Duska

The towering light of the Barrier is almost enough to turn me around and back into the arms that had been giving me several dozen hugs for the last two hours, but something is allowing me to not turn back. I walk right up to the large wall, so close that my nose could touch it, and look back on the family I'm leaving. Sans is giving me a strained smile along with Papyrus while everyone else looks both happy yet sad. My instincts tell me not to but I wave at the group, Undyne and Papyrus eagerly wave back while Frisk and Chara give small waves. I sadly smile and turn back at the Barrier, walking through it before I give another thought. I instantly feel something in my chest be crushed but I ignore it and head up to see the sun high above the mountain, lighting up a nearby town below me. I guess that's my first stop.

The town was lively with people quickly walking past and others eating inside restraunts. Cars weren't in large quantity here which was something I liked as the noise they make kind of scares me. I'm suddenly barraged by a group of people and dragged towards a camera crew. I swear that they were waiting for me or something...

"Hello there! We don't get many tourists, where are you from?"

The woman who spoke had a large bun made from her greying brown hair, a nicely tailored red jacket over a black top and brown pants accompanied by black heels. She had several people with her but they seemed to be just bystanders in this... interview?

"I'm from... Mt Ebott."

Her smile falters but she quickly laughs it off, people around me stare with some whispers in the back. 

"No one lives in Mt Ebott! And like the legends, everyone who goes up there doesn't come back-"

"Well I did and all of the legends are true. Monsters are real."

The whispers turn into a full out conversation between the person beside everyone all while my anxiety of people builds slowly. I sigh as I hear everyone saying something about 'psychotic' and 'delusions' and I figure out what I have to do. With the flick of my hand my arms light with aqua fire as bandages slowly wrap themeselves around my left eye and any exposed skin. Everyone backs up and I hear a scream from somewhere but I don't move, instead I just show everyone my skeletal arms.

"Monsters are real but I am the only hybrid known to live. There is an entire civilization underneath that mountain and they all are hoping to see the sun one day."

"Then why are you out here!?! Shouldn't you be stuck down there too!?!"

An elderly man stands out from the crowd and starts shouting questions at me, they seem to spark conversation to the other bystanders as the noise starts to build.

"I'm not stuck because I have a human soul, the only thing allowing people to leave from behind the Barrier. And i'm out here to look for my father who had absorbed my mother's soul when she died during childbirth."

"Wait... Duska!?!"

An accent stands out from the crowd, it sounds like a cowboy from movies that i've seen. A man pushes through the crowd and stands in front of me, an unshaved beard, dark tan, cowboy hat. He certainly looks like a cowboy at least.

"Don't remember me hun? It's me, Jay! I used to deliver food to your house when you were a little 'un. And babysitted ya here an' there."

The faint memory of a man in his late twenties holding several bags of food enters my head, he looks the same just ten years older. I smile and run into a hug, wrapping my arms around his neck and leaning my head on his chest. He's about as tall as Papyrus but I think the hat adds onto it.

"She's telling the truth Jay!?! There was a monster up here!?!"

"And there still is. Sure he's gone missin' but I know he's out there somewhere."

Missing? The word made my heart crack and all I could do was stand in front of Jay as I look down at his feet. His large hand makes it way onto my shoulder as he asks me to lift my head.

"C'mon hun, he's fine. How about I take ya home?"

I nod my head and answer a few more questions from people before getting into Jay's bright blue ute, it's completely unmissable. He starts it up and drives well out of the town before talking.

"Despite my obvious lookin' car i'm actually a private detective, mostly lookin' for missing persons. I've tried searchin' for ya Dad but I couldn't get down into his little lab area to search for any clues. It seems to only accept something with magic in it. I think you'll be able to open it though, you bein' magic and all."

"I'll definetly try, I want to see his lab too. His old books on science should be down there and I want to read them and bring them back for my friend Alphys to read."

"So you made some friends down there hun?"

"More like I made a family. Papyrus is like an innocent big brother, Alphys is my science nerd partner, Undyne is an older sister that spars with me-"

"Sparin'!?! You gotta show me your fightin' some time!"

I giggle and start watching the trees fly by us, white lines disappearing beneath the car. I smile as everyone else comes to mind.

"Toriel is like... a mother, she certainly treats me like her kid. Asgore treats me like his kid too and I see him similar to Dad but just not as close. Maybe a tea making Uncle."

He laughs at the word 'tea' and I take him for more of the caffiene type.

"Frisk and Chara are human too but they're young and they treat me as an older sister. Flowey... Flowey hates everyone but he's nice when he wants to be. Oh! And Grillby is like an Uncle too, an Uncle who's eternally on fire."

I see him raise an eyesbrow in question but I only giggle in response.

"Sounds like a pretty good family ya got there! Anyone else?"

"Yeah... there's Sans. He's Paps' older brother and had raised him when his Dad fell into the Core. Saving my Dad and I."

"Oh... sorry hun."

The car stays silent for a little while and my eyes unconsciously look over at the distant peak of Mt Ebott, the rest of it is hidden behind a large wall of tall oak trees.

"You gotta boyfriend?"

I visibly flinch which sends him into a loud laughing fit as I scowl and cross my arms. Lucky for us no cars drove by as we swerved a little across the large asphalt road. It took a minute for Jay to calm down, as he does he grips onto my shoulder and shakes me a little.

"I know it's not my place to know but i'd be good if you told someone about him."

"Wait what!?! I don't have a boyfriend."

"I know."

He nods and takes his hand away, smiling wide on his tanned face.

"But ya like someone down there hun, I can see it on your face. Do you wanna tell me?"

The first thing that appears to mind was Sans sleeping against a wooden bar on his watch post. His jacket was unzipped and slightly moved as a snow storm was beginning to form. His leg swayed off the side of the table with his slipper having fallen off and now laying in the snow.

"...Sans."

"Ah. He good to ya? Not mean at all?"

"No. He was trying to deter me from coming up to the Surface as he was worried. He was crying and everything."

"Ha!"

Again I jump at the sudden loud noise, I wonder if i'll ever get used to his spontaneous outbursts. Well... I got used to Paps and Undynes so, maybe.

"Looks like the boy likes ya back! If so, if he hasn't asked ya out yet he must be a shy one. Just wait a bit, he'll ask and you'll never forget that moment."

"So... you've become a love master too have you?"

"Imma PI, love master, ute driver, monster helper and the list goes on. How about you sleep a bit hun? You look tired after that walk down from the mountain and it'll take awhile before we get there."

At that moment I yawn as if coincidences don't exist. Leaning my head against the back of the chair I suddenly feel incredibly tired, with my legs and feet hurting from the walk. My arms cross over my stomach as I close my eyes and fall asleep within no time at all.