A gentle warm wash cloth had prodded at Sans' cheek, the skeleton limp as he allowed the blood to be cleaned from his face. The image of her body flashed over and over within his mind, the taste of vomit present in his mouth still. Right. He had thrown up.

"You can talk to me," Papyrus had whispered quietly, gently moving the wash cloth to the side.

"Nothing to talk about," Sans had mumbled, voice weak and staggering. Papyrus frowned at this. 

"If anyone should know, it should be me, right?" Papyrus asked, pausing the washcloth. "Come on Sans, we're brothers. You shouldn't keep anything from me. I'm just trying to help."

"It was fucking gruesome!" Undyne's booming voice bounced throughout the walls of Papyrus' house. "Not to mention he was a substitute, so imagine that shit! So shut the fuck up and don't question my witness! He saw the dude, so once he gets over whatever the hells going on now we can get him to testify!"

That was the funny thing about seeing something like that. After the adrenaline had faded from his bones, Sans just... was tired. Really tired. His movements were sluggish, mind hollow. All that he could think of was that scene, constantly dragging the corpse image back into his mind until he was trying to choke it back down.

Dead. The girl was dead.

Sans could barely remember another person dragging him back, or the shaking as they asked where the other man went. And he couldn't even remember Papyrus' yelling of his name when he had arrived at the school, nor could he remember the drive home. It was just a blur of emotions and confusion, building within him until it was ready to break down.

It was just a girl. Just a little girl, who hadn't known any better. A little girl who had a future ahead of her. A little girl who had made eye contact with him as she died -

"It's okay, you're not there anymore!" Papyrus said, his soothing voice bringing Sans back to reality.

The older brother clutched the other, rocking him back and forth on the toilet. The blood had been washed off already, the horrible remains of the memory finally gone. Yet the images persisted, giving detail after detail on what he had witnessed in repeat, as if the play button was on a constant loop.

It was odd, how he managed to remember it more vividly now than he had earlier. Once it had really set in, the panic and fear skyrocketed until Sans was practically numb from the many emotions combating themselves in him at the same exact time.

The emotional barrier broke down.

Large tears rolled down his face, containing all of the horror and fear he had felt before. The girl was ripped in half, right in front of him. The blood was gruesome, heck, he even had some on him earlier! What if it had been him instead, what if the man had chosen to rip him in half? What if the man had decided to go around and finish the rest of the children off while Sans couldn't even react?

It hurt. It wasn't like he knew her very much, he had only learned her name moments before she died, but seeing it... it was horrifying. It was nothing like what Sans had seen.

"This has to be the killer we've been looking for!" Undyne's loud voice yelled, "I mean, the punk saw some kid get torn in half in a second! You saw the scene, there was blood everywhere! Some of her guts were on the branches! There's no way it was a onetime off killer!"

Sans suddenly doubled down over himself to the side and vomited into the bathroom sink, the smell of the blood still fresh in his mind. He couldn't stop thinking about it, he couldn't. It was there, in his mind, reminding him about what he saw.

He could still feel the grass under his fingers, he could still feel the blood on his face, dripping down as the blank face turned to look at him-

"I'll go talk to her," Papyrus sighed out, shifting as he went to stand from his crouching position. "Do you want anything? Other than ketchup? I'm not supporting that habit."

Red blood on his face, warm, blood on the ground-

"No," Sans mumbled, looking to the side as more tears rolled down his face.

Papyrus nodded slowly, stepping around the toilet to walk out of the bathroom. Sans didn't want to move, remaining within the dark room. He didn't like being out there, out in the open. Being out there felt... he didn't like it. The way they all looked at him, giving him those looks that made his chest hurt. They never looked at him like that before.

Voices wavered through the cracked door, flooding in with the light from the hallway. The bathroom contrasted it by the pitch black inner room, the light flicked off. Why? He didn't know why, but he felt better in the darkness. It felt more comforting than the blinding lights from the bulb, the dark like a warm blanket around him.

"He's not ready to hear about this, he just saw that today," Papyrus' soft voice spoke, "You're yelling about it, and he just threw up again."

"I'm trying to convince these idiots I work with that we need to do action before that killer decides to come for seconds," Undyne replied quietly, "Sorry, I'm getting a little over excited. All the other teacher saw was some black pants, so everyone wants to question him to hunt down the guy before he gets too far. Though... I don't think he'd be able to help right now. You know how Sans is. He doesn't train with us so he probably never saw anything like this. Which makes my job a lot harder because each second the killers getting away. Uh... yeah, sorry. I'm trying to save hundreds of lives right now, I get he's your brother but he needs to give us who did it."

Sans turned once again to throw up, body sore and sluggish. He didn't feel very good. He was tired. His eye sockets hurt from crying and the vomit taste was putrid.

"Could you take it outside? I think it'd be best if Sans didn't have to listen to it."

"Yeah, sure. Sorry about that..."

Their conversation drifted away with their footsteps, leaving Sans sitting alone in the bathroom. He was alone now, silence lingering in the air.

But the sound of the girls body being ripped in half still rang loudly in his skull.

~~~~~~

It was obvious to those around him that Sans wasn't okay.

The skeleton had been startled awake that night, sweat beading down his skull as his breaths were heavy and sharp. Papyrus had walked in to find Sans curled up on the bed, knees hugged to his chest as he was wide awake. Breakfast was skipped by Sans, who didn't feel very hungry.

The police had showed up that morning. Toriel said it likely wasn't best if he recalled the events so soon. Guilt covering her face as she muttered those words.

"It's fine," Sans mumbled, his voice tired and quiet. "I'll tell 'em."

All Sans did was be brief. He kept his shaking hands under the table, the memory forcing itself back up.

"It was this... really tall guy," Sans had told them, "He was wearing a black suit, and his arms were really long..."

"Monster or human?" The officers had asked.

"Both...? He looked... human but had no face, I-I'm not sure... But he had looked at me..."

"I think that's enough," Undyne had stepped in, "We got a good description. He was tall, wearing a suit, which matches what the other teacher said. And he had no face, so probably a monster."

"I don't think he was... not a monster, not a human... something in between?" Sans said.

"You don't need to keep going, Sans, we got enough."

"B-But-"

"Here, let's go get you some breakfast," Papyrus had told Sans, helping him out of the chair.

The way they treated him felt like Sans was nothing but a child, like he didn't know what he had saw or what he was talking about. Did they not believe him? The guy was dressed nice, what if he was a rich human and the police force was working with him? What if he tracked down the witness?

He didn't want to die he didn't want to die-

Sans slumped his body weight against his brother, eye lights focused on the ground. He was fine. He was fine, he was good, he was dandy. He was fine, he wasn't fine, he wasn't fine he was going to die -

White face looking down at him.

Blood on his face.

Girls dead body, torn in half, lying on the ground.

He didn't want to think about it anymore.