The Mountain East (An Undertale Fanfiction)

Chapter 27

A crudely hand drawn picture resembling a family of four was hung proudly on the wall. Despite its once barren surroundings, the grey room was now renovated to include toys, supplies and games of all kinds. Chara sat atop her new bed, fiddling with several chess pieces in her hand as she surveyed the room.

She looked up as the door opened to reveal Asriel's figure shuffling in. He mimicked Chara's position on his own bed before collapsing into the safe comfort of below the sheets. Chara stared at him, her inner sense yelling that he was scheming something. He wasn't usually one to be quiet, especially not after having just moved into a new home, literally.

"Are you alright?" Chara asked, her head still trained on the walls of the room. Her eyes, however, was trained on Asriel's head that was poking out from just beneath the sheets.

"Mm? It's nothing." Asriel did not turn to face her. Somehow, he was a worse liar than Chara thought.

"You saying that only makes me more suspicious."

For a split second, Asriel remained silent. He was contemplating, perhaps, whether to continue. He chose to walk not the middle road.

"You know, maybe I should be asking that question."

"Pardon?" Chara asked.

Asriel turned to face her, his body still snugly tucked in the bed. "What is it, Chara? What are you hiding from me?" That expression, was it one of concern? Of... curiosity, perhaps? Chara laughed at his question, though her eyes started to shift away from his. Ironically, as he started to look at her, she fled. There were no good liars in the underground, it seemed. Only bad truths.

"Nothing! I'm just a bit tired, you know? We've spent the entire day either moving our stuff or exploring New Home. I don't exactly have the stamina to-"

"Chara, please."

"I told you, it's nothing."

Asriel threw his sheets off him. They landed pathetically on the ground, a corner still tugging at his tail as it had been caught between it and the bed. Chara shuffled backwards in surprise, a king and queen clattering out of her hands, their crowns toppling from their miniature heads. "How can you say that? I thought you made a promise! That WE made a promise! That... that we would be inseparable. That whatever we do, we will do together, forever! Ever since you've come back from our trip to Waterfall, you've secluded yourself, locked yourself in a loop of thought again! I'm done hiding, Chara. Please. Aren't..." Tears began to form at the edges of his eyelids. "Aren't we supposed to be best friends?"

Chara rushed over to his bed and placed a hand on his shoulder. She gritted her teeth and furrowed her brows, stuck between two options she couldn't decide. She wouldn't decide, and yet the thought of ignoring the constant voices in her head was... unthinkable. A promise against a debt.

"I'm sorry, Azzy. I... you... you can't understand." It broke her soul to see him cry, knowing that she was the one who caused it. But it was for a better cause. To keep him safe. To... keep him safe. Even the slightest premonition of failure faltered her determination. 'A plan doomed to fail'.

"You still lock me away, after all this time, Chara. I try and I try and I try my best, but to no avail. For what? What can I possibly do to help you if you don't even help yourself?" Tears were now streaming down his face, his legs making futile attempts to kick her away. They were half-hearted, his mind still unsure whether hypocrisy was indeed what he had to resort to.

"Asriel, I... I can't. Some things are better off not to be let into the limelight. Ignorance is bliss, remember?"

"I don't care! You promised!" He sounded so much like a baby throwing a tantrum. All he could do was yell and plead for compassion, for their best friend. To sit, a bystander, as he watches his only companion tear herself apart from the inside. The only dangers he could not protect herself, was, ironically, herself. It proved that the cruelest and most brutal way to break someone was not to kill them, but to make them want to kill.

"Azzy, if you truly wish to protect me, please, just... stop. It doesn't matter. Nothing comes close to hurting me as much as watching you like this, knowing that I can't have the option to choose." Chara, too, began to feel tears of distraught welling up. It wasn't out of particular sadness, or pain. It was out of guilt. Guilt knowing that she would never been forgiven, one way or another. That she would never be forgiven by herself.

For a moment, Asriel hesitated. He could see the tears trickling down her face, her glossy eyes now being subjected to darkness over and over as Chara blinked rapidly, trying to clear her tears. He shook his head. For all he could know, Chara could be planning to do something stupid. He needed to know what was bothering her. For her sake, and for his own.

"Chara, that's a lie and you know it. You have the choice to do the right thing. Just... just tell me what's going on and... we'll work out a happy ending together, okay?"

Chara hung her head low. Her expression had already denied his offer before her mouth could abjure his statement. "I'm trying to make it so everyone has a happy ending. An ending in which I can tell myself that I have finally dispensed justice and righteousness to those I love. So... so everyone can finally get what they deserve. I... I can't tell you yet. You'd... you'd get hurt by standing in the way. Sometimes, you'll do more harm than good to everyone by doing so."

She immediately noticed her poor choice of words. Asriel's body seemed to freeze in time, but his expression contorted into one of raw heartache.

"Wait, Asriel, I didn't mean that like-"

Her sentence was cut out by a small sniff from his side. He refused to meet her gaze. His frowning face turned into an involuntary smile. "I'm sorry, Chara. I was right all along, you know? Just a burden."

He stood up. Chara tried to tug at his sleeve, but he showed no reaction to her small protests.

"I... I need to be alone. And I have a feeling you do, too. I... don't want to be in your way."

And with that, he slipped out of the door. It closed with a resounding thud. She could hear his frail body slip down onto the floor on the other side, his quiet, erratic sobs filling the dark hallway.

She looked at her own hands. God, she thought. What have I done? What could I have done? Had he known now, when I wasn't ready, he surely would have... he would've... I couldn't...

She clasped both her hands over her ears, covering her head from all the voices. The voices that once told her she was a demon. Now, they called her a coward. An unfit friend. A burden.

And something else captured her line of sight. A glowing, golden shimmer lying on the bed, where Asriel once was. Something that must've fell out of his pocket.

Two golden heart lockets. Chara's hand shook as she picked it up by the fragile chain.

Transcribed upon it, etched onto the gold, was three words. Two people. One story.

"Best friends forever."