❤️💜30k MMMMM IM ALIVE💜❤️

---PaperJam's POV----

As soon as we'd sorted out the whole 'homeless kid that's Goth's friend' situation we set off, wanting to make it to the ruins of Serenity as quick as possible.

Gradient was leading the way, with our parents close by his side.

My dad, being the crackhead skeleton he is, had took that monstrous dog along with him, saying that he'd be helpful.

Anyways, admittedly I'd fallen behind, dropping a bit further back in the group to near the last few people.

I constantly found myself glancing at Nightmare as I walked. If I wasn't wary of him before, I definitely was now. Error confirmed with me that the place we're going is what turned him into that monstrous form, because from what I've heard, he used to have a different form that was practically the opposite of what he is today.

If they did that to him, what if they did it to us?

I know Nightmare brutally murdered everyone working there...but maybe some followers or apprentices outside of the lab survived. Or maybe he just assumed that he killed everyone...

A sudden burst of colours slid into the right of my vision, dragging me out of my thoughts.

"Sup Jammy."

I jolted, glancing to the side to see none other than the colourful 90's criminal. Fresh. "O-Oh, hi Fresh."

The criminal smirked, his shades flashing momentarily. "What's it like being a criminal?"

I rolled my eyes, crossing my arms over my chest. "I'm not a criminal. I haven't done anything illegal."

Fresh snorted, patting my head mockingly. "Did you or did you not help break out two inmates from Craitown prison only yesterday?"

"I--... oh shut up I was only doing it to help my parents and get my friends dad back. Not for anything else." I huffed, looking away.

"So you went doing it just to break out me~?" He teased, smirking widely.

"Pff hell no. In your dreams. I literally know shit nothing about you."

"Well then." He said cheerfully, grinning. "I'll tell you my life story then, okay?"

"U-Uh--"

"Great! Now where do I start?"

I sighed, rolling my eyes as he took a deep breath, trying to remember back.

"Well, in this...current radical body of mine."

I blinked. "Current?"

He flashed me a grin and pet the top of my skull. "Don't ask too many questions that you wouldn't understand the answer to Jammy."

"B-But--"

"ShhSHHHshh-- calm down Jammy. I'll probably explain this all later to you, but for now I can't completely trust you with my secret. You understand that, right Broski?"

I sighed, nodding as I looked up at him expectantly, actually curious about what this odd skeletons life story could be.

"Right then, as I was going to say...back when I was little, my 'mum' died, leaving me with my over aggressive dad. He blamed me for my mothers death since she was always so worried about me. She didn't understand why I was so different from all the other kids and wanted to change that so I'd fit in. She did everything I ever wanted, buying me my odd taste in clothes and shades. But the thing is, Dad was an alcoholic. Forever beating her and attempting to beat me. I can remember one night mum had dragged me out of the house after an argument with dad and we'd hung out together at the park, not really doing anything.

That's when everything went wrong. On the way back, right outside our house, mum was hit by a car right in front of my dad and my eyes. She died later in hospital. For some reason I got the blame, and he started beating me. For that reason..." He trailed off, seeming lost in his thought. "I devoured him..."

I went to say something, but remembering what he said earlier, I went silent, waiting for him to continue.

"So after...that...I ran out in the streets, alone and confused...that's until I bumped into a big group of other people, outcasts like me...they took me in, and soon enough I grew quite fond of their leader, UnFresh was his name. They brought me up their way, aka ways of drug dealing. I was the youngest person there by far, but soon enough I was the most experienced. I'd go out selling, and then if we got spotted by police I'd be at an advantage because I was smaller than the others and could slip through gaps in fences and alleyways, unlike the others.

Anyways, I grew quite fond of the gangs leader, and in return he grew quite fond with me until we were in some un-official sort of little relationship I guess. We'd normally do rounds together, selling anything illegal to anyone that was willing to buy it. But then one day the cops came along undercover. They ambushed our base suddenly and flushed us all out. Everyone got caught, but not me. UnFresh shoved me down a secret cubbyhole before he got caught, telling me to wait there until I knew it was safe.

I ended up falling asleep there, and when I woke up I was all alone. I never figured out if anyone escaped, or if the police caught all of them. As far as I knew, I was the last one...so then I was on the streets again with no friends, family or home. There was no way in hell that I'd go back to dad. That wasn't even an option. So I roamed the streets alone, any little money I had being owned by selling yet more drugs to other people. I became pretty well known around my town.

But then the police set up a mass search for me and I had to run, fleeing that town so that I could run to the next. Craitown. Immediately I realised how different this place was. It seemed to have less criminals, and the police force was stronger than ones I'd seen before. I felt lost for so long in this place, stumbling about in alleyways, sheltering in abandoned houses and under trees.

But then that all changed once I met two people. Error and Geno. Error had been a mystery to me, and I don't recall him ever telling me why he actually started being a criminal. But I knew a bit about Geno. He had lived in a wealthy family, both his parents being insanely rich. He could have everything and anything he wanted. Bit of a spoiled brat really. But then one night everything changed all of that for him. Someone massacred the house party his parents had thrown, and everyone there got brutally murdered. Geno somehow managed to survive...but not without those scars..."

I cut him off. "S-So are you saying Geno has that slash down his chest and that glitch cloud over his right eye because of that massacre?"

"Yup. Correct."

"Wow..." I went silent. "Continue..."

Fresh snorted, nudging my side. "Finally interested in my story now, huh?"

"Shut up I was interested from the beginning."

"Alright then." He smirked at me before continuing. "They were a little gang of two, hiding from the world in an old abandoned house that until nine years ago, we all used as our base. Well, I was in prison so I didn't use it, but you get the idea. Once I'd proved myself to them they let me join them and we became a group of three. The original three as everyone calls us. Anyways, we were together for about a three months when news of a blown up lab caught our interest. Being the retards we are, we all went down there. And then that's where we found Nightmare!"

"You found Nightmare here?"

"Yeah. He was like on his knees in a clearing, surrounded by blood and dead trees. They looked as if he'd stabbed through them or something. First thing he did was try to attack him, but he was so mentally and physically exhausted that we managed to beat him. We'd never be able to do that now. Not a chance. But we did it back then and Nightmare joined us, acting as the kickstart trigger for our criminal life."

I glanced to the side at Nightmare, gulping as he gave both of us soul-stopping death glares.

Fresh noticed and laughed nervously before calling out and pointing at something dramatically. "Oh look!"

All of us immediately looked over at what Fresh was pointing at, our eyes widening.

Stood in the distance, surrounded by some pathetic dead trees, was a collapsed building.

It looked as if it might have had three floors, but now there was only two. The whole top floor looked like it has been ripped off, parts of the roof were strewn out across the overgrown building surrounding the crumbling structure. The windows were smashed, dried blood splattered across their surfaces. The creepiest thing about the whole thing was how the doors were wide open, just waiting for us to go in.

We were here.

Serenity.

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Aaaah a bit of Freshy and Geno's backstories :3

I couldn't think of anything for Error at the time so I left him a mystery XD

mmmmmmmm how many of you think something bad will happen in the lab. And if so, who will it happen to?

Fun fact: I don't actually ship Paperfresh. I ship Fresh x UnFresh :3

-Jess-