Autumn winds chapter fourteen: fighting fire with freedom
Autumn and the others looked above them as they walked through the path towards the castle, multi-coloured lights flew above them, speeding from the direction of their destination, suddenly, the lights sped towards them and each light tackled them, one by one, Sending bandy, irro, Jodie, katt and penny falling back. Autumn saw this as well as frisk. [*Guys! Are you ok? Get up!] They seemed to be unconscious, "autumn, what do we do?" Autumn paused for a bit before speaking [*we have to continue. We can't leave them here, cmon! Help me carry them.] autumn lifted bandy into her arms and carried katt on her back, frisk lifted penny onto her back and carried irro in her arms, nona and wimsum carried Jodie, they continued onwards, as they approached the dreamurrs home, they came across an elevator. [*Alright, let's go.] As they got in, they braced for any monsters to greet them suddenly, however, it never happened, and so, they entered and pushed the button. Autumn turned to frisk. [*Yknow...its..Ok if you have other friends here. I wouldn't restrict you from making friends just because I'm gone. I just thought you should know that] frisk turned to autumn with hesitant eyes, but spoke. "I...I did trade lunches with one kid at school. And we're friends, i...I was afraid to tell you." Autumn snorted. [*Frisk cmon! Your acting like i would kill the kid, I'm not a yandere yknow!] The elevator came to a stop, frisk, autumn and Nona stepped off of the elevator and continued down the stone hallway towards the dreemurrs home. "Mana, where's the guards?" Said Nona, looking up at the older kids for reassurance. Autumn shrugged. [*Guess they have no enemies.] Frisk muttered "must be nice". As they rounded the corner they finally reached the dreemurrs home. [*This is it, don't get scared guys.] Autumn put her ear against the door, when no sound was located behind it, she contemplated how to open the door. Frisk and autumn looked at eachother with blank faces in realisation, they had no free hands. Autumn looked at frisk again [*what's the odds of using your mouth?] Frisk looked at the door handle and back at autumn, then both began to count [*three, two, one, FIVE!"] frisk huffed in defeat and walked up to the door, she clenched her teeth around the door handle and pulled it down until it swung open with little resistance, frisk then used her foot to gently push the door until it was wide open enough for them to go in, again, no guards. Frisk spat out the taste of the metal door handle onto the floor, Nona gagged at the site of saliva on the ground. "Ew that's gross Frisky!" Frisk shuddered. "Tastes like dirty pennies." Frisk then looked into the dark house before stepping inside, autumn used her leg to close the door behind them, frisk walked slowly along with autumn and Nona, autumn used her foot to feel around for the stairs, eventually she found them and started to descend down. [*They said the barrier was in the basement, not much father now.] Frisk nodded and followed.
As they reach the base of the stairs, they are met with a long hallway that leads to a turn, as they walked, they could see a long balcony that peared over the city as it lit up the night, "pretty.." Nona mutters in awe, as they continued, the balcony ended with an elevator on the left and a door back into the castle on the right, [*we should come back to the elevator if the barrier isn't down the path] Frisk nodded and walked forward, pushing the door open and entering, inside was a beautiful sight. An arched ceiling surrounded by marble pillars along a lengthy hallway, the light shining through the stained glass windows bathed the room in a glowing yellow ambience, a cathedral.
[*Woah, this is like a church.] Autumn and the others walked forward, her sneakers tapping against the smooth floor, "i wish we all could've fallen together... Yknow, me, you and the other kids, maybe this adventure could've been different..." Said frisk, seeming troubled. Autumn looked at frisk with a solumn expression before putting bandy and katt down [*don't worry about this place, besides, chara ain't gonna stop unless we make him, so let's get back home. And change the world!] Frisk looks at autumn with wonder "Change the world?" Autumn laughs, frisk puts Jodie and penny down and looked at her "your right, i will not submit to him, although the surface has bad memories, it's still the only place left for me, besides, i have you guys!" Frisk smiled [*that's the spirit!] As they stood halfway through the hallway, there was a sudden rumble that scattered the dust above, frisk and autumn looked around [*what was that?] The rumbling of the corridor seemed to awake the others as bandy stirred and sat up. As did the others "w...What's going on? What's that noise?" Said bandy as he stood. [*Guys, i think something is about to go down.]
Jodie held katts hand as they stood, katt looked at her confused by her action, Jodie saw this and shrugged "it uh...Just felt natural." Said Jodie , a light pink dust spreading across her face. "Guys, i think we need to run" said frisk, but to where they were to run was unknown, suddenly, the vibrations of the room had sent them to fall on their behind and all fours, the group huddled together to form an alliance of protection against whatever was coming, suddenly, the door to the cathedral was caved in and scattered across the room with a thick cloud of dust, autumn sheilded the children by turning her back to the debris, gaining a hit on the back with a medium sized rock [*ah!] Autumn turned around to face the culprit of the destruction but was met with a horrific sight, the Culprit was a goat like creature that resembled asriel or so autumn thought, its fur was now a darker shade of white with a blood red fade, it's tail long and whipping back and forth resembling a lions tail, it's legs and feet were now replaced with goats hooves and it's knees were bent backwards, the creatures face contained four black eyes thats pupils were slit and red, like a snake. It had long, oak brown hair draping from its face and covering its eyes, its mouth gaped open displaying two rows of sharp and blunted teeth-HUMAN TEETH. It's long, lanky arms hung loosely at its sides, its neck twisted and searched the room until it's eyes finally landed apon the children, though its head was littered with brown hair and sharp lengthy horns, it's nose flared and exhaled smoke.
Autumn and the others stood and looked at the creature in horror, bandy held onto autumns hand for dear life and reassurance that this wasn't real. "Asriel?" Frisk uttered. Penny chimed in "that isn't asriel. Chara must've successfully bonded their souls together, what we're seeing is a combination of human and monster, i forgot its name but some say it's similar to a wendigo." Said penny, in a frightened yet matter-of-fact tone. Autumn looked at frisk who was clutching their hands and begging for the world to move backwards and drag them to safety, sadly, Nothing happened.
"guys, we..We need to go. We can't let that thing near us." Katt whispered in horror. Autumn shook frisks shoulder gently [*buddy, katts right, we need to go, like now.] Suddenly, the beast spoke again, this time, with more control over it's vocabulary skills.
"what great delight.....To KILL you all, once more..."
It was then reality finally reached the group, This was real.
"RUN!!!!" Shouted frisk as she darted towards the door at the end of the hallway. Autumn was in front of her, suddenly, a strong force pushed frisk into autumn at high speed, sending them tumbling across the room, autumn skid against the ground holding frisk in her arms until finally their misery ceased, autumn looked down at frisk, frantically checking their face, before helping her up and darting towards the exit with the others, the group bolted through the exit, suddenly they hear a scream, it was Nona. Autumn ran behind and picked her up for she had tripped and was directly under the beasts gaze, autumn ran to her aid and carried her towards the others, the ceiling began to collapse from the beasts force and trapped them behind a stone wall of debris, autumn held Nona close, before pulling away and smiling at her. [*Its ok, the monster can't hurt us.] Frisk then tried to get up, but was pulled back by her clothes, or so she thought, she turned her head to look at the damage, only to discover her leg was trapped under a chunk of marble the size and weight of a refrigerator, frisk screamed and kicked at the marble as delayed pain shot Through her body, autumn saw this and frantically got up and rushed to frisk [*holy crud! Guys help me push this off of her!] Autumn began to push the chunk of rock, the others helped and pushed together, with enough force, frisk was finally free from the large stone, she retracted her leg immediately and clutched her boot covered ankle as tears flooded down her face, autumn rushed to her side "holy crap! Her leg is broken!" Exclaimed bandy in shock, autumn hugged frisk as she breathed deep and ragged in pain, katt spoke up "we have to get her to a hospital!" Jodie corrected her statement "we have to escape first."
"are you still alive, humans?" The monsters voice rumbled the halls "my deepest apologies, i am still getting accustomed to this new body." Their voice was laced with malice and deceate, yet also, a bit coy, they were having fun with this..
Irro suddenly yelled to the other side "SHUT UP YOU HELLSPAWNED CREEP!" the others looked at him in shock, irro looked at them with a confused look "what? We're underground, so Our parent's will never know if we swear, right?" Autumn opened her mouth to argue but paused in Thought. [*No, we won't stoop to their level, we are kids. Irro, we're still kids, let's keep going.] The children got up and ventured through the hallways before reaching a bright light, they heard the feint sound of birds behind the barrier. Frisk rushed to go through but was pushed back, autumn helped frisk up. [*Maybe we have to go at the same time.] The others thought, then held eachothers hands and looked at the barrier, their eyes glowed different colours, but before they could, the beast entered and towered over them, they looked back at the beast with glowing eyes, as they spoke in unison. "Vessel of the black heart, you will not destroy humanity for your own benefit, we did not die for your pleasure, you, shall, remain, buried here." The monster stepped back as the children approached, "you foolish children, it is your only salvation!" Frisk spoke "asriel! Don't do this! There's another way!" The beast screaches and lunges for frisk, autumn ran infront of frisk and swung her bat, striking the beasts head with a sickening crack, breaking its neck, the beast fell to the floor, it's nose and mouth dripping with blood. Frisk fell to her knees and covered her mouth, autumn looked at frisk and hugged her. [*Hey....I...I'm sorry...You understand i had to protect you, frisky...] Frisk sobbed and leaned into autumn's embrace, she couldn't accept this, not like this..
[*knowing your friend still had a merciful heart, fills you with COURAGE 💛]