Guiltale

Chapter Ten: Doggone Tired of Your Shenanigans!

Running back to the only other path onwards, I bumped back into Sans and Papyrus.

"HUMAN! ! ! I HOPE YOU'RE READY FOR. . ." We all stared at the ground. A single sheet of paper lay there. There was almost an audible blinking from me, Papyrus, and Chara.

"SANS! ! WHERE'S THE PUZZLE ! ! !"

"it's right there. on the ground."

Papyrus just stared.

"trust me. there's no way she can get past this one."

Seeing Papyrus' annoyance, I could barely contain my laughter as I defiantly marched up, staring directly into their eyes, and –

Sat down immediately, in the snow, to pick up the crossword. Pulling a pencil out of my backpack, I got to work finding every word. I could feel Papyrus staring holes into my head, too shocked that Sans' puzzle was stopping me longer than any he'd given me before. Surprisingly – or perhaps unsurprisingly – the longest were the easiest (giasfclfubrehber) and things like 'hot' were really hard. I worked slower than I usually would, too – I really like crosswords, but I miss annoying my siblings even more. It took about fifteen whole minutes for me to finish, even when I spent some time wondering if the 'cig' in 'cigars' counted as a different word (it wasn't). Once I was finished, I looked up at Sans and Papyrus, trying to hide my mischievous smile as I handed it in.

"Done!" I said as I put the paper in Sans' hand.

"SANS! ! ! THAT DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!"

"whoops. oh, you uh, missed this one."

"Wait really? I thought I had that one. It was right here, right?"

As Sans nodded, and, as he took my pencil to mark my 'incorrect' answers, went on.

"i knew i should have used today's crossword instead."

"WHAT! ? CROSSWORD! ? I CAN'T Believe YOU SAID THAT! ! IN MY OPINION... JUNIOR JUMBLE IS EASILY THE HARDEST."

"what? really, dude? that easy-peasy word scramble? that's for baby bones."

"UN. BELIEVABLE. HUMAN! ! ! SOLVE THIS DISPUTE! WHICH IS HARDER?"

"i... UH... Jumble?" I spluttered, still watching Sans to see if I got any more wrong.

"HA! HA! YES! HUMANS MUST BE VERY INTELLIGENT! IF THEY ALSO FIND JUNIOR JUMBLE SO DIFFICULT! NYEH!

"HEH!

"HEH HEH!"

Scratching my head, I turned to Sans, who handed me my 'graded' word search.

"thanks for teasing him, it was really funny. also, thanks for saying "junior jumble" just to appease my brother. yesterday he got stumped trying to "solve" the horoscope."

"Haha, yeah. I thought he could use some loosening up. He seems tense, plus – seems like he's missing out on some good teasing." I returned Sans his good-natured wink. "Maybe it's because something happened, but I'm not sure he's ready for human relations, yet. Or maybe I'm wrong, I don't know..."

"heh. you may be right... but you know, maybe humans could use a guy like him worrying, right?"

I pondered this thought for a moment, but when I turned back to respond, Sans was gone.

"Figures."

Just past where Sans and I were talking was a strange area. There was a plate of spaghetti on a table and a microwave. It was so spontaneous that I actually stopped in my tracks for a moment. On the ground there was a note that read: