where our memories lie

External Dilemma

"What the hell happened to you guys?!" Dream had come down the stairs, sweater stained with whatever gooey substance was coming off his brother, only to see the rest of his group (minus Cross, to his surprise) laid out in the massive living room with various bandages decorating their bodies. His friends were accompanied by the homeowner and Horror, who looked to be the one that had patched them up. "I leave you alone for maybe an hour and you guys look like you've died!" He sputtered, stepping closer to take a look at Error, who was out cold on the carpet with several fractures that were slowly repairing themselves with thin, blue string.

"Holy- where did you find him?" The baker knelt down and gently poked at some of the strings hard at work, earning himself a small cut in the bone of his finger.

Blue gave Dream a pained look, glancing between him and Error. "We found him in some room upstairs.. He was in pretty bad shape, most likely possessed." He was trying to keep the fear out of his voice, but was failing horribly. Dream got a little more nervous, while Ink scoffed from his spot on the floor by a side table.

"Most likely ?? He tried to kill us! That sounds like possession to me!" Ink huffed. Surprisingly, he seemed to be the one with the least damage done to them. Though again, now that he put more thought into it, he always did have a knack for just barely getting out of trouble. "Those chains were a bitch to deal with, you know!"

That comment earned the artist a glare from their blue-clad friend, the skeleton gritting his teeth. "I know ," he hissed, leaning forward. "I was WRAPPED IN THEM."

Ink shrugged it off, Horror shaking his head and giving him a small smack in the side of his skull before kneeling down beside Error and lifting a limp arm. The little strings had finished their job in that area, so they weren't bothering the large ghost as he poked and prodded at the bones with a curious air. After a while of closely examining (bending each and every joint to make sure it worked, it looked like) the arm, he set it down and started slowly moving his hands in Dream's direction.

"They beat me to him," Horror's eye light curved into a worried but slightly joking expression before turning a little more grim. "He's not doing well. Surprised he didn't dust on the way down."

Killer choked on his coffee from the doorway.

"You mean.. He should be dead, right?" Dream asked slowly, watching Ink's face drop in his peripheral and Blue stop moving altogether. "So why isn't he? Do you know? Why are the-" He caught himself asking a few more questions than he felt he should be at once, sitting back on his heels and awaiting Horror's response. The ghost seemed to enjoy Dream's stumbling, shaking his head lightly while his form shook with a silent chuckle before he answered.

"I'm sure he is, just barely. He's not quite alive, but not quite dead either." He poked at where the strings were finishing up their work on the rest of his injuries, a quiet pause filling the room as they watched them fade away. Horror lifted his hand to poke at Error's cheek, giving it a firm jab.

"Wait, so we go find him, fight whatever had him, bring him back , and now he's dead but not really ??" Ink scrambled closer to Error and grabbed at his face, squinting his eyes and tilting his head. "He looks pretty alive to me." He jumped back with a screech as the glitched skeleton sat up with a start, eyes wide and choking on air. His hands were shaking, and his eye lights were darting from person to person in the room while he steadily calmed down and fully took in where he was and who was grabbing at him. Once Error had taken the time to steady himself, he slowly laid himself back down with a long, heavy sigh.

"This place is shit." He grouched, rubbing at his sockets and eyeing the ceiling. "Fuck this stupid house. So full of lunatic ghosts, it's nuts. Call an exorcist or something, will you?" Error sat up again and turned to look at Killer with tired eyes.

The homeowner hid a smirk behind his mug, glancing at a stray ghost that had come to check out the group and had started shrinking back at the mention of an exorcist.
"Yeah, that was his job. Look where that got him. Sorry 'bout that again- forgive me?" Killer cheesed a smile at the spirit as it shot him a glare and wandered around him to the kitchen with Dust trailing behind.
"I mean hey, if you got some miracle buddy that can do it? Go for it." He snickered, taking another sip from the black-stained, chipped mug. "It would at least bring somethin' a little fun to this death-pit. Oh, good luck leaving, by the way." Killer pointed a finger gun in the direction of the group, winking with a little clicking sound before turning to join the two ghosts rummaging through the cupboards and calling over his shoulder.
"The house loves ya!"

The group sat in confused silence, slowly turning their attention to Horror who had yet to flee from the living room like the others. His eye looked over them all carefully, considering making an escape of his own before giving up with a defeated slouch of his shoulders. Horror gestured to Dream, communicating a few quick bits of information before vanishing into thin air. Ink, Blue, Error and Cross all shared glances while waiting for Dream to relay the information he'd been given rather quickly before the large ghost departed from the room. The monochrome skeleton's brows pinched together in a mix of confusion and concern upon seeing his husband's blank expression as he was attempting to gather his words. Dream swallowed a lump in his throat and cleared it quietly before steadily getting to his feet with his hands folded in front of him.

"Horror has.. Kindly explained to me, that since the event with Error has occurred and the house spirit's desire for my soul- we will be.. Trapped here. Like him, and Dust, and- and Killer. Along with every other spirit in this home." The baker squeezed his own hand to prevent his shaking the best he could. "So it seems we will need to find our own solution."

Cross glanced next to him as the child attached to his soul faded into view, giving them a questioning glare and only receiving a nonchalant shrug in response.

"Hey, it's not my fault you guys decided to come back. At least it's entertaining." Chara stuck their tongue out and let their form fade back out as Error took an annoyed swing at them. The glitched skeleton bit down on one of his knuckles in thought, eyeing the lights on the wall and listening to the old sounds of the building. There was an uncomfortable silence filling the room, not a single one of them knowing what they'd need to do in order to break free of the metaphorical chains that now tied them to the estate. Freeing themselves was one thing, but the fact that none of its residents seemed to know the answer- that, or they were refusing to give it to them- was unsettling in itself. While the group was turning gears trying to think of ways to escape, one of the lanterns in the doorway faded into a soft purple hue, a single, faint eye fading in to quietly spectate the room.