Chapter Text
BANG
BANG
BANG
Three shots.
Threes, always threes, stupid fucking number.
Then silence.
No please, no no no no...
Drip.
Drip.
Drip...
When you look up, you can see your brother, his form draped across the landing of the emergency stairs like a marionette with it's strings cut.
His arm hangs off the edge with a deep hole in the center of it, a steady stream of red is leaking down and off his hand.
You watch as globs of blood drip away and downward into a puddle of water below. The swirls of the thick liquid in the dirty puddle mesmerizes you.
There's two more holes, one in his chest, and another right where his eye should be.
The replacement of the eye is deep red and yet full of darkness.
It's vastness seems to swallow up any and all light that nears it, threatening to rip it all away, and turn it into nothingness...
You can finally look away.
You close your eyes to the feeling of friction across your throat as noise passes over it. Your voice is the only thing that seems to overpower the consuming weight of pain.
A guttural wail slips off your lips as you fling yourself up to the cry of your alarm.
You gasp and look to the old and weathered alarm clock currently complaining to be shut off.
You let out another shuddering breath as you click it's switch and stumble out of bed, all while trying not to trip over the stacks of books in front of you when making your way over to the kitchen.
Small was a bit understated when describing your place, but it was cozy. It consisted of a tiny bathroom off to the side, and one communal room making up kitchen, living and bedroom. Said bedroom only being separated by a curtain.
You turn on your coffee maker and rest against the counter while listening to it sizzle and pop. You then lean over and begin rummaging into a paper bag that had been sitting on the counter and pull out a croissant. You can't help but to hum to yourself as you bury your teeth into the buttery pastry.
Living space options really weren't that plentiful in your city, but that didn't mean your food options had to be. The new bakery downtown was proving to be really good.
After pouring yourself a cup of coffee you once again dig into the paper bag and head towards the living room with your treat.
After quickly polishing off your croissant and licking your fingers clean, you pick up the novel you had started yesterday.
"Maybe just one chapter..." You mumble to yourself.
After your "one" chapter you glance up at the clock you let out a cuss, shove a bookmark into the book, and throw back the rest of your coffee.
You then scurry over to your bedroom and begin digging into a basket of clean clothes. You end up grabbing some jeans, a black shirt and a hooded sweatshirt.
It was getting to be the end of spring but was still pretty cold.
Being as tall as you were, standing at 6 foot 2, dresses and skirts always felt too short. Not that you really had a reason to wear one in the last few years.
After changing you quickly grab your bag, tuck away your shoulder length hair onto a hat, and lock the front door behind you as you leave.
There were two things that always brought you joy, the first was a good book, and the second was your bike.
Every day had been pretty enjoyable since you had started your delivery job a few years ago. Especially since the job had you riding said bike.
Delivering packages and messages was a pretty good gig too, and your boss was pretty flexible, so the morning shift was all yours.
Pedaling through the quiet streets while the sun rose was always so soothing.
~~~
You hummed a tune while cruising along the streets with a bag full of deliveries on your shoulder. The day was going pretty smoothly, and after glancing to your notes you see that Ms Freedies name was next on your list.
You didn't dislike the kind woman, but talking with her always seemed to hurt a little. For someone so chatty, she was a pretty melancholy person by nature.
You let out a sigh.
You don't mind her much, but it was hard work talking with her, and with last night's dream you were already pretty mentally tired.
Not too many people knew you personally on the job, and with time it had become habitual for you to dress up more masculine.
It was safer and a lot more comfortable.
Weeeeell, at first that was your reasoning, but it did come with other conveniences as well. No one hits on you for one. Not that that happened much. If anyone ever did, your interest in them didn't last long once they noticed they were eye level with your bust.
You inhale and exhale some calming breaths when you reach Ms Freedie's house.
When you reach up and press the doorbell it releases a high pitched chime.
"Package delivery!" You cry out.
The door eventually opens to reveal a small but straight backed older woman, who's silver hair is pulled back tightly into a bun.
"Oh y/n my dear! How are you?" She says while craning her neck up to look at you.
You smile down to the kind woman. "I'm well Ms Freedie, I have a package for you." You tell her while handing her your clipboard.
"So you do dear!" She replies as she takes it from you and slowly signs before continuing. "It's from my sister, she was telling me about a new perfume shoppe that had opened up near her and she knows I just adore lavender, so I... Oh! Come in dear, I'll start some tea..."
You chuckle and hand her a package. "No, no that's alright, I'm still on the clock. Here you are..." You tell her while exchanging the parcel for the clipboard. "Thank you though, perhaps another time." You state while tipping your hat to her.
"Alright dear, but do take care. I worry about you you know. You always push yourself so hard, especially since your brother's passing. He was such a good lad, such a shame to have him leave us at such a young age. Are you sure you're all right living all by yourself?" Ms Freedie tells you with a pained expression on her face.
You flinch at the reminder that he's gone.
Your throat ceases up and your stomach tosses and turns while your dream replays in your mind. You force yourself to take another calming breath before you're able to smile and reply to the woman. "Thank you Ms Freedie, it means a lot but I'm doing well, I'll see you later."
You wave and turn away hiding your face with the brim of your hat. You weren't sure if she noticed any hurt showing in your face, but you turn towards your bike and continue on anyways.
It had been a long time since you last felt like this. But by the time you had reached the last place on your list you felt a bit more calm.
The last address you had to deliver to was on the poorer side of town, which meant more dangerous as well.
After a short pedal you find yourself infront of a tall dilapidated apartment complex.
You quickly chain up your bike and walk up the steps. When you look up to inspect the building you find that there is only a few windows that still had glass in them, the rest were boarded up or covered.
You take a deep breath and hurry up the steps to the third floor.
You look about for 5c. You don't notice it at first but you see that it's technically the third door down the one side. Third floor, third door down...
STOP THAT! You scold yourself harshly.
It's 5c, nothing more, nothing less.
You try to push the invasive thoughts out of your mind, and paste a working smile onto your face. You then begin knocking on the solid door.
When the door opens, you look down to see a pretty and petite woman. There's also a young child hiding behind her skirts looking up at you.
"Package for Ms Cowrey." You state to her as you pull out a neatly wrapped parcel and clipboard. Her face relaxes into relief and smiles to you while taking the board to sign.
You smile back to her as you exchange items. "Thank you and have a good day mam." You say while tipping your hat to her. She nods her head in response and closes the door as you leave.
As you put on your hood and begin walking down the stairs you notice your heart rate had been racing.
It didn't even don on you that it was beating so fast in the first place.
You make your way down the steps and to your bike while letting out a heavy sigh. Thank gawd it's still here. You think to yourself.
Just like you with your hat and hoodie, your bike had a disguise as well. Even though the frame was rusted and only a few flecks of the blue it used to be remained, it was still in really good condition.
It didn't appear to be much at first glance, but a closer look you would have seen how well cared for it was.
'Appearances are only skin deep.'
Your brother would always tell you, that or
'I'm just a connoisseur of women.' With a wink and a smile whenever you called him a womanizer.
He was always such a corn ball, no wonder women loved him.
Thinking about the good times helped lighten your mood and by the time you were done unlocking the chain on your bike you were smiling once again.
Suddenly your thoughts were cut short by a high pitched and yet booming voice.
"BE CAREFUL BROTHER!!" It cried.
You look across the street and see a pair of quite well dressed skeletons moving boxes into a van. One was pretty big but the other had to be at least 9 feet tall! You've seen monsters around before, even delivered packages to some, but what made your heart race was not the way they looked but by the amount of them.
There was 3 of them.
Your third 3....
You can't do this! Your mind declares. You have to leave!
As you watch the third skeleton glance over to you, you can feel your stomach begin to turn, and panic then reaches your limps.
Your body begins to tremble.
It's been a while since you've had three 3's, and you're ill prepared.
The large chain slips out of your fingers and hits the ground with a loud clatter. Loud enough for the other 2 to look over to you.
NO NO NO NO... I cant do this! You cry out in your mind.
Panic makes your stomach heave again. You can feel your heart pound the inside of your rib cage as you kick up you leg to jump onto your bike. All while leaving the chain on the ground for a faster get away.
Out of nowhere, something abruptly grabs your hood with a handful hair along with it.
All you can do is let out a cry as you're torn off your still moving bike.
It was in between these breaths of air that you notice the feeling of complete weightlessness followed by a free falling drop back to where you started.
You gasp and blink away tears as you land onto the ground; only to hear something clatter in the distance. Your head is then pulled back by your hood and hair, making your face look upwards.
As the tears that had once filled your eyes slide down your cheeks you begin to see what sits in front of you.
It was your nightmare on repeat.
All you can see is a smiling skeletons face pressing against the brim of your hat.
It's eyes were nothing more than black holes with red dots in the center.
Dan, he has Dan's eyes...
"Heya kid, what's the rush?" It asks.
You yelp in reply, and slam your eyes shut so hard that it hurts. You can feel your stomach continue to flip as the adrenaline filled panic still courses through your veins.
"I asked ya a question punk..." The deep voice growls while jostling your hood and hair in it's grasp.
Once again you can only gasp in reply.
"... 'M. Not. Askin'. Again. Kid." It warns.
You let out a shuddering breath and try to explain yourself.
"I'm sorry sir, I had a m-moment there." You stutter, "All my fault really, I'm r-really sorry." You manage to reply with your eyes still closed.
"Givin' me 'n apology without even lookin' me in the eye? Can't say yur makin' me believe ya." It says with a snarl.
Hot tears slide down your face as your mind begins to spin.
What you did was pretty rude, but his reaction wasn't any better! But you did start it...
There we go, rational thoughts. You think. He's just a monster who just got gawked at, take a breath, be sincere and apologize.
You take a breath and slowly open your eyes. You focus on looking into his red pupils rather then the darkness surrounding them. "I'm sorry sir, it was..." You manage to stammer out before being cut off by the enraged skeleton.
"Sorry huh?! Makin' it pretty fuckkin' hard to believe, ya little..."
"Sans..." A scratchy and yet deep voice interjects.
The hulking skeleton looks up to the second tallest and lets out a huff.
You're then roughly tossed backwards onto your back, making your hat and hood fall away. When you go to lean forwards your hair spills into your face.
You quietly sit there and brush your bangs to the side along with your tears.
After a long silence a burst of laughter makes you jump.
"A DAME?! No WONDER yur cryin' so much!!" The hulking skeleton laughs.
The skeleton continues to laugh loudly while holding his sides almost in stitches, making your cheeks burn.
You wipe your eyes some more and glare at the laughing skeleton.
It's normal to cry when you're scared or sad, what's his problem? You ask yourself internally.
Your thoughts are interrupted by the middle tallest skeleton monster stepping forward. You can feel your neck grow tired while looking up at the tall creature clad in the well tailored suit.
You can't help but feel small as he stares down at you.
It's an odd sensation since you were usually the tallest one in the room. He's more than a foot and a half taller than you.
You realise that he looks pretty different than the others. The odd cracks on his face are quite deep and his pupils are purple in colour. His stare is not as narrowed as the others, which felt a bit easier to look at.
Contrary to the tallest, whos sharp toothed mouth was set into a scowl.
"Human. Why did you run away?" He asks firmly.
You hang your head in shame and begin to try to explain. "It's a long story, but I... I have a problem with the number three. I was having a rough day, and when I saw that there was 3 of you. I- I guess I just hit my limit. It was rude of me to run at the sight of you like that, I'm not a racist, I have a few monster customers and even friends actually, I..."
You realize that you're looking up at the skeleton pleadingly and his stare is burning right through you.
You were literally just spouting excuses. You're seriously acting like you really are scared of him... The one thing you were trying to apologize for!
Your cheeks begin to burn again.
You look down and let out a shuddering sigh of embarrassment while shaking your head. The purple eyed monster continues to look at you while you get up off the ground and face him.
"I'm sorry sir, please let me try that again. My name is y/n and I'm sorry for the way I acted, it was very rude and it was no ones fault but my own." You state while looking him in the eye.
His eye lights seem to flicker for a second, but quickly narrow as he inspects you. After a moment he finally draws his eyes away and relaxes his posture.
"What kind of monster customers?" He asks.
It takes you a moment to realize what he's talking about.
"Oh! I deliver packages and such, I..." You explain. You begin to look for your bike and bag but can't seem to find them. You begin to look around further only to realize that they were on the other side of the road.
Weird.
"I have a flier for my agency, if you'd like, let me just grab my..." You begin but are stopped in your tracks by a long arm barring you from crossing.
"Papyrus, if you would." The purple eyed one says softly.
The tallest that was behind all of you moves with a sudden jerk, and is across the street picking up your bike and bag effortlessly in 4 long steps only to be back in seconds. You look up to him to see only 1 orange scowling eye light to stare back at you. His other eye is adorned with a deep scratch across it.
You smile and thank him but you can't help but to jump at the loudness of his reply. "FOR SUCH TRIVIAL TASKS THANKS ARE UNWARRANTED."
You're not really sure what to say to that so instead you shift you focus to your bag and quickly rummage for a flier. You then dutifully hand it to the purple eyed skeleton. As you hand it over to him you notice there's a hole in his hand, you dare not stare, instead you you draw your eyes back up to him.
Altogether they have 5 eyelights. There we go... you think to yourself, that feels better.
As he inspects the paper his scowl slides into a large jack o lantern smile. "You deliver telegrams as well?" He asks.
"Yes sir." You reply dutifully.
"I see." He mutters as he brings his long hole ornamented hand up to his chin to ponder before turning back to you. "My brothers and I have always believed actions speak louder than words. Do you agree with such a sentiment?"
You nod your head in agreement.
"Good. You seek forgiveness, so I think a show of good will is in order. Now, I might be in need of your services. I'll heed your aversion to 3's, so just 2 deliveries free of charge should seem reasonable. What say you?"
You nod your head and smile. "Very reasonable sir." You respond.
The skeleton smiles back to you before putting his long fingered hand out for a handshake, you reciprocate. "No need for sir or Mr." He continues patting you on the shoulder. "Just Wingdings or Wings will do. These are my little brothers..." He then swings an outreached arm to the lean and tall skeleton. "This is Papyrus." Then pointing to the shorter but much more stout one. "And Sans."
You pause for a moment. "Nice to meet you... Wingdings, Papyrus, and Sans."
You repeat their names so that you don't forget them. This action is met with a scowl and a passive smile from the other two but a grin from Wingdings.
"Miss y/n, am I correct?" Wingdings asks.
"Yes. y/n, l/n." You confirm.
"Alright Ms l/n, I'll be in contact with your place of employment later this week, I'll leave it to you to explain the arrangement, does this sound good?"
You nod your head politely.
"Good."
He then motions to your bike which had been standing off to the side where Papyrus had placed it. Funnily enough your dropped chain neatly hung from the handle bar.
You thank Wingdings once again before picking up your hat, putting it on and pedaling away.
Parting ways felt awkward so you decide to not look back, but to not pedal away too quickly as well.
~ ~ ~
Wingdings pov:
Before you can tell Sans to grab the suspicious human he's back and with the lad on the ground by the scruff.
It's almost embarrassing to watch the human try to apologize so tearfully to Sans while shaking with fright, but none the less, Sans looks livid.
We're not going to get an answer out of them if this keeps up. You decide.
You try to take over the conversation, but are suddenly interrupted by Sans howling with laughter, you look over to Papyrus but he only looks unamused.
What does he mean dame? You ask yourself.
Ah, now you understand, it was a female.
You sigh with some relief. Sans and Papyrus are a bit more soft on women so this makes things easier.
After giving Sans his moment you decide to end this nonsense, and step forward to get an answers out of the shaking human.
The colour of the humans soul sat between the deep blue of integrity and the sharp cyan of patience. If they were a spy it must have been a human who sent them, no monster in their right mind would send a human with a light blue coloured soul like that.
Although, if they truly were a spy it would be easy enough to have them spill any intel with their soul made up with that much sincerity.
Instead they begin to talk about a fear of the number 3 which was compelling in itself if the story were true. You've read many books on the mind and experience had shown you that it could be fractured in many ways, but that interest was quickly snuffed out by it's sudden rambling.
You let it continue, seeing if it would divulge any useful info, but fascinatingly enough the girl seems to have the ware with all to realize this. They then continue their compelling streak as they stand up and take full responsibility for their behavior.
Your soul seems to tighten as you watch their soul brighten and flicker at the edges.
Interesting...
They might be useful after all.
~ ~ ~
Sans pov:
What the HELL was that?!
It's been a while since a human ran away from you like that, or at least one you haven't even threatened yet! You grab them by the hood and teleport them back to the front of the warehouse.
Freakin' out like that, the gull of this little bastard.
Maybe they're coked out? ...Still, no excuse.
You try to get some answers but Dings interrupts, like always.
Whatever...
You toss the little bastard back out of frustration, when lo and behold you get an eyeful of the funniest shit you've seen in a while.
A frikkin' Amazonian, a cry baby Amazonian! Bitch must be just a bit shorter than you, what the hell is that about?!
You can't say you're mad much after a laugh like that, AND the little bugger still has the balls to be glarin' at you, just too rich!
She seems like too much of a kook but your bro seems to have a plan for em.
Frikkin' guy always has a plan.
Ah well, might as well leave dealin' with shorty to Dings.