Of a Better World

A Soundless Confession

Something...was wrong.

It didn't take long after Horror returned from his morning patrol for a sense of unease to rise in him. There was something... not quite right, though, for a while, he couldn't tell exactly what.

After coming home he had immediately went to sharpen his axe. It was extremely well kept for its age and frequent use and Horror had every intention to keep it that way. On his patrol he'd taken the liberty of gathering just a bit of firewood from the forest to chuck in the fireplace and attempt to warm the house with. He had dropped the sack of wood at the door for Crooks to find and prepare as it would need to be set out to dry for a bit before it was ready to use.

Even though his axe was one of his signature items, even Horror wasn't completely sure where he had gotten the old thing from. It seemed to have just magically appeared in his spotty memory sometime after the core broke down. As he maintained the chipped blade and worn wooden handle he mourned the day when it would be finally time to replace it.

It wasn't a thought he entertained for very long as he put the well aged tool up in exchange for reading a book in his room.

The book in question wasn't terribly interesting; quite the opposite actually. Horror had just taken it as a fairly boring challenge to finish the five hundred paged thing without skipping over the dull parts. It was a personal goal of his to read every book he owned in the house cover to cover and he'd gotten pretty close to the end of their library in addition to quite a few books he had found at the dump too.

Despite all of his laziness, he had been considered a well learned and pretty intelligent monster before everything went to hell, and even with parts of himself slipping, Horror still liked feeling competent- even he failed to like reading anymore.

Only after making it a good way through the book did he realize that he'd been falling asleep and brushing over chapters. His irritation was kindled when he realized he'd have to reread the same section again. Such an occurrence didn't normally happen at all, usually he had Lust cheerleading him on, sometimes to the point of distraction…

Oh. That's what felt weird.

Snapping out of whatever sleepy daze he'd been lulled into Horror heard Crooks shuffling around downstairs, back from recalibrating his puzzles. He slinked to the top of the stairs to greet his brother.

"uh paps? have you seen lust around here any time lately?"

Crooks called up to him. "NO, I DON'T BELIEVE I HAVE SINCE THIS MORNING," The shuffling resumed for a moment, more aggressively. "SERIOUSLY SANS, YOU CHOPPED THIS WOOD MUCH TOO BIG! IT'LL NEED TO BE SPLIT AGAIN BEFORE IT DRIES!"

"sorry bro- but you're sure you haven't seen him since i left?"

"POSITIVE. HIS FURRY COMPANION IS ALSO MISSING, I FIND IT STRANGE. PERHAPS HE WANTS US TO ENGAGE IN A ELABORATE GAME OF HIDE AND SEEK?"

"i...don't think that's the case."

With the odd feeling of something being off now justified, Horror's concern rose a bit beyond mild worry. He felt stupid for having not noticed more quickly. No wonder the house had felt so silent, so empty, so strange- it's beating heart was missing.

Now that Horror was paying attention, he realized that even Lust's scent in the house had faded. How long had he been gone? How had it just slipped by him?

It felt as if Lust's absence should have been so much more obvious than something just feeling off. His mouth moved a mile a minute and he was constantly doing something, yet it had taken him well over an hour after arriving home to notice?