The Moon, chapter 9: Taken

The pain seared her mind like no other feeling had a hope to. The pain of regret. Hopelessness. Then, darkness. Somehow, sometime after lying there in the snow, she fell asleep. She wasn't sure how, or why, since what she had seen just minutes before should've kept her up for days. Exhaustion must have hit her like a truck. Funnily enough, no nightmares or dreams invaded her mind this time. Ironically enough, it was one of the best rests she's had in a long time. If only the relief had lasted.

Susie still felt the snow beneath her body as she tried her best to open her eyes and shake herself from sleep. Planting a hand on the ground to push herself into a sitting position, she looked around at her surroundings. She wasn't where she fell asleep. Not in the slightest. She had been moved to a large clearing, surrounded by nothing but dense, dark forest. It had to be around midnight, as the moon was high in the sky.  Realizing this, she got to her feet and looked around for a weapon of some sort to use against her kidnapper. She found no such thing.

What she did find however, is a shocking lack of footprints of any kind, signs that a body was dragged or carried, or anything of the sort. The snow was untouched except for the markings Susie herself made. The imprint of her body, a few panicked steps of looking around, and that was all. The snow had stopped a while ago, and even if accumulated snow could obscure tracks, there should be a little bit of evidence at least. But instead, nothing. It's as if she was placed there from above.

But the only thing above her... was the moon.

She felt a great sense of unease. As if she was being watched. But this wasn't a normal suspicion, this feeling was heavy and potent, As if she was standing in the middle of a crowd of invisible people. She had to get out of here, but where to? Her sense of direction was completely gone. She wasn't even aware of her location. She supposed she could climb a tree? Maybe she could spot the way to town that way. She takes a few steps towards the treeline before she feels a bony, incredibly large hand grasp at her ankle. She looks down to see... Herself.

A version of herself, in the same clothing, laying on the ground with a hand firmly grasped around her ankle. Susie shook herself free from her grasp as her doppelganger looked at her with the same pale whiteness in her eyes that the Hazel look-alike donned. Susie backed away, unsure of how to proceed. Was this another dream? If so, just like all the others, it was incredibly convincing. The creature wearing Susie's skin got up to it's feet, shaking and and mumbling incoherently to itself, and trying it's best to maintain eye contact with her.

“What the hell are you?!” She yelled at the creature in front of her. She was granted no response, instead, she tried to speak once more. Though, all that came out was an incomprehensible and pained string of something that only resembled words. Suddenly, she began to sprint towards Susie at an alarming speed, tackling her to the ground with a surprising amount of ease. Once on the ground, the creature brings a fist back and readies a punch, attempting to strike Susie's face. Susie, seeing the attack coming from a mile away, catches the fist, and attempts to get her feet underneath it's body. Once doing so, she uses both legs to kick it off of her, sending her about a meter away before landing with a thud in the soft snow. Susie gets to her feet quickly while the other creature seems to be having trouble even getting on it's knees. She was about to walk over to give it a stomping much like the last one of these she encountered, when she's blinded by a flash of light and forced backwards by an incredible wave of energy so powerful even the snow is picked up and blasted away from it's source.

Once she regains her sight, she looks back to where she was walking to see that directly behind the skin stealer an incredibly tall, completely white humanoid figure stood, looking down at it. The tall being bent down and used one of it's skinny, frail, but large looking hands to grasp at the look-alike's entire skull in it's grasp. It bent back up and held the creature up in the air before it crushes it's skull in one swift clench of it's fist, spraying somewhat familiar white blood all around the area. It looks at the now limp body, and throws it to the side, almost as if it did so with great disgust. And then, as much as she wish it hadn't, it turned it's non existent gaze towards Susie.

She recognizes this creature as the one from the dream she had the night before. The one that brought her into the sky.

Susie backs away, and for the first time in her life, feels completely hopeless against the enemy before her. She knew it had the strength to crush that thing's skull like it was nothing, and considering she had no idea what the thing even was, she suspected it could be capable of much more than just that. Her suspicions were soon confirmed, for as soon as it pointed it's open palm toward her, her body froze just as it had in the dream. The dream which she then realized was anything but fiction. Part of her knew that was the case, but tried it's best not to believe it.

Susie is then pulled forwards and upwards, towards the being so that her head was at the same level as his. Now that she was up close, she figured it was nearly three times as tall as she was. She stood there, motionless in the air and with no other choice but to stare down the blank, featureless face in front of her. With great effort, she tried to work against this being's power and forced a simple question out of her mouth.

“Wh...What are you?!”

It's white, scrawny hand came into her vision, and grasped at her face as she felt not the crushing of her skull, but messages, words and letters penetrate directly into her mind. The creature spoke inside of her head, speaking in formless words to not pursue interaction with “the afflicted” any longer, lest more of who she holds dear suffer the same fate. She was told warnings of terrible happenings that would befall her if she were to meander where she did not belong. She was told to leave, and get as far away from the town as possible.

Susie fell to the ground, mind still swimming with information as the being begins to walk away. She quickly gets to her feet and yells at it.

“If you think you're gonna stop me from seeing my friends, you're dead wrong.”
The being stops, and turns back towards her.
“Yeah, you heard me. You can punish me however you want, but nothing's going to stand between my friends. You just expect me to run away with my tail between my legs?”
This time, only a single, conceited phrase forced it's way into her head.
“Like you did with Alphys?”

She freezes in her place, the correct response escaping her. The being turns it's back to her and disappearing in the same flash of light that it appeared in. The moon's light in the clearing brightened, her looking up into it's magnificently blinding light, not finding the strength to look away, no matter how much it hurt. The light engulfed her entire being, everything in her vision disappearing until there was nothing but a pale blue light.
It was beautiful.

She awakened slowly, opening her eyes.

“Your heart is a muscle the size of your fist!
Keep on loving, keep on fighting!”

She was in bed again, back at home. She looked around the room, looking for anything that may have been out of the ordinary, and finding no such thing. Her clothes were still wet from the snow. Susie looks out the window, seeing the red, early morning sunrise peek over the horizon. Almost an entire day had went by. It was already tomorrow when yesterday felt like it was only moments before. She wasn't sure what was slipping more, the time, or her sanity. She had to talk to someone about this. But what about the warning? What if she isn't going crazy? Would even going to town at all be too close for that strange being's liking? Would stepping a foot beyond the barriers put all of her friends in danger? And even if she did make it to town, what would she do? Who was she close enough to emotionally that would be able to help? Maybe someone at the church? Or maybe...

Kris. Kris and Toriel surely had advice for her. Mostly Toriel, but after not seeing him for three days, she would really appreciate a familiar face. Even if said person doesn't talk much. Susie decided that, as hard as it would be, what, with the hospital being on the way to Toriel's house, she would avoid it at all costs. Susie could only assume that Alphys is what it meant by “The Afflicted”. If it meant not seeing her to save the rest of her friends, as tough as it would be, she would have to comply. She knew what kind of power that thing had. It could probably wipe the entirety of Hometown out by itself, let alone if there were multiple of them. Better to be safe than sorry.

Besides... after yesterday, what makes her think Alphys would want to see her again at all?

Since she already had her coat on, she figured no preparation was needed, and that she could head to town right now. Susie walked out her door, down the stairs, and sunk a foot through the floor right before the front door. She looks down at her submerged foot, and lifts it out of the hole. Then, she remembered. It wasn't late in the day at all yet. It would probably be a while before everyone woke up. Maybe now would be best to figure out why exactly there's a vacant space underneath her house. She looked to her left, and walked towards an empty room, deliberately stomping to make sure the floor was still hollow. She decided that bashing a hole right next to her front door wouldn't be the brightest of ideas.

Finding that the floor kept it's hollow nature all the way to that room, she made a quick trip upstairs, grabbed the ax, and returned. Without further distractions, she swung the ax directly into the floorboards below, breaking them rather easily, and making a hole that would easily fit her, trying not to get herself hit by debris in the process. With the hole haphazardly made, she took a piece of wood from next to the hole and dropped it down, it hitting the floor rather quickly. Figuring that she could probably just drop down there and be able to jump back up, she disregarded the thought of having a rope or something to climb back up with. It was, however, rather dark. Another short trip upstairs and back granted her a lantern which she lit, and a matchbox which she stuffed into her coat pocket.

Susie crouched on the edge of the hole, and without much hesitation, jumped into the dark, unexplored depths of the basement she never knew existed, and she could only hope she was ready to face whatever mysteries lie below.