Chapter Text
"What happened?! I can't see anything!" A voice cries out as they begin stumbling over themselves in the darkness. After a few moments, they flip a switch, revealing Kris and Susie standing in a room with toys, cards, plushies, and more, all strewn about.
On a purple rug lays red toy bricks, the sort you connect to make something, as well as some cards of the club and spade suits, and laying against the wall, right in the middle of the rug, is a jack of spades. There are some blocks, one reading "A", one "B", and one "C". Next to the rug is a checkerboard, with checker pieces, as well as a pawn at the very end of the board. The red bricks give way to black ones as they approach a cabinet with playing cards stuffed onto the shelves and nearly falling out. On the top of the cabinet is a joker card and a cat plush. At the very bottom of the cabinet, laying in a dusty corner, is a king of spades.
Kris makes a confused "Huh". "The unused classroom?" They ask. "How did we get here?" They look around a little, taking a few steps. They see the plush, the cards, the checkers, the pawn, the bricks, the blocks. "...Susie?" They look back at you. "What...just happened?" They look around a little more. "That wasn't a dream or anything, right?"
There are a few moments of silence.
"...Let's just tell Miss Alphys we couldn't find any chalk."
They leave. You follow.
"Sun's already setting..." They remark, noticing the evening light shining through the windows. "Everyone must've gone home by now...my mom will be worried sick." Speak of the Devil, their phone rings. "Oop, give me a sec." They take their enormous brick phone out of their pocket and take a couple steps away from you to take the call.
"Hey, mom. Yeah, don't worry, I'm fine. I was just...uh...hanging out with a friend." A pause. "...Yes, mom. I..." They look back at you, smiling a little. "I made a friend today." They turn away to continue the call. "Yeah, I'm coming outside right now. Sorry for making you wait for so long. Yes, I'll walk home. Love you. Bye." They hang up and begin to leave, when...
"Susie?" They look at you once more. "...Let's...let's go back tomorrow, okay?"
And so they leave.
Susie slowly walks away from the unused classroom, from the storage closet, leaving the school.
All fades to black.
***
It's the dead of night. All of Hometown is asleep. The Holidays. The Dreemurrs. Miss Alphys. Officer Undyne. Napstablook and his cousin. Everyone is sleeping soundly.
Everyone...except for one.
A lone lizard girl stumbles into an alleyway, clutching her side with one hand and using the other to use the wall as support. Hunched over, she barely shuffles into the alleyway. One would think her sick.
She stumbles over to a trash can, gripping it tight with both hands. A pleasant floral scent emanates from it. She turns around, leaning back on the trash can for support. She raises one of her clawed hands...and stabs it into her chest. She howls in pain. The people nearby would've been woken up, had they not been used to the Wet-Nosed Bandits in the town jail howling every night as well.
After ten excruciating seconds that feel like an eternity, a moment that lasts forever, one full of pain, she rips a red, heart-shaped object out of her chest.
She opens up the trash can, revealing bouquet after bouquet of flowers within, and stuffs the heart inside. She slams the lid down, leaving it trapped.
Looking even more sickly than she had previously, she stumbles away, stomach growling, screaming at her to fill the hole the heart had left.
One word echoes in her mind.
One word escapes her lips.
"Hungry..."
***
"When the light is running low...
And the shadows start to grow...
And the places that you know...
Feel like fantasy...
There's a light inside your soul...
That's still shining in the cold...
With the truth...
The promise in our hearts.
Don't Forget.
I'm with you in the dark."
END CHAPTER ONE