Judgement Hall

Part One

(Sans POV)

The judgement hall was empty. The only sound was of my heavy panting filling the room. It took a while, a long time this kid. Man...I thought I was hard to beat, but finally, they got dunked. I remember how tired I was, glaring down at the kid hatefully. They had took everything from me, no one survived.
They looked so...broken, but then again, they already were before any of this happened. I just.... I just wish I had known before all of this had occurred .
I never enjoyed taking a life, never knew anyone who did, but I think I took a little glee from looking down at their cold, lifeless body, I'm sad to admit. All I had to do now was take their bag and head back to Snowdin, nothing would have been there though.
Well, I guess that was a lie, I wouldn't have been alone, but we'll get to that later. I looked down at the kid confused. I really expected them to reset, but they hadn't yet. So I went with it, as far as I knew, they were gone, for now. I remember brushing their head to the side. Man...I felt a chill run up my arm.
I quickly picked up the brown backpack from the ground, I knew their soul was in pieces. It was Tori's bag. God how I missed her, everything about her was amazing, I think I may have even fell for her. Anyway, back to the point, I looked inside.
Y'know, I guess I should have expected the back up knife. It still shook me a little. Needless to say, to hell with that. I was more into the other thing that was in the bag. A freaking book? I mean the murder weapon, yeah...but this? Frisk...
I tried not to let it bother me, and stowed the book away inside my jacket. I just wanted to head home. I wish I'd read it sooner though. But, I guess frisk was the only enemy to me. I'd invade their privacy on my own time, I just wanted ketchup. I put on my hood and started my journey home from the castle.
I guess I missed an opportunity by not seeing straight through the kid, and I'm sorry.

Snowdin was hell with everyone else gone. The evacuation seemed pointless now. I sighed before walking towards my house. Getting a look at it made my heart ache. Pap was gone.
I got inside and ploped on the couch. As empty and dull as it seemed, I knew it was a lie. I planned on reading the book but...I don't know I'd wanted to read it in company...you'd think...it was impossible, but it wasn't. Everyone was dead, but at the same time not. As I've said before, they weren't really gone.  Alphys, Mettaton, Papyrus, Toriel, and Undyne, all of them were with me still.
No monster has ever wanted to acknowledge that in order to...absorb a soul, you have to do it by physically eating them.  Souls...don't last long without something to occupy, and when I found them I....couldn't let them fade away. So, we fought together and they gave me help, but if saving my family meant holding on, fine. I'd do it with no hesitation. Until I could configurate the machine to restore their bodies...they deserved to know.
I took the book from my jacket and held it so the souls could see, to read with me, and know why they d i e d. 
I opened the book my eye sockets widened. It all came crashing down on me. I had heard...what they said. The voices were scared...a-and it was awful to hear. But the book, that damned book had one more secret in it's pages.
Frisk, God, Frisk, sorry...heh, just got a bit dreary.
The book, it rose from my hands. I felt the souls fidget, but they weren't the only ones.
A baby...a child's soul, an injured soul floated out from the book. I remember wondering, 'This is yours Frisk, isn't it?' They looked so broken, rolling right into my arms.
I was shaking violently, I felt tears brimming at the corners of my eye sockets. I wasn't shaking because of that. I was scared of what I had to do...I really did not want to do it, God how I didn't.
If the kid stayed out here, they would die. Someone would find them, kill them without ever knowing what Frisk went through. If I consumed them, they would die as well. They were too weak to last much longer on their own. 
I stared at their soul intently, I just...I just wanted to help them, to protect them. I had to take the chance and keep myself under control. If this was going to happen, I was going to watch them. I took off my jacket, my stomach giving off a soft cyan glow. I could see the other souls in there, almost excitedly watching Frisk and I.
I couldn't help it, tears started streaming down my face. If I killed them this time, I would be doing it consciously.  I didn't feel like the same person I was. I felt awful, gross.
When I shoved their soul in my mouth, I wanted to spit it out again. I was only trying to keep them close, to protect them.  I waited and watched them go down to my stomach. They seemed safe as they went.
It looked like the others were floating up to meet Frisk, but the moment Frisk entered my stomach, there was a twisting knot beginning to form. The pain, for the both of us, was unbearable. Something was going wrong and I couldn't...I couldn't stop it!
Was this how a human soul was supposed to be absorbed? God I was so scared, holding my stomach gasping for breath. I didn't know how to stop it, I had to. I had to try!

"Huff...huff...huff...F-Frisk j-ju-just hang on b-buddy."
I fell off the couch, unable to breathe or think. I thought I could suppress the absorbing...but I was wrong.

"Huff...huff I'm huff...sorry Frisk...I let you...huff...down." It was so painful. Too painful. My eyes squeezed shut as the knot got worse. "Frisk...kiddo...one slip up is bad enough, but I never meant..." I lay on the floor, grieving for this kid whom I never got to know, but the pain ended. My stomach felt light, and I could breathe again. 
The other souls moved toward Frisk in a quick fashion, almost panicky.  Soon Frisk was smothered by the souls the knot being forced back. The souls, they broke the process. They stopped it for Frisk, for me. 

"Huff...Frisk...?"  I sat up in a daze, I was so dizzy. "F-Frisk! Thank god kiddo, geez...you gave me quite...the scare there." ...but there was no measurement of relief. It was pooling all through my bones. I started to get up, the dizziness at it's peak. 
After a few tries, I finally got upstairs and to my bed, messy, how I left it. Besides being in shock, I felt the remains of anxiety. Sleep didn't sound too bad. Old habits die hard, I guess.
As I slipped on my hoodie, I felt sick to my stomach thinking about Frisk. What would have happened if the other souls hadn't been there? Would this kid just cease to exist? 
I doubted that sleep would come so easily now, I felt...uneasy. I sat on my bed, huffing. 'Damn it Sans, seriously'. It may come as a surprise, but I'm an insomniac so...sleep doesn't come so easy for me anyway. I have to take constant naps, and my anxiety for this kid...wasn't really helping. I flopped onto my bed, worry pumping through my bones.
I know that the moment I stop caring, everything will go to hell. So, Frisk, what will happen...if I closed my eyes? I was so paranoid that I would lose them. But, y'know, love could make you stronger.  Which
love you ask? Well...does it matter?
My eyelids were getting heavy, I tried to keep them open, but sleep had already overtaken me. Lulling me into a sense of security.
The peace didn't last.