Switched up

Chapter 5: Goodbye.

(Art up there is by me! ^^ (oh and my DeviantArt account is English-iz-funky, since I haven't been posting much in my artbook))

Time had passed. Or, at least Red believed that time had passed. Where he was there were no days or nights; no clocks to tell him how long it had been. So he had to rely on his own sense of time, which was how well he could remember the last time he was NOT in the Anti-void. Which, as he squinted into the white light of the Anti-void, Red began to find it harder and harder to recall the memory. So going by that logic, he just assumed it had been a while.

Red sat a foot or two away from the sleeping Error, rubbing a yarn-like blue string between his fingers. He kept his eyes on the blue streaks running down the other's cheeks, really wanting to touch them. He wanted to know if they felt anything like the string it came from, but he knew he couldn't because if he did he'd probably wake Error up... and then the glitch would start babbling on about the AUs again. In short, Error and Red had talked for a very long time. Sure, a few hateful comments were thrown around, but what would one expect from the two? Both had every reason to hate each other. Red mostly just wanted to get out while Error just wanted the other dead. But despite that, when Red asked questions; Error would answer. It had gotten to a point where Error began telling tales of old and destroyed AUs, he would talk about the many differences and things other AUs had in common with Red's universe. He would even describe his adventures while exploring certain AUs before -despite Red's horror and curiosity- describing in detail how he'd completely erased -killed- them from existence, while also going on about the original universe, Undertale.

Red sighed, still feeling slightly tense from a Horrortale story Error had told. The glitch had put on this malicious voice -if it could get any worse- while he told it, even putting in the effort to impersonate the cracking sound Sans's bones had made when Undyne crashed her spear into his skull. Ehg...

Red had put down the string, something new caught his attention. Sitting up, he stared at his arm intently. Something was different. Something buzzed, hurt, stung, but only sometimes. He had no bruise or cuts, in fact as he looked closer at his arm he realized that it looked completely normal, nothing should've been wrong. Well, as normal as it could get. There was a small scar on the side of his wrist, nothing bad, he'd just gotten it from a small tumble with his brother. But as he looked at it, something changed. Moved. Blinking, he slapped his arm in panic- hissing at how hard he'd hit himself. Then he looked back down. Oh, if only he had known what would've happened if he looked down, he would've sworn to never make such a glance for the rest of his skeleton life. If he'd know that what he'd see if he looked down... it would change him completely.

But it was too late. He had already done it, his sockets widening in terror when he saw what was on his arm. A small, grey 'ERROR' message flickered back and forth against his wrist, making his breath speed up and his head feel dizzy. Only one thought came to his mind; !@#$%!!!

Dangit! Red couldn't just sit here and watch it get worse! He had to do something, he had to act- he had had to find a way to make it go away, and it had to be Now. Whatever was happening to him, he believed it was because of either the Anti-void... or Error. However, his bets were on the latter. He took a breath, thinking back to a conversation they had earlier before Error had fallen asleep.

"So, you live here?" Red had asked.

"Yyyyyep"

"...does anyone else live here?"

"Eh, not that I know of. Of course sometimes there are a few stole-aways who accidentally end up here in some sort of portal or teleportation malfunction-ish disaster, I usually kill them though," Error said with a frown, however it didn't show a trace of regret, only boredom. This was one of the big things Red had noticed about the other... How Error could go on about how he kills people without a single care in the world. It was like he didn't exactly understand how absolutely despicable taking another's life was; or maybe he was just so used to it that he just didn't care.