Broken Souls [rewrite]

chapter 4

Guys I did it I wrote another chapter. It's short, but I'm glad I got it out. Hopefully if any of you still care about this story this is good enough for you!

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It was a storage room. Sans had told him so, and he believed him, for what reason did he have not to? He'd asked about it when he was young - He and Sans had lived there ever since they arrived in Snowdin, two scrawny, hungry skeleton children, one in his early teenage years and the other hardly past seven.

Papyrus hadn't been too curious about it. Sans said it was mostly empty, and Papyrus didn't need the space for anything. The snowy woods and cozy little shops and meeting places of Snowdin were where he preferred to spend most of his time.

Today, though? He was so bored. A blizzard had started up around their house several days ago, winds whipping against the walls and snow piling against the doors, the windows, the front steps - everywhere. The thin, seventeen-year-old skeleton assembled and reassembled every puzzle in the house. Baked every recipe he had (granted, there weren't that many), played every board game. Their television wasn't working and they'd watched all of the few movies they owned already. Sans was asleep, always the late riser. Papyrus had been up for two hours now, enough time to make breakfast, straighten the living room, straighten it again, and then get frustrated and try to get it to the perfect equilibrium of clean and lived in. He was now on the couch, having failed and lacking the energy to try again. He groaned, tilting his head back over the edge of the couch, upside-down. He stared at the broken television as if it had personally offended him (which it had. What kind of television breaks at the worst possible time like that?).

He groaned again, more insistently. Of course, this did nothing, but the wind happened to get a little louder outside, moaning and whistling through the trees as if teasing him. Papyrus stood with a huff and went to the living room window. He glared at the snow, hardly able to see out. How the heck was there even a snowstorm this bad when they were underground? How was there even weather? He hated it. Stupid storm. Stupid underground. Stupid, stupid, stupid. All of it. He crossed his arms, glowering at the lousy weather outside. He wished he could go somewhere, but everything was closed and Undyne's was too far a walk to ever hope to get there and back without freezing heading one way or the other. The house was boring. The same every day. The same walls, the same number of creaky steps he'd memorized when he was younger. He slouched and melted back onto the couch, sinking into its lumpy cushions.

Then, he sat bolt upright. Or, he tried. Instead, he fell off the couch and landed on his bony backside with a surprised grunt. He quickly stood and he glanced up at Sans's room, listening. No noise. He wasn't up yet. Papyrus grinned. He knew what he could do, now. He snuck up the stairs, using that knowledge of which steps creaked as he made his way up, then to the right, down to his brother's room. He turned the knob and pulled up on it as he swung the door open to avoid it squeaking. The room was dark, but he knew where to go. He tiptoed, avoiding the trash and dirty clothes everywhere as he made his way to the dresser. Opening it, he smiled wide as he saw a golden glint. Perfect. The key to the storage room.

He snatched it up and absconded with it, trying to be quiet. His next stop was his own room. Over his t-shirt he threw a warm jacket and an old but very warm winter coat. He put on his red winter boots and wrapped his scarf around his neck snugly. A hat with little fluffy pom poms that hung down by his chin came next. He put the key in his coat pocket and slipped on some thick knitted red mittens. He headed down the stairs. He went to the door. He smiled and he opened it, quickly slipping out before he let too much snow in and failing miserably. The stuff was waist deep. Papyrus frowned but waded out into it, displacing it and making it spill into the living room. He quickly yanked the door shut behind him before more blew in.