Mr. Erratum

Chapter Ninety-One

It wasn't until Paperjam woke up that he realized that he had blacked out. When he did awaken, his body ached painfully. Not in the usual, 'I fell asleep in the wrong position' way, or the 'waking up the day after you've been attacked' way, but rather the 'Something exceptionally wrong has happened to me' way, even though Paperjam couldn't find the words to describe what was wrong.

Perhaps it wasn't something physically wrong with him. However, it didn't feel right to say it was something mentally or emotionally wrong with him either. The horrifying pain within Paperjam could only be placed in his SOUL. It was beyond the pain of breaking a bone, or even losing a limb. It felt as if something was trying to rip his SOUL apart. He had no words to describe the feeling.

Maybe, the best word to use would be spiritually, but even then, Paperjam's firm atheist beliefs made him rather unwilling to use the word seriously. Not without truly understanding what was happening at the moment.

(Erratum had explained what a SOUL was- years ago by this point. Before then, Paperjam didn't believe such a thing existed.

At the time, he had considered a SOUL might at least exist on an emotional level- but he never quite believed they existed as literally as other people such as his dad believed.

Now, knowing what he knew, and feeling what he was feeling now, He could believe in something not as tangible as a SOUL- even if he was never hopeful enough to believe in something so perfect as a God.

Erratum and Pigment were Gods. They weren't similar to the Christian God, or the Muslim God, as they were not even close to being perfect in a way that religious gods were described. Even their similarities to Greek and Norse Gods practically ended at there being more than one.

On that train of thought, does the existence of the way Erratum understands the SOUL make other religious understandings of it wrong? There was undeniable proof that what Erratum said was right- He had shown him an actual SOUL, after all- but does proof of one thing immediately make something else wrong?

It was just a thought.

Maybe Erratum would be able to talk to him about it. Does he even know what a religious God was? Paperjam doubted his dad would have talked about it. He may not be as disbelieving as Paperjam, but by no means did that make him religious.

His head was starting to hurt. Maybe he should wake up now.)

Paperjam opened his eyes to the sound of another person's groan. The other spat out many vulgar words as they hissed out in pain- their voice and mannerisms sounding immediately familiar to him. 

However, Paperjam's mind felt far too clouded for him to be able to accurately figure out who the person beside him was. Whether they be friend, family or foe, Paperjam was none the wiser, and found he himself uncaring- or more accurately, finding himself forgetting to care about his surroundings. 

The person using vulgar words however, seemed less inclined to ignore Paperjam. "Hey- hey- Paperjam? You alright there?" Their voice was slightly calmer now- Not too deep, but not too high, it made Paperjam feel calmer, for whatever reason. 

He felt a hand on his face- cold and skeletal. "C'mon PJ, wake up, will you? Your dad will kill me if you don't" Their voice sounded odd as they said it, but Paperjam found himself more focused on their words. 'My dad?' He thought, questioningly.

He opened his eyes- and stared right back into the bright blue and yellow eyes of Ink. With Ink being so close to him, the skeleton noticed instantly. "Oh, thank everything above, you're awake!" Ink exclaimed, a worried look on his face.