Warnings: This chapter (and the following) have a lot of mentions/occurrences of suicide. There's also some violence (usually not too detailed).

You peer over the edge of the pit and wonder if it'll hurt when you hit the bottom. People are supposed to die from the shock of the fall first, right? Or does that only count for high buildings and bridges? You don't know the depth of the wide hole in the earth before you, but since it's pitch black with no bottom in sight you're estimating it's a rather long way down. More than enough to kill you on impact.

You blow out a huff of air, swaying back and forth on your feet. Your toes are perched right at the edge, wiggling over empty space. Looking down into the dark makes you waver a little with vertigo. It's a long way to fall. Heights have never scared you, though. You loved to climb to the tops of trees when you were younger, never getting discouraged no matter how many times you fell. You got a broken arm, a couple of ribs, and plenty of bruises for your trouble, but you thought it was worth it. The view, the freedom; it was great.

A wry grin tugs at your mouth. You miss that. Being a kid, everything so uncomplicated. Climb a tree, go to school, hang out with friends. You haven't done any of that in a while. The loops give you an infinite amount of time to waste, sure, but after a certain point it just become monotonous. Your family and friends are so predictable now, you can't even view them as real people. That's probably why it was so easy to kill them.

In this loop they're alive. Probably wondering where you are, most likely. Growing panicked, calling the cops, organising a search; you've skipped town enough times to know how it goes. Usually you go to some place you've never visited before, another country if you can get manage it. Or you hop in a car and just drive. It doesn't matter where you end up, so long as it's not the same old pattern.

It's funny – you used to hate meeting new people and going to different places. You liked your little circle of friends and spent most of your time either in the woods near your home, or in your room reading. Now you can't stand it. Anything familiar just annoys you at best, makes you homicidal at worse.

You feel like you've read every book, seen every film and TV show (even the shitty ones). You know the names of everyone in your town, know as much about them as you can get in the couple months the loops last for. None of them have made it past half a year, and you don't generally stick around for that long nowadays.

Death isn't so scary when you know you'll just wake up again before it even has time to sink in. Sure, you were a bit nervous at first. So you picked a gun. It killed you quickly, painlessly. After that – after looping twenty, thirty times – you started to get more inventive. Creative. You don't like it when you fail since you just lay about in agony for a while with people fussing over you, but it gives you something to do.

You snort faintly, shaking your head. How is this your life?

Rolling your shoulders you focus back on the pit. You'd think with the sun directly overhead you'd be able to see something. You scratch your cheek. It's pretty weird. You like weird. Weird means something new, something different. You didn't expect to find anything like that out here in the middle of nowhere.

Well, it's not nowhere exactly. Mount Ebott is fairly well known by the surrounding towns as not being a place your average camper will venture. There's no dangerous animals, as far as you know, but people have always been wary of it. An urban legend has built up that if you go the Mount Ebott you won't come back, and the kids who've disappeared over the years only worsen this caution. People don't like to come out here, so it's mostly untouched. No campsites or cabins or anything like that. You don't really like the quiet.

You pull your earphones out of your pocket and put them in your ears, turning on the music on your phone. It's some rock band you've heard a hundred times before. You still like it though. The place is a whole lot less eerie with a drumbeat thrumming through your head.

You didn't come here with the intention of dying. This is one of the loops where you just couldn't keep up the act. It didn't take long for your parents to realise something was up. They gently suggested going to a therapist when you wouldn't talk to them, instead spending all your time sleeping.

It was just easier sometimes to go to sleep. To not think.

They wouldn't let you, especially when you started missing school, so before they could go so far as to admit you to a psych ward you started walking. Eventually you ended up here, standing at the edge of a sink hole. You're hungry and tired, and you don't see the point in trekking all the way back to civilisation. May as well take a short cut.

With a faint sigh you turn around. There's a line of trees a few feet away from you, the thick woods thinning drastically to allow for the gaping hole in the ground. A few thick vines run around the area and into the hole, nearly catching your boots as you move. You think you'd have liked to take some pictures of the place, back when photographs actually meant anything to you.

You raise your eyes to the sky as the beat raises in tempo. The sky is mostly covered with grey-tinged clouds, and there are spots of blue between them. You like that it isn't perfect. It's more real this way.

Your eyelids fall shut as you tip back and fall.

You wake up.

That isn't a surprise, of course. What is unusual is that you're not halfway up the tree in your back garden. Your mouth hangs open as you stare up at the hole in the ceiling – the rather distant hole. Light shines down from it but it barely illuminates the walls of the cavern, skirting away as if reluctant to get close, so you can't really estimate how far up it is. You just know that there's no chance you'll be getting out that way.

Which wouldn't be a problem if you'd died like you were supposed to. Jeez, you hadn't messed that up since the Washing Machine Incident. You shudder at the memory.

Sitting up slowly, you wince at your aching back. Not completely unscathed then. Still, remarkably more alive than you were expecting. You look down, expecting to see a pile of mattresses or something equally ridiculous.

Your eyebrow twitches. Flowers. You're sitting on a bed of yellow flowers, most of the crushed beneath your body, and none of them looking capable of keeping you from shattering on impact. Well. This made sense.

With a huff you push yourself to your feet, ignoring the way your back and shoulders twinge with pain. You need to figure out where you are. A moment of panic has you frantically checking your body for your phone, and with a sigh of relief you find it sitting on the flower bed. You pat the slightly squished flower it was on with gratitude. Then you tuck your phone away safely. No harm shall come to your beloved cell whilst you still have the will to draw breath.

As far as spooky caverns go, it's pretty nice. It isn't damp like you'd expect, and aside from the random bed of flowers the stone floor is flat and easy to walk on. You appreciate it after trudging through the woods for several hours (or was it days? You weren't really paying attention).

You shift, brushing the petals off your jeans. It's kind of neat to be in a new place. Sure, there were plenty of areas in the world you've yet to explore, but for the past few loops you haven't been up to doing much. An odd feeling swells up in you, making you stand a little straighter. You feel more awake than you have in a long time.

You start heading forwards out of the sunlight, where the hole narrows into a tunnel. Maybe there's a huge cave system running underneath Mount Ebott. You aren't sure if you'll be able to find an exit, but it's worth an explore. A quick glance at your phone reveals you don't have any bars, so calling for help is a no go. You shrug. It's not really your style anyway.

As your eyes adjust to the darkness you pick out stone columns lining the walls. The sight makes you blink in surprise. They look old but well maintained, hardly crumbling or damaged. Why would they be here though? If people once lived here you'd know about it, surely. You enjoy history and have read every book available within a few states of your town. You don't remember it all, of course, but you're sure you'd remember something like this.

Brow furrowed with confusion you keep going. You come to an archway with two columns on either side, some kind of emblem carved into the stone above. You trace it with your eyes, trying to place it and failing. A circle with wings spreading out from it and three triangles beneath, the middle one inverted, the design rough with age. Fantastical ideas of a lost kingdom come to mind and you snort. You were always a bit too imaginative according to your parents. Seems hundreds of loops haven't quite stripped you of that aspect.

The next room has a splash of light in the centre from another hole in the ceiling. It's otherwise pitch black; you can't even see the walls. It reminds you a little of swimming in the ocean with unimaginable depths beneath you, where anything could be lurking. The thought puts a smile on your face. You somehow managed to get eaten by a shark in one loop. It wasn't much fun at the time, but now you find it pretty funny. The odds of that happening were really low but somehow. You really are quite unlucky.

You're moving away from the odd patch of green beneath the light when a voice startles you.

"What are you doing here?" they accuse, sounding both angry and confused.

You turn around and look down at the yellow flower which had suddenly sprouted from the ground. It takes a moment for you to process the glaring black eyes and frown on the flower's face(?), and another for you to realise it's what spoke. What. A flower just- what.

"Hey, don't ignore me!" they say, indignant.

You blink. An apologetic grin spreads across your face automatically. "Sorry about that." You're saying sorry to a flower. How brilliantly surreal.

It's their turn to look surprised. "Uh, whatever. You're a human, right?" they ask unsurely.

"Last I checked," you say. Maybe you hit your head on the way down. Or those flowers you fell on emitted a hallucinogenic. Either way this is interesting.

The flower's frown quickly twists into a jovial smile. "Hey there! I'm Flowey, Flowey the flower!" they say cheerily, an abrupt switch from the previously irate tone. "Golly, you must be so confused."

You shrug. "More curious than confused, to be honest."

Flowey's smile strains a bit. "Right. Well, you need someone to teach you how things work around here!"

Before you can as much as raise an eyebrow at the vaguely threatening statement something wrenches in your chest. A feeling of falling slams into you and you gasp, fingers clenching at the front of your sweater as you reel back. It's not like pain, not really, but you feel deeply vulnerable for the first time in years, and that's somehow worse than any wound.

Then you catch sight of the heart hovering just in front of your body. It's about the size of your fist and coloured a smoky grey, oddly vibrant against the darkness. You raise a hesitant hand to it, not quite touching but close enough to feel the faint warmth it omits. You feel a pull to it, a need to protect, and possessiveness shudders through you. The feeling increases in intensity when you see the sharp way Flowey is watching it.

"This is your soul, the very culmination of your being." Their smile turns cruel and mocking. "It's weak, just like you! So it's very easy for monsters like me to do…" White pellets appear in the air around the flower, spinning rapidly in place. You take a step back, the heart – your soul, what the actual fuck – matching the movement closely. "This!"

The pellets dart towards you and pierce through your heart. A cry of pain leaves your mouth as you hunch over, agony crackling through your chest. It's unlike anything you've felt before. You've been hit by cars, crushed by metal beams, drowned to death, stabbed; none of these experiences match the sensation of your very soul being damaged.

With a grimace you force yourself upright, cupping your heart in a vain attempt to keep it safe. The once-smooth surface has been gouged by the pellets and its light falters. You feel weak, like you haven't slept or eaten for days. You tilt to the side, your limbs heavy and vision faltering. It astounds you how delicate your soul is.

Flowey sneers. "You really are pathetic, huh? I'll just take your soul instead since it's so easy!"

Your eyes widen. Take your soul? That doesn't sound healthy. "I-if it's all the same to you, I'd r-rather you didn't," you say through gritted teeth, mouth stretched into a smile. It hurts to even talk, like there's a vice clenched tight around your chest.

They give you an odd look before their face distorts further, grin filled with fanged teeth. "Idiot. Why are you smiling when I'm going to kill you?"

You can't help but laugh. "I th-think you'll find death do-doesn't stick well with me." Your smile widens. "S-sorry 'bout that."

Flowey glares and fires off another round of bullets. You don't even have time to dodge before they tear through your hands and rip apart your soul. The last thing you see is the triumphant smirk the flower wears.

You wake up.

You take in a deep breath and blink slowly up at the distant hole in the ceiling. You're lying once more on a bed of yellow flowers, body restored to full health. There's a phantom ache in your chest but as you lay there it fades.

You snicker helplessly and swipe a hand down your face. "Well then."

A/N: I tried to stay away from Undertale fanfiction. I failed.

This follows the second person format used a lot in this fandom, though the Reader in this case is pretty much an OC. I just really like used second person POV at the moment. You'll (kind of) get a name in a few chapters, as well as some descriptors of appearance.

The character is non-binary and an asexual. I don't know if there'll be any romance (recommendations/ideas always welcome), though there is an emphasis on character relationships (largely on a friendship scale). The Reader, as you can probably tell from this (and if you read any of my fics), has a lot of psychopathic traits and is rather messed up. This will not, however, be a genocide run. Technically.

Updates will probably be sporadic though I have the next few chapters written. For anyone who reads my other stuff I have no idea if I'll get around to updating them - uni and a lack of motivation gets in the way.

Hope you enjoyed, reviews are appreciated. I'd especially like to know if any characters are OOC.