Integrity

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December 29, 2006
"You promise you'll come this time?" Jessica asked as she finished putting on her pink tutu and ballet slippers. This was her last performance, and her mom hadn't come to a single one.

"Of course" her mom said curtly behind her. She was a coarse woman with black hair slowly becoming platinum and always wearing a freshly pressed pant suit. She worked in some government agency, but it really didn't matter which one, she was always there and never at home.

"Do you even know the time of the performance, or even what it is? I gave you tickets last week if that helps" Jessica's mom ruffled though her papers till a line of pink strips appeared. One ticket for each performance and all were accounted for.

"Nutcracker, 7pm at the studio." Her mother read, quickly going back to what she was doing. The pink strip got covered back up swiftly.

After a moment of awkward silence, Jessica plodded out of the room and grabbed her bag. She would be walking to the performance today apparently.

"Katlyn will bring the car around" Jessica's mother yelled as she turned the corner. Guess she wasn't walking after all, her mom's dopy secretary who followed her like a dog would be dropping her off, and probably coming to the performance to film it too.

"Ok" Jessica sighed back. Her mother didn't even look up. Sighing once again, she walked to the front of the building to find the company car, aka her mom's car, pulled up with a blonde pixie cut woman with hot pink tips in the driver's seat. Katlyn. Her almost substitute mom.

Jessica opened the passenger side door and tossed her bag into the car.

"You ready for your perfomance?" Katlyn asked a little too cheerfully. If she knew about it, she was coming, and her mom wasn't.

"Yeah, I guess" Jessica sighed. She was more than ready, she was Clara. The lead. The best in her class. But of course, her mother didn't even bother to show up. Not once.

Katlyn pulled away from the office and started heading along some back roads to get to the studio on time.

"Huh, roads are a little slick today" Katlyn said, still pushing the petal to the floor. It had snowed the night before, coating Mt. Ebbot in a glistening layer of ice and snow, making it look like a rainbow when the light hit it just right.

All at once, tires screeched and headlights blared in front of them, and suddenly they were off the small road, smashed into a tree.

"Ugh, what happened" Jessica touched her head, something warm and sticky came off. "I'm bleeding" she looked blearily over at Katlyn. "Katlyn? Katlyn!" Nothing. Katlyn was staring emptily into space, blood covering the side of her face.

"I've got to get it of here" Jessica blindly reached for her seat belt and clicked it off. She grabbed for the door next, pushing it open and stumbling out onto the snow. Her silk ballet slippers getting drenched along with the tip of her jacket sleeves as she fell on her hands and knees.

A bitter wind echoed though the area, but it was pitch black. No stars even shone. The chill breeze almost sounded like a whisper. The ruins of a house loomed a little ways in the darkness. "That must be that one house where two kids disappeared two years apart." Jessica reasoned. Everyone talked about it, and advised the kids to stay away from it, especially this year. The last disappearance was two years ago, and they didn't want it to happen again, especially since those kids were never seen again.

But it was almost the end of the year and the last two disappearances were in spring and summer, and it was winter now. The police rarely came out here anymore, and it was so far away it wasn't surprising that she and Katlyn were left by their hit and run driver. They were in the middle of nowhere, who wants to stop and make sure the people that just hit were alive? Not that person apparently.

Stamping down her anger, bitterness, and sadness, she stomped toward the ruined house, hoping to at least find some shelter from the storm.

As she got closer to the house the breeze carried a whisper echoed through the area. A voice could almost be heard, but it was drown out by a stronger, chiller breeze that shot through the clearing, almost like a hush.

"Ok, that was weird, I must of hit my head really hard in the crash." Jessica muttered, rubbing her arm to try to warm it, despite wearing a jacket, she was freezing.

She glanced around the clearing, and her eyes settled on a strange white glow. Intrigued, she got closer and saw it was like a star, but not. Well, not really a boy, but an outline of one. He had a bandana around his neck and what appeared to be work gloves on his hands. Almost as soon as she got close, a almost windy sigh echoed from it, and it flitted off though the trees.

Jessica followed close behind, keeping within sight of the weird shine. Finally, they arrived at a cave and the light shot into it. Close on his heels now, Jessica ran full steam in after him, intrigued beyond words.

The light was gone, and a strange shadow was in its place. At first Jessica didn't see it, but as her eyes adjusted she saw a almost three dimensional figure in the darkness, then it turned.

Piercing red eyes bored into Jessica, digging up all of her failures, all her broken promises. Crying, Jessica saw Katlyn, dead and staring into space. She was the only person who cared, even if she was forced to care. The next thing Jessica knew, she was free falling through the air, wind whistling in her ears a haunted melody, and then she hit the ground, her vision going black.

A few seconds later, a voice spoke, startling Jessica awake. " Jessica! Your a little later than I was expecting, but that's ok. Welcome to the Underground!"

Jessica was helped upright by a girl with shirt maroon brown hair and startling red eyes. "I know your name because technically your dead, but we can worry about that later. Right now, you need to know what's about to happen. This," The girl pulled out a star of light " is a save point it holds memories for you so if you die you can com back, well, it may not work since it was made for someone with a determination soul, but we can hope right? Anyway, be careful, don't tell anyone you're a human and be careful with your trust, espcailly toward flowers, one has kind of gotten out of control. Bye!"

A cold draft startled Jessica awake. "Where am I? And what just happened?" She looked around, finding herself in a little patch of flowers. Cold air flowed from the ceiling, chilling Jessica even more.

A doorway with a faint light glowed from down a hallway. Checking to make sure it really was her only option, she headed toward it. A sense of familiar dread filled her.

"Howdy and whatever, I'm Flowey. Flowey the flower. Golly, it looks like you just fell." A flower in the middle of the room said in a bored monotone voice. "Seeing as I'm the only one here, I'll show you how things are done"

A clicking noise echoed though the clearing and the wold went black and white, and a dark blue heart came out of Jessica's chest.

"See that heart, that's your soul, oh look, your soul is integrity, so fancy and whatnot" the flower was sounding more bored by the minute.

"So your heart is weak right now and whatever. Here have some pellets, they'll help" an arc of white pellets surrounded the strangely sarcastic and familiar flower and suddenly they launched though the air, cutting into the little blue heart, which stayed right on her chest.

"Ahh!" Jessica called out, a little crack appearing on the little heart, but it healed quickly.  Pain shot through her, but it settle down to a manageable throb in her chest after a few seconds.

"Wait, this is new! The loop is broken! Well, for now I guess. Chara, you need to fix these save points, their messing with the Tineline, I know they were invented to do that, just fix the looping please–" the flower disappeared into the ground, completely ignoring Jessica. 'Wow, I feel so important' with a roll of her eyes, Jessica moved forward in the cave.

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⏰ Last updated: Apr 27, 2017 ⏰

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