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The world around the doe had begun to blur. for her only the music and the fluffy goat resting against her back mattered, as the pair had been listening to Everybody Wants To Rule The World, by Tears For Fears on Dess's Sony Walkman what had been sitting on the grass next to the young partners.
The rowdy doe and crying boy had been relaxing at the lake for the past several Hours. they hadn't brought much outside of the clothes on their back, Dess's Guitar and Sony Walkman. and Asriel had brought a plastic shopping bag filled with the pair's favourite snacks, though per the insistence of Toriel to avoid directly sitting in direct sunlight. the pair had sat down beneath an old Oak Tree to avoid the sweltering rays of the sun, as it was a rather hot summer's Day, and the perfect time to go out and hang around the Lake. the premier location for young couples like Dess and Asriel to loiter after High School had finished for summer break.
Eventually, the song had finished and the two had been left in silence outside of the Birds chirping, and the gentle swaying of the Oak Tree the pair had been sitting under as an ambient draft of wind blew through its branches and leaves. with the rowdy doe still resting firmly against the crying boy's back as they merely enjoyed each other's company.
Asriel had shuffled as he sat on the grass next to Dess, before he looked towards the lake. and then up at the sun what hung over the clear blue sky, though they were protected from it's rays by the Oak Tree's many branches. but as he sat next to his partner, he found himself thinking about her, about how much she's gone through just to have a moment like this.
Dess had suffered from schizophrenia for most of her life, a struggle what had lead to her not making many friends. and she had her fair share of episodes over the Years, and sometimes what she did during these episodes deeply unsettled Asriel, how she'd been convinced one time that the glow-in-the-dark star stickers in her room were in fact eyes. and how he'd had to convince her to not rip them off the wall and tear open the drywall because she had convinced that they simply weren't stickers.
But this never stopped him from loving her for all of her imperfections, even if she had begun to hate herself and felt an extreme guilt for the things she had done to him during these episodes. and he'd be there for her every time it happened, even if she screamed at him and told him that she hated him and never loved him.
Dess too had been lost in thought as they sat underneath the Oak Tree, but unlike Asriel she couldn't see any reason for why people would love her. why would someone love a person who is dangerous and volatile with a condition what made it nearly impossible for her to tell the difference between her hallucinations and reality. even if the medication she presently took greatly mitigated the severity of her schizophrenic episodes.
Sometimes, she wanted to run away far from Asriel and anyone who ever loved her. because in her mind it was simply inevitable that she'd eventually hurt someone she held close, that be Asriel or Kris, or even Noelle, and if she simply disappeared one day, they'd all be safe from her and the insanity caused by the condition she had been plagued with.
Though even if she didn't understand why he loved her, she still reciprocated the love they felt for each other. because he had always been there for her. through the worst of her episodes, no matter how much she screamed and clawed at him and told him how much she hated him. that she never truly loved him, he had always been there, understanding of that she never actually meant what she said during them, and for that reason alone she had loved him so dearly.
Yet her thoughts had been interrupted by the crying boy, as he had firmly placed a hand on her shoulder and shook her back to reality, speaking in a soft but concerned tone. "Dess, you okay..?"
She craned her neck around to see his face, blinking a couple times before her vacant expression turned into a smirk. "Yeah Azzy, why..?"
"You've been very silent recently, is there...anything on your mind..?", He tried to remain careful as he spoke, as he knew how sensitive she was. and he wanted to try and avoid mentioning her condition, because she always hated being reminded that she suffered from it. and he had tried his hardest to respect her wish.
"...Yeah, there's been a lot on my mind recently, with...Rudy and all..", She had stopped craning her neck to look at Asriel. she proceeded to change the position in which she had been sitting on the grass so that she was now facing him.
Dess had been greatly concerned with Rudy's declining health and the fact he had now been in the Hospital for over a Month, and the fact that Carol refused to tell her or Noelle about what he had actually been suffering from had only added to this concern, and she had feared that the stress brought on by all of this happening around her could trigger another episode, though her partner had been successful in quelling most of her larger fears about the ongoing issue.
"..I-I uh...can't even imagine how hard it's been for you..", He had extended out his arm to firmly grip onto the doe's shoulder. though the rowdy doe herself had decided to pull him into a tight embrace what he had quickly reciprocated and for several fleeting moments they had remained in each other's arms.
Eventually, Dess had stopped resting her head against his fluffy neck so that she could look into his eyes, and without words she had moved her arms from where they had been previously wrapped around his torso so that she could clasp the sides of his face. pulling him into a messy and passionate kiss as they swapped quiet and soft moans into each other's mouths as they continued the kiss.
Asriel had forced his tongue into the kiss as the partners tongue's had now entered a battle of dominance as his arms rested on her back, he pulled her closer until there was practically no gap between the two. while Dess had moved her hands from clasping the side of his face to his lower torso. where they had previously been resting.
Soon after, Dess had pulled out the kiss and left out a soft chuckle upon seeing Asriel's flustered face. wondering if there had been any blood left in his body considering how pink his face had become. "Azzy, you okay..?~"
Asriel soon came to his senses and blinked a couple times as he had left his love fueled drunken stupor. though it had still taken several more seconds before he had actually registered what had happened between the two. "Yeah, how about you..?"
"Never been better, thanks Az..." She had leaned forwards to plant a tender kiss on the crying boy's forehead, eliciting him to let out a shuddering breath as the pair had sat there in a newfound awkward silence for an unknown amount of time.
Dess had broken the awkward silence between them as she had gotten an idea, they'd done it once before but she'd had a particular craving for intimacy after her passionate kiss with Asriel, as she begun to speak in a flirtatious yet soft and calm tone. "How about we ditch this place Azzy?, i'd say it's getting pretty boring out here and it's getting dark, but i know something we can do back at the Manor..~"
"Wh-What..?", His tone stuttered in uncertainty and confusion in response to her flirt. as always he was a dork with most of her advances typically flying over his incredibly dense head, you could probably pin him down and tell him that you would be doing the deed with him here and there, and he'd still not understand what you exactly meant by that.
"Ugh, let's just go then...", She had rolled her eyes before standing up and stretching her arms. letting out a groan as she had been sat in largely the same position beneath the Oak Tree for several Hours by that point, looking towards Asriel who had still been flustered and sitting beneath the Oak Tree. "Az, will you do me a favour and carry my Guitar back to the Manor...?"
"..Will do.", Asriel had stood up and approached where Dess's Orange Guitar laid in the grass. grabbing it and clenching it as he watched the rowdy doe retrieve their bag of snacks and Sony Walkman, motioning for him as she begun to walk away from the Oak Tree. with the crying boy soon following after his partner.
She had turned towards a clearing in the Oak Trees what encircled the Lake, but as she extended out her leg to take a stride forwards. she felt as the ground beneath her hooves had simply vanished, she couldn't even let out a scream or a mere yell before she fell through the grass. falling through reality itself and leaving Asriel utterly shocked and clueless to what had just happened in front of him.
She had simply been in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and she was now find herself in a world barely comprehensible by the doe. a Complex so vast in it's magnitude that the languages Humans and Monsters alike use cannot accurately describe it's raw splendor. beyond our naive concepts of time and space, so great and incomprehensible that our feeble eyes can only hope to see it's true beauty.
Is there anything greater than this?
HOUR 0
Soon her senses had returned, the first thing she felt was her fur against the uncomfortably moist carpet she had been laying against. and she felt a sharp pain in her legs from where she must've collapsed onto the floor after she fell through reality, in wherever she now found herself in.
Dess had let out a few soft groans as she struggled to her feet, with the snacks within the plastic grocery bag strewn around her as she heard a distinct electrical buzzing sound, the same one the old lights within Hometown High School used to make, and she had begun to look around the unfamiliar environment she now found herself trapped within.
The acrid stink of moist carpet was the first thing she noticed, alongside the feeling of the damp carpet against her hooves. while the electrical buzzing sound she heard had been coming from a series of overhead fluorescent lights in the tiled celling, and the walls around her had been covered in an old 70's style of discoloured yellow chevron wallpaper. what had visibly begun to peel and fade with age, and in a few corners of the walls it seemed as if black mold had been growing, propagated by the dampness coming from the leaking celling tiles.
After taking in the alien Complex she was standing in, she had leaned down to collect the assorted bags of candy and crisps as well as a couple cans of soda and beer what Asriel had bought using a fake ID(provided to him of course by Dess, in her goal to "corrupt" the crying boy into the man from her dreams), before placing them into the plastic grocery bag. before she looked back up and begun to call out. "ASRIEL..!?, Y-YOU THERE..!?"
There was obviously no response to the doe's cries, as she begun to walk out of the area she had found herself in, reaching a long stretch of hallway what had an oak door at the end of it. and so she begun taking large strides towards the oak door, calling out Asriel's name several more times but again, nobody had responded to her.
Eventually she had reached the oak door, with the rowdy doe placing her hand firmly onto the handle and opening it. and what she had saw behind the door and caused her to step away from it, dropping the bag of snacks she held as her face had drained of colour and her expression turned to one of disbelief and shock. "Wh-What the fuck..?"
The hallway beyond the oak door had continued as normal until the faded yellow wallpaper had begun to stretch out, and the hallway itself had begun to twist until it had eventually turned upside down. and at the end of the hallway had been an upside down exit door, perhaps if she made it through whatever fuckery this was. she could leave.
And so Dess with a degree of hesitation and begun advancing forwards as she struggled to keep her footing as she walked over the uneven and partially rotated parts of the hallway before eventually placing her hooves onto the uncomfortably damp celling tiles. and she had a valid fear that they could've given way, unable to support her weight as she finally made it to the exit door.
She had placed her weight against the push bar of the door, nearly falling into it as the exit door had swung open. staggering forwards before she had quickly regained her balance, now peering into the space that the upside down exit door had entered into. still maintaining the rather naive belief that this was an actual exit out of the non-sensical Complex she had been wandering in.
Yet when she looked out of the upside down exit door, all she had seen was a vast black void beyond it's threshold. as she stepped briefly away as she stuttered on her words. "T-The f-fuck..?"
The void beyond the exit door seemed endless in it's expanse, yet when Dess turned around to move back down the upside down hallway she had traversed to approach the exit door had somehow, someway, impossibly shrunk down when she wasn't looking. and what she was standing before was merely a featureless yellow wallpapered wall.
"N-No.....t-that...c-can't be..?", She was struggling to comprehend what had actually happened to her. that she was trapped in this non-sensical eldritch mass of rooms what seemingly followed no law of reality, unbound from spacetime itself, and it could play cruel jokes judging off how it had manifested an exit door for her, just for it to practically lead nowhere.
She had stood there for several Minutes, looking at the open exit door and then back at the wall. she didn't want to remain in the now uncomfortably cramped hallway, but she also didn't want to jump into whatever expanse lay beyond the exit door. but what choice did she actually have?
And so the rowdy doe had taken in a deep breath as she approached the exit door, swallowing her spit as she closed her eyes and leapt forwards. the plastic Groccery bag still clenched firmly in her hands, as she jumped into the endless black void. as she begun to fall. as she braced to hit a invisible floor, to be reduced to a mere puddle of viscera and gore, yet that moment never came.
Soon she felt like had no longer been falling, and she heard the monotone buzz of the overhead lights again. it seemed as if she had been transported somewhere new, as she opened her eyes and looked around.
Dess's stomach dropped when she had actually realised where she had been standing in, it was the main hallway of Hometown Senior High School. yet the hallway was wrong, as it had seemed to stretch on endlessly. or at least it was that vast in length that she simply couldn't see the end of it.
Without much choice, she begun walking forwards down the hallway as she was still questioning if she was dreaming or not, perhaps maybe soon she'd wake up from this nightmare.
HOUR 6
Dess had been traversing the Complex for Hours, though she had been keeping an mental note on the elapsed time during her desperate and aimless search for an exit, and according to this mental note. approximately Six Hours had passed since she had fallen into this place, and she had been slowly eating away at the snacks and drinking some of the soda from the Groccery bag she was still carrying around.
She had swore that she'd seen figures in the corner of her vision, ducking behind corners or turning the hallway before she could see them, and this had only worked to increase her concern that the medication she used to treat her schizophrenia had been wearing off, and soon she'd have to face the full brunt of her condition in such a hellish place what she had found herself trapped in.
Yet she had been walking down the same hallway modelled after Hometown Senior High School, the one she'd been trapped inside for Hours now, though the hallway turned at times. and there was the occasional side door to a non-existent Classroom, and every time she tried to open these doors, there was merely a brick wall behind them.
And as the rowdy doe kept walking down the hallway, she swore that she was walking in circles. that she'd made no actual progress within it and that the Complex had simply been putting her through an endless loop. but there was still enough uncertainty to not confirm this unnerving conclusion she had reached.
Yet this time, when she turned the corner. she found that the hallway was different, because there was now an end to the hallway what wasn't a corner, rather there was a set of double doors at the end of it. and what seemed to be blue sky peeking through the windows of the double doors.
Her pace had rapidly increased as she went from a brisk walk to full sprint, she didn't care if this was another cruel trick placed on her by the Complex. she needed to find out, she needed to get back to Asriel, to Kris and Noelle, and she'd do anything to achieve that goal of hers.
And when she had finally reached the double doors, and extended her leg to kick the doors open. her resolve was crushed when she realised that the "blue sky" she had been seeing through the set of double doors had been in fact, a mural of a beach on some sort of tropical island, and as she looked around the room. it had been a large open space, with a series of murals on each wall, with one being a mural of what seemed to be New York at sunset, and another one...the details of which had made her stomach drop.
One of the murals had been a vista of a snow covered street and a House at night, but she knew what house was featured in the mural. it was the Dreemurr Household, and Dess had remembered that only 2 Years ago that she had taken a photo of herself and Asriel outside of the Dreemurr Household on a cold November night, and it seemed as if the mural was recreating that image. minus Dess and Asriel.
Suddenly, there was a distinct crackling sound before a loud click. as music began to play and fill the previously silent room of murals with it's haunting tones, causing Dess to jump into the air and let out a yelp as she had been greatly startled by the sudden sound of the music, and then her eyes had actually affixed to what was at the end of the room of murals. something what caused her to drop the Groccery bag and clench her hands into tight balls.
The exterior facade of a house had been jutting out of the sky blue walls of the mural room, though specific facade had been of the Holiday Manor, it was a decently accurate recreation except some details were just wrong enough so that Dess noticed these subtle imperfections, like how the exterior windows had seemed a little too big, or that the door was a different colour. that being a shade of dark blue.
She had turned back to try and exit the mural room, but the double doors she had entered from were now missing, replaced by a mural of Earth. specifically the 1990 pale blue dot image, what had been taken by Voyager 1 when it had used it's camera for the last time, and she realised that she didn't have a choice, so she reluctantly turned back and picked up the groccery bag. and so she had now begun to approach the "Holiday Manor" facade.
The out of place and garish cheerful music had soon ceased, with the only ambience being the now ear-splitting monotone buzz of the overhead fluorescent lights as she had finally reached the exterior of the "Holiday Manor", with the doe extending out her hand to pull on the handle of the door and open it, now looking inside the exterior.
The interior had matched the layout of the actual Holiday Manor, but there was no furniture, no Christmas decorations, and the walls were painted a bland tone of manila, and the celling had been the same tiles of the yellow wallpapered area she had found herself in. as she found herself acting off instinct, now walking up the stairs towards where her room would be in the interior.
She had found the door to it, and the rowdy doe had pushed her weight against the door and opened it. now seeing that her "room" was an almost 1:1 recreation of her actual room within the Holiday Manor, except that some of the furniture had been at strange sizes, and the wallpaper was the same bland tone of manila.
She had approached her "bed", dropping the Groccery bag and collapsing onto it. with the duvet covers feeling itchy against her crimson fur, as she curled up into the fetal postion on the bed. tears rolling down from her bloodshot eyes as she mumbled out something. "I-i-i just....w-want...t-to go...-h-home.."
She had remained there for awhile, uncaring of everything around her, merely laying there. hoping that possibly she'd find an exit soon.
Oh how wrong Dess had been on that assumption.
HOUR 21?
Until, eventually she had soon came back to her senses. or at least what little sense she had left after her medication had almost entirely worn off, factored in with the stress and panic caused by Complex she had found herself in, as she wearily moved out of the fetal positon she had been curled up for an unknown amount of time for her, she thought that maybe she fell asleep at one point. but without any real way to tell the time in this labyrinth, she wasn't really sure.
She moved off the bed, her eyes hurt from the bright lights within her "room". and her throat was painfully dry from the fact that she hadn't drunk anything in Angel knows how long, and so Dess grabbed the groccery bag what still laid next to the uncomfortable and itchy bed she was "sleeping" on, and withdrew one of the cans of beer from the 4 pack.
Yet the doe decided that wasn't enough, as she quickly grabbed the 4(now 3) pack of beer from out of the bag, as she cracked open the first can of the foul tasting alcohol and drunk it, doing the same with the 2nd can, then the 3rd can, and finally the 4th can of beer as she haphazardly thrown the empty can across the room, standing as she grabbed the bag from off of the floor, approaching the door to her "room". and clenching the handle of the door tightly before pushing it open slowly.
Yet when she exited her "room", she wasn't in the "Holiday Manor" anymore. instead once again the Complex had shifted itself as she laid on the bed inside of her "room", with the new unfamiliar and of course, liminal space, she had found herself in to resemble an empty Office space with off-white coloured walls and several of the celling tiles were missing, or knocked down onto the floor. and the fluorescent lights and their monotone buzz what she had grown accustomed to had ceased, as there was actually no lighting in the room itself.
Though there was a large window at the end of the Office space, from which light had been seeping into the darkened space. though Dess couldn't see anything more than pure white through these windows, as the doe now reluctantly stepped forwards. approaching the window as she already assumed the door to her "room" had dissappeared.
Yet in the darkness behind her she heard a strange and nearly indescribable sound what had caused the heckles on the back of her fur to raise, visible to whatever had been lurking in the darkness because she had tied her red plaid jacket around her waist, and the sound had caused her breath to hitch, as she shouted out in a rash and stupid move, though her reasoning at this point had been impaired by her lack of sleep and the beer she consumed moments earlier. "H-HELLO..!?"
The sound itself Dess was wearing sounded like a deep gurgling, as if someone had been gurgling water in their throat and if that sound was both pitched down and slowed. and it sounded like it was coming from all around her, except n front of her as she gathered up the courage to look behind to try and determine the source of the sound she had been hearing.
Yet a voice spoke through the darkness, causing her to yelp at the sudden loud sound and drop the Groccery bag she had been tightly clenching. "THEY'RE ONLY GOING TO MAKE YOU SICKER, DECEMBER."
Her eyes widened and her breathing had increased to the point she had nearly begun to hyperventilate, as she had finally came face-to-face with whatever had been stalking her in the darkness of the Office space, as a large black figure-no...it wasn't even a figure. more so a churning mass of darkness what's form was intangible to the doe, yet even in this incomprehensible form. the gold and pink eyes and the distinct cat shaped ears on top of whatever you could call it's "head" were ever so comprehensible to Dess.
The Thing, the Mass Of Darkness begun to gurgle again as a large grin appeared on it's "face". the teeth were perfectly white, perfectly straight, and it looked like something out of a cartoon as it spoke with the same pitched down and booming voice Dess had heard earlier. "WHEN THIS ENDS, THEY'RE JUST GOING TO PUMP YOU FULL OF MORE DRUGS. THE DOCTORS SAY THEY'LL HELP, BUT WE BOTH KNOW THEY'LL JUST MAKE IT WORSE FOR YOU."
She begun to shake as she placed both of her hands against her dull blue antlers, looking down away from the incomprehensible Thing before her. her tone was ripe with uncertainty and fear as she spoke. "Y-Y-You're n-n-not r-real.."
The gurgling from the Thing had turned into a deep and wet laugh, before it had ceased, and it begun to speak again, completely ignorant to what she had said. and what it spoke had no relation to what it had said earlier. "WHEN THE NIGHT WAS DARK AND THE LIGHT WAS FADING, AND WHEN THE TV WAS THE ONLY THING IN THAT DARKNED EXPANSE. DO YOU REMEMBER THAT TOUCH?, THAT FACE?, I CRADLED YOU IN MY ARM, MY SWEET GIRL, DO YOU REMEMBER THAT NIGHT, DECEMBER?, WHEN YOU STARE INTO THAT VAST EXPANSE. YOU REMEMBER YOUR FRIEND. YOUR ONLY FRIEND."
She ignored the Thing's words, as she ran forwards towards the window and had abandoned the Groccery bag she had haphazardly grabbed an office chair what lay nearby to the window. her lungs working overdrive to inhale the still and acrid air of the Office space as she begun to desperately slam the chair into the window, ignoring as it's now hoarse and wet laugh had turned into a mix between the deep gurgles she had heard earlier. and a insane cackle as she had finally broken the window.
"STAY, AND WE CAN BE FRIENDS, TOGETHER FOREVER, WHERE THE DOCTORS CAN'T HURT US, WHERE THEY CAN'T JUDGE US-.", Dess didn't hear it finish the sentence as she leapt out of the now broken window into whatever space had lay beyond. but she felt as her ankle hit the ground and twisted at an odd angle. causing her to yelp out in pain as she collapsed onto hard wood flooring, having fell at least a 6 foot drop down into a new space.
Through the immense pain she had now found herself in, she looked around the bright white coloured walls and the hard wood flooring. and she had instantly noticed the music equipment in the room, the Speakers. the set of Drums, and she had noticed a Guitar set against one of the speakers. as she let out a quiet groan as she forced herself to now walk on her sprained hoove and ankle, pathetically limping forwards.
She had almost instantly recognised the faded and partly peeled sticker on the Guitar, because it was the same one she had used for her brief stint in a band she made with Asriel, Pizzapants, and Catti when she was 16, a band called "Blood Crushers", though by the time she was 18. the band had disbanded as Burgerpants was in College and nobody was on speaking terms with Catty.
A Smirk formed on her face, before the Speakers crackled to life what had caused her to flinch. yet the sound drew her in, because she knew what it was, a recording made of Christmas '91 by Asgore at the Holiday Manor, though obviously only the audio had been playing through the Speakers.
"Hey Azzy..!"
"Yeah..?"
"We're under the Mistletoe, you know what that means dor-...Uncle Asgore..?"
"-U-Uh...Dad, why are you recording this-."
Yet the soothing audio had soon ceased, causing Dess to become acutely aware of the nightmare she had still been facing, yet the Speaker crackled with static and noise. as if someone had been switching the channels on a radio as soon, something else began to speak through the Speaker, something what had painfully reflected her encounter with the Thing not even several Minutes ago within the Office space she had exited through the shattered window.
"A̸ ̷R̸O̶W̴D̶Y̸ ̷A̷N̶D̴ ̵D̸I̴R̷T̸Y̶ ̸G̵I̵R̴L̷."
"A̸ ̵S̵M̸E̴L̷L̵Y̷ ̴A̶N̸D̶ ̵Q̷U̷I̷E̴T̸ ̷B̵O̶Y̵."
"1̴3̸/̷6̷/̷1̸9̶9̴8̷."
"T̷H̸E̶ ̷B̶O̸Y̴ ̸W̷E̷E̵P̶S̶ ̸F̵O̴R̴ ̸T̴H̶E̶ ̷G̸I̵R̶L̵ ̴I̵S̴ ̶N̶O̸W̴ ̵L̶O̴S̸T̸."
"W̵H̸I̸L̸E̴ ̸T̴H̸E̷ ̸G̶I̵R̸L̷ ̴F̶I̴N̵D̵S̴ ̴H̶E̵R̸S̷E̸L̶F̸ ̴I̶N̵ ̶W̶O̵N̸D̷E̵R̴L̸A̶N̷D̴,̵ ̶P̶E̷R̵F̷E̷C̸T̵I̶O̸N̶ ̵A̵N̸D̵ ̴S̷P̴L̴E̴N̷D̵O̶R̶ ̴A̷T̵ ̶I̸T̸S̸ ̷P̵U̸R̵E̵S̷T̴ ̶F̷O̵R̷M̶,"
"T̷H̵E̶ ̵R̶O̵W̶D̷Y̶ ̴A̷N̶D̴ ̸D̵I̷R̸T̶Y̷ ̵G̸I̸R̸L̷ ̷L̸O̶S̷E̴S̴ ̶H̷E̴R̵S̸E̸L̶F̶ ̴T̸O̵ ̵T̴H̵E̸ ̶D̵E̷M̵O̷N̵S̵ ̶S̷H̷E̴ ̵A̴C̴C̵O̵S̶T̵E̷D̸."
"T̸H̶E̶ ̵S̸A̵M̷E̴ ̷S̶T̷O̵R̷Y̶,̸ ̸O̴V̷E̷R̸ ̷A̴N̷D̷ ̵O̶V̶E̶R̶ ̸A̸G̸A̶I̶N̸."
"Y̷E̵T̵ ̶I̸T̵ ̴R̴E̴M̷A̵I̷N̶S̶ ̵U̵N̴Q̶U̷E̷N̶C̷H̶E̶D̸."
"B̵U̷T̴ ̷S̵O̸M̵E̴T̴H̸I̶N̶G̶ ̸I̶S̵ ̵D̶I̷F̵F̷E̵R̸E̸N̷T̸,"
"T̷H̶E̶ ̴G̸I̴R̷L̶ ̷S̶E̶E̶K̸S̵ ̵E̶X̵I̷T̷ ̶I̶N̶ ̸A̸ ̶S̸A̵R̵C̴O̴P̸H̶A̴G̵U̶S̸ ̸B̵U̷I̷L̶T̸ ̵F̴O̴R̸ ̴O̸N̵E̷."
"H̶O̴W̸ ̴C̵U̶R̶I̷O̷U̸S̶ ̴."
Dess staggered away from the Speakers, swearing under her breath as she remained extremely confused and scared of the unfolding situation. and whatever had just occurred with the Speakers had motivated her to begin exiting whatever space she had fallen into, as she turned towards an exit of the room holding the musical equipment and had limped out.
The Hours began to blur together, she didn't know if everything had happened in mere Minutes or Days ago, and she had soon begun to lose hope of ever losing the Complex. as the dryness in her throat returned, and the painfully empty pit in her stomach had become ever more clear, as soon what little vestiges of sanity she lad left, began to drain.
This was her sarcophagus, her tomb. handcrafted for one.
H̴O̵U̸R̵ ̶1̷2̸2̸5̵
Dess couldn't separate her stress induced hallucinations brought on by her now unmedicated condition from the unyielding nightmare of the Complex she had still been trapped in, the time she spent keeping track of the Hours and now Days were long gone. as the pain her stomach had increased, and the dryness she felt in her throat had turned to an unbearable soreness. as she wandered without direction.
Her sprained ankle didn't help, because the pain in it had only increased and had forced her to sit down and take a brief rest before walking onwards. and she had been seeing the Thing what she had encountered in the Office space more and more, she had given it a name. she had called it her "FRIEND".
And as she walked forwards, something about where she had wandered into was different. because the dark grey coloured walls of the Hotel-like hallways she was walking through began to blur and shift, before eventually outright cutting off into the same faded yellow chevron wallpaper from the area she found herself in when she had first fallen into the Complex, and the now hauntingly soothing monotone buzz of the overhead fluorescent lights as she slowly advanced forwards into this space. before turning the corner.
The very space itself begun to stretch out forwards in front of the rowdy and demoralised doe, and at the end she had made out a Figure. a Figure what had antlers on their head, was that?
She tried to move as fast as she could but the sprained ankle had reduced her to a painfully slow shuffle, as she had eventually reached the Figure. it was Noelle, as she stood completely unmoving in front of Dess. her chest wasn't even rising and failing, yet a smirk had firmed on the doe's sweaty and dirtied face before she spoke. "E-Elly..?, i-it's me. y-you don't need to be afraid of me...!"
Noelle didn't respond, she remained silent and unmoving as she vacantly stared forwards at Dess. eliciting her to inch closer towards her little sister only to find out the truth, as her resolve was shattered over a quite simple and rather humorous situation what had just unfolded, "Noelle" wasn't alive. it was a simple cardboard cut out of the young fawn, and it seemed as if the Complex had begun to replicate more and more of her memories.
Yet the rowdy doe had heard the all familiar gurgle behind her, as the same voice began to speak as FRIEND had manifested behind her. "WHY DO YOU THINK SHE CARES ABOUT YOU?, WHY WOULD ANYONE LOVE SUCH A IMPERFECT AND FLAWED BEING, AS YOURSELF DECEMBER?, HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT THAT RESIGNING TO YOUR FATE, IN THIS SARCOPHAGUS BUILT FOR ONE, WOULD BE BETTER FOR ANYONE..?"
"Sh-Shut up...!", She ignored FRIEND while she begun moving forwards and turning the corner. but she heard as FRIEND had followed her, as her pace increased to a painful half-sprint to try and desperately evade them. yet she still heard the gurgling in her ears as she tried to run away, and soon her pace slowed back down to a painfully slow walk when she realised that trying to escape was utterly pointless.
"THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT YOU, THEY'RE JUST LIKE THE DOCTORS. ALL THEY WANT TO DO IS CONVINCE YOU THAT YOU'RE SICK, THAT BEING LIKE THIS IS WRONG. BUT YOU AREN'T SICK, AND IF YOU STAY HERE. I'LL BE IN THE DARK WITH YOU FOREVER, FOR INFINITY..", FRIEND growled into Dess's ear, though she couldn't see their full form but she still knew that they were behind her.
"...", At this point the doe had begun to ignore her "FRIEND", yet she knew deep down that every word they spoke was true. and perhaps that remaining within the Complex would've been the best possible outcome, if not for her, then Kris or Elly, and of course Asriel. as she knew that her condition was worsening each passing second from the stress she faced.
Every new environment she had found herself in seemed the same, and with each passing Second, Minute, Hour, she felt what little embers of hope she had within her SOUL to ebb and dwindle. she wanted to die, but she wasn't going to let the Complex do that, if she was going to go out. she was going to do it on her own terms.
HOUR 37
Her FRIEND had followed her every step of the way, speaking into her ears. telling her the truth she was always blind to, or rather the truth she didn't accept. that indeed nobody loved her and that this was the best possible fate she could've had, to be lost in the Complex designed to be her sarcophagus, her tomb.
And as she walked through the mono yellow halls of madness, as they begun to dwindle into mere spaces she was briefly occupying, and the hunger and thirst she had felt begun to dwindle into mere feelings of pain. what motivated her to find a way to end the immense suffering she was facing sooner, until eventually the crying doe had noticed that the hallway she was travelling down began to open up into a far larger space.
The faded yellow wallpaper soon transitioned into a floral wallpaper, and the buzz of the overhead fluorescent lights soon began to fade, replaced by the ambient and soothing chirping of birds as Dess looked around, now finding herself in a field of pink and gold flowers, and beyond that?
A replication of the "Dreemurr" Household lay in the solemn field the doe found herself in, far less flawed than the Holiday Manor facade she had encountered over a Day ago. and the doe began to steadily approach the "Dreemurr" Household and had eventually reached the front door. clasping the handle tightly as she pushed open the door.
The interior was a hauntingly 1:1 recreation of the Dreemurr Household, unlike the flawed "Holiday Manor", perhaps it could've been a hallucination, or perhaps the Complex had finally nailed recreating Dess's memories and was taunting her by showing these now perfectly recreated spaces.
Music had begun to play from an unknown source, perhaps it was the Complex itself, or her mind verging on the line of utter psychosis. but she didn't care, as she saw her FRIEND's incomprehensible and intangible mass in the open doorway, as she looked away from her FRIEND, moving towards the kitchen as she acted off more instinct than any rational or even conscious thought.
She begun to open the cabinets and drawers, they were completely empty until she had eventually opened the last cabinet, finding something inside. something she had been looking for Hours and Hours, a means out of the Complex. a means to finally end her suffering so that it couldn't win.
It was a Knife, a generic kitchen Knife what she had quickly grabbed as she had now exited the kitchen and begun ascending the stairs up to the second floor of the "Dreemurr" Household, using her mass to force open the door to Kris and Asriel's room, it was like the rest of the "Dreemurr" Household. a perfect 1:1 recreation.
She had moved forwards towards Asriel's bed, sitting down and taking weight off her now badly sprained ankle as she looked down at the Knife. and had begun to bring it towards left forearm, intending to cut open the forearm and sit there. to let herself pathetically bleed out in defiance of what the Complex had wanted off her, to let her painfully die of thirst in it's vast and endless spaces, as her FRIEND who had been silent for Hours by that point merely watched her from the hallway outside of the room.
And just as she was about to make the cut, something had startled her. as Asriel's PC had turned on, and on it's Windows 98 display a text box had opened, what had caused the doe to drop the Knife onto the floor before standing up and approaching Asriel's PC, leaning forwards as words had been typed into the text box.
HOW ENTERTAINING THIS HAS BEEN
THANK YOU, THANK YOU SO MUCH DECEMBER.
BUT THIS WAS NEVER YOUR SARCOPHAGUS, WHAT FUN WOULD THERE BE IN ELIMINATING SUCH A CURIOUS AND TRAGIC SIGHT?
I WILL CONTINUE TO WATCH, AND YOU WILL CONTINUE TO ETERTAIN ME. BEYOND MY ENDLESS WALLS AND NIGHTMARES.
GO NOW, GO BACK TO ASRIEL.
LIVE YOUR LIFE, MY DEAR DECEMBER.
She thought that this was another hallucination, that perhaps her broken mind had tried convincing her not to end it on her own terms, but a bright white light had been shining on her back, what had elicited her to turn around as she saw a glowing white doorway in the middle of the room, and acting off pure instinct she had begun to approach it. extending out her hand as it made contact with the doorway.
And in a bright flash of green light, everything had went dark.
The Complex had granted her exit, it had used up her and for what little remained, it'd decide to take a different approach
But it wasn't done. because the enjoyment always came from the cycle it and Dess found themself in, across endless universes and the does what ventured it's halls. but something about this Dess had been different, because she had been driven to near insanity. not by it's tricks, but rather her own broken mind.
It had never had this much enjoyment in it's endless existence, and out of perhaps sympathy for her, it had allowed her to leave.
For it would continue to be fed and entertained. no matter what.
The Sun had worked like a flashbang for the doe, as she had used her arms to block it's rays, as she looked upon the scene unfolding. she was back at the lake, back under the Oak Tree and she had heard Asriel's distressed shouts, and she didn't know if this was another hallucination. or if this was reality, but she didn't care.
While she did indeed look like shit, her frame slightly more thin and her eyes bloodshot, as well as her swelled and sore sprained ankle and the general dirtiness from her sweat and other elements from within the Complex, she had used whatever strength she had to scream out for the golden boy. "ASRIEL...!"
"DESS..!?", He called out as he stumbled down towards her. ignoring how dirtied and disheveled the doe was as he pulled her into a tight embrace, ignoring that she stunk of her acrid natural musk and of copper, as tears welled in the corner of her eyes before he spoke. stuttering on her words in both shock, confusion, and relief. "I-I SPENT SO-."
"Wh-What..?, h-how long was i gone..?", She had interjected through the golden boy's words as she returned the embrace, what did he been by that?
"D-Dess, i-it's been 18 Hours. i-we spent so long looking for you, even the Police and my Dad did, wh-what happened..?", He had gently clasped both sides of the doe's face, looking into her red and bloodshot eyes as tears ran down from his. staining his once dry white fur as he held her.
".......T-That's um, a-another story for another time...", She had decided to not tell him the truth. rather she'd spend time concocting a realistic story, so that the doctors wouldn't think her condition wasn't why she had went missing, but a question lingered on her mind, because there's no way she spent merely 18 Hours within the Complex, no fucking way.
"Wh-What Year is it, A-Azzy..?", The sudden question off Dess had taken Asriel off-guard, as he stuttered on his words before speaking again.
"i-it's, 2013, why..?"
"...Wh-What..?"