Noelle cried happily, as she wrapped her arms around Susie’s waist and pulled her into a hug. “... Uh...” Was all Susie could muster, staring down at the top of Noelle’s head. Wow, her horns could totally poke out her eyes right now, that’s interesting, wow! 

She didn’t want to move, but Noelle did. She stumbled back, blushing and folding her hands behind her back. “Er, sorry, I just- I didn’t expect you to be here! I thought this was all a dream, what...?” She stammered out.

Oh.

She knows that Susie lied to her. How is she going to explain that? It was for her own good, that’s what she had thought when she had lied to her, but now... She didn’t protect her from anything. In fact, maybe she made it worse. Maybe if she just told her the truth, Noelle would have been prepared to face a Dark World once again. She shouldn’t have left her in the dark, literally and metaphorically.

“I promise I’ll explain it all later, but right now we need to find Kris. They’re missing.” She avoided the topic, pulling anxiously at the spiked bracelet around her wrist. 

Berdly finally got to his feet and approached the group. “Did Kris run off? And why is the elementary teacher here?” He ruffled his feathers irritably. Susie narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t know. They just disappeared, once they-” Susie wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to bring up what she saw earlier. Not until she knows exactly what happened. “Haven’t seen ‘em since we’ve been here. And this is Kris’s mom.” She pointed over her shoulder with her thumb.

Toriel waved, smiling sunnily as she said, “You may know me as Ms. Dreemurr, but you can call me Toriel, if you wish.” Susie glanced up at Toriel, eyebrow ridges raised. “Kris’s last name is Dreemurr? Sweet.” 

“It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Dreemurr!” Noelle said. “We searched all of the school building, but we didn’t find anyone. There are a lot of weird posters for some carnival, though.” Susie grimaced, rubbing the back of her neck as she said, “Uh. I think I know where we can find someone else.” 

The other three waited for her to continue, but she just motioned for them to follow as she walked out of the room. They did, albeit hesitantly. Noelle was the first to walk behind her. 

The hallways seemed so much longer than usual. Posters of happy schoolchildren stared down from the walls like windows into the past. The moonlight couldn’t shine where they were walking anymore. Susie felt a smaller hand wrap around her upper arm, and flinched, before hearing Noelle’s voice. “Sorry, it’s dark...” 

“I believe I may be able to help?” Toriel’s voice came. There was a period of silence and darkness before a small flame lit a circle of light around the group. “You and Noelle are opposites,” Susie noted, and when she was met with nothing but silence, she added, “Uh, ‘cause Noelle’s snow and you’re fire.” 

The supply closet door was barred shut by rotting vines. Susie shooed away Noelle’s hand, as she concentrated and brought forth her ax. She gripped it tightly, as Toriel guided the others back. Susie swung, and the vines severed effortlessly. She dropped the ax into nothing and then wrenched open the door.

The air smelled of mildew and bleach. Susie stood, frozen in place. Her ears were ringing.

It was just a normal supply closet. Cleaning supplies were stacked in a precarious tower. Boxes of chalk were lined up on the farthest wall. A headband with pink devil horns stood atop a box of pencils. Susie snatched it down, looking at it with an expression of disbelief. 

Noelle approached hesitantly, putting a hand on Susie’s arm. “Susie...?” She asked, her voice full of concern. Susie didn’t respond. She just backed up, turned to the right, and ran down the hallway. “Susie, wait!-”  Noelle ran after her, and the others followed. 

Susie skidded to a stop outside of another door. She threw it open, sending it crashing into the wall, and stormed into the room. 

There was a person inside. They yelped, skidding back towards the farthest wall. “Susie?” They asked. As Toriel entered the room, firelight illuminated their surroundings. Susie was looming over a person who was crouched down by the wall, looking back and forth at them and the headband with a confused expression. 

They were shorter than Noelle, with black and white woolly fur. Their hooves scraped against the floor. Most of their face was covered in shadow, a hat tipped precariously upon their horns. “Jeez, you ass, you scared me! I thought- Well, never mind.” Susie grabbed him by the arm and dragged him to his feet. “Ms. Toriel!” She said, spinning Ralsei around so that he was facing the rest of the group. “This is Ralsei!” 

Toriel seemed at a loss for words, staring at Ralsei with an expression of shock. “Hello! I’m Ralsei, like she said, uhm, and you are?” Ralsei squeaked, offering a paw to shake. Toriel blinked hard, and then took his paw, giving an awkward handshake. “My name is Toriel. You... Look very familiar.” Ralsei laughed. “I get that a lot!” 

Ralsei turned his gaze to the rest of the group. “... Where’s Kris?” He asked, looking back at Susie, who avoided his eyes. “... They’re missing.” 

“What!? Missing!? Where did they go? Did someone take them?! Are they in trouble?!” Ralsei fumbled over his words, flapping his paws anxiously as he rocked back and forth on his hooves. Susie clapped her hands over his shoulders, forcing him to stand still. “Ralsei. Buddy. Breathe. We don’t know where they went, but I’m sure they’re fine. They’re tough, c’mon!” 

Ralsei slowly started to calm down, nodding at Susie’s words. “You’re right. They probably just ran off, probably to be a hero! But, Susie...” “Yeah, Ralsei?” Ralsei looked at the floor, as they said, “Something’s wrong. Usually when the Knight creates new Dark Worlds, it’s in a localized area. Like the computer lab, or the supply closet. This Dark World seems to have taken over the entire town. With a Dark World of that size, if we don’t get this fixed...” He didn’t have to finish. Susie knew what he meant. “Hey, it isn’t gonna come down to that. We’re gonna find Kris, and we’re gonna seal the Dark Fountain, and we’re gonna get the hell out of here!” She looked at the others, her teeth bared in a triumphant grin.

“Right! I still don’t know what’s going on, but I believe you!” Noelle said, her hands balled into fists. “Normally I wouldn’t trust you, but who am I going to believe other than the gamer girl in front of me?” Berdly puffed out his chest, putting his hands on his hips. “Susie’s right! With a team this mediocre, and a leader as great as me, we’ll be unstoppable!”

Right.

Sure, Berdly. 

After the group had started back down the hallway, towards the exit, Noelle tugged on Toriel’s dress in an effort to get her attention. “Ms. Dreemurr?” She asked. Toriel looked down at her. “Yes, Noelle?” “Well, uh, Kris wasn’t at your house, right? So, uh, if he’s not here, maybe he went to his dad’s?” ... Toriel stayed quiet for a few moments. She was tense as she spoke, “You may be right. Perhaps they went there instead of staying with me.” 

Noelle clearly realized that she had upset Toriel, as she put her hands up in a surrendering pose, “No no no! I didn’t mean it like that, I just, it seems like the only- If they’re not here, then-” Toriel waved her paw dismissively. “No, I understand. As much as I want to protect them, Kris has a father, and it would be foolish of me to think that they don’t rely on him too.” 

The rest of the walk to the outside was awkward and tense. Susie tried to lighten the air a couple of times, but each of her ‘let’s beat up/abandon Berdly’ punchlines fell flat. 

Toriel stood in front of the other three once they had reached the outside. “We should go to my ex-husband’s house. I’m sure Kris will be there.” Susie kicked at a rock, avoiding her gaze. “Oof, yeah... We should check there if that’s good with you.” Awkward. Ralsei, the poor soul he is, misunderstood the source of Susie’s discomfort. “I’m sure Kris’s dad is super nice, just like his mom!” He said, smiling encouragingly. Toriel made a noncommittal noise.

As they walked, Susie looked up at the sky. It felt like hours had passed, but the moon still hung in the sky in the exact same place. She was only snapped out of her trance when she heard a scraping noise from a nearby alleyway. She flinched, jumping back into a fighting position, an ax held in her hands. The rest followed suit.

It was a strange creature, the one that shot out of the darkness like a javelin. It stood on a singular jagged spike. It was a cotton-like material, something akin to a face carved awkwardly into the front of it. It had two drooping cavities for eyes and a wide hole for a mouth. It was pink, and a sickly sweet smell emanated from its direction. It spun on the spike, carving a hole into the pavement. 

“ ‘s like cotton candy!” Susie called out to the rest of the group. Her stomach rumbled. It had been a while since she had eaten, but even she had to stop and think about the moral implications of eating living cotton candy. 

It spun, as if it was charging up, and then shot through the air at Susie. She hit it with her ax as if she was playing baseball. It went flying and skidded to a stop across the pavement, cotton tearing off of its body and scattering across the road. It flew at her again, but it was slower. 

She hit it again with the blunt edge of the ax. It rolled across the road once more, as Susie shouted, “Ralsei! Pacify it!” 

The siren’s song filled the air. Susie could feel her limbs leaden at the sound of it. She covered her ears, dropping onto one knee, but kept her eyes peeled open, watching the cotton monster in case it tried to attack again.

The song faded. Ralsei took a few steps back. Susie stumbled to her feet, and approached the cotton monster. She nudged it with her boot. It was still breathing, or, well, it looked like it was breathing. The weblike material rose and fell in a way that unsettled her, although she couldn’t place why, exactly. 

“See, Tori? He’s totally soft. Pacifist style.” Susie said, glancing over her shoulder. Toriel nodded, looking down at Ralsei, who smiled happily up at her. “C’mon, lessgo!” 

After a few minutes of walking, a building came into view. It was overgrown with flowers that glowed like Christmas lights. They were huge, petals the size of dinner plates, thorny stems wrapped like a noose around the building’s exterior. The door, however, was untouched. It was big, too big for the building that it was attached to. It looked like a door that belonged in a castle, with golden rims and a Delta Rune design in the center.

Toriel knocked on the door.

Knock...

Knock...

Knock...

The door opened. 

Chapter Text

HEY IM STILL ALIVE JUST VERY BUSY NEW CHAPTER WILL BE OUT SOON :THUMBS_UP: