Guiltale

Chapter One: My Best Friend

Ow. My head was throbbing. Something soft had cushioned my fall, but it was still just dirt underneath. I caught one in my hand and opened my eyes to inspect it, only to find my eyes blocked by another... set of eyes?

"AHHH!" came the voice in front of me. In surprise, I sat forward, joining in her screaming.

"AHHH WHAT IS HAPPENING?"

"I DON"T KNOW????"

"HOW AM I HERE???"

"WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, WHAT DOES THAT MEAN??"

We suddenly stopped in unison and screamed.

And then we laughed. Then, the girl in green began to speak.

"Okay... well now that we're done with all that..." she held out her hand with a friendly but sad smile. "H-howdy. My name's Chara. What's yours?"

I hesitated, then attempted to take her hand. It, um, phased through.

"Hold on." I shifted my hand until I managed to get it in a sort of realistic spot to pretend to hold Chara's. "Hi, I'm Grace. Do you know where we are? And why you're so hard to, you know, get through to?" I laughed.

"Oh no. Not puns. you're reminding me of my mother..." she chuckled and made a sad face before going on. "Um, it looks kinda like the front of the RUINS? This is where I fell..." her eyes went wide. "OH. Well, that's probably how you got here too, right?"

I shifted back a little. "Wait you fell too? Are you the kid I was watching? Dang and was trying to save you, too. How did you change clothes so fast? Was I really out for that long? Wh-"

Chara interrupted me. "Oh, no, I... I was probably from a long while ago." she turned away for a moment before continuing. "I..." she gulped, swallowing her fear, "I think I might be dead? I was dead before, but I don't know why I'm up again." she turned back to me again. "unless you... did something?"

"I don't think so?" I said, attempting to stand up despite my headache. "all I did was fall..." I began brushing petals from my jeans – it was apparently a flowerbed that broke my fall – and looked back at Chara.

She seemed lost in thought.

"Well! I think we should get going," I continued, standing up. "can't stay in this one room forever, now, can I?"

"...You're taking all this rather well..." Chara raised an eyebrow.

I hesitated before answering. This isn't the kind of thing you usually admit to so soon after meeting someone, right? But I can't think of a reason not to, either, so... "I'm not exactly unused to the idea of weird things. I'm a geek, plus, the town makes sure I'm well-versed in the folklore." I laughed and turned away to avoid Chara's reaction. I heard her snort before I began walking away.

"Wait! I don't know how to... float... or whatever... yet!" Chara yelped, struggling to figure out an efficient way to keep up. So I idled for a minute as she got her bearings so I could help her figure it out. Not that I had any experience in this, either.

"Try... standing on the floor?" "Imagining where you are in space?" "Using some kind of energy to push yourself in the right direction?" After much trial and error, Chara found out that she could sort of move through the air if she believed she was moving of her own accord and not some weird mixture of fate and irony.

<3 <3 <3

In the next room there was another flowerbed. I turned to Chara with a puzzled look that said are there just flowerbeds everywhere in the Underground? I thought there wasn't any sun? And Chara shrugged. I shrugged back and entered the dark room.