“Are they nuts? What is wrong with them?” Aspen tilted River’s head up in confusion, allowing their eyes to meet. River shrugged. “It’s not like they’re the first people trying to kill the shadows, but those that do are usually…”
“Usually doing it to get a dangerous element out of the way.”
“Yes! The kids are the main element and they’re…” He heavily rubbed the towel. “So harmless?! Why would you even try to kill them, obviously it was going to reset the story and even if it worked, it wouldn’t have helped anything?”
River started to divert his thoughts.
He was good at that. He had a lot of practice. He moved his thoughts away from the images, the sounds. Took distance. His focus was on this game – yes, game, just a play – on how they were messing with it.
“I hate seeing people not play this right.” River grumbled. He complained like a little child, letting his head rest against Aspen’s stomach as his hair was continuing to get dried. “You’re not supposed to play this game that way. It’s supposed to be fun because of the possibilities. It’s not supposed to be something you do in a calculating or malicious way. There’s no enjoyment that way.”
He couldn’t have explained why he was so certain about this, but he was.
This whole thing, the dreams, they held no malice at all. Yes, people died – many of them did – but even those deaths didn’t hold the feeling of being malicious.
It was a giant playground. You were supposed to enjoy yourself on a playground, not destroy it, right?
River hated that his playtime was being disturbed like this.
He almost hated more how he couldn’t keep a single straight thought.
Troubled, he allowed Aspen to push his head back up. The towel was put back into its original place, then a slender hand started playing with his hair. Aspen looked cheerful.
Something like indulgence seeped into River’s frozen eyes and swept over the bubbling irritation and nausea for a few seconds.
“Stop playing with my hair”, he commanded. Aspen dragged out a long “kaaaaaay” and pushed it back into its old form.
When they got outside, they heard shouting from upstairs. There was the higher tones of two hysterical younger females, and the booming, commanding tone of an older male.
A sweep of the room revealed Ocean, the lone younger girl, as well as Bronze and Silver.
All three were pale and looked shocked.
When River and Aspen came outside, Bronze tried to give them a smile but failed so miserably it was a grimace. He rubbed his face, turned it away and stayed quiet.
With some snippets from the screaming upstairs and their behavior, River had a good guess that everyone knew what the couple had done. Papyrus was pissed that they messed with the last round like that, while the three in front of River were shocked at the thought of what happened.
Arrogance and playfulness aside, at least these guys weren’t so far gone that a casual murder of a life-like, even if shadow-fied, child didn’t make them uncomfortable.
In low whispers, Silver wondered how they got out of the ties, and Bronze replied he had no idea.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Crqfc kjr jqqjgfcais kbcvfglcu atf rjwf.
“Tbe mjc erf sbeg rtbf ijmfr ab mea jqjga mjyif alfr”, Elnfg ktlrqfgfv yjmx. “Glvc’a fzqfma atfw ab xcbk atja…”
Pa rilqqfv tlr wlcv. Snfc lo la tjvc’a, tf kbeivc’a tjnf fzqfmafv atfw ab vb remt j atlcu, ab-
Don’t.
Llr atbeutar pewqfv firfktfgf.
“Would you check for me what’s going on upstairs?”, he asked Aspen instead.
The smaller guy saluted jokingly and rushed off.
To tell the truth, River was happy to leave it to him. He collapsed on the sofa, frowning deeply.
Sure, his headache was gone, but now his stomach was cramping and his mind was a jumbled yarn of thoughts.
“Are you… okay?”
Silver approached him meekly. River hardly raised his eyes, humming half a reply.
The other man was certainly the most introverted out of them all, but that made him suitable to stay around someone like River. The easterner heard – or sensed? – the other player around him, just checking up on him with short glances that were nothing but care.
To the sound of the shadows having breakfast, River listened in on the conversation.
“You’re also pale. Are you okay?” Bronze kept a distance from Ocean, but he asked anyway.
“I-” An inhale. Forced calmness. “Yes. I am fine.”
“Oh. Okay. Good.”
A pause.
“Do you think that they-” Silver. Another pause, probably a gesture in place of a word. “-will tie them up again?”
“What else could they do?” Fake laughter dying out. Insecurity hidden beneath confidence; Bronze.
This pause was uncomfortable.
The voices upstairs had stopped. It was quiet.
“I can’t believe they just-” Ocean, again, inhaling. A sound of irritation. “But I guess they’re just shadows. Not like it matters, the round was over anyway…”
A bad attempt at convincing herself.
For some reason, River felt angry. He opened his light gray eyes and lolled his head on his shoulders so he could face Ocean. She twitched when their eyes met.
“Have you seen the photos?”, River asked in a quiet, monotone voice.
This time, Ocean straight up jolted backwards, against the wall. Her mouth was flapping like a fish.
It was enough. River returned to his previous state.
Yes, just shadows. Shadows whose faces they knew from a couple of photos inside the house. Shadows that you could have seen – two little girls with light hair and even lighter eyes, expressions like dolls.
A game it was, but didn’t a game deserve a resemblance of respect? The rules, the characters, the intricacy of it all.
Random destruction was an insult to the work behind it.
Arms wrapped around River’s neck.
At this point he wondered if he recognized Aspen by the sound of his breath or his smell maybe – not that he could name what exactly Aspen usually smelled like – but he did know and simply touched the wrists near his throat.
The metal of the shackles was cold to the touch. Where it grew into the skin, the connection felt odd. River brushed his thumb against the area gingerly, and Aspen let him.
“Done?”, he muttered. An iron smell, again.
“Done”, Aspen echoed.
The prisoner was smiling, but his eyes were not.
He was absolutely in favor of getting permanently rid of the couple before they ran around again. He didn’t mind the killing either. He only disliked Papyrus, who had done the deed, and whose involvement had made the whole act seem like an official execution.
It was a different type of killing than what Aspen did, and it reminded him of how weak he was in front of the giant man.
Papyrus’ steps were heavy on the stairs, announcing everyone of his return.
Only two people did not face him when he entered the living room, but even they were listening.
“We should all talk”, he said – ordered – in his booming voice.
No one went against him.
Not that River was going to follow his orders. He wasn’t even going to listen, he was determined to do his own thing.
How to use the time until their worst-case plan?
Those hours that were still to come?
“Does anyone have a suggestion on how to proceed?”
Ocean raised her hand. “We know that there’s this one guy passing by, right? What if we caused several loud sounds while he’s around to lead the kids downstairs-”
River already started zoning out.
Maybe it was because he wasn’t looking right – as Aspen would have mentioned if asked – that no one stopped River when he went back to watch the family eat breakfast.
It was unsettling for Aspen to notice his partner fall back into the creepily slow movements he had seen the first time they met. River’s face was not neutral with relaxation, but rather as if he wasn’t using any muscles – the lips a tiny bit parted, the eyes slightly lowered.
His shoulders slackened down. His head had the slightest tilt, almost as if too heavy for his neck.
Aspen didn’t like it.
Through the glasses, he could see River’s eyes.
Tired.
His partner was just too tired to handle this chaos.
“I will go along with what you want”, Aspen whispered to him. “Can I help? What are you thinking about?”
It was the last sentence that made River respond, purely out of habit. Aspen asked him that question often when they talked. What are you thinking about? Tell me. Let me be a part of your thoughts.
“I’m queasy”, he admitted in a breathless voice. “I don’t like any of this. I don’t like people messing with my game, I don’t like the random murder, I don’t-” An intake of breath. “I don’t like looking at myself.”
Did the children have to be so similar to him? Couldn’t they have been different? Couldn’t it have been any other game?
How they were ignored as the meal finished. The way they were expected to clean up, move quietly, not disturb their parents. It was in the way they moved like robots, all according to a set schedule that wouldn’t interfere with their parents.
Author’s Note
Yes, the method the girls used does exist. There’s videos explaining how it works. Might be random knowledge that could come into use one day – or hopefully not.
Does this mean that the “real” death of the children will appear in this turn?
I can’t wait to read the next one. I read 2 chapters at once, since I missed last week. It hyped me up even more eheh.
Thanks for the chapter! Happy holidays to everyone!
The children do not die in this game, at least not if no one interferes. Not every game relates to someone’s death 😀 (Just. Most….)
That’s reassuring ><! Fortunately they will be saved… poor children. So there was definitely a problem with the bathroom.
Thank you for the chapter 😆
Thanks for the chapter!
I tried to find those videos but I couldn’t find them :/ Would you have the link to one? It seems interesting. Thanks ^^
CG doesn’t like links too much so let’s do it like this: One Youtube video showing it is called “How to Escape from Zip Ties with Shoelaces”, you should be able to find it like that 😀
I’ll try that, thanks! ^^
ive reached the end/latest update aww thank you for the chapter :)) ill be waiting for more to come