Chapter Text
Along the shore the cloud waves break,
The twin suns sink behind* the lake,
The shadows lengthen
In Tenebrae Mundi.
Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies
But stranger still is
Lost Tenebrae Mundi.
Songs that the Tegimen shall sing,
Where flap the tatters of the King,
Must die unheard in
Dim Tenebrae Mundi.
Song of my soul, my voice is dead;
Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed
Shall dry and die in
Lost Tenebrae Mundi.
“A good father is a full time father.”
Those were the words Rudy’s father spoke to him the day he became a dad 14 years ago and they were words he did his best to live by. It was easy enough in his opinion, being a detective in a town where nothing really happens. It didn’t interfere too heavily with his family life. Getting up from bed he placed his hand on his wife’s shoulder, giving a small shake as a wake up call. He found it funny the rare times he’d have to wake her up, her mumbled speech of “5 more minutes” was something he still found cute even after all these years of marriage.
After putting off dressing in his uniform in order to relish in the comfort of well worn sweats and a blood crusher band t-shirt from his college days, he went to wake up his daughters. Knocking on his youngest Noelle’s room,
“Noelle sweetie, It’s time to wake up!” He said in a sing-songy voice, eliciting a giggle from the 10 year old.
“Daddd, I’m already getting ready! I’ll come down for breakfast soon!” Noelle said.
“Okie dokie! Now lemme just wake up your sister.” Rudy said with a chuckle.
Walking down the hall he stopped at the newly painted black door.
“Hey December? I know it sucks but it’s time to wake up now.” He said with an empathetic tone. “Trust me I’d let you get more beauty sleep if I could.”
Receiving no response from the other side he tried one last time.
“Dess, I know you're awake. Just come downstairs for some breakfast then we’ll head out to school, ok? I’ll even let you do the sirens on the way!” Rudy offered.
After that attempt he headed downstairs and started cooking some eggs. Now while he may not be the best chef and Carol was definitely the head cook, if he could do one thing right it would be breakfast. It came to the point where the Girls would prefer he make it over their mother, who was more than happy to let go of some responsibility. Finishing plating the eggs, hashbrowns and bacon and grabbing the pitcher of orange juice from the fridge he called upstairs,
“Breakfast time you guys! Come get it while it’s hot!” Rudy shouted.
“Coming Dad!” Noelle responded, hopping down the stairs in her school outfit.
“There’s my little sugarplum! Now go get some food before your sister takes it all!” Rudy joked.
Suddenly a scream interrupted the family’s idyllic morning,
“Rudy! Get up here now!” Carol screamed, the sheer panic being in the forefront of her voice.
Rudy ran up the stairs, noticing December’s wide open door he rushed inside expecting the worst, only to find his wife sobbing on the floor right next to an empty bed.
“Carol what’s going on here? Where’s Dess?” Rudy asked.
“I don’t know! She’s not here! Where is she? Please Rudy, you have to call someone!” Carol replied hysterically.
"should we call the Dreemurr's? or maybe check the house.." Rudy suggested.
Rudy immediately radioed to the station, and knelt down with his wife in an attempt to console her.
-1 hour later-
Asgore had not expected his day to begin with searching for his best friend's daughter in the woods surrounding hometown. He actually was about to ask Rudy if he wanted to go golfing after their morning shift, the clubs were still in his truck parked at the edge of the woods. While trudging through the undergrowth he turned to look at his partner in the distance, still dressed in his pajamas. He hoped that this would be just another one of Dess’s acts of rebellion she became infamous for around town.
“You got anything over there?” Rudy shouted, interrupting Asgore’s internal musings.
“No nothing yet, have you heard anything on the Box?” Asgore responded.
“No, I haven’t. Blook said he’d keep me updated though.” Rudy said
-Earlier-
Asgore thought back to when he first arrived at the Holiday home, Rudy had personally called him after radioing to the precinct. Carol decided to take Noelle to school that day as she and Rudy had already talked to the officers. Leaving Asgore and Rudy to discuss,
“What’s going on up there right now Rudy? I can tell you what you are thinking about, you got that look about you.” Asgore asked.
“Well first of all there’s no sign of struggle, break in or forced exit. The window is open but that opens from the inside and there’s no distress suggesting a break in. It appears she left here willingly.” Rudy stated matter of factly, believing the more he acted as a detective in this moment the quicker they’d find his daughter.
“Well did she leave willingly? I mean she does have a history of this, who's to say she’s not just running off? Playing hooky as we used to say.” Asgore asked.
“Everytime that happened she brought her guitar with her,” Rudy said, gesturing to the red acoustic leaning in the corner, “This time is different, I know it is.”
“I know better than to doubt that brain of yours Rudy. Damn thing works like a camera, could’ve done some great work down in Ebott with that skill.” Asgore mused.
“Well, I like small towns, nothing bad happens in them, usually anyway.” Rudy spoke, searching his daughter’s room for clues. Peeking out from under the bed he turned to look at Asgore, “You tell your boy yet?”
“No, an optimistic part of me is hoping we’ll find her by the end of the day, but the other side can’t bear to see him in pain.” Asgore explained, “Did I tell you about the time I let him take care of one of my buttercups? He forgot to water it for a couple of days and when it died? He was inconsolable, I think that boy feels guilty for every blade of grass that lies beneath his feet.”
“That Asriel sure is special, Dess saw that too.” Rudy chuckled. “Now I don’t think she’d take too kindly to me spilling her secrets but she has a big crush on your boy, she fessed up to it after we stayed up late watching one of the rom coms Toriel would have us do during movie night. She was wondering how you kiss someone. ”
“Was it 10 things I despise about you?” Asgore questioned.
“I’d say lucky guess but you know that’s the only one of those kinds of movies I can stomach.” Rudy laughed “But it seems Asriel is in for quite the ride when we find her.”
The banter in the room was suddenly interrupted by a knock on the door frame,
“Gentlemen?” the man asked
“Oh Chief Barret! Glad to see you’ve arrived.” Asgore said
“As am I” Rudy added
“Thank you gentlemen, now what seems to be the situation? I got debriefed on the way but I want details.” Chief Barret stated.
Rudy proceeded to explain his findings, mentioning no signs of forced entry, the guitar being left behind, and the window being opened from the inside.
“So we’ve most likely got another runaway teen on our hands? That's the third one in the last 6 months. If that’s so, let's get a search party going in the woods.” The chief said.
“Sir, with all due respect I don’t believe it’s that simple.” Rudy said. “Like I just mentioned she has a history of running off, but every time she did she brought her guitar along, every time sir.”
“Everytime? I’m sure there must have been a couple times she forgot about it, just know even you can be mistaken Rudy.” Chief Barret said with a light chuckle
“Bullshit.” Rudy muttered under his breath
“What was that detective?” Barret asked
“Nothing sir, we'll get that search party organized right away.” Asgore said, grabbing onto Rudy’s shoulders. “Why don’t you head to my car and I’ll grab your gear, I got some coffee in there that might still be warm.”
“Sounds good, I’ll meet you down there.” Rudy said, slightly disgruntled
Once he was out of the room and heading down the stairs Asgore turned to the Chief.
“I didn’t want to mention it while he was here but could you have some guys dredge the lake? Just in case the worst should come to pass.” Asgore asked.
“I’ll get a crew on that,” Chief Barret agreed.
“I appreciate it, Chief.”
-Present time-
The duo had been scouring the woods, checking any of the usual hiding spots or forts December would usually frequent. Despite the hours searching they had come up empty handed and Asgore could see the worry start to creep up his partner’s back.
“Asgore, could we talk to Asriel? He may know of some secret spot we don’t know about yet. It’s obvious she’s not in any of the usual spots.” Rudy suggested.
“Yeah I can make that work, let’s head back to the truck and we’ll check him out of school.” Asgore agreed. “I’ll let Toriel know, you know we still haven’t checked out the bunker yet…”
Suddenly the radios on both their belts crackled to life,
“Recovery to Homicide we’ve got a 10-54, a potential body by the lake, species unknown. Requesting Homicide to get down here asap.”
The two men then locked eyes, and without another word raced back to the truck, Rudy overtaking Asgore with ease.
Eventually they both made it back to the truck, Asgore jumping in as Rudy did the same. Quickly turning on the vehicle Asgore began to back out as Rudy flipped the siren and lights. Without a second to lose they began to race toward the lake, neither one exchanging words with the other.
They already knew what the other was thinking, and what they both were dreading.
—
Pulling up to the lake Rudy didn’t even wait for the car to come to a stop, he hopped out of the car and bolted towards the crowd of officers at the lakes edge. There was no time for professionalism, not when the worst thing that could ever befall a parent could potentially be laying mere meters away. Eventually making it to the crowd he ducked under the police tape, and with an exasperated shout announced while flashing his badge,
“I am Homicide Detective Rudolph Holiday with Hometown PD, where is the body?”
“Excuse me sir, I think you need to take a seat and calm down let’s wait for your part-” the recovery team officer was then interrupted
“I don’t give two fucks about protocal right now, all I care about is getting a visual on that body and seeing if it’s my daughter!” Rudy said, anger carrying his voice as the officer attempted to hold him in place.
“HEY ASSHOLE, LET GO OF MY PARTNER.” Asgore shouted as he got closer, “We’re the homicide team responding to your 10-54, it’s imperative we get an id on that body for our investigation.”
“Ok man that’s all you had to say,” the cop said as he relinquished Rudy, “Just next time use your big boy words ok?”
“Pig,” Rudy spat as he brushed himself off, turning to Asgore he motioned for him to advance, “it's this way.”
Walking past the other onlooking officers the duo came upon the recovery team surrounding a wooden box, about 5 feet in length and a foot tall and 3 feet wide. It seemed to be a large ornate cupboard with one side nailed shut. What first became apparent was the stench protruding from the box, like road kill after it had been raining.
“It’s not Dess in there, “ Rudy quickly mumbled to himself, “It can’t be, it won’t be.” He repeated it like a prayer, one of those desperate kinds where you just hope anyone or anything listens.
Noticing his partner’s sudden docility, Asgore acted. “Hey guys whats the hold up?”
“We wanted to wait for you guys, just in case there was any evidence left on the box.” One of the members of recovery answered.
“I’m touched by the concern, but most of the evidence on the outside would’ve washed out by now. One of you, hand me that crowbar.” Asgore commanded and his order was met with compliance.
Turning to Rudy he asked, “Are you ready for this? No matter what happens?”
“No,” Rudy answered truthfully, “Just get that open already.”
A loud crack sounded from the box as Asgore pried open the nailed down lid. The putrid smell from before intensified as coughs and gagging erupted from everyone present. Ignoring this Asgore went to the next nail, Rudy could see the vague shape of the body within. Asgore took the crowbar, the third and final nail and Rudy couldn’t take it anymore ; he shut his eyes in a vain attempt to block out the world.
“Rudy….” Asgore started, “Please get in contact with the Cattenheimers, it seems we’ve found Catty.”
Rudy opened his eyes, coming face to face with the deceased body of the teenage feline. She was left face down in the box, and it had become apparent that being left in the lake had caused her body to bloat, straining against the constraints of the cupboard. Every detail, every horrific detail would stay with him forever, it was his curse to bear along with his photographic memory.
But something caught his eye, along the back there appeared to be symbols traveling down her spine. Putting on his latex gloves and procuring his knife he began to carefully cut through the floral shirt that adorned her.
The symbols read
☞︎□︎❒︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ❍︎⍓︎ ☞︎☼︎✋︎☜︎☠︎👎︎
And
💣︎🕆︎👎︎