Chapter Text
Mom's worried voice broke through the haze I'd had since this morning. I didn't want to get up. I didn't want to move at all. I clawed at the bed sheets as that thing forced me out of bed. I made sure to fight its every action. Like hell I was going to see Noelle today. Not after what it did yesterday. But it managed to force me up anyway. With any luck she was home by now. I had to hope. Maybe she left and got sick of waiting for me. I let it take me where it wanted. Not like I could control that. However, I made sure to make every step as slow as I could. Susie stopped me as we left the house. I was all too grateful for her.
"Hey, you missed most of the festival," She said while pointing out the obvious. She was leaning casually against the house and continued, "I saw most of it with Noelle. She was weird all day. She's waiting for you at the beach. So uh, yeah. See ya." I wanted to rip my soul out, to make sure it didn't have control over me. I wanted to go enjoy the festival with her, or what was left of it anyway. I didn't want to see Noelle yet, or at all. Thankfully as I started to walk away, she asked me to go to the festival. We walked around the empty festival, at Dad's stand she made me a flower crown. It fell apart immediately but I liked the sentiment. We neared the lake when Susie remembered Noelle wanted some ice cream. I was all too grateful when she asked me to come with her. We talked to Sans for a while, that prick. Despite my dislike of him, it doesn't compare to the hate I feel toward that. When we finally finished walking around the festival, Susie dropped me off at the lake.
I approached Noelle and she asked me to tell her to fly. She asked me to show her freedom, tell her to proceed as "I'd" done so many times before. Then she started to pull me to the river. I let her. I held her hands and let her guide me into the chilly waters. I heard its voice echo in my throat. We kept moving down into the chilly water. I shivered, but I kept going. Soon it became hard to keep my head above the water. I gasped for air as I was pulled under. Noelle wanted freedom, she wanted us to see the other side of the lake. I knew I'd die here. We both would. I accepted that fact. As we kept going, water replaced the air in my lungs. Noelle was still trying to bob up to take in air. I allowed the water to drown me. At some point, my vision went white. Like the snow that thing forced her to cast. Then, we were trudging up instead of down. Up the other side of the river bank.
"Kris!" Noelle shouted with glee, "Kris we made it! We made it to the other side!" I looked around at the trees near us and smiled.
Tears started to slip down my cheeks and I fell to my knees, "We did it. Noelle, we're free! Really free!"
Noelle's hands held my face, "We did it, Kris!"
I hugged her as I cried, "Thank you, Noelle." I was free, free from that thing. Noelle, she looked like she was glowing. She beamed at me with a smile that could melt all the ice in the world. She started to run toward the trees to explore. I turned around to look back at the lake. Just in the distance, I could see red and blue lights through the thick fog. I laid down on the sand of the beach and watched the clouds. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes as a wave took me away.