Inktobertale 2022 : Compilation of novels

3rd of October : Sinking

"I hate this..."

Every second Ink spent in this grey universe, he felt more uncomfortable. This lack of color, of life, it felt... unnatural, asphyxiating, and was starting to give him a headache like he sometimes had when he brainstormed too hard over his paintings. Yet he kept progressing, either by responsibility or curiousness, he kept searching for a clue as to what might have caused this. He was in the city near the castle, a place usually filled with life and various monsters, but now... only silence and emptiness. Ink also noticed that his surroundings felt weirdly... not-detailed. The road he was walking on had no rocks, or small holes in its surface, like every road would. Every building was made in the same smooth, rocky and monochromatic matter with no imperfection whatsoever. It was as if the entire timeline had been downgraded in quality. As an artist, he even had the thought that this whole thing looked like a lazy, unmotivated drawing, maybe even...

A draft.

Unexpectedly enough, this idea sent shivers down his spine. The idea of an incomplete, near-empty AU... he wished he could think about it more, but this was only worsening his headache. Now convinced he wouldn't find anyone here, he decided to give up, and try another part of the timeline (Snowdin seemed like a good start), with the hopes that maybe this part would be just as colored as usual. As he mentally crossed his fingers, he teleported away in an explosion of paint, appeared into Snowdin, and let out a roar of frustration as he saw the village had received the same treatment. The snow had become a single large patch of non-slippery solid ice which covered the entire ground, the neon lights spelling out Grillby's name on his restaurant had been  replaced by a pretty unrealistic drawing... His pain in the head and anger continuously increasing, Ink started furiously kicking "snow" around. One side of him really wanted to get out of here and do something more interesting, while the other was devoured by questions and desired answers. As he remarked just how angry he was, Ink regretted having drunk such a large quantity of paint this morning, because he really felt like he could use a pause with feelings right now.

As he considered the idea of forcing himself to puke out the paint, he heard a screeching noise behind him, and turned around as he saw a young bunny lady step out of one of the houses around him, and closing the old noisy entrance door of it behind her. This monster seemed to also be infected by this grey disease. Her eyes and pupils were still distinguishable, but were completely white and seemed to stare right through Ink. Her (simplified) fur, clothes and hairless parts like the ears and nose, all were made of different shades of white and grey. She seemed to have trouble to walk, and looked as if she was concentrating very hard to say something. Since incodes should never see him, Ink considered running away, but thought that at this point he had nothing to lose. Still, just staring at her made him feel intense dread. "What happened to this place ?" he asked. "Where is everyone ?!"

"I... You... you're colo..." tried to say the girl, but she barely managed to align her words, and her eyes kept looking into the void, instead of directly at Ink, who figured she was troubled by him still having his "colors". The empty, ominous sound of her voice made his non-existent ears hurt.

"That's not important right now. Listen, I need to know, who did this ?!" replied Ink, as he felt his sinking feeling increasing more and more by the second. He tried to touch the girl, but stopped when he noticed just how much his hands were shaking. This was too much. Something here was subconsciously extremely worrying him, and he was unsure whether or not he wanted to find out what it was.

"I... It.... You......" The bunny suddenly stopped and simply let her arms fall to her sides as she closed her mouth. 

No, this is not worry. Ink thought as he looked at the girl, and noticed the glass window of the house behind her. He first took a good look at his reflection. His hands shaking. His chest slowly inflating and deflating. His fists clenched. His eyes, one a white shaky circle with an X-shaped cross over it. And the other, a pink diamond with a large black pupil in its center. Then, and only then, he noticed the figure behind him.

This feeling...

It was fear.