Memory
Sans remembered the day they’d lost their baby brother like it had happened yesterday. And though remembering hurt, they refused to forget like Wings had.
The day had been your average April Tuesday, with light rain showers and pleasantly warm weather. August and Undyne had been visiting that afternoon. August had been discussing work-related sciency things with Wings, and Undyne had been watching the Muppets Treasure Island with Sans and Papyrus. At some point, Paps had gotten bored with the movie and said he was gonna go ‘train’ outside. He had the habit of spending hours at a time ‘training’ in the front yard; it was his dream to become a police officer like Undyne.
However, today… he had disappeared. Vanished into thin air, and nobody had noticed. Sans was ashamed of how long it had taken everyone to realise that Papyrus was missing. Though, to be fair, there had been no reason to be suspicious. It had stopped raining a while ago when August and Undyne had decided to leave and, in walking outside, noticed that Papyrus wasn’t where he should’ve been. Nightfall was approximately two hours away at this point, and they had no idea how long Papyrus had been missing, so everybody had immediately jumped into action.
Sans had shifted into a bloodhound, using the sniffer that came attached to pick up on their little brother’s scent. Off they had gone into the surrounding forest of Mt. Ebbot, tracking Paps, while Undyne called the police station to organize a search party. They had followed the trail until they reached a shallow creek. They had failed to pick the trail back up along either of the shores, and knowing the forest and that the search party would likely cover the area further downstream, they rushed upstream, checking the shores for a trace of Papyrus every so often to make sure they didn’t miss him.
They had grown up in these woods, had spent long days and even nights (on occasion) exploring, and they knew the lay of the land better than most. Which meant that they knew where this creek was leading, and the closer they got to the invisible line that marked the end of the safe part of Ebbot, they hoped that Papyrus had traveled downstream. Eventually, they caught the scent up again, and began to follow the winding trail away from the stream and up, toward the dangerous part of Mt. Ebbot.
Night had fallen half-an hour ago, making the forest dark and, by extension, hostile to any travelers who were unfamiliar with it. Sans continued, feeling a deep sense of dread as they began to recognize where they were going. Ages ago, they had climbed up this way with Asriel and MK, camping along the way, curious about what exactly made the mountain so treacherous past a certain point. They had come across a cave, which had contained a giant hole that went straight down into the depths of the caverns below. Sans and their friends hadn’t returned to that spot, deeming it boring and needlessly risky.
Papyrus’s trail was leading straight to it. How he would’ve known how to get there, Sans didn’t know, but they did know he’d have known of its existence. Upon returning from that trip, they had told him all about it. Knowing Papyrus, he was likely to have fallen into it, tripping on one of the many vines that covered the grassy floor and descending into the pit to his doom.
A storm arrived, rain crashing down hard and thunder booming loudly in Sans’s ears. Soon, the harsh downfall had successfully washed away the scent trail, though by now, Sans was certain they knew where Papyrus had gone. They continued on, and eventually found themself in the cave. Sure enough, when they arrived, they caught the scent over the cave and felt their heart shatter. Paps was nowhere near, and the trail led closer to the hole than it should’ve. They knew, without a doubt, that he’d fell in.
At that moment, they had sat, silent and horrified, for a minute, before howling their grief to the thundering skies above before shifting back to their skeletal self to curl up and start sobbing helplessly on the ground, not too far from the pit that had claimed their baby brother.
They had returned home near dawn the next morning, having shifted into a bird and flown to get there quickly. Sans had stumbled into their home, exhausted and silent, eyesockets sore and still wet. Wings had been sitting, asleep, in the living room, rewatching Mew Mew Kissy Cutie. Sans could tell he had been crying, if his tearstained face meant anything. They had made their way to their room, collapsed onto their sheetless bed, and stayed their for approximately two days, barely moving to do anything.
That day had marked the day when Sans had lost their spark. Their friends noticed the difference immediately, and though they tried to help, couldn’t quite fill the void that had opened up in Sans’s soul. Sans stopped being so loud and happy around their friends, and they had started to spend more time out in the woods or in their room.
Sans had started to obsess over other cases of people disappearing into the underground, and had even become friends with a couple of older boys who had lost their sister to the same fate just a week earlier.
Sans got used to lying about being ok, they got used to being told that people were worried, and they got used to being thought of as obsessive and weird. They refused to forget Papyrus, and they vowed to find a way to free him from his new prison, consequences be damned.