Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Your feet displace rocks as you move. You can hear them clinking into the caverns below.

You don’t like this. You can’t stop making sounds. You know that the monsters will try to kill you, if they notice you.

There are posters plastered on the rock walls. It’s strange. 

They look nice, though.

(???) “What’s the big idea?”

That’s-a Boston accent? You look down. You can’t see a monster.

(???) “Right here, buddy.”

Wait. You crouch down.

(You) “Rock?”

It-coughs.

(Rock) “Yeah. What of it?”

You furrow your brow.

(You) “Are you going to try to kill me?”

The rock laughs.

(Rock) “Nah. It’d take too much energy.”

You walk on.

A rabbit bounds up to you

(Rabbit) “Human-”

You push him out of your way, and keep walking.

(Rabbit) “Wait-”

You turn, and bare your teeth. The rabbit flinches, and runs away. And then a spotlight falls on you.

-kzzt- HUMAN! Go no further, or you will be forced to fight your worst enemy yet!-

You bare your teeth.

(You) “I broke your captain's chasis right in half, and his soul with it. I fear no threat from you.

A garbled laugh comes out of the speakers.

-Such confidence!-

You hiss.

(You) “I’ll fight you, if you want to. I’m leaving here, and I’ll break anyone who gets in my way.”

If they leave, you don't chase them. But everyone is determined to get in your way.

-We’ll see!-

They don’t say anything else, so you tromp on.

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There are things that insult you, call your soul dirty. Them cleaning you doesn’t seem to wash the dust away. You couldn’t expect anything else. 

They’re quick enough, once you figure the trick out. You don’t, immediately.

The bugs all vanish once one monster in their group is dead.

The volcanoes make you hurt, no matter what you do. The rocks can’t hurt you if you stay out of their way. You don’t think the living ones that fall are killed, but it’s not worth worrying about.

The bunnies move out of the way quickly. You push them out of the way, or dodge them. They’re cute-but that doesn’t matter.

You stumble into the next room. There’s a bunch of heavy-looking, fabric-covered boxes. Like punching bags, but they’re rectangular, and just-up throughout the space. It doesn’t look hard to traverse-there’s a lot of empty space- but that just means that there’s more puzzle that’ll be revealed to you.

-kzzt- Welcome, human, to Box Dodging! This is a puzzle exclusively for humans

(You) “Because it takes ‘intent’ to kill a monster. I’ve heard that before.”

You don’t step forward. It’s safest to learn how it works instead of just trying to run through. They’ll be able to start it up in the middle, and then you won’t have any time to plan.

-How brave of you! But, sweetheart, you shouldn’t interrupt me.-

You roll your eyes.

-Anyway! When I throw this switch, these boxes will begin to move. Good luck!-kzzt-

And you can hear machinery whirring to life.

The boxes right in front of you move pretty slowly, but in the spaces in between, you can see some moving faster. There’s enough space for you to stand between the lines of boxes at first, but it seems to get smaller, and you can definitely see a row where the boxes brush up against each other. They don’t touch much, though. They’re going slowly.

At about the fourth row, there’s one with two boxes in the same space. Far apart, and going slowly, but it’ll only get worse from here.

You put your hand in your pocket, grab your knife. Boxing bags have tough skins, but it’s worth a shot if you get stuck. These don’t look exactly like boxing bags, though, or even mats. The blue’s too light to be standard, as well.

You stride over to the first obstacle, sink your knife into the front. It takes effort to pierce the skin, but less than it would for the ones you’ve used at the gym, pull your knife out. It’s pretty unlikely that these came floating down the river. If all of them did, someone’d have to have dumped a whole pick-up trucks worth, but it’d hardly be the strangest assortment of junk that ended up down here. You don’t know where the Underground’s water comes from, but you’ll have to investigate when you get out of here. Seems pretty criminal to do all that dumping.

-zt-It’s no fair to go breaking my obstacles before you’ve even begun!-

You flip the ceiling off. Must be a camera-or someone watching you and reporting back, but you’ve seen cameras before. They’re probably filming this, looking for a good show. You suppose you’re liable to obliged them.

You walk straight through the first two lines. Have to take a break at the third one, but it moves out of the way quickly. Take a while to study the fourth one, less out of any difficulty getting by, and more about observing how they work.

-It seems that this stuff is just too easy for our human friend! We’ll have to turn it up a notch!-

And the boxes start moving faster. Great. It was going to be difficult enough getting through the later ones without things being cranked up. You dodge through the next couple with difficulty. You think you’ve got a bruise blooming already. Great. You pull yourself up, and you keep going.

You have very little space to stand without having to worry about the boxes now. The boxes get tighter and tighter. You didn’t think that there were enough boxes to cramp things this tight, but you don’t have much horizontal space. You squeeze between the boxes. You’re not strong enough to push them apart, but they can’t crush your bones. Is this karma? It doesn't matter.

You shoulder forward, pressing yourself in the open spaces. And going forward, you’re always touching a box. And then-the boxes rush towards you.

It’s not fair-shouldn’t have happened. This isn’t how these things should work. Wrong. And now you’re being pressed to death, pressing into your ribs. You choke. Elbow nearer to the next. There’s a block in front of you. You pull the knife out of your pocket, and press it against the wall, until you can take it into your other hand, and then slice into the box in front of you. You can hardly take a breath, but you cut slowly. It’s not as hard as it should be, for boxing-bags. Pull the fabric apart, revealing white fluff. You cut, and tear, and cut and press, and push yourself into the space you’ve cut. 

The box slowly grinds into motion. You’re weighing it down, keeping it from moving. Most of the space in the row you just left is empty. Then those boxes start moving again. You cough, and then start screaming. You push the fluff out onto the ground behind you-some of it’s pressed back at you, but it’s just high enough to reach your ankles at worst. You cut out the other side, pull.

The boxes on the other side are-two or three aren’t moving that quickly. You walk as quickly as you can, and dodge. It’s easier than it should be. You get knocked into, but you keep going. And then you fall into a space with no more boxes. Just empty space. You pull your feet out of the trap, and turn.

The boxes grind to a hold.

-kzzt-Good job, human!-kzzt-

The voice is a little frantic.

(You) “FUCK YOU!”

You scream as loud as you can. Your voice aches. You scooch forward, against a wall, and access your inventory. You’ve lost quite a bit of HP. No big surprise.

You pull out a golden-flower shake. It’s taste is disconcertingly floral , but it’s sweet, and cold, and a liquid. You pour it down your throat-choke for a while. You wait a bit, and then you drink slower.

You feel much better now. You flop onto your side to rest. Scream some more.

Chapter Text

You’ve been walking on straight, narrow rock outcroppings for quite a while. You’re polite enough to push past, keep walking. The monsters don’t try to stop you from moving, at least not as much. You can jerk yourself out of the battle screen, if you’re determined enough.

You can see a rock plain around the corner. Much larger than the wall-outcroppings you’ve been able to rest at, after the boxes. It’s probably a trap.

You walk over slowly, trying to figure out what’s happening.

There’s something weird ahead, but no matter how much you squint, you can’t figure it out. You’re sure that you’ll learn soon. Or it’ll be nothing. It’s not going to be nothing.

You hesitate before you step onto the plateau.

-kzzt-I’m so glad you’ve made it this far. It’d be such a waste if you never even got to experience all the things we’ve set up for you!-

You hiss.

-I can see you’re eager to hear what’s happens next. Welcome to THE INVISIBLE ELECTRICITY MAZE!!!-

You wince. It’s loud. Wait.

(You) “That’s no fair!”

They just laugh. The speakers sharpen the edges of their laugh. It grates at you.

-Just so everyone at home knows, the electricity’s been turned up. That’s right, folks! The human doesn’t need to hold the orb to be shocked. Humans react to electricity differently than monsters, but don’t try to go through until the human’s been apprehended.-

You grind your teeth.

-Heh-heh-heh! Sorry, darling! Can’t just let you run free. You could just surrender.-

(You) “Go fuck yourself.”

Your voice is raspy. You swallow.

-We’ll see! Goodbye, audience! Tune in for more important updates!-kzzt-

Fuck.

(You) “Fuck. Fuck. FUCK.”

You plop onto the ground, fold your legs up underneath you.

Okay. Okay. Rubber’s an insulator. You’re wearing sneakers. Might not really be rubber, but-it’s something.

You could just trace your foot against the wall- but it’d be easier to check if you have it in your shoe in your hand.

You untie your shoe. Your leg brushes against the maze, and you get shocked. It hurts.

(You) “Fuck!”

You pull your leg towards you, untie your shoe. Put it in your left hand.

You walk forward. Brush the shoe against the wall next to you. Find the end of the wall-have to turn.

The ground is scattered with rocks. They poke into your socked foot. You’ve still got your left shoe on, so you’re half-dragging your foot forward.

You’re careful rounding corners-but when you reach the end of a wall, and go to turn, you bump into the right wall. A shock lances your arm, and ripples through your body.

(You) “FUCK!”

You pull back from the wall, stand there panting. The pain gets less aggressive as you wait. You wait for the speakers to click on and start mocking you again, but nothing happens.

You’re going to kick them in the dick. This is-torturous. You don’t deserve this. No one deserves this. You don’t set traps-you don’t hurt people without a reason. All you do is try to go forward. You refuse to stay here, letting people hurt you, over and over again. You’ll have to take the Queen’s soul. Undyne said that it’d demoralize the Underground, but you don’t think the Underground deserves your concern. Not after all the shit they’ve done to you.

(You) “Fuck.”

You whisper that one. You’re so tired of this.

You carefully pull out your candy bag. It tastes like licorice, stringy and salty and sweet the way that meat might be sweet. You can barely stand the flavor, but it heals you. You bump your hand into the wall for an instant, and get shocked. You whine.

Hhhh.

You kneel with your right leg, and untie your left shoe. Pull off your other shoe. Put it in your right hand.

(You) “Checkmate, liberals.”

You laugh hysterically, jerking forward. You don’t touch either wall. When you’re done, you stick your arms out from your crouch. It’s easier, you feel safer like this. You squeak.

Okay. There’s no time to stall. Just keep going.

It’s easier to move forward like this. It’s awkward tracing the same section of wall with two shoes, but it’s better than going in blind.

It works pretty well. You bump into the walls a couple of times-get stuck against the wall, pain lancing through you for-like twenty seconds. But you keep pulling yourself forward.

You are going to kick that asshole in the balls-do monsters have dicks? You can’t figure their bodies out. You just slash at them, usually, and then they disappear.

You’ll just have to do your best to target their sex organs-wait, no. Stop thinking about it.

It gets easier, you figure things out as you go. The amount of doubling-back is driving you crazy. You scream, a few times. Sometimes it’s because of the pain. Sometimes it’s just frustration.

You grind your teeth. Keep going. Rocks poke your feet through your socks. Have to be careful where you step. You can’t just brush the rocks away carelessly-that’s a way to get yourself shocked. You’re not surprised you’ve had to turn all the way back to the way you came from just as soon as you get to the far wall, but you’re still irritated by it.

You eat a piece of licorice to refresh your health every now and again. You can’t eat them too fast-can’t waste them, since you break a little every time you bump into the wall.

You’re stronger than you were at the start. Had to stuff little pieces of-tem? The Temmies eat them, but you have no idea what they’re made of. Anyway. Little flakes in your mouth to keep you from dying. You can wait a bit longer between eating now.

You’ve been snaking your way towards the way out, double back and forth. You’re near the back of the platform. And-there’s nothing in front of you. You trace the left and right walls-they’re straight. You hold your right arm out. Inch your way forward. And then your left arm falls from the wall. You turn. Swing your arms lightly around. There’s no more electricity walls.

(You) “Wooo!”

You punch the air, and your leg jerks up. The bag of maybe-licorish falls out of your pocket. You grab for it, but it slips through your hands.

(You) “Fuck.”

There’s nothing left for you here. You turn your back on the invisible maze, and move onward.

Chapter Text

This ledge is pretty wide. Very long. You can see a table somewhere down the line.

It takes a long time to make out Asgore at the table. Longer to actually get in front of him.

(You) “Hey.”

You wave.

(Asgore) “Oh, hey.”

You look at the wears on offer. It’s…ice?

(You) “Can this heal me?”

Asgore looks down at the table, and back up to you, like he hadn’t noticed the table was there.

(Asgore) “That’s a pretty rude first question to ask.”

You roll your eyes, and sigh.

(You) “I have been having a very hard day, and I don’t want to die.”

He blinks at you. The ends of his mouth rise.

(Asgore) “Fair enough, kid. This-”

He gestures to one half of the table.

(Asgore) “is cinnamon tea. This-

The other side of the table. You can’t figure out where one starts, and the other one stops.

(Asgore) “is butterscotch tea. Frozen, of course.”

You nod.

(You) “How am I supposed to- consume this?”

He blinks at you.

(Asgore) “Ah. Humans have teeth? Just- bite it?”

You stare.

(Asgore) “I guess I’ll have to give you a free sample.”

He hands you a cup of tea close enough to the middle that you can’t figure out what flavor it is.

You sink your teeth into the ice. It tastes like butterscotch, but the texture’s-interesting? You bite at the ice around the cup. It doesn’t melt-doesn’t burn your hands with cold. It’s like-an idealized version of ice. Like everything else in the underground.

At least in town, you weren’t in danger just walking home.

It’s pretty wild, the way this works. The flavor gets more intense as you get deeper into the cup. You enjoy it.

You look up to Asgore staring at you.

(Asgore) “You’ve still got the cup.”

You squint at him.

(You) “Am I supposed to eat the cup?”

He huffs, amused.

(Asgore) “Nah. Just-poofs away when you're done. Comes back when you need it.”

You stare at him.

(You) “How many can you have?”

He frowns at you.

(Asgore) “How many do you need?”

You huff.

(You) “Where-”

He taps a finger to his lips.

(Asgore) “You’re being rude. I can’t take any more questions.”

You exhale sharply.

(Asgore) “Butterscotch is 31G. Cinnamon is 32.”

You start pulling out your gold. It takes a while to empty them out.

(Asgore) “You’ve been busy, huh.”

You bare your teeth at him.

(You) “I have been bouncing around an INVISIBLE electricity maze! I’m not taking any shit from you.”

Asgore looks at you. Swallows.

(Asgore) “So-you have any spare cups?”

Ah. You ruffle through your inventory. Pull out 3 paper-ish shake cups, and 7 small glass ice-cream cups.

Asgore huffs.

(Asgore) “Alright. I’ll give you 1G for each of ‘em.”

You push them towards him. They disappear into his inventory.

(Asgore) “For all your help, I’ll sell you a pair-butterscotch and cinnamon tea, both for 60G.”

Huh.

(You) “You’ve got yourself a deal.”

You buy six sets of cups, and stuff them into your inventory.

(You) “Thanks.”

You nod to him.

(Asgore) “Good luck.”

He snaps you a salute as you walk away. You feel better.

Chapter Text

You are no longer feeling better.

As soon as you got through the gate, everything locked down, and glass walls began to rise. You rushed across the ground, but the walls rise before you can get onto the next narrow path.

You bang on the glass with your fist. It’s solid.

Okay-foreign object. You look around the area. There are two metal rectangles, with buttons. Also some rocks.

There’s a large rock about seven feet away. You stride up to it.

(You) “Hello?”

It doesn’t respond. Great. You pick it up, weigh in your hand.

You look at the glass-there are monsters watching through the glass. You growl, bare your teeth. They look nervous. Some of them shrink back from you.

You throw the rock at the glass in front of you as hard as you can. The monsters startle. Some of them run away. Good.

You examine the glass. Doesn’t look like you made a dent. You keep bashing at it, but nothing happens.

Hiss. Toss the rock to the side. You can hear a squeak. You turn quickly-what was that? The rock looks suspicious.

If it wanted to not be thrown, it could have been said something-whatever. Whatever!

-kzzt-Hey, if you’re done, we can start on the puzzle?-

You grit your teeth.

-Fantastic! Please walk over to the screens.-

You do.

(You) “What do you want.”

-I want you, darling, to complete this puzzle.-

The screens come to life, bright shapes whirr across the screen until both of them have settled into different configurations. A real puzzle. Great.

(You) “What’s the trick?”

There’s a confused-seeming hum.

-Trick? This is just a puzzle.-

You bare your teeth.

(You) “You’re bullshitting me. There was just a invisible electricity maze . You tried to crush me to death!”

You can see the people behind the glass shivering.

-I told you about every threat I set in front of you. I never lied.-

The voice is cold, solid, in a way that it hasn’t been. You’re affecting them. Good.

(You) “You were using the boxes to-

-KCHHHRKCHRCCRKKRCHHH!-

You clap your hands over your ears. Scream back. 

Your eyes start to water. You’ve pissed them off. That’s a good thing. A good thing.

-KkkchrrrrI hope you’re ready to listen now?-

You flip ‘em off.

-Fantastic. Alright. To retract the walls, you’ll have to make the first screen match the second. Using the buttons.-

Color-matching. They’ve got to be kidding you.

(You) “Why, even?”

-KKKKHhhhnow that you know, I’ll be signing off. Goodbye, audience!-

Ah. You look around you. They’re the audience. They’re the people that are watching you-they were listening, at least, to what happened to you. Watching, probably. You don’t make very entertaining noises. They’d want to watch.

You growl. And then you scream. You’re so tired of this.

The people watching you are barely scared of you. They should be. They shouldn’t be watching you like this. This-you hate this. So. You’ll have to just do it.

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This is the stupidest puzzle you have ever been subjected to.

It’s a five by five grid. There’re four buttons, with five settings. They interact with each other.

You’re so tired. So tired of this. You’ve been screaming, every now and then. It doesn’t really help your mood, but it’s appropriate at this point.

They’re…just watching you. Watching you beat the ground, and scream yourself hoarse. You’ve heard that there’s nothing to do- that there is only boredom in the Underground. They could be doing this fucking puzzle. They might be having fun-Instead of a block in the way to your freedom. They want freedom too, but they’re willing to kill you for it. There’s no use for empathy like this. Not for you. Not now.

Everything changes-so often, so much. You’re lost pressing buttons, watching things change with hardly any idea of what works. At least the squares you’ve figured out stay the same when you’ve figured it out.

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It’s almost over. They’re still watching you. Less after all this time, some of them have wandered away.

There is some relief scattered about, when you figure out what works, but it never lasts long. Things click together, you get good ideas, and perhaps that will click something else in place, but then you are stuck staring at a puzzle with no idea what to do next, other than keep mashing buttons.

But-there. And there, and the second one doesn’t even work anymore, with everything else locked down and…

You watch the people on the other side. They should run. They should run away from you. They should be afraid of you-should be running scared. You’re pissed. You-

Huh. Alright. Alright.

(You) “Hey, asshole. I’m done!”

There’s no response. You snarl, stride right up to the glass and knock.

(You) “I’m tired of your shit-I’m done! I did it. Let me out!”

The monsters look nervous. Fucking-they should, they should.

You stare into the crowd through the glass.

(You) “Clear out, now.”

A few people-a family-why would anyone bring their family here?-they leave.

kzzt-I’m sorry for not paying attention to this. I have a lot of things going on?.-

You raise your middle finger.

-Monsters in the back of the Grounds, please clear out. Ah-Humans can be dangerous under the right circumstances.-

You huff.

(You) “I’ve been telling them that. Don’t think they’re going to leave here.” 

Wait-more of them are leaving.

(You) “I’ll be damned.”

You knock on the glass.

(You) “Will you let me leave now?”

-Please, evacuate the area-

Hmm. Is that another person’s voice? They’re less rude, at least.

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The person on the speaker doesn’t respond to you. They’ve just been trying to get the monsters to leave.

Some of them have left. You doubt anyone else is going to leave. You’ve been laying slumped against the glass wall, waiting.

Five minutes later-

-Uh, the forward wall will be coming down. Sorry for the inconvenience.-

And the glass wall starts to go down. You scramble away, push yourself to your feet. 

It’s really happening. It’s coming down.

You hop yourself over the wall when the glass is not much shorter than your waist. You push yourself- strain your legs, but it’s fine. Everything’s fine.

You survey the crowd in front of you. Some of them are still calm in their seats. Some of them are scared.

They should be scared. You should attack them-They’re not in your way. Just cowards and fools. It was just a fucking puzzle you were staring at, crying over, and none of them helped you.

Cowards. You march through the room, don’t look at any of them. It’s not worth it, not even for the EXP. 

Chapter Text

You kill a few of them. They’re not getting out of your way.

You step over the dust, and move on. Spare a Woshua. You could use a heal.

And-fuck.

(You) “A rock climbing wall? Really?”

The rocks aren’t colored, but you’ve seen enough rock walls in passing to know what it is. You hiss.

You’re bad at climbing. It hurts when you grab onto them, and scrapes at your hand. Burns. It’s such a tall wall, too. You’re going to break your skull falling down. You hiss.

There is nothing to do but go on. Nothing to do but climb.

You grit your teeth, wipe your hands on your shirt.

Alright. Nothing to do but go forward.

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You hit your head on the ground a couple times falling down. It doesn’t give you a concussion, but you do need to shove the ice into your face to stop the aching.

You smash the cups against the ground. You’re almost out, Asgore won’t be there to buy your cups, and it’s cathartic to smash things. It’s not enough.

Your voice hurts when you scream, so you just push breath out of your lungs harshly.

You’ve been getting farther and farther up the wall-not every time, but you’re still inching your way up.

You can’t wait very long before getting back up there. Just have to drink-if you’re desperate enough, take a minute to steady your head, and then wipe your hands off-then clamber your way back up.

You fall and fall-and then you grab the top of the wall. You can’t hoist yourself up. You try to pull your legs up-but your arms can’t support your whole body.

You fall again-but you’re smiling. You can do this-you can do this.

It takes three times, for you to reach the top with your legs not too far from the top. Your hands grasp on the top of the wall, and you shove your elbow forward, and you’ve got a hook.

It doesn’t take too much more maneuvering to get your other arm up. You push your torso up, and then pull your legs up, right and then left. Push yourself forward.

And your feet are still hanging off the edge, but you’re up.

(You) “Yay.”

It’s raspy, but finally-finally!

You pull your feet up, turn forward.

That’s another rock wall, thirty-something feet forward. 

(You) “What.”

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There’s a couple monsters in your way-it’s thirty feet! Why are they here?

You kill them. You’re not in the mood to be merciful. You could use more strength.

The rock wall is shorter than the last one. Still too tall.

It’ll be easier than the last time. You’ve been practicing.

You learn where to put your hands to get up-have to find other paths. It’s annoying-you grab for places that you have used, but which cannot be part of your path anymore, which slip out of your hands.

Sometimes you can grab yourself and keep pushing up. Most times, you slip down the wall. You hit your head, but not often.

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It might have taken you twenty-five minutes to get there. You’re mostly calm.

There is still a fire in your gut, but it doesn’t matter.

You kick, and slam, and push-until you get to the next rock-wall.

It’s not very tall. It only takes four tries to get up.

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You manage to walk around most of the monsters. You’re focused on moving out, getting out.

You’re not so angry right now.

The rock wall is only barely taller than your torso. You push yourself up onto the ledge, push, roll, and you’ve done it.

You hum. Let yourself rest. And then you look around.

There’s…a dance floor? And speakers.

You pull yourself up, go forward.

Chapter Text

They’re human. 

The person is wearing a blue shirt with giant, uneven magenta hearts, a gray-green hiking jacket slung across their back, gold, puffy slacks, a belt with a giant, golden buckle, scuffed up wheeled-shoes, and a purple headband with a bow on it. You’ve been staring at them for a long time.

(Human) “So, you have finally arrived!”

That’s-

(You) “You were the one on the radio?”

Your voice sounds sad. You didn’t that your voice could do that, after how many times you’ve broken and healed yourself.

The human doesn’t seem to have picked up on it.

(Human) “I am Frisk! I am here to stop you!”

What?

(You) “Haven’t you done enough, Frisk? You’ve been hassling me quite a lot. What do you want from me?”

Your voice dips down at the end. They blink at you. They seem-confused.

(Frisk) “I won’t let you hurt the Queen?”

Really?

(You) “You couldn’t have just sealed me off? Killed me straight up?”

They flinch black, horror in their eyes.

(Frisk) “With no hope left? What sort of thing do you think I am?”

(You) “You’re just like them, aren’t you? You don’t care-you can’t understand me.”

They look into your eyes.

(Frisk) “Are we…going to fight, then?”

You find your knife in your pocket, pull it out. Gesture them forward.

They look confused, then start rolling towards you. God, they have no idea what they’re doing. They don’t know how human bodies work.

You lunge forward, and lock your arm against their knife, tighten your hold.

Frisk scrambles lightly at your arm. You shove the two of you down, Frisk-first.

You wrap your legs around their waist, and push your head to look them in the eyes.

Their eyes are still open. They’re trying to wrench you off their legs, but they’re weak. You adjust your hold on their neck.

(Frisk) “...what..demon…..”

(You) “Just pass out. Please, just pass out.”

They claw at your arm harder now. They can barely scrape at your arm. They get a little space, but not for long.

You just keep pressing on their neck. It’ll be fine. You just need to wait for them to pass out.

It doesn’t take too long for them to stop struggling. You hold your arm in place a while longer, and then loosen your grip. Untangle yourself from Frisk and check their pulse.

And then they headbutt you directly in the forehead.

It’s the first human-like thing they’ve done. You smile, and then push them in the face.

Uh. You probably shouldn’t have looked at them like that. But, you need to make sure that they stay down.

You smash their head into the ground three times. Grab their arms. Wait.

They aren’t struggling. You walk a couple of feet away, watching them the whole time.

You grab a rock.

(You) “Can you talk, rock?”

You feel crazy, but this world is just crazy. Frisk couldn’t fight you, because they’ve lived here, gotten used to, this world.

They did manage to play a trick.

You hit Frisk in the head some more times, until you can see blood rising from a wound.

You press your ear against their chest. You can hear their breath slowing down. They’re asleep. Probably.

But you’re not going to leave them in any condition to fight, to follow you for a long time yet.

You take your knife out of your pocket. Breathe, take some time to steady your hand. Pull Frisk’s shirt up, and then plunge your knife into their flesh.

They shriek.

(You) “I wouldn’t have done this if you hadn’t…”

Hadn’t what? Headbutted you? Put you through hell? Fallen down in the first place? 

No, there’s no time for that. They deserve to suffer for what they put you through. You’re just doing this to be safe.

You push the knife a little deeper, and start dragging it through their flesh. The wound isn’t so deep, but it’s five inches long by the time you take it out. You wipe it clean on your shirt, watching them. They don’t stir. Push their shirt back down. Maybe it’ll staunch the bleeding? 

You don’t want them dead, really. You just want them to stop following you. Maybe the other person on the speakers will find them, but that doesn’t matter. They deserve whatever they get, after all they’ve done to you.

You sink your teeth into cinnamon ice, and try to stop shaking as you walk forwards towards the exit. Towards the Queen.