The Moon, chapter 34: Hell

The towering red monster lowered it's head to Susie's level as much as it could bear, it's gazing, inquisitive eyes blinking and rolling in their sockets. Susie could only stare back, both in fear and awe that she was even alive, that the mere sight of this creature hadn't broken her completely. However, she didn't sense hostility from the creature in front of her. She felt more of a dreadful, sinking feeling. As if simply existing in the presence of this thing made the world itself darker. Then, Susie felt a presence. It was this being, surely, but she felt it inside her head. Visions and concepts began flashing in her mind. One of the world in which they reside turning dark. Creatures from this dark clawing their way out, and into Hometown above. An entire world built on top of the decaying bodies of others, with every previous world gaining more and more hatred for the one at the highest tier.

Visions of the queen and king of this world appeared, begging tall, radiant humanoids to let their son, if anyone, survive. Their answer was yes, though the couple was not expecting their wish to be granted in such a cruel way. The following vision showed Napstablook's body embracing the lifeless, charred corpse of Suze. Napstablook did not move, nor speak. The soul had disappeared, leaving the rest of the sea of mistakes without conscious creatures. One last vision followed. Susie being dragged through a dark, red hallway, unconscious and in the grasp of something she could not visualize. Visions of Hometown being right above her flooded her mind, along with the lake to the east of the town, where she saw the red bodies rise to the surface.

The assault on her mind disappeared, as did most of the strength in Susie's body. She collapsed to the ash covered ground, with so many questions for the being in front of her. When she collapsed, she noticed that she could no longer feel the cold, or the ash beneath her body. She instead felt a warm, almost flesh like feeling beneath her. In fact, it seemed as though her only sense left unaltered was sight. Her ears, instead of being vacant of much sound at all, was filled with the rattling of chains and horrid screams of unseen creatures. She smelt rotting, decaying flesh, and a sensation of a coppery, blood-like taste infected her tongue. Her body and mind had simply faltered, and she was left staring at what remained of the sun on the horizon. Over the course of a minute or so, the light slowly faded from the world, the ash becoming more black than gray until the last flicker of light went out. A void surrounded her as her vision faded, but every other disturbing sense remained intact. A few minutes passed before Susie realized that the only thing keeping her vision dark were her own closed eyelids.

Once her eyes opened, she surveyed her current surroundings. She laid on a rusted metal bed frame that hugged the east side of a prison cell wall. The cell's bars, as well as every other surface she could see, was covered in a reddish pink fleshy array of pulsating skin that cascaded across the walls, floors and ceiling like overgrown vines. Much like vines, in fact, the skin even draped from the ceiling in places. The only reason she could see all of this is because of the skin itself, able to radiate a dull red light somehow. Besides the incredibly dirty and uncomfortable bed frame, Susie didn't spy any other furniture in her room. She got up and sat on the end of the bed, the pain from Suze's encounter finally catching back up with her. Her arms were incredibly heavy, her head ached with such ferocity it made it hard to keep upright, and her back shot bolts of pain through her body with every movement she dared to make.

Susie looked to her right, between the cell's bars, and across a narrow, similarly disgusting hallway into the cell across from hers. It was devoid of any furniture, or even living things as well. Though what she heard told her that she was far from alone. Pained and drawn out cries of beings she couldn't see rang out through the hall from the cells next to her that, on top of the searing headache, made it even more of a hassle to think. She could make out one individual in particular a couple cells over to her left. Whatever it was, it was making so much noise it was vibrating the bars of her cell. It was a sort of high pitched growl that almost hurt Susie's ear drums to listen to. Due to Susie being at the back of her cell, and due to the incredibly narrow hallway that looked as if it could only fit one person at a time, she could only see the cell directly across from her. Though judging from the events that transpired next, perhaps that was for the best.

Incredibly loud and heavy footsteps shook the floor beneath Susie, her reflexes telling her to get as far away from her cell door as she could. She scrambled to the back corner of her cell and huddled in the fetal position, without even thinking of how pathetic that seemed. The footsteps stopped in front of the cell that she supposed the loudest creature was in. She only heard the next events, but she had a good idea of what was happening. The sound of bending and snapping metal screeched as the sound of multiple metal objects hitting the fleshy walls reverberated nauseatingly. The screaming ceased when another sound of shattering bone and flesh met her ears. Then another barrage of the same noise repeated with incredible swiftness and force. This ended after a few short moments, followed by the sound of something being dragged across the floor, and the same heavy footsteps from before fading into the newly silent atmosphere. The other creatures in the vicinity had stopped their cries.

Susie tried her best to muffle her sobbing by burying her face into her arms. She was badly hurt, alone, and in constant fear of death. She had been brought to the brink of death so many times that it seemed like a cruel game. It's like the world itself was against her, waiting for just the right moment to deliver her end. And she was starting to believe that maybe this world truly was against her. What fair and just world would let any of this happen? This wasn't even the worst of her thoughts, however. Maybe the world being against her would be fair after all if she was given a chance to have an even fight. And maybe before all of this started, she believed she was on even ground with anything.

But now, here she was. Alone in a prison full of obscured screaming aberrations that she didn't even know the location of, her body half broken and too scared to get out from the corner. As if she stood a chance against anything here. She missed the days where she felt strong. Feeling like she could take on anything. But she had come to find that she was so incomprehensibly small in comparison to these things that Susie was surprised she even thought that in the first place. Even if she made it back to Hometown, what would she even say? They would surely think she was insane, right?

Perhaps she was. At least in the sea Susie had a rough idea of where she even was in relation to the rest of the world. But she could be under tens of miles of water or a few miles from Hometown. It didn't matter. She didn't know. She could be anywhere. She could be nowhere. Susie thought of Toriel, Hazel and Kris. Were they worried? Looking for her? Were they even alive still? She didn't know. She didn't know anything. She couldn't do anything. There was nothing to do, and no one to be.

Susie felt her heart sink as she tried her best to muffle her sharp inhalations and sobs with her tattered and blood stained clothes, hoping that this was all a terrible nightmare that she would soon wake up from, but knowing that would be too nice of a thing for this world to grace her with.