The Silver Soul

19

"Kid! Oh god. Kid, wake up!" Something big and warm covers me. The prickly fabric brushes against my skin, creating tiny stabs of ice. I shiver and then regret it as my whole body starts to hurt.

Hm. Who is that? "Sans?" I say. Or whisper.

"Stay with me, kid."

It's so cold. Even with the warmth, it's so cold. I can't feel anything, but every movement sends a jolt of pain up my bones.

Bones? Haha, bones. Like Sans and Pap. I wish I could have some spaghetti...

I try to move my fingers. They twitch and I can feel the powdery stuff underneath them. It's freezing though. Not like my warm snow. I want to close my eyes, but I don't think Sans'll let me.

"I'm tired," I whinge. I hate whinging, but it's okay if I'm really tired. Right?

"Don't worry kid, you can sleep soon. Just, stay with me here, okay?"

I nod, staring at the huge pink butterflies drifting across my vision. I reach out to touch one, but it turns to mist when my fingers brush across its delicate wing. There are so many in the air now. They dance across my vision. The flapping of their wings makes up a little song. I can't remember the words though. It's nice.

I lean back, but my back's wet and cold. Looking around, I find that I'm in a pool of green liquid. Bubbles float out and away, bursting into a million fragments of light when the reach the butterflies.

The butterflies start to come in closer, and land on my face, my arms, my legs, my chest. I don't like the feel of their squishy little bodies on my skin. I shake my arm, trying to detach them, but they stick on.

Then, they start exploding, showering me with crimson blood. I shriek, trying to bat them away. They don't leave though. More come in, and I'm being soaked with butterfly blood. It's everywhere. In my hair, my clothes and then I part my lips to scream again and I catch a mouthful. I choke and spit, but the taste branded onto my tongue.

I thrash wildly, and my head bangs against something hard.

Black is all I see after that.

It's warm when I wake. I almost don't open my eyes. I don't want to open them. Until everything comes rushing back.

I bolt up into a sitting position, and then immediately flop backwards. Everything hurts. I groan in frustration and fear. He's going to kill them, he's going to kill them-

"My child! Please calm down." Toriel's voice reaches through my panic. Something large and fuzzy strokes my forehead. She looks down at me, smiling warmly. "You saved us."

I open my mouth, but I only have enough strength to say one word. "Where?" Toriel, thankfully, know what I'm trying to say.

"In Asgore's dungeon. Where he can cause no harm." I sigh in relief. With the short burst of adrenaline gone, the pain intensifies, especially around my neck. I cry out at the short stabs, remembering the feeling of cold metal against my skin...

NO!

Toriel gently touches my neck with a strand of healing magic. The pain numbs slightly, becoming a little more bearable.

"It is infected." Her eyes crease in anger and sadness too. "Whatever he nicked you with had...had...m-monster dust."

I suddenly feel sick to my stomach. The throbbing increases and I want to tear at my skin, get as much of the dust out as possible. Gasping for air, I try to calm down somehow. He killed someone. He killed an innocent person.

Toriel increases the amount of healing magic around her fingertips and connects the strands to the rest of my body. I feel it relax by itself. She continues to talk, but I wish she would stop.

"Monster dust, however old it is, still contains magic. That magic entered you and mixed with your own." She surveys me with a weary look. "Mixed magic is life-threatening. No matter how powerful you are; you're still a child. You could have died. Or have been paralysed for the rest of your life," she says, fixing me with a fierce glare. "I would not have been able to handle the death of another child."

Guilt pierces my heart. I want to apologise long and hard for my actions, but I can't. Because my reasons for doing the things I did still stand strong. And as bad as I feel, I am not going to make any promises. Nor do I regret fighting.

Taking a deep breath, I ask the question bugging me. "Whose dust," I rasp. Toriel hesitates before giving me an answer.

"Snowdrake's. And a Froggit."

My stomach turns. I know, no, knew, Snowdrake, and the Froggit family were always so welcoming and polite. Their faces fill my mind and I shudder violently.

"The dust is gone from your system, but you are far from being completely healed yet," Toriel says, picking up her usual brisk manner. "Sleep now child." She leaves, and before I let my thoughts overwhelm me, I shut my eyes and drift off into oblivion.

My world is fuzzy and numb when I come to. My muscles could be made out of tissue for all I know, and I don't even want to know what my face looks like at this moment. I feel, and probably look, like a potato.

At least it's warm. And comfortable.

Until something large and heavy comes and smashes into me, knocking the air out of my lungs. I see a flash of blue and purple, and then relax.

Frisk.

I hug her back, mindful of my injuries. At least they don't hurt as much. I can sit up and talk a little at least.

"Hey there. You're suffocating me," I mumble, which results in her squeezing me tighter. I rub her back. "I heard you've had an interesting few days. How was Paps' cooking?" I feel her shoulders shake, and I realise that she's crying. "Hey, hey. Hush. It's alright. I'm alive, aren't I?"

"I saw you. When Mum carried you in, I saw you. how you looked." Ah crap. "And I heard about Michael too." CRAP.

How on earth do I console her here?

"Don't think about him." Wow. Even to me, that sounded lame. I continue anyway. "We can't dwell on the past. We'll just have to think of other things, for now."

For her sake, I try to appear strong. Even though the weight of everything that's happened threatens to crush me. My fingers brush the puckered scar on my neck. I could've died. He could've killed me, not intentionally, but I could be dead.

I would be dead, if it weren't for the monsters.

Well, the experience has left me with a life lesson.

Don't lend all of your trust to someone, unless you know that they're decent.