Christine walked through the foliage, raising her knees high in order to move forward. "Frisk!" She called out, looking for them.She spotted them up ahead, running uphill. "Slow down! It's not safe!"
"C'mon scaredy cat! I have something to show you!" Frisk turned, flashing a grin at Christine. This morning they woke her up early, saying they found something amazing on mount Ebott, that it explained everything about them and their soul. While Christine didn't know what they were talking about, she could barely remember their exact words or when they left the house, some answers would be nice.
"Frisk, something isn't right!" Christine insisted. Something about all this felt… wrong. Like she wasn't supposed to know why Frisk was different.
"Everything is in order. Follow me!" They ran into the cave that felt familiar… When did the cave get there? What cave was it?
Christine followed them in, the flashlight beams shining brightly. When did she replace the batteries? "Frisk, something is off. When did this cave get here? Why is this thing fully powered?"
Deep in the cave, Christine finally caught up to Frisk. They stood at a ledge, a large drop beneath them. "I'm gonna jump." They grinned, looking at the bottom.
"What?! Frisk, don't be stupid! We- We don't have to go down there! At the very least, let's get some climbing gear!" Christine felt a sickening sense of fear as she approached Frisk. She shouldn't be approaching. They would fall. Right?
"I can survive that. I have every other time." Frisk chirped cheerfully.
"What?! Frisk, what other times? We've never been here before!" Christine reached out, grabbing their wrist. Frisk began to laugh, starting from a small chuckle to full on cackling. They whipped around, shoving Christine to the cave wall. Before she could react, Frisk leapt at her, a knife appearing in their hand. They plunged it through her throat. Warm, thick blood flooded through Christine's mouth as she choked, unable to breathe.
"You're right! WE'VE never been here before! But I have! And here in the underground…" Frisk's face contorted, turning pale as their voice distorted and golden petals sprouted from their head. "I t ' s k i l l o r B E k i l l e d." They began to laugh in an insane howl as vines grew up along Christine's arms, wrapping around her skull. They forced her head forward and bashed it on the wall behind her.
She felt her soul pounding. She heard every sickening sound of her skull cracking against the wall. She felt her soul breaking, shattering before her eyes. She wanted to scream, but she couldn't. She wanted to move, but she couldn't. Christine wanted to wake up. But…
* * * *
Christine shot awake with a yelp, her heart running miles as she curled into a ball, burying her head in her arms. That wasn't the first time she'd had a nightmare in that context. But it was just Frisk killing her before. No Flowey parts. They started a week ago. 7 nights of pure hell. The only detail that changed was the knife. Purple, blue, cyan, green, yellow, orange, each time she had the nightmare it changed. This time it was red. A glowing red. The kind that made your skin crawl. But it was over. She was home, she was safe, she was… Where was she?
Christine looked around the unfamiliar room. The person who lived here sure did like blue. Everything was blue, from the color of the sheets to the wall paper to the very floor. How did they make wood blue? As Christine struggled to recognize where she was, she was hit with a wave of panic as her memories came flooding back. She had fallen. She got rid of Flowey. She lost her mind in puzzles. She passed out from her injuries. She looked down to discover her wounds were completely gone. The burns on her arms had disappeared. She rose to her feet, astonished as the stabbing pain in her ribs was gone. She walked around the room, peeking in closets and reading books. Judging from the large robes and, uh… 'socks' in the sock drawer, she had been put there by a very large woman. Christine found a mirror above the dresser, peeling off the bandaid to find the gash too had been healed.
There was a note on top of the dresser. It read;
"Dear miss human, you must be terribly confused. I assure you, you are safe. I have some spare clothes on the table, as well as your items. You were badly wounded when you collapsed at my door, and so I'm sorry if you were given a fright from waking up in a stranger's room. I would have put you in my guest room, but you simply did not fit on any of the beds. It has been a long time since an adult human was among monsters, and so I was unprepared. If you exit this room and continue left, I will be in the kitchen. Please help yourself to the slice of the butterscotch pie I left next to the clothes. Sorry if it grew cold while you slept."
It was… kind of unnerving the way she pointed out the fact Christine was human. She looked at the table in the corner of the room, finding the clothes and plate of pie on it, next to a closed journal. The clothes were a black shirt and blue pants resembling jeans, but weren't made of denim. There was another note reading "Sorry if these do not fit you, I couldn't figure out what size you were". Christine held up the shirt to herself. It was a little too small, but her current clothes had rips and tears from the encounter with Flowey. The pants fit, although a tad snug on the bottom. Her gaze landed on her stuff, specifically, her spare sewing kit. Maybe…
* * * *
Christine looked at herself in the mirror, studying how the newly modified crop top held up. She managed to take off a few 5 inches and use the scraps to widen it a bit. It wasn't the best work, the seams were uneven and you could definitely see where she had added on the scraps under her armpit, but it would hold and it would do. She tossed her old shirt into the trash. She could try to stitch it back together, but that would take hours if she focused on quality and would still make it useless in the case she needed to run. At least in these she could easily run.
Following the note's instructions, she walked out of the room, turning left. However she paused seeing the floral in the hallway. Along the right of the hallway were various pots of Typhas. Christine had only seen them at the lake when mom sent them away to a summer camp. She walked to one of the pots, examining it with great curiosity. She wasn't able to spend much time looking at these 'cattails' as the people at the camp called them. And it was many years ago, when she was 15 and Frisk was 7. A few minutes later she turned back to where she was going before she had been distracted, continuing left and through the hallway. She walked straight into another room, immediately feeling the increase of temperature.
There was a crackling fire in a fireplace, illuminating the dark room. Sitting in a large chair next to the fire, was a goat. Christine took a while to process what exactly she was seeing. It was a humanoid goat in a purple robe with white sleeves, the size of a grown woman. She had long, floppy ears that rested on her shoulders like hair and small reading glasses on as she read a book titled "100 fun snail facts". As Christine walked in, she looked up with a smile. "Ah, you're awake. Are you feeling alright? You had quite the fall outside."
Christine remained frozen at the door, staring. "...Um… Y-yes? Y-you are…?"
"Toriel." Toriel gave a warm smile, her white teeth shining in the firelight. "It's been a long time since an adult human has fallen. In fact, I don't think an adult has ever fallen down. Tell me, what is your name?"
"Christine ma'm- I-I mean Toriel." She answered. Christine usually forgot she was already 22. She never felt the part. She always felt like that shy 15 year old girl who put on a brave face for her little sibling. But she wasn't. She was older. She should be braver.
"I assume you're here looking for your child?" Toriel questioned. "Fisk, right?"
Christine perked up. Finally someone who knew Frisk (That wasn't a psychotic flower)! "Yes! I-I mean no, they're my sibling, but yes I'm looking for them! Where did they go? Were they hurt? Are they okay?"
"Calm down Christine. I healed them just as I healed you. They insisted I let them leave the RUINs and let them go deeper into the underground. Do not worry, I have a monster protecting them as we speak." Toriel assured her.
"Where is the exit? I need to find them." She asked, worry coursing through her.
Toriel paused before sighing. "I am not one to keep someone from their child or sibling. The exit is down the stairs. But be careful. The monsters… May not be as so kind to you as they would be to Frisk, given they are still a child."
Christine nodded, racing back to the room she woke in. She grabbed her stuff, although struggling as the backpack had a few holes in it, things kept falling through. When she came to the stairs, Toriel was there. In her hands was a satchel. "Here. I noticed your bag was damaged, though there was not much in it."
"What?" Christine took off the backpack, looking it in. She immediately panicked. She must have dropped stuff on her journey, because half of it was missing. "S*** S*** S***!" She cursed.
"Do not curse in my home please." Toriel requested.
"I dropped my things." Christine looked through the items she had. The bedrolls, packed into tiny bags, had fallen through leaving only 1. As did her granola bars. As did her first aid kit and phone. There was the biggest problem, as it left her with just a bedroll, waterbottle, pocket knife, flashlight and remarkably, her orchid sample. The 5 items left her with unease as Toriel handed her the satchel to put them in. "My phone. I lost it. How am I supposed to call for help when I get to Frisk?"
"Normal cell phones would not work down here." Toriel informed her. "But perhaps I can lend you mine. I don't call anyone on it anyways."
Christine expected maybe a smartphone, a flip phone or anything like that. Toriel handed her a block. She stared at the ancient thing, afraid it might turn to dust. It was a Dynatac 8000x. Nope, scratch that. The label said DynastyTok 10000. She wasn't even sure she knew how to operate it. But it was better than nothing. "Thank you Toriel." She nodded, finding a place in the bag for it and walking down the stairs. "Thank you for everything, especially helping Frisk."
After a long walk through the dark purple corridor, she came to a large door. Christine continued through, into a dark room and finding yet another door. A tad excessive, but oh well. Christine expected to just push through this one like others, but it barely budged when she pushed. Straining as she pushed, her shoulder grinding against the stone, the door opened just a crack. Cold air whooshed through the opening, chilling her to the bone. With one more thrust against the door, she stumbled out, being suddenly blinded by the white light as she fell into the ground, cold enveloping her arms and legs.