Chapter 76

Meanwhile, Frisk had made it up the boardwalk and was wandering the streets of the city looking for a bank to cash his checks in so that he and his family could afford provisions while they were in hiding.

It was an eerie feeling of familiarity for Frisk to be wandering a city again. The old emotions, memories, and instincts came flooding back. He found himself remembering his desperation, his laser focus on surviving from one day to the next, his loneliness…

The memories grew so intense that Frisk found himself wondering what he was going to steal for dinner. He shook his head to get his mind on his mission, but he couldn't shake off the feelings.

It didn't help that the city of the Underground looked just like the cities on the surface either. It had tall buildings, sidewalks, neon signs, advertisements, everything that a normal city had, except for all the monsters and the remarkably clean streets. Again, it was eerie.

"Are you alright?" the Voice asked. "You don't have to lie about it. You know you can't with me."

Upon hearing that response to his silent prayers, tears started clouding Frisk's vision. He found an ally dumpster to hide behind and started hyperventilating. Frisk knew by now what was happening.

"Dammit," he whispered to himself. "This can't happen. Not now. God, make it stop. Undyne's right. I'm not there anymore. I can't think like that. Why is this happening now?"

"You can't suppress your feelings, son," the Almighty said. "Let them out and you'll feel my peace."

"That'll take forever."

"No, it won't. Just breathe."

Frisk reluctantly obeyed and whispered, "I was just so lonely. I hated feeling like that. It was so unfair…"

Frisk's voice was too choked up to keep talking, but he silently let out tears that wet his face.

The Voice said nothing, but Frisk felt a warmth coming from inside his soul. It was the warmth that came from a warm hug, the warmth that came from receiving love and reassurance.

Frisk wiped his tears and suddenly felt the energy to get up again, so he could save the monsters who loved him so much. He stood up and walked out from behind the dumpster.

"Now, that didn't take forever," the Voice said. "Did it? Now, stay determined, my son. I love you."

Frisk smiled and mouthed, "I love you, too."

He was relieved. His feelings were not completely gone, but for the time being, they had lost their weight and their power over his weary soul.

Frisk was so happy that he almost didn't notice the bank he walked past. Fortunately, he noticed in time and walked into the smaller official-looking building.

Upon entering, Frisk looked around at the marble tile floors, walls, ceilings, and other décor while trying to figure out what to do. The last time he had been in a bank was with his parents when he was younger, but that was too long ago. He didn't even know what to ask.

"Young man, can I help you?" a lion man in a suit asked from behind the long counter where all the other bank tellers were standing.

"Uh, yeah," Frisk said quickly walking over to the counter and standing on the tips of toes to see the lion on the other side. "I have this check that I would like to give you for cash. Could you do that for me please?"

"Sure, human," the lion man replied. "May I see the check please?"

"Yeah, of course," Frisk said reaching in his pocket and searching around until he found the check Mettaton gave him. "It's right here."

Frisk showed the check to the lion man. His eyes expanded in amazement.

"50,000G!" the lion man yelled. "Where on earth did you get money like this?"

"It's a long story…" Frisk lied as the lion took the check to read it more closely.

"Mettaton?" the lion man said in surprise as all the other bank tellers turned around and looked at him. "Oh, man. You are one lucky human."

"I'd beg to differ," Frisk muttered quietly.

"Anyhow, what did you want to do with all this money?"

"I wanted to get some cash. I don't have any money right now, and I could really use some."

"Son, that is not how the bank works. We can't just give you all that cash now…"

"Why not? You could put it in a backpack or something."

"Human, that's not the problem. The problem is that we don't have that much cash on hand."

"Why not?"

"You don't know how banks work. Do you, son?" the lion asked.

"Well…" Frisk replied searching for something to say.

"Son, we could get you that much money, but we'd have to order it from our other banks and have it sent here," the lion replied.

"But I don't have time for that…" Frisk whined.

"Something else you could do is set up a bank account with us," the lion offered while handing the check back to Frisk. "If you do that, we could give you a card and you could get money out at an ATM machine instead. We just need parental permission since you're under 18. Could you come back here with your parents?"

"My parents are in heaven. They can't come with me today."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Do you have a legal guardian we could speak to instead?"

"Yeah," Frisk said. "I have four of them. Can you talk to them on the phone?"

"I suppose," the lion replied. "That is usually not our protocol, but if you're in such a hurry, I could make some exceptions."

"Okay, just give me a minute," Frisk said as he took out his phone and started texting Sans to let him know what was happening.

Before he could finish the explanation, a crocodile woman came in through the doors carrying a drink carrier full of coffee.

"Alright, everybody!" she said cheerfully. "I'm back from my lunch break and I got everyone coffee, so come and get…OH MY, GOD! IT'S METTATON'S MISSING SON!"

Frisk felt his heart skip a beat as the other bank tellers on the other side of the counter began murmuring under their breath. He was frozen in place while he thought of what to say.

"Lucy, what are you talking about?" the lion asked.

"You mean, you haven't been watching the show?!" Lucy asked incredulously while skipping joyfully to the counter with the coffee. "This human boy is the one Mettaton adopted on his show today, but he ran away and now Mettaton has asked all his viewers to look for him, so they can win prizes! Oh, my God! I can't believe he's here! I can't believe we'll get to win prizes!"

"Uh," Frisk said searching for a decent lie. "That wasn't me! That was another kid."

"Don't be ridiculous," Lucy said placing the coffees on the counter and pulling her phone out of her purse. "You match the child from this screenshot perfectly."

Lucy flashed her phone revealing indeed a screenshot from the show and said, "See? Now, all we have to do is call Mettaton and win fabulous prizes!"

Frisk's heart dropped as he searched for something clever to say.

"Oh, dear," the lion said. "If that's the case, we should really contact him. We might as well if you want to set up that bank account."

"I change my mind," Frisk said stuffing his phone and his check into his pockets.

Without another word, Frisk bolted for the door and ran into the street before any of them could catch up with him.

He quickly ran into the side alley just as Lucy came out behind him yelling, "Human, get back here! I wanna win prizes from Mettaton!"

Unfortunately, as soon as she yelled that into the streets, every monster within earshot started yelling the same thing.

Frisk sighed deeply as he hid behind a dumpster again. Now, everyone in town was looking for him. This day could not get any worse.

Just then, the side door of a shop opened into the alley. It was another skeleton woman wearing jeans, a teal hoodie, and sneakers. Her hair was in a bun, and she had facial tattoos like Dr. Nova did. However, these tattoos were only black circles around her eye sockets and over her nose hole.

Frisk stood up and started backing up, but before he could get out of sight, she looked up and saw him. She didn't say anything, and neither did Frisk.

They only stared at each other for a moment of awkward silence before she said, "Do you want something, kid?"

"Uh, no," Frisk replied.

"Oh, was just making sure," the skeleton said as she continued walking past Frisk to throw her garbage in the dumpster.

As she walked past, Frisk noticed that she left the door to her building open, so he ran in when she wasn't looking.

Upon entering, Frisk discovered a backroom full of instruments of all kinds, except they were in pieces. Not broken pieces, but in unconnected pieces, like they were being assembled. At the corner of this room was a workbench with a table and on top of it was a violin.

Frisk could not resist walking over to the workbench and looking at the violin.

It was beautiful and shiny. It was probably newly made. It certainly looked like it anyway.

It reminded him of the violin his mother had. She always kept it cleaned and polished. She did the same with the piano. It was one of her many quirks.

That memory brought a smile to his face. Without another thought, Frisk moved his hand over the fine woodwork of the violin.

"You like it?" he heard a feminine voice behind him say.

Frisk quickly turned around to see the female skeleton from before looking over his shoulder and fumbled around for something to say.

"Don't worry, kiddo," she said. "I don't bite. The name's Euphemia. What's yours?"

"Frisk," Frisk replied simply.

"Nice to meet ya," Euphemia replied. "Do you like the violin?"

"Oh, yeah," Frisk replied excitedly. "I used to play with my mother all the time. Did you make all the instruments here yourself?"

"Every last one," she confirmed.

"Oh, my God," he replied. "That is so cool. Do you know how to play them?"

"Every last one. I test them all out before I sell them."

"That's awesome. You're officially one of the coolest people I've ever met."

Euphemia smiled and said, "You're sweet, kid. What can I do for ya? You're not exactly supposed to be back here."

"Oh, yeah," Frisk said searching for a decent lie. "I really like this violin. Can I buy it from you please?"

"Don't you want to test it out first?" Euphemia asked. "People usually don't buy instruments like this without testing them for quality first."

"Oh, okay," Frisk said. "May I play it then?"

"Of course, kid," Euphemia said handing the violin and its bow over to Frisk. "Just be careful. If you break it, you buy it."

Frisk held the instruments and started trembling with them in his hand. He could not believe what he was about to do. It had been years. Frisk wondered if he even really remembered how to play…

"You need help, Frisk?" Euphemia asked.

"No, I'm just trying to think of what to play."

"We have songbooks if you want me to get one for you."

"That would be great. Thanks."

"Alright," Euphemia said walking through another door to the front of the shop. "Don't go anywhere."

Frisk looked over his instrument in the silence. He was afraid, but he was also excited. Frisk closed his eyes and remembered the long hours of violin lessons with his mother. Under her tutoring, he learned and memorized many songs. Usually, kids struggled to learn from their parents, but with her, it was fun.

In a flash, a song came to Frisk's mind. He held the violin to his chin, adjusted his bow, and began to play.

It was an old song from a ballet created centuries ago. The ballet was about a noblewoman who went exploring in the woods and met an old king who fell in love with her, but she didn't fall in love with him. The music evoked the image of exploring peacefully in the woods and uncovering a new world.

But for Frisk, it brought back memories of his mother. As he played the song, he could see her. He could see her expressive movements, her dreamy expression, and her free spirit walking through the woods without a care in the world. During the song, Frisk could once again feel his mother's soul.

Euphemia entered returned with a songbook in her hand and said with a smile, "I guess you didn't need this book after all. How'd you like the violin?"

"I love it," Frisk replied. "May I buy it please?"

"If you can afford it," Euphemia said with a smile. "This one costs 3000G the price of the bow and case included. Do you have that much?"

"Yeah," Frisk said pulling the check out of his pocket. "But can you do me a favor?"

"What might that be?"

"Could you give me 47,000G in change?"

"What?"

Frisk showed her the check for 50,000G from Mettaton.

"I have the money, but I need this check to be cashed," Frisk pleaded. "Could you do that for me?"

"I don't have that much money in reserve, dear," Euphemia replied receiving a text message on her phone and reading it.

"Never mind, then," Frisk said placing the violin back on the table and walking away sadly. "Keep up the good work. I'll definitely come back when I have money someday."

Frisk headed out of the backroom of the shop and out through the alley door.

However, before he had even reached the street, Euphemia called his name again, "Frisk, wait!"

Frisk turned around to see her running out with a violin case in her hand.

"Here, Frisk," Euphemia said handing the violin case to him. "Take it."

"But I can't pay for it," Frisk protested trying to hand her back the case.

"You don't need to," Euphemia said taking back the violin case with a dark smirk that sent a shiver down Frisk's spine. "Mettaton already did."

"What?!" Frisk yelled backing away from her slowly.

Suddenly, familiar webs wrapped around Frisk's arms and legs.

"Hey there, dearie," the familiar feminine voice said. "A little far from home. Aren't you? Your daddy's worried sick."

Miss Muffet climbed down off the wall and walked in front of Frisk and Euphemia.

"Thanks for your help, Euphie!" Miss Muffet said. "You're really the best friend a girl can ask for! With the money I'll get from Mettaton, I can get a limo big enough for all the spiders to cross Snowdin!"

"No problem, Muffet, hun," Euphemia replied handing Miss Muffet the violin case. "I'm just glad he came into my shop and not someone else's."

"I can give you more money than Mettaton can!" Frisk pleaded desperately. "Please, just let me go!"

"Don't listen to him, Muffet," Euphie said. "All he has are checks. Make sure he and the instrument get home safely. Okay?"

"Got it, dearie," Muffet said before her friend walked away. "I'll call you later."

Muffet whistled and her group of spiders came out of nowhere, knocked Frisk onto his back, and started carrying him to the beach while Muffet walked beside him.

"Don't worry, dearie," Muffet said. "I'm gonna get you home safe and sound."

Frisk was helpless. All he could do is sniffle quietly in frustration. That didn't go unnoticed by Miss Muffet.

"What's the matter, dearie?" Miss Muffet asked in surprise. "You're going home to your rich and powerful father. You have nothing to worry about anymore. You have status down here now. You're set for life."

"I don't give a crap about being rich," Frisk muttered angrily.

"Dearie, I'm not talking about being rich," Miss Muffet said. "I'm talking about social standing. You don't have to worry about getting killed anymore."

Frisk looked at her dumbfounded.

"Dearie, haven't you noticed how monsters like to kill humans around here?" Miss Muffet said. "That's because down here humans are nothing but hunting game. You have something valuable that most of us want, and unless you get taken in by another party, you're fair game to anyone who wants you. Sure, people will be friendly to you, but they'll look the other way if someone attacks you outside the safe zone. You understand? Mettaton taking you in like this is really a blessing if you think about it."

Frisk silently pondered and realized she was right. He knew the truth all along, but it still hurt to hear. No wonder Sans was so cautious.

Frisk pondered these words as Miss Muffet and the spiders took him back to the beach.