Undertale - Coda Part 8

Frisk opened one eye. Bright, blood red. Another eye, close enough to make Frisk’s eye water.

Frisk blinked, and it was gone.

Well then.

Frisk managed to prop themselves up with both hands, groaning at the effort and discomfort. Drinking was a mistake. What was worse, they were lying in what looked like a small bed of golden flowers surrounded by an infinite darkness. The blatant unreality of it told them that this was probably some kind of dream. Unusually vivid, but a dream nonetheless.

Someone huffed. “Oh, what fun are you? Go ahead and figure it out right away why don’tcha.”

Frisk turned, looking for the source of the voice. There was no one around, but there was a childlike giggle anyway. “Who’s there?”

“Oh, don’t pretend like you don’t know me, Frisk.” They tilted their head slightly, trying to pinpoint where the voice was coming from. Very, very slowly, Frisk looked up. The face of a small child was floating above them, close enough that their noses were almost touching. Blood red eyes again, looking right through Frisk. “After all, I know you very well, my partner.”

Frisk scrambled back and away, eyes fixed on the demon. This was impossible. Not only that, everyone was in danger. Frisk had to get away somehow, warn everyone, do something. Panic was rising in Frisk’s chest, they couldn’t breathe. Scrambling upright, Frisk turned to run and found themselves facing the flowers again, stumbling to a halt. The demon was standing in the flowers, looking as innocent as a child. Frisk looked away, behind, but there was only darkness. When they looked back, the demon was closer, its pose unchanged. Frisk raised their fists, unsure as to what the plan was if Ch… If it attacked, but they couldn’t just do nothing.

“Oh, you’re going to fight?” The demon flashed a bright, yet hideous grin. Frisk didn’t even see it move, it just suddenly accelerated towards them and was in between Frisk’s arms in an instant. “You can’t fight yourself, Frisk.” It giggled and touched Frisk on the nose, but the touch had no weight to it and Frisk didn’t feel a thing.

“You’re… You’re not here.” Frisk went to touch the demon on the shoulders, and felt nothing but empty air.

“Not outside of you, anyway. But in here…” It pointed with an illusory hand, touching the inside of Frisk’s chest. “In your soul! That’s where I am.”

Frisk tried to slap away the hand and hit only air. The demon removed the hand, probably for the sake of politeness. “N-no! I left you behind! I never called for you! You need to leave, right now! You’re… You’re dangerous.”

It laughed the high pitched cackle of a child. “Oh, Frisk. I’m only the third most dangerous person here.”

Frisk’s eyes widened and he looked from the demon to the flowers behind it. Asriel was there, kneeling down, facing away from Frisk. Frisk looked back from Asriel to where the demon had been, but it was gone.

No. Not him.

“Az!” Frisk tried not to sound panicked and completely failed, breaking into a desperate run. “Az! Say something!”

He didn’t move. He wasn’t just kneeling, he was holding onto something. It felt like the faster Frisk tried to run, the slower they went. Not real, dreaming, have to wake up, have to wake Asriel up.

We have to escape.

“I’m sorry.” Asriel was very quiet, but when Frisk heard him say it, they stopped running. Frisk was close enough to touch now. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I never thought I’d get a chance to tell you I’m sorry and I’m, I’m just…” He sobbed, and his voice broke. He hunched down a little lower. “I’m sorry, Chara!”

He was hugging it. Hugging the demon that comes when you call its name.

Chara.

As if they could hear Frisk’s thoughts, Chara opened both eyes and smiled, looking right at Frisk as they rested their face on Asriel’s shoulder.

“Asriel. I need you to let go and back away from it.”

Asriel jumped a little, leaning back and looking at Frisk, finally hearing them. “Oh! Frisk! When did you get here? Look, it’s Chara! She came back, somehow!” He looked so happy, even with bleary red eyes and tear stains down his cheeks. “We… Maybe we can all be friends now!”

“Oh, Az…” Chara spoke the name and Frisk hated it, hated the familiarity. “You know that’s not going to happen. Look at me, I’m still little, even though you got all grown up! You know why, right?”

Asriel sat back on his legs, looking defeated again. “Because… you died.”

Chara nodded. “Ya-huh! But, and this is important, Az, so I want you to look at me.” She waited, and he complied. Chara put their hands up to Asriel’s cheeks and looked him right in the eyes. “It’s not your fault.” Asriel gave a shuddering sob, putting a hand on top of one of Chara’s. “Sssh. It’s ok. Listen. Being dead really puts your problems into perspective. I’m not angry about it anymore, ok? It was a bad plan, I was angry at some people, and it wasn’t your fight. You did the best you could, but you stayed true to yourself. You’re a big softie and a crybaby; you always were.”

Asriel chuckled, sniffing a running nose. “Well, I can’t really deny it, can I?”

“But that’s ok, that’s just how you are. You won’t hurt anyone, not if you can help it. Not as long as you’re you. And Az… I’m really, really sorry about what happened to you because of me. I never wanted for you to get hurt. But Frisk helped you, and I’m very happy that they did, that they could undo my mistake. That’s why I’m here, to say thank you to Frisk and sorry to you.”

Frisk didn’t believe a word of it. Chara was bad news. Again, Chara looked right at Frisk. Almost as if…

“I can hear you thinking, Frisk.”

Oh. Uh oh.

“It’s because of you that Az is alive again! But when you reached out and grabbed him, well, that was back when I was still around, kinda. When I died, Asriel put my soul inside his own. Then, when we died again, I went… Poof!” Chara gestured with their tiny hands, miming something exploding into dust. “But, a little bit of me was still mixed with Az. And when you took him, that little bit ended up in the both of you! That’s why I can come here, and that’s why I can hear you when you’re thinking.” Chara stood up, dusting their legs off carefully. “I hear everything, Frisk. I hear all the things that you think about everyone around you. I bet you thought that was private, huh?”

Asriel looked from Chara to Frisk. “Really? Can you hear me too?”

“You’re all… Squiggly. There’s something in you that’s in the way, Az. But Frisk is like a picture book in nice big, friendly letters. Frisk thinks about a lot of things, a lot of people, a lot of monsters. They think about you a lot too, Az!”

“Oh. Um. Maybe someone your age shouldn’t be…”

Chara sniggered, like a kid with their hand caught in a cookie jar. “Maybe! But I do, because I don’t have much else to do these days. And boy, if only you could see what Frisk thought! They care about you a lot. Like. A whole lot.”

Frisk considered, along with rising panic, the many things that they had thought to themselves over the years. Witty asides. Snarky comments. Lustful imaginings. Hurtful observations.

“Mmmmhmm! All those things you thought no one could hear, Frisk! Well, I’m always listening, and I have some things to say about them.” Frisk blinked and Chara was gone again. Asriel started, looking around for Chara.

“Did you think that you were above consequences?” Chara whispered right in Frisk’s ear, too quietly for Asriel to hear. Frisk froze, too shocked to move. “You see everything as problems to be overcome, you see everyone as a set of outcomes that you can manipulate. You think that the entire world and all of time is just something for you to use, as you see fit. You want something, and then you take it, and nothing in the entire world can stand in your way. You decide to break the barrier, and it happens. You decide to abandon me in the middle of our work, because the cost was too high, because you couldn’t go through with it, and it happens, no matter how loud I scream. You decide you want Asriel, my only brother, and what can he do but go along with your request? Well, I want you to know, if the world could hear what you thought to yourself, if they all knew how you saw them, they might think of you a little differently. You’re like a god, Frisk. You can decide who lives and who dies. Every person who dies in the entire world. You could have done something to save them, but you don’t. I think that you’re only good because it suits you, because you like having friends. Not because it’s the right thing to do, just because it’s more satisfying. Well, there isn’t a whole lot I can do about it, but I can do two things. I can always be listening, waiting, watching. And I can make it so that I’m not the only one.”

Chara was beside Asriel again. This time, she whispered something in his ear. He looked shocked. Chara winked at Frisk.

“Meet another of the consequences of your actions, Frisk. Something to level the playing field, so that my brother has a fighting chance. I’ll leave you two alone now, so that you can get to know one another better! Bye, Az! Bye, Frisk!”

Chara waved, and then, was gone. Frisk didn’t even have time to be relieved. Asriel shivered and fell to his knees, covering his mouth with one hand and clutching at his stomach with the other.

“Az! What did they do?” Frisk rushed over to his side, but they couldn’t see any injuries. Asriel shuddered again, made a muffled sound accompanied by a heaving motion, and something black and oily started leaking out from around the fingers over his mouth. It was viscous, with a rainbow sheen, and a droplet of it ran down Asriel’s hand, staining the white fur. The black stain was spreading out from under his hand, and his eyes were closed.

This was not good.

Asriel’s eyes snapped open. Black, with white pupils. Familiar. He pulled his hand away from his mouth and left behind long, sticky strands of blackness which snapped and fell, landing across his arms and along his legs.

“You recognise me, Frisk. Well, it’s good to see you too.”

Now, Frisk thought to themselves, would be an amazing time to wake up.

“Don’t think that waking up will end this, Frisk. I’ve been here all along, waiting. I reached through time for you. Did you really think this would be the last you saw of me?”

***

There was a discontinuity. It was later, although how much later Frisk couldn’t tell. They felt kind of… Grimy. In desperate need of a shower.

Real sunlight was shining in Frisk’s eyes. They felt as though they had been brutally beaten, and several seconds after waking up, the intense sickness of the hangover began in earnest. Frisk groaned for mercy, struggling to separate what was real, what was a dream, and what was shaping up to be a god-awful hangover. They struggled up onto one arm and looked over at Asriel, who was snoozing peacefully, looking totally normal. That was a relief. Maybe it was all just a bad dream?

No more drinking. Bad plan.