Chapter Text
“Alright Frisk, what do ya got?” Dess sat opposite of the pile of Halloween candy from Frisk, a full hand covering her lower face to hide the smirk that he knew was there. She'd won countless games before, but this would be the first time he'd win. He knew it.
Frisk laid of his hand.
“Five of a kind aces!” He announced triumphantly, but all he was met with was teasing laughter. “What?”
“Did you really think that would work?” Dess asked.
“I... I don't...”
“They're obviously paper.” She tapped his Aces of Clubs and Hearts, and their papers folded slightly as she pressed her finger into them one after the other. “Hell, there aren't even five aces in the first place! And by the way? It was really obvious that you were up to something when you told me to look away. Try to be a bit more subtle next time.”
Frisk pouted as Dess moved the fake cards aside.
“I'll still give you a chance. Draw two more cards so we can see what hand you really would've had.” Reluctantly, he grabbed the next to cards. “Ooh, a pair of queens. You got a full house! That's a pretty good hand.” Frisk perked up. His trick had failed, but maybe he could finally... “But...” Dess laid out her hand. The missing Ace of Hearts down to a Ten of Hearts. A royal flush. “Not good enough.”
“What? That's not...” Frisk stammered. “You must have cheated!”
“Maybe?” Dess shrugged with a smug grin on her face. “But if I did, I'm just better at it. Cheating only counts if you get caught. So...” Dess reached out to pull the pile of candy towards her. “Guess I'm getting your Halloween candy this year!”
“Wait, double or nothing! Double or nothing!”
“You can only double or nothing if you have something to double.”
“You can get my candy next year?”
“I can get your candy next year just by beating you again.”
Frisk pouted, but had nothing more to add. Dess looked him over, and with an exaggerated sigh tossed some of the chocolate back at him.
“Go wild.” She laughed as Frisk's eyes bulged at the sight. “I don't even like chocolate anyway. I'm still keeping the rest though. Saw some caramel in here that I'm dying to dig into.”
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“God I've been itching to try this. Can't understand how Azzy is even able to go to work while this is waiting here. Stupid summer job.” Dess sat forward as the three of them watched the opening cinematic for Super Smashing Fighters: Combat played.
“Who's that guy?” Elly asked as she pointed to the tall man among the cast. “He looks mean.”
“That's Dragon. He's, uh, from a grown-up game. With guns. You wouldn't like it.”
Once the cinematic had ended, Dess took the lead in maneuvering the menus to get them all set up for a fight.
“What, where's the White Cloak!?!” Elly pouted.
“We don't have them all unlocked yet, Elly. You'll have to pick someone else.”
While Elly picked Princess Shining, Frisk gravitated towards Browsire.
“Purple dragons, huh?” Dess remarked as she picked Zeta Knightmare. “I see you and Azzy have similar tastes.”
Frisk stiffened as their face burned.
“What's that mean?” Elly asked.
“Nothing.” Dess laughed. “Oh! Before we start, we gotta make our tags! For posterity!” Dess helped Elly open the menu to enter her name before starting on her own. All while Frisk stared into the naming menu.
His cursor hovered over the F button, but eventually it drifted off of the letter. When Dess finished putting in her tag (forced to drop the extra S to have DES), she looked over at what Frisk had done.
“Ral?” She chuckled. “Maybe one day you'll remember how to spell your name.”
“It's... cool.” Frisk mumbled, his voice barely audible over the hum of the CRT. Dess' eyes narrowed, but her attention was drawn away by Elly.
“It won't let me do my whole name!” She complained.
“Yeah, it can only be three letters.” Dess shrugged. “Just go with Ely, we'll know it's you.”
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“Oh thank goodness, you're still playing.” Asriel sighed as he got home.
“Sup.” Dess waved. “How's being responsible going?”
“Great, thank you!” He smirked. “But now I want to play video games.”
“We got all the characters unlocked while you were gone.” Dess scooted aside to make room for him, passing him the spare controller.
“Oh, that's a lot more than the last game. I think...” Asriel selected the Fiery Magician Girl.
“What? No more Green Lizard?” Dess smirked as she prodded him with her elbow.
“Oh, well, um,” Asriel stammered as his cheeks went pink. “I mean, I could go back, I,”
“Oh... I see...” Dess smirked.
“Y-you do?” Asriel's face paled slightly.
“You...” Dess tapped his nose. “Think she's hot.”
“Oh, heh, uh, yeah!” Asriel relaxed. “You, uh, got me.”
“Of course she's hot! She's Fiery!” Elly shouted, and subsequently sent Dess and Asriel into a giggling fit. “What? What's so funny?”
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Snowflakes gently rested on the other side of the windows of the Dreemurr household while the four children remained nestled inside. Dess and Asriel sat on the couch, each holding a cup of hot cocoa while they looked down at their siblings. The younger kids were both wrapped around a single GameGurl, shrill chip-tune music piercing through the weak speakers.
Frisk held the device proper, but anyone who attributed that fact to him being in charge would have been sorely mistaken. Elly curled around his body, pointing at the screen and directing his every action.
“Defend with the Tactician! Then use IceShock!” Elly commanded, and Frisk followed the directions “Alright, now go back!”
“We just came from there.”
“Yeah, but if you go back there's a secret!”
“I've never heard of that.”
“Just do it!”
“Alright, I went back, and there's noth–” Frisk's eyes widened.
“See! I told you!”
“Okay, but now what?”
“Go up!”
“Okay.”
“Now up again!”
“Okay.”
“Now go left.”
“Okay.”
“Now, um, go back the way you came! Go right!”
“Are you making this up as you go along?”
“Just go!”
While Noelle kept barking orders at Frisk, Dess couldn't help but chuckle to herself. She nudged Asriel with her elbow, and pointed at the two children before pantomiming kisses. Asriel laughed quietly alongside her, but shook his head.
Don't tease them, he mouthed.
“I can't believe that worked.” Frisk said.
“See! I told you!”
“Well let's see what this...” He paused. “It's locked. I guess we don't have the key?”
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“Alright, weekly tournament time, sans one dork cuz he decided work was more important.” Dess smirked.
“I'm gonna win this time!” Elly insisted.
“What? No more playing house?”
“I'm gonna win by playing house!”
“Sure thing, Elly. Come on, everyone pick their tags.”
Frisk watched as Dess and Elly made their selections, but he remained frozen over the confirmation button.
“Yo, Frisk. You in there?” Dess planned to lightly knock him on the side of the head with her palm, but paused when they flinched before she had so much as made a move. “Uh, Frisk? You okay?” His body tensed at the words.
“I...” Frisk gripped his controller tighter. His throat closed as further words died on his breath. Instead of speaking, he shook his head. Dess set her controller down before moving closer to him.
“Are you sick?” Elly asked as she looked over Dess' shoulder. “Did you eat buttercups again? Do we need to take you to get your stomach pumped again?”
“Nah, I don't think it's that.” Dess assured her before narrowing her eyes at the human. She placed a hand on his shoulder, gripping him tightly to stop him from flinching away on reflex. “You can talk to me, buddy. What's up?”
“I... I don't...” Frisk looked up at Dess, looked past her and at Elly. His face reddened as he looked away. “Sorry, it's nothing, I,”
“Like hell it's nothing. Spit it out, dude.” No response. “Our weekly tournament is gonna be delayed at this rate!” That got a small laugh out of them.
“I... I don't want... to be Frisk...”
“What's that mean?” Elly asked as Dess' brow furrowed. “You're always Frisk!”
“I, I just don't want,”
“Nah, I get it.” Dess shrugged with a carefree smile that broke through the darkness. “Names can be tough. Especially when you didn't pick them.” Frisk looked up at her with wide eyes.
“I just... Mom and Dad didn't give me this name.” Frisk mumbled. “Other people did, people I don't even really know.”
“Well, that might've been for the best. Asriel's pretty luck he ended up with a decent name cuz the alternative was, uh, pretty stupid.” Frisk let out another small laugh. “But, how about another option? One where you don't have to be stuck with that old name, and also not have to be stuck with Asgore and Toriel's terrible naming skills?”
“But how?”
“Just name yourself, dumbass.”
“You...” Frisk froze. “You can... do that?”
“Of course! I mean, look at me!” Dess snorted. “I sure as hell ain't a “December,” so I said screw it and decided I was Dess!”
“Huh...” Frisk looked down at himself.
“So, how about it? Got one in mind?” Dess watched as Frisk rolled the idea around in his head before his face started to burn as something clicked in his head.
“R...” He was practically whispering. “Ralsei...”
“Oh that's so pretty!” Elly cheered, but she was cut off from further celebration as Dess broke in harsh, barking laughter.
“What?” Ralsei(?) mumbled.
“Sorry, sorry, just...” Another wave of laughter briefly hit her again. “Did you get that just by rearranging Asriel's name.” Ralsei's(?) face burned as he forced his eyes to lock onto the ground. “No, look, that's really cute, honestly.” Dess wiped a tear from her eye. “But don't you think your name should be more, I don't know, you?”
“I...” ___ trailed off. “I don't know how to do that.”
“We can help!” Elly insisted. “We can come up with names!”
“There's an idea!” Dess said with a warm smile.
“How about.... Krismas!” Krismas(?) shrugged at the suggestion.
“Let's not saddle him with our dumb holiday gimmick.” Dess grimaced. “But I think there's something there... Just do what I did and cut off the holiday garbage! How's Kris sound?”
Kris(?) stiffened at the name, his heart fluttering slightly hearing himself called that. But still, a lingering voice clung to his brain. A voice saying, “I, I don't know, what about,”
“Oh come on, you're practically beaming just hearing me call you that.” Dess smirked. “We hit a good one, right?”
Kris(?) didn't respond, but he didn't outwardly disagree.
“How about this...” Dess reached over to where she'd thrown her school things the instant she had set foot in the Dreemurr house. Her fingers curled around her bat as she pulled it from the pile. “It's easier if you don't have a choice, right? Just let me decide for you.”
Kris(?) looked up at her just as she gently placed the bat on their left shoulder.
“I, Dess Holiday, as the coolest person in this stupid town am giving you a properly cool name for such a cool person as yourself.” Kris(?) looked up at her in awe as she held the bat against his shoulder. She tapped it lightly before moving over his head and placing it against his other shoulder. “May you be even half as cool as me when you grow up. From here on out! Your. Name. Is.”
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“Kris?” Kris looked over his cards and into Dess' wide eyes that hid behind her own hand. “How many are you gonna discard?” He looked over his cards, and discarded the two and the four. As he pulled two cards to replace it, his grin widened further. “Something's got you happy.” Dess remarked as she discarded three cards to be replaced. Kris watched her movements every step of the way. Her own smile grew at her new hand. “Another year's worth of candy on the line! Think you'll finally win?”
“I know I will.”
“Cocky! Good. Now put your cards where your mouth is.” With a wicked grin, Kris laid out his hand. Ace of Hearts. Two of Hearts. Three of Hearts. Four of Hearts. And...
Dess' eyes narrowed. “Why do you have the joker card there?”
“It counts as any card.”
“What?” Dess laughed. “No it doesn't.”
“Yes it does.”
“Maybe you need to read the rules card.”
“Maybe you need to remember what you said last time.” A flicker of confusion broke through Dess' carefree mask.
“What?”
“When we played last week. I asked if we could let the joker count as any card. You said yes.”
“For that game–”
“I never said that.” Kris' grin grew wider. “I asked if we could let the joker be any card. I never specified for only one game.”
Dess let the words turn in her head, and she quickly returned to her carefree persona. “You little shit.” She laughed. “Well played.” Kris gave a mock bow. “It's a shame, really...” Dess laid out her hand. Ace of Hearts. King of Hearts. Queen of Hearts. Jack of Hearts. Ten of Hearts.
“What?” Kris exclaimed as he looked down at the hand.
“Sucks to suck, kid.” Dess cackled. “Good attempt! You nearly–”
“Wait...” Dess froze as Kris poked her Ace of Hearts. Then he pointed at his own Ace of Hearts with a smile. “How'd we end up with two of these?”
“...” Dess paused, the pile of candy in her grasp as she looked Kris down. Then, with an overly dramatic sigh she sat back. “I guess that trick had to fail eventually.” She shook her sleeves, and extra Aces of Spades, Clubs, and Diamonds fell onto the ground.
“Cheating only matters if you don't get caught.” Kris reminded her as he looked at the pile of candy.
“I don't suppose you'll do double or nothing?”
“You can only double or nothing if you have something to double, remember?”
“My own words used against me? Ice cold.” Kris stared down at the pile of candy with unrestrained glee, but he paused. Glancing briefly back at Dess, he grabbed several caramel candies out of the pile and tossed them her way. Dess looked him over briefly before happily unwrapping the prize. “You're alright, kid.”
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“Alright Kris, you and me. First game of the new year.” Dess grinned as she slid the deck over to him. “Man versus monster.” Kris continued staring off into space. “Uh, dude? Hello?”
Kris jumped at the words. “Sorry,” he mumbled.
“Come on, I want to start the year off on top, and I'm not having you say I'm cheating when I shuffle the deck. So go on.”
“What if I cheat?” Kris smiled, but the facial muscles were weak.
“You ain't good at counting cards.” Dess smirked. “Now get a move on!”
Kris took the deck and started to shuffle, but his hands felt distant as he moved the pieces around. He'd practiced the cascade shuffle hundreds of times years ago to impress Dess, he'd done it a million times, but now it felt foreign. He bent the two halves of the deck in each hand, but he dropped most of the pile in his left hand while holding only onto the top card. But his hands were still on autopilot, he put the same force he'd use to lightly bend half of the stack onto the lone card.
Before he realized he had messed up, the card in his hand was folded entirely in half.
“No!” Kris briefly snapped, dropping the lone card onto the floor in front of him.
“Impressive work,” Dess snickered as she reached for the lone, folded card. Kris snatched it up before she could.
He unfolded it gently, his hand shaking as he looked at the face card. The crease was obvious, he'd folded it too roughly, but all of that paled in comparison to the small tear that the folding had ripped open along the upper half of the card.
“Yeesh. Guess we've played with this deck long enough to wear it down.” Dess shrugged. “Eh, it'll be fine. We can just use the joker card for it's intended purpose and replace it. Which card is it?”
“King of Spades.”
“Should be easy enough to remember. Here, pass it to me. I'll toss it.” Kris didn't move. “Uh, Kris?”
“I... I don't think I want to play cards anymore.” Kris gently put the torn king back into the pile of cards before slipping them all back into the box.
“Uh, okay?” Dess stammered. “I mean, we don't have to, and– hey, where are you going?” Dess watched Kris in confusion as he(?) left to go into his(?) room.
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“It wasn't about the cards.” Kris said as he(?) sat beside Dess on her house's back porch.
“Uh, yeah, I figured.” She paused. “Was it something I did?”
“What?” His(?) vision snapped to focus on Dess. “No! Not at all!”
“Look, I can take it! I'm supposed to be the responsible one and shit.”
“It wasn't you. Just...” He(?) looked at his(?) hands. “I'm not... not me.”
“What d'ya mean? You're Kris, and you've got a stronger tie to that than any other random dork wearing the name.”
“Kris isn't a real person.” Dess narrowed her eyes before poking him(?) in the shoulder. “What?”
“Feels pretty real to me.”
“That's not what I mean.”
“Then explain it better, dumbass.”
“I came up with a new name, and I thought that would fix it. I didn't like being... Frisk. So if I became someone else it would fix it.” He(?) shook his(?) head. “But I didn't become anyone new. I'm still the same.”
Dess looked him(?) over. “I don't really think it's possible to, just, be a new person.” Kris briefly deflated. “What really matters is, like, giving the person you already are what you need. You didn't like the name Frisk, so you changed it. That's a step in the right direction, but clearly you need to do more to help you enjoy being the cool person I know you are.”
Kris sat in silence for a moment.
“I don't know what I want.” He(?) muttered.
“Why not try it all?” Dess offered. “Get you clothes that aren't Asriel's old shit, let's mess with your hair until you like it, I've never been a fan of it but you could try makeup.”
“M...” Kris tensed, and his(?) face burned. “Makeup? No, no I,”
“Everything is on the table to try out!” Dess barreled over his(?) panic. “Hair, clothes, style, even, uh,” Dess hesitated as she did the one thing she never bothered with. Thinking carefully before saying anything. “Even being a boy.”
Kris stiffened, his(?) heart jumping into his(?) throat to stop all sound from exiting his(?) lips. “I don't...”
“I hit it right on the head, didn't I?”
Kris couldn't move.
Kris couldn't breathe.
Kris couldn't think.
But something inside of them took control for the briefest of moments to force their head to nod.
“Alright.” Dess said quietly with a soft smile on her face. She held a single finger to her lips. “I won't say a word. Promise.” They nodded. “But you should tell everyone else. Eventually. I know its scary, but everyone will be cool about it. And if they don't, I'll hit them over the head with a bat.” That pulled a laugh out of them.
“E–” Their voice cracked, and they coughed to clear it. “Even if it is your mom?”
“You bet your ass I would!” She laughed. “But don't worry about it. It's not gonna come to that.”
Kris rested their head against her shoulder, and let out a breath they had been holding for years.
“Thank you.”
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“Old Gerson said that the farther out trees are older than the UCM.” Dess said as she led the way through the woods. “Apparently the really old ones have ancient carvings still in them!”
“Why do you call Mr. Boom that?” Asriel grumbled as he held Elly's hand
“He lets me cuz I'm cool, unlike someone else I know!”
“How far out are we gonna have to go?” Elly asked as her eyes scanned the trees around her.
“Probably pretty far since I've never seen a tree like that!”
“Wait, you have no idea where we're going?” Asriel stopped walking, pulling Elly to a stop next to him.
“Duh? If I'd already seen it why would I bother coming out here?”
“Dess, we could get lost out here.”
“Don't be such a baby! We're just walking in one direction, how would be get lost? Just turn around.”
“Dess...” Elly whimpered, and that made Dess pause.
“Elly, it'll be fine.” She knelt to be at Elly's eye level. “It's just the woods, nothing scary is out here.”
Kris turned their attention away from the other three, running their fingers through the fuzzy moss growing on the trunk of one of the trees while they wandered in circles. They stepped closer to the dense underbrush around the base of the treeline, and felt the foliage nestle around their ankles with each step.
A twig loudly snapped beneath their feet, and as the sound cut through the still air another one joined it. A shrill shriek echoed in their ears as something scurried away through the underbrush.
“What was that!” Elly shrieked as tears welled up in her eyes. She clung tightly to Asriel's side, and even he was tense as his eyes scanned the treeline.
“It's fine!” Dess insisted. “Kris probably just scared some little animal. Like a weasel or something.”
“No! It's gotta be Ice-E!” Elly pressed her face into Asriel's jacket while she choked out little sobs. “He's gonna get us!”
Dess turned to glare at Kris for inspiring that particular fear, but all the only remorse they showed was a slight shrug.
“It'll be fine, Elly.” Asriel ran his fingers through her hair as she clung to him. “But we should probably take her back.”
“What do you mean by we?” Dess turned her back on him, raising her hands up as she shook her head. “If you're too much of a baby to keep going–”
“That's not,”
“Then you can take her home like the goody-two-shoes you are. I'm gonna see the cool shit.”
“Whatever.” Asriel rolled his eyes. “Come on Kris, we're going home.”
Kris took a step towards him, but Dess lowered one of her arms to block them from continuing forward.
“They're a big kid, why not let them pick?” Dess asked
“Haha, very funny, but let's,”
“What do you think, Kris? You wanna keep going?” Dess' wild grin made Kris' chest tighten, and they took a step closer to her.
“No, that's not,”
“It's fine, Azzy.” Dess assured him. “You're taking Elly home, so I'll keep an eye out for Kris. It'll be fine.” Asriel hesitated. “We'll turn back after half an hour more of walking. We'll be home before ten.”
“I...” Asriel sighed. “I'm holding you to that. If you're not back the second it reaches ten, I'm calling Dad to start a full search party.”
“Oh don't be so dramatic!” Dess laughed as she pulled Kris by her side. “Look at us! Practically the model of safety and responsibility!”
“...Maybe I should reconsider...”
“Too late!” Dess moved to kneel beside Elly again. “I'll see you in a bit! Go enjoy some hot cocoa until then!”
“Go kill Ice-E.” Elly spoke the words with such a grave tone that Dess struggled to keep a straight face. Still, she managed as she gave Elly a professional salute.
“You got it, ma'am!” Dess turned back to start leading Kris deeper into the forest while Asriel led Elly out of it. Several steps away, Kris turned their head back to watch the other two. Asriel happened to look back at the same time to watch Kris and Dess. It wasn't long until both groups slipped out of sight of the other.
“What babies, huh?” Dess snickered. Kris laughed alongside her. “Not like us, right?”
“Nope.” Kris agreed.
“The way Gerson talked about this stuff was sick.” Dess said. “I always hated history shit when Mrs. Lombardi taught it in middle school, but he gets it! So basically what I'm saying is that when you hate everything in her class, just hold out for when you get Gerson next.”
“Mom said something about there not being a middle grade soon.”
“Yeah I think I remember my mom talking about that too.” Dess nodded. “Such a tiny town, there might not be enough kids for it after you all grow up. Might have to have em be a part of the baby class. No clue how that's gonna go.”
Dess patted down her pockets. “Now that the narcs are gone...” Dess fished out a shittily cobbled together joint and a lighter. Kris watched in silent awe as she lit it on fire and held it to her lips. After her first exhale, she said the same line she'd always said to them.
“Don't smoke. If you're gonna do weed, get hooked on edibles instead. So much more convenient...”
“But it looks so cool...” Kris smirked as they said their own repeated line.
“Fuck that, it's a lot cooler being able to get high without stinking up the place.” Dess smiled as she finished out their routine. Kris blinked and
Their eyes were open, but... They weren't.
“Woah...” Dess muttered. “Look back there!” Kris turned back. The way they came they could see just fine, but when they looked forward it was just... Darkness.
“How...”
“It's the trees, I guess.” Dess said in quiet awe. “Must have grown so dense that they're blocking out the moon and shit.”
“Do you have a flashlight?”
“Yeah, but let's not use it yet.”
“What?”
“This is such a rare thing!” Dess said, the excitement making her voice dance through Kris' ears. “There's so much light back home, it's basically impossible to end up in complete darkness!”
“So?” Kris asked. “What's it matter, you can't even see anything?” They started to step away from the wall of darkness, but Dess grabbed them by their shoulder and pulled them closer to her side in the shade.
“That's the point, dork.” Dess said. “Look, just keep your eyes open and look into it.”
“It doesn't make any difference!”
“No, no! It does! Gerson told me a couple months back, but the brain gets really confused if the eyes are active with nothing to see.” Dess insisted. “Here, try waving your hand in front of your eyes.”
Kris did, and jumped back as they saw something dart across their vision.
“Cool, right?” Dess said. “What did it look like?”
“Like...” Kris did it again briefly, and felt the hairs on their arms stand on end. “Like a slightly different colored shadow moving through the dark. Like, like it was going through water.”
“Yeah!” Dess let go of their shoulder as she continued. “Gerson, he told me this story from a caving buddy of his. To mess around with this, he went down real deep and just turned off his lantern. After a bit, he started thinking he saw a person even though he knew he was alone.” Kris felt their breath catch in their throat as a horned silhouette manifested from the darkness in the same way their hand had. “You see it now, right?” Kris could hear the grin on her lips. “It's so cool. What's yours look like?”
“Uh, uh,” Kris cleared their throat. “About my height, with curled horns?”
“Oh, like Azzy. That makes sense. Mine obviously has antlers. I guess that's what my brain automatically goes to. Anyway, back to the story. After he saw the outline of a person, his brain started imagining that person walk towards him,” Kris tensed as the illusion they saw started walking forward, but they grabbed tightly to Dess' arm when they could hear the crunching leaves with each of its steps. “You hearing it?”
“How...”
“The brain is really confused when it can't see things, but it's also pretty smart.” Dess explained as she slowly slipped from Kris' grasp. “It knows that when someone is walking through the woods that you would hear the footsteps. So it makes them up.”
“That...”
“But it gets weirder. This guy just watched as it slowly got closer and closer, and his brain must've thought, “what do people do when they approach each other? Oh! They shake hands!” So his imaginary silhouette person started reaching out for him.” As expected, Kris watched the shadow hold out one of its hands. “And when it finally reached him, it brought its hand down...” The shadow was still a ways off, but Kris felt a rough grip on their shoulder. “And he felt it.”
Kris shrieked and tried to jump away, but the grip held them in place. That realization made them panic even more as Dess laughed.
“Kris! Kris, it's just me!” She cackled. “Pretty good prank, huh?” Kris felt lucky for the darkness as it hid how brightly their face was burning. “Oh come on! I thought out of anyone that you'd appreciate it the most!”
“...It was pretty good.” Kris admitted.
“There you go!” Dess clapped them on the back, holding them close by their shoulder. “Heh, that was fun, but maybe we'll explore this place when the sun is out. How's that sound?” Kris nodded even though it would've been invisible, but Dess understood regardless. “Alright, let's,”
Kris tensed as they saw something swim through the shadows in front of them. It was fast, far too fast to make out its shape before it slithered into the darkness. Dess' grip on their shoulder tightened.
“Did...” She whispered. “Did you see that?”
“Well, yeah, but,” Kris mumbled. “It's just our brains playing tricks, right?”
“Then why did we both see it?”
“I...”
“Thin and long, but it moved too fast to put it all together before it slipped away? That's what you saw too?”
“...Yeah.”
“Well come on then.” Dess took another step deeper into the darkness while holding tight to Kris, but they held their feet in place to stop her.
“What about going home?”
“We still have time to be back before Asriel throws a fit. We have to find whatever it was that did that!”
“But, what even could it be?”
“I don't know! That's what's so exciting!” She spoke with a manic glee that almost dispersed any of the fear that had crept into their heart. “Kris, it's like I said. We're not babies like those other two, right?” And that was enough to have them stomp down any remaining fear. They stepped forward to be by her side. “That's the spirit! But a blind investigation wouldn't be good, so,” Kris heard some fabric rustling, and then flinched as their eyes were overwhelmed with now unfamiliar light.
Dess held an army flashlight, but Kris watched as the beam barely cut a couple feet in front of her before being consumed by the shadows.
“What?” She exclaimed, smacking the back of the light to try and fix it, but the problem remained. “Stupid thing, I must've put in dud batteries...” She grumbled. “Whatever. It'll work. Let's go!”
The two of them slowly moved into the darkness, their weak light barely enough to stop them from tripping over their own feet.
“What do we do if we find it?” Kris whispered.
“Depends on what it is.” Dess was grinning ear to ear. “Maybe it's a new animal no one's found cuz it likes the dark so much? Maybe it's a weird natural phenomena or something? Hell, maybe Catty's little sister is onto something and its just literal magic? Whatever it is, it'll definitely be enough to give me a pass on any future class projects.”
Dess tensed, whirling her flashlight as the two of them saw a flicker of movement out of the corner of their eyes. Empty, but then another flicker of movement on their other side caused her to turn the other way. Still nothing.
“What if... what if it's dangerous?”
“Ha!” Dess turned to them with a smirk. “Nothing is too dangerous for me to handle. Let's,” The two of them froze. The flashlight was pointed at the ground directly in front of them. The weak light was barely enough to reach the ground, but it still managed to dispel the darkness there to give the two of them a view of the ground to avoid tripping. With one exception.
Sitting in front of them, in stark defiance of the light encircling it, was a shadow. Identical to all the shadows outside of the light, but still existing within it. It formed a long tail with concentric ridges and a sharp point at the end. The point nearly touched Kris' feet, and it extended away from them before connecting with the wall of darkness that the flashlight couldn't quite reach.
The tail twitched at the intrusion of the light before slinking away to join the wall of darkness beyond what the light could reach. And as it joined it, Kris watched the shadows twitch.
Kris stepped back, and for once Dess joined them. They watched as what had once been impenetrable shadow shifted, their vision blurring to make sense of the impossibility as it twisted within itself.
Kris' eyes were drawn from the thing when Dess' flashlight flickered. Before Dess could try to shake it, the light was snuffed out. Much to Kris' horror, they could still see that thing as it shifted through the sea of darkness just like the visions they had hallucinated.
“Kris! Move!” Dess grabbed them by the hand and dragged them away as she ran as fast as she could. A chattering, mocking laugh echoed through the shadows, swirling within their ears as they struggled to move their feet fast enough to keep up with the pace Dess pulled them along for.
It was all darkness, and at every angle Kris could see pieces of the shadows betraying their own laws to shift and twist in an effort to reach out for the two of them. Long, thin, grasping hands that Dess desperately pulled them out of reach of. The laughter grew louder and louder, echoing within their own skull as their heart beat faster and faster.
Dess pulled them out of reach of one of the hands a little too hard, and Kris lost their footing. They fell forward, their hand slipping from Dess grasp as they face-planted into the dirt.
“Kris!” Dess called, and they scrambled to their feet. They reached their hand out blindly, and let out a sigh of relief when a furry grip met theirs. “Kris!” Dess called again, and Kris froze as they realized that her voice was much too far.
They looked up as they saw the shadows surrounding them, a paw tightening its grip on their wrist to hold them in place. They felt themselves pulled upwards, their stomach lurching as their feet left the ground.
Finally, a scream slipped past their teeth.
The laughs circled within their skin as the shadows curled inwards. A shift within its form, and they felt hot breath on their face as they were lifted higher and higher. Crunching leaves grew closer and closer with bounding footsteps, and as the darkness became all encompassing they felt the grip on their arm released.
“Get the hell away from them!” They fell on their back as they heard Dess running at the thing that had grabbed them. The laughter had stalled into a disquieting mixture of confusion and anger that overlapped within itself. “Take that whatever the hell you– fuck!” Dess let out a small scream, but then Kris felt more hands on them. They tensed, but relaxed as they heard Dess' voice beside them. “Come on, go!”
She pulled them to their feet, pulling them along beside her as the fury echoing from within the shadows grew louder and louder. They could see the clearing where the light started to filter through, they were close but with every step the shadows around the two of them pressed in tighter and tighter until
Dess practically threw them in front of her as the two of them slid out of the shadows and into the lit part of the forest. They scrambled to try and get to their feet while Dess placed herself between them and the darkness.
The two of them stared into the endless void.
Nothing was there.
After a few more moments of waiting, Dess let out an exhausted sigh. “Okay.” She gasped. “Okay, we're good! We made it!” Kris felt their body start to relax as they looked Dess over. They tensed. “What?” She asked. They didn't move, so Dess followed their gaze down to their hand. “Oh, yeah.”
A small trickle of blood trailed down her fist and dripped onto the forest floor. Two small puncture wounds wept the blood from the small curve between her thumb and pointer finger, and she gently pressed her thumb into them.
“What...” They mumbled.
“When I punched that thing it managed to catch me with something. Probably some claws.”
“It looks like a bite.”
“Uh, I guess?” She looked at it closer before shrugging. “It doesn't hurt.”
“What, what if,”
“Hey.” Dess knelt as she gave them her usual calm smile. “It's all fine. After I drop you off with Azzy, I'll make a quick stop at the hospital just to make sure it doesn't get infected. And in the morning I'll tell your dad all about this so he can... I don't know. Maybe he can call some animal control people to check it out.”
Kris looked back into the shadows.
“What was that?” They asked.
“I...” Dess hesitated. “I don't know, but it was probably just some wild animals that we scared.”
“But, but the shadows...”
“The dark plays tricks on your head, remember?”
“But, but we both,”
“Whatever it was,” Dess insisted. “We're safe now. And people who actually know how to deal with this stuff can take care of it. Let's get home before Asriel has a heart attack.”
Dess helped them to their feet before leading the way back home. Kris clung close to her side, but their eyes remained locked on her wounded hand. It really must've been painless. She seemed to almost forget that she was bleeding as she held it by her side with little regard for getting blood on her clothes.
Kris watched as the blood dripped down onto the ground. Every step of the way it left a trail of crimson breadcrumbs through the forest.