Bitter Determination ♥︎

Chapter Five

After a few puzzles, Chara had came back to Frisk's side.
Whatever fit she had was over, leaving her with tearstained cheeks and a light frown. She had still been crying slightly, but was doing fairly well to hold it back.

Frisk was relieved, but also worried. He hated when people cried, and he wanted to know the context of the situation so he could help.
Instead, he asked Toriel,
"Who is Chara?" He asked curiously.

Toriel glanced back,
"Oh, please tell me where you picked up their name. No one has mentioned it for quite some time.." she murmured.

Frisk couldn't answer,
"I heard it on the surface." He lied.
Toriel frowned,
"Oh. I.. im not entirely surprised, I guess.
Chara was a girl who fell down here, like you. Times were different back then. Myself and my family had loved and accepted her as our own, but she died from sickness after awhile." Toriel summarized. She didn't like talking about it, it seemed.

Frisk frowned,
"Oh," He murmured.

Chara looked to Frisk with confusion. It was a sad confusion, as Chara never really recovered from her breakdown that she chose to have out of the room.

Frisk then looked back to Toriel,
"You were her mother? What sickness?" He asked.

Toriel frowned,
"Yes, I was. We assumed she fell ill after ingesting flowers. It was a bit of a shock, and she died too soon to truly find out what had happened. My son, her brother, seemed to know much more about what happened than he was willing to say.." Toriel murmured.
"However, at the end of the day, it never really mattered how much he knew." Toriel seemed to have a blank stare.

Oh, god. The memory. She could remember the scene as it replayed endlessly.
Her biggest failure.
Her son disappeared for an hour. They had thought he went to Chara's room to mourn.
But he came out as a horrid creature, with ripped clothing and red, harsh eyes.
He had a purpose
He had determination.
They couldn't stop him as he ventured across the barrier with the corpse of his sickly sister.
As her wounded son stumbled into the garden hours later, holding her daughter, he fell to the ground.
Screaming out for his mother and father until they came.
Toriel had healing magic.
She was just too slow.
Running to her son's side, along with her husband.
Kneeling besides him as he murmured phrases of pain, and jumbled, slurred phrases of how he was a bad person for not being able to fulfill Chara's wish.
But also murmurs of love for his mother.

As Toriel frantically tried to find the major wounds, he just collapsed into dust.

Toriel had said nothing; and actually happened to skip through a few puzzles as she walked in thought.

Frisk looked to Toriel, her silence unsettled him.
"What do you mean?" He asked.

Toriel sighed,
"They both died, it was avoidable, but what happened was worst case scenario. You really shouldn't worry about it.." Toriel forced a smile.
Then, Toriel looked to Frisk,
"Please, forgive me for requesting such a random task. I need you to walk down the end of this hall, on your own." She requested.

Then, she ran off, into the fog of the room.
Leaving Frisk alone with his incorporeal companion.