Sands woke up in the guardhouse. Her head ached like it was going to break. She could feel a searing heat inside her eye sockets, like a laceration. White dots drifted across her eyes whenever she blinked, and a cold sweat broke out, making her back feel uncomfortable. Breathing harshly, Sands started to rise to her feet, but paused as her chest heaved. The place where she had been stabbed by the human throbbed. Surely time had gone back in time and no scars remained.
Sands lifted his shirt and checked his ribs. The toy knife had definitely broken one of his ribs earlier. He hadn't checked, but it was probably the fifth rib on his left side. Unsurprisingly, the rib was clean. There wasn't even a trace of a cut, but it was throbbing nonetheless. Sands rubbed my ribs. The tactile sensation of her fingertips and the inexplicable pain didn't overlap. The pain was not in my ribs, but underneath them, in the hollow space. Sands slipped his fingers under the ribs and tried to wiggle them. Nothing caught.
He wondered. If there's nothing here, why is there pain? Where is this pain coming from? Is it from the past, or is it the pain of the soul? They say it's called phantom pain when you feel pain in a place you've lost, but is it phantom pain when you feel pain in a place that was never there in the first place?
Sands looked down at her unscathed ribs and thought. If I hadn't gotten stronger through LOVE, I would have died like I did before. It was a wonder how he could cut flesh and break bones with that plastic thing. Heck, I even got hit with a wooden stick once.... Oh, and notebooks and frying pans. Sands's mouth twisted. Deciding that the bruises weren't going to be a problem, she went to Snowdyne. She didn't know what the child had done while she was asleep.
* * *
Sands' first stop was near his outpost in Snowdyne. Alas, Papyrus was not there. No child. There were signs of the child's passage in the outpost. There was decoration where there had been none. It was written in ketchup. It was unlikely that a papyrus eager to be in the lookout would have done so, so it was likely that a human had left the ketchup that Sands had left in the lookout. The red ketchup was eerie, somehow making the words look like they were written in blood. Sands read the words.
"You'll regret this.
Her eyes widened as she read the words the child had left behind. Anxiety washed over her. She had to find the papyrus.
Sands woke up in the guardhouse. Her head hurt like it was going to crack. Heat burned inside her eye sockets, like a laceration. White dots drifted from her eyes whenever she blinked, and a cold sweat broke out, making her back feel uncomfortably warm. She breathed raggedly and started to rise, but paused as her chest heaved. The place where she had been stabbed by the human throbbed. Surely time had gone back in time and no scars remained.
Sands lifted his shirt and checked his ribs. The toy knife had definitely broken one of his ribs earlier. He hadn't checked, but it was probably the fifth rib on his left side. Unsurprisingly, the rib was clean. There wasn't even a trace of a cut, but it was throbbing nonetheless. Sands rubbed my ribs. The tactile sensation of her fingertips and the inexplicable pain didn't overlap. The pain was not in my ribs, but underneath them, in the hollow space. Sands slipped his fingers under the ribs and tried to wiggle them. Nothing caught.
He wondered. If there's nothing here, why is there pain? Where is this pain coming from? Is it from the past, or is it the pain of the soul? They say it's called phantom pain when you feel pain in a place you've lost, but is it phantom pain when you feel pain in a place that was never there in the first place?
Sands looked down at her unscathed ribs and thought. If I hadn't gotten stronger through LOVE, I would have died like I did before. It was a wonder how he could cut flesh and break bones with that plastic thing. Heck, I even got hit with a wooden stick once.... Oh, and notebooks and frying pans. Sands's mouth twisted. Deciding that the bruises weren't going to be a problem, she went to Snowdyne. She didn't know what the child had done while she was asleep.
