Chapter Text
"Me," said the voice that wasn't Kris's.
All at once, Noelle felt all warmth and comfort drain from her room. There was something wrong with the light. The shadows around her furniture were at the wrong angle. She couldn't make out any textures or details - everything that should have been familiar and safe looked alien, hostile, not real somehow.
Or maybe it was just because of Kris. Because they somehow looked too real. Noelle felt their arm tense up beneath her hand, like it had frozen over.
"Kris…?" she breathed. "K… Kris, your voice, it…" Her mind grasped wildly at any possible way to explain what she had just heard. "Ha… Ha… Kris, that's… Another joke, right…?"
They'd been in the room when she'd mentioned her nightmare. And they were trying to scare her by imitating that voice. Just like all the creepy faces and voices they used to do when they were kids. That had to be all this was, right? But… How could they possibly know the exact voice from her dream?
"Because it wasn't a dream."
Noelle screamed as she pushed away from Kris on the couch. Their arm fell limply to their side as she let it go. Their body was extremely still. Were they even breathing? Had their lips even moved?
"S… Sorry, Kris… What did you say?" She was struggling to speak in between shaky breaths. "I must have misheard you."
Did they just know her that well? Well enough to guess what she was thinking, based on the conversation they'd just had? Accurately enough to interrupt her train of thought at just the right moment? It didn't sound plausible, but… But that had to be it, right? Because there's no way they heard… Her thoughts.
"I heard."
Noelle breathed in sharply. Kris's face was unreadable. She could barely even look at it. She knew what her lifelong neighbor looked like - that face had jumpscared her from inside enough closets and behind enough trees for her to memorize every detail. And even though all those details were still there… Somehow, it was like she was looking at a stranger. Something was wrong with the light.
"W… What are you talking about, Kris? I… I didn't say anything!" Was the temperature in the room still dropping? Her body wouldn't stop shaking. She swore she could see her own breath as she spoke. The snowflake decorations hanging from her ceiling were twirling. Every time she blinked, behind her eyelids, the snowflakes multiplied.
Kris was just… Saying whatever they thought would be creepiest. Just picking spooky phrases out of a hat. It was just a coincidence that they lined up so well with her frantic, panicked thoughts. Because the alternative was impossible. It had to just be a coincidence.
"It's not a coincidence."
She had been looking at their face when the voice spoke, that time. Their lips had moved, a little. But not enough - not in the right way. Their throat looked like it was trying to close up - like Kris was doing everything in their power to choke the words back down. Yet Noelle had still heard the voice loud and clear.
The voice. The voice, whose details became impossible to recall the moment it stopped speaking, yet which was so entrancing as to be impossible to ignore. The voice that made every other voice she'd ever heard sound like a low-quality recording from an old FMV game by comparison - like it was the first truly real sound to ever grace her ears.
The voice that sounded identical to the one she'd heard in her dream. The one now telling her that it hadn't been a dream, and blatantly reading her thoughts to do so.
…Noelle had run out of rational explanations. It was time to start believing in the impossible.
If you can… Hear me… Say "red" or "blue."
"Blue." The hue of the walls seemed to sharpen. Images flashed through Noelle's mind of the way Kris had looked in her dream, of their surreal blue skin tone.
Say… "Green" or "black."
"Green." Noelle's eyes suddenly honed in on every individual thread in Kris's shirt. Another image appeared in her mind - an empty box with green borders, and something bright red shifting around inside. She couldn't quite comprehend what she was looking at, and yet… Had she seen something like that yesterday, too? During the battles?
No. She shut her eyes tightly. Even if what was happening right now was impossible, yesterday was still just a nightmare. It had to be. It had to be. Because if it wasn't, then she had… Berdly was…
Say… Say… "It didn't happen." Say "It didn't snow."
There was a pause. Noelle's eyes cracked open. Kris's head had been slightly angled towards her. Their eyes were still hidden behind their hair… But she could see a single tear running down their face.
"It snowed."
No. No. Noelle was a good person. Or, a good friend, at the very least. She would never do something like that. She couldn't have done it. How could she have done it? The voice was lying. It was lying.
Kris's head tilted back down. Something about the way they moved was wrong. Kris didn't move like that. She was looking at a stranger. There was a stranger alone in her room with her.
"Noelle becomes stronger."
Those words made her shaking body freeze solid. They hadn't been a command. Just a statement of fact. An inevitability.
"K… Kris? Kris, what did you say?" A feeling of dread burrowed into her stomach.
Kris's left hand reached into their pocket. Then, slowly, robotically, as though each joint was being forced to bend like an action figure moved by some unseen hand, they lifted the arm back up. Gripped between their thumb and index finger was a small red object. It was about half an inch long, thick at the base but quickly narrowing down into a thin, sharp point.
The tip was a deeper, darker red than the base. It was still stained with her blood.
"K… Kris? Kris, what is that?" It was less a question and more a desperate plea.
The thing that was no longer Kris inched forward along the couch. Noelle inched back. Her entire body felt numb. It was so cold. The snowflakes hanging from the ceiling spun faster and faster.
"Kris… That's… Not the thorn, is it?" She flashed back to the sensation of cold fire she had felt around her finger, just before casting that spell she didn't know. She inched back again, blinking the tears out of her eyes. "That's not… The… ThornRing, is it…?"
The thing wearing Kris's skin inched forward once more, its left hand beginning to extend. Noelle saw movement out of the corner of her eye, and realized that her own hand was involuntarily gravitating towards the tip of the thorn. She gasped and shot backwards.
"K… Kris… C'mon… You… You still…" Everything had been fine just a few moments ago. Kris - the real Kris - was the one who hadn't wanted her to be heard. Heard, she now realized, by whatever this thing was that was pretending to be them. Meaning… They had to have been the one who had covered her mouth, just then. Meaning that they were still in there somewhere. They had to be. Right?
"What about… What about last night? What about…" Surely Kris could still hear her. Surely the tears streaming down their face were their own. Surely there was something they could do to stop this. "Didn't you… Want to… Protect me…?"
The thing in Kris's shape continued its advance. Noelle clamped her hand down onto the edge of the sofa cushion to keep it from reaching forward. She'd heard the command this time, just barely audible, barely distinguishable from her own thoughts. Proceed. It took every bit of concentration her terrified little mind could muster not to obey.
She had reached the other end of the couch. Her heartbeat was pounding in her ears. She should've been running out the door, shouldn't she? She knew she could outrun Kris. It should've been easy. So then… Why? Why couldn't she move? Why couldn't she look away? Her mind frantically shouted at itself:
NOELLE, DO SOMETHING!!!
…And in that moment, the thing that wasn't Kris stopped moving. And then the voice said:
"Noelle will fight back?"
"W… What…?" There was something strange about the way it had said that. It had been more than just a question. It felt like… A challenge?
Before she could process it, Kris's body started to move again. Noelle's vision narrowed until she could only see the tip of the thorn in their hand. She still couldn't make herself run. But now… She felt as though she could do something else.
Not giving herself enough time to think through what a terrible idea it was, she lunged forward, grabbed Kris's left wrist, and pinned it to the back of the couch.
Kris's mouth inhaled sharply in surprise. Noelle was hyperventilating. What was she doing? What was she thinking? What could she possibly do against…
…Kris's bangs parted just a bit. One of their eyes peeked through, staring directly into Noelle's. Their eyes hadn't always been such a bright red, had they? They looked more wrong than anything else on Kris's face… And yet, somehow, for the first time since the voice had spoken, she felt like she was seeing their real expression. That red eye flickered with an emotion she hadn't seen from them in a very long time. They looked just as terrified as she was.
Noelle was completely frozen in place. She knew that she couldn't save herself from this horrible thing puppeting Kris. She was too scared to run, and trying to fight back like that had already taken the last minuscule drop of her courage. There was nothing else she could do. Except…
"K… Kris. Kris, listen to me." It took every bit of willpower she could wring out to steady her breathing enough to speak. "You… You know… This prank, has… Gone too far."
She had no idea if this would work. No idea if it was even possible for Kris to fight back. But they were still in there somewhere. She could see it right in front of her, inches from her face. She knew they didn't want this.
"A… And… Dess… Isn't here to… S-stop you… So…" Tears were flowing freely down Noelle's face. "So… You have to… You h-have to… Stop… Yourself. Okay…?"
She never had any idea what they were thinking about her. She didn't know whether all their memories together as kids meant as much to them as they did to her. There were times where it seemed like they didn't care about her at all. And yet, last night… She had been so happy just to hear their voice again. And they had pulled the thorn out of her finger. They wanted to protect her, from… Whatever this was. No matter what else they thought of her, she could be sure of that, at least. But did that mean they actually could protect her?
"Because… Because I…" Noelle closed her eyes, and took in a deep, shaky breath, and gave Kris the most believable smile she could muster.
"I know you'd never really hurt me, Kris."
All she could do was hope. Hope that there was something, anything, they could do.
Something shifted in Kris's expression. Another tear fell from their exposed eye. She felt their warm breath against her face - a tiny reprieve from the room's freezing air.
Then, she felt their wrist shift beneath her hand. And something sharp brushed through the fur on her index finger. Noelle's forced smile instantly fell apart as she saw their hand angled downward towards her own, ready to undo what they'd done last night.
"That's all?"
The voice sounded disappointed. Disappointed that, what, she didn't do a good enough job of resisting it? That her desperate, pathetic attempt at self-defense hadn't been entertaining enough? Noelle would've been furious if she hadn't been terrified out of her mind.
"I… I…" She couldn't speak anymore. She couldn't focus on anything but the thorn. She had finally spent the last of her willpower. It was over.
She heard another command, no doubt meant for Kris's ears, but still just barely audible to her as well. Equip.
The tip of the thorn made contact with her skin. A horrible chill crawled up her arm and spread through her veins. She whimpered helplessly. She shut her eyes tight, held her breath, and braced for the worst.
…But the worst never came.
Noelle heard a strange noise from just below her head - like some sheet or membrane being punched through. She felt Kris inhale sharply, as though in pain. She opened her eyes. Their eye was shut tightly, their expression contorted into a grimace. She felt their wrist move again as their hand slowly bent back upwards, withdrawing the thorn away from her.
Then she noticed their other arm. Specifically, the fact that it was currently reaching through their own chest.
It looked almost like that optical illusion you get by holding a pencil directly between your eyes. It looks like it's in two places at once, with a gap in between them. Noelle used to try to stick a finger into that gap, but of course it never worked, because the gap didn't actually exist. It was impossible. And yet, there it was right before her eyes. Kris's right hand, vanishing into a gap in their chest that wasn't actually there.
"Wh…" Noelle tried in vain to respond.
And then, with one sharp motion and one more grunt of pain, Kris yanked their hand back out. And in that hand was…
Noelle let out a loud, sustained scream, let go of Kris's wrist, and shot backwards so fast she almost fell off the couch.
It was a solid mass of red light. Its glow twisted the shadows around the room, poisoning the lighting even further. The light was dull and sickly, but got brighter and heavier as it approached the center, until it condensed into a coherent shape. A shape like a cartoon heart. Noelle was speechless.
Kris let the thorn fall from between their fingers and land harmlessly on the couch cushion. For just a moment, they met her gaze, their eyes still wet with tears. Then they tilted their head down, letting their bangs hide their eyes once more.
"I'm sorry," they said, in a shaky, deadpan, mumbly voice. "I'm so sorry. Please don't look."
"Kris…!" Noelle breathed a small sigh of relief. They were back, again. But… How was she supposed to look away?
"And what happens next?"
Hearing the voice again provoked another tiny scream out of Noelle. The instant she heard it, the SOUL vanished from Kris's hand, there one moment and gone the next. Pure panic washed over Kris's expression. They glanced wildly around the room, and it wasn't long before Noelle started to do the same. She could still see its light coming from somewhere, but…
"T… There!!" She pointed frantically out the window behind the couch. Kris got up and dashed to her side, following her gaze. The SOUL was hovering there, just beyond the glass. It lingered ominously for a moment, bathing the two of them in its infected light…
…And then it gently floated away, sinking beneath the treeline.
As it departed, the miasma of dread that had been hanging over the room dissipated. The lighting returned to normal. The temperature returned to the usual, comfortable level of cold Noelle was familiar with. The snowflakes weren't spinning anymore - in fact, they left no evidence that they'd been spinning in the first place. Had it all just been her imagination? No, not all of it - because the thorn was still there on the couch, its presence still stuck into the edge of her mind.
"It's just leaving…!?" Kris muttered incredulously. They took a step back and put their hands on their head.
Their voice was their own again. They weren't trying to hurt her anymore. Whatever they had just done, it had freed them somehow. Her room felt safe again. The danger had passed. Noelle didn't have to be afraid anymore. She took a deep breath…
…Then stood up and grabbed Kris by the shoulders.
"HOLY CHEESE AND CRACKERS, KRIS, WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL WAS THAT!?!?!?" she demanded. "DID YOU JUST RIP OUT YOUR LITERAL ACTUAL SOUL!?!?!?"
"I- I-" Kris stumbled out. Their voice was just as weak and shaky as last night. Noelle could feel them trembling. They gently removed her hands from their shoulders and took a step back.
"…It was nothing," they mumbled, head and voice low. "It... Didn't happen. Just a bad daydream. You didn't get enough sleep last night."
"Kris, I…" Noelle shook her head. "Part of me… Wishes I could still believe that… But…" She tried to meet Kris's gaze, although their eyes were still hidden. "But if something this bad is happening to you, I can't just ignore it! Are… Are you going to be okay, without a SOUL!? And how long has that… Thing… Been controlling you!?"
"…Worry about yourself," Kris insisted, voice low. "You got extremely lucky. It got curious and gave us an opening to resist. If it isolates you again…" They balled up their hands into fists. A shudder ran through their body.
"…What is... It?" Noelle asked nervously. "It was… Controlling you through your SOUL, somehow? And…" She remembered her 'dream' yesterday. All the whispered commands Kris couldn't possibly have spoken aloud. All the times she'd blacked out after being worn down by the same command over and over, only to find her task already completed. "And… It was trying to… Control me…?"
"I can't…" Kris's breath hitched. "Noelle, you don't understand. I wasn't supposed to… Nobody was supposed to know about this. The more you know, the more…"
Kris's body suddenly straightened. The panic on their face intensified. "It… It just left. It's just out there. If anyone sees it…" They abruptly turned towards the door and began to shamble forward. "I have to go. I have to find it. I'm sorry."
"Wh- Kris, wait!" Noelle rushed over to them and reached out for their hand. "You're just- You're going to find that thing by yourself!? What're you-"
As soon as Noelle's hand clasped around Kris's, they went rigid for a moment, then yanked it away and stumbled backwards away from her. They collided with the pot containing the cactus that was once named after them, making it wobble precariously. They were looking at her with almost as much terror in their expression as when they'd been about to stick the thorn in her finger.
"…Kris, are you okay?" Noelle asked softly. "Did I do something wrong…?"
"I'm- Fine," Kris sputtered out quickly, trying to recompose themself. "I mean, you're fine. You didn't- Just- You shouldn't. Do. That."
"…What, hold your hand…?" Noelle asked. How was that fair? Kris used to grab her hand and drag her around all the time when they were kids. Or hold her hand for comfort in crowded places, whenever Azzy wasn't around for them to cling onto instead. It seemed a little unreasonable, but she wasn't about to argue about something so small at a time like this. Heck, for all she knew, maybe holding their hand for too long would cause her to spontaneously explode in a shower of blood. That was as plausible as anything else, after everything she'd seen the past two days. And it didn't help that they still weren't telling her anything.
"Look, just…" Noelle sighed. "Kris, please… Tell me how I can help? Does Susie know about any of this? Could she help with-"
"NO!!" Kris grabbed Noelle's arms and got close enough for her to see their eyes again. They were still bright red, and still full of desperate fear.
"Noelle, you can't… Promise me you won't tell anyone," Kris pleaded. "About… What you saw just now. About the SOUL. Especially not Susie, and especially not your mom."
"Wh- My mom!? Why-"
"Please." Kris begged. "I know I- You have no reason to trust me, after… After yesterday. And I know you want to help, but, just… Please believe me when I say it'll just make everything worse. For both of us."
"I…" Noelle hesitated for just a moment. She didn't want to just let Kris go off and deal with this alone. She had just gotten them back - what if they got possessed again? But…
"No, I…" She looked into their eyes and nodded. "I trust you, Kris. I won't tell anyone."
"Promise me."
"I promise."
"Okay." Kris released her from their grip and headed back to the door. "I have to go. Do not follow me. I'm not letting it anywhere near you again. I…"
They glanced back at Noelle one last time. One of their eyes was just visible enough for Noelle to notice something else within. Something like… Resignation.
"…I can still fix this. I'll fix this. You'll be okay."
And then they dashed off, out the door and down the stairs.
"K… Kris! Wait-!"
But by the time she made it into the doorway, all she could see was the back door to her house slamming shut behind them.
"Will… Will you be okay…?"
Noelle lingered in the doorway for a few more moments, her question hanging in the air.
Part of her wanted to run after Kris. She didn't want them to have to deal with this alone. She felt bad enough for not noticing anything sooner. Or, well… She had noticed that something was wrong. That they were lingering around town on Thursday instead of heading straight home like always, talking to people they always tried to avoid (her included), asking questions they should already know the answers to. That they visited her dad in the hospital, two days in a row, even though they hadn't voluntarily spent any time with her family in years. That their voice didn't sound like their own. That even the way they walked was wrong - too normal, somehow, like they were play-acting being an ordinary teen instead of the little weirdo she knew they were.
She'd noticed all these things. But there was no way she ever could've guessed why. Magic and SOULs were supposed to just be things that sat around in people's bodies. Actually using magic, casting spells, was supposed to only be possible in fantasy stories. She believed in the Angel, sure, but actually seeing one of the 'Fountains' from the prophecy with her own eyes wasn't something that was supposed to happen to an ordinary girl like her. Even though she'd wanted to believe in the supernatural, seven years of fruitless searching had drained her of all hope of ever finding tangible evidence. She never would've guessed "demonic possession" as the source of Kris's behavior if said demonic possessor hadn't just spelled it out for her. And even if she had somehow figured it out… What could she possibly have done to stop something like that? Something so far beyond her conception of reality?
And that's why she didn't try to run after them. Because, no matter how badly she wanted to help them, she knew they were right. If she got anywhere close to that SOUL, she knew she'd just freeze up again. She'd be useless - or worse, it'd take the opportunity to control her again, and someone else might…
…Might suffer the same fate as Berdly.
Noelle suddenly felt nauseous. She braced herself against the doorframe to keep herself from doubling over. It had been real. It had all been real. That spell she had cast… Berdly was…
…He was in the hospital. She'd visited him just a few hours ago, after she'd brought her dad back there. He'd still been breathing. He was being taken care of. Maybe he'd be okay. Maybe…
…But the spell had been called SnowGrave. And monsters kept breathing for a while after they'd fallen down.
Noelle started crying again. Berdly… Even if he was needy, and egotistical, and exhausting to be around… He was still her friend. He always made sure she had someone to study with… And even though he relied on her a lot more than she did on him, it was still nice just to have someone to commiserate with. To help her bear the weight of her mom's expectations. He had introduced her to so many games she never would've played otherwise, a few of which had become new favorites. And while gaming with others often brought out his inferiority complex, when it was just the two of them playing together, he was able to drop his facade and just have fun. It was always nice, seeing him genuinely enjoy the things he was passionate about.
And… Even though he was usually completely wrong about what she actually wanted… He always tried his best to make her happy. Even… Even yesterday, just before… He had noticed that something was terribly wrong, and did everything in his power to protect her.
He had tried to protect her. And she had probably killed him. Sent him into a coma, at bare minimum. All because she had been too weak to say 'no.'
Noelle stumbled back into her room and collapsed onto her bed. Teardrops began to stain her pillowcase. What was she supposed to do now? How could she just… Go on with her life, knowing what she'd done? If she'd really killed him, should she… Turn herself in? Would the police even believe her if she tried to tell them what had happened? Would anyone?
Maybe she could convince herself that it wasn't her fault - that the voice had made her do it, that she didn't have a choice. It wasn't not true - she would never have tried to hurt him if not for its orders. But… Did that really make her completely blameless? She'd tried to resist its commands, to say she didn't know the spell. Could she have saved him if she'd just tried harder? And, even if there was nothing she could've done… Would that actually change anything? She was still the one who had cast the spell. It still felt like she was the one to blame.
She didn't know. She couldn't move. She could barely breathe. She couldn't stop sobbing. She couldn't stop seeing hundreds and hundreds of snowflakes every time she blinked.
…Something caught her eye. A tiny point of deep red amidst the pink of her couch, distorted and magnified by her tears. The thorn was still there. The ThornRing. The reason she was able to cast that horrible spell in the first place. No matter how different it looked now, there was no doubt in her mind that it was the same object, somehow.
Well. It would be dangerous and irresponsible to just leave a malevolent magical artifact lying around in her room. She should probably do something about that. It was a reason to get up, at the very least. To keep going.
It took a few attempts for Noelle to convince her body to actually move. She was eventually able to plant her hooves on the floor, force her body up, and walk back over to the couch. She knelt down and took a closer look at the thorn. It was strange - aside from the dried blood coating the tip, nothing looked particularly unusual about it. It could've been plucked off of any average rosebush. And yet, she could still feel something horribly off about it. Like there was an extra sense she didn't know she had, screaming at her to stay away.
It was just sitting there. She should be able to handle it safely as long as she was careful. It wasn't going to start moving around on its own, right?
…Before her imagination could take that thought and run wild with it, she reached out her hand and placed a fingertip on the side of the thorn.
She instantly withdrew the finger and inhaled sharply in surprise. It didn't hurt, exactly, but… It felt like the floor of an ice-skating rink. So cold it wrapped back around to feeling hot. The sensation faded as soon as she wasn't touching it anymore, but… Clearly she shouldn't be messing with this thing any more than she had to.
Noelle stood up and took a few steps over to her desk. She opened the bottom drawer, which was well-stocked with emergency holiday supplies - tree ornaments, lights, candy canes, and a few small gift boxes, decorated to look like they were already wrapped. She pulled out the smallest box she could see, about two inches in each dimension, along with enough ribbon to seal it shut. Then she walked back over to the couch, held her breath, carefully plucked the thorn off of the couch, and dropped it into the box as quickly as possible. The extreme cold between her fingertips was deeply uncomfortable, but she only had to endure it for about a second. She put the lid on the box and tied the ribbon around it into a perfect bow - second nature to a Holiday like her.
She held the box between her thumb and forefinger and shook it gently, listening to the thorn rattle around inside, and was relieved when it failed to poke through the thin cardboard. Now nobody would get hurt by it by accident, and the thing possessing Kris wouldn't know where to look for it… So long as she actually kept her mouth shut this time.
…She had tried to do what Kris asked her to. She hadn't mentioned their conversation last night to anyone, even her dad. She had waited until she was sure the two of them were alone before bringing it up. How was she supposed to have known that the person they were afraid of hearing them was inside their own body? She wouldn't have said anything if they'd just told her what was really going on… But, then again, the whole point of that conversation was trying to convince her that she had nothing to worry about. Maybe they could've done a better job protecting her if they'd been honest, but… She couldn't bring herself to blame them. It had been nice, to believe it was all a dream for just a little while longer.
…And it had been nice to hear their voice again. Nice to have some proof that they still cared about her, even if only just enough not to leave her at the voice's mercy. Nice to get to spend just a little more time with them.
…How horrible was she? To still be so happy about seeing them again, even though she knew it wouldn't have happened if not for yesterday's nightmare? Even knowing that the price for that happiness may well have been Berdly's life?
It was all ridiculous. She knew she was stupid for still caring about them so much. For still holding onto all those memories with them. For still wanting to hold them to that promise the four of them had made together.
She knew it was stupid. They'd all just been little kids. Of course it didn't actually mean anything.
…And yet, even now, all these years later… All she had to do was close her eyes. And she could recall every single detail.
It had been the Spring of 201X. Just a few months before everything had fallen apart. The four of them had been playing in that clearing they'd found in the woods behind the graveyard - the one you could only reach by going down into the creek and then going through that gap in the soil that was hard to see unless you were at just the right angle. None of their parents knew where it was, and they all tolerated them going there on their own so long as Dess and Azzy made sure they all got home on time, which they always did. It was nice, the four of them having a place that was just for them. A place where the sunlight spilled through the leaves and made gorgeous patterns on the ground.
They had all brought various toys there, as they often did. Azzy had brought out the remote-controlled toy cars he'd gotten from his dad a few birthdays ago, and he and Kris were racing them while Dess played some intense music on her guitar to spur them on. Noelle had watched them for a while, but lost interest pretty quickly - it didn't look nearly as fun as kicking everyone's butts at Cat Petterz Cart Racerz. So now she was playing with some wind-up toy soldiers, trying to find twigs she could use as antlers for them to make them look like her family.
"Hmhmhmhm~"
She knew that muffled, mischievous laugh well. Kris was about to do something evil. Sure enough, when she looked up, they were looking straight at her with a wide grin on their face. Between that and their horns - the bright red headband that they wore so consistently that it might as well have been part of their body - they looked like a little demon ready to spread sin and corruption onto the make-believe world she was building.
Azzy noticed too, and glanced between them and Noelle with concern. "Kris, what are you-"
Suddenly, the car Kris was controlling - the one that was based on the same make and model of their dad's beloved pickup truck - swerved off of the makeshift racetrack in the dirt and beelined towards Noelle's toy soldiers.
"Noooo!!" Noelle cried out, stepping over the soldiers to try to impose herself between them and the truck. But Kris, with their Gamer Reaction Speed, managed to swerve the truck around her hooves and smash it into the one soldier she wasn't directly in front of.
"Oops," Kris said, still grinning, as though that had any chance of fooling anyone.
"Kriiiiisssss!!!" Noelle cried in dismay. "That one was s'posed to be Dess!!!"
"Oh, okay," Kris said, before backing the truck up and slamming it into "Dess" again, repeatedly.
"Da- Uh, dang, Krismas," Dess said nonchalantly, plucking out the game over theme from Dragon Blazers on her guitar. "I thought we were cool."
"Um, Kris!" Azzy said nervously, driving his own toy car around in circles on the track. "If you keep being mean to Noelle, I'm going to win the race!"
"You were winning anyway," Kris said, completely undeterred. "Also, Dess, you can just say 'damn.' You already taught us that one."
"Oh, did I?" Dess raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Damn. Forgot about that."
"C… C'mon, guys, the Angel can hear you…" Azzy's admonishment was halfhearted - he knew both his sibling and his best friend well enough to know that neither would listen.
"Kris… Stop killing her…" Noelle was utterly devastated. Tears began to form at the corners of her eyes. Kris noticed, and their sadistic smile wavered. Their car stopped moving.
"Um, it's okay, Elly," they said. "If Dess was really about to get run over, she'd just smash the car with her bat."
"O-oh! Yeah!" Noelle's tears were instantly banished by thoughts of how cool her big sister was. What was she thinking, worrying that Kris could ever hurt her?
"You guys got a lot of faith in me, eh?" Dess's smirk widened.
"Oh, oh!" Noelle piped up. "Or! You could do a BIG riff with your electric guitar! And then the car would EXPLODE!!!"
"Oh, is that how that works?" Dess asked, sounding completely genuine. She always took Noelle's wild imagination at face value.
"Yeah," Kris nodded. "You just gotta find the, uh… The sound, the… Uh…"
"The resonant frequency!" Noelle recalled with a smile.
"Yeah," Kris said with a much more sinister smile. "There was a Gamer Theories video about it. You can explode people's heads into blood and stuff."
"Oh really?" Dess grinned. "Well I gotta learn how to do that."
"Dess, nooooo!" Noelle cried in dismay, running up to Dess and tugging on her flannel shirt. "You're letting Kris turn you evil!"
"Nah," Dess said, giving Noelle a pat on the head. "I'd only explode someone's head if they were mean to you, Elly."
"Oh. Okay, that's fine!" Noelle said cheerfully, before turning to Kris with a mischievous smile of her own. "Hear that, Krismas? I think your stupid head had better watch out, fahaha!"
At that, Kris abruptly went silent and still, and their expression became filled with the kind of terror that Dess usually needed her wiffle bat to invoke. They dropped the remote control for the truck and dashed towards Azzy in an attempt to hide from Dess behind him. At that age, they probably genuinely believed she might blow them up.
"Nope!" Azzy picked Kris up by the armpits and held them out towards Dess, who grinned and strummed a menacing chord. "You gotta face the music, Kris! Hee hee hee!" Kris whimpered like a scared puppy.
"Dess, you're gonna practice extra hard now that you're gonna do a real concert, right?" Noelle asked excitedly. "You'll be good enough to explode Kris in no time! Faha!"
"Oh, uh, yeah," Dess said. Her smile faltered for half a second before returning. "Better watch your back, Krismas. Or, your head. The back of your head?"
"Wait, hold on, what!?" Azzy asked with wide eyes, setting Kris down. As soon as he let go of them, they dashed behind a tree and looked back nervously at Dess.
"Yeah, Dess and Mom were talking about it at dinner last night!" Noelle explained. "Mom said she'd help you guys find a venue! And, um, teach Dess how to do all the business stuff you need to do for it!"
"Really!? That's… Golly, that's great!" Azzy's eyes were sparkling. "We might actually get to perform together soon! In front of a real audience!"
"Yeah! It's…" Dess glanced down for just a split second. "It's finally happening! Faha!"
"…Is something wrong?" Azzy picked up on her hesitation.
"No, no! It's…" Dess sighed and closed her eyes, trying to maintain her smile. "It's nothing. It's stupid. Don't worry about it."
"Well… C'mon, that's just gonna make me worry about it more!" Azzy insisted.
"You were acting weird like this last night, too," Noelle said. "I don't get it. Why're Mom and Dad more happy about it than you are? It's your concert."
Dess finally let the facade drop. She frowned and stared down at her guitar, which she was using to nervously strum out the first eight bars of Raise Up Your Bat on repeat.
"…Mom doesn't actually care about the concert," she said, a hint of bitterness in her voice.
"Huh?" Noelle didn't understand. "Yes she does! She was smiling, and talking about how it was, um, an opportunity, for you to get real-world experience, and-"
"-And how it'd look good on my college applications, yeah," Dess snorted. "That's all she talked about. Nothing about the actual music. Nothing about the actual reasons I want to do this in the first place. Here I just want to do something cool with you, Azzy, and she's trying to make it all about how it'll make it so much easier to go to college and leave you all behind!"
The agitation in her voice grew the longer she spoke. Her song's tempo had been gradually ticking up, becoming more and more frantic. She missed a note, winced as though the mistake had caused her physical pain, and terminated the loop with a frustrated, dissonant chord.
"...Sorry," she muttered. "Like I said, it's stupid. I know I should just be glad she's being supportive at all. Not still trying to get me to learn a more 'respectable' instrument or whatever."
"No, I get it!" Azzy assured her. "I mean, it's a little crazy that she's talking about college applications already. We just started high school."
"I know, right!? Why can't she just…" Dess cut herself off, her expression shifting to concern. "Elly, you okay?"
"I…" Noelle blinked. "I never thought about it before. That you were gonna… Leave. Someday."
It was one of those things that she'd technically figured out already. She'd stopped seeing MK's sister at church, or anywhere else, after she'd graduated high school. She had aunts and uncles who she knew had grown up with her parents, and who no longer lived anywhere near them. It was just a matter of connecting the dots. But she'd never done so until Dess had made it impossible to ignore. She couldn't have come to a conclusion like that, no matter how obvious it was in hindsight. A life without Dess, without Azzy, without Kris… It was unthinkable.
"Uh, uh, it's okay!" Dess threw on a wide smile and crouched down to meet Noelle at eye level. "Azzy and I'll still be here for a few more years! We still have a lot of time to do stuff together! And, think about how much older and braver you'll be by the time we-"
But it was too late. Noelle sniffled. The corners of her eyes became wet once more.
"…You can't leave," Kris mumbled.
They had come out from behind the tree. They were standing perfectly still, arms rigid at their sides, expression tense.
"Um… Kris, I…" Azzy grasped for the right words. "I mean… It's sad for me to think about, too… But…"
Kris sprinted over to Azzy and slammed into him, gripping him in a tight hug, head buried in his torso.
"You can't leave," they repeated, voice breaking. "It's not fair."
"It's…" Dess got out one last word in her reassuring tone before her own smile dropped once again, and her voice turned bitter. "...Yeah. It sucks."
None of them said anything. Azzy returned Kris's hug, expression despondent - he looked like he might start tearing up too. Dess's pick hovered over the strings of her guitar, her fingerings shifting anxiously. Kris continued to cry into Azzy's shirt. And Noelle struggled to fight back her own tears as she looked at Kris.
…They'd always had trouble making friends. Their first instinct when meeting anyone new was to hide behind Azzy or their parents, and their second instinct was to get their attention with elaborate pranks. That, combined with the fact that they were the only human most kids in town had ever met, led to them being dismissed as the weird kid, the troublemaker, someone who just wasn't like them. Noelle knew how to be kind and polite and likable, and Dess and Azzy were both popular with kids their own age. (Especially the ladies, to Azzy's great embarrassment and Dess's great pride.) They were all better at hiding just how weird they were. But Kris? Aside from maybe Catti… The three of them were all they had.
…Noelle shut her eyes tight and took a deep breath.
"IT'S OKAY, KRIS!!!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, startling everyone. "EVEN IF AZZY 'N DESS GO AWAY, I'LL STILL BE YOUR FRIEND!!!"
Kris pried their face away from their brother and turned towards her. Their bangs were damp and matted from being pressed into their eyes. They were still crying - more extreme measures were required. Noelle stomped her way over to them, threw her arms open, and forcefully latched herself onto them, sandwiching them between her and Azzy. Azzy let out a quiet "aww" and gave her a pat between the antlers.
"Elly…?" Kris asked, voice distorted by their runny nose.
"...Yeah?" Noelle responded softly.
"If… If Dess goes away… An' you're still my friend... Then…"
The corners of their mouth curled upwards.
"Then does that mean it'll be like Halloween every day?"
"H… Huh!?" Noelle's eyes grew wide as she realized what they meant. Kris had something of an arrangement with Dess - on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (which also happened to be Noelle's and Dess's birthdays, respectively), they'd agreed to play nice and not attempt any big pranks or scares on Noelle. But on Halloween (which Kris, not knowing their real birthday, had claimed as their own), they could be as naughty as they wanted, and neither Dess nor her wiffle bat were permitted to intervene.
"H… Hey, that's not what I-!" she tried to protest, backing out of the hug.
"You already promised," Kris taunted, their smile widening. "No takebacks."
"Kris!!!!!" Noelle shouted indignantly.
"Alright, alright!" Dess cut in, chastising Kris by way of a light bonk on the head with the side of her guitar. "Y'know what? Elly's got the right idea!"
"Oh! I do!?" Noelle said excitedly.
"We don't have to take this stupid college thing lying down!" Dess raised a fist into the air. "We should all promise! Right here, right now!"
"…Promise what?" Azzy asked.
"That none of us are gonna forget each other," Dess declared with a shining smile. "And none of us are gonna leave each other behind. No matter what happens."
"…So you're not gonna go to college?" Kris asked hopefully.
"Well, uh. No, I think our parents would actually kill us if we didn't," Dess admitted, deflating slightly. "But! That doesn't mean we need to stop being friends, y'know? We can visit! As often as we can! And do, like, video calls and stuff!"
"And play Smashing Fighters online together!" Noelle exclaimed.
"Golly, yeah, that sounds fun!" Azzy said. "Dess, maybe you and I could try to get into the same school?"
"Oh, hell yeah!" Dess's eyes lit up. "Uh, guess I'd have to get my grades up to where yours are, but…"
"Hey, you've been doing pretty well so far this year!" Azzy pointed out.
"Yeah, guess I have!" Dess said. "Mr. Boom just gets me, I guess. Maybe it'll be easy!"
"Can Kris an' I go to the same school as you guys too!?" Noelle offered excitedly.
"Um, that's a lot further off for you two…" Azzy said apologetically. "Dess and I'll have graduated by then, I think."
"Faha, wonder how popular our band will be by then?" Dess wondered. "Maybe you two can come along on tours with us? Or something? I mean, we can work out the details later, but…"
Dess began playing something new on her guitar - that peaceful, melancholic song she wrote by modifying the chorus of Raise Up Your Bat. The one she always used to comfort Noelle whenever she ran next door to her room after a nightmare.
"But you get the idea, right?" she asked. "Just… We should all try to… Stay in each other's lives, y'know? No matter how those lives change."
"…Haha," Azzy laughed with a hopeful smile. "When you put it like that… What were we all even worried about? Of course we'll figure something out!"
"Promise?" Dess asked expectantly, leaning towards him and smiling.
"Promise!" Azzy said with a wide grin. "Hear that, Kris? We're not gonna leave you alone, okay?"
Kris, who had still been clinging to Azzy through the entire conversation, nodded with such enthusiasm that it almost launched their horns off their head. Azzy laughed and put their headband back in place.
"I promise, too!!!" Noelle was jumping up and down with excitement, her hooves kicking up tiny clouds of dirt every time she landed. "You hafta tell me if you do any awesome parties at college, okay!?"
"Obviously," Dess assured her. "And you have to tell me if Kris gets any bright ideas while I'm gone. I'll call Mrs. Dreemurr and tell her to take away all their chocolates or something."
"Fahaha, okay!" Noelle said, sticking out her tongue at Kris.
"Damn," Kris muttered.
"How 'bout you, Krismas?" Dess turned her attention to them. "You promise not to leave us alone, either?"
Kris seemed to consider the question with great intensity before responding. "…Only if you promise not to explode my head."
Dess's eyes narrowed. "...You drive a hard bargain, little buddy. Deal."
"Then our dark contract is sealed…!" Kris said in their favorite creepy voice, wearing a sinister grin, waving their arms in a way that was probably supposed to be creepy but just made them look silly.
"Fahaha! And, um…" Noelle gave them a big smile. "You promise to keep being friends with me too, right?"
"Hmhmhm~" Kris snickered. "You think I'd just leave you alone before I even got to eat your SOUL?"
"H-hey! Come ON, Kris!" Noelle protested. "I KNOW humans don't actually eat monsters! I'm not a baby anymore!"
"I'll be the first human to do it, then," Kris insisted, their grin turning particularly devilish. "Strike when you least expect it."
"Kris!!! You can't just say that! Fahaha!"
"Hm~" All of a sudden, Kris dropped down to the ground, rapidly skittered over to Noelle, then popped up right in front of her face, teeth bared as though they were ready to take a bite out of her. She screamed and toppled backwards onto the dirt, the plastic wings on her back bending further back than they were probably supposed to. When she looked back up, Kris's smile had no malice in it - only pure joy at getting to see her reaction. She couldn't help but go right back to laughing.
"You're not gettin' rid of me any time soon, Elly," they said, offering their hand to help her up. "Promise."
"No takebacks, right? Fahahaha!" Noelle was still laughing as she took their hand. All four of them were - even Dess let Kris's jumpscare go unpunished, still hitting every chord flawlessly as she-
Noelle was jarred back to reality by the discordant screech of guitar strings.
She was thoroughly confused for a moment - Dess never screwed up that bad, and she'd have remembered if she made a mistake like that that day. It wasn't until she heard the same sound again that she realized it wasn't part of the memory. It was coming from next door. Susie must have gotten curious and wandered into Dess's room.
…Had she really managed to forget that Susie was in her house? She should be fainting from excitement at the mere prospect. But… After everything she'd just gone through, all her mundane worries seemed so trivial. Meaningless.
Although… Thinking of Susie as something 'mundane' might have been a mistake. After all, she had been there in the 'dream,' too. She'd been the one to convince Noelle it'd all been a dream in the first place. Maybe she could help her learn more about… Whatever was going on. And regardless, Noelle figured she should probably go in and make sure she doesn't break any of Dess's stuff.
It was another thing to do. Another thing she could worry about instead of Kris. Instead of Berdly.
She headed out the door and into the upstairs hallway, setting the gift box in her hand down on her desk as she left. Beyond the railing, she spotted Mr. Dreemurr's massive form leaning over the coffee table. He turned around at the sound of her hoofsteps.
"Oh, good afternoon, Noelle!" he said cheerily. "I, erm, noticed this snack tray, and I was wondering if-"
"Yep. Sure. Help yourself," she said over her shoulder as she turned towards Dess's door, her voice devoid of all energy.
"Oh. Thank you," he said, somewhat less cheerily. "Erm… Noelle, are you alright-?"
But she had already turned her back to him and stepped through the door. The room was… Almost exactly as it always was. She spotted a few things under her bed, and in the box in the corner, that had been rummaged through and put back in slightly the wrong spot. And of course, the guitar wasn't in its usual spot, because it was in Susie's hands instead. The purple dragon was holding it in an awkward position, with both hands near the bottom of the base, staring directly into the sound hole.
"Susie…?" Noelle asked tentatively, shutting the door behind her.
At the sound of Noelle's voice, Susie spun around gracelessly, her foot slamming into the door to Dess's closet and dislodging one of her band posters. The guitar's headboard scraped against the ceiling as she held it above her head. Her very cool and pretty golden eyes were wide with surprise.
"Oh hey Noelle what's up???????" she said with a nervous smile. "I've just, uhhh, been doin' normal stuff. Lookin' for, uh, stuff, for, the project. Like normal. Y'know."
Even in spite of the circumstances, just seeing Susie smile in her direction was enough to prompt Noelle's heart to perform several cartwheels. Seeing her in Dess's room, holding the guitar that had always brought Noelle so much joy and comfort… It almost felt right. Except… No. That was just a fantasy. Dess wouldn't have handled her favorite instrument so carelessly.
"Susie… Could you please put that guitar back where you found it?" Noelle's voice was measured, attempting to mask how shaken up she still was.
"Oh," Susie said sheepishly. "Uh, sure," She lowered the guitar and, very gently and slowly, set it back down in front of the closet door, glancing back nervously at Noelle the whole time. "Is this stuff, uh, yours…?"
"It's… It's my sister's," Noelle answered as neutrally as she could. Was she going to have to explain the whole story to her? She wasn't sure she could handle that now of all times.
"Oh. Guess that tracks," Susie responded, glancing behind Noelle at the wall where Dess had pinned all her photos. "She's really gonna be that pissed if I touch her stuff?"
"…Ha. I wish I knew," Noelle said, glancing down. "My mom would definitely be mad, though. If she knew someone had, um… Disturbed anything."
Her facade must have cracked, because Susie's expression immediately became uncomfortable. She glanced rapidly around the room, eyes widening with dawning realization. The bulge under the back of her coat (which was definitely not a tail) went rigid.
"Uh… S... Sorry. Didn't mean to... Uh…" Her eyes then settled back on Noelle, and her expression became even more concerned. "…Dude, are you okay? You look like you've been crying."
"Oh! Um." Noelle let out a shaky breath. She was a little embarrassed that Susie was seeing her in this state… But, at the same time, it was exciting to know that she was worried about her.
"I… I'm fine," she tried to say, but it came out completely unconvincing. "…Well. I guess I'm not, really. I'll… I'll get there, though."
"…Did something happen?" Susie asked cautiously. "With… You and Kris?"
Noelle opened her mouth to respond… And then closed it again. She was going to listen to Kris this time. She wasn't going to tell anyone what she'd seen… No matter how worried she was. She didn't want to make things even worse. And she couldn't imagine any way she could answer Susie's question without giving something away.
…But she hadn't promised not to talk about anything with Susie. Just not about Kris and their SOUL. There was still so much else she wanted to know. And, as nice as it had been to believe the lie for a while… She'd been in the dark long enough. She decided to be direct.
"Susie… Why did you lie to me?"
"H… Huh!?" Susie took a step back.
"When you… Told me it was just a dream."
"…Wait, WHAT!?" Susie's expression rapidly shifted to anger. "How'd you- Did Kris just TELL YOU everything!?"
"No, n-no, no!" Noelle tried to calm her down. "They… They didn't tell me anything." Technically true - it hadn't really been Kris. "I just… Figured it out. Kris, they, um… They took my watch when we were in that big city, and they still had it after we, um, got back, so…"
"Oh." Susie shrunk back. Her eyes hid from Noelle's gaze. "Well… I mean, I just… I wanted to… I didn't…"
"S… Sorry," Noelle interrupted with a sheepish smile. "I didn't mean to come off so aggressive. I mean, you were just… Trying to make me feel better, weren't you…?"
"Y… Yeah." Susie's smile returned, although it was a strained one. "Mean, you, uh… It just seemed like you were having a rough time. Getting kidnapped by Queen, and almost, uh, getting your face robotificated, and everything. So, I just figured… It'd be better if you… Didn't have to worry about all that."
"Oh." So that's what Susie assumed she'd been upset about. Ironically, despite being so scary at first, Queen had actually been really nice to her in the end. When Noelle had stumbled up to the palace doors after… What happened… Queen had tried to talk to her about whatever her evil plans were, but she'd been too numb to even respond. Queen had noticed immediately, and offered to let her rest for as long as she needed, which Noelle had gladly taken her up on. She'd been the first person to finally give her some amount of respite from the nightmare.
"Well… Um... Thank you," she decided to say. "I mean… I still think I would rather… Not be lied to. But thanks for trying to help."
Susie didn't respond immediately. Her feet tapped nervously against the bottom of the closet door. Noelle wondered if she should ask her to move so she could put the poster back up.
"Uh… Look," Susie eventually said, voice low. "If you want me to… Be honest. Cheering you up… I mean, it was a reason. But it wasn't the reason."
"…What was the reason?" Noelle asked.
"I, uh. I feel kinda bad for saying it," Susie admitted. "Since that Dark World was such a bad time for you. But, for me, they've all been… Fun adventures, y'know? I get to do awesome battles, go on rollercoasters and TV shows… Make friends."
Noelle held her breath at the mention of "awesome battles." The battles she fought in the "Dark World…" Was Susie being put through the same thing? Was Not-Kris trying to make her stronger, too? She wasn't talking like anything was wrong, but…
"It's been… really great," Susie said with a slight smile. "Better than, uh, 'real life.' That's why… I didn't really want any of my problems from real life… Following me in there." Her smile faded as she averted her gaze. "Problems like… Popular kids pretending to wanna be friends and then just laughing at me."
"W-what!?" Noelle said with alarm. "Susie, you… You didn't think I…?"
"It's… Kinda what I assumed was happening, yeah," Susie confessed. "When you invited me to study yesterday. Wouldn't've been the first time."
"Susie, I don't - I'm so sorry you had to go through that, I mean - I would never-!"
"I… I know!" Susie reassured her. "I mean, I know that now. Y'know, after you…" A blush slowly crept across her face. "Uh... Y'know."
"OH." Noelle instantly felt her own face burning up. She'd had so much else to worry about that she hadn't thought at all about… How she'd acted after Susie told her it was a dream.
If you're not real, then… Then I can do whatever I want with you…!
She had actually said that to the real Susie. And then she had just gone up and kissed the real Susie, without her consent. No wonder she had immediately run out of the room. Noelle's body froze solid. She wished she was back in that city so she could step in front of one of those cars with legs.
"I… I-I'm sorry, I…" Noelle stammered out, eyes fixed on the floor between her hooves. Her cheeks were probably the same color as her nose by this point. "I, I shouldn't have, um… It was, I-"
"H… Hey," Susie mumbled. "You, uh. You don't, have anything, to, uh. Apologize for."
"What?" Noelle breathed. Her eyes flicked back up to Susie's face… Which, as it turned out, was blushing just as furiously as her own.
"Mean, I already told you, right? When I came back." Susie put on a wide, nervous smile that showed off all her very cool pointy teeth. "You just… Surprised me, y'know? I didn't, uh. Not. Like it."
"Y… You weren't j-just…" Noelle stammered breathlessly. "When you came back, at the end, that wasn't just… Trying to make the dream thing more, um, believable?"
"What? O-of course not," Susie said. "If I wanted to do that I just wouldn't've come back." Her golden eyes met with Noelle's. "I really just… Wanted to spend more time with you."
Noelle was speechless. It was too good to be true. Her brain searched for any way to interpret Susie's words more pessimistically - any interpretation that wasn't that she felt the same way as her - and came up short. Meaning… This was really happening. She… She had to say something, right? It was now or never. But, how was she supposed to just…
…Then again, after all the genuine horror she'd been through recently… It was silly to let this scare her, right? She should just-!
"SUSIEDOYOUWANTTOGOTOTHEFESTIVALWITHMETOMORROW??????" She blurted out the question all in one go and immediately covered her mouth.
"H… Huh!?" Susie blinked a few times, seemingly parsing the word salad she'd just heard. Then her eyes and smile both lit up.
"Uh, I mean… Yeah! Sounds awesome! Let's do it! Haha!"
"G… Great!!! Fahaha!!!" Noelle felt a big stupid smile forming on her face. She had to fight back the urge to literally jump for joy, and even still, she ended up bouncing on and off of the tips of her hooves with her tail wagging behind her.
"You're… Really excited about it, huh…?" Susie asked, scratching the back of her head.
"Faha, yeah!" Noelle said, much more comfortably than she'd been the whole conversation. "I'd wanted to ask you out for a while now, so…"
"You… You really have, huh," Susie said with a wistful look on her face, which she quickly replaced with a confident smile. "I mean. Guess I am quite the catch. Heh."
"Obviously!" Noelle said with no hesitation. "I mean, you're so strong, and cool, and confident… And you don't let anyone tell you what to do…
A-and, if you wanted you could slam me into the- Um, y-yeah!!!" She had the wherewithal to cut herself off before she started listing off all her fantasies. She didn't want to scare Susie off already.
"Heheheheh." Susie seemed to light up at the praise. Noelle wondered if she hadn't caught that last part - or if she had caught it and was actually into it. "Well, just, uh… I'm excited too. That you asked me. And… Hope I can live up to the hype."
"Don't worry," Noelle assured her, "you already are."
"Heh."
The two of them just stood there grinning at each other for a few moments, basking in the excitement of the moment. It really did feel like a dream come true. The silence was broken only by the occasional sound of raindrops beginning to fall outside.
"So… Um…" Noelle tapped her fingers together, trying to think of where to go from here.
"You, uh…" Susie gave her a nervous look. "Okay look, we're not seriously gonna have to work on our group projects now, are we?"
"O-oh, gosh, no!" Noelle exclaimed. "Faha, focusing on homework sounds impossible right about now. And the project was really just an excuse to invite you two over, anyway."
"Heh, wanted to see me again that badly?" Susie winked. Noelle's heart did a little pirouette.
"Well, um, yes, that too," Noelle said apologetically. "But really, I just wanted a chance to-"
Her smile slowly inverted itself. "A chance to… To talk to Kris."
Just like that, her good mood was gone. Thanks to Susie, she'd been able to forget about what had just happened for… What, three minutes? Maybe four? It had been nice while it lasted, at least. Now all she could focus on was the sound of the raindrops, slowly increasing in frequency - and how Kris, on top of everything else, was out there without an umbrella.
"…Jeez." Susie frowned. "What were you guys talking about?"
"Th… That's, um…" Noelle ran through a few different possible lies in her head before deciding it'd be better to just be up-front and hope Susie didn't pry any further. "Sorry, it's, um… They asked me to keep it, um, private. Sorry."
Susie glanced around nervously, then walked over to Noelle's side. Her outstretched arm hovered about an inch away from her back.
"Can I, uh…?" Susie requested.
"Yes please," Noelle squeaked, her blush flaring back up. Susie put her arm around her and pulled her close. She'd assumed that Susie would be cold-blooded like other reptilian monsters, and so was pleasantly surprised by how warm she was. Seemed like it was true that dragons like her had some kind of inner fire. Her jacket both felt and smelled like it hadn't been washed… Maybe ever, but Noelle couldn't care less, because it both felt and smelled like Susie.
"...If Kris was making you cry…" Susie said cautiously. "You want me to… Talk some sense into them?"
Noelle froze. "Talking sense into them… That wouldn't involve… Um…" She flashed back to that day she'd hidden outside the classroom, feeling sick to her stomach, too terrified to intervene. Someone might make you disappear. And she'll finally realize how happy she was without you. Surely Susie didn't mean anything like that, right!? She and Kris were friends now, weren't they? Or… Were they, even? Had Susie actually befriended that horrible voice instead without even realizing it?
"…Involve what?" Susie asked.
"Um! Nothing, never mind!" Noelle very quickly decided against bringing up that topic so soon. Susie deserved the benefit of the doubt - or at least, Noelle really wanted to believe she'd changed. "Just… Don't give Kris a hard time, okay? It wasn't their fault. And… They're, um, going through a lot, right now."
"Oh," Susie said dejectedly. "Mean, I kinda… Had a feeling they weren't doing okay, but… Never knew if I was supposed to say something, or…" She tilted her head back and made a sound somewhere between a sigh and a growl. "Man. I suck at… Feelings stuff."
"H… Hey, you're not so bad at it!" Noelle reassured her with a smile. It was a huge relief to know that Susie was worried about them - she had changed after all. "I mean… You're definitely making me feel better right now."
"Heh. Glad I'm doing something right," Susie said with a hopeful smile. "What, think Kris'd feel better if I cuddled up to them like this, too?"
"UM???" Noelle wasn't sure how she felt about that particular mental image. She wasn't going to have to start being jealous of Kris, was she?
"M… Maybe??? Or, maybe you could just… Tell them you're there for them? If they ever want to talk about anything?"
"…Guess that is the kind of sappy thing Ralsei'd say," Susie snorted. "Guess I could give it a shot. If you think it'd work."
"I… Yeah, I think it's worth a try." Noelle hoped Susie could help them somehow, at least. "…Who's Ralsei?"
"Oh yeah!" Susie's face lit up. "He's a friend of ours from the Dark World, he's awesome. You two are kinda similar, actually? Y'know, teachers' pets with huge houses. And he doesn't even have a teacher. Heh."
"Oh, that's… Nice?" Noelle wasn't sure whether that was meant to be a compliment.
"Yeah, maybe I could just… Try to say what he'd say? To Kris?" Susie nodded to herself. "Yeah, that doesn't sound too bad!" She removed her arm from around Noelle and took half a step towards the door. "Guess I should go find them, yeah? You know if they're still in your room, or…?"
"Oh." Noelle should've realized this would come up. "Kris, um, already left a while ago."
Susie blinked several times. "L… Left as in left the house!?"
"Y… Yeah," Noelle said nervously. "Sorry, they, um, had to take care of something urgent."
"The hell's more urgent than - They were supposed to be looking for the-!" Susie glanced rapidly between Noelle and the guitar on the floor before seeming to calm down a bit. "Right, okay, you know stuff now. Guess there's no reason not to just tell you."
"Oh, right." Noelle recalled all of Susie's poorly-concealed attempts at 'searching' the house, which she'd been very politely ignoring. "What were you two looking for…?"
"You know the shelter south of town?" Susie asked. "We were looking for the codes to get inside. There's a Dark World in there, and this asshole called the Knight went and locked Officer Undyne inside, so we gotta rescue her."
"Wh- You mean she got kidnapped!?" Noelle's eyes went wide. "Is that why she wasn't at church today!?"
"Yeah," Susie said gravely. "And since we're the only ones who know about Dark World stuff, we're the only ones who can go in and help… So…"
"R-right, yeah, of course," Noelle nodded frantically. "Um, okay, I can, um, help you look for Mom's code. Not sure exactly where she would keep it, but-"
"Oh," Susie glanced back nervously. "I kinda… Already found it. Just before you came in."
"W… What?"
"Yeah, it's inside the guitar," Susie said. "I mean, I kinda already forgot what it was, so… If I'm not supposed to be touching it, then you'd still be helping by just reading the code out?"
"But…" Noelle frowned as she slowly stepped towards the guitar. "That… That can't be right… Mom wouldn't…"
She knelt down and gingerly took the instrument into her hands, handling it with the lightest possible touch. Slowly, carefully, rotated it to where she could look directly into the sound hole. Sure enough, there was a small slip of paper taped to the inside. "SHELTER: 1225."
"That's…" Noelle just stared at the code blankly for a few moments.
"Uh, everything alright?" Susie asked.
"Y… Yeah," Noelle said. "The code is 1225. Christmas day." Dess's birthday. "You can remember that, right?"
"Sure," Susie said enthusiastically. "Nice, one down, two to go."
"Y… Yeah." Noelle didn't put the guitar down.
"Uh… Dude, you sure everything's alright?"
"I…"
In a way, it made perfect sense. Dess's room was the one part of the house that nobody outside the family was allowed to enter. It was a very convenient place to hide something from prying eyes. And Noelle's mother was the kind of person to use every underhanded tactic she could to get what she wanted. This was, in many ways, exactly the kind she'd do. But…
…But the guitar was going to be Dess's funeral object, if they ever found her dust. It was sacred. Her mom wouldn't just… Use it as a security measure. She had been hit harder by the disappearance than anyone else, after all. All the ways she'd changed for the worse over the years - all the times she'd shouted Noelle down for doing the smallest things without her permission, made her feel like a failure whenever her grades slipped even a little… It was all because she was grieving. Because she couldn't stand the thought of losing Noelle too. That's why, no matter how horrible it made her feel, Noelle would always forgive her, always do what she wanted in the end. Because it wasn't really her fault. Because she couldn't help herself.
Except, she could help herself, if she was using something as important as the guitar just to keep a door locked. She couldn't have done this if she was overcome by grief. She was leveraging that grief - using it strategically. If she was capable of that, then…
"Hey, Noelle!?"
Susie's hand clamped onto her shoulder and jostled her lightly, startling her out of her stupor.
"Um, sorry, sorry!" Noelle ducked back down and put the guitar back, gently angling it back into the exact position Dess had left it in. "I'm okay, I just… N-nevermind. It's nothing."
"…You sure?" Susie asked seriously.
"I'm sure," Noelle said. She was probably just overthinking things.
"…Alright," Susie accepted. "So then, uh... Got any idea where the other two codes are?"
"I… I'm trying to remember." Noelle frowned. "The other two codes are… With the police and the church, right? So Father Alvin would still have one, and… Well, I guess you can't ask Undyne if she's been kidnapped, but… If it hasn't been changed since she became chief, then… Maybe Mr. Dreemurr would still know it?"
"Kris's dad?" Susie asked.
"Yeah, he used to be the police chief," Noelle explained. "But… Even if he does still know the code, I doubt he'd just tell you if you asked. Neither would Father Alvin, probably."
"…Why's everyone want to keep that place locked up so bad, anyway?" Susie grumbled. "Not like they know there's a Dark World in there."
"Um… You know, there's…" Noelle paused.
"…Yeah?" Susie was looking at her expectantly.
"I…" Noelle's brow furrowed in concentration. There was no reason she shouldn't be able to answer. She'd been in the shelter. She remembered the four of them running screaming out the door. But when she tried to picture what was past those doors…
"I… I can't… Remember?"
"Huh? Remember what?"
"What it was like… Inside there." What was wrong with her? This was when Kris had lost their horns. Even Dess had been scared of whatever they'd seen in there, and she normally wasn't afraid of anything. Something like that should have burned itself into her memory, so why was there just… Nothing?
"You've actually been in there?" Susie asked.
"Yeah… When I was a kid." Noelle was concentrating hard enough to give herself a migraine. Still nothing. "We all used to, um, explore, together."
"…Uh…" Susie looked towards the room's western wall. "'We' meaning… All of you in this photo?"
"Y… Yeah." Noelle was surprised at how perceptive Susie was - and then immediately ashamed of herself for making assumptions about her intelligence like that. "Me and my sister, and Kris and their brother."
"You all… Look happy," Susie said contemplatively as she stared at the photos. "Don't think I've ever… Seen Kris smile like that before."
"O… Oh." Bittersweet memories flashed through Noelle's mind. "Well, it was… A simpler time. For all of us."
The two girls stared at the photos in silence for another few moments before Susie spoke up again. "Uh… If you guys got in there… Did you have to find all the codes too?"
"We… Tried, I think?" Noelle tried to concentrate again. "We tried to get in a few times over the years. Kris and Asriel eventually got the police code from their dad… And Dess convinced her teacher to find out the church code for her… Actually, I'm not sure we ever found the mayor's code, since Mom wasn't the mayor yet. Kind of ironic, I guess?"
"But… How'd you get in if you never got one of the codes?"
"I'm not… Sure? I…" Something vague bubbled up from the black void where Noelle's memories should have been. "Did we… I-I think we found another entrance?"
"There's another entrance!?" Susie perked up. "So like… I might not even need the codes?"
"Yeah, but…" Noelle gritted her teeth, trying to fish through that void for anything else. She remembered… Dess getting her antlers stuck on something on the way in? Meaning the ceiling was low, maybe? But what did that entrance look like? Where was it!? Why couldn't she remember anything that was actually useful!?
"…But you can't remember where it was, huh," Susie finished for her.
"I… I swear I should know this, but…"
…But she didn't. The memories were inaccessible. Drowned out. Had she just repressed it? Or…
…Or had she finally, finally found a lead?
'Dess?' Is that a new friend of yours? The name sounds a bit familiar, but…
Huh? Noelley, is this, like, a game you're playing? I mean, like, I'm pretty sure I'd remember if you had a sister!
…Who's…? OH, December! How on Earth did she just slip my mind? Guess I really am getting old, geheh…
"Uh, well, you don't have to strain yourself or anything," Susie was saying. "But just, y'know… This is kinda important, so… Just let me know if you remember anything else?"
"Yeah, I… I will," Noelle muttered distractedly. "Um, Susie, if it's okay, um…"
"…Yeah?"
"C… Could you…" Noelle took a deep breath. "Could you tell me more? About all this Dark World stuff, I mean. Like… How it all works."
She might just be reading into things too much. It could just be as mundane as a faded childhood memory. But she'd brushed off all of Kris's odd behavior as a coincidence, too. And the Dark Worlds were something genuinely supernatural. If there was one inside the shelter… And if she couldn't remember the inside of the shelter… If there was any chance there was a connection, she couldn't just ignore it. She couldn't look away.
And, even if it wasn't related to what happened to Dess… It probably was related to Kris, and to the voice. There had to be something Noelle could do to help them.
"I mean, yeah, I could tell you what I know," Susie said. "Although…" She put on a wide, toothy grin. "It'd be way easier to just show you."
"Show me? You mean…" Noelle's eyes widened. "You mean there's a Dark World we can go to right now!?"
"Yeah, Castle Town!" Susie became highly animated. "It's just over at school, inside the supply closet. Ralsei's in charge there, and he's a big softy, so no need to worry about getting attacked or kidnapped or anything. He can probably answer all your questions about all the magic stuff, too. And you'd get to hang out with him, and Lancer, and Tenna… Heheheh, man, the hell was I thinking not telling you about all this sooner!?"
"You, um…" Noelle looked down at her hands - and at the tiny, red-and-green bandage she'd put over the wound where the thorn had been. "You're sure… There won't be any, um, enemies? I won't have to, um…"
"Nope!" Susie's smile was bigger and brighter than Noelle had ever seen it. "Not unless you go over to the dojo, but we don't gotta do that if you don't want. Oh, and, uh, I guess Queen's gonna be there too. We've been going around, uh, recruiting all our enemies. But don't worry, I'll kick her ass if she tries anything!"
"You mean you'll… Um… P… Protect me…?" Noelle blushed and tapped her fingers together. Even though she was really much more afraid for Queen and the other enemies than of them, she still loved the mental image of Susie baring her teeth and scaring all Noelle's fears away.
"Heh. Nobody's gonna hurt you while I'm here." Susie put her arm around Noelle again, eliciting a squeak of pure joy from her mouth.
"Fahahaha," Noelle laughed contentedly. "Well, um… Should we, um, get going? The rain outside is only going to get worse."
"Uh, yeah!" Susie's smile faltered slightly.
"…Something wrong, Susie?" Noelle asked.
"Nah, it's nothing," Susie said. "Just… Dunno if I've ever even been in Castle Town without Kris. Feels a little weird."
"O… Oh." And now Noelle was thinking about Kris again.
"…You know when they're gonna get back?" Susie asked hopefully. "From their, urgent, whatever."
"I… I don't," Noelle said regretfully. "But, um… I can text them to let them know where we're going? So they can join us, if… If it's possible?" She hoped they'd be able to chase down their SOUL that fast. And know what to do once they caught it. She really, really hoped they knew what they were doing.
"Y… Yeah. Sounds good," Susie said. "Hopefully they can make it."
"Yeah," Noelle said. "Well, um, I'll get some umbrellas, and, um…" She paused, considering. Was it a good idea to bring it? Susie would protect her if something went wrong, right? "…And, go get something from my room real quick. And then we can head over!"
"Well then hurry up already!" Susie's bright smile returned as the two of them headed out the door.
While Susie turned left towards the front of the house, Noelle turned right and ducked back into her room, where the gift box was waiting for her on the table. Bringing it with her into the Dark World… There was no reason that would be dangerous in and of itself, right? The ThornRing had just been a "weapon" that could be "equipped" onto her - as long as it stayed inside the box, and not on her finger, it shouldn't be able to do any harm. Right? Not knowing for sure did make her extremely nervous, but… If Susie's friend really knew how these Dark Worlds worked, then she needed to ask him about the ring. It might be a way to figure out more about Not-Kris without mentioning them directly - the ring seemed to be a major part of whatever it was doing to her, after all. There had to be something she could do, besides just waiting for Kris to come back.
Noelle pulled out her phone and found Kris's name in her contacts. It had been months since she'd last texted them - the bottom of chat history was a string of invitations from Noelle to various events and hangouts, which Kris usually didn't even bother responding to. Scrolling up a bit further, there were a few times Kris had texted to ask for her help with specific homework problems, though they rarely responded with anything more than a thumbs-up once she'd helped them. She kept scrolling up for maybe thirty seconds, hoping she might find an actual conversation, before she stopped herself. This wasn't the time to lose herself in memories.
Hey.
I just talked to Susie. Told her I know yesterday wasn't a dream. Nothing more specific than that, don't worry.
She's taking me to a "castle town." Though she was disappointed that you couldn't come too.
COULD you come too? How are you doing right now? Are you okay?
Would they actually respond this time? Were they in a position to respond? What should she do if they didn't? These questions only had a few moments to rattle around in her head before she saw that they were typing. She held her breath - would it even really be Kris on the other end? How could she even know for sure?
Their response came though. It was a single word:
pillow
What? Noelle rushed to send another text, asking what they meant by that - and was promptly informed that her message could not be delivered. What!? Her phone signal was just fine. She tried to send it again. And again. Then she tried calling. She didn't even get to their voicemail - just a message that the number she'd called was disconnected. Were they somewhere with bad signal? Had they turned their phone off? Had something happened to their phone? Had something happened to them while they were holding it!? Noelle immediately began to pace across the room in worry.
Though it took her a few moments to recognize it, she did actually have a decent idea what Kris's message might mean. When they were kids, they used to have sleepovers all the time, often playing handheld games together under the covers long after they were supposed to be asleep. "Pillow" was their code word for when one of them heard a parent coming to check on them, so they could both feign sleep as fast as possible, hiding the glow of their handhelds under the pillows. So if Kris was using that same code now… Were they trying to tell her that someone was listening in? That their phones were bugged, or something? Or… Maybe they were worried about Not-Kris reading her messages from inside their body. It didn't exactly bode well if they were already taking precautions for getting possessed again. And now she had no way to so much as check up on them.
Noelle's stomach was in knots. She was about to hang out with Susie in some kind of enchanted kingdom, and they were going on a date to the festival tomorrow. It should have been one of the happiest days of her life - but how could she possibly enjoy it, after what she and Kris had just been through? What Kris was still going through? What Berdly was going through, because of her!?
…Her eyes locked onto the Delta Rune printed on her carpet. She stopped pacing, took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and clasped her hands together. If she couldn't do anything to help herself, maybe, just maybe, the Angel would decide to help. It was supposed to determine everyone's fates, after all, and she knew Kris deserved a better fate than this. It hadn't answered her when she'd begged to be reunited with Dess, or for her dad to get better… But it's not like it cost her anything to just ask.
"Please let Kris be okay," she whispered desperately. "Please let Berdly wake up. I'll accept whatever punishment you have for what I did to him, as long as they're both alright. Please."
She hesitated for another moment. So many things were rushing through her head - fears and hopes for the future, delicate frozen memories of the past. Kris featured heavily in both. Just before she picked up the gift box and left the room, she decided to ask the Angel for something selfish, too.
"And… Please… Let me see Kris smile again."