Daddy's a Serial Killer

Chapter 34 - Welcome Home

When he heard the front door open, he knew it was Clockwork. Clockwork was the type of woman to open the door fast and catch it right before it hit the wall. Smile Dog huffed at that noise, the red and black furred dog climbing off of the couch to go greet her.

And then he saw him.

Sans, by all accounts, looked like shit. He shuffled in through the front door, body hunched and almost withdrawn, looking around as if his own house felt a little bit odd. A leaf, damp, seemed to stick to his skull. His shirt was stained with grass and dirt. And as he walked in, he trailed in mud and dust.

"Holy shit," Smile Dog said.

"Yeah. I'm back," Sans said, and despite his tired dementor, he held a warm smile. "Got kidnapped but I'm back."

"Looks like it. Are you alright?" Smile Dog asked.

"Yeah." Sans shuffled forward to the living room, Sally holding onto his hand tightly as she followed closely. Her eyes were puffy, and there was a clear wet stain on Sans' shoulder. "I managed to get the magic restraint off in the car with Sally and Toby's help. Where is everyone?"

"Looking for you. They're all out. But they had a magic restraint? Who kidnapped you? What happened?"

"Puppeteer," Clockwork answered, giving Sans a moment to go sit down and grab a glass of water. He did so almost eagerly, peeling the leaf off of his skull when he noticed it.

And for a moment, Sans sat there. Staring out of a window across his backyard as he chugged down his drink. With Sally holding one hand, and Bean in another. Seeming to just sit, for a single instance of his life, and understand that everything was okay again.

"He kidnapped me to replace a guy's dead girlfriend. It's a somewhat long story. I'd rather not fully get into that, right now," Sans said. "I've been eating canned fruit and stale water for the past few days. And sleeping next to a bunch of overgrown plants. What I really want is a fucking meal - a real one - and a bath. Maybe sleep in my comfortable bed again."

"Yeah, of course," Smile Dog said, "I can talk to Clockwork and Toby. Go get settled back in."

"And can yer guys contact Laughing Jack somehow? I'm worried about him," Sans said, turning towards the others.

There wasn't much of a way to contact Laughing Jack. He didn't use a phone. They couldn't use the box to summon him. He just left, and that was that.

"We'll contact everyone else and see if they can try to find him," Smile Dog said. "I can do that."

"Thanks, this is... this is gonna take a bit to come back from," Sans sighed, tugging alone. "Come on, we can eat together. I'll just throw on a blanket until Jane gets home."

Sans and Sally left quickly, hand in hand before Smile Dog turned expectantly toward the other two. Clockwork was already typing on her phone, likely alerting everyone of who they had found. Her phone started buzzing almost violently with the number of replies she was getting.

"We don't know the full story. We just know he kidnapped Sans, that's all," Clockwork explained as a tic ran through Toby. "Think he kidnapped him to replace Judge Angels for Helen. Don't worry, when we left them it was pretty clear he wasn't really happy with that. They won't be coming back - hold on." She clicked on her phone once before pressing it up against her ear. "Yeah, babe - yeah, he's here, he's eating, not majorly injured either. How far are you..."

She continued talking quickly as she walked away, gesturing for Toby to explain further.

"We just figured out it was the Puppeteer because we... we remembered he had a deal with Offenderman," Toby said, moving to sit down on the couch. He practically sunk into the cushions, realizing how tense he had been after the almost fight he had partaken in. His brown hair shuffled underneath his sweeping fingers. "So we checked it out and found him. It's like Clock - feck - said, it looks like he just kidnapped Sans like he did those other women who went missing for a bit."