VOXISTALE: Novel Edition

Chapter 27

Exhausted, Frisk plopped down onto the couch in her living room with a sigh, closing her eyes. Not a moment later, Terrence dropped down beside her, leaning his head back. "Okay . . . game plan," Frisk told him.

"Er, what do you mean?" the boy blinked.

"I mean, what are we gonna do to stop these people? Two attacks on Asgore already, and he's super lucky to have survived. Mettaton, Papyrus . . . not to mention those they've already killed," she opened her eyes and turned her head to look at Terrence. "I'm not going to sit around and wait for anyone else to die."

"Uh . . . Frisk, I know how important this is and all, but you need to take care of yourself, too," Terrence said, scratching the back of his head.

"What are you talking about?" Frisk asked, cocking her head to the side, feeling a bit impatient at the question.

"What I'm talking about is that you didn't sleep at all last night. You really need to rest."

"That can wait. Right now, we have to think of a plan. I can sleep once people stop getting hurt."

"Well, alright, how about . . . you take a nap, and I come up with a plan," Terrence suggested.

"That's sweet and all, but I'm worried," Frisk stated, closing her eyes. "Worried that when I wake up, it'll be to the news that someone else has been hospitalized, or worse. Besides, you didn't sleep last night, either."

". . . Touché," Terrence said, biting the inside of his cheek. "So I'm assuming we can't go to the police for help. If they wanted to do anything, they would have already done it."

"Undyne said she's on her own in this," Frisk replied with a shrug. "You know what I think? I think this goes deeper than just some organization. What if these people have like . . . a lot of control? What if even the mayor is involved?"

"Then don't you think they'd have done something sooner?" Terrence asked.

At this, Frisk paused, wracking her brain to think of a solution to this problem, ". . . Maybe they didn't think the integration would come so far? Maybe they thought we'd be rejected."

Terrence noticed how Frisk had said 'we' about monsters, but said nothing about it. "Or maybe they've spent all this time planning and preparing," he suggested.

His girlfriend gave a nod, "Yeah, maybe . . ."

At that moment, Terrence's phone buzzed. Tiredly, he dug it out of his pocket and looked at the contact ID. His eyes widened. "Whoa. Hey Frisk? Guess who just texted me?"

"Hm?" The girl asked, resting comfortably against the couch.

"Greg," he told her.

She sat up, brow creasing, "What'd he say?"

"Just that he's home," Terrence replied.

"Wow, nothing else?" Frisk asked.

Terrence handed her the phone, and sure enough, the text message from Greg simply read; 'I'm home.' No explanation as to where he'd been, or any acknowledgement of the twelve worried messages Terrence had previously sent.

"How . . . how are you gonna reply?" Frisk asked, to which Terrence ran a hand through his hair.

"I, uh . . . well . . . I could ask him how he's doing, or . . ."

"Wait . . . how come he only texted you?" Frisk asked, suddenly realizing that she hadn't received a reply. "Doesn't he know I'm worried, too?"

"Maybe it's a really old message that just went through because of bad WiFi," Terrence suggested, but Frisk didn't think so.

"We could go check up on him to make sure."

"But sleep," Terrence pouted, jutting out his lower lip.

"Nope," she replied, quickly leaning in and pecking his cheek with her lips before bounding up off the couch with newfound energy. "C'mon. He's our friend. Even if he can be a butt sometimes." She offered Terrence a hand, who let out a defeated sigh.

"Oh, alright," he replied, taking her hand and getting up. "The bus we took here from the hospital isn't exactly going to be back for about an hour."

"Greg's isn't that far. We can walk. Wake us up a little," Frisk replied.

"Yeah, that's true . . . think he'll be happy to see us?" Terrence asked, sounding somewhat hopeful. He was as excited to see Greg as she was, but had a lousy way of expressing it.

"No doubt. He probably missed us like crazy," Frisk smiled, sounding incredibly optimistic. For a second there, it almost seemed like she hadn't missed out on sleeping. Terrence could only imagine how he'd react if two exhausted looking teenagers with unkempt hair showed up at his doorstep. Greg was in for a real treat.

Knock knock knock

Frisk and Terrence stood outside of Greg's house, the stench of cigarette smoke already hitting their noses. There were several moments of silence before the sound of footsteps thudding could be heard, and the door opened. There stood Greg, looking healthier than usual, his hair just as unkempt as theirs, a new pair of much cleaner glasses sat on his face. He was wearing a too-large white t-shirt, red plaid pajama bottoms, and a pair of white bunny slippers. "Hey!" he greeted, and clearly wasn't able to hold back a smile. "I was figurin' you guys would come over."

Immediately, Frisk grabbed Greg and pulled him into a tight hug. Gregory appeared surprised for a moment as he was squeezed a little tighter than he would have liked, before she pulled away, and thusly punched him in his shoulder. "Ow!" he took a step back, rubbing his shoulder.

"You don't call, you don't text, you don't even leave us a message and you're gone for ten days!? We were worried about you Greg!" Frisk let him know. With each word, the boy seemed to shrink, his smile fading as he flinched at his name.

"It was only like, three or four days. Okay, okay . . . I owe you guys an apology."

"And an explanation," Terrence added.

Greg nodded, "Yeah, that too, I just—I'm sorry guys. I am, it's just . . . I needed some time off, y'know? I needed to get away from, well . . . everything . . ."

Frisk frowned, wondering what that meant. Greg had initially looked happy to see them, but now he almost looked . . . ashamed. It made her feel kind of bad, but at the same time, she was still a bit bothered that he hadn't talked to them in three days.

"Uhm, you guys wanna come in?" Greg offered, but both of the visitors were immediately struck with looks of hesitance due to the poorly kept house and the horrid, smokey stench. Greg nodded. "Yeah, I don't blame you guys. Uh . . . well, I don't really wanna tell you everything out here on the porch . . ."

"How about a trip to Grillby's?" Terrence suggested.

Greg gave a reluctant smile, "Yeah . . . yeah, that sounds amazing."