I blink a few times before pulling my hands back away from my head. After taking a quick look to see if it was bleeding or not due to the unexpected shock against the wall, it seems that I'm perfectly fine, just having another headache of top of the ones I've been having now for the past few days.

Great, exactly what I needed. Hurting myself even further until I would somehow become a vegetable. Always had been a secret dream of mine, guess I couldn't be happier than this...

So , I switch position and cross my legs with my forearms on top of my thights , basically adopting a version of the position of the Lotus , a pose using while meditating . I've never been a big fan of religion , safe for same aspects of buddhism, like relaxation and meditation. Probably due to the fact that I've always been kind of a nervous guy, but I managed to keep it away from the rest of the world because I like to have my own secrets. I mean , it's not about trust or anything special , but if you start revealing your every secret to everyone, then sooner or later people will know the whole truth about you, every single thing, and because of that, you will most likely have no more privacy, no more intimity. Truth isn't always a good thing to say , sure it sometimes is but not in all cases .

I close my eyes and I start concentrating myself on my breath and I shut off my ears to create an void-like atmosphere all around me thus helping me to think about all the infos I have so far, and making out a rational conclusion out of them . I then say in my own mind .

" Okay, first off, I've been obsessed with DDLC, had few hours of sleep for a couple of days, and I spent a very large amount of time doing so research on the game, the lore, the secrets etc . Second, I fell asleep and was in some kind of way shape or form transported in a void or whatever that empty space was, but that wasn't a dream, because my physical appearance did change to the one I selected on that computer. And lastly, even though some things seemed to have remained the same around me, they are some few details that are completly new, or I should say, not part of my original world , my memories. This leaves me with few options ... "

I then open my eyes , and start fixing at the open palm of my right hand , or more specifically my fingers , and I continue my thought process .

" One : this is all a very realistic dream, but due to the amount of pain I felt back then , a dream inside another dream is less likely to happen . It could be two parts of the same dream, but if it was the case , I should have felt at least a bit of the pain I felt when I was with the computer, which isn't the case , because even if I'm a bit tired, I wouldn't have been able to send the alarm crashing into the wall with such strenght , considering I was barely able to stand up after I fainted and fell unconscious. "

" Two : by some kind of unknown method , I've been kidnapped in my sleep and now that I remember it clearly , before ending the dream , the computer talked about some sort of " subject " and " phase 2 " , which means I was used as some sort of secret experimentation and that's the beginning of a much bigger plan . Hmm , if that's the case , I'll have to keep my eyes open and don't let my guard down even for a second , or something worse could happen. Yeah, really nice, all I ever wanted in life, being the number 1 attraction in the world so I can have 14 billions eyes locked on me . Fucking great . "

" Third and last thing I can think off right now, but it's very unlikely that it happened : By some kind of , once again, unknown method , my computer played a trick on me and now from what i've seen so far from outside that window and considering that some things aren't mine but are in my room nonetheless , I've been transported by some miracle or curse, it all depend on your opinion about life , religion , beliefs etc , in the DDLC world , and I'm stuck inside it until I complete the story or something along those lines ... "

For a few seconds , I considered all those ideas , taking some elements from one and adding them to another theory and vice-versa.
When suddently , some awkward reaction happened ...

" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HA HA HA HAHA HA HAHAHA HA HA ... "

I was laughing, not even knowing why , but I was laughing like a maniac , for a few minutes, like I just happened to become crazy or something like that. Not even able to think anymore, I keep doing it until the laugh slow down more and more with each second passing . I then decide to stand up, and go to the window, and I open it a bit more , feeling a little bit of that fresh yet unknown air blowing gently on my face and in my hair . It was soothing, relaxing almost , and just like that all those ideas were pushed in the back of my mind for now . If I wanna gather more information and create a valuable theory with consistant proofs , I had to investigate, which means going outside and pay attention to every single little detail surrounding me, but doing it safely.

After all , wherever I was , I had to be cautious about my every move or word. Who knows what might happen if I go all of a sudden " Hey , sorry to disturb you but can you tell me the way to go to London ? " I mean , either I already am in London, and the person will look at me as if I was some drug-addict or a degenerate , either I'm in the wrong country and the result will be the same , either I'm in the DDLC world and , well , you get the idea right ?

In both scenarios, a single mistake can have the following consequence : I AM SCREWED !

Well, I guess the only thing i can and have to do is stick to my plan : take a shower, breakfast , do a little bit of research quickly on my phone or my computer and ...

WAIT ! THAT'S IT ! MY COMPUTER !

I rush at lightning speed to my computer, and I look deeply at it. So far it seems it's still working the exact same way . I push my chair to the side , take my keyboard and my mouse and bring them closer to the edge of the desk , and I start my internet browser in search of some more information. I try to access Google and it somehow work . Well, that's a positive note, wherever I maybe be, it seems my computer is still linked to internet somehow , and I can still have access to the almost infinite amount of datas it contains . Not even gonna lie, a small smirk draws itself on my face . I then try to locate my position on Google maps, and the result is quite shocking.

" Location not found ? What in the name of fuck ... "

Now frowning , I try to refresh the page, hoping that it is just a bug or something, but the more I try , the more I see those 3 words on my screen. I then decide to check my usual websites to see if anything changed, but everything is clear , facebook , YouTube , even the new scan of the manga I was reading lately is out and ready to watch...

" Then what the fuck is wrong ? Why can't it locate my position if everything else is fine ? Does something block the access ? "

I try to open some of my applications, mostly the ones I use the most, like Discord to talk to my very few friends and some online games. It seems that I can play online on most of the games, and I can still communicate with my friends, but only with written text, no audio conversation whatsoever. I grab my phone and turn it up . I try to call one of the few contacts I have , and yet again, the only response I can have are with, guess what ?

" Seriously ? Come on , there might be something I can do to have at least a bit of sound, or maybe a vide... "

" . . . . . "

" THAT'S IT ! VIDEO ! I CAN SURELY CAPTURE SOME FOOTAGES AND UPLOAD THEM ! AND WHEN EVERYONE WILL SEE THIS , THEY WILL NO DOUBT GIVE ME SOME IDEAS AS TO WHAT TO DO ! "

Next thing I do , I take the webcam that has been sitting on the edge of my screen for years, I manage to create some kind of support so it won't fall, I put it on my chair , right in front of my bed , and I start recording and telling what happened .
Once the editing is done, cutting some few clips here and there so it won't look as I'm neither depressed or happy about the possibility of me being in another world , far away from the massive amount of douchebags I've met in my life . I saved it on both my hard drive, and an external hard drive that i have in a secret place inside the tower of my computer, so nobody will find it, or at least , not easily . I manage to uploading the video on a hosting website , and copy-paste the link to all of my trusted contacts , hoping they will answer me. Now that this is done , I have something else to do , and as I turn my head , I look in all seriousness at the door of my room , eyes filled with extreme concentration when suddently...

" GROOOOOOOWWWWWWLLLLLLL "

I slowly lower my head , and let my eyes staring and my belly for a bit

" Care to repeat that ? "

" Grooowwwwl "

I huff in exasperation . Of course I knew all too well I was hungry. I simply decided that what mattered the most at this moment was to find a way to fix things, to solve this issue . But that wasn't all there was to it .
Among all the OC's i had created so far , each of them represented a part of me, and altogether, they were the real me, like pieces of a puzzle brought together form a bigger picture . It does so happen that when I chose Damian to be " myself ", I chose the most food-loving out of all of them. Yes , all of them have a special thing to them , And Damian , if you were to compare him to one of the seven sins , would basically be Gluttony . So my stomach crying out loud for food was a parameter I kinda forgot in the overall equation , but there's another thing about that part of " me " or rather him that I didn't forgot , and it would be really usefull at some point . That's why I picked him out of all the possible choices.

Damian is a cold-hearted , pretentious , self-centric , blunt as fuck , ASSHOLE .

It was the basic representation of who I became these past few years, the polar opposite and a far cry from the kid/young male I once was.

So , with my empty stomach in mind, I open the door of my room and I make my way to the kitchen . There I see the fridge and I start literally PILLAGING it , leaving next to no food inside . While I'm close to it, I also pick a bottle of water and I go sit on the couch , facing the black screen of the TV of the living room . I'll spare you the details but to give you a short idea , the fight between the food and the bottle of water versus my stomach didn't ended well... especially for the food . After feeling a bit less empty inside , I go back into my room and start searching through all my clothes . Of course I do have the clothes associated with Damian's personality , but they are quite... not stealthy . And if I want to investigate a bit in this world I may know very little about, I have to wear the appropriate clothes to do so . In the back of my mind, I suddently remember that video I saw once talking about the concept of " the grey man ". It is basically a set of clothes, really common that anyone already have or can afford , most of the time plain and simple , cheap , and allows you to become one with the environment around you . To give you a slight idea if you're not familiar with the concept , Damian's clothes on a ladder of " you're spotted " would be a big 8.5/10 , while on the other hand , on a ladder of stealth , a " grey man's set " would be closer to a solid 9/10 . So if you want to blend in an unknown place , country, city or whatever , pay close attention to people's general behavior and the most used and common clothes , and adopt them , like a chameleon .

Good thing that I always had been able to copy to a certain extent mimics , facial expressions , demeanor , and a lot of things that most people would value as " useless " .

I then search through all my clothes and manage to find a really large dark grey hoodie , and my favorite black baggy pants. I then switch to my most classic pair of shoes ( cough cough CONVERSE ) , and to top of it all, I hide my long ponytail in the back of my hoodie, so no one will notice. Shutting the window of my room ? Check ! Wallet in my pocket along my my phone and my headphones in the other one ? Check ! Playlist ? Check ! Battery ? FULL ! Keys in hand and door locked ? Done ! Well I guess all I have to say now is ...

LET'S GO !

The sight in front of my eyes is suddently one of the options I had thought about earlier , and there was a very low chance I could be wrong about this . The door now locked in my back isn't the door of an appartment anymore, but the door of a HOUSE . This is 100% confirmed , from all the things I am able to witness , There's no other possibility ...

I FUCKING AM IN THE DDLC WORLD !

Which means one thing at least...

I turn my head slightly on the right side , putting my hood on so no one will see my face . Good thing that the weather looked like it would surely be raining today , judging from the amount of grey clouds in the sky . From the corner of my eyes , I'm able to see it . This daunting scenery , this wall , this window ...

If this house wasn't mine to begin with , and if I've been transported to the DDLC world , it meant that my newly acquired house was the original house of the MC of the story , so the person living in the next one in that direction would be none other than ...

My train of thoughts is interrupted by this realization . What should I do ? If I go check on her, I might either discover her...hanged , or still alive , but depressed . What if because she doesn't recognize me as her childhood friend because I look different from the MC of the story ? What if she do recognize me , but start asking me questions about my appearance , my clothes and a lot of difficult topics to talk about ? I barely even realized myself that I'm in the world that was only part of a video game hours ago. There's too many questions unanswered , and I need to find something , no matter how little it may be , to help me understand this whole situation a bit better , and also , cope with it . So far I've been pushing all those thoughts in the back of my mind as best as I could , but now that I'm almost in front of the real deal , It's not as easy as I first expected it to be. What if during my time in search of answers , she decide to commit suicide ? I don't even remember which day we are , how long I've been sleeping, if some days have passed during my transfer from my reality to this fake one . It's not a game anymore , no matter how I look at it. One single mistake and bye-bye , you're gone , with no way back . I have to be carefull but not careless .

Easier said than done huh ?

Or maybe it is , easy ?

I hesitantly walk in front of the door of Sayori's house . I have a new plan in mind and I have to do it quickly , without being noticed . I carefully look all around me , and I take a quick glance at the hour on my phone.

" 7:10 A.M ? Seriously ? How in the godly name of Fuck could I be up at such a hour like this one ? This is clearly the proof that I'm in the middle of a monstrous mindfuck " I silently murmured to myself.

I push slowly the door of the house , as silently as possible . Thank god it doesn't squeek , otherwise my stealth would've been compromised from the very beginning of my secret operation . From the memories I got from the game , I do recall approximatively how Sayori's house is built . There's a set of stairs visible from where I stand , and her room is upstairs.

" Up we go then ... "

I tiptoe my way to the stairs , and I climb them on all fours , using my hands and my fingers to help me reduce the amount of weight you would normally have to put into your legs to climb stairs , then making it more silent . Of course , one the drawbacks is that you have to make a lot more efforts to do so , concentrating on both doing it as less noise as possible , not taking too long , and not being caught in action !

I reach the top of the stairs and I stand on my own two feets once again , a bit ashamed that I had to climb all the way up here like a damn monkey ... but back to the matter at hand , it's not the time to complain about such bullshit. A life may very well be in danger right now, on the other side of one of the doors who are now on both of my sides . I know from the story that , due to her depression , she's a heavy sleeper , and considering the fact that it's early in the morning , it is more than likely that she's still asleep . One doubt comes to my mind though and can throw all this theory out of the window : I've only paid attention to the hour when I checked my phone, not the date . So I have no idea whatsoever about which day of the week we are . Is it a day where she have to go to school ? Is it the week-end ? Does she have something planned for today and need to get up early ?

Once again, I push back all of this in the back of my brain and I decide to keep going for what has been driving me here .
I tiptoe my way to the nearest door of what seems to be a room , and I put my ear against the wood . I can hear from inside a faint breathing . I do hope that Sayori is inside and still sleeping, otherwise it will be a very confusing situation, and a serious pain in the ass to find an explanation as to who I am , and what the flying fuck am I doing in her home, her room at 7 AM in the morning of whatever day it could be.

I slowly wrap my fingers around the handle of the door , and I shyly open the door . I can almost feel the sweat running on my forehead , the back of my hand , and my palm in my fingers becoming moist . I peek as much as I can from where I am , but the room is still dark . Well , that's kind of relieving because with my dark clothes , I will look like a shadow in the dark, and even if Sayori wakes up , she might think that I'm some kind of hallucination , which works in my favour .

I open the door a bit more , just enough so I can enter her room . I instinctively murmur an apology in my mind for the intrusion in her room , it's a violation of intimity , I know it and I will never forgive someone who'll do that to me , be sure of it . But right now, her life may be in peril , so I have to do it , even if I feel uneasy about it . I can distinguish in the darkness the shadow of a young girl sleeping peacefully in her bed and unbeknowingly , I smile to myself, feeling somewhat reassured that , for now at least , she is fine . The things I saw countless times in the game , perhaps I could prevent them from happening . Perhaps that's the reason why I'm here in the first place ... but then again , why me ? I have nothing special for fuck sake . Why not a good looking young male who would be closer to their age , not an old pathetic guy like me , good for nothing and only caring for himself ? Is it so I can somehow wash away the guilt of my past mistakes I still have ? The remorses , the grief , the hatred ,could it be cured by helping and saving those girls ? Is this why I'm here , why I've been chosen ? I seriously doubt it , I have more poison than blood in my veins , I'm rotting from the inside and I know that since a decent amount of time . Unlike those girls nothing or no one can save me . And I don't want to be helped either. Quite ironic huh ? Saving a girl from the same feelings that I have inside me , feelings and emotions who are slowly eating me away , taking every bit of humanity I have left in me and making it disappear just like that , with a snap of fingers .

Anyway , I make my way towards the place I wanted to inspect , the very reason why I came here in the first place . And that place would be

This slightly opened drawer .

I carefully open it a bit more , praying to who knows that it won't squeek , or worse , hit me or fall on my foot ...

There I see it , this ... THING , this awful shitty piece of crap that makes my anger grow and my blood boiling inside of me ...

THE MAKESHIT NOOSE !

I slowly turn my head and look at Sayori , but strangely I pick up something while doing so. My vision seemed to have been altered in some kind of way , the colors aren't the same anymore. My eyes seems to sting a bit and my sight becomes blurry.

" What the fuck is happening ? What is this sensation ? " I secretly ask myself.

As my hand is still in her drawer , I silently pick up the noose and put it into the empty backpocket of my pants. I then slowly close the drawer to the same point it was before I came . I pull back my left hand and I hesitantly use the tips of my fingers to brush away a strand of hair that was in front of her nose . At first I did this because I noticed this detail , and it could have caused her to sneeze and waking up , but there was something more to it now that I take a closer look at her face. I always have liked Sayori , but merely as a friend, just like the MC in the original game . However , even if I can't pick up the real beauty of her face because of the darkness of her room , she seems more mesmerizing now, almost as if she had some kind of beautiful aura around her.

" I will save you from your demons , little angel , don't worry about it . Have faith , your nightmares will soon be over . I'll be there for you , no matter what " I softly murmur , looking at her sleeping face tenderly.

Especially now that I know what's in her head ...

" ... I'm not ... worth caring ... " I unexpectedly heard as I was making my way out , like a ghost pretending he never was there.

I whip my head around , almost cracking my neck , eyes wide open. A doubt invade my mind . Was she awake all along ? Was she aware that I was here ? Did she heard ? Did she saw me ? But most of all , the very thing that makes my whole body shaking , my fingers balled into fists ...

Those words ... THOSE VERY WORDS ... HOW COULD YOU ...

Anger boils further inside me to the point where I grit my teeth, almost making myself bleed and tasting the bitter coppery liquid.
I manage to get a hold of myself anyway , and I shut the door , making my way down and exiting the house as silently and discretly as I came in. The words echoes in my head in a never ending loop. I take a couple of steps towards my house , and i suddently and violently punch the wall. Well , it seems that today is really full of surprises . The wall have now a fist-sized hole , but my hand isn't even scratched in the slightest . Seems like whatever it is inside me is preventing me from taking some damage , but also allow me to be more " destructive " so to speak . It's when I look in a mirror a bit further in the street that I can finally have an idea about why I am more " special " now , and where this strenght come from . The emotions I've been feeling until now , my sight becoming blurry and my eyes stinging a bit .

Anger had become my power, and under the darkness of the hood, were now 2 shining blood-red rubies surrounded by pitch-black scleras.

" YOUR TIME WILL COME ... "