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The King of Only, the ONE himself, Mr. Ant Tenna of Tenna’s Marvellous Mystery BoardTM fame, looked at his one and only beloved viewer and smiled warmly. On the other side of his screen, the pink ghost lying on the couch flipped through the channels, smiling slightly as he stopped on one playing reruns of an old animated show.
The last day had been a dream come true for Tenna. Not only had he managed to reconcile with Kris (and their friends), but they’d kept their word and now he was needed again. Wanted again. The ghost - Hapstablook, he’d figured the name was - adored him, had from the moment he plugged him in. After a few minutes of fiddling with his buttons and dials(and hadn’t THAT been a wonder he hadn’t felt in years!) he’d gotten right to seeing what Tenna had to offer. And what did Tenna have to offer! Cartoons! Reality! Quiz shows without giant plastic balls! Cooking shows with actual food! And best of all, the music channels! Hapstablook had sat there for hours listening to music and watching the(occasionally scandalous) videos.
It was more attention than he’d received in years. Tenna thought he’d died and gone to HEAVEN, and his appreciation for his new viewer was growing by the minute. As he sat in the unformed darkness, watching Hapstablook watch him in the late-night glow, Tenna felt a near-forgotten sense of satisfaction well in his nonexistent chest.
Of course, Tenna still only had reruns to work with. Not the worst of problems at this point(a good show is one you’ll never want to stop watching!) but he did get nervous at the possibility of Hapstablook’s interest fading. But there was still one channel up and running: the news. From what he could gather as an electric box on the wall, he was only getting reruns because the town was being cut off from any signals coming in from outside. Only the local Hometown camera crew could still broadcast - after all, they were already inside the town. Tenna was grateful, but still wished the one working broadcast was anything else; TV was made to help you forget your problems, not find out about them!
That said, it wasn’t too bad. Hapstablook flipped over to the news channel right then, smiling ever-so-slightly as they reported on the arrival of a small duck attempting to carry people over a line of disproportionately-short police tape. As long as Hapstablook’s smile didn’t stop, Tenna was happy.
As the ghost watched, Tenna’s thoughts drifted to his last night with his most valued viewer, Kris. Though he still felt a pang of regret for how it ended(and how he’d lost his marbles before even the commercial break), he couldn’t deny how much he’d enjoyed being Kris’ host one last time. The antics, the adventures, the gift shops! He’d pulled out all the stops to make sure Kris wouldn’t regret their decision to plug him back in. He’d even kept his promise not to tell their friends about…
Tenna’s smile froze as he thought back to that moment, where Kris had whispered to his unmoving frame what they needed him to do, with that strange Knight behind his head. It was hard to make out its features, but Tenna could see antlers on its head. He’d brushed it off at the time; perhaps it was little Elly or her big sister? It had been so long since he’d seen them after all. Lightners look so different as they grow up. But either way, he’d agreed, and set out to give the Lightners the time of their life while he… worked behind some of their backs to kidnap Tori. Maybe not his finest moment, Tenna thought as he rubbed at his shoulders. But it was all for Kris’ sake.
… was it? No matter how hard Tenna tried, Kris never smiled for him, not once. Susie had so much fun playing his boards, and Ralsei? Having the time of his life! But Kris, the one who turned him on in the first place? Not so much as a fond look. Their eyes never betrayed anything. No matter how hard Tenna tried, or used what he knew they liked in the past, they didn’t smile. And they even destroyed his behind-the-scenes avatar! If Tenna didn’t know any better, he’d think they didn’t even want to have fun.
But then, why would they bring him back, if they didn’t want to have fun, at least a little? Maybe they wanted someone else to have fun instead? Or maybe they really did want to have fun, and Tenna just couldn’t do it for them. Tenna shook his head. No use dwelling on it now.
It was times like these that Tenna wished little Elly was around. She’d always been SO easy to read, so easy to entertain! Scary movies with big sis, Christmas reruns with the others… making funny colours on his screen with a pine tree fridge magnet she’d smuggled from home, watching them move like waves… he’d especially loved her and her sister watching those movies. Nothing’s scary, as long as you’re not alone!
Maybe she was friends with his new owner? And she’d come over to watch scary movies again! The same movie is never as scary the second time, but still, that just means you know it’ll never let you down. Maybe one day…
Tenna was roused from his thoughts by what he quickly determined was an emergency broadcast from the town news channel. Hapstablook sat up straight to watch, going from relaxed to tense in a second. Tenna look at his screen in his mind’s eye and saw a rabbitlike reporter sitting behind her desk, looking at the camera with a composure that did not quite make up for the hesitation before she spoke.
“Breaking news,” she said, before a slight pause. That wasn’t good. The last time she’d paused was when she announced the bird fellow was injured. What was happening now?
“Two teenagers were found dead this morning after having drowned in Hometown Lake sometime last night.”
Tenna’s heart dropped. Two kids, drowned. Tenna’s mind raced; Hometown was a small place. Most of those kids had passed in front of his screen at least once. Would it be someone he knew? Someone Kris knew?
“The two teenagers, identified as sixteen-year old Noelle Holiday-”
What?
“-and sixteen-year old Kris Dreemurr-”
What?
“-were found this morning near the northern shore, identified at the scene by Sus-”
The audio faded slightly, then rose again as the picture warped and distorted. The reporter’s impassive face looked monstrous, then horrified, then back to normal. Hapstablook leaped from the couch, desperately fiddling with the dials to bring the picture back.
“...found clutching each other… no signs of a struggle… bruises on wrists…”
Hapstablook gave up on the dials and just grabbed the sides of the box, trying to make sense of what he was hearing, before a blast of sound forced him to wrench on the volume dial. The insides of the TV whirred louder and louder. On the other side of the screen, Tenna was screaming.
Tenna screamed into the darkness that surrounded him, trying desperately to deafen the stupid, stupid voice booming from the inside of his head. It wasn’t possible. It was not possible. Kris was Kris. Reckless, kind, beautiful Kris. And Noelle. The little girl who jumped at her own shadow and laughed at the snowmen on the screen. It wasn’t true. It wasn’t true. But then the camera changed to a picture of the lake, and in the corner, blocked by pixels that might as well have been glass to him, was them. And Tenna knew they were telling the truth.
Who…
Who…
Someone had done something. Someone had killed them. Tenna’s head whirred as steamed as he grit his teeth poured all he had into scouring his memory, his knowledge, trying to find who, who could have done something like this to two innocent, beautiful kids. As he wracked his metal brain, memories of the two, laughing, crying, being flashed before him and he forced himself to keep going.
The Knight. That thing that tried to kill them. It had to be them. It’d gone to their world and drowned them, held them underwater until they stopped kicking, thrown their bodies away like garbage. That’s what they were to it, wasn’t it? Not smiling, laughing, crying, living, loving children. Garbage.
Tenna would find a way. Even now, as a useless box, Tenna would find a way. Tenna was strong. Tenna would do it. Even now he could see it, far to the west, invisible unless you had eyes that could see in the dark. A darkness, deeper than deepest black, stirring and churning beneath where Tenna knew the lake must be. That place was evil. That place was a monster. It murdered Kris, it murdered Noelle. Tenna needed to reach it. He needed to break it. Tenna wrenched towards it with all his might but he couldn’t move, he couldn’t move, he was nothing here, he was nothing, he could do nothing. Tenna screamed into the void for them to come, to fight him, to kill him. He screamed and screamed for someone, anyone to tell him that this was all a nightmare, that he would wake up back in Toriel’s home and see his family, safe, whole.
But nobody came.
Tenna screamed so loud he very nearly didn’t hear the reporter’s next sentence, given through shaky breaths.
“Based on autopsy reports and witness testimonies of the friends and family of the deceased, authorities are ruling the deaths as suicide.”
A hideous sensation filled Tenna’s chest. It rose to his throat, burning all the while, and burst from his lips as laughter. It came again, then again, until Tenna was doubled over with laughter, tears sizzling as they ran down his face.
Suicide!? They really thought it was suicide!? Never had Tenna seen a more stupid supporting cast! Tenna fell onto his knees, still clutching his stomach, still cackling uncontrollably. Was he the one with a head of empty air or them? None of them knew Kris, knew Noelle. Knew the way they laughed and cried, cheered and screamed! Kris would never leave willingly!
Tenna’s mind conjured images of little Krissy, determined to back up what was very obviously a common-sense self-evident logical conclusion. Behind his eyes flashed Krissy and Elly, alive and full of light. Watching movies. Playing video games. Eating butterscotch-cinnamon pie. Playing make-believe with computers and playing cards, rosy-cheeked and full of joy. There wasn’t a hint of darkness in their eyes. The light within shone through, pure and wonderful.
But as Tenna sorted through his memories, something changed. At some point, everything shifted. Noelle stopped showing up. Kris was still there, sometimes with their brother, sometimes with their parents, but it was… different, somehow. There was less there. They smiled less. They didn’t look well. They didn’t look… happy. The light that once shone so brightly was muted, somehow. Lessened.
A lead ball rolling in his stomach, Tenna flipped forward as far as he could go, until the very last moment he could see Kris. The moment, the moment. The point just before that horrible thing had cleaved him apart. He’d been so happy, so naively happy, that he hadn’t looked closely at Kris, hadn’t even considered what they felt. Tenna looked at the image in his mind’s eye, looked at Kris’ face, and saw… nothing. Nothing at all.
Not a trace of light was left.
Desperation surged through Tenna as he flipped back through his memories, trying to find the point it all went wrong, the point where everything changed. He’d never dwelled on it. Never tried to figure out what it was. Never needed to. A TV helps you escape from reality, it isn’t supposed to show it to you. But still Tenna flicked back and forth across his mind, trying to figure out where it was, when it happened, when everything fell apart.
And he found it.
The TV was left on, the show they’d been watching long forgotten. Asgore, in his old police clothes, his face twisted in desperation, being grabbed by the scruff and shaken by Carol, tears streaming from her eyes as Rudy and Toriel struggled to separate them. Asriel stood near the couch, blank disbelief on his face. And on the living room floor, Kris and Noelle sat, bawling in a way that only children can, arms locked around each other like they were the only real things left in the world. Noelle’s face was buried in Kris’ shoulder, but Kris sat with their face facing forward. They turned their head slightly, and-
Tenna couldn’t see it. The light had vanished.
And understanding, fear, anger, despair surged through his entire being, and he clutched his face as though he could yank the realisation out - but try as he might, the thought remained in his skull, heavy and sharp.
Nothing is scary, as long as you’re not alone.
The TV warped and distorted like a magnet was being held to it. The reporter was drowned out in a wave of static that consumed the broadcast. On the other side, Hapstablook again tried fiddling with the dials, to no avail. Tenna barely felt it. The static consumed his mind as he tried to process what he’d just realised. Anger and abandonment and raw grief cut him over and over again as he fell to the ground, his head whirring and buzzing. And eventually, one thought, one horrible, horrible thought rose to the surface.
Was it me?
Tenna saw the way Kris had been in his Dark World. The frowns, the blank eyes, the… emptiness. The terror that covered their features for brief moments after they exited his S-rank room. The way they’d been shaking after his outbursts, the way they looked at him as he fought them. They’d been hurting. They’d been scared and in pain and he’d… he’d hurt them more. Used them for his sick games, his own hellish entertainment, his own twisted reflection of Kris’ worst memories. Punched and kicked and burned them. Ignored their worries, ignored their wants. Called himself their family while he drove them to… He was their TV! He was supposed to save them! And he… he…
He killed them.
The CRT crackled and popped as Tenna lay there, shrivelled and clutching his head. Weeping like a child. As if he hadn’t… he should’ve done more for them. He should’ve been more. Kris and Noelle, he should’ve… he could’ve shown them therapist shows! Happy cartoons, sitcoms, comedies. Those Christmas specials they both liked, he could’ve shown them year-round, he should’ve found a way, he should’ve done something, done anything. Instead he let them sink deeper and deeper, and now… he’d never get the chance to make it right.
Sobs wracked Tenna’s body as he lay, the images refusing to leave his head. Distantly, he heard a new voice, quiet and hesitant, cutting through the static.
“Why is it showing… Tenna, are you…” the voice from the other side of the screen came, hesitant, before gasping in realisation. “Are you crying, Tenna?”
The words shocked Tenna to his core, enough to pull him from the floor and his attention back to Hapstablook, who was staring into his screen with a strange understanding on his face.
“You were little Kris’, weren't you, Tenna?” Hapstablook whispered, his face inches from the screen. And Tenna, holding back his tears, nodded.
“Oh darling, you poor thing…”
Without warning, Hapstablook wrapped his arms around Tenna, his face pressed tightly against the screen as he clutched the box to his body. The ghost’s arms phased into the box ever so slightly and he could feel it, the warm embrace clutching him tightly and holding him close. Tenna’s hands found Hapstablook’s back and he could tell by the pressure beneath his hands and on his screen that he could feel it. Tenna broke down into sobs yet again, falling down as he wailed and hacked and clutched at Hapstablook’s back, who just rubbed the CRT soothingly.
“It’s… it’s alright, Tenna, it’s going to be alright.”
No it wasn’t. It was never going to be alright again. But still Tenna’s sobs slowly grew more and more shallow.
I was wrong, dear viewer.
I’m still scared.
Eventually the static subsided, and Hapstablook let go. The image resolved back into the news channel. It had long since switched over to the weather; nothing but dark and rainy days ahead. Tenna very nearly laughed at it. It was fitting. There was a flood warning, too. The lake wasn’t satisfied, apparently. It was going to come to him first.
His first thought was that he would be happy when it did. But then he looked at Hapstablook, at his soft smile, and decided that even a thing like himself ought to stick around, if only to make sure that a smile like that never vanishes again.
Tenna flipped through his channels; they’d been rerun so many times he knew what they were saying on each one. He presented several in turn:
“[Thank you][my][dear.] [You’ve been a][wonderful][audience!]”
Hapstablook pressed a hand to his mouth and gave a hesitant chuckle, a slight blush at his cheeks. “Please… don’t mention it, darling.” After a moment’s hesitation, he added, “Anything for a fan.”
Tenna gave a soft laugh. The screen shone warmly. Hapstablook smiled, before his expression turned somber.
“Those poor kids… it couldn’t have been anyone’s fault, you know? No one would’ve… who could’ve…” Hapstablook stopped, and fixed Tenna with a look of unexpected intensity. “I… I don’t know anything about what’s happening, but please, don’t shut yourself away after all this.”
A reassuring smile crossed Hapstablook’s face. “You can’t be a star without an audience, after all!”
A dozen laugh tracks poured from Tenna’s speakers and he glowed warmly. Hapstablook nodded, then shakily bent down and retrieved the remote. He looked at the curtains, saw the darkness filtering through.
“It’s late,” said Hapstablook. “Why don’t we just… escape for a little while? All this… we’ll wait until morning.”
Tenna nodded and straightened his tie, and blinked the last of his tears away. Showtime.
Hapstablook flipped through the channels until he settled on an old animated show, about a pink catlike girl who flew around saving the scared and lonely. He sat back on the couch and watched until his eyes grew heavy and he began to snore. But Tenna kept watching. It was his own show, and it wasn’t for him, but... For just one moment, he could pretend that it was Kris and Noelle sleeping there. Falling asleep during a sleepover, waiting for Toriel to drape blankets over them. Tenna hoped that wherever they were now was as soft and warm as that couch must’ve been.
As the hours passed, a thought crossed Tenna’s thought, and he laughed. Wasn’t this a sight! A TV in need of an escape! Tenna laughed and laughed, even though it wasn’t very funny. But then again, what did he know of how people should feel? Nothing at all, he thought to himself. Nothing at all.