Short Stories/To Protect and Serve

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William sat squarely on his knees, his hands bound behind his back with chains. Looking up and around, William thought about how some Asshole had erupted into *his* warehouse and beat him and his friends down to the ground, only to come back later with Frisk and some fat skeleton in tow. He turned his attention to them.

Frisk and the Asshole whispered something between each-other as the fat skeleton watched William and his two friends with sentry-esk interest. After a minute of their jabbering, Frisk looked back at William, whispered something again to the Asshole, then stood up. The skeleton then pulled out their phone and stuck it to the side of their skull. After a few minutes, he approached the two Humans again.

"The police are on their way." he said. "Let's get you two out of here."

In the next moment, all three of them vanished, leaving William and his friends alone in the warehouse.

"'ey, William," one of his friends called. "wasn't that Frisk?"

"Yeah. It was."

"Who were those with him?"

"I dunno." William shook his head, chuckling a bit. "Some new friends he made in that hole, I guess."

As soon as William finished speaking, the skeleton reappeared, carrying a hotdog.

"Hey, boneboy. Bring me anything?"

"Nah. Just got myself a weiner. I do hear that's your favorite food, though. Wanna taste?" The skeleton pulled the sausage from the bun and held it out to William suggestively, winking his right eye.

William didn't answer. Apparently taking his silence for a "no", the skeleton slotted the sausage back in the bun and continued eating. After a few minutes, the sounds of police sirens told everyone in the warehouse that the police had arrived. Once voices could be heard coming from out front, the skeleton disappeared once again.

After another minute, the large sliding door of the warehouse cracked open, and a few officers came pouring into the room.

"William?" One of the officers called.

"Down here, Phil."

Phil walked to the back of the warehouse, where William and his friends were chained up.

"Now look at wha'chu got 'urself into."

"Not my fault. Some self-righteous jackass with some strange power just barged in here and chained me down. Any tighter and it might have been nice." William chuckled.

Phil turned back to the other officers. "Unchain these three men and take 'em to the station." He turned back to William. "I'll take William with me. Danny, Andrew, you two take his friends."

Doing as directed, the officers unchained William and his friends and escorted them outside to their cruisers. Once stowed away, the officers began making their way back to the station.

"So Phil," William said after a minute. "what's going on? September has been... terrible."

"You too, huh." Phil said, lighting a cigarette as he drove. William held out his cuffed hands, and the officer gave it to him, lit another, and took a puff. "Yeah, ever since the Underground Hole went down in a massive heap of brick and metal, shit's been crazy." Phil then chuckled a bit. "But even so, it's not all been bad. Moon killed Rosa last week, so nobody will care much if you just... left your cell tomorrow."

"Rosa's dead? Heh, serves her right. That's what you get for trying to be a clean cop in this city." William said, sucking on his cigarette.

"Yeah, but there's more bad news. Seems that the Monster ambassador, or whatever the hell he is, isn't too happy with Athens's situation, and wants the city cleaned."

"You're kidding. He can't do that, can he?"

Phil took another puff. "Apparently he can. The Arista has agreed to increase clean law enforcement starting next month."

"I don't believe this. Why the hell would the ambassador give a damn what happens here? Who is this jackass anyway?"

"Some snot-nosed kid named Frisk, I think."

William jerked up upon hearing that.

"What's up. You know 'im or somethin'?"

"No." William said after a few seconds.

Phil eyed William for a second more before turning back to the road. After another minute, William spoke up again.

"So where's Steven?"

"Back at the station."

"Testing the alcohol content of various liquors, no doubt."

Phil chuckled a bit. "Nah, he's actually doing police work. Filing reports to Sparta and all that."

"Tsk. Paperwork. He drew the short-straw today, huh."

"Heheh, yeah. Wouldn't wanna be in his place today."

As the two finished talking, the police car turned into the station's parking lot. Upon parking, Phil and William stepped out of the car. William took one last suck from his cigarette before tossing it to the ground and crushing it under his boot. Phil then escorted him inside, storing him in a cell.

"I'll leave you 'ere tonight, and in the morning, I'll 'accidentally' leave the key here. Be sure you high-tail it outta here before ten."

William sat back on the hard metal slab that made up his bed, shifting the ragged beige blanket down to one side and fluffing up the mostly deflated pillow on the other.

*So Frisk is the ambassador to the Monsters, huh...* he thought as he took the blanket and beefed up the pillow with it. *I wonder... if Frisk found them in Mount Ebott. And if so, I wonder if the Arista knew. Is that why the mountain was always off limits?*

William huffed after a minute and got comfortable—at least as comfortable as he could on the hard, cold metal—and went to sleep.

William's eyes slowly slid open. It was bright out, as if it was already mid-day. Blinking a bit, William soon found that he was looking up at a monotonous pink surface. He blinked a few more times and lifted his arm to his head. Lifting his arm, he felt a strange, wet sensation leave it as it left the ground. This time lifting his head, William turned it to look down at what he was laying in, spotting the expressionless face of a woman staring up at him. Caught by surprise, William shot up and jumped away, looking back once he'd landed back in the liquid.

The woman, who was completely nude, was beneath the liquid, floating in it, though seemingly unaware of where she was. Seemingly unaware of anything, in fact, as though she were dead. Looking through the liquid, which looked to be water, William saw more women floating in it, just like the first. Some of the women had gashes carved into them, some had obvious bruising in some places, like around their neck. All of them, however, had heavy bruising covering their entire crotch. Among the women, deep in the water, were two children, standing out among the other bodies in that the children were wearing clothes. Catching sight of the children, William broke his gaze away from the water below.

"Hey Will!" a high-pitched voice said from behind him.

William immediately shot around, his eyes wide with terror. Behind him was a small boy with olive skin facing... him. Another him, that is. Another, younger William.

"Oh, hey kid. What's up?" Young-William said, smiling down at the boy.

"Look what me and Aliza made!" the boy said.

"'Aliza and I.'" Young-William corrected.

"Right. Look what Aliza and I made!"

The boy was holding a small, cardboard structure that was vaguely shaped like an animal.

"Wow," Young-William said, taking the structure. "this looks great. Is it a giraffe?"

The boy nodded. "Yup. We read about them in one of those books. Did you know that they're the tallest animal?"

"No, I had no idea."

"What? Whatever, I'll bet you did know."

Young-William chuckled. "You got me."

William stared at his younger self and the boy with wide, fearful eyes. A crash of glass pulled his attention from the pair to another vision—this one of his younger self alone in front of a sink and mirror, now cracked.

"How is this possible?" the new William said to himself. "Three years? It must have just been a dream, right? Yeah, it never happened. I'm just confusing reality. But then how does Frisk and Aliza remember too? Shared dreams?" Young-William grabbed the back of his head and propped his arms on the sides of the sink. "Arg. This is giving me a headache."

The scraping of a chair against the floor pulled William's attention to another vision. Young-William was sitting on a chair, staring down at the floor.

"Fifteen years. I think, at least." Young-William said, his tone low and his face effortlessly expressionless. "I wake up again, and it's 2010. Again. For the sixth time." Young-William let out a deep sigh. "I haven't told Frisk or Aliza that I remember too. They probably think they're crazy. Maybe I'm the crazy one. Dreams, I tell them it is. Just dreams. Why, for my own sanity?" Young-William dropped his face in his hands. "For what? Does it even matter. Does anything even matter? Why should I work to build something up if I know, someday, without any warning, it'll all just... reset?

"I'm so tired of this. I'm tired of working every day like nothing is wrong. I'm tired of pretending nothing is wrong. I'm just... tired. I'm tired of taking care of others. I'm tired of being selfless, having nothing for myself. Why don't I just indulge for once? It's not like anything would change when it all reset, right? I could probably kill myself and it wouldn't make a difference; just wake up when it all reset again." Young-William began to chuckle. "Yeah, why not. Frisk and Aliza would come back just fine when it all resets again, I could just dump them like garbage on the street. Then I'd be free to get myself killed with all the selfish indulgences I want!" His low chuckling began to rise in tone and ferocity. "It's perfect. And when it all resets again, I just tell them it was all a bad dream and that none of it actually happened, just like I've been doing anyway. It's perfect. It's perfect! It's perfect!!!"

William was drawn from the vision by the rumbling of a door behind him. Tearing his eyes from his demented self, he saw the silhouette of a child standing in the light of a tall, metal door.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU, WISEASS!?" The new William shouted from between his two friends.

*What the... when... was this?* William thought, for once watching the vision with interest rather than terror.

The silhouetted figure stumbled forward into the room William and his friends were in.

"W-wait... Frisk!?" Vision-William said, surprised.

"What? Frisk lived through that!?" William's friend said.

"Yes, William, I did." Frisk responded coldly.

Vision-William just stared for a second, trying to compose a response. "How the hell did you survi—" He then spotted the dagger that Frisk was holding. "What's that for? You angry or something!?"

"You could say something like that." Frisk said, pulling the dagger up to his face.

"Look, bro, if this is about kicking you down that hole, I'm sorry about that. I wasn't myself."

"Just like you weren't yourself when you abandoned me and Aliza on the street like some bag of trash!? You were supposed to look after us after mom and dad died."

"I LOOKED AFTER BOTH OF YOU FOR FIFTEEN YEARS!!!" Vision-William shouted before covering his mouth.

Frisk stopped moving. "Y-you *do* remember!"

"What are you two idiots doing, *get him*!!!" Vision-William commanded his friends.

His friends dashed forward to restrain Frisk, but both were swiftly cut down by Frisk and his murderous rage. As one of his friends slowly choked on his own blood, Frisk approached Vision-William.

"W-what kind of *monster* are you?" He asked.

Frisk stepped closer, though as he approached, his eyes turned black and pus-like black fluid poured out of them, along with his mouth. Vision-William faded, along with the room, but Frisk remained.

William, who had so far been watching the vision with confusion, saw the disgusting deformed face of his brother and stepped back. Frisk didn't hesitate, shooting forward with great momentum and planting the knife straight into William's face.

William shot up from the metal slab, his skin cold and moist, and his breath out of control. William grabbed his chest with his hand, feeling the rapid beats of his heart as it pounded away like a war-drum.

As he slowly steadied his breathing, his heart rate slowly fell too, until it was finally running at a steady beat. Despite the pounding in his chest running slow again, his head pounded all the same, as though the heavy beats from his heart simply relocated to his brain.

Ignoring the pain, William looked around. He was still in his cell, at least he was pretty sure he was. The surrounding area was dark, though the city lights shone some light from his barred window.

As he sat in the dark, rubbing at his temples to try and alleviate the pain, his mind reviewed the day's events. How Frisk, along with some asshole and a skeleton, had delivered him and his friends to this cell. He reviewed the memory a few more times in his head before the pain finally began to lift.

"You're angry, aren't you." A hissing whisper said.

William looked around his cell again.

"Who's there?" He asked the darkness.

"Someone who wants to help you, though if you must call me something, call me Beauty Queen."

"Beauty Queen?" William gritted his teeth. "That's a stupid name. What do you want?"

"As I said, I wish to help." the answer came, its speaker choosing to be ignorant of the insult. "Though as I have answered two of your questions, answer one of mine. You're angry. Angry at Frisk. Angry at yourself. Angry at the world. Your hedonistic way of life, though stemming from your nihilism, is threatened to end without your desired reset. You can't just lie your way back, and you are powerless against the whimsical nature of the universe."

"What is your question?"

"What if I could help you gain the power to perpetuate your current state of existence for as long as you want. Would you accept my help?"

"What? Power? What power?"

"The power to bend this world to your will. Even take control of when it resets, and to when it will reset to. Imagine it, you would be unstoppable. You could do anything you like."

"Anything... I like..." he said, the possibilities already sprouting in his mind.

"Don't listen to it, Will." A new voice said from the darkness.

William looked back around his cell. Even through the darkness, he could make out something that wasn't there before. Something—no, someone—new.

"And who are you?"

"My name is Jack. Pleasure to meet you."

William eyed Jack closely. He was a tall, white man with a mop of black hair clad in a long black coat.

"And what do you want, Jack?"

"What do I want? Hmm, a question that has changed as many times as I've asked it myself. Right now, I guess the answer would be to settle my debt."

"Your debt? And what would that have to do with this place? Is that why you're here?"

"In a fashion, yes. Though if you're asking if I was jailed for this debt, the answer's no. I'm still wanted."

"Then what are you doing in my cell?"

"I'm here because of you."

"Me?"

"You're at a crossroads, William. I promised someone who helped me a great deal that I would do whatever they needed, and they told me to be here at this moment, to make sure you made the right choice."

"You've gotta be kidding me."

"No, I'm not. When I spoke, you were talking to Beauty Queen, yes?"

William looked around the room, trying to find where this "Beauty Queen" had disappeared to.

"You won't find it here."

"It?"

"Beauty Queen. It's not here. It spoke directly into your mind."

William scoffed at Jack's statement.

"You don't believe me?"

"No. Why should I? Spoke directly into my mind? Are you crazy?"

Jack didn't answer. Instead, he simply brought up his hand and summoned a flame just above his palm.

"Whoa!" William yelled. "How did you do that?"

"Magic. The very same magic, in fact, that Beauty Queen was no doubt just promising you."

"If you have it, does that mean you accepted the power it gave?"

"What makes you think that? Besides, the power it gives isn't yours. It belongs to a parasite that it puts on your SOUL to feed on it."

"A parasite... on your SOUL."

"Yes. You don't believe me on the existence of a SOUL, do you?"

"No. Can't say that I do."

Jack sighed. "Unfortunately, I can't show you that. You can only see a SOUL if you've trained in magic, even slightly.

"I can tell you want this power that Beauty Queen offers, but the price for that power is far greater than you think. In order to gain it, you need to murder. This growth comes best from those close to you. The parasite will twist your reason and your purpose, until you're nothing more than a murderous machine."

"Like I care. Besides, it's not like it matters anyway. Tomorrow could never come. For all I know, I could be waking up back in 2010."

"Is that what all this is about?" Jack asked, his brow cocked. "You became what you are now because you think it'll all just erase?"

"Well why not? Everything else I did in those lost years was reverted. All those people I raped and murdered; it'll be like it never happened when it all becomes 2010 again."

"It won't become 2010 again."

William's cocky smile fell. "How do you know?"

"Because I finished what I kept resetting for."

William's eyes widened. *What is he talking about!?*

"I believe I owe you an apology, Will. You see, I was the one who kept making it 'become 2010 again'. And I see now why he wanted me to come here..." Jack said that last sentence more to himself than William. He then looked straight at him. "I can't reset anymore. That power has moved on. It moved on just before September started, at the end of the day the Begierde building—the Underground Hole—exploded."

"Was that you, too?"

"Yes. It was."

"But... that means you're..."

"The Mad Man. Correct."

Jack stood up. William just stared at him, slack-jawed.

"I'm not here to kill you, Will. At least not yet. I'm here to tell you to reform yourself. When the morning comes, and you 'escape', do not go back to your criminal ways. If you do, I'll know, and I'll kill you." Jack then reached into his pocket and pulled out a golden ring. "If you really do want the power Beauty Queen offers, take this. It will unlock your magical potential." He then handed the ring to William, then stepped over to the window. "I've been blocking Beauty Queen from talking while we talked. When I leave, I have no doubt that it will attempt to convince you otherwise of the things we spoke on. Do not listen to it."

As soon as Jack finished speaking, he disappeared in a flare of red energy.

William sat alone in the cell, staring down at the ring he'd been given. As soon as Jack vanished, Beauty Queen hissed in William's ear again, but he wasn't listening. Eventually, he fell back asleep, to dream on these revelations.