Part One: Rainfall

She didn’t want to wake up. She didn’t plan to. She was comfortable at first. To be honest burying herself deeper inside the darkness sounded nice. But over time she became more aware of the uneven feel of her soft bed. She felt rocks digging into her back and bugs crawling on her skin. A cold wind was trying to chase away the fading warmth of sunlight. She hurt but she couldn’t get up. She was stuck in the dark. Trapped behind her own eyelids. This had not been how she had planned it.

The sunlight began to fade and cold droplets of water began to fall, making her clothes damp. She began to shiver.

She called out for help, but no one came.

Wait, no, what was that? Something had come. There was something in the darkness. Moving.

“Oh my.” A voice purred. “It seems you have fallen down. Can you not get up?”

She tried to open her mouth to answer but it felt clogged. Clogged by air, thought, and a suffocating darkness that bit down on her tongue.

She felt the voice smile. “I assumed as much. They never do get back up, you know.” It sighed. “Such a waste.”

She tried to reach out towards the voice in a moment of panic. She had changed her mind. She wanted to see again. She wanted to breathe again. She wanted to live! She tried to beg the voice for help but still the air in her lungs seemed to be of a substance thick enough to gag her.

Luckily the voice seemed to understand her anyway. “I can help you. Would you like that?”

She managed to move her arms. She reached out towards the voice but only gripped the soft petals of a flower. The movement sent stabs of fire through her limbs. “Yes! Yes! Please, help me!” She thought, grasping the flowers and weeds like they were a life raft.

“If I save you, you have to take me with you. Do you promise?”

Perhaps if she had not been in so much pain she would have paid closer attention to the nature of the voice. Perhaps if she had not been so scared she would have heard the sound of its desperate hunger, ravenous and clawing just behind its unseen grinning teeth.

But she was alone. Cold, hurt and desperate. Her only thought was to be thankful that someone had come along to help her despite the odds stacked against such an encounter.

“Of course! Anything you say. Anything you want. Just make it stop hurting. I don’t want to hurt anymore. I want to see again. I want to move. I want to breathe!”

“Really? Anything? Anything I want? Are you sure? Even if I were to ask you for… your soul?” It mused.

“I don’t care! Just don’t let me die!”

A gust of air hit her. The sensation was accompanied by an acidic touch that made her mind scream out in pain and terror. She was on fire. Burning. Turning to ash. All her wounds throbbed as one. Yet the pain passed and was replaced by the dull feeling of flesh knitting itself back together.

When the heat faded it left a deep chilling cold in her chest that made her skin hurt and her bones ache.

“We are together now. Don’t worry. I will show you the way. Now open your eyes. Greet the new day and choose your name.”

She frowned, confused. “I already have a name.”

“I have remade you. The old you died when she fell. You are someone new now. Stronger. Smarter. Better. And now that we are together you need to call yourself something new. Now, open your eyes.”

Her eyes flickered open. She shut them again with a grimace as droplets of water hit her in the face. She groaned and wiped the droplets away.

“Good. Now get up.”

She slowly rose to her feet, opening and closing her hands, stretching her arms. With some hesitance she put weight on her legs. To her surprise they were no longer broken. She was whole again.

No, she was something different than whole.

Something more? Something less? The voice waved these thoughts away.

She looked up into the dull, diluted daylight she was standing in, more water falling on her face. “Rain.” She whispered, brushing the droplets from her eyelashes. Her voice was rough and dry but being able to speak again was nearly enough to make her weep with relief. If it was still raining then she could not have been trapped in that darkness for long.

She felt the voice grin. It was like feeling a cut bleed warmth down her chest. “Rain. Yes. It’s been so long since I have felt rain. Let’s name us that. Rain. So many poetic opportunities for a name like that.”

She frowned a little. “I think I will stick with my old name, thanks.” She slowly turned around. “Where are you? I don’t see you.” She squinted into the darker parts of the world around her in search of the voice. Yet she appeared to be alone.

“I’m here. Don’t worry, I won’t leave you. So, what do you call yourself then if not Rain?”

She opened her mouth in response but the word vanished from her mind like it had been draped in shadow. She closed her mouth, confused and embarrassed to have forgotten her own name. She felt her cheeks redden.

“Don’t remember? Oh well. I guess Rain will have to do then. Now come along. We have work to do if you ever want to get back home.”

“Where are we?” She looked around again, taking in the area. She was surrounded by golden flowers sprinkled with raindrops. Off in the distance there seemed to be some ruins outlined by a distant, dim, baseless light. Vines and moss cloaked their cracked bodies.

“The Underground. It’s a vile place for people like us. Best to stay on guard. There are monsters in these ruins.”

Rain balked at this. “Monsters? Underground? That’s ridiculous. That whole story is a myth.” She rubbed one of the unhealed bumps on her head and tried to take a few shaky steps forward to test her strength. She was able to walk but was still horribly sore.

“Oh it’s all very real.” The voice laughed. “It’s out there in all its dark, cold, slimy glory: the world of monsters! The place where demons were sent to die.”

Her legs were stiff but she managed to get around just fine. It surprised her at first when she realized she was moving on with a purpose even though she did not know where to go. She had been so focused on listening to the whispers that she had not even realized she had been moving.

The voice continued to tag along, coy in its musings. “How odd it is that you chose to climb this mountain. Humans that fall down here are always killed. Why would anyone ever decide to climb Ebott when it has a reputation like that? Weren’t there rumors? Myths? Stories to warn you away?”

Rain ducked her head. “Of course there were stories.”

“Then why did you- oh.” Was the voice laughing? “I see. Coward. If you really don’t want this body then you can just close your eyes again.”

She looked at the ground in shame. “Shut up.” She murmured, rubbing her head “This is crazy. I’m talking to a voice in my head. This can’t be real. I hit my head or something. Maybe I’m still dreaming.

“Or maybe you really are dead!” The voice sounded amused by this. “Or close to it. But don’t worry, I will protect you.”

Rain scoffed at this. “If you’re not the result of brain damage then wouldn’t that mean you’re a monster too?”

“I’m quite the opposite I’m afraid . I was a human once, long ago. Before my soul was ripped from my body. Monsters will do horrible things to humans down here. So stay alert.”

Something rustled in the clump of flowers up ahead. Rain froze in place. Her heart leapt as doubt filled her. What if there really was something dangerous down here?

“Quiet.” The voice snapped. “Don’t move.”

The flowers parted to allow the largest among their group to rise up into view.

“What the hell?” Rain whispered under her breath as she stepped back.

The flower’s blossom swerved around to face her. It had a face on it. A face that was fixated and smiling at her. There was something off about its eyes but seeing as she had not met many flowers with faces on them before, everything about it seemed uncanny by default.

“What the hell is that?” She could feel something inside of her narrowing its focus and coiling like a snake preparing to strike. It was like she had a second pair of eyes watching the strange creature.

The voice hissed in her ear. “Careful. Don’t trust it.”

“Howdy! My name is Flowey. Flowey the flower!” It chirped.

Rain blinked in surprise. “It…it can talk?”

The flower laughed. “Of course I can, silly! Golly, you must be so confused. You’re a human, right?”

“Don’t trust it. Everything down here will kill you, Rain. Strike first before it takes you. Strike it down.”

“I don’t know. It seems pretty harmless to me.”

“Well of course I am! I’m just a little ol flower.” Flowey gave her a beaming smile and a wink. “Hey, someone like you who is new to the Underground probably doesn’t have any EXP or LOVE yet, am I right? I bet you’re pretty scared and in need of some help.” He bobbed his head this way and that, as if expecting someone to step out of the shadows and volunteer aid. When no one came he turned back to her. “Don’t worry, I guess little ol me will have to do!”

“Rain. Kill it!”

“I have some extra LOVE I can give you to set you on the right track. Here, take these!” Glowing white pellets began to materialize above the flower. They shimmered and twirled in place like bubbles struggling against the strain of their own mass.

“Rain…”

“Now, just hold still.”

“RAIN, MOVE! "

The pellets dove towards her, leaving a streak of white in their wake. Rain gasped in surprise as she jumped back. There was a brief moment of confusion where she didn’t even realize she had decided to move.

She rolled out of the way of most of the pellets but one still managed to hit her. It tore deep into her leg, like the stray tooth of a hungry animal. She doubled over and cried out in pain.

More bullets appeared in the air.

The voice reached a shrill frenzy in its repeated warnings and this time she agreed with it. Clutching her bleeding leg, she rolled out of the way and picked up a stone and threw it. The flower snaked out of the way and its eyes went black. Its mouth opened wide and it spat out an animalistic hiss. She picked up another stone, this time managing to hit the creature in its horribly twisted face.

With the voice egging her on, she used the flower’s moment of pain to her advantage. She dove for the creature, heart pounding so hard it hurt. What was she doing? Shouldn’t she run? But no, part of her knew she had to face it. Defend herself. Fight! She had no weapons but it was only a flower.

With desperate shaking hands, she reached out for the weed. The monster.

Surely just like any other weed, it could be uprooted, right? Pulled apart. Plucked from the ground.

Its horrible eyes narrowed as it realized what she was doing. It screeched, jagged maw snapping at her grasping fingers. Yet still she found purchase. The flower managed to weave most of its body out of the way but she still managed to tear off a few leaves.

“Some other time then.” It spat. Then before she could blink, the ground had swallowed it up again and she was left kneeling in a bed of trampled petals.

“Now do you believe me?” The voice panted. “It’s kill or be killed down here. You can’t show anyone mercy. They may try to trick you or make you believe they are not interested in you, but in the end they will always turn on you.”

Rain crawled away to assess her new wound. It was deep. Blood ran down her shin and stained her socks. She took a shaky breath and bobbed her head once. “Yes. I understand now. You were right. Kill or be killed.”