As soon as Frisk stepped out of the Ruins, a wave of cold air blasted her face. She shivered and rubbed her hands together to keep them warm, her toy knife tucked into the waistline of her shorts.

The sound of crunching snow under her feet was too loud in the eerie silence of the forest. Frisk's eyes darted around nervously at any sound aside from it. 

A branch snapped behind her and she whipped around, drawing her knife and waving it in front of her. Her heart pounded as she searched for any signs of movement.

Why am I so jumpy right now? I know it's just him, it's always been him... Frisk sheathed her knife, turned, and trekked on.

Looking up, Frisk saw the tall, slanted gate a few feet in front of her. She closed her eyes and tried to slow her breathing and calm herself down while she waited for him to come.

". . . Human . . . Don't you know how to greet a new pal. . . ? Turn around, and shake my hand . . ."

Heart in her throat, she slowly twisted and reached out for his hand, her own visibly shaking. She squeezed his hand tightly. It was cold and hard. A whoopie cushion noise echoed from it and he grinned lazily.

"Heh, the old whoopie cushion in the hand trick. It always works. Anyways, you're a human right?" His voice was deep and he sounded bored. "I'm Sans. Sans the skeleton. I'm supposed to be hunting for humans right now, except I don't really feel up to it. Though, my bro, Papyrus... He's a human-hunting fanatic! He'll do anything to catch one." Sans released his grip on Frisk's hand and she pulled it back, looking down at her feet. Sans' eyes narrowed slightly. 

"Hey, I have an idea. why don't you go through that gate? My bro made the bars too wide to stop anyone." Sans hurried her through the gate to the other side into a clearing that had a sentry station and a conveniently shaped lamp.

"SANS! SAAAAAANS!" Frisk flinched as a loud voice echoed through the air...... Papyrus.

"Aw, would ya look at that. My bro's comin' right now! Quick, hide behind that conveniently shaped lamp." Frisk dashed behind it, positioning herself as to not be seen.

"SANS! Oh, there you are! I've been looking EVERYWHERE for you! It's been 6 days and you still need to fix your puzzles!!" Papyrus shouted, clearly annoyed.

"Oh, come on bro, there's no need to yell at me. I've gotten a ton of work done today," Sans said. "A skele-ton."

"AUGH! SANS! Stop it with all the puns!" Papyrus shrieked angrily. "Can't you find something useful to do!?"

"Aw, Paps, I am! I'm looking at this lamp. It's really cool. Wanna see?" Sans gestured towards the lamp overdramatically.

"NO! I will not waste my time! I have better things to do. I need to fix my puzzles in case a human comes by! As for your work.. put a little more BACKBONE into it! Nyeh heh heh!" Papyrus  sprinted out through the narrow pathway leading further into the forest.

"Alright, you can come out now. Coast's clear." Sans beckoned for Frisk to come out, and she did, stretching her stiff legs and blowing into her hands to warm them.

Sans looked Frisk up and down and she shifted uncomfortably. "You know.. If you're feeling up to it, could you do me a favor? My bro's been feeling down lately.. Seeing a human would totally cheer him up! Oh, don't worry, he's not dangerous, even if he tries to be." Sans shrugged. "Thanks a bunch! I'll be up ahead." Sans winked at her.

But, something was wrong... she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Something about the way he looked at her...

He closed the wrong eye! That's it. But that doesn't have to do with anything. Maybe it's just a coincidence. I'm just making a mountain out of a molehill...

-----

"Who's there! I can't see you! Why won't you just mo-"

Slice.

-----

"This! This is my most famous electricity puzzle! It- Wait.. you just walked through the whole thing without letting me explain it!"

"Guess they were pretty... shocked!"

"SANS!!!!"

-----

* Warning: Dog Marriage Ahead

Slice.

-----

I left some spaghetti here for you! You won't realize this is a trap because you'll get entranced while you're eating it! -Nyehfully yours, Papyrus.

-----

* 9 left.

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"Green means you will encounter a monster! Yellow means electricity! You can't walk on it or it will za-"

" ... "

"....why are they walking past all my puzzles, Sans?"

-----

* It's a snow poff. 

*Oh, look, a snow poff.

*No, it can't be... a snow poff.

-----

"BEHOLD! The gauntlet of deadly terror!"

-----

Frisk sighed and brushed her knife off in the snow to remove any visible traces of monster dust, and piled more snow over top of it.

Frisk pushed herself up from the cold ground, looking around nervously. It was eerily quiet. Normally she would hear the cheery voices drifting through the air, but now.. silence. Frisk scuffed the heel of her boot in the snow. 

How many have I killed now? How many more to come? And more importantly... can I ever change? Will I ever be forgiven?

-----

I have issues about keeping my promises. I just can't keep an update schedule. Anywho, thanks again for reading! I really worked hard on this. I have lots of stuff going through my head at literally every moment in time so it's hard for me to sit down and write a whole story, but I really do enjoy it and look forward to writing the next chapter! I have many things planned and I hope you'll find it as interesting as I hope it will be!

-Maddie <3