#2spooky

[aradidnt]

bro what kinda date is this

[fag-stuck]

he ruined his bfs shirt but I'm sure he doesn't mind

[boo-seb]

[sabretoothleather]

Stuff!

[lornrocks]

Still gotta finish the frame and fabric but I think he’s bout done. Stay tuned for the finished shot sometime soon!

I’m already planning on doing Strahm in the water cube as a companion as well, yeeeehaaaaw

[redactedblog3]

The Fall - Prologue

Written for Krusie-tober 2025 prompt 1: Fall

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Overview:

The prologue of what I hope will become a series of chapters following on from the events of Deltarune: Chapter 4. It has been awhile since I have written short stories, but I hope you find it intriguing. We're starting dark boy-o, so buckle up. The light will come soon, I promise.

Notes: Contains

Kris / Susie (Deltarune)

Everyone Needs A Hug

Graphic Depiction of Injury

Angst

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At first, there was nothing to see, nothing to hear. Nothing but an all-encompassing blackness devoid any sense except for the pain. Hard, shocking spikes of pain, everywhere. Like thinner to an oil painting, it stained every other perception into a muddied mix of darkness. Barely at first, a hard ring of white appeared, vision bubbling back through the quagmire. Gradually fading back in from the edges, like the sweep of a theatre curtain revealing the scene. Covered in dull, fuzzy shapes, piercing points of light that seemed to dance across the stage. A piecing ring of sound painted across, washing over everything like a wave. The sharp crackle spilling out into a mix of noises, still too unclear to distinguish. There was a haunting chill underneath it all, almost like a lingering fog over snow on a wet autumn night. It was the next blinding flash of pain that first sent you reeling.

Overwhelming and deep, that hard shudder of anguish forced a gasp out of you. Chest heaving, that natural surge of adrenaline doing what it should. Forcing senses back into place, firing the connections in your head that had been knocked loose. Your body was responding to the pain, a biological demand that you survive what had caused this. The fog of cold rolled out before you under the light, stained pink and gold. It's smooth hard surface revealed, solid stone. A pair of boots stood in your vision. The lowest points of dark figure that loomed over you, it's back was turned, crossed with a flutter of black and purple fabric. The more you could see, the more your pain turned to panic.

“KRIS!”

The call pieced into the messy veil of sound in your head, snapping it into clarity. The word emanated from in front of you, bounced back around that dark form by the distant stones above. Your head came up, turning in the only direction that seemed to resemble ‘up’. That word was swimming in the sounds of metal. Sparks and clashes, a violent crossing of steel. This time, the flash was made of light rather than pain. Lighting your sight, sharpening it into focus. The metallic profile of an axe, passing through a weighty swing, held hard against the sickening shape of bone. A curving point, its scythe-like shape hanging past the blade opposing it, directly above your head. The dark figure was holding it back, draped clothes flying from the motion. Your savior in a moment frozen in time, tall and broad, black and purple. The punkish profile of your companion in the dark, with a piercing amber gaze that cut through the haze and straight into you.

Susie.

Your eyes met hers, and that was all it took. It came rushing back to you, all at once. How you ended up on the floor. What you had been doing. What that… thing was, and why those eyes held an expression of panicked horror.

Get. Up.

Slowly, very slowly, you pulled yourself back onto your feet. Another flash and crack burst in front of you, that horror of the dark shattering as it slipped back out of sight. The cold seemed to cling to you even as you rose, dripping down the front of you like oil. Sapping the heat from your limbs, piercing the now torn layers beneath the armor you wore. Your gaze dipped as you gained your footing, finding that oil shining a bright Lilly red. Pouring from the tears, three hard punctures down the side of your torso. Dark red voids, deep punctures into vital space. A pool already gathered around your sabaton boots like a horrifying swamp, threatening to pull you back under. Blood. Too much blood. Your eyes went wide, snapping back up to your savior, crossing one staggering step as you willed yourself forward. Vision rolling, the world seemed to kilter over to one side just as she reached you. The sweep of two solid arms taking up your weight just as your will to move vanished. As your head tipped back, it felt like there was nothing to see but that face, a furious mix of anger and panic painted in her expression. Not a second was spent in celebration of the victory. There should have been plenty, but the moment was crushed under the weight of what it had cost.

“KRIS!” That voice called again, but you could see the word fly past her lips as it was spoken. Shaking you gently, an arm cradling your head as she knelt over you, sitting your back up against the front of her draconic frame.

“Kris! It’s okay… I’ve got you! I.. I’ll heal it, just hold on!” You could hear her but could barely feel her. Even as your vision filled with the ghostly green glow of her magic, the cold fog lingered. Seeping in, sinking into your bones. Tears ran down the smooth curve of her cheeks as she tried again, the panic pulling her brow tight when you didn’t respond to it. This was so wrong, seeing her this way. For a moment, you couldn’t say whether the pain surging through you was from your suffering, or hers.

“C’mon… fuck! Come on!” You’d reach a gloved hand up to her, hand pressing along the shape of her jaw. Sliding over her cheek, sweeping that trace of tears away. Her eyes shot up from her hands to meet your gaze. You’d force a smile out of yourself, but that only seemed to heighten her panic.

“No! Don’t even… I am not losing you again!” She nearly shouted back at you. Why was she this upset? Why wasn’t it working? You felt cold. Rising up in her grasp, you’d reach up for her. Hand coming off her cheek to instead wrap around her by the shoulder. It left behind a patch of red. Blood. Your blood. Whether you pulled her down or she pulled you up, it was hard to tell. You’d end up nose-to-nose either way, the crisp purple of her hair mixing with the darkness of yours.

“Not again, Kris. Please.” It nearly ripped your heart from your chest to hear her plead with you like that.

Not again. No. Not now. Not when I haven’t-

Green seemed to swirl in the corners of your vision, outlining her features as it cut through the dark. You couldn’t feel your legs anymore.

“I need you, Kris. I need you here with me still!” The green periphery in your sight gradually faded to black. It didn’t stop, swirling deeper into your sight with every pike of pain.

“God.. no. Please. Please!” She was just a blur now, a faint outline around those eyes. Those beautiful, glowing golden eyes. They compelled you. One last effort. For her. “I… -------… you..” You heard yourself gasp. The sound was so faint, barely a whisper, disappearing into the quiet rush of her heavy panting. She was trying so hard, but this was all you could manage. You were so cold. It was all you could feel. Terror filled her eyes and, like a reflection of her, it filled you. Deep, soul-shattering terror. It was all you could see. She spoke again, pleading, and it was all you could hear.

“Don’t leave here me alone…”

_______________________________________________________

You were upright almost before you were awake, your hard gasp filling the dark space around you. Propelled forward before the weight of your sluggish form made you still again. Half covered, your hands clenched tight into the fabric you sat upon. The sound of your own sharp, fast breaths filling your ears while your vision darted across the darkness. The terror, like sleep, fading from your view. Immediately, you reached up to your front. Hands gripping around your torso patting each side in turn. No blood. You lifted each arm, inspecting them carefully. No armor. There was no cruel, cold stone under you. No unending darkness above you. No one at hand to save you from yourself. This was… your bedroom.

Was that all… just a dream?

The realization burned at you like it burned away the terror. Replacing it instead with the same overwhelming mix of emotions that had clung to you before you slept. Sadness and loss. Anger and betrayal. Longing and loneliness. You’d barely been awake for a moment, chest still heaving with heavy breaths but just as quick, the tears came pouring down. Your eyes turned to the window like your mind did, staring out into the downpour that had lasted for hours by now. You’d left it open. The windowsill was soaked with rain and you couldn’t find it in you to care.

A fork of lightning lit the clouds above, silent in how it flashed across the sky. The dull white glow illuminated the rain cascading down the windowpane; there was something just outside. It was large and it was close. She wasn’t here with you, like she had been in the dream. No one was. It didn’t matter anymore. Your lips ripped the words straight from your chest. Spoken aloud because, then maybe… they’d stop burning a hole in your heart.

"..."

_______________________________________________________

It was inside before they could speak. A menacing figure of inky black, swirling in and out of the darkness that surrounded it. Was it a dream? A hallucination? They blinked, eyes wide, trying to make sense of what they could see through their tear-stained eyes. Its claws raked over the frame of the window as it climbed past, talons cracking the wood as they carved through. Kris staggered back from the window, kicking as they fell. Landing on their bed behind, their hands clawed at the sheets, fighting to keep away. There was no looking away, they were caught in the sight of its cruel white eyes.

“You promised, Kris…” It spoke, the words distorted in a swirl of dissonant frequencies. The sound made the hair on the back of their neck stand on end.

H-how could it be here? It’s not possible!

The sweep of its shadowy arm came down for them, passing close enough to pull fibers from the shoulder of their sweater. Twisting out of the way just in time, Kris watched the points of three tendril-like fingers tear into the pillow where their head had been. They pushed as hard as they could, driving themselves off the edge of the bed, anything to get away. Scrambling up onto their feet, just touching the floor before the breath was driven from their lungs. This nightmare creature swung its leg out, catching Kris across the middle. Icy cold as it made contact, sending them flying back across the room. Slamming hard into the wall below the window.

It seemed to pause then, haunting gaze sweeping the room back in another direction. Twisting over as a tendril seeped into the cage at the foot of Kris’s bed. Ripping the lattice open, claws encircling the SOUL trapped inside. Holding it between those three piercing points, as though to crush it at any moment.

“You promised…”

For a moment, the thing looked like it had two faces. Neck whipping around, too fast for nature. Advancing on Kris’s crumpled form, carrying the soul down in a slow, unstoppable arc. A flash lit up the room as it made contact, revealing the creature for what it was. Half conscious and head spinning, Kris could see nothing but its icy hand jutting right through them.

“aaaaAAAAHHH!!”

Suddenly, the ghastly being appeared to part at the middle, cleaved into palls of smoke that curled out across the floor. Fading like a fog to the light, its terrorizing gaze the last vestige to go. Its butcher was a chair; flat wooden frame hurled from just a few feet away. Meeting no resistance, it came down onto the windowsill instead, shattering with a loud crack. Splinters and scraps rained down in a gust, coming to rest between two muddy boots. Kris blinked up at the sight, their unfocused gaze fixing on a pair of furious yellow eyes.

Susie stood there, chest heaving, the remains of two chair legs clutched in her hands. Jacket sagging heavy, soaked to the bone. She scanned around the room as she leaned over Kris, temporarily engulfing their view. There was nothing. It was as if that… thing… was never there at all. But it was unmistakable. She knew what it was. Kris knew it, too.

Kneeling down, her hands wrapped around Kris’s smaller frame, high and low. Relief washed over both of them as, from first glance, neither one had been injured.

“Kris! Are you okay?!” She demanded breathlessly, pulling them into her in a hug. Their arms went around her nearly as quick, clutching at the back of her rain-soaked jacket.

“What happened?”

“I… I don’t know…” Came their equally breathless reply. They looked even more disheveled than she did, sweater askew, a thin cut down the edge of its shoulder. An angry red mark glowed on the center of their torso, rising and falling with their rapid, panicked breathing. Leaning back to look more closely, Susie reached between them to put her hand to it. Kris jumped from the slight pressure, hissing in pain.

“Kris, y-you’re hurt.” A light snapped on behind her, illuminating the hallway.

“My child! Are you alright?!” It was Toriel. She staggered into the doorway, panic evident, eyes wide.

Susie turned, half kneeling as she cradled Kris against her. Hair clinging to her from the downpour outside. From her equally distressed expression, it was hard to tell if the streaks under her eyes were from tears, or the rain.

“Ms. Dreemur, M-ma’am…! There was something in Kris’s room! I saw it outside! It… it hurt them.” She looked down again, arms still clutched around their smaller frame.

“Okay… remain calm.” came the older monster’s authoritative voice, streaked with worry, sleep, and fear all at once. Crossing the room with swiftness, she reached up to draw the still open window shut again, turning the latch to lock it tight. Her soft white fingertips swept down over Kris's head, pressing their hair aside for a moment. Gently scruitinizing the pair of them.

“You must remain here with them. I will call the police.”  

“O-okay…”  And just like that, they were alone again. The adult's voice fading as they disappeared first into the hall, then down the stairs. Water was still dripping down the wall behind them and off Susie’s hair, shaken loose by her still panicked breaths.

“Kris, how did it get here? What are we going to do?” The fire in her voice disappeared when she felt their hand on her cheek. Looking down, Kriss pulled her toward them. Their brown chestnut hair resting on the glistening darkness of her own, expression hidden from view.

“Don’t leave me here alone…”

“Hey, don’t worry. I’m staying right here.”

Across the room, the twisted remains of the birdcage sat empty.

[laurenovercalifornia]

[robotlyra]

ARE YOU READY TO GET SPOOKY?