Chapter VI: Puzzles Gone Wrong

On the way to the next puzzle, Hannah runs into a bunch of monsters. Some of them include a teenager monster named Snowdrake, another teen named Icecap, and a poor reindeer monster named Gyftrot. Out of those, Gyftrot was her favorite because it was just so darn cute!

Anyway, Hannah is currently trudging through the snow toward Papyrus' next puzzle, which is actually made by Sans. As she turns the corner, she laughs to herself, thinking of what puzzle Sans would leave behind.

She sees the two skeletons talking to each other, and Hannah approaches them. Papyrus and Sans notice her, and Papyrus gets really excited. "HUMAN HANNAH! Let's see if you can solve this next puzzle! It was made by my brother, Sans!"

Hannah takes a look at the puzzle, which is just a page out of a newspaper. She sees it's a crossword and laughs softly. "Do you have a pen?"

Papyrus bounces up and down excitedly, and gives Hannah a red pen. She smiles and lays down on her back, not caring about getting her clothes wet. They're already soaking, after all.

About ten minutes pass before she gets all of the words. Hannah stands up and gives the paper and pen to Papyrus. "There you go, I solved your puzzle."

Papyrus and Sans stare at her with wide eye sockets, Sans in particular. Why would she go through the trouble of solving the puzzle in the first place?!

"Heh heh. Well, Papyrus, she solved it! I guess we have to get her on this next one then, huh?" Sans folds up the paper and puts it in his pocket. He seems to be holding back his laughter. He finds Hannah's commitment to this hilarious.

"Yes, we shall, brother!" Papyrus runs ahead and Sans walks lazily behind him. The two skeletons once again leave Hannah by herself.

It's not like Hannah hates the cold. In fact, she prefers the winter over the summer seasons because of how much she hates the heat. However, being out in the freezing snow with a harsh wind trying to knock you down, soaking clothes clinging to your body, and no warm gloves or boots is not something she'd consider fun.

Hannah envies the monsters she meets out here. Most of the dogs have armor on, and even if they don't, they still have a thick layer of fur to keep them warm. All of the other monsters she's met out here have either fur or feathers. Well, except Sans and Papyrus, but something is telling Hannah that Sans doesn't need his jacket to stay warm.

After fighting a lot of dogs - finding ways to get them to leave her alone, of course - and going through even more of Papyrus' puzzles, Hannah can't feel anything below her knees. She just hopes her toes are still there.

Finally, she makes it to Papyrus' last puzzle. Unfortunately, the puzzle is over a very long, rickety bridge that hangs over a very steep cliff. Hannah has never admitted it to anyone, but heights are on the top five of the fear list. However, she must suck up her fear and hope for the best.

With both hands shaking uncontrollably, she grips the rope handles of the bridge. It sways under her weight, but she manages to get over halfway across it before she's stopped by Papyrus' puzzle.

"Behold! It's the human!" Papyrus points dramatically at Hannah. The poor girl is shaking badly from the cold and her fear, and she can't manage to say anything back to the skeletons.

Papyrus presses a red button on his remote. Spears hang down from a contraption along with a few wrecking balls, a blow torch comes up from below her, and a fluffy dog hangs from a rope at the end of the bridge. "What you see before you is the Gauntlet of Deadly Terror!

Hannah peals her eyes open and looks around at every weapon. There has to be at least ten spears, three wrecking balls, the torch, and the dog. Papyrus doesn't seem to see her shaking. "When I activate this puzzle, everything you see before you will swing violently up and down! I know I can get you with this one, Hannah!"

Then he notices her frozen form. Papyrus' faces turns to worry and he looks from his remote to Hannah multiple times. "Y-you know what, Sans? We can't use this one. Yeah! I'm a skeleton with standards, and this puzzle is too easy to capture Hannah with. Away it goes!"

Papyrus dramatically presses a button on his remote. That was a big mistake. Papyrus accidentally presses the activate button! The first spear falls and creates a hole in the bridge. Nothing happens at first, but then the rest of the spears drop. More and more breaks in the bridge appear. Right when the first wrecking ball falls, the bridge finally gives away.

"AHH!" Hannah grabs the end of the bridge that's closest to the skeletons. It falls and lands with a thud against the side of the cliff.

Hannah starts crying. She looks down, and automatically wishes she didn't. A fall from here would most definitely kill her.

She looks up and knows she has to climb up. Hannah grabs the wood of the bridge above her, but it snaps. She's going to have to use the side of the cliff because the bridge is too damaged.

Hannah starts climbing, her hands screaming for her to stop from the cold. She ignores the pain and climbs until she almost reaches the top. Papyrus leans down and reaches out his hands while Sans holds onto his ankles. Hannah grabs Papyrus' hand, and the two skeletons pull her up.

Papyrus holds Hannah against his rib cage and she starts to sob. He strokes her wet hair, and rocks her back and forth in a comforting manner. "Sans, she's really cold. Can we let her warm up at our house before we capture her?"

It takes a minute for Sans to respond. He's too busy trying to settle his soul down from the fear of what just happened. "Uh, yeah. That's a great idea, Paps."

Papyrus picks up Hannah and follows Sans to their house. They use the tunnel shortcut system, and when they get to their house, they lay Hannah down on the couch.

"Mmmm...she doesn't look so good." Papyrus stares at Hannah's pain-filled face. She curls up in a cold, wet ball to try and contain her body heat. Her face is bright red from the cold, and her hands aren't any better. Tiny cuts line all the bends in her hands from the dryness of her skin, which isn't helping to contain her body heat.

"H-h-h-h-hot ch-cho-colat-te..." Hannah stutters out. Papyrus bounces up, glad that she said something, and hurries off to the kitchen.

Sans looks at Hannah still with worry. "Hey, kid, you're going to need better clothes. You're still freezing and if you stay like this, you won't make it."

Sans grabs Hannah's hand but drops it, not realizing how cold it was going to be. He checks to make sure Papyrus is still in the kitchen before using his magic to levitate Hannah. He takes her up to his room and sets her down on the soft carpet.

"Here, you can wear these. They should fit, uh, maybe." Sans tosses a pair of clothes in front of Hannah then feels really awkward. "Um, I'll just wait downstairs."

"Sans..." The skeleton turns around at the sound of his name escaping the human's lips. Hannah slowly opens her eyes and looks at Sans. "Am I going to die?"

The short skeleton quickly walks back to Hannah and kneels down to better look at her face. He judges her based on her past actions. She had never shown any sign of wanting to hurt anyone, and she went out of her way to solve the puzzles for Papyrus. Not even Frisk would go that far. Still, he doesn't want to trust her just yet. But right now, she doesn't deserve to die.

"No, kid. I won't let that happen." Yet. That depends on what you choose in the end.

Sans leaves and Hannah's eyes fill with tears of pain. However, knowing Sans cares for her gives her the strength to sit up. She takes off her hoodie and golden t-shirt, and immediately feels better. She changes into Sans' clothes which are a bit too big on her, and inspects her limbs more closely.

Her hands are fine. She can manage the little cuts and bleeding, as this would normally happen during a hardcore gymnastics practice. She looks at her feet and sighs in relief. She was almost sure they were frostbitten, but they are only bright red. Well, that's still bad, but it's better than purple skin!

She takes a thick blanket off of Sans' bed and slowly walks down the stairs, sitting on the green couch once again. Sans and Papyrus exit the kitchen and sit on either side of her on the couch. Hannah takes the steaming cup of hot chocolate from Papyrus and thanks him.

"Hey, is that my blanket?" Sans nudges Hannah and she laughs.

"Yeah, I stole it. What are ya gonna do about it?!" Hannah sassily takes a sip out of her cup before setting it down on the table in front of her.

Sans' grin widens and he slowly uncrosses his arms. "Well, I guess I'm just going to have to take it back!"

Sans lunges and starts mercilessly tickling Hannah's sides. Hannah's head falls on Papyrus' lap and she starts laughing out of control. "St-stop! Hahahahaha! S-Saaaaans! Plea-ase!"

Papyrus pulls Hannah away from Sans' tickle chamber and hugs her close. "Sans! That's no way to treat our guest! She's cold and hurt!"

"But, Paps! She stole my blanket!" Sans' grin never falters and he points at the blue blanket Hannah is wrapped in.

"W-well...that may be the case but..." Papyrus looks at Sans and sighs in defeat. "Fine, but be gentle! I'm going to make some dinner spaghetti!"

"Yes, spaghetti!" Hannah is about to stand up and follow Papyrus, but Sans tackles her again. "No! Papyrus, help! Sans, stop t-tickling - hahaha!"

Sans and Hannah laugh for a good five minutes, Hannah because she's being tickled and Sans because her laugh is contagious. Finally, Sans stops tickling her. He grabs a pillow and plops it on the side of her face, and lays down on her.

"Sans, get off!" Hannah struggles for a second, but quickly gives up. She would never admit it, but it's kind of cozy and warm with the blanket and pillow covering her. Plus, she knows Sans won't give up so easily.

"Nah, I think I'll stay here. You're a lot more comfy than my bed." Sans chuckles, not knowing that Hannah is a blushing mess from under him.

At least Sans isn't that heavy. In fact, he's a lot lighter than he looks, probably because he's all bones. Sides still stinging from the tickle fight, Hannah sighs, "Fine, whatever. At least it's not a bone-crushing position."

The two laugh as they hear a loud groan coming from the kitchen. After a couple minutes, Hannah falls asleep. Papyrus finishes the spaghetti, but the two don't want to wake up Hannah, so they decide to just have it for breakfast the next morning. They settle for a bunch of cinnabuns and head off to their rooms to go to sleep.

After Sans reads Papyrus' bedtime story, he heads back downstairs to check on Hannah. She's still sound asleep with the pillow on top of her face. Sans chuckles and fixes it so her head is supported by the pillow.

"You're so weird..." Sans brushes some brown locks off of Hannah's face to see her sleeping expression better. "Where's Frisk, and why did you fall down, huh?"

Sans sighs and heads upstairs. Right when he closes the door, Hannah stirs in her sleep.

One little slip up was all it took to bring her down. Hannah lays there, at the bottom of the mountain, motionless. She wants to get up and climb the mountain again. She wants to find the "something" that she was looking for when she exited the Underground. But she can't. She died.

Some firemen and police officers finally find her. They put her small body on a stretcher and put her in the ambulance. On the ride to wherever she's going, Hannah's arm falls off of the stretcher. A fireman walks over and puts her arm back on her blue and purple striped shirt. Blue and purple striped shirt?

The policemen are talking to Bethany now. Bethany starts crying, and some of the older orphans are comforting her. Barely audible, Hannah can just hear Bethany ask the police, "But, where is Hannah?"

"We haven't found her yet, ma'am. We will keep searching, we promise." The chief takes off his hat and shakes Bethany's hand. He gets back in his car and the ambulance follows him away.

Hannah wants to get up and hug Bethany, saying that she's fine. She wants to know where she's going, and what's going on. She wants to return to the Underground, and apologize to Sans for everything she's done. And most of all, she wants to find this "something" that she left the Underground for in the first place.

The ambulance screeches to a halt and everything goes black.

"Frisk!" Hannah jumps into a sitting position on the couch and looks around frantically. She reaches for her inhaler, but then remembers that it's in her hoodie pocket. "Oh no, come on, Hannah. Focus."

Hannah manages to pull her breathing back together after a long ten minutes. She thinks through her dream, concluding that it was Frisk who was in the ambulance. "No, it was just a dream. Frisk is alright, she has to be. I hope she's alright. Yeah, if I hope hard enough, then she will be alright."

Hannah stops whispering to herself when she hears a door open. She quickly lays back down and pretends to be asleep. Sans looks over the railing of the balcony and sees that Hannah is still asleep. He sighs in relief and goes back to his room.

Hannah sits up again after a couple minutes and just thinks. She stares around the room, not going back to sleep for the rest of the night.

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