Chapter Text
Chapter Six
(Wednesday, May 14)
Humans had to be the most annoying creatures on the Surface. Blackberry Lord, once known as the Dreaded Sans, Captain of the Royal Guard, felt the familiar urge to kill as the group of human women gathered around him. Their voices grated on his earholes and wanted nothing more than to get back to leaving Havanish and going home. Ordinarily, the cleaning crew ignored him when they entered. If he was working nights, he kept an eye on them, but never did their worlds collide. The most interaction he had with them before this instance was when he hired them to clean his home.
Or, to be more exact, he hired one person and the crew just came along. He, for reasons he still didn’t understand, had wanted only to hire you. There was nothing special about you, but he had a hard time getting you out of his head after you ended up on Sans’ property begging to look for your son. If he was forced to admit anything, he would say that you did an adequate job in his home.
“I do not have the time for this,” he growled. “Just get to the point.” He paused and added, “Por Favor.”
The woman in front of him snarled, “We are not Hispanic! We’re Romanian!”
“All you humans look alike,” Black snapped back.
“Of all the racist…” Another woman had to push the speaker out of the way to prevent the fight that was about to start.
“Please, sir, you’re our only hope. The human police won’t help us,” the second woman said.
Black glanced at the group. Though he never paid them much mind, it slowly dawned on him that someone was missing. You.
“Where is…uh…what’s her name? The quiet one? The, uh, the one who…” He racked his brain to remember your name, but he only knew you by a nickname he secretly gave you. He was not going to call you that in front of these women. “The, uh, the one with a son?”
“If you’re talking about YN, that’s what we’ve been trying to tell you,” the woman said, anger starting to creep into her voice. The original speaker muttered something in another language under her breath. “YN is missing. The last time any of us saw her was when she left work Sunday night to pick up her son. She hasn’t been back to work today, and it’s not like her to not call. In fact, it’s not like her to take a day off. We tried calling her.”
“We’ve been calling her,” said a third woman. “She missed her son’s birthday lunch on Monday, and that’s really not like her.”
“Have you tried her family?” Why hadn’t Edwina said something about this. Wasn’t YN her sister? Did she even know her sister was missing?
“We tried,” said the third woman. “Her parents didn’t seem to care, and when we asked about her brother, they said she never had a brother.”
“She always talks about her brothers. I think they watch her kid when she’s working,” said the second woman. “I think their names were Marc and Poppi? Moro and Pappi, maybe?”
“And you haven’t reported this to the human police?”
“We tried. They said that adults come and go as they please, there was no evidence of foul play.” The second woman gave a snort, her voice growing agitated. “We even tried to call the border guards, but they won’t tell us anything.”
“And why are you asking me?”
“Weren’t you once part of the Royal Guard? Don’t you have connections?” The first woman pushed her way back to the front. “She also worked for a Monster-run company. The Pyre Tavern. Can’t you talk to them and find out if they’ve heard from her?”
“So, because I’m a Monster, you think I can just interrogate any Monster?” Black glared at the woman for a moment before he rolled his eyelights. “Fine, I’ll look into this. I just so happen to know one of the employees at the Pyre Tavern.”
“Thank you, sir. We only have until Friday, though,” said the second woman. “She’s had one no show, no call today. If she’s still missing on Friday and doesn’t call in, she’ll be fired.”
Black felt his eyelight twitch. “That’s not a lot of time.”
“We know. Sorry about that, but this has happened really fast.”
Black took his leave. “I’ll help you if I can. I’ll talk to my, uh, cousin to see if YN came in to work.”
“Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you,” the second woman said.
“De nada,” Black called over his shoulder.
“We’re not Hispanic! Romanian! Idiotule!”
Black ignored her. He exited the building and saw that Mutt was waiting with the car out front. A strange feeling settled around him as he got in the car. You were missing. He should not care that you were missing. You were nobody, just the sister of his soulmate. A stranger, really. All he knew about you was that you were always jealous of Edwina, that you dropped out of college after you got pregnant, and you worked dead-end jobs living in poverty, always asking your family for money instead of getting a good paying job.
“What did they want, m’lord,” asked Mutt, starting up the car.
“Mouse is missing,” said Black. He shook his head. “They want me to see what I can find out. Apparently the human police are refusing to look into her because adults leave all the time.”
Mutt barely glanced over, focused on driving, but Black could feel the questions rattling around in Mutt’s head. He couldn’t explain it. There was something about you, and he knew he shouldn’t feel that way. He had Edwina, his perfect soulmate. There should be no other in his mind or soul. There was just something about you, something that always made him aware of you being in the room.
He noticed you the first time you walked into the Havanish building. It was his first nightshift and Tim, the human manager of the guards, was going over night procedures. It wasn’t much different from the dayshift, but then the lobby lights came up. Black turned to the source, ready to fight anyone who entered illegally. It was a small group of women, all laughing and talking in a different language.
“That’s the cleaning crew. They come in every day to clean the lobby. Havanish has a dedicated staff for the rest of the building on call 24/7. They won’t go on the elevators or use the stairs, they won’t leave the lobby, and are often done in a short period of time. We’ll be told if Ms. Havanish wants them to do anything beyond the lobby and downstairs offices,” Tim said.
Black was about to ignore them when he saw you. Dressed in the same uniform with your mousy brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, no make up, a bit of grime from the previous job still evident on your clothes, and a huge smile as you talked to the woman next to you. A strange feeling settled over him, like sitting at home with a glass of fine wine.
He was always aware of you. Even that day in the store. He knew you were there, and damn his soul, he had been a little flattered when you stared at him. His asking if the kid wanted to spend Freedom Day at the main house wasn’t just because the boy was related to Edwina, but because he had a secret hope of seeing you when you picked up the kid. Not that he’d admit that to anyone. He hated himself for those little thoughts. Edwina should be the only person on his mind, but you kept creeping in.
“M’lord?” Mutt’s quiet voice broke through his thoughts. “What do you plan on doing?”
“I’ll talk to Edge tomorrow at breakfast. I believe the mouse works with him. There is also the question of what became of her son.”
Mutt gave a low hum. The quiet stretched between them, plunging Black back into his thoughts. Your smiling face kept swimming in his subconscious. He would have to do something after you were found. Maybe hire you again to clean his home? His home felt so much calmer and inviting after you had cleaned it.
The car stopped and Black blinked, realizing they were not home. Instead, Mutt had parked in the dark lot of some dilapidated apartment building. There were bars on the windows, bars on the doors, and the paint was peeling.
“Why are we here,” asked Black. He recognized this place. He and Mutt had driven by it a few times on their way home. It was your apartment building.
“I wasn’t expecting her car to be here,” said Mutt, “but we can check her apartment. We’ll have to be quick.”
Black looked over at Mutt. “You know enough to get to her apartment?”
The lanky skeleton grinned, the moonlight glittering off his golden incisor tooth. “I may have looked into her, m’lord. She is, after all, the sister of your soulmate. I had to make sure she was a good person.”
“And what did you find out?”
“M’lord, she is a good person.”
“Did you happen to learn who her brother is, or who watches her kid?” Black felt a twinge of hope. If he knew these answers, he would be able to find you and complete this ridiculous mission.
“No. I tried, but I couldn’t figure out where she went.” Mutt paused, shaking his head. “Normally I can follow anyone, but I’d lose track of her or forget.” That wasn’t like Mutt, and Black knew it. Mutt would never forget a target, never lose track of anyone. He could hunt the smallest bit of information down, track any person through any terrain. Something was stopping him, that much Black was sure.
“After this, we’ll try harder, Mutt.”
Mutt nodded. He glanced up to the darkened windows of your apartment. He normally wouldn’t shortcut to a place he never been, but something told him he knew the layout of your home. Within seconds, he and Black stood in your apartment, and it was mostly as Mutt envisioned. The same old sofa, same small TV, and same tiny table for two, but now there were toys on the floor and pictures hung on the walls and in frames on nearly every surface.
“It’s not a mess, I’ll give her that,” muttered Black. He took one of the hand drawn pictures off the refrigerator. It looked familiar to him, but he wasn’t sure why. It was obviously a happy family picture, but there was something off about it. He could pick out who was supposed to be you and the boy, but there was also someone with a huge black circle on his head, some tall lanky fellow with yellow eyes, and some kind of scribbled black mess in the corner of the page. Black felt a shiver run down his spine and he placed the picture on the counter.
“M’lord,” whispered Mutt.
“Did you find anything?”
“No, but I think we should leave.” Mutt was staring at the dark opening of the bedroom doorway. Black glanced over, but saw nothing. Saw nothing, but could feel something watching them from the darkness.
“Yes, let’s go. We’ll talk to Edge tomorrow to see if he’s made contact with YN,” said Black. He came from a very dangerous world, one where the inhabitants would kill without thought. His loyalty to Mutt and Mutt’s loyalty to him was rare and often seen as a weakness, one he’d kill to prove his strength. Whatever was in that room made every danger alarm in his soul go off, and he did not wish to find out what was hiding in the darkness.
*****
You were in pain. It hurt to move and breathe. It was so bright. You blinked and opened your eyes, finding yourself laying in a strange bed. Everything felt so off. The room was rather plain with a large bed, dresser, and pictures of skeletons all over the walls. The room stretched far beyond what a room should, and there was a dancing yellow flower on the windowsill. Next to you was Edwina, fast asleep.
Then you remembered. You had driven out to Sans’ home to pick her up after some incident at the Freedom Day barbeque. Papyrus had called you originally to get you to pick her up, but you had to decline. You had work. You worked for Havanish, and if you missed a day or left early or came in late, you’d be fired. Your job was everything, the only thing you’ve ever done right in your life.
“What are you doing?” Suddenly, there was a skeleton in front of you. He was taller than you, his bones twisted and jagged, wearing a dirty blue hoodie, a shirt with dried, old blood stains, and tattered black shorts. Matted pink bunny slippers were on his feet and he watched you with one glowing red eyelight. On the left side of his skull there was a large jagged hole.
You knew him. Something inside you said you knew him, but you couldn’t recall his name. It was right there on the tip of your tongue.
“What?”
He pointed to your hand. You looked down and realized you were holding your phone. “Oh, um, I need to call my boss,” you said, the words coming forth. “I have to let her know I will either be late or not in at all tomorrow, depending on how my leg feels in the morning.”
Yes, that was right. You hurt yourself falling down the front steps after someone came running up to you. A tall skeleton who looked like a scary version of Papyrus.
Phobos your mind whispered, but the name vanished the moment you thought it.
“I also need to call the temp agency to let them know they need to send someone in the morning. Then I should call my dad to let him know Edwina is safe and I’ll get her home tomorrow.” You looked at the skeleton. “What do they call you?”
Deimos, your inner voice whispered.
“Ax.”
“How did you get that nickname?”
He grinned, his left eye glowing brighter. There was something unhinged about him, like he was assessing you. He appeared to be lazy, almost nonchalant as he watched you, but you felt the hairs on the back of your neck raise. You were in danger.
He suddenly was by your side, his clawed hand wrapped around your left knee. A sudden jolt of pain caused everything to waver before your eyes, the scene momentarily changing before snapping back in place. He clasped his other bony hand over your mouth, pushing you hard back on the bed. Looming over you, his grin grew more maniac. “I saw the way you looked at my brother. You think we’re freaks,” he hissed. “Papyrus (Phobos) doesn’t deserve the way you humans treat us. He’s far too kind and trusting, even after all we’ve been through. My bro is all I have. If you hurt him…if you so much as cause his happiness to dip by one percent…there will be nothing left for your family to mourn.”
He leaned in closer, clearly smelling you. His nose ridge pressed against your neck as he inhaled. “Did you know that your hormones flavor your meat,” he asked, still buried against you. “Fear is very acidic. It’s like putting lemon on fish, helps bring to life the more subtle flavors. I miss it, sometimes. I don’t miss starving, but I do miss the sweet taste of flesh.”
You couldn’t move. In the blink of an eye, you were alone in the room. Everything was slowly getting dark. You were aware of something in the room watching you, but you were no longer afraid. A word came to you before the darkness overtook you.
“Someday.”
****
Phobos gently picked up Carl from where he curled up at your side. You were slowly getting better, and he suspected you’d wake up any day now. He and Deimos took turns moving you so that you wouldn’t develop bedsores. Deimos was the only one who could feed you, and it often consisted of him carefully spooning broth between your lips. Carl knew you were hurt and couldn’t play with him, but he didn’t understand the danger you had been in. Often, Phobos or Moros would find Carl in your bed, trying to get you to wake up.
“How is she,” asked Penthos, floating into the room.
“Still asleep,” said Phobos.
Penthos drifted closer to you. For a brief moment, it looked as if you opened your eyes, but then you were unconscious again. Your lips parted, and Phobos heard the first word you uttered since the night he healed you.
“Someday.”