SOLARVERSE: The Raven

Chapter 4 - Old Man River

The sounds of rustling filled Sans' room, from the planks up to the very edge of the roof as behind their window, they could hear, and even feel the terror of the residents approaching the monstrosity that lay behind his house, as he desperately searched for his jacket and things that he would need to bring, placing it into a small leather bag he had not used in years, as drops of sweat raced down his forehead as the horror only seemed to grow more apparent and closer as what turned into concerned and horrified screeches from behind his wooden home transformed into aggressive and unbridled knocking on his door, they all screamed for Sans' name, different voices, and tones erupted from behind Sans' wooden door, and yet all of them had one thing undeniably in common, all of them were in incomprehensible anger.

"No, no, no... Stupid... Stupid! Why didn't I take that thing away? Because I was afraid of that beast-? Damn it!" Sans cursed himself a thousand times over in his mind as he gritted his teeth, tears pouring down his face like seeping water through the cracks of a broken dam, he knew full well that it was because of his own laziness, carelessness, and utter patheticness why things turned out this way, internally he blamed himself continuously for not only ruining his life but Papyrus as well, no doubt, the skeleton thought that Snowdin thinks that he is a gruesome murderer, not even considering any alternate possibilities as with a grieving sigh, they took their bag, and teleported away in a flash, leaving their home behind, as simultaneously a rock was thrown into his room's window, shattering it as shards of glass rained down on the wooden planks, the false sunlight shimmering through more than ever...

The air was stale and bitter, the snow that Snowdin had been known by had seemingly been absolved before that now a cursed path, for something demonic was on it, as in a pool of murky dust and 'mud', akin to the ground mess of wood and water, laying on The Ruin's doors was an abomination, something so disgusting and fearful, equivalent to the disdain of the culminated greed of humanity above, the thing's arms were shattered and mutilated, head twisted and jaw ripped clean off their skull, their eye sockets, though not shattered, were unnaturally stretched as if molded into two empty holes that seemed to stare endlessly at the void, the thing's red boots were, as well, in shreds and scattered across the path before The Ruin doors, and their armored chest was broken through with the indent of a beastly paw, as blood around and about spilled over in a pool.

The dreadful silence was struck, yet was unwavering as the sound of 'flashing' entered the proximity, a few steps the skeleton took into the cursed path, calling for the name of his dear brother desperately, for everywhere else he had searched, he was not there, so he must have been here... And so they were, but in the worst possible way he could have been found as Sans, choking under his breath as his eyelids widened, stumbled a few steps forward as he dropped to his knees, right in front of Papyrus' corpse, he was mortified, yet what scared him more was the fact his white and narrow expression could no longer give the energy to mourn his brother, much less let out a few tears, as Sans' eyes traveled to his brother's hand, looking down and holding it tightly, trembling before gazing back reluctantly at their mangled face in quiet, agonizing sorrow.

"...Oh, god..." Sans muttered to himself as his eyes squinted and dried at the gruesome sight, feeling an ache in his stomach he crawled back in a guilt-filled disgust, biting into his teeth as he hesitantly began to turn around to run away, however, sending a shot of paranoia down his spine, Sans began to hear footsteps approaching where they were, it called out, almost nonchalantly at Papyrus' name, which angered Sans greatly deep within, what kind of bastard could act so mundane to something as macabre as this? Sans thought as he clenched his fist deep into the snow and gritted his teeth, although, the moment he regained the will to run away, by then, the voice, in its full body had already passed the bridge and onto the cursed path.