Chapter Text
Chapter 1.
Noelle Holiday was walking in the woods, enjoying having some time to herself, it was the weekend so she decided to use some of her free time in a place that held mostly happy memories. She was wearing her usual combination of a shirt and sweater as well as a black knee length skirt. Back when- back when Dess was here, Noelle would often go into the woods with her and the Dreemur siblings, exploring every nook and cranny, and just having a good time in general. But then Dess vanished, Asriel left for college and she and Kris began to drift apart, which just left Noelle to walk in the woods alone. She missed what she used to have, her sister and her best friend (even if said best friend had a habit of scaring her). She sighed, as she could hear the birds in the trees sing to each other. Dess liked birds, especially magpies and would happily talk about them for hours if given half the chance. Which she did, as Noelle loved to hear her sister talk about her interests. Dess did the same thing for Noelle, happy to let her talk about things like Dragon Blazers and the like.
Noelle looked up at the trees, but she couldn’t really see the birds from where she was. So she decided to move to see if she could get a better angle and see what was singing. She carefully moved over the old and gnarled roots with a long rooted familiarity, born from a long history of traversing the forest with her sister.
She blinked in shock at what she found lying on the leaf covered ground, right in front of her. It was two humans. One had pink hair that was done up in twin pigtails and the other had black hair that almost seemed blue from certain angles, the hair was done up in two small buns. Both of them were wearing something Noelle could easily see a K-pop idol wearing. Both were wearing white skirts and a white top that exposed their midriffs and a black jacket atop of it, the jacket also had golden shoulder pads that stuck out a bit. Their clothes had rips and tears all over, wounds dotting their skin like someone trying to rip apart a canvas. Both of the humans didn’t seem to be awake, but they both seemed to be breathing, so Noelle would take that.
Noelle gently padded her way over to the two humans, making sure to keep her footsteps light and quiet. “Hello?” she asked, leaning down to tap the pink human on the shoulder, seeing if she could get a reaction from either of the humans. “Could one of you wake up?” she asked the two humans. (gosh she really should get their names, calling them the humans felt really really rude to Noelle)
She did not.
So Noelle reached into her skirt pocket and pulled out her cell phone. She opened it up and called the hospital. “Hello Hometown hospital how may I help you?” Noelle could hear the moment the phone was picked up.
“It’s Noelle Holiday and, well I’ve found two humans lying the woods.” she explained to the receptionist, who took a sharp breath upon hearing that. Humans for the most part tended to stick to the big cities and thus a rare sight in small places like Hometown. The human population of Hometown could be counted on one hand with fingers to spare.
“We’ll get someone to come get you and the two humans soon, so please stay on the line.” the receptionist requested, Noelle nodded despite the fact no one could see her do so.
“Right right.” Noelle said, upon realising the receptionist couldn’t actually see her nod. She felt a touch embarrassed as she did so. “Anything else I can do while I wait?” she asked, feeling the urge to do something, anything surge through her. She wasn’t good at standing around and doing nothing.
“Right well you can-.”
. . . .
Eventually the people who were sent by the hospital arrived, two stretchers in tow. There were four in all. While Noelle was waiting she had followed the instructions she had been given and made sure the humans were breathing without any issues and that their hearts were pumping. (they were) The sensation of pumping blood always felt so alien to Noelle, she had only felt it twice feeling the pulse of the wrist in her hands. “Really weird right?” She shook her head, she needed to focus.
“We’ll take things from here.” one said, helping on of their co-workers with placing the pink hair human on the stretcher. Meanwhile the black haired human was being secured on the other stretcher.
Noelle nodded her head. “Um sure thing. Well if you need anything you know how to get in contact.” she said, knowing that she probably shouldn’t stick around. The monster she was talking to nodded their head, and seeing the dismissal for what it was, Noelle decided she had done enough walking for the day, and so decided to head home for now.
. . . .
Noelle unlocked the front door with a quick flick of the wrist. She opened the door and was greeted by one of the mechanical santas her mum loved so much. As she closed the door behind her, she could feel the chill in the air from the fact her mom didn’t really turn on the heating nowadays. No reason to, she said, after all it wasn’t like they had any humans who visited. Noelle sighed, and watched her breath whirl around in the frigid air. She knew that Mum was busy at work, so she went up the stairs and entered a room she knew she wasn’t supposed to go in, but she wanted to.
Dess’ room.
The door creaked, like the hinges needed some oil, and Noelle was greeted with her older sister’s room. Pointedly kept in the same condition as the day Dess disappeared, like a snapshot of a different time. Like she would come back one day to find everything was just as she left it. Bed half made with pillows on the floor, above it was a lesbian pride flag, there were piles of pirated cds and dvds by her computer. Posters of bands covering the walls and the closet door. Her old guitar leaning against the closet. Piles of stuff she had no interest in like the violin lying in one corner. Her mum had pushed Dess to learn things like the violin, the piano, the flute and the saxophone only for the oldest Holiday daughter to refuse point blank, Dess pointedly leaving them all in a pile and not touching them. Everything was dusted once a week, in order to keep the room as clean as possible. It felt eerie in a way, Noelle would easily admit in the privacy of her own thoughts.
Noelle walked over to the computer desk and picked up an old picture frame. The picture within was a picture of her and Dess. Dess had a younger Noelle riding on her shoulders, both of them were smiling widely, they were in the forest on an autumn’s day. Noelle remembered that her dad, before he fell ill took the photo, wanting to create memories they could all go back to. Noelle began to trace the patterns she could see, missing her sister dearly. “I miss you Dess.” Noelle mummered to the quiet room. Some days the grief got to be a bit too much or she just needed to decompress, she would visit Dess’ room and just relax. Dess said that her room would always be open to Noelle if she needed it. Safe to say Noelle took her up on that offer on the odd occasion.
Her sister as always was wearing her black leather jacket with ripped jeans, she was also a human with short purple hair with dyed red streaks, brown eyes that gleamed at night, teeth that were like fangs, long claw like nails and most importantly the purple patterns that covered her sister’s body.