Daddy's a Serial Killer

Chapter 27 - A Few Reactions

Smile Dog, for once, felt nervous. Nervous was an odd feeling. He felt disdain before. Fear. Horror. Happiness. All from different situations.

But this was one of those times he was truly nervous. The people he cared about all had a sense of control if they were in danger. Jeff, while a child, was capable of taking care of himself. He had control.

The petal sat obviously on the counter. A singular petal that Smile Dog had noticed when he got Jane's response. It was Jeff who picked it up, one of the few people immune to such a power, with a look of disgust and horror crossing across his face, tinted with recognition none of them wanted to experience.

This was a situation that felt rather nerve-racking. The type that made everyone work in silent tension throughout the night. The one with a child - a literal baby under one year old - missing. And with a skeleton, they all had grown to appreciate in their ways also gone. With a single threatening photo and rose petal to remain.

Laughing Jack was just gone. Sometimes it was easy to forget how much love that clown had for Sans. It was a weird, unusual romance no film or show ever captured before. Who would expect a nine-foot clown to fall so harshly for the short skeleton? But there were times, certain occasions, where the feelings became obvious. And this day had one of those. When Laughing Jack returned to the home at the same time Ben and Smile Dog did, staring at the petal even he couldn't dare to touch barehanded. His stare was empty, nose flaring with a sharp exhale as his thick boots pounded against the ground to approach the red-colored rose petal before he stared at the image of his daughter with a knife pointed towards her frail body.

For a moment, he stood. Just... stood. In silence, lips pressed thin and eyes narrowing. Sans was gone. Taken to the night. Bean was gone.

And in that silence, Smile Dog realized so many things. He wasn't worried for Jane, who had left the moment she discovered Sans was gone to see if the kidnapper left any trial for her to track. No, he doubted he could ever worry about her in the same way she could never truly worry about Jeff. Jeff hurt her, she hurt Smile Dog. The three of them were always bound for misunderstandings and resentment, so he wasn't particularly worried if she found trouble outside. Yet he was worried for Sans. The skeleton he met behind bars, the skeleton that looked at him as more than a dog, more than a lot of other people looked at him. The skeleton that he met, bunched up in a blanket with terrified eye sockets, freed him and healed him without any questions asked. And the skeleton who was now gone, awful puns nowhere to be found and the crushing silence consuming every inch of the house, bit by bit.

And then he realized while looking at Laughing Jack's face, what this man just lost. He loved Sans with every fiber of his being. Gave him love and gave him a family when he had none to call his own. Laughing Jack didn't have anything before Sans and Bean. And there he stood, in that kitchen with a horrible frown, likely realizing that once again, everything he cared about was taken away from him.

And then he was gone. One puff of smoke, and that was that. Ben tried to call out to Laughing Jack, and make a plan to search and find them, but he disappeared too fast.

That was earlier this night. Laughing Jack had yet to return. So did Jane. Laughing Jack had no phone to call his own so messaging him was out of the option. Jane only gave brief, curt responses that gave very minimal information. The trail was running cold.

They were experienced.

It was Sally that sobbed. Loud, choking sobs. Clutching her bear with matted fur and crying. Zero was the one assigned to take care of her, self-assigned since she didn't have any emotions towards Sans, so she was the only one clear in her mind. Clockwork had just gone after Jane to try and help her. She did care about Jane, after all. Not extremely close with Sans, but Sans was important to Jane and that's all that mattered to her. So she too was gone, checking another direction to see if Jane missed anything.