Chapter Text
You never knew that death could be peaceful. If you had, you wouldn’t have been so afraid. Your breaths were sharp and hollow as the air was compressed out of your lungs. Blood seeped onto the cold ground, painting the scene in crimson and brown.
You had always been so careful because you weren’t brave enough. You hadn’t made any rash decisions, you never spoke over others. You didn’t want to die prematurely.
All that work for nothing. What a waste of time.
You regretted it, not living your life to the fullest, always too scared to do anything. Always so… Alone. That was your biggest regret. Why, why hadn’t you looked more for people to connect with? If you had… then maybe you would have someone looking for you.
Maybe then you wouldn’t be in this forest, lying on the cold ground in the silent snowfall.
The stars danced in your view as you let out one, final breath and slipped into the waiting darkness.
— — —
Empty whiteness greeted you when you awoke. You felt confused as you rose to your two feet and looked around. Everything felt muted and… unfinished, like it was just left to gather dust.
Well, it wasn’t all that empty, seeing that there were some other people.
You felt relieved, maybe they could tell you what was going on. You were pretty sure that you should be dead right now.
Was this the afterlife? Were they dead like you?
Meekly you approached the strangers, feeling anxiety swell inside you.
“E-excuse me?” You called out, twisting your hands anxiously. They didn’t answer. Sweat trickled down your head.
Didn’t they hear you?
“Excuse me?” You called a little louder, with the little bravery you had left.
No reaction.
They just stared ahead, without actually seeing anything. They didn’t move in the slightest. It gave you the creeps, especially when they didn’t even look like humans. But what stuck the most out to you was that they weren’t whole.
The tall ones with a lot of fur were missing their faces. The skeleton guy had half of his face scribbled over.
You quickly backed awad and sat far away from them on the white. There was something very very wrong about this place. The people weren't’ people but some kind of… Monsters! They were scary, lifeless husks in a white void.
Would you end up like them? Was this a punishment? To stay in the blinding white and slowly lose your personality. Were you doomed even after your death?
Wait- death? That’s right, you should be dead. Bled out in the forest, calling for help.
Nobody came.
You curled into a ball and gnawed on your fingers in your distress. Pale appendages caught your attention. Your fingers were made of bones,there was no skin or muscles anywhere. You let out the most bloodcurdling scream known to mankind as you jumped to your feet and tried to scamper away from the bony construct. The rest of your body was as skeletal as the arm, only bare bones on sight.
Your screams echoed in the white, bouncing back, joining you in your panic.
Why were you being punished? Was this the middle ground between good and evil? Were you destined to just fade away in this white prison just because you didn’t do enough good deeds?
Your nonexistent throat hurt as your screaming faded into sobs. You curled up and hid your head in your knees. You didn’t want to see this place. You didn’t want to be there. You wanted away.
Away from everything.
—- —- —-
You had no way of telling time in the empty void but it had felt long. You were as alone as ever as you were punished for all your sins.
But.
You had laid in the white so long that you felt numb. No longer did the skeletal body scare you or the husks give you creeps. Calming down had helped you to think.
The whole place reminded you of something familiar. Stories stretched far and wide, Charas and Frisks running rampant everywhere. Sanses acting as a damage control, multiversal chaos and fighting.
___tale had been doomed to always be unfinished. Its creator had given up on it and left. The only survivor was Ink, who in all his pain and loneliness tore his soul apart to escape. You gazed down on the white, inverted heart floating in your ribcage. Everything checked out. You had gotten lucky, this wasn’t the forever that came after death. You had an out, not that you wanted to be a walking corpse skeleton.
…
In order for you to escape as well you had to follow the original Ink’s footsteps but unlike him, you knew what came afterwards. You would lose your ability to feel. On top of that all your memories would be gone as well.
Probably. You couldn’t know if the same rules applied to you as well.
Would you forget your real name? Would you forget All the nights you had cried yourself to sleep? And what about the little things that had made life bearable?Would you forget everything that made you you? Could a person be the same without all their memories? You think not. And there were so many kinds of Inks too! You didn’t want to end up as the evil and cruel one. Or the weak and easily manipulated one.
There was no telling what would happen if you tore the soul apart. If you forgot everything, anything could happen.
You buried your head into your bony hands as a deep sigh rattled your bones. How would you ever know what to do? You couldn't just give up who you were. An emotionless, immortal life didn’t sound good at all. What if you ended up as one of the forever tortured and traumatised Inks?
…People really should’ve been kinder to Ink. Now you paid for the all possible horrors that were coming your way.
Nope, you were staying here, in the never ending white with people who could’ve been something someday. Actually, maybe you could help the people here? You weren't the original Ink after all. You were one of the creators, so you should be able to do something.
You walked up to Papyrus, peering up at the taller skeleton.
“Hello Papyrus!” You greeted, trying to sound enthusiastic. The lack of response made you grimace but you didn’t falter, “It’s a beautiful day today, wouldn’t you agree?” You felt a little stupid as you gestured to the emptiness. He kept gazing to somewhere far far away so you let him be.
Next you tried to speak with the one you assumed as Toriel. She liked puns, right? You weren’t well versed in them but surely you could come up with one.
“Hey Toriel, what did the grape say when it got crushed?” You waited, looking hopefully at the queen of all monsters, “Nothing, it just let out a little wine.” You finished dejectedly.
Asgore didn’t care about the flowers you managed to scramble from the unfinished void. Undyne didn’t want to burn anything down or even beat you to the ground. You tried time and time again to get them to feel something, anything at all! You told knock knock jokes to Toriel and recipes to Papyrus.
Not a single one of them reacted.
Time warped together as you woke up, tried to help them, failed and fell back asleep. The silent and oppressive white felt like it was pressuring your eyelights and ear canals, muting your very own being.
—- —- —-
You had curled up on Papyrus’ feet in search of the tiniest bit of connection. It had been quite a hassle to get him to sit but it had worked in the end.
“Hey Papyrus, I hope that one day you’ll be able to feel too. I’m sure you’d love spaghetti,” You muttered tiredly, “I promise that I will learn every bad pun to annoy you if you just wake up.”
You would do your best to be Sans-like, just for Papyrus. But there was no response, like always. You closed your eyes and tried to sleep.
Warped figures towered over you, pulling you, tearing you apart from limb to limb- You sprung up, soul hammering out of your chest. Tears trickled in your eyes and you rubbed them away as you tried to catch your breath. It was okay, you were okay. Your bones were fully connected. You were fine.
Papyrus’ boney feet dug uncomfortably in your pelvis and tailbone so you scrambled up.
“Heh, sorry about that but I-” Your words got caught in your throat as you noticed that Papyrus was laying down. The little features he had had vanished during your sleep. He didn’t have a mouth nor eyes, now he really was a doll. You poked him, but got no reaction. Your fingers met just a little resistance, like Papyrus was made of something soft and malleable.
“H-hey buddy, this isn’t funny.” You knelt over him as you tried to figure out what was wrong. Your eyelights flickered out. “You s-should’ve said so if you didn’t want me sleeping on your legs.”
You rested your hand on his chest, trying to will his soul there. If it would just beat, he could… He could…Your hand went right through his ribs as they gave in. “No, no, no nonono!” You pulled your hand back, staring at the hole it made into Papyrus.
You had killed him. If you hadn’t interacted with him he would…
Your soul cracked, sending a hot, searing pain right through your skeletal body. It felt like you were cut with a blazing hot, dull knife. Your ribs were creaking and there were small cracks forming all along your body. It hurt so badly, you were burning up and freezing simultaneously.
In your haze you reached out and your hand met something solid. You instinctively knew it was what caused you all this pain. You grasped it with your both hands and pulled.
Crack- You were burned in hot lava- Crack- You screamed in agony- Crack- Dark creeped into your sight-Crack- Papyrus reached out to you, the hole in him fixing itself- SNAP -Your soul split in two and the darkness swallowed you.
You were free.