First Day Back
Disclaimer - I do not own the particular game this is about, the game in question is Doki Doki Literature Club which was created by Team Salvato.
I will now warn you that if you go looking for DDLC as the game is known according to some of its fanbase (yes I did some research since I didn't want to type out Doki Doki Literature Club all the time), this game is NOT for everyone as it touches on subjects that are DISTURBING, and I shall be doing my best to throw in my own brand of horror to spice things up as we all know how the Player ends DDLC.
Monika wasn't sure what to think, she was in her favorite restaurant, a place that was barely rated as anything other than an over glorified café with a fairly large dining area and kitchen. Though she did remember more than a few times in the past when she ordered takeout from here, be it a sandwich for her school lunch from the few times she was running late for school, to dinners her parents weren't around for, and outings with her friends from the Literature Club.
Those memories were bittersweet. They stirred up the embers belonging to the being she fell in love with, and they made her heart ache at the thought of this being just another game manipulated by someone.
They also brought a warm feeling of nostalgia from within her memories as Sayori sat across from her with a cup of tea for herself, and one for her. Sayori had brought herself a black tea, and Monika a green tea. Monika knew what was going to happen next however, any moment now Sayori was going to say something like 'Monika, you know you can talk to me right?' or that she'd tell a joke, or else she'd say something about the Club.
Of course if her luck was really bad this would be the day when the whole Club was together by chance alone before the school year officially started again.
"Hey Monika!"
Monika thought grimly, "Of course it is..."
Monika threw on a false smile once again, "Hey Natsuki!"
Monika knew Sayori would take a moment with consideration from her all too kind and selfless heart and invite her over, and Yuri too if she was in the corner of the café she frequented, a quick glance in that direction caused Monika to feel part of her soul fade. The sudden realization that Yuri was off in a corner of the café with her nose buried in a book yet again filled her with dread as she noticed Sayori following her gaze to where Yuri was sitting and call the knife loving beauty over.
In but a moment Monika went from having a simple cup of tea with Sayori to having a up of tea with what would be her entire Literature Club save for one, and she definitely would have remembered seeing the Player in he café, but sadly the average looking boy her ages that had sent chills down her spine and her heart into a pace that made it seem that the precious thing was going to burst from her chest.
The merest thought of their face cast in shadow was enough to make her breath catch in her throat and set her mind into a quickened state. A state that none of the three girls around her, including Yuri who was now on her way over to their shared table, had somehow managed to miss.
That was possibly the best thing that could have happened so far. Although considering the situation she was in, she wondered just what might happen, or more importantly what she could do to change her story. If she could even change her story.
Thoughts lead to more lamentation, more brooding whispers of dark deeds she could do to gain her true love's affections, could she save not only her friends from herself but still have her love's heart? Questions, thoughts, whispers, they all blended together with the calming atmosphere of the café and made Monika sick to her stomach, her façade of happiness cracked like the porcelain mask she had seen in an antique shop once with her parents.
Another painful memory, her existence before was false, and if indeed this is another false existence, how could she be certain this wasn't just another game thought up and played out by beings mightier than her? Was her fate set in stone, or was it malleable, able to mold to her whims without breaking as it did before?
She took a moment to glance around the café as her friends began to chatter among themselves, and occasionally she'd offer up some tidbit of a response or an excuse that seemed plausible to explain away her state of dress. Her state of dress was what made her snap out of her thoughts once it was mentioned.
Her uniform's front was covered in rust from the tunnel's gate, her knees and socks were dirtied with what appeared to be a dark grimy sludge that smelled of mildew, her shoes fared little better and in fact took the brunt of the tunnel's horrors, and her uniform's skirt was dirtied in much the same manner as her top but it had undoubtedly caught the same scent as the rest of her clothes had.
Her uniform also seemed to be drawing the attention of the almost formless occupants of the café as well.
Shadowed beings that made mockery of the human form with their lack of distinction, their lack of detail, seemed to turn their attentions to her and regard her with at best, amusement, perhaps even pity. A mix of emotions that Monika had no need or desire to see, unless it was from her beloved, if he even cared after deleting her, but then again it wasn't as if the creator or creators of her existence seemed to want to give her the chance to hold them. The only things she could hold, that she could touch, that she could sense were that dreaded hole in reality that she could peek out of at random before now, and that damnable puppet that the player controlled.
Then there was the code, the very stuff that her life, indeed her very existence, seemed to be made of when she discovered how to examine her 'world'. It seemed to flow across the pages upon pages she could scribble it all down on notebook paper after that chance event, it nagged at her mind, it consumed her every whim and hope, it taunted her with its ability to create, and to take away.
Monika sorely wanted to control it, to mold it to suit her need for control over her own fate, but as she turned her thoughts to it in full, her mind wandered back to the tunnel she ran through and the dark void that she fell through only to chance upon a window into this... place.
In the span of a few minutes of half-conscious conversation with Sayori, Natsuki, and Yuri, Monika had another epiphany. A sudden realization that was potentially more damning and horrifying than her last.
"What if our lives are really a lie dreamt up by beings greater than any gods, or worse... less than demons or insects?"
At first Monika wasn't sure who had spoken as she brought her teacup up to her lips once again, at least until she realized that the last syllables of her long time friends' conversation seemed to die in a sudden seizure of progress, some conversation about the excitement of Sayori's friend coming to join the Literature Club once school starts again in earnest.
She looked up from her teacup and to the stunned and silent faces of her friends, Sayori and Natsuki had faces of absolute surprise and uncertainty being directed at their club president, and Yuri stared at Monika with wide eyes filled with curiosity and interest.
Sayori was the first to speak up with a gentle clearing of her throat and a hand covering her mouth partially to muffle the sound.
"Monika, are you feeling okay? I mean I know you're dirty and all from being by the river since it's so muddy there because of all the rain we've had the last few days but..."
Monika shook her head gently from side to side three times before speaking quietly and without inflection, in fact it seemed hollow, sad, and an example of helplessness.
"Sayori, I'm fine. I just haven't been feeling well lately with everything that has been going on lately."
Natsuki was silent, but she looked at her tea with a downcast look before looking off toward a clock across the room.
Yuri however was an entirely different story. She spoke directly to Monika, but with a tenderness and understanding that seemed at odds with the normally reserved girl's behavior. When she spoke, she asked a simple question."
"Monika, can you come with me to the bathroom please? I think we she try to get you cleaned up a bit."
Monika shook her head once more.
"I don't think that will be necessary Yuri, but I guess you could walk me back home if you're worried."
Monika looked at Yuri with a quiet eagerness that was almost cold, but she put on her best attempt at an inviting smile, because she knew that only Sayori had seen her apartment and curiosity was often a powerful motivator. Monika wanted to see if this new reality could be manipulated in any way, and if it could, she had the perfect way to test it.
It was almost fifteen minutes later when Monika and Yuri were walking up one of the many streets to get to Monika's home. A medium-sized townhouse with a neatly trimmed lawn, an all too familiar and popular red brick exterior, with all of the seemingly picture-perfect cookie cutter houses that looked exactly the same to either side of it as well as further down the street in both directions, and undoubtedly more were on the opposite side of her backyard's 2.1 meter tall fence of white-washed wood.
A moment after they reached the front porch Monika had her key in her hand, and in the lock, with a practiced twist of her hand she watched the white door swing open with the slightest push inward. Then with an equally habitual pause to remove her shoes she placed them on a mat specifically for any shoes that were to enter the house and she left them there without a thought. Yuri did the same, but she seemed preoccupied with thoughts about Monika's current state.
Monika moved toward her bathroom, and after a moment of more habitual behavior she began to draw up a hot bath. All the while she watched Yuri fidgeting nervously from foot to foot out of the corner of her eye. That was when Monika decided to do something she hadn't in a long time, she was going to ask someone for help.
"Yuri, would you mind getting me some towels from the hall closet?"
Yuri hadn't even responded with any kind of verbal response, just a shy nod and off she went. It was almost amusing to Monika when she had called out to Yuri that she had to go the other way.
When Yuri got back she found Monika sitting in the tub with a robe directly across from the bathtub and it was also clear that Monika was enjoying the water's heat and the sensation of thousands of bubbles from what smelled like a fruit scented bubble solution, a soapy mixture that Monika had enjoyed since she was a child, if she could believe her own memories that is.
So without surprise Yuri placed the towels next to the bathrobe and then surprisingly sat against the side of the bathtub with her back to Monika.
Monika eyed the back of Yuri's head and briefly contemplated whether or not it would be wise to see if she could coax information from her, or at least that was what she thought until Yuri spoke up after a moment of silence had passed since taking her seat on the blue tile floor.
"Monika, back at the café... you said something that has been bothering me since I heard it. How long have you known about the Shadows that have been following us?"
Monika's emerald eyes widened once she fully grasped what Yuri had asked, or at least what she thinks she had understood.
"Yuri... do these... Shadows... look like something you would expect from a computer program that isn't working properly?"
Yuri turned her head in Monika's direction slightly before simply nodding her head ever so slightly.
"Then you have seen them then?"
"Yes... I have Yuri."
Deep down Monika was screaming in panic, but she refused to let that panic and fear bubble to the surface. After all, it only meant she was in another game, and that meant she might still have power here. It also meant that she had to find a way to escape, even if it meant going back to that tunnel.
The only good news is that at least she wasn't dealing with a reality that was breaking, and she knew what to avoid in order to prevent this reality from being corrupted from her actions. All she would need would be a few books on programming, and a little luck.
"Yuri, how long have you been seeing them?"
"You should know Monika... you killed me after all..."
Monika's eyes widened as Yuri turned to face her. What she saw wasn't the kind, shy, and overly courteous girl she knew anymore but she did see the curled knife and a pallid face dripping blood from empty holes where eyes, and flesh, used to be in place of countless cuts from the talon-like blade in the hand of this False Yuri.
For the first time in Monika's life, she screamed in terror and willed the horror away, and in its place was Yuri, her back against the side of the tub and her face looking at Monika with genuine concern. As well as genuine fear.
"Monika, did you feel that? I- I- I- t- th... I t-think one of them was j- j- just h-here..."
Monika's own face was contorted into a look of terror, for on the mirror at the end of the bath her feet are, was a message scratched into the reflective surface.
It read only three words, and she didn't want to believe them as she saw her existence as little more than strings of code. It was a belief that was potentially going to be changing in very short order.
The mirror was thus scratched with these words, "Welcome back Monika."