"Frisk! Slow down!" Christine raced after her sibling, struggling to catch her breath. Frisk had always been a strange child. They were obsessed with the idea that the mythical underground was real. When they were really little, Christine would tell them stories about monsters underneath a mountain. And it was days like these that Christine wished she had made up a mountain instead of making up one that was just outside of the city a few miles away. Christine paused, gasping both for air and in surprise. There was a beautiful yellow Orchid in the undergrowth. She opened her bag, taking out a small glass bottle and a Q-tip. Christine never missed a chance to get a new flower in her garden. She rubbed the Q-tip under the flower's anther cap, collecting the pollen and putting it in the bottle.
"Christa, come on!" Christine jumped as Frisk appeared next to them, barely catching the bottle before it hit the ground.
"Jesus-! Don't do that Frisk!" Christine slapped Frisk's shoulder softly with a scowl. Frisk had always had trouble reading people, especially when they were so focused on something that they wouldn't see them coming! She took a deep breath. "Just let me find the other Orchids. This one is wilting so there should be… A-ha!" Christine found another Orchid, it's seed pod already turning from green to yellow. She took out her pocket knife and carefully cut it from it's stem, putting the seed pod in the bottle and topping it with a cork.
"You're so weird." Frisk rolled their eyes.
"Says the kid obsessed with finding monsters under a mountain." Christine shot back.
"Hey you're the one who told me the story!" Frisk defended.
"Once! When you were 10." She pointed out. "I didn't think you'd be stuck on it til you were 14."
Frisk couldn't think of a comeback before groaning. "Okay, okay! But we're still here to find the entrance!"
"I'm telling you, the story is made up." Christine shook her head as she followed Frisk up the mountain. "I got it from a random book."
"A HISTORY book!" Frisk persisted.
"In which it stated that the story was mythology from a random cult believing the government hid a separate race underneath mount Ebott. You'd like them." Christine smirked as Frisk huffed. She loved tormenting her younger sibling.
"It's real and I know it!" Frisk stormed ahead into the thicket, already searching around for an entrance or a cave or something. Christine's smirk faded. In all seriousness, she worried for Frisk. They were already 14, and had no friends. Because of the story. Frisk turned every conversation into the story of the monsters and humans, and the prophecy she had found in some dusty book. They thought that it somehow explained their condition. Of course, Christine wasn't shutting the idea down. They had been to every doctor that would prescribe them without too much of a cost. Yet none had an explanation for why Frisk could suddenly pull a cartoon heart out of their chest, glowing red at that. Yet another reason why they had no friends. When they did start to get close to someone, they would joke by pretending to pull out their heart and showing the person the weird glowy one. It wasn't normal and that scared them.
Being their sister could only support them so much. Christine was worried. They couldn't live all their life with her as their only friend. Not everyone was as accepting as Christine was, and that was only because only she knew what Frisk has had to endure. What they both had to endure. "Christa! Help me lift this rock!"
Christine was snapped out of thought, putting on a smile. "Coming!" She ran up to Frisk, helping them roll away a large rock that had… nothing underneath.
"Let's keep looking." Frisk insisted. "It's not like it'll take hours to find it."
* * * * *
"FRISK IT HAS LITERALLY TAKEN 7 HOURS TO FIND THE ENTRANCE." Christine rasped, struggling to catch her breath. "Plus there's no way you can see right now. It's so dark!"
"I can see." Frisk insisted, although their squinting eyes told a different story. *flick*
Christine's flashlight shone ahead, although a little dim. "Unlike one of us, I planned ahead. Now come on. If we're lucky, well more like if we're fast, we can make it close enough to the city where we can see our way because there is no way the batteries in this are making us all the way home."
"But we can keep searching!" Frisk grabbed the flashlight from Christine, flashing it ahead.
"Frisk! This is no time! It's dark!" Christine yanked them back by the collar of their shirt, grabbing the flashlight back.
"Can we at least search in there?" Frisk pointed to a large cave in the mountain. How did Christine not see that before?
She sighed, looking Frisk in the eyes. "Ok. How about this? We search the cave for exactly 5 minutes. We will come back tomorrow and continue."
"10?" Frisk tried.
"7." Christine compromised, giving Frisk back the flashlight. She put a timer on her watch, walking forward as Frisk raced past her. She followed Frisk into the cave, being careful not to trip. She could barely see Frisk's silhouette from the flashlight reflecting off the walls, although only slight. A wind rushed through the cave, causing Frisk to shiver. She had warned Frisk to take their sweater. "I got you." Christine tossed Frisk their blue and pink striped sweater, taking the flashlight so they could put it on.
"Thanks… Wait. Wind. Wind!" Frisk raced forward, excited. "Wind means there's something like a tunnel or an exit here! What if it's the underground?!"
"Frisk stop!" Christine bolted to Frisk, grabbing their arm just as they almost walked into a hole in the ground. "You almost fell!"
"The wind is from down th-!" Frisk was interrupted by Christine's watch, the timer going off.
"We can explore tomorrow Frisk." She tapped her watch, silencing the timer.
"But-!"
"No buts!" She interrupted. "You almost fell into that pitfall thing! You clearly can't see with the flashlight. We're going home, going to sleep, and will continue this in the morning. This isn't worth death, Frisk."
Frisk sighed, looking back down into the hole. "Okay… But we're bringing rope tomorrow! And a climbing harness!"
"Sure." Christine turned to leave, before hearing a sharp *CRICK*. The rock below her shifted before breaking off. She yelped, grabbing onto a stalagmite on solid ground as the rock fell into the hole. Time seemed to slow as the familiar colors of a blue and pink sweater fell in the corner of her eye. Her head whipped around to see Frisk free falling into the hole, eyes wide. Christine reached out her hand, grasping for Frisk's. Their fingertips touched before time resumed, Frisk plummeting away from the full force of gravity. "FRISK!"
*CRACK!* *THUMP* The sounds of Frisk hitting the ground made Christine sick as she climbed onto the solid ground using the stalagmite to pull on. "FRISK, ARE YOU OKAY?! Oh god, I- FRISK!" She called down, hyperventilating. Frisk was hurt. Bad. Were they even alive?! Shock. Maybe they were in a catatonic state and couldn't speak? Christine shone the flashlight down, looking for the remains of her sibling. She couldn't find them. It was so dark and the light only shone a certain amount. "F-FRISK! IF-IF YOU CAN HEAR ME- BANG A ROCK ONCE FOR YES AND TWICE FOR NO!"
*Tap* Christine's heart leapt at the small sounds of a rock tapping against the ground. "O-OKAY! FRISK, H-HOW BADLY ARE YOU HURT? ONCE FOR NOT MUCH, uh, TWICE FOR REALLY BAD AND-AND THREE TIMES FOR-FOR CAN'T MOVE OR SPEAK OR SEE OR LIKE, YOU'RE UNRESPONSIVE IN SOME AREAS!"
*Tap tap tap* "F**k, um, FRISK! ARE YOU BLEEDING? ONCE FOR YES AND TWICE FOR NO!" *Tap tap* A miracle. So they had time. "FRISK, I'M GOING TO GET SOMEONE OR-OR TELL THE POLICE! STAY THERE AND DON'T MOVE!" Christine got to her feet, racing to the entrance of the cave. A flash of pain throbbed through her head as images flashed across her mind of her in the entrance. The most frequent being her slouched against the wall with a knife in her throat, and muddy footprints leading deeper into the cave as a storm raged outside. Christine was brought back to reality just as quick as she was taken out of it, the pain still there but the images gone. She staggered out of the cave, trying to recover herself. She needed to help Frisk. She raced down the mountain, through the streets of Ebott city to home.
They lived in a quaint house outside of town, although expensive. She burst into the house, tears in her eyes. "MOM! FRISK FELL DOWN A RAVINE IN A CAVE!" Their mother, a pale woman with yellowish skin matching Christine's and brown hair matching Frisk's, was speaking on the phone in the living room.
"Hm? Oh nothing, my kids get noisy sometimes. Anyways, you were saying?" Her mom ignored her as she always did. Usually Christine would make dinner for her and Frisk and usher them into their room, hiding in her own room. But Frisk was hurt. And she couldn't delay. She pulled her box of keepsakes from under her bed and grabbed her emergency phone, one given to her when she was 8. Frisk wasn't born yet, and Mom actually cared about her then.
Christine quickly dialed 911, gasping in relief as the operator picked up after what felt like an eternity. "My sibling- Frisk- My sibling Frisk is stuck in a ravine on mount Ebott she fell down there while we were exploring and she's alive but that was 15 minutes ago and she can't speak but she can move a rock to tap and-"
"Hold on honey. Breathe." The operator's calm voice felt like condescension. "Which cave did she fall in?"
"I-I don't know! *A* cave!" Tears streamed down Christine's face. She hated how little information she had. "My mom- She's home but she won't listen!"
"And what is your sibling's full name?" The operator asked.
"Frisk Thomas." Christine answered. "Um- O-our mom is-is Vicky Marylin Barr, I-I am Christine Natalie Barr."
"And where is the child's father?" The operator asked.
"We don't know."
"...Christine… There is no record of Frisk Thomas."