II could only stare at this child as she said, well, hand-signed those words. I mean, this was crazy. I thought I'd be alone in the Void forever. But here she was, a young girl, a young HUMAN girl, who can use sign language, and then she uses it to say THAT.
The little eight-year-old girl had dark brown hair, deep blue eyes, and was wearing a blue and purple-striped sweater and blue short-jeans, almost like a reflection of what I used to wear (and still kind of do, I guess). She also had a purple backpack slung on her shoulders, and for some reason, was wearing a pink tutu over her jeans, and pink ballet shoes.
The girl, getting a little impatient, signed again, Mommy, is that really you?
"I-" tried to say, but then she dashes into me to hug me.
She holds on to me for a few seconds, before pulling back and signing, Mommy, I'm scared. They're monsters. Really mean monsters!
Taking a deep breath, I knelt down and put my hands on her shoulders to stop her. "Okay, can you hear me?"
She nodded.
"Yes, okay. Can you speak?"
She shook her head, then signed, I'm mute. You remember that, right, mommy?
Okay, so she was mute. She is unable to speak, so she has to use sign language to communicate. Good to know.
I take in a deep breath, thinking about what to do next. I then take my hands off her, and both say and sign (for her convenience), "Look, I'm sorry, but I'm not your mom. I mean, I've never even had kids, and while I am older than I look, how do I look-"
You look just like her! The kid signed. Look. She pulled her backpack off, and reached inside, pulling out an old photograph. She then handed it to me, so I could look at it.
It was a picture of the girl, maybe a little younger than she was now, who seemed to be sitting on the lap of an older woman, whom I guessed was her mother.
To my surprise, she did look a lot like me, except her hair was darker (and longer), her eyes were blue, and, though it was hard to tell, since the lower part of the characters was cut off, but the older woman also seemed to be taller than me... because of course, she is!
But she did look very similar to me, especially in the face. Perhaps it was hard for this girl to tell the difference between me and her. I could also see a lot of resemblance between her and the girl, so I figured I was right in my assumption of them being related.
I handed the photo to the girl, and told her, "I'm sorry, I know I look a lot like her, but I'm not her. I don't even know who YOU are."
The girl slipped the photo back in her bag, and then signed, but... you sign when you talk, and you have brown hair-
"Do I have blue eyes?" I interrupted.
She looked closely at me, and shook her head in response.
"Am I as tall as her?"
She shook her head again.
"Listen, I know you miss your mother. I get that, I..." I almost told her I missed Toriel, but I doubted she knew who that was.
Tears in her eyes, she signed in one last desperate attempt to convince me I was her mother, but you have to be. I'm all alone.
On the verge of tears myself, I said, "so am I, kid. So am I. But I'm sorry, I can't be your family, I..."
I thought back to Alice, the first human girl I interacted with so long ago. I failed her then. I couldn't fail another. But what could I do?
The girl was now crying. I guess she really wanted me to be her mom. Deciding I couldn't let her be alone, and wrapped my arms around her and stroked her head, something Toriel used to do when I was sad. "Hey, it's going to be okay. I'm sure you'll find your real mom very soon."
The girl pulled away from me so she could sign, but they said she was gone, that she went to heaven, and they... She stopped to wipe the tears from her eyes.
"Oh... I didn't know." So her mother died. "Hey, kid, what's your name?"
F-R-A-N-C-I-S, she signed each letter. But mommy called me F-R-I-S-K.
Whispering each letter to myself to get the names, I said, "F-R-A-N, fran, C-I-S, uh, cis. Francis... And, um, F-R-I-S-K... Frisk! They call you Frisk! Correct?"
She smiled and clapped her hands. Good to see her actually happy.
Frisk, okay, so that was her name.
"Alright, Frisk, it's good to meet you. My name is Chara," I tell her.
She tilts her head, and signs How do you spell it?
"Oh, right. C-H-A-R-A, Chara."
Frisk signs that back to me, and smiles. Then she signs, can I sign it like this? And then she makes the hand sign for "car" (the motion of turning a steering wheel), then "A" (a fist with the thumb pointed outwards).
"Car-ah, huh. Well, that's not you pronounce it. It's pronounced Chara is in 'Character'. Do you know the sign for that?"
She nodded, and signed "Character", making a C with her hand and spinning it in a circle just below her opposite shoulder, then backward, touching her chest.
"Yeah, that's good. You can use that for my name, okay. So... Frisk, how did you get here. And can you get back?"
Frisk pointed to the white rectangle, then turned back to me and signed, I went through the gray door.
"I, uh, only see a rectangle of light."
But it's a door! Frisk signs, it goes into the Waterfall.
Waterfall, huh, I thought. Was it my Waterfall, from my world? Was she from my world? Then that would mean... Asgore... Still, she couldn't stay here.
"Frisk," I said, "I don't know how you got in here, but... you should go. This is not somewhere you want to get trapped in."
But, what about you? Frisk signs. Please don't stay here. Come with me.
"I... I don't think I can leave this space. I'm trapped here. I'm sorry. Don't get trapped here, too."
Frisk put her hands on her head, thinking about what to do, then reached out and grabbed my hand, and pulled me towards the door.
"Woah, woah, wait!" I cry out.
As she pulled me into the door, she disappeared into the light, and I... passed right through it, and found myself on the other side of it... still in the Void.
I spun around and found the rectangle of light, the "door" I just passed through, behind me. I heard the shuffling of feet, and stepped back, as Frisk appeared through the door again.
Where did you go, She signed. Your hand just disappeared.
I was still trying to comprehend exactly what happened. I walked through the door, but back into the Void. But I knew why it happened. "I told you, I can't leave the Void. You can go."
Frisk shook her head in defiance, and grabbed my hand again.
I pulled it out, and said, "I'm sorry. I don't want to leave you alone, but you need to go."
Frisk's eyes started to tear up, and I could feel my eyes tearing up as well. I decided to give Frisk one last hug. "I'm sorry, this is goodbye. ...It was nice to meet you, Frisk."
Frisk held on tight to me. I could feel something, something between us. It was like when my mom helped me with my magic. Frisk then slowly let go, and signed, Good... bye... Chara, signing "Character" for my name, like I said she could. Then, saddened, she walks into the door, and disappears.
I stepped back from the door, and fall on my knees. Why? Why did life have to be so cruel? First I fall into this dark place, alone, and then I get to meet someone new, just for her to have to leave without me.
I started crying. For minutes on end. Hours? I didn't know, how could I in this timeless place.
After a while, I looked back up. The glowing rectangle door, was still there.
I stared at it, wondering if Frisk was okay. How long had it been for her?
Then I began to wonder, if this door is still open, then can I see her world?
I stepped close to the door, and carefully peered into it. All I saw was bright, blinding light. If the Void didn't keep me from changing, as it seemed, I might've gone blind. But really, I saw nothing.
...At first, but as I tried to concentrate on maybe seeing Frisk or at least through the door, an image appeared in the door. It was blurry at first, but it began to clear up, and I saw a scene... Frisk was standing near a tall rock spire. The area seemed to be... Waterfall. So I was right. It looked to be near the exit bridge, where Gaster first found out about my fear of heights.
I noticed Frisk was looking up at the top of a rock spire. I managed to will the image up, and as it did, I could see a monster.
She was some kind of humanoid fish, with blue scales, long red hair pulled into a ponytail, red fins where a human's ears would be, eyes with black vertical irises and yellow sclera, shark-like yellowed teeth, and of course, no nose. She had red eye shadow on, an eye patch on her left eye, and was wearing iron, knight-style armor.
She was yelling at Frisk about something, but it was unclear at first. But like the image, the sound cleared up, I could hear she was saying, "...Go ahead. Prepare however you want. But when you step forward... I will KILL you!"
What... what was she talking about. Frisk was so innocent. Why are you threatening...
Asgore's decree... I knew this could happen, but... Wait, was this monster trying to take her Soul? Wasn't the law to bring humans to Asgore, not kill them yourself?
I guess that didn't really matter at the moment. Frisk was in danger. And I let her go. She warned me about something about "mean monsters", but this...
No, I couldn't let this happen. I couldn't let her die!
I thrust my hand on the door. They wouldn't go through. I pushed harder. Nothing. But I wouldn't this door keep me back.
I began to feel something I hadn't felt in a long time. This feeling filled my Soul, more than I feel it ever had...
Determination.
Trying harder, started using my magic. Crimson red flames danced between my hands and the light. And slowly, I began to hear the sound of something cracking...
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Gaster was at home, looking through cameras he had set up a while ago, so the Royal Scientist could watch for humans, and assist the Royal Guard in their capture. But really, it was so Gaster could watch for anomalies. And one in particular...
He was watching the human girl that had fallen into the Underground recently, at least, in a sense. Last he saw her, she was poking around an inconspicuous wall in Waterfall. Nothing too important. He looked away for a second, but when he looked back... she was gone.
He began scrambling on across different camera views, hoping to find her, when he got an alert that a spatial disturbance had occurred. He switched the view to find the kid reappeared right back when she first disappeared, then, after looking around confused for a few seconds, turned around and... walked right through the wall.
His curiosity peaked, Gaster zoomed in at this strange anomaly. The girl reappeared again, but he didn't care. As she left in tears for some reason unknown to him, he more closely inspected the wall, at least, as well as he could through a camera.
He spent the next hour or two staring at this wall, hoping to find out what just happened, but found nothing. He was starting to think he should go investigate it personally, when suddenly... The wall just blew up.
It burst open a burst of red flame, leaving only a crater in the wall. But as the smoke cleared, he could see a figure. Once he could see the finer details of this mysterious character, he almost fell back in his chair from his surprise.
A small voice escaped his skeletal mouth, simply saying, "Chara..."
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Author's Note: Frisk has now been introduced. And this version... is mute. I don't know Sign Language, but I did go out of my way to look up some signs for the specific words (which I only had three, but there will probably be more). I also represent Sign Language the same way I do thoughts (as you may have noticed), with Italics.
Also, Chara is now freed. But how has her world changed since she was gone? If you remember the story of Undertale, then you might find details in this story that will be different now. So... what are those changes. And what happens next?