Chapter Text
At around five in the morning, an odd smell moves through the breeze in Hometown. The smell of smoke.
Neighbours leave their houses, drawn to the source of the smoke. People are yelling, some scrambling to find buckets of water, and children are crying. A rustic wooden house in the north of the town has burst into flames, with a family still stuck inside.
A tall man watches the flaming wood from a distance, holding the hand of a terrified little girl. She’s a sheep monster, covered in white wool and wearing a cutesy pink dress. She cradles a large plushie of a manta ray with her other arm, holding on for dear life to it as if letting go even a bit would cause it to disintegrate.
She doesn’t know the man who stands next to her, yet doesn’t let go of her grip on his hand. Looking up at him, she can’t decipher any physical traits as her mind blurs trying to understand his form. Yet, she can tell when he turns his head to her and gives a gentle smile.
“Lucienne,” the man starts, “do you see that home there, lit ablaze?”
Despite her horror and confusion, Lucienne snorts at that question. It’s quite difficult to miss the burning house, given the roaring flames, awful smell, and screams from the townsfolk.
“What would it be like to be stuck in there, you think?” the man asks with a playful lilt.
Lucienne’s face scrunches up, slightly disturbed by the question. Fixating her orange eyes on the home, she tries to imagine what’s going on inside. All she can envision is fire, all-consuming, blocking every exit.
“Scary… really scary and bad… probably.” she answers cautiously.
The man chuckles, amused by her childish phrasing. He lets go of her hand, not seeming to pay any mind to her audible panic at the loss of the physical reassurance. Lucienne shouts to get his attention, but he doesn’t acknowledge it.
“You would know the answer better than that, young lady!” the man exclaims. “After all, you’re in there right now.”
Lucienne swears the roar of fire suddenly deafens at the man’s words. Her eyes widen as she attempts to process what was just said, shaking her head slightly and refocusing on the… her home.
She’s suddenly knocked back by a wave of hot air, tumbling onto the grass as her manta ray plushie flies out of her arm’s grasp and out of view. The fall hurts an agonizing amount as broken glass lies below her figure, and her mind swims in a mix of panic and confusion. In attempting to lift her arm, a sharp pain jolts through her entire body, a sign she broke something in that fall. She can hear panicked voices nearing, but she can’t help but cry harder than she ever has before and roll over, gazing up.
The window above her was smashed, and plumes of smoke now billow out. Yet instead of rising into the air, they descend and begin to smother her.
She lets unconsciousness take her.
There’s a stillness in the air that Lucy can’t help but notice as she walks down the road to school, one that causes her to shift her polka-dot handbag around anxiously. Adults are out and about, chattering amongst themselves, while other kids walk to school as well, but she feels like a ghost in the midst of it. Unnoticed, hardly notable. And from that, she has to assume the spectral plane she’s found herself in has no air circulation for some reason, given the lack of a breeze. Despite that, it somehow feels cold, regret seeping in over choosing the light and short gothic dress she chose today. Everyone else seems unaffected, but Lucy has to stifle a cough every time she breathes in.
Every step on the pavement sends jolts of tension through her hooves and up to her brain, an all too familiar feeling at this point in her life. School was hardly her favourite thing to show up for, and while she doubts anyone would notice if she just… didn’t arrive, she didn’t want to disappoint her dad. He’s always eager to hear what she did at school, even if she’s always had nothing to report.
Her favourite part of school was the work, oddly enough. Not that she’s THAT much of a nerd or anything, but in the very least, it was something to do. Everyone else has friends they can talk to, but Lucy can’t really call anyone her age close anymore. She used to have friends, but they drifted apart over time, and she was left alone.
When she reaches the doors to Hometown’s school, she takes another uncomfortable breath of the stale air and pushes them open. She can’t see anyone in the halls yet and starts absentmindedly trotting down the rows of lockers until she finds her classroom, Ms. Alphys’ classroom.
Opening the door, she sees there are already a few kids in there. Noelle and Berdly are, of course, early to show up every day, and others like Catti, Jockington, and Temmie are there too.
Lucy likes Temmie, at least. She’s chill, not judgemental.
A few of Lucy’s classmates glance at her, none of them for very long before resuming whatever they were already doing. Well, except Noelle, whose gaze lingers just a bit longer. Actively ignoring that, Lucy takes her seat at the back of the classroom, slumping right as she sits down. Alphys isn’t here yet, but the problem students aren’t here yet either, so Lucy isn’t too worried about anything happening. Not that Alphys would do a particularly stellar job at diffusing a situation if one happened.
While not much of note is going on, Lucy can’t help but overhear the conversation Noelle and Berdly are having. Well, it’s a bit of a one-way conversation. It’s more like another Berdly blab-a-thon. Something about video games. Lucy rolls her eyes while twirling a strand of wooly hair in her hand.
She probably stares at the two for a bit longer than she should, but she can’t help it. There’s an ever-lingering hurt whenever she thinks about Noelle, one she wishes would just go away but can’t seem to shake. She whimpers and rests her head on her arms, staring down at her desk. To this day, she feels left behind… by everyone in general, but especially Noelle. Well, and Kris.
“O-oh, good morning Kris! Please take a-a seat!” Alphys exclaims.
Ah, speak of the devil. And when did Alphys come in? Lucy looks around, seeing nearly all of her classmates now here… when did everyone come in?
In scanning the classroom, she ends up accidentally locking eyes with Noelle. Lucy’s breath hitches, and she tries to avert her eyes, but they keep fixing back on Noelle, who hasn’t looked away. There’s something in her eyes that Lucy can’t place… sympathy? Regret? Pity? But before Lucy can process it, Kris sits down at their desk, blocking the line of sight between her and Noelle. Kris just keeps staring ahead.
Well, awkward eye contact averted. Lucy chooses to very deliberately not think about what just happened any further.
“Uhhh, well, c-class, since Susie is running l-late… today we’re going to be…” Alphys starts, but it becomes background noise.
Tuning out whatever assignment she has in front of her, Lucy immediately starts thinking about what just happened further. Noelle, for the most part, hasn’t really paid her much mind in ages. And yet, that was a shockingly long bout of eye contact. And it didn’t seem indifferent or malicious, either. Something about it felt… meaningful.
Lucy really, really doesn’t want to get her hopes up. And she knows she should still feel bitter, not so easily ready to want to reconnect. Her chest feels tight, but she regains enough composure to dedicate towards getting through the school day. She decides that, when school is out, she’ll do her best to reach out again.
And so the clock ticks, and ticks. Through every hour of school, Lucy’s attention is hardly directed at Alphys’ teachings or even remembering to eat at lunch, as she attempts to stay vigilant for any signs of interaction from her former friend. However, none seem to arrive. For the rest of the day, Noelle falls back into what she and the rest of the students have done for so long. Hardly paying Lucy any mind.
Lucy’s hope starts waning, but she continues keeping an eye out.
She doesn’t notice that someone else has been keeping an eye on her.
By the end of the school day, after plenty of chatter filling the classroom, all of the students start filtering out one by one. Lucy, Noelle, and Temmie are the last ones left.
Noelle packs her things into her bag and silently walks to the door, eyes locked ahead. Lucy peers over at Temmie, who seems to be staring into space. It’d be natural to leave at this point, so after Noelle has closed the door behind her, Lucy gets up and follows suit. Her goal is to catch up and try to initiate a conversation, and while she has no idea what to expect, she figures it’s now or never to at least try reconnecting.
Glancing out into the hallway, she sees Noelle walking away. She picks up her pace while walking out of the classroom, but is suddenly halted by a familiar voice from behind her.
“Hey.”
Whipping her head around, she comes face to face with Kris, leaning against the lockers and holding… a knife. Lucy is immediately caught off guard, having not been privy to Kris saying a word in… possibly years. It still sounds like them, but there’s something off about their tone.
“Uh… hey.” Lucy squeaks out, trying not to look at Kris’ knife for too long. “Long time no… talk?”
“I need your help with something.” Kris mumbles. “Can you?”
Alarm bells are going off in Lucy’s mind. Something about them doesn’t seem right, beyond just the unplaceable mismatch with their voice and the literal weapon in their hand. No contact for half a decade, and here they are now, asking for help? Their posture seems… uncomfortable, as well, like they don’t know how to position their body. Everything about this feels odd… the urge to flee is strong. Lucy can still hear Noelle walking away, she knows she might miss her chance. But… Kris was once her friend too…
“Yeah, I can. Maybe.” Lucy says, immediately seizing up at the mistake she made to reply at all.
Kris looks up from under their hair, and Lucy gets a good look at their bright red eyes, staring holes into her. A chill shoots down her spine.
“Well, that was… benign and pointless.” Lucy grumbles under her breath as she walks back home.
While she’s relieved nothing particularly weird happened, she felt somewhat insulted by Kris’ first interaction with her in so long being to enlist her to be their errand girl. Get food from QC’s for them, help them check the lock on a birdcage they own… run a box to the Holidays’ house. Lucy thanked the Angel above that Noelle didn’t see her drop it off. She missed that opportunity.
After all that busywork, all Lucy got was a half-hearted thanks and a crumpled-up piece of paper that Kris insisted she should never read. They were disturbingly serious about that, they wanted her to hold onto it “just in case”.
“Fine, I don’t want to read your paper anyway.” she sighed, getting frustrated all over again with the events of the afternoon.
Her house is close at this point, something Lucy is very relieved about. The stillness in the air still persists, and the confused stress she has felt is causing her senses to overload. She just wants today to be over already. Unfortunately, the figure she just slammed into without looking is about to make sure it doesn’t end quite yet.
Lucy sputters and groans on the pavement, and her bag tumbles to her side. Her right arm’s old injury starts aching, but that fleeting pain is quickly replaced by fear when a boot stomps down right next to her head.
“Well, I should’ve known you were nearby, given the smell of charcoal in the air.” a voice Lucy immediately recognized as Susie mocked.
“I… I’m just trying to-” Lucy started, but was cut off.
“Listen, I’m gonna be nice. Clearly, your glasses got broken yesterday, and you can’t see well.” Susie condescendingly explained. “It happens.”
“B-but I don’t-”
“Just make sure to get a replacement soon, nerd. You never know who may kick you while you’re down.”
Right on cue, Susie rears her leg back and swings forward, slamming her boot into Lucy’s bad arm. Lucy croaks out in pain, her entire body spasming at the screaming ache that was just beaten into her elbow. Tears start welling up in her eyes, and she desperately tries to claw her way out of her prone position with her other arm. Susie chuckles darkly, turns around, and walks away, her lesson having been sufficiently told.
Barely focusing enough to see clearly through the tears, Lucy glances over to look at Susie walking not that far away to pick something up. Something that had shattered on the ground.
Susie’s confident appearance quickly dissipates as she starts muttering expletives while leaning over, trying to gather up the broken pieces of… something. Lucy senses that it’s important, whatever it is, but her sense of self-preservation outweighs her curiosity as she closes her eyes and lets herself go limp. She didn’t want to test Susie any further if the bully ended up noticing Lucy was staring.
Eventually, Susie walks away. Lucy is left alone, awkwardly trying to lift herself off the ground despite the pain. She can’t put much pressure on her right arm without crumpling to the pavement again, and the ordeal to get back on her feet is arduous and takes an uncomfortably long amount of time.
Once she gets up, she looks down at her ruined dress while picking up her bag and whines. That fall dirtied it heavily, and she felt so gross and sweaty, not to mention her hair was a mess. Tears start coming fast as she uses whatever energy she has left to rush to her house, hoping to escape and just fall asleep.
Her new home is on the outskirts of Hometown, in a little run-down apartment tucked behind most of the other buildings. Out of sight, out of mind for most of the townsfolk. It was all she and her dad could afford after everything, because despite the happy-go-lucky nature of Hometown, the housing economy was still ruthless.
Loudly sobbing, Lucy reaches the front door and fiddles with her keys before finding the right one and opening the lock. She hastily throws it open and tumbles inside, quick to slam the door and lock it behind her. Slumping against it, she attempts to stifle her crying… poorly.
She doesn’t want her dad to see her like this, so hurt and pathetic. She has to stay strong for his sake.
And yet, she doesn’t hear a single noise in their apartment.
“H-hey d-d-da-dad!” Lucy shouts, trying and failing to sound normal.
But there is no reply. For some reason, he’s not home right now. Out doing errands, probably?
Lucy’s mood quickly goes from bad to worse, her wailing now no longer able to be contained as she storms up to her room, throws her bag on the floor, and flings herself onto her bed. While the impact hurts her arm, she couldn’t care less as she curls up into the sheets and lets all her emotions out, screaming and sobbing. Minutes and minutes pass as she writhes on her bed in misery, biting down on her pillow to suppress her loudest wails.
It takes a long time for her to calm down enough to get back up and reassess. Bleary-eyed and shaky, she glances down at her handbag and groans weakly. Lifting it up, she filters through the contents and stumbles upon that crumpled-up paper Kris gave her.
After everything that has happened today, her frustration bubbles over, and she pulls it out. Looking at the paper angrily, she doesn’t even give it a second thought before forcefully throwing it into her trash can, then stomps out of her room to change clothes and shower.
The paper sits next to tear-stained tissues and discarded plastics in the trash.
There aren’t many days left until Lucy has to set her garbage out to get picked up.