Chapter Text
The air in the night felt thick, and the tension what hung in it was charged, but she couldn't just ignore a text at 2:38AM from her boyfriend asking for her to meet him at the Shelter ASAP, and especially after the rather heated argument he apparently had with Toriel the day before, or that's what she was guessing based off their last conversation via text.
Dess had felt apprehensive about going through with this, silently sneaking out of the Holiday Manor and hoping Elly or her mom didn't find out about it so that she could hopefully get down to whatever had been happening with Asriel these past few days, his behaviour had deeply concerned her, Kris, and Elly as he was just...off.
She figured it could've been the pressure he's under, with the upcoming exam at School he'd been staying up all night studying, while naturally she'd been kicking her hooves back without much care for getting a high grade, that could explain why he's been so irritable with her and Toriel, she couldn't imagine how much stress the exam is causing him.
But she tried to silence her restless thoughts, letting out a low huff before pulling up the hood of the baggy grey hoodie she had been wearing. As it had been a strangely cold night for early autumn, but that was the least strangest thing about tonight.
Finally walking off of the road what connected the clearing where the Shelter laid to the rest of Hometown, she looked forwards at the structure itself. and the rusted and flaked red doors what lead down into a storm shelter, the pair had been using it as a hideout and a hangout spot for years up to that point. So it's only natural that he'd ask to meet her here.
But Asriel was nowhere to be found as she halted in front of the doors, and looking around the area didn't bring any results either. Did he really just text me at 2 in the morning and he couldn't even be bothered to show up?
Dess placed her hands into the pocket of her hoodie, looking down as she contemplated calling out his name or simply leaving to go back to the Manor, but she heard movement in the bushes near the Shelter. Eliciting her to look over to where the sounds were coming from.
The scruffy goat boy she had came here from emerged out of the bushes, to say he looked rough was an understatement, his eyes were half-lidded and a pair of eyebags sat below them, and his blonde hair had been loosely done with a hair tie while the black hoodie jacket he wore over his green and yellow stripped sweater loosely clung to his frame, what happened to him?, last time she saw him on Friday he looked fine.
"Azzy..?-", Dess hesitated upon seeing how rough Asriel had actually looked.
Asriel interjected before she finished. "Good, you're here, and i have something to show you."
"Wh-What..?, y-you're not making any fucking sense-..", She blurted out a response to him. Her concern for him had been gradually turning into fear, why was he acting so weird?
But Dess didn't have time to linger on her thoughts when she felt Asriel's hand grasp hers tightly, nearly causing her to fall over when he had begun dragging her towards the entrance of the Shelter, and the fear she felt had quickly turned into terror.
"A-Azzy..wh-what the fuck..!?", Dess squeaked out as he gripped one of the doors. Pulling it open, the rusted hinges what barely held the weight of the metal door groaning and creaking as he finished opening it, remaining silent as he begun to descend down the steps with the terrified doe still being dragged along by him.
But the descent down the steps was longer, far longer. And when they finally reached the bottom, it didn't seem like they were in the Shelter anymore..
Darkness surrounded the pair, and the floor of the large, seemingly endless space they were in had an extremely shallow of stagnant and cold water lapping at their feet. None of this made sense, where were they?, what was Asriel doing?, this was nothing like any Dark World she had ever seen.
"...I wanted to show you this place, December..", Asriel released Dess. Causing her to stagger back and collapse down onto the floor as she crawled away from Asriel, silent terror and fear plastered on her face as she didn't understand what he was doing, nor whatever place he had dragged her into.
"..I-I....w-what-..?", She stammered on her words. Barely able to form any coherent response beyond what she managed to speak out.
"This place...it's, wonderful, isn't it?, i've been coming down here for weeks now, and...there's no stress here, no exams, no School, no parents.....c-cant you see how wonderful that can be..?", Asriel muttered on. his "Speech" barely above being incomprehensible rantings.
"..Y-You're not, making a-any fucking sense. C-Can we just, l-leave..?"
Dess's response caused his expression to turn into a frown as he stopped pacing, slowly approaching her as she crawled away. "...We can be who we want, i-i don't have to be the golden boy anymore, i don't need to prove myself to anyone, a-and...Kris and Elly can be here with us...we could all be happy, together..."
"...I-Is t-this what you've been doing...?, f-fucking running away from life?, a-are you really that...much of a..coward..?", She lashed out towards Asriel. Anger replacing the immense fear and terror what clouded her system.
Asriel's response was to let out a sound somewhere between a groan and a whine, taking increasingly longer strides towards Dess as she could see the desperation in his eyes slowly turning to rage. "C-COWARD..!?, I-I JUST WANT TO BE FREE OF THIS DESS, FREE OF THE STRESS, THE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS, THE ARGUEMENTS, Y-YOU CAN'T TELL ME THAT YOU'VE FELT THE SAME."
Reaching forwards, he firmly gripped the collar of Dess's hoodie before lifting her up. And the doe's attempts to claw and slam her fists into the steely grip of his claws had been in vain. "A-ASRIEL...WH-WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!?, L-LET GO OF ME...!"
"Y-YOU'RE LIKE THE REST OF THEM!, Y-YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND...YOU JUST DON'T!, BUT HE DOES...", Asriel's insane rambling continued while he still held Dess by the collar of her hoodie. His mental stability seemed to degrade with each passing second further terrifying the doe.
"...P-PLEASE...A-AZZY YOU'RE HURTING ME...!", Dess whimpered out as tears had begun to well in the corner of her eyes, and something within Asriel had snapped, now merely staring vacantly into Dess's watery steel blue eyes for several seconds before he released his grip on the collar of her hoodie, letting her drop to the floor.
Asriel tried to say something after releasing her, but someone had interjected before he could even form a sentence.
"☟︎⚐︎🕈︎ 👎︎✋︎💧︎✌︎🏱︎🏱︎⚐︎✋︎☠︎❄︎✋︎☠︎☝︎.", A Mysterious voice echoed through the darkness around Dess and Asriel. which had elicited the latter to turn in the direction of the voice.
Someone stood before the pair, standing slightly taller than Asriel though hunched over in their stature. Wearing what seemed to be a black cloak over their thin frame while their pale head remained uncovered by any garments, and their face, they had no eyes.
The Man with no Eyes looked on at Asriel, who had begun stepping away from him while trying to hastily form a sentence. "I-I..y-you told me-."
"❄︎☟︎✋︎💧︎ 🕈︎✌︎💧︎☠︎🕯︎❄︎ 🕈︎☟︎✌︎❄︎ ✋︎ 💧︎❄︎✌︎❄︎☜︎👎︎ ✋︎☠︎ ⚐︎🕆︎☼︎ ✌︎☼︎☼︎✌︎☠︎☝︎☜︎💣︎☜︎☠︎❄︎📪︎ ✌︎💧︎☼︎✋︎☜︎☹︎."
"T-THEN WHAT THE FUCK WAS OUR ARRANGEMENT...!?", Asriel snarled back. Balling his hands into tight fists while slowly backing away from the Man who stood in front of him.
"✡︎⚐︎🕆︎☼︎ ✌︎👍︎❄︎✋︎⚐︎☠︎💧︎ ☟︎✌︎✞︎☜︎ 👍︎⚐︎☠︎👍︎☜︎✈︎🕆︎☜︎☠︎👍︎☜︎💧︎."
"✌︎☠︎👎︎ ✋︎❄︎🕯︎💧︎ ❄︎☼︎🕆︎☹︎✡︎ ✌︎ 💧︎☟︎✌︎💣︎☜︎ 🕈︎☟︎✌︎❄︎ ☠︎⚐︎🕈︎ 💣︎🕆︎💧︎❄︎ 👌︎☜︎ 👎︎⚐︎☠︎☜︎📬︎."
"W-Wait...W-WAIT...N-NO..!", Asriel's tone quickly turned from anger to pure fear as the Man had simply faded back into the ambient darkness of the place they were in, and by now Dess had gotten back to her hooves as she watched on at the unfolding scene.
Her next actions were driven by pure instinct and the will to survive, turning away from Asriel and running towards the stairs what lead up to the exit of the Shelter and out of this hell she found herself in. But the screams let out by her boyfriend, the biy she called her own, the boy she loved. Had caused her to look back.
Red barbed vines had been reaching out of the darkness, ensnaring around Asriel's limbs and sinking painfully into his fur and flesh. staining his sweater and jacket red with blood, his arm outstretched towards her as she finally reached the steps what lead to salvation. and more vines begun to emerge from the darkness, further wrapping around his limbs and drawing out more pained yelps and screams from the goat.
"P-Please...d-don't...l-leave me....-here...D-Dess..", He whimpered out through the screams and sobs of pain. His arm reached out for salvation, the only thing he cared about in this fleeting moment, her.
Dess was hysterical, bitter and salty tears staining the soft brown fur around her eyes and causing the mild makeup she put on to drip down the sides of her face with the tears, but something stopped her from running back down there to try and free him from the vines. Someone needed to survive, to look after Noelle and Kris, and it had to be her. "I-I'm..s-so....s-sorry...."
She didn't look back as Asriel's screams increased in volume, he screamed her name. But she didn't listen to him, and his screams gradually faded away before ceasing. And she had reached the exit of the Shelter, collapsing out of it and the doors had shut behind her.
Dess looked towards the doors, too distraught to form any conscious thought and she had simply laid on the grass. Silently sobbing in immense guilt for the choice she made.
But either way, it didn't matter how long it'd take.
She'd find him.
...
...
☟︎⚐︎🕈︎ 💣︎🕆︎👍︎☟︎ ☹︎⚐︎☠︎☝︎☜︎☼︎ ☠︎⚐︎🕈︎?
❄︎☟︎☜︎ 👎︎✌︎☼︎😐︎☠︎☜︎💧︎💧︎ 💧︎☟︎✌︎☹︎☹︎ ☼︎⚐︎✌︎☼︎ ☞︎☼︎⚐︎💣︎ 👌︎☜︎☠︎☜︎✌︎❄︎☟︎ ❄︎☟︎☜︎ ☜︎✌︎☼︎❄︎☟︎
✌︎☠︎👎︎ ✋︎❄︎ 💧︎☟︎✌︎☹︎☹︎ 👌︎☜︎ 🕆︎☠︎👎︎⚐︎☠︎☜︎ ✋︎☠︎ ☝︎☹︎⚐︎☼︎✋︎⚐︎🕆︎💧︎ ✌︎☠︎☠︎✋︎☟︎✋︎☹︎✌︎❄︎✋︎⚐︎☠︎
💧︎⚐︎ ✞︎☜︎☼︎✡︎ 👍︎☹︎⚐︎💧︎☜︎.