Chapter Text
It was cold.
Really cold.
You stepped out of your work building, letting the street lamps illuminate your figure as you started walking down the sidewalk. It was after midnight when you had finally finished all that needed to be done. You couldn't wait to sleep. You sighed, your warm breath becoming a cloud in the frosty air. You tugged your fluffy jacket even closer to your body, trying to emulate more warmth. Since when did it become freezing? You didn't think too much of it as you instead looked ahead, watching the upcoming buildings down the street.
You were just heading home from work, but tonight seemed different.
The cold and silence felt eerie and there was no one else around in sight. The only thing you could hear was your own footsteps and the flickering of the faulty street lamp a few buildings ahead of you. The light did nothing but flash the dark alleyways luminously, giving you a slight peek at what may be hiding within. It unnerved you.
And you weren't used to it being this quiet.
Something was wrong.
You felt a shiver run up your spine at the thought. Grimacing, you shook your head.
No, no it was fine. This was normal. You were just imagining things.
You nervously chuckled to yourself, pulling your arms together to cross them against your body in a protective stance. You had felt it ever since you left the structure, but it couldn't have been real. You were just imagining the feeling of someone watching you, following your every move. No one could have stalked you all the way from your workplace, it was late, and you had a long shift. No one could have waited for you.
Your breath stuttered, hitching in your throat as suddenly you were becoming too aware of your own breathing. You glanced down to watch your shadow on the damp concrete as you tried to calm down. Your heart beat was pounding in your ears, it became the only thing you could hear, but you continued walking.
You had to make it your apartment.
Clamping down tightly on your trembling arm, you started to speed up, the tapping of your shoes on the ground covering up your quickened heartbeat. You began to regulate your breathing, taking deep breaths in and out.
You tried not to panic. You couldn't panic as you felt the searing burn of a piercing gaze on your back. It was as if it was coming closer and closer to stabbing you with every step you took. The knot in your stomach was heavy and tight, becoming even more strangled as you refused to look back in case you saw something, or someone.
You passed the flickering lamp without a glance, continuing to watch your shadow on the street as it was flashing on and off in the movement of the bright object. It was like watching a moving picture, with one step your shadow was hidden in the dark, and the next it was brightly shown by the light.
. . .
With a sudden shaky gasp you stopped. You stayed still in the middle of the sidewalk, your heart started racing faster. It thumped painfully against your chest.
The quivering gleam behind you, had died, leaving nothing but the dark of the night stalking you. Except that wasn't it, a strange new light had illuminated and bounced off your back to the ground. It covered the small area around you in a mysterious luminance.
It was red, mainly, with a flash of a cold blue that shone together to create a creepy purple glow.
The air was frigid, sharp and tense. You shuddered, but you couldn't move. You felt stuck, trapped. You told yourself that you had to do something, anything other than to just stand there.
Something was here.
And then, from behind you, you heard slow and heavy footsteps. It trudged ever so slightly closer to you, the reflecting light traveling farther down on the sidewalk with each step. You held your breath.
It stopped.
"hey."
You attempted to scream, but a gloved hand covered your mouth, a gritty rubber taste lingering.
With a crackle, you were gone.
"...hey!....think the......alive.......?"
What?
".....course.....had.....bring...alive...."
Who was talking?
"....good.....dust...take........prison......"
"...let..me......with........human..."
".....s'not......idea.."
"...okay..."
So many voices, too many.
...up...!
Wake up!
W a k e u p !
You slowly opened your eyes, blinking blearily.
What happened to you?
You first came to realize the cool sensation that rushed over your body, you shivered. Strangely, your whole form ached in a bruising pain, but you didn't have any discernible injuries on you. Slowly, you rose up to your knees from your position on the ground, your hands pushing against the cold concrete flooring. It left a dark mark on your palms. You sucked in a sharp breath as you finally took in your surroundings.
You were in what looked to be a prison cell. It was almost pitch black except for a single faulty lantern hanging just beyond the rusty bars. The area was tightly enclosed, there was nothing except a worn out bed and a broken mirror. The shards were dangerously close to you.
You sighed, pressing a hand to your temple. You tried to soothe your building headache as you attempted to remember the events before you somehow arrived there. It was all still a bit blurry, but you were heading to your apartment from a late night shift at work. You were walking down the street, you felt like something was watching you, and then a lamp suddenly died.
In place of the lamp, there was a new strange light.
And now you were stuck in a cold, dirty cell.
Wonderful.
You shifted, moving your legs to a more comfortable pose. You didn't trust yourself to stand up properly as your body still felt weak. Leaning forward, you peeked out between the pipes of the jail. You couldn't see anyone around, there was only a silent, dimly lit hallway to the left of you. This was starting to really creep you out.
Was this some sort of ridiculous prank? You certainly didn't find this funny. Maybe in a few seconds the cameras and lights will be brought out from the darkness and you'll find out that you've been spontaneously brought onto the world's most evil television show. Stars, you hoped so anyway.
You really didn't want to believe that you've been kidnapped by some psycho and was now being kept in their basement.
This all just had to be some terrible nightmare.
"oh. hey guys, the human's awake!"
You jumped hard at the sudden appearance, a started yelp forcefully escaping out of your mouth. You immediately pulled yourself away from bars and scooted back further into the cell. Your back hit the wall as you cautiously gazed at the figure that was once a few centimeters away from your face.
What the actual-
It was a skeleton, a moving talking skeleton. You stiffened as it came to crouch down from behind the bars, looking directly at you. Your eyes shakenly darted around its form, taking in its peculiar features. It was grinning at you with a sharp smile full of amusement, the corners subtly rising up as you stared. But, its eye sockets were pitch black and there looked to be a dark ink that oozed out of them, causing the tear-like streaks down its skull.
Despite all of that, what really caught your attention was the bright red luminescent target in the middle of its chest. Was that, its soul?
And more importantly, it just appeared in front of you in mere seconds. You didn't even have time to process the fact that it was there. How could the skeleton do that?
You glanced back to its eyes, a low choked out response leaving you, "...I uh- ..what..?"
It let out a short chuckle, the sound being a bit too sinister for your liking. The skeleton continued to stare at you, seemingly enjoying the way you started to uncomfortably fidget at its gaze.
You never thought it would look away, but it did. Only for you to realize that it was instead focusing over down the hallway. When you cocked your head to see what it saw, you froze.
Stay calm.
"dusty, horror, come check it out. knew the human was a cute one." It waved over to the incoming guests with a light mischievous tone.
You shakenly held your breath. Standing right behind the crouching skeleton were two more. The one to the right was monstrously huge, it was almost twice as tall as the other skeleton next to it. Its body was also proportionally wide, making the combined aspects intimidating. You carefully started to look it over first, your hand instinctively twitching over to the shard of glass sitting by your leg.
It had a deep crack in the top of its skull, the hole was dark and hollow giving the implication of a severe injury. It, like the other one, was wearing what you assumed to be a permanent smile, though it had a slight edge to it that gave you shivers. Its single eyelight was a bright blaring red, the dilation nearly took up the entirety of its eye socket. It was captivating, yet terrifying as it just looked at you with an expression of curiosity and entertainment.
You tried not to flinch as it spoke, a low rumbling voice hitting your ears.
"heh..dunno 'bout that killer.. looks like any ol' human to me.." It brought up a skeletal hand to prodge at its empty eye socket
The skeleton who you presumed to be "Killer" scoffed as it stood up to glance at the taller one. Its eye sockets animatedly moved to mock the action of rolling one's eyes.
"you just don't have any taste, oh wait-" Killer paused, trying to hold back sudden snarks of laughter. "..pftt..my bad, horror."
"...oh fuck you.."
You couldn't believe this odd exchange the two of them were having. You sat there in disbelief, your fear slowly washing away as they started to bicker wildly in front of you. You couldn't help but feel like it felt a bit too playful to be a real argument. A blank look dawned on your face as you watched. Now that their attention was off of you, you could finally think more about what was happening. Mainly to give yourself some support and to try to figure who exactly these skeletons were and what they wanted with you.
Since instead of being kidnapped by a psycho, you were kidnapped by living skeletons.
Maybe instead of dead humans whose bones came to life, they were monsters. After all, it had been a year since the monsterkind came up from the underground. You distinctly remember that day, how the news exploded and the curiosity that grew inside you. But, ever since they've arrived, you've never seen any skeleton monsters before. This was certainly new.
Hearing them talk to each other did give you some insight on them. They all seemed to use predominantly male terms and pronouns when referring to each other. You were also correct in assuming that the red target souled skeleton was Killer, and that the bigger one was Horror.
What were these terrible names? Freaky stuff.
You snapped out of your trance, choosing to see what else they were doing. You still needed to find out why they had essentially kidnapped you.
Horror used a hand to push Killer's shoulder, making him harshly bump into the annoyed looking skeleton next to him, "...an' that's why your bro's de-"
"stop playing around."
A deep timbre cut through the air, the curt speech immediately silencing the other two. You snapped your head over to the one you hadn't a word from until now.
This skeleton was the shortest of the bunch, only being a bit shorter than Killer. He had his hands shoved in his faded blue jacket, and his hood was on, covering the top half of his skull. His stagnant grin was there but it didn't feel like he was really smiling, it only gave him a sense of ominousness beyond his stoic look. And, the way he had gazed towards you, made a shiver go down your spine. It was menacing, yet he didn't seem to give a damn about you at all.
His eyelights, however, really captured your interest. One of them was a vivid red, the edges of it wavering and flickering in his socket. The other was matching in the same rouge color but there was a single cyan ringlet in the middle, it brightly shone against the red as it dialated.
It was...pretty.
You felt as if it was familiar, like you've seen something similar before. Though, you couldn't get a better look as it shrunk down to almost a pinpoint when he noticed you staring.
The moment of dead silence was soon gone as Killer knocked the other skeleton with his elbow, his grin widening teasingly.
"aww c'mon dust, get that stick outta your ass! after all, ya got semi-praised for nabbin' the human here."
These guys don't have asses.
But you now remember where you saw the color of his eyelights. You couldn't have forgotten the bright luminance that had shone across the dark ground. He really was the one to snatch you and bring you to this weird place. Your inventive gaze had turned into a glare.
Dust had leaned out of the way as Killer tried to elbow him again, a subtle scowl on his face. "i don't care about that, it was just another job."
Horror looked between the two before pitching in, "..maybe, but now we gotta see why we need this human.." He stopped, trying to think of the right word to say, "..it's unlike of nightmare to wanna keep it alive..."
Job? Nightmare? Keeping you alive?
After sitting through and listening to a bunch of skeletons talk and squabble, you were really getting fed up. Gathering yourself, you stood up steadily, your hands balled into fists. Your sudden movement seemed to gain all of their attention back on you, they looked almost surprised to see you move.
But, you really needed answers, right now.
You spoke carefully and firmly, trying to not let your voice shake in any way. "Where the hell am I? What do you guys want with me?"
They didn't make a sound.
With as much confidence as you could muster, you started walking towards the bars of the cell. You leaned in, tightly grabbing onto the poles. You stared directly at them, your eyes hard.
"Tell me."
You held your ground as Killer took a step closer, his face almost brushing against the prison. His eyes were full of mirth as he let out a low whistle. The other two didn't fall behind as they came closer as well. You could feel Dust's piercing glare burn into you once again. It was chilling.
Looking towards the closest skeleton to you, you watched as Killer's smile sharpened unnaturally. "well, if you're really curious. welcome to the anti-void. your one shortstop t'any alternate universe out there."
You looked up at him like he was crazy, but he didn't seem to stop there. "more specifically, you're in the basement of our boss' castle. an' we honestly don't know why you're here." He shrugged like it was the most normal thing in the world.
"Uh...what?" Your expression changed to one of confusion and doubt, your hands faltered on the bars. Anti-void? You knew about the theories about alternative universes and the multiverse but, this couldn't all be real. And they apparently had some sort of higher up they follow.
Wait, castle? Were you in the possible presence of royalty?
Coming back from your thoughts, you glanced to see the trio talking amongst themselves. They had formed into a small bundle, the other two seemingly scolding Killer for giving out too much information, or maybe that was just Dust.
"sure the human would eventually find out, but now's not the time to-"
You quickly interrupted him, you didn't want any of them to go off onto their own tangent and forgot to answer your questions. If you were gonna end up staying there for who knows how long, you needed to know more.
"...I'm still a bit skeptical about the alternative universe, anti-void thing.. It's actually real? Prove it."
You saw how each of their expressions had changed in some way. A short amount of time passed before you grew suspicious. You didn't fail to notice how Horror and Killer looked at each other as if they had the greatest idea in the world. While Dust actually appeared to be slightly amused, sharing their look.
Did they all share the same brain cell or?
Horror spoke first, jabbing a thumb at himself. "..well, my name's actually sans..."
Huh. Your eyes narrowed as your expression blanked. You wanted to question it but you decided to wait as Killer followed shortly after.
"i'm also sans!"
What. They were playing some joke on you, they had to be. You dubiously watched as Killer casually pointed towards Dust.
"an' he's sans too."
There was no way. You heard them all call each other by their respective names. They had to be gaslighting you into believing otherwise. Was this some sort of punishment for learning too much about this whole thing? You guessed it was better than them killing you then and there.
You shook your head in disbelief, "Hey I know I'm not the brightest but don't expect me to-"
"y'know our boss? also sans."
What the fuck.
You stuttered out the rest of your sentence, losing your words at how ridiculous this was. You rubbed the bridge of your nose, muttering to yourself, "Hell at this point, I might be Sans as well.."
But, now that you were really thinking about it. It was uncanny how despite them all having very different outer appearances, the shape of their skull and its features were so similar. They were almost identical, and even in their bone structure, proportion wise.
You took one more glance at the three of them. Wow, it wasn't the brain cell they shared, it was technically the whole body.
You sucked in a deep breath and quickly let it out. You let your arms rest before wrapping them across your body. You tried to ignore the somewhat pleased faces on the skeletons in front of you as you carried on.
"..okay so, the multiverse is real and you're just all hanging out with yourselves but not really." You shifted your weight to one side, ignoring some protests. "What does this have to do with me? And who's Nightmare, some sort of king?"
They all glanced at each other, before looking back to you. Dust gazed over off to the side, his voice low. "our boss, and more like an evil dictator. you don't need to know anything else."
That was an interesting way to put it. But still, no one had answered why you were there. You guessed that it was true that they didn't know yet as well. That just meant that one of them had blindly kidnapped you without even knowing why he needed to, and that confused you.
You suddenly jolted as a strange sound entered the room, it was like some sort of signal or siren. You glanced towards the skeletons who all had a knowing look on their faces as they straightened up.
The first one who began to leave was Dust, without making a single look back. Killer let out a small sound of disappointment, "aww, a meetin' already? i wanted to mess around with the human a bit more."
He turned from you to face the hallway, starting to walk in that direction. Horror was about to follow him when he gave you a look over first. As he talked, he sauntered right behind Killer.
"....we're probably gonna find out why it's here..." He paused, thinking. "...but, someone should stay and watch it..."
At that, Killer perked up as he stopped right in his tracks, an evil grin spreading onto his face. "if that's the case, then I'll take up the burden for ya."
He was about to skip right pass when Horror grabbed his shoulder, holding him there. He spoke deliberately, "..no, can't have you killing it or doing somethin' weird while we're gone..."
Killer gave the other a look of mock hurt, his eye sockets drooping. He attempted to say something in retaliation but was swiftly shoved away by Horror.
In the corner of your eye, you saw Dust about to open the door at the far end to leave when the larger skeleton had stopped him. He had leaned down to talk to him, and based on Dust's furrowing eyebones he didn't like whatever they were discussing. After a few seconds and exclamations, he slumped over and to your surprise, started walking back towards you. You didn't say a word as he silently went to lean against the wall right by the cell.
This was fine.
It was totally fine, especially after you heard Killer and Horror's small conversation just before they left.
"so we want it alive, but dust's gonna be the one watching it right now? ain't it gonna be guaranteed dead?"
"....huh, you're right.."
The door closed shut with a creak, leaving the entire room in an uncomfortable silence. Hesitantly, you took a quick look at Dust. He wasn't looking anywhere near you, he was staring straight ahead as he pretended you weren't there.
This was great and totally safe, everything was going to be a-okay.
"..Hey, you should...really clean your gloves.."
Nevermind, you were dead.