Do You Get It?

Screaming Is My New Soundtrack

I didn't come all this way and go through all this pain for a drawing! Frustration spreads through my body from the hand holding a piece of...artwork, all the way to my soul. I refrain from burning it with my magic. Oh wait, I can't. I don't have my magic. I shove the ripped masterpiece into one of my many pockets.

Soon after my anger boils over and I can't help but punch the wall. My fist flares with pain and the wall isn't in any better condition. Crumbling with drywall and broken emotion the hole laughs at me.

I real my fist in as quickly as I had dealt it. I lashed out...but there were no error signs or glitching out of existence. I feel the powerful flow of emotions I have been trying to force down forever. The gaping hole in the corridor wall makes me understand something terrifying. I am losing control.

If I don't get out of here soon, I will explode.

My heavy breathing and fusing emotions echo in the empty hall. I hold my hand to my chest to stop the last few waves of throbbing. When I feel, I feel more powerfully than I ever had before. And I don't like it.

"aaaaaaAaaaaAaaAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

A scream strikes me as hard as lightening. Adrenaline crashing through my body and eyes widen in the dark. My breath hitches and the shadows start crawling on my back. I run, hard and fast. My mind helps me retrace my steps back to the lab.

Someone's awake. And isn't happy about it. Even though I was barreling through the hallway I am at a grinding stop now. Ink is looking at his hands...my hands.

But as he hears my sloppy entrance, his eyes lock with mine. I feel his terror and confusion. He wants to believe it's just a dream, some twisted dream of a nightmare. But we know better than to believe that unfortunate events are just fantasy.

"What just happened?" He tries to get out, not used to my voice AT ALL. His hand goes up to his throat and his emotions amplify. Ink coughs a few times. But when he is done I give my long-winded and most detailed report, "I have no idea."

The hand that was on his throat makes it's way to his forehead. In his disbelief, I'm trying not to wring my hands. But the nervousness shows and I don't know what to do about it. I'm not used to all of this. I am used to routine and predictability. Not waking up on cement floors and swapping bodies with my arch enemy.

"What do you last remember?" I ask trying to figure something in my life out. But just like all my other attempts, it ends in failure. "I only remember coming down here to talk to you. Then we fought because you refused to give me my stuff back. And then the machine back there blew up. That's about it." He knew the same thing as I did, nothing.

I sigh in frustration but I don't take too long sulking because I hear talking down the hall. "Ink, we NEED to get out of here. Now!" Say panicked. I walk away from the door and towards Ink and the machine. I can't help but let the fear slip under my mask.

"You need to open a portal." I say still facing the door. He hears the voices too. I don't know if he understands why I'm afraid, but he knows I have a good reason for it. "I don't know how to do it without my paintbrush. It's what helps channels my magic."

Of course that's how that works. I want to shake him hard enough to put some sense into him. "Your in my body, you don't need a paintbrush!" I whisper-shout. I can hear them coming closer. He finally gets it and closes his eyes. I can tell he is in deep concentration. A few seconds pass and nothing has happened.

"How do you make portals?" He asks in my glitchy voice. I slap my hand against my forehead. "You just imagine where you want to go, it's like Sans' shortcuts." I explain frantically. I see him pull up a mental image and soon enough we are out of Outertale's True Lab.

I am relieved to be out but I am terrified of where we ended up. For I never thought that I could be afraid of my own home. The Anti-void. He shouldn't even know this place existed. "Ink, how did we get here?" I ask, panic evident in my voice. "I imagined it."