Kris steals 40 pies

It was the perfect opportunity.

The annual church bake sale was coming up, and it was happening on the same day as the school trip to Workville. Kris had made Toriel sign the permission slip, so as far as she knew, they would be away. And they'd told Alphys that they had a dentist's appointment, which was in fact true, so they would leave halfway through the trip, and make their way home on their own using public transport. But they had called the dentist yesterday to report their own death in a tragic skiing accident, which meant that they weren't expected for that appointment, or for any other appointment ever again for that matter. So they could go home early.

Toriel's pies were always a hit. Every year they sold out, and every following year she made more. This year would be the largest load yet. And Kris was going to steal them.

They knew every part of her routine. She had been baking all day yesterday, and she had even called in a substitute so she could bake all day today, and make pies that were as fresh as reasonably possible. At all times, there would be one pie in the oven, one pie cooling in the windowsill, and one pie being prepared to be baked. The cooled pies were all loaded into a cart she owned for these occasions. Because it didn't fit through the door, the cart was parked in front of the house, but out of the view of the rest of the town.

Every forty-five minutes exactly Toriel came outside to load another pie into the tray.

Ten minutes ago, Toriel loaded the second-to-last pie onto the cart. She wouldn't be outside again for another thirty-five minutes.

Kris got up from their present position in the bushes, snuck up to the cart, and made a run for it.

They navigated around the town, through the forest over a path they had earlier cleared of all obstacles, all the way to the clearing in the south where nobody ever came.

They took a pie from the cart. They sat down against the old bunker. And they started to eat.

It was delicious. As always. But especially here, with birds singing, flowers blooming, the sun shining on their closed eyelids, and the grass in their back, all at a pleasant temperature. Life didn't get better than this.

Eventually their fingers touched around the pie tin and found that it was empty. So they took another pie, and went to work on that.

But halfway through their third pie they were starting to get full. And they had so many pies left.

They were starting to realize they had made a terrible mistake.

What were they going to do with this many pies? They couldn't eat them all. They wouldn't be able to come back for them later. If they had just taken a couple of pies, everything would be fine. Perhaps Toriel wouldn't even have noticed. But this many pies? It was insanity.

They considered trying to break open the bunker and hide the evidence there, but they gave up on that. If there was one value their parents had taught them, it was honesty. They had to own up to their mistakes, and face the consequences.

Their hands shaking, they dialed a number into their cellphone.

"Hometown Police Department..." a meek voice answered. "How can I help you?"

"When no one was looking, I took forty pies," Kris said.

"You took forty pies? You mean, four tens?"

"Yes," Kris said, about to burst into tears. "And that's terrible."