Chapter 26: Haywired

                                    

                                          
The dense maze of thick oak trees suddenly felt bigger than it was. Whatever small rays of moonlight seeped their way through the canopy above glistened upon the three skeletons.
With a bad sense of curiosity and an even worse level of self-restraint, the trio immediately left to investigate this new universe's inhabitants.
Through their quick escape all that time ago, the three were left clueless as to which universe they were trapped in. The possibilities were quite literally endless.
The trek to Mount Ebott would be a lengthy one. The sun would undoubtedly rise by the time they arrived home, but they got the feeling Nightmare already knew...
"Hope you're all prepared for a thrashing when we get back!" Dust snickered, stretching his arms behind his hooded skull.
Killer scoffed, his mouth pulling into a smug grin. "Well, technically Nightmare said we couldn't go anywhere until after the barrier's broken."
The empty-eyed skeleton pointed his thumb in the direction of the mountain. "And I mean– I dunno if you guys felt that whole ass earthquake just earlier? But I'm pretty fucken sure that was a barrier earthquake."
Technically he was correct. Nightmare did specifically mention that nobody was allowed to leave until the barrier was destroyed. 
While the walk ahead would take a few hours, the night was still young. Besides, it wasn't like they were planning to stick around. This was purely for curiosities sake.
The minutes began to stack up, following a hum of magical energy that lingered in the distance. Now that the barrier was destroyed, the overflow of magic that was once contained has been released. While it had no effect on humans, it did serve as a very helpful point of reference in this case.
The chatter continued amongst themselves, drowning out the cold silence and crickets with general conversations.
"So, what 'verse you think it is?" Dust began, making eye contact with Killer and Horror out of the corner of his vision.
"Dunno. Better be one that's fun to fuck with, though." Killer laughed, eyes glinting with malicious intent.
"Ugh, watch it be something boring like Underswap," Dust replied, rolling his eyes at the thought. Horror agreed with a hum. Killer stopped and elbowed Dust in the shoulder.
"Hey! What the fuck man?!" The hooded skeleton replied, staggering back.
The other chuckled. Killer stepped closer to jab a finger into Dust's sternum in a playful way.
"I swear, you better not jinx us into getting some shitty universe," Killer warned, grinning. However, his grin would soon falter. Dust had an idea.
"Psh- I'm sorry, but have you seen my luck?" Dust flaunted, flicking the rim of his hood sassily as if he had hair. "You should worry 'bout yourself first."
Killer's expression shattered with the callback to the game the three played not long ago. Dust's only grown stronger.
With every second that Dust continued to taunt him, Killer's anger rose. Opening the freshly sealed wounds from earlier, Killer looked just about ready to throw hands.
Killer growled harshly, clenching his gloved hands into fists. It didn't take long for his vibrant red magic to begin swirling around his hands. The glow lit up the surrounding area, illuminating the grass and bushes with sparks of magic.
Dust continued throwing annoying comments Killer's way, purposely firing himself up for a beating. He knew exactly what he was doing, but Dust didn't care about repercussions, all he knew was that it was hilarious.