Chapter Text
“The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald
Noelle despised this city. On good days the polluted air only smelt partially like burnt rubber, and every other news story was about some tragic death due to another horrible human being that lived in this place. She hated it with all her heart but here was where her whole life was, and as much as she dreamed of clear skies in some mystery place it was not within her grasp. The screech of shower curtains interrupted those thoughts and Noelle remembered that she was an adult with responsibilities and that it was currently 5:50, she had to be at work by 6:10. She scrambled to get out of the shower, her blonde hair letting drops of water onto her bathroom tiles. She’d have to clean them soon. Noelle threw on her scrubs, the light blue material a sad reminder of what she wished for. When she was finally out of her apartment, it was 6:00 and the hospital was 10 minutes away.
“Looks like traffic laws are a suggestion today,” Noelle mumbled as she turned the key in the ignition. The car roared to life and Noelle peeled out of the driveway an old man glared at her from the side of the road and Noelle avoided eye contact with him. The sounds of holiday carols echoed through her dingy red car as she raced through roads of grey skies and boring black buildings. Finally, the tarnished white building fell into Noelle's eyesight and she quickly pulled into a random parking lot. If it was a doctor’s spot then boo hoo they can cry about it. She hopped out of the car and rushed into the building, immediately a flurry of people in similar clothes rushed around her in every direction.
“Hey, Noelle!”
“Noelle, you’re needed in room 3!”
“N dog my girl! Can you talk to Melissa about that party later?
“Morning Noelle!”
“When you have a moment can you sign Cass’s birthday card?”
“Noelle! Can you stay late today? Hannah called out,”
“Noelle, there’s donuts in the lounge if you want some!”
It felt like a thousand voices were talking over one another but she managed to make them all out. Noelle nodded her head, called out a good morning, and found herself lost in the work of treating one patient after another, the life of the ER channeling into her steps as the day dragged on.
“Bye Noelle!”
“Bye Melissa,” Noelle threw open the dark blue double doors and felt like crying. Heavily, preferably with some mint chocolate chip ice cream in the vicinity. Some parents and their kids came into the ER today and it just… reminded her of Dess for some reason. Well, everything reminded her of Dess in that cold time right before spring. She used to say it was her favorite season and Noelle thought it was stupid because it didn’t even have a name. Her older sister would then proceed to tickle her until she agreed that it was the superior season. Noelle shook her head, she needed to stop thinking like her sister was dead. Dess ran away, quite the opposite of dying. Noelle pulled her car door open and settled herself into the light grey leather seats. The car ride back to her small apartment was mostly uneventful, the only mildly interesting thing to happen was her seeing a sign saying “Let's go lesbians!” in front of a church. Kudos to the person who put it there Noelle thought as she pulled into her driveway. The sad brick building greeted her and she sighed before entering the building, her landlord really needed to do something about that. Noelle made a quick stop at the mailboxes as well, she’d forgotten to grab her mail this morning in her rush to work so instead of the usual 1 or 2 pieces of junk mail she had about 5 pristine white letters to sort through as she walked up the rickety stairs to her apartment.
A red and blue stamp caught her eye as she glanced through the mail, the money stamp representing a random bank someplace stared back at her. She put it at the bottom of the stack for later. Finally, the scratchy red door of her home was in front of her and Noelle practically collapsed into her apartment, the exhaustion of the day seeping into her bones. She began to open the bank letter and pray to anything that would listen it wasn’t about her. Instead of some dooming message informing Noelle that all her money was taken or something similar, It was about Dess. It was about Dess?
Dear Miss. Holiday,
It has come to the Central Rune Valley Bank’s (CRVB) attention that the property previously owned by your sister, December Holiday, has had no one living on its premises for the last 10 years due to your sister's untimely demise. We ask that you claim the land since it was left to you or you allow CRVB to auction it off this coming June. The details are included in this letter.
With prosperity,
Central Rune Valley Bank
The world spun as she re-read the note. Dead. Dess was fucking dead. All the memories of her sister flashed through her head like some sort of messed up slideshow, she would never be able to get those bone-crushing hugs again that would flood her senses with mint or the sly grins they would share after she’d stolen some dessert before supper. Dess was gone, and Noelle wasn’t there with her in those final moments, she was instead sitting at home complaining about her own miserable life. A strangled sob ripped itself from her throat, followed by a stampede of sorrow that engulfed her whole body. The letter dropped to the hardwood floor with her tears, when had she started crying? Her knees gave out and she thudded to the ground, her legs stung and it added to the pain in her mind. Dess was DEAD. Minutes or hours had passed Noelle couldn’t tell, only one thing stood in her mind and it was Dess.
Noelle brought a shaky hand to her face and wiped at her eyes, she needed to tell her dad, but she could barely cry anymore, let alone repeat the words that had just destroyed her. She stared blankly at the wall and soon enough instead of the orange sky she was used to a star-filled sky greeted her instead, constellations she couldn’t name stared down at Noelle and an ache settled in her very soul. Dess was never coming back but she would hopefully be watching her. With shaky arms, she reached around until the cold smooth surface of her phone touched her hand. Noelle opened the device and clicked on the first contact.
Ring Ring Rin-
“Noelle!”
“Dad?” She tried to steady her voice but it didn’t work as well as she’d hoped.
“You sound sick, you good?”
“No, I'm not. But I need to tell you something,” She took a deep breath.
“You're scaring me a bit haha… Noelle?
“Dess- Dess is gone,”
“Noelle, she ran away years ago. You know this,” Concern from her dad seeped through the phone and Noelle wanted to cry again.
“No Dad, she’s dead,” silence washed over the call, she almost thought he hung up but a quick look told her otherwise.
“Noelle… how did you-”
“I got a uh, letter from some bank. Told me I inherited land from her 10 years ago,” She forced her voice not to crack.
“...”
“I think I'm going to go there for a while,”
“I think that’s what you need hon, remember how to use a phone yeah?” She huffed.
“Same goes for you dad, I… I love you,”
“Love you too, I’ll tell your mom,”
“Okay, bye” And the line went silent.
Rune Valley was a small town somewhere along the coast of Deltia, it was filled with tiny shops and vibrant wildlife that you could only imagine. It was what Dess had dreamed of when Noelle saw her for the last time on that dark night. Dess and their mom had gotten into an argument, but unlike the other times, it went too far. One second Noelle had a sister and the next Dess’s closet was empty like Noelle's heart. She watched as stray brown and blonde hairs turned to only blonde. Dust collected on awards for sports no longer played and classes no longer attended. Years passed and she always thought of the dream her sister had, where she was, or what she was doing. The thought of a dead body popping up in a river near their childhood home came up a few times but she was quick to push it away. But here she sat on some old rickety bus about ready to fall apart like sand on her way to the small town of Rune Valley because her sister was Dead. It had been 6 hours since she packed her bags, sold her apartment, and quit her job all at once. Her workplace couldn’t even throw her a goodbye party. Noelle watched as rolling hills stretched on and on out the window, she should get cows if the land that Dess owned was like this. Finally, the bus screeched to a stop in front of a tiny bus stop covered in blooming wisteria vines, complementing the silver metal of the bench nearby. Noelle hobbled out of the bus and gave the bus driver a thanks. The bright spring sun caressed her skin and Noelle sighed happily, the smell of spring was everywhere and so very refreshing.
“Hey! Noelle Holiday right?” an old-sounding voice called from the other side of the overgrown bus stop, Noelle looked towards it and saw a tall burly man with a large graying beard approaching her.
“Yes! That’s me, and who are you exactly?” Noelle hiked her bags up further on her shoulders, she may need to run if this man was a serial killer or something.
“Oh right! I’m Asgore, the mayor of Rune Valley,” The man introduced himself and recognition passed through her face, he was on the pamphlet for Rune Valley.
“Ooooh, that makes sense It's nice to meet you!” Noelle reached out to shake his hand and he met her halfway, if everyone in this town was that nice then she had nothing to worry about!
“Nice to meet you too! I just wanted to let you know that I had a few people check and make sure the place was habitable, and for the most part, it was, except for a few broken windows,” The man explained as they started walking away from the bus stop and towards what she assumed was the farm. A lull of polite small talk washed over them as they walked down the dusty dirt road. Apparently, Asgore had two kids, one was her age and he seemed dodgy when Noelle asked about him but his other kid was named Asriel and he would not stop gushing about him, it was half of their conversation, the other half was Noelle trying to subtlety ask about Dess but Asgore seemed to be purposefully ignoring them or completely oblivious to it.
“I’m glad that someone is taking over the farmhouse! That thing has been empty for years now!” The man exclaimed with a kind smile on his face, Noelle saw her chance and dug her hands into it
“Really? That's cool! My sister owned it before me, you know anything about her?” Asgore’s hands halted in the air but he kept walking in pace with her, for a second the sound of shoes touching gravel surrounded them. Then Asgore sighed. Heavily, like he failed to do something.
“I-... I forgot about that, sorry for your loss. She was taken too soon,” Noelle watched him, he seemed to be truly sorry in an awkward way, and he probably didn’t know what to say to her. She decided to give the poor guy an out.
“It’s fine, I’d just like to learn more about her, the last time I saw her… it was too long ago,” Asgore lit up and started talking about her sister, the man seemed fond of her, and Noelle felt her heart tear itself to shreds as he went on and on. Dess hated grapes but they seemed to be the only thing that would get sold, or how Dess had exactly 9 chickens and named them all after Santa’s reindeer, even how every Halloween she would go all out and win the costume contests by dressing up in a Christmas themed costume. All this was familiar to Noelle but in some way, it seemed new, like she was watching from behind a blurry glass window. Perhaps the blurriness was from the tears gathering in her eyes.
“Here we are! I know it looks a little… ruff but it’s safe!” Ruff was the understatement of the century, the black roof was covered in wet leaves and bruised shingles, the grey-brown porch had a few floorboards missing, and the lilac paint on the siding was peeled off in big chunks. The house screamed “I’m either haunted or a safety hazard” but one look told Noelle that it was so uniquely Dess. The ache lessened a bit.
“It’s… perfect, thank you so much for filling me in,” Noelle couldn’t take her eyes off the old farmhouse, but she could feel a pitying stare from Asgore.
“You're welcome Ms. Holiday, and um… if you wanted to visit her, we have a cemetery in town,” he sounded sad, the complete opposite of what he’d been like in the hour that she’d talked to him. Noelle looked at him with wet eyes and nodded silently. Asgore nodded back and walked away, leaving Noelle and Dess’s lilac farmhouse. Noelles lilac farmhouse.
The inside of the farmhouse was majorly better than the outside, it seemed to contain heat well, but the spring air made it stuffy and hot on the inside. She opened some windows after placing her bags on the floor to air the room out. The place smelt musty from its years of neglect and Noelle started to mentally make a list of things she was gonna need, candles were first on it. Next, she explored the farmhouse, everything was covered in a blanket of dust but with cleaning supplies as the second item on her list it wouldn’t be for long. When Noelle came across the master bedroom, she stood in front of the door, a Christmas-themed calendar was tacked to the hardwood door and it was on the month of December. Noelle’s birthday was circled in the shade of red that Noelle remembered telling Dess was her favorite in the whole wide world because it was the color of Christmas. She wanted to cry, she wanted to let this stupid calendar destroy her from the inside out, leaving nothing but a hollow girl in its place but instead, Noelle carefully untacked the calendar and placed it on a dust-covered bookshelf nearby. She opened the door and got to cleaning the house. She would not let this destroy her, it’s not what Dess would want.
That night, when only the sound of crickets and the occasional cranky owl echoed through the star-covered sky, Noelle lay in the dusty house, in Dess’s old bedroom. She dreamed of a sunny sky and fields of vibrant purple grapes, of Dess complaining with a smile as they collected them. Noelle missed her older sister, and she’d miss her until one day she didn’t need to anymore.