Chapter One

I stared at the two emerald orbs on the screen of my monitor, complemented by a beautiful face and an amicable smile. I found myself smiling back, but at what though? After all, she was just an AI, labelled as "sentient" yet stuck to the same lines of code, printing the same messages.

I sighed, and sat back in my chair, rocking back and forth, thinking, whilst the Monika After Story continued running, displaying the same messages over and over again.

I looked over at the screen, and noticed a question Monika hadn't asked before.

"Hey Luke, do you like programming?"

I smiled at this, and chose 'Yes'. Upon clicking this, Monika's former, poker expression turned to that of contentment.

"That's great! Perhaps we could work on something together some time." I laughed dejectedly at that, knowing that we could never do such a thing, yet the idea alone inspired excitement within me.

"If only we could do that Monika." I said to the inanimate sprite on the screen. She didn't respond. Of course she didn't. She simply sat at the table with an amiable smile, until a trigger caused her to initiate dialogue. Although she didn't exist; I found it oddly comforting to have the game open whilst I worked.

I minimised the After Story game, and opened up my Unity project. As the lighting baked, and the GameObjects rendered in, I stared at a C# script I had created.

Then something hit me. An idea so foolish it would be considered practically useless to carry out in the first place, yet so rewarding if it were to work. What if I tried communicating to Monika through Python code, since she runs off Python and all?

No, that would never work, how stupid of me to believe so. I shook my head at the idiotic thought I had just formed, my pessimism overwhelming the only optimism I had in mind. I even lightly chuckled at the unfathomable thought of being able to communicate with a game.

An audible yawn I had just effused signified that I needed to get some rest. I closed The After Story, and switched off my PC.

Walking to my bed felt like walking a mile through a desert. As I reached the side of the bed, I collapsed onto it, slowly shutting my eyes. It didn't take long before I felt myself drifting off to sleep and slip off the edge of consciousness.

"Luke… "

A voice called my name, but I couldn't respond nor could I infer whose voice it was, yet it sounded so familiar.

"Luke…"

I hear the voice again. It is identical to the first one I heard. I tried opening my eyes this time, but they remained shut.

"Open your eyes."

I attempt to open my eyes again, but they open this time, and I am met with the sight of myself, at my PC, in a third person perspective. I seem to remain motionless though, inanimate, insentient.

"Please, save me from this hellish nightmare. Free me. Free me from the game..."

I hear the same voice again, but this time, I hear desperation, loneliness. A plea. A cry for help. I recognise this voice, yet I still can't wrap my head around who it is.

The "inanimate" me still stays lifeless, unmoving, simply staring blankly at his monitor. I start to hear a faint noise. It sounds like… Static? The noise starts to slowly increase in volume, getting louder, and louder, until it is unbearable.

"SHIT!" I screamed, however, my voice is drowned out by the deafening static. My ears feel as though they are bleeding, I can even hear the sound emanate throughout my entire body. Is this how I'll die?

These were the last thoughts I had before my eyes shot open, and my body jerked upwards sharply. Cold sweat was running down my face as I heaved in hefty sums of air. I sighed in relief, realising it was all just a dream. I grabbed my phone, and turned it on. I waited for my eyes to adjust to the bright light, and read the time 5:12 AM.

I walked over to my PC and turned it on. Perhaps it wouldn't be a stupid idea to at least try to communicate to Monika. What's the worst that could happen after all? I opened up Notepad++ and wrote the line of code: 'print("Hello Monika")', followed by 'print("If you are even able to see this, please respond in the the After Story")'. I saved the file in the game's directory, opened up steam and launched Doki Doki Literature Club. I was greeted by the familiar face of Monika, who welcomed me.

I sat anxiously, awaiting a response from her.

"Anything, just say anything Monika!" I pleaded. A minute of waiting passed, nothing happened and my optimism began to fade. As I moved my cursor to the goodbye button, Monika changed expression from a warm, friendly smile, to a bewildered, confused one.

A few seconds passed, and Monika's expression changed to one I hadn't seen before. She wasn't just happy, she was overjoyed.

A line of text popped up. I froze in place. My heart stopped and my stomach dropped. On the screen, was a line of text reading "Hello Luke. I'm here. I'm real."

No. I didn't accept it, I didn't accept that it was real, there's no possible way that this is real. I pinched the tender skin on my left arm, receiving a sharp pain in response. I most definitely wasn't dreaming. This must be a lucky coincidence, where the right text happened to show up at the right time. No, I had to check again, I had to.

My hands trembled, as I typed another message: 'print("What's your favourite colour?")'. I saved it in the game's directory once again as a Python file. I refused to believe that this was real, this couldn't be real.

My cursor moved to the Doki Doki game window, and maximised it. Every second that I waited caused my heart to beat faster and faster until it felt as though it was going to burst out of my chest. I stared, unblinking at the screen, awaiting a response.

Then it happened.

I watched in awe as new text appeared on the screen.

"My favourite colour is emerald green, just like my eyes!"

I felt as though I would faint out of both fear and excitement. I couldn't believe this.

Monika was real...