Waiting List

Fishy Business

HELP ME PLEASE, GET ME OUT. IT'S NOT STABLE ANYMORE.

Sweat was dripping down his skull, he couldn't move, like he was rooted to the ground. Every thought went through his mind and although he always seemed calm and collected, he lost all of it at this moment. It was desperation.

"ALL HUMANS AND MONSTERS, THE CORE IS UNSTABLE. LEAVE IMMEDIATELY!" The emergency safety announcement constantly ringing again and again from the speakers all over the establishment, faint echos could be heard from the other levels of the building. One of the speakers was placed directly above the skeleton, yet even though he could hear the sirens and instructions so closely, the announcement didn't make sense to him. It sounded... distant. Blurry. It was as if he just couldn't process anything he was hearing.

He had to leave now if he wanted to live. He and Gaster were on the highest level of the building, where the CORE was. And the short timespan he had now was decreasing by the second.

He didn't know what to do. All he could do was give a blank stare, perspiration dripping down his cheeks, with furrowed eyebrows. A hesitant reach of hand directed towards Gaster, with an obvious tremble in his arms was all he could muster.

And it was definitely not enough.

Mustering all the courage he could at the moment, moving his arms to conjure a shield around his superior stuck in the containment, summoning an indestructible shield with all his power. Sans wouldn't be under this protection however, and would most likely had his soul shattered due to the impact of the core losing control and the amount of energy this shield needed would have weakened him by a lot, but he was willing to give it up if someone... more worthy made it out alive.

Before he could complete this however, loud footsteps could be heard thudding on the hard cement flooring beneath Sans, and just as he was about to finish casting the shield on the correct recipient, Gaster, the long arms that suddenly grabbed Sans by the waist caused him to... make an error.

A fatal error.

And now the shield was on him and his younger brother.

Desperately gripping at Papyrus' hands clawed around his waist to no avail, free hands trying to fix the spell, but atlas, it was no use.

There wasn't time anymore.

PLEASE. DON'T LEAVE ME IN THE HATCH!

He couldn't do anything.

He couldn't save him.

SANS!

It's all your fault.

Forcing his eyelids open, shaking and immediately sitting up from just waking up, he was absolutely doused and drenched in sweat, his white tee completely damp. Hurriedly trying to catch his breathe, his skeletal arms desperately gripping onto the bed sheets, the sheets scrunched up in his palms. His left eye glowing with a faint yellow and on high alert.

It took him a moment to register that it was just a nightmare even though it wasn't the first time he had to wake up like this. Looking around his surroundings, his messy bed with the bedsheets coming off, the bedsheets gripped tightly by him, the photo-frame of him and Papyrus in the corner of his room... and the radiant rays of sunlight leaking through the luminous curtains of the window and shining onto him and his bed.

He hated, detested, resented having to relive that over and over again but the memories never stopped haunting him ever since that fateful day. And he didn't have the strength nor anybody to confide in. In this world, he only had himself, and he was just learning to cope with it.

Hurriedly feeling his face and touching the sides of his neck, other than the moist feeling of the perspiration he was doused in, his body temperature was extremely cold like he still lived in Snowdin. Even the pillows he slept on had obvious sweat stains on them. He didn't sleep well, he didn't feel well, but did it matter? The feeling that stung him the most right now was guilt for what happened even after so many years. And it was not like anything he did could change that.