Hope (AU Sans x reader)

[4] Ink The Puppet Thief

"ERROR!!!"

The splash of paint hitting the floor sounded through the white void, followed by a loud explosion.

You close your eyes in an attempt to protect them from the said explosion as you turn your head away. You silently hope whoever had shown up was here to protect you and not to kill you as well, or steal your soul.

Once you open your eyes, you look at the newcomer. A wave of confusion hit you as you inspected him. He appears to look the same as the glitchy skeleton that holds you captive, but he has white bones instead of black, and he wears different clothing.
What confuses you more, though, is the fact that he possesses an extremely big paintbrush. It is a strange weapon choice. You aren't sure what he is planning to do with it, but getting you free from the glitchy skeleton doesn't seem like a good plan with it. If that's his plan in the first place. Given the fact that they're pretty much identical, you don't trust him a single bit.

"Go aWayY, InK." The glitchy skeleton glares at the newcomer. He appears to be glitching more than before in, what you assume is, rage.

"Let her go, Error! Can't I ever leave you alone without you kidnapping someone?!" The new skeleton, Ink, yells back as he stood in a defensive pose, the paintbrush held firmly in his hands. You're starting to think that the Ink skeleton is also delusional. What kind of puppet show have you gotten yourself into.

The glitchy skeleton, Error, merely scoffs at Ink. He moves his hand that is covered in blue strings and drags you further away from Ink and closer to him. You assume it is an attempt to keep Ink away from you. Stress started to increase in your body as your labored breathing quickened. You're scared, very scared. Your whole body is screaming at you, telling you to just sleep and let the darkness take you away, but you can't give in. You shake uncontrollably as you stare at the skeletons before you. Why, why you.

A weird noise caught your attention, breaking you from your unhealthy thought pattern. You turn your head to your right to look at it, seeing multiple black dragon-like skulls in the air. The skulls are all black and were glitching just like Error did. Before you could even comprehend what is happening, a beam shot from the skulls and headed directly at Ink. Ink quickly dodged the beams and swiped with his paintbrush, sending paint flying right at Error. The paint quickly exploded, sending Error flying back. So, the paintbrush isn't just for show, huh.

You feel the strings loosen around your soul, giving you enough power to summon your sword. The golden sword appears right in your palm, it glows dimly under the white light of the void that surrounded you. You weakly bring your arms up, as the two skeletons continue their fight, and slice the strings that limited your movements. Once you finished cutting them, you fell to the hard ground. A grunt of pain escapes your lips as you lay on the void's floor. You try to push yourself to a sitting position, but your body hurts too much. You can't bring yourself to move any further. You feel your soul return in your body, giving a sense of warmth back into your chest. The missing piece finally returning to your body. At least that's a good thing.

The sound of running getting closer made you look back up.

Ink is running straight at you, a panicked look plastered on his face. In his skeletal hands, he held what looked like a small puppet. You couldn't make out what the puppet is exactly. Behind him, is Error, with an enraged expression on his skull. Error is chasing Ink. Ink ran to you at full speed, causing a panicked look to overtake your face. You couldn't run though, you have no choice. Ink didn't say a word as he quickly reached down to pick you up, now holding onto your arms, and continued his escape from the enraged skeleton behind you two. Said skeleton is getting angrier by the passing second.

"GeT BaCk heRe!" Error is glitching more and more, his voice filled with rage. Ink only gulped as he continues sprinting through the white void, holding you close to his chest. You wanted to fight against him, to yell at him for him to let you go, but nothing came out of you. You aren't dumb, you know he's your only way of escape. Evil or not, he's your only HOPE. You'll have to rely on him until you're out of this white hell. It's either him or having your soul crushed by an angry glitchy man. You honestly don't know what to think anymore. Everything is just too much for you to handle. Being pulled into a white void randomly, being tied up and tortured, and now being pulled along by a skeleton with an unnecessarily big paintbrush while being chased by an angry glitchy skeleton was far from how a normal day should go. Besides that, you are pretty sure you hit your head against the wall back at home, HARD.

Ink suddenly swipes with his paintbrush, sending a splash of paint on the ground before you. He continues to sprint forward, now running towards the puddle of paint he had made. Before you could register what was happening, you are dragged inside the puddle of paint, but instead of hitting the ground, you felt a rushing sensation, like you're falling. A gasp escapes your lips as you hit the ground below, soft cold snow meeting you. Ink had let you go during the fall.

The sound of Error's enraged yelling got cut off, the only sound heard now is the wind around you and your's and Ink's heavy breathing.

A wave of dizziness hit you as you try to get yourself to think straight again. The coldness of the snow dug into your hands, leaving a numb feeling to spread through them. You shiver as the cold air blows against you. Looking around, it seemed like you are in a cave of sorts, which made you wonder how it is snowing. At this point, it doesn't surprise you anymore, your mind is too far gone for you to comprehend anything.

"You okay?" You turn to see the skeleton, Ink, staring at you with a worried expression. He collected himself and now stood straight again, holding his hand out for you to grab. You stare at him, looking at the skeleton with distrust. Just because he saved you doesn't mean you can trust him. For all you know, he has ill intentions just as Error and wants your soul just for himself.

Ink seems to have noticed your distrust as he sends a comforting smile your way, "Hey, don't worry I won't hurt you." He attempts to comfort you, showing that he means no harm by lifting his arms up in a surrender motion. "My name is Ink, I create and protect universes."

There it is again, universes. He's just as delusional as Error. You stare at him in disbelief, which he immediately picked up, "Ah, right, I'll explain it later. We should head to the town first so I can heal you! It's too cold for you humans to handle over here." Ink offers, once again trying to comfort you with a smile. He's right, though, if you stay out here much longer then you'll freeze to death. Not to mention the throbbing pain all over your body.

"O..okay, I'll come." You finally utter out, sighing in defeat. You'll have to find a way back home later. You attempt to stand up, but a sharp pain spreads through your back as you do. A pained grunt escapes your lips as you hit the ground once again, the harsh cold snow meeting your shivering body. Ink quickly hurries to your side, helping you to stand up once again. He put your arm around his shoulder to support you, much to your relief. "Thank you."

You gave him a slight smile as he helped you walk across a long bridge. Below the bridge, you could see various more trees spreading across the snowy ground, the same trees that are surrounding you. You quickly look back up, you're afraid of heights.

In the distance, bright multicolored lights glowed through the thick snowy mist. As you two got closer, a Christmas-type town appeared before your vision. It looks cozy and has a welcoming aura to it. You see multiple buildings lining against the cave walls, all covered in the same Christmas lights. It was then, that realization hit. You've heard stories before, both from the news and from Jenny. This is the underground, the same place that she and the monsters were stuck in for decades. The place they hated and would never want to see again. Yet, when you look around, there are multiple monsters walking around and living their day-to-day life. Shouldn't they be on the surface? How come they're down here?

By the time you came back to your senses, you're standing before a big wooden house. The house is also decorated with Christmas lights just like the rest of the town. Looks like they really love Christmas. Ink walks over to the front steps of the house, while still supporting you, and knocks on the door without bothering to explain anything to you.

"WHO IS IT- OH HELLO INK!" A loud voice boomed as the door opened, startling you, and revealed a small skeleton in the doorway. The skeleton looks about the same as Ink and Error did, but he wears different clothing and his eyes are stars. You wonder how many of them existed and if they were siblings somehow. This is hurting your brain way too much.

"Hey Blue, mind if we come in?" Ink asks the skeleton before you two.

"WE?" Blue tilts his head before his eyes land on your hunched form. His eyes almost sparkled as his smile widened. He looks adorable.

"A HUMAN?!"