W. D. Gaster - An Undertale Story

Chapter Sixteen

   Gaster rubbed the side of his skull, groaning miserably. It was the middle of the night and he was trying to think of valid ideas to help with future construction of the CORE. But he wasn't getting anywhere and the painkillers for the cracks in his skull were beginning to wear off. He touched the cracks. They still felt new to him, so different and unnatural. Sometimes they didn't hurt and he wouldn't notice they were there, but other times they seemed to attack Gaster with a piercing, torturous pain.
   Currently, the feeling of the cracks were in the middle of the pain spectrum. They didn't hurt incredibly bad, but they didn't feel too nice, either. Gaster stood up from his chair and desk, yawning loudly, cracking his backbone from where he was slouched over. Skeletons didn't exactly need sleep, but just like any other monster, they still had a bit of a longing for sleep.
   Gaster flopped onto his bed, which was beside his desk, and sighed loudly. All that time spent awake thinking of designs, all of it for nothing. He wanted so badly to drift off to sleep, to a world of dark and calm, a world of dreams, a world that was problem-free. He closed his eyesockets slowly, allowing himself to fall into the calm, slowing state of mind. He pulled the covers over him, falling deeper into calmness. Into quiet. He was warm, tired, calm, and quiet. He hadn't gotten any good sleep for the past few weeks, but maybe tonight would be different.
   But no.
   There was a pair of footsteps in the hall, rushing footsteps, so Gaster knew something was wrong. It was his older son, Sans. He ran into Gaster's room, hyperventilating rapidly. Sans climbed into the bed, whimpering in a scared tone. Gaster let out a sound of confusion, or possibly a sound of concern. Neither were sure. Maybe it was both.
   "Sans? What's wrong?", Gaster asked in a tired voice, concerned but still almost half-asleep. But Sans gave no answer. He just snuggled his skull into Gaster's bony ribcage and chest. Gaster rubbed Sans's back and chest with his hands, attempting to calm his son down, to make him feel comfortable.
   "Sans?", Gaster asked once more. Sans looked up at Gaster, tears filling his eyesockets, falling out, running down his cheekbones. The child was obviously frightened, scared to death. Sans was crying, sobbing, and choking on his own words. Gaster continued to rub Sans, calming him down. He sighed deeply.
   "The -hic! N-n-nightmare.", Sans coughed, still choking through tears in fear, trying to get his words out. "It... I-it w-ww-was th-that nigh- hic! That-t n-nightmare!" Sans cried even more, sobbing and coughing harder. Gaster widened his eyesockets, pulling Sans even closer to him. He hugged Sans tightly, assuring him it would be okay, that he was okay, that nothing was wrong, that they were both safe, that nothing would hurt them. Sans tried his best to stop crying, but he couldn't just stop. He had to try and get his mind off of the nightmare.
   Gaster was worried. Now, it had been about a year since the nightmare that pushed Sans to tears, that put him on edge, that made him jump into his family members' arms. The dream of Gaster, and the Void, and timelines, and dying. Gaster was sure that the nightmare had to be gone, that it wouldn't come back, considering that Sans had been 5 years old since the last nightmare. Now he was 6. But Gaster was quite wrong. It seemed that the nightmare was coming back.
   "Was the dream the same?", Gaster asked in concern, wondering if anything had changed about the nightmare. And indeed, it had changed.
   "N-no...", Sans choked out. Gaster wiped the tears from Sans's eyesockets. He lifted Sans's chin so that they were looking at each other. Sans looked completely scared and depressed. His eyes revealed that very much. It made Gaster himself a little depressed inside. He wiped more tears from the scared skeleton's eyesockets.
   "Hey, hey. Look at me.", Gaster said. Sans looked directly at Gaster, another tear rolling down his cheekbone. "Calm down. Calm down." Gaster was talking in his most calm and comforting voice, even if it wasn't as calm as other monster voices. Sans nodded. He was trying not to cry as bad as he was, and the tears weren't constantly rolling down his face like a river anymore. Gaster nodded.
   "Good. Good.", Gaster said, flashing a small smile at Sans. Sans attempted to smile back, but it was too hard for him to give a full smile. Gaster wiped another tear from the child's eyesockets. Sans hugged Gaster, Gaster hugging back. The two stayed like that for a minute, but then Gaster pulled away. Not completely away though, he kept his hand placed on one of Sans's hands.
   "Now,", Gaster started, "tell me about your nightmare, Sans. How did it change?" The curiosity grabbed at Gaster. It was as if Gaster's questions begged to be answered. Sans fought back more tears as he looked up at Gaster, fear from his nightmare filling his eyes.
   "I-I... I was walking through the Waterfalls...", Sans stuttered as he was shivering in fear. Gaster rubbed his back, attempting to cheer him up. Sans had always felt comfortable when Gaster rubbed his back. It made him calm. Sans gripped onto Gaster tightly, not wanting to let go. Gaster gripped Sans back. He didn't want to let go, either.
   "You were walking through the Waterfalls. And?", Gaster said, wanting to get to the point. Wanting to know the full story of the nightmare. Wanting to find out if he could do something to make these nightmares stop, no matter what the cost.
   "And there was an extra hallway.", Sans started, not stuttering anymore. He had stopped crying a bit. Only a few tears came out at a time, and he wiped them away when they came. "In the hallway, there was some kind of grey door. The door... I opened it. I was curious. And... you were there. But like every other time, it wasn't exactly you. You had that outfit on, that drooped eyes and..." Sans began to drift off as he gasped. Gaster looked at Sans in confusion, wondering what was wrong. Sans covered his own mouth and jawbone with his bony hands.
   "The c-c-cracks, dad...", Sans said in a terrified tone of voice. He lifted his right hand to the rigged cracks on Gaster's face. "Th-the cracks on your f-f-f-face. They w-were in m-m-my d-dreams bef-before..." Gaster gasped in surprise. Sans was right. Gaster remembered the first time that Sans had the bad nightmare. The one that had cracked his soul. When Sans had told Gaster about that nightmare about a year or two ago, he had spoken of cracks in Gaster's face in the nightmare.
   Gaster touched the cracks on his own face as well. Could Sans's nightmares not actually be nightmares, but instead, be visions? The idea scared Gaster. In Sans's nightmare from so long ago, Gaster had been trying to kill Sans. He didn't want that to happen. He couldn't bring himself to it. Ever. So if these were visions, what were they from? Or were these simply nightmares? Or...
   ...were they visions of timelines? The timelines Dr. Raven Malice had spoke of? In the Void she had spoke of? In the world of complete darkness, the only company being screens of timelines, some good, others bad, and others completely evil and horrifying? Could that be what Sans was seeing? He had spoke of a Void. He had spoke of seeing things that looked too real. And now, it seemed, he had foretold of the cracks in Gaster's face.
   But right now, Gaster just needed to know more details of Sans's nightmare. Just in case it might foretell something else. Gaster lifted up Sans's chin once more.
   "Sans, I need to know more about your nightmare. Or was that the end?", Gaster said, unsure if he would get any answers from his oldest son.
   "There's more. Like, a lot more.", Sans said, his voice wavering. Gaster hinted at an expression of curiosity. "So, as I said, you were in the room behind that grey door. The room was grey, too. You had a wide, creepy grin on your face. I guess you could say it sent shivers down my spine."
   They both chuckled at the skeleton pun, not caring about how bad it was. But their chuckles quickly faded.
   "Anyway,", Sans continued, "I saw you, but it was as if I didn't know who you were. At all. I walked up to you. You didn't really move at all. I reached my arm up to touch you, and you just disappeared. Into thin air! But was weirder was when I realized I had a human hand! I looked down. I was wearing a purple-and-blue striped sweater. I was also wearing brown jeans. I wasn't me. I was someone else. I was a human..."
   Gaster seemed moved by the twist of the dream. It was so random. So, was it possible that this whole time, Sans never was himself in these dreams? That he was this human being in all the dreams, or more possibly, visions? Gaster had to know.
   "I want you to think about a year ago. When you had that nightmare about me trying to kill you. We're you the human in that nightmare, too?", Gaster tempted. Sans thought for a minute. He was tapping his cheekbone as he was deep in thought. Then he made a face of realization. And not only realization, but surprise, too. Gaster was intrigued by his sudden reaction.
   "What? What is it?", Gaster asked, a bit of urgency in his voice. Sans looked up at his father, his bony hands shaking a little. Sans began to slightly stutter.
   "I... I w-was a human... B-b-but... not the s-same one I was in this p-past n-n-nightmare...", Sans said, his breathing slightly becoming more rapid. Gaster rubbed the side of his arm, calming him down a bit. Sans's breathing became a bit more normal.
   "What do you mean? Explain it to me, if it's possible that you can.", Gaster said with a nod, attempting to cooperate with Sans, trying not to pressure him. Sans nodded back.
   "I can.", he said simply, beginning to explain. "I... In my past nightmare -y'know, from a year or so ago- I was... well.. a human, of c-course. But... different from this past dream. I was wearing a green-and-yellow striped shirt. I also wore brown jeans. I..." Sans was trailing off in his sentence. Gaster wove his hand in a gesture that was signaling for Sans to continue. But Sans didn't. He still wore a shade of fear in his eyes.
   "Sans?", Gaster tried to catch his son's attention.
   "I-I-I... I was h-holding a kn-kn-knife.", Sans said, the white pupils in his eyesockets becoming even smaller. Gaster covered his mouth with his bony hand. This scared him even more. If these truly were visions of some kind, a human would battle Gaster. With a knife. And what was it Sans had described? A green-and-yellow striped shirt?
   ...
   Why did that seem so familiar to Gaster?
  
   That night, Sans and Gaster slept in Gaster's bed. Gaster had his arms wrapped tightly around Sans in a protective fatherly way. Sans had kept his arms around Gaster, his head tucked into Gaster's chest. They slept the whole night. And Sans didn't wake up with a nightmare at all the rest of the night.
   That morning, Papyrus had so many questions. Many questions. He wanted to know what happened to Sans. He wanted to know why Sans had to sleep with Gaster for the night. And once he learned that Sans was having some kind of nightmare, he needed to know what it had been about.
   "Sans, why are you in here?", Papyrus had first asked when he entered his father's room. Papyrus's voice had broken the silence of the room, causing Sans and Gaster both to wake up. Gaster groaned when he woke. Sans yawned, still a bit tired. Sans smiled happily at the sight of his brother. Gaster smiled at the brothers' happiness and brotherly loving bond. Sans bounced out of the bed and rushed to Papyrus, gripping him close for a hug.
   "Oh! Hello!", Papyrus said, surprised by Sans's sudden hug. Papyrus hugged his brother back. "Still doesn't answer my question." Gaster chuckled at the innocent skeleton's comment. Sans still gripped Papyrus.
   "Well, I was having trouble sleeping.", Sans said, answering his brother's question. But obviously, the answer was not detailed enough for the great Papyrus.
   "Why were you having trouble sleeping? Sleep-deprived? Scared of the dark? Saw something scary on TV or in real life? Nightmare? Hallucinations?", Papyrus carried on, drawing many, many conclusions. He was clearly worried about his brother. "And if it was any of these, do you know what's causing them? An experience? A fear?" But even if Papyrus was worried for his brother and wanted to help, he wouldn't stop asking questions. It was slightly getting on both Sans and Gaster's last nerve.
   "Papyrus Tibia Skeleton!", Gaster shouted the child's full name. Papyrus immediately knew to be quiet and did so. Sans became silent, too. He didn't want his own name being called out. Gaster sighed.
   "Let your brother speak.", Gaster said calmly, gesturing from Papyrus to Sans. Papyrus nodded. Sans sighed, but was also silently chuckling under his breath.
   "It was just a nightmare, Paps. I'll be fine.", Sans said. Papyrus sighed in relief. He hugged his brother. Sans hugged back.