The skeletons' timber-clad house was no warmer inside, and Frisk's bare legs turned to gooseflesh as the ketchup's effects wore off. She wondered if Papyrus had spare woolen sweatpants that she could borrow, but before she could ask he sped upstairs to his room.

"you're on the couch tonight," Sans said to her. "one of my skulls will make sure that creature from the ruins won't bother you."

He clicked his fingers and another floating skull appeared. Or was it the same one? Regardless, it still creeped her out.

Papyrus bounced down to the living room and thrust a blanket into Frisk's arms.

"THIS IS FOR YOU AND CHARLOTTE," he said. "AND I DON'T MIND IF YOU WANT TO KEEP MY SWEATER WHILE YOU ARE IN SNOWDIN. AS FOR 'GABE', IT CAN STAY INSIDE BUT MY DOOR SHALL BE LOCKED TO PREVENT FURTHER THIEVERY!"

"Um, I don't think that's going to stop Gabe," Frisk replied, thinking of the many strange things the dog had done already.

"NO MATTER, I SHALL REMAIN VIGILANT!"

"don't worry about it bro, bonedacious will keep gabe away from your bones."

"BONEDACIOUS? DID YOU NAME ONE OF YOUR SKULLS AGAIN?!"

Sans shrugged in reply.

"THAT'S A BONE-SHATTERINGLY BAD PUN," Papyrus said, "BUT WE SHOULD STOP ARGUING AND GO TO BED."

"good call, pap. see ya in the morning, kid."

"GOODNIGHT FRISK!"

"'Night," she replied with a yawn.

Papyrus leapt up the stairs again, two at a time, while Sans stumped after him. Frisk carefully removed a groggy Charlotte from her sweater, and removed that too. She lay the sweater out on the floor and placed the sleepy spider inside. Frisk then lay down on the couch, but she was too tall to lie comfortably. She alternated between curling into a fetal position, or lying with her feet resting on the arms of the couch. The lights turned off, probably with magic, leaving her wide awake in the darkness.

She would not sleep tonight. Even with her eyes closed she could feel 'Bonedacious' watching her. Or maybe it was Gabe? Frisk lifted the corner of the blanket to see the dog fast asleep on the floor next to Charlotte, snoring gently with its legs sticking up in the air. She moved the blanket from her face and discovered the floating skull staring at her. She glared at it until it got the message, and it hovered into the kitchen.

Frisk had been ignoring her bladder all day, and now it was about to burst. She resolved to wait a little longer before sneaking out. She preoccupied herself by thinking of what the monster king might be like. The human kings she had learnt about in high school history were all mad and power-hungry. Talking to Sans had only left her with more questions. Did she really have a choice in fighting Asgore to keep her soul? Or maybe Sans was trying to give her some sort of hope in a hopeless situation.

As the minutes crawled past the pain in her bladder became unbearable. Frisk got up and, carefully stepping over Gabe and Charlotte, she tiptoed to the front door. The skull followed her, as expected, but she fiercely told it to look away while she ducked into the bushes behind the skeleton brothers' house.

Snowdin was utterly quiet and darker than before, now that its residents had gone to bed. Frisk kept an eye out for the skull, but it didn't move from the front of the house.

She walked back to the door, feeling much better. The skull was hovering close to the house. It looked alert, its jaws hanging open and its creepy eyes glowing brighter.

"Did you see something?" Frisk whispered. The skull didn't answer, and when she looked out into the gloom she couldn't see anything unusual.

Frisk ducked around the skull and pushed the front door open. She stubbed her toe on the threshold, but when she tried to raise her foot it would not budge. She overbalanced and fell heavily onto her knees and hands with a cry of pain. Frisk flipped over and sat on the front step to examine the damage. In the dim light she could see a spiky vine coiled around her ankles.

Above her, the skull opened its jaws and a ball of white light grew inside. The light became a white-hot laser, firing out of the skull's mouth. The force of the blast knocked Frisk back and the light seared painfully in her eyes. She pushed herself up, staring wildly at the place where the skull had fired. The light from the attack was fading fast, but with a jolt of cold fear she saw it - the beast from the ruins! It was on all fours this time, around seven foot tall at the shoulder. Horrible spikes jutted from its limbs and back, and its mouth was a jagged mess of teeth. It stared at her.

Frisk froze in horror, her skin crawling. More vines appeared from the ground to lock around her wrists. The spikes - or were they thorns? - dug into her skin until she bled.

Gabe showed up next to Frisk and began to bark. It sounded too cute to scare the creature away, but at least it was trying to help.

The skull fired again, bleaching the darkness and half-blinding Frisk. The pain worsened in her ankles and wrists as she struggled to break free. The light inside the house flicked on.

"Stay calm, I'll get you out!" Charlotte cried, appearing by Frisk's right hand. The spider grabbed the vine with her claws and bit into it. Frisk cried out as the vine spasmed, tearing at her skin, but its grip did falter. Charlotte bit it repeatedly until the vine finally released Frisk's bloodied wrist and slithered back into the darkness.

Outside the ground rumbled, and dozens of bones speared up from the road. Some of the bones presumably hit their mark, as the creature screamed in pain. Frisk's hair stood on end at the high-pitched cry. It sounded like a child.

The vines holding Frisk released at once, so swiftly that Charlotte nearly bit her by accident. It was all over. The skull rushed across the road to investigate the last place the creature had been before it vanished.

"Oh dearie, you're hurt!" Charlotte said. Frisk looked at herself properly, and she was a mess. The thorns had left deep, bloody gashes on her body, and her knees had already started to bruise.

Tears pricked in Frisk's eyes. Her body stung and ached, and she trembled from the adrenaline and the freezing air.

"that was a prickly situation," said Sans as he crouched down next to her, studying her wounds. He was wearing the same clothes he wore during the day, including the pink slippers.

"HAVE SOME OF THESE DOUGHNUTS I FOUND IN THE FRIDGE!" said Papyrus. "SPAGHETTI IS THE SUPERIOR FOOD, BUT SINCE YOU'RE ALLERGIC..."

Papyrus was dressed in cream pajamas with a colorful race-car pattern. He was still wearing his red mittens, his thumb hooked through a doughnut. Frisk almost cracked, desperate to admit that she wasn't allergic to spaghetti so she wouldn't have to eat a cold, spider-filled doughnut, but she took it anyway with a shaking hand. It tasted of cinnamon sugar, with a spicy hit at the end which she guessed was from the spider cider. The doughnut actually tasted alright, and she ate the whole thing. The wounds and bruising disappeared.

Gabe shoved through the skeletons' legs, dragging the blanket, which it deposited on Frisk's lap.

"Thanks Gabe," she said. "Thank you, everyone. You saved me."

"DO NOT MENTION IT, DEAR FRISK," Papyrus said. "BUT WHY ON EARTH WERE YOU OUTSIDE?"

The skeletons, dog, and spider watched her intently.

"I, uh, had to go to the bathroom," she said in a small voice.

"BUT THERE IS A BATHROOM UPSTAIRS. SANS, DID WE FORGET TO SHOW FRISK THE BATHROOM?"

"yeah i think we forgot, pap."

Frisk shifted awkwardly, hugging the blanket. "…it's a human thing."

"I'VE HEARD THAT HUMAN FOOD IS INFERIOR TO MONSTER FOOD. BUT NOW THAT YOU'RE EATING MONSTER FOOD YOU WON'T NEED TO GO OUTSIDE TO USE THE BATHROOM."

Sans was struggling not to laugh. "let's get frisk inside," he said in an uneven voice.

The skeleton brothers offered her a hand each, and she let them lift her up. The doughnut had healed her wounds but she was still not back to normal. She was exhausted. If only their house had one of those magical floating lights from the ruins! The sentinel skull emerged from the darkness and followed them in.

Frisk collapsed on the couch and sighed. Charlotte jumped up onto her lap.

"good job, bonedacious."

The skull hovered over to its master and Sans gave it a pat on the nose. It didn't disappear this time.

"I know that's the same creature that followed us through the ruins. What is it, exactly?" Frisk asked Sans and Papyrus.

"honestly, no idea. it kinda looks like a monster, but what i do know is it doesn't have a soul."

A grave silence followed Sans's comment.

"BUT THAT SHOULDN'T BE POSSIBLE," Papyrus said, a nervous edge to his voice.

"It is. Sans is right, it doesn't have a soul," Charlotte said. "Before the old lady torched the ruins, myself and the other spiders tried to fight it. It was stealing the food that we were selling to raise money so that we could leave the ruins. We tried talking to the creature, of course, but it dusted poor little Penelope instead of explaining why it was stealing from us. The rest of us attacked it in retaliation for Penelope, but there was no soul inside for us to appeal to. It dusted three more spiders and the rest of us ran away. It's been toying with the survivors ever since, picking us off."

Frisk frowned. "When you say 'dusted', you mean…?"

"when a monster is killed they turn to dust," replied Sans.

Charlotte dabbed at her many eyes with the corner of the blanket.

"I'm so sorry about your friends," said Frisk. "It was really courageous of you to help me."

"I told you I was on your side, dearie," Charlotte sniffled. "We have to face that creature together."

Papyrus rubbed his chin in puzzlement. "I STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW A MONSTER CAN EXIST WITHOUT A SOUL."

"i don't understand either, pap. it's definitely unnatural. maybe alphys has some ideas."

"NYEH! GOOD IDEA, BROTHER! SHE CAN HELP US!"

"Who is Alphys?" Charlotte asked.

"the royal scientist. she has a lab in hotland."

Charlotte jumped up in delight. "Hotland! That's where the rest of the spiders live!" she said. "Can we go there? Please?"

"i don't think we need to take frisk to asgore just yet," said Sans. "we can see alphys tomorrow. i know a shortcut."

"NEATO! THAT WAY WE CAN SPEND EVEN MORE TIME WITH FRISK!"

"alright. now that's settled, i'm going to bed. i'll put another skull outside so we don't have any more uninvited guests."

"BUT SANS! YOUR MAGIC-"

"don't worry about me, bro," he said. "i just need to sleep and i'll be fine."

Sans snapped his fingers. Nothing happened, but Frisk guessed that another one of his disembodied sentinel skulls were now patrolling outside.

"YOU SLEEP TOO MUCH ALREADY!" Papyrus quipped. "GOODNIGHT AGAIN, EVERYONE!"

Sans yawned and flicked his wrist with a lazy wave in parting.

"'Night, and thanks again," Frisk said.

"Goodnight Sans and Papyrus," Charlotte said, and Gabe offered them a single goodnight bark. On the nearby table, Rocky Jr. said nothing.

The skeleton brothers walked upstairs and disappeared into their rooms. Frisk tucked Charlotte into Papyrus's orange sweater again, and they wished each other a good night. Bonedacious drifted into the kitchen.

Frisk finally curled up on the couch, beneath the blanket. Gabe jumped up and settled against her shins. She finally found peace, and sleep. These monsters really did care for her.