Dead Giveaway

Feel my Wrath and Extreme Self-Doubt

Sans's POV

Okay. I can admit. I expected Chara to be a rebel. What I wasn't expecting was exactly how rebellious she can be, and for the stupidest reasons.

I also didn't expect a timid looking Frisk to tiptoe into my bedroom at 12:16 AM nervously telling me Chara wasn't in bed. When you're a stepdad, nothing will terrify you more than your troublemaking daughter vanishing in the middle of the night. I was up in an instant, throwing open the door to the kids' room to see a concerned Asriel sitting on his bed holding Chara's phone. Monster Kid was on the air mattress on the floor in front of the beds chewing on his lips.

Sure enough, Chara was nowhere to be seen. A quick glance at the kids' storage rack revealed Chara's coat and shoes to be missing and her house keys remaining. Not only had she snuck out, but she didn't have her phone or keys.

"We searched the entire house," Asriel said. "She's not here"

Apparently, most of our guests had woken up during that search, because everyone was soon tiredly sitting in the living room.

"Honestly, that girl cannot stay out of trouble" Toriel whispered. No kidding. And after all I'd said about Tori needing to keep her stress levels down, Chara goes and pulls a stunt like this?

"Daddy, you find her. You can teleport, you'll get to her faster, and its raining" Frisk suggested. A sudden flash of lightning proved her words.

"I'll come too" Toriel started to say, but I stopped her.

"No. Let me go alone, sweetheart. Frisk is right. I can get there faster, and you need to stay rested. Why don't you make us some hot chocolate for when we get back?"

She nodded. Good. I'm not letting my son or daughter be lost to stress just because my oldest kid wants to be an idiot.

I grabbed one of my hoodies from the hall closet and put it on, pulling the drawstrings tight around my face. The rain was really coming down.

As soon as I left the house I caught the trace of her magic. It was faint, probably because she had been gone for a while. I followed the trail like a bloodhound finding prey.

I was completely blind to my surroundings and soon found myself in one of the most dangerous parts of town. Her magic trail was significantly stronger here. She'd gone walking past bars and shit. I heard the sound of broken glass and looked around.

I saw two figures, one of them taller, but hunched over, and the other one about Chara's height. The taller one fell and the shorter one took off running. I approached the fallen man. He was definitely drunk, and he had dropped a beer bottle as he fell. That was the glass breaking. And he'd been stabbed. Chara's magic trail was very strong. As I leaned over him I realized the trail was overpowering around the area of the stab wound.

Chara's knife! I took off running in the direction the shorter figure had run. I caught up to her pretty quickly and teleported in front of her.

"K I D D O" I started, but she darted past me and wove between buildings. I could hear how heavily she was breathing. She wouldn't be able to run much longer. She's a resilient kid but she has small lungs.

As I ran, my mind wandered. Why was she out here and why did she have her knife? Was she planning on coming back or was she trying to leave home for good.

Had I done something wrong? Was she scared? Did she think I lied to her when I said she could trust me?

I couldn't worry about that right now. It was time for the kiddo to feel my good old fashioned wrath.

And also my extreme self doubt.

I ran between the buildings until I picked up the traces of her magic again. She was going towards, the cemetery?

Ignoring my confusion, I took off running, hopping the fence and looking around. A short shadow was standing by a well-lit building. I recognized it as a mausoleum. I slowed my walking and steadied my breathing. The rain was pouring and the unkept yard of the cemetery was full of holes. I stepped in at least 6 mud puddles trying to get to her.

Thanks to the lights on the outside of the mausoleum, I could see a red substance dripping into the grass below the figure. The figure stretched up and ran a finger down the surface of the building, leaving a dark trail in its wake. My heart jumped into my throat as I drew closer.

It was Chara. Her left sleeve was pushed up and her forearm was covered in blood. Her knife was clenched in her left fist, bloody. I watched in silent horror as she swirled her right index finger in the blood and ran it across the stone, as effortlessly as a small child would do when fingerpainting. I looked up at the stone and I wanted to scream.

The mausoleum had clearly said Reed, but now the r had a D in front of it and the d was painted over with an M. Following the M was a U and two Rs, one of which was being painted by Chara's blood right before my eyes. All of the added letters were painted in blood. And all of them except the two Rs were faded and brown.

She was using her blood to paint Dreemurr over Reed and she'd probably been doing it for months I wanted to scream at her for so many reasons, but I managed to keep my mouth shut.

She looked up at the work she'd done and I saw that damn smile. That sadistic smile that should only be seen on the face of a serial killer. It has no place on a nine-year-old face, even if that face has eyes that have seen as much as Chara has. She was proud?! Of this?!

She turned around and I thought fast. A quick stretch of my left hand had her encircled in my magic. I levitated her a few inches off the ground, pulled her closer, and forced her to face me. I wanted to yell. I wanted to tell her how stupid she had been. But when I looked into her eyes, all I saw was fear. 

I'd never seen her look legitimately scared. She put on a brave face and acted fearless most of the time. She wasn't even this frightened when we fought in the final corridor. I couldn't yell. I could barely even lecture her in the state we were both in. She wasn't even fighting to get out of my grip.

I sighed and I saw her eyes flick down the stare at the grass and stay there. So she wasn't gonna look me in the eye? I could understand why.

It was pouring down rain, we were both soaked through, she was bleeding badly, and back at home everyone was awake and probably freaking out. She was in need of a punishment and a punishment there would be. I didn't know what it would be but I'd find something.

But not in the middle of a stormy night next to a blood-covered mausoleum. For now, I just had to get her home.

"You're gonna be the death of me, Chariana" I said, to break the horribly tense silence more than anything. I pulled her closer to me and gripped the back of her jacket tightly, releasing my magical grip on her in the process.  She was NOT running. "Let's get home"

"Wait!" She suddenly cried and fought against my grip. She ended up just wrestling out of her jacket since I wasn't holding onto her shirt, and she was free from my grip. In a split-second choice, I started to levitate her again, but she had taken off running into the mausoleum calling "I gotta do this first!" I followed her into the building.

What kinda idiots leave a mausoleum unlocked anyway? Or have a lock simple enough that a nine year old can pick it?

"Kiddo, don't make me chase you. It's 12:33 AM, we're both soaked, and your mom is gonna kill us both. If you're trying to dodge the lecture you're getting, just know there's no chance of that happening. Let's just get home and dry off". If I was being honest, I just wanted to go back home and crawl into bed. I was burned out.

She blatantly ignored me and continued walking in. The centerpieces of the building were three coffins. Two larger, and one even shorter than Chara herself. A bouquet of fresh flowers rested on one of the larger ones, which Chara took and promptly broke the stems. I was too in shock to try and stop her. She knelt down in front of the smallest coffin  with a sad smile and spoke in the smallest voice I have ever heard that kid speak in

"Salut, Celeste..."