Chapter Text
You groggily opened your eyes, rubbing your temple. You squinted hard, trying to remember what happened, to no avail. After a few blinks, it dawned on you that you were in a cave. You struggled to prop yourself up with your arm, but everything hurt. Why does everything hurt? You looked down at yourself, taking in all the bruises and cuts into account. You gingerly touched a particularly deep wound on your right knee, sending a sharp pain through your body. You flinched and inhaled sharply through clenched teeth.
You looked around, trying to figure out where you were. Waterfalls poured out of holes in the walls into streams on the ground, snaking and growing. The water shone a bright blue, illuminating nearby walls. Blue, glowing mushrooms grew on the ground, and you noticed a flower here and there, illuminating the same shade of blue. Except for the light created by the water and flora, everything was dark.
You looked down, noticing you were in a puddle. You lifted up your hand, seeing blood mixed with the water. You weren't sure if this was all a dream or not. Hell, it sure didn't feel like a dream.
You mustered all of your strength to get up on your feet. As soon as you were almost standing up, your left knee buckled, causing you to fall. You cried out, trying to get your weight off of your knees. In the dim blue light, you could barely make out how bruised and swollen your left knee was.
"Knee-d a hand, kid?" A deep voice came from the shadows, sounding almost amused.
"Wh- who's there?" You ask shakily, ignoring the pun.
The voice chuckled, which made your heart skip a beat. It didn't sound friendly.
"Name's Sans." A stocky skeleton wearing a black hoodie with thick white fur lining the hood stepped out of the shadows, grinning. He had teeth like daggers, one of which were gold. He had dark red circles under his eyesockets. He had basketball shorts on and... Converse shoes? At least you recognized those.
You slightly pushed yourself backwards, intimidated by this skeleton. He walked closer to you, his eyesockets growing dark. "Don't you know how to greet a new pal?" His tone radiated threatening.
He stared at you, waiting for a response. He scared you so badly you couldn't speak.
"You look pretty beat up, there, kiddo," he said, sizing you up. He leaned in close. "...How did a filthy human like you end up in Waterfall, anyway?" he snarled. You looked for something to say, but it felt like all the air in your lungs had disappeared.
Sans growled and shot forward faster than you could react, grabbing your throat hard and lifting you up to meet his eyes. "I'm fuckin' talking to you, human. You fucking speak when spoken too, u n d e r s t a n d ?"
You clawed at his hand, unable to breathe. His grip became tighter and tighter until the edges of your vision grew dark.
"Y- yes," you barely choked out. He let go of your throat and you slumped to the ground, coughing and gasping for air, groaning in pain.
"That's more like it," he said calmly. He stood there with his hands in his jacket pockets, watching you writhe. He was thinking very deeply, wondering what to do with you.
Suddenly your chest glowed red and you felt an intense gravity shift, slamming you downwards onto the ground, making your head explode with pain. You cried out as you were thrown hard against the wall, falling to the ground. Feeling a wetness on your face, you wiped it with the back of your hand and looked at it. It was slick with blood. You were lifted in the air and it felt like you slipped, making you turn upside down. You were thrown against another wall. You bounced off, freefalling, until your chest glowed red again and you were brought crashing into the ground. Then you were flung upwards, hitting the rock ceiling with a loud thud.
"S- stop! Please!" you cried, blood dripping out of your nose and mouth.
"Okay."
The red glow in your chest disappeared and you started to plummet down. You landed in an awkward position, breaking your arm. You yelled out and started crying.
Is this the end? No, it couldn't be, it must be a bad dream. Maybe someone spiked your drink and you were tripping out.
You heard an amused chuckle. "Wow, kid, never thought you would survive that."
You slowly managed to get yourself up and standing again, leaning onto the wall for support and holding onto your broken arm. You tried your best to not shake, even though you were terrified and in incredible pain. You doubted this was a dream. The pain and fear were far too real. "What do you want?" you asked shakily, looking up at Sans through watery eyes.
Sans smirked and tilted his head a little. "Just testing something. And it seemed you passed. You're coming with me." Sans teleported in front of you and grabbed your arm, and before you could react, you were blinded by a fierce white light. You blinked hard and saw that you were in a... hospital? A lab? It was hard to tell.
Having nothing to lean on, you fell down, whimpering in pain. "Stay here, human," Sans ordered. Not like you could even move.
You laid in an awkward position, trying to get pressure off your wounds. You heard Sans speaking to someone, but you couldn't make out what they were saying. There was a pause and you heard a female voice irritably say "F- fine."
Your chest grew red again and you gasped, afraid you were going to slam into more walls. Instead, you gently floated down a hall and into a room. There, a small yellow monster that looked like a dinosaur or a lizard stood at an exam table, wearing thick glasses with spirals on them, a black and red striped sweater, a black skirt, and a white lab coat. She didn't look as intimidating as Sans, but her demeanor was... off. It disturbed you.
You were placed down on the table, but your chest still glowed red. You couldn't move. "Let me go!" you protested. "Please, I just wanna go home..." You started crying. "Shut up and stay still," Sans growled.
"And remember," Sans said, turning to face the other monster. "I'm watching you. You try anything other than what we discussed and you're fuckin' dead."
You heard the other monster rifling through drawers, and whatever was in them sounded metallic and sinister. Your heart rate sped up and you started breathing faster. "What's going on?" You dared to ask. "Please, I don't wanna die." You looked up at Sans, who was grinning down at you. "Don't worry, kiddo. I did a number on ya, so Alphys is going to fix you up before I bring you back to the boss."
The boss? What was he talking about?
Alphys walked over to the exam table and looked down at you. She had big, dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep, and her lab coat was stained and unwashed. It looked like she did nothing but do experiments on things.
Sans sat in a chair against the wall, watching the yellow monster intently.
She lifted a syringe filled with clear liquid, flicking it to disperse any bubbles. Your eyes widened. Not needles. Anything but needles. You started panicking, hyperventilating and struggling as best you could. You heard Sans groan ever so lightly in exertion, and you managed to move yourself halfway off the table, clawing for anything to help you get off the table.
"Dammit, kid. Stay STILL." Sans came over and picked you up by your throat, slamming you back onto the table and holding you in place. "Sorry, Al. You know how humans are." Alphys smiled widely in agreement. She reached down to your neck and inserted the needle, dispensing whatever liquid was inside it.
Your whole body burned like it was on fire, and you screamed in agony. You blacked out.