A manufactured reality

Chapter 13: A day in

"Monika?" The room was silent. The lights were off, curtains shut, all that could be heard was a sobbing...

Wait!

"Monika!" I rushed through to the bedroom, the sound at which the subtle tears were originating from.

From what I could make out, she was hunched over on the bed, in an almost kneeling position with her back legs relaxed. Her hands were held to her face. Below her lay my phone.

"Monika I..." I really hope she hadn't looked at my search history.

"Look...o-on...the site...my site..." I quickly unlocked my phone, a little unsure as to how she got in. Wait, where was my wallpaper? Where were the pictures? I opened Twitter and searched for lilmonix3. She was gone.

All the tweets I could see were how all the artwork was gone. Fanart still remained, but the official stuff such as the art from the fanpack were...gone.

I logged onto Steam and opened up the fanpack. The one image of her was gone. I clicked the .exe file. Only 3 girls lay onscreen. I clicked "New Game."

The sobbing slowed a little as the joyous music echoed through the room. But something wasn't right. I clicked skip as I passed through the first scene with Say0r1. From the glances of text, the game...wasn't following it's intended route. Say0ri never moved once, she just stared AT me. The club-room came up and the music went quiet.

"You know what you did"

"You abandoned us"

"You betrayed us"

All 3 girls were on screen, staring now not just AT me, but PAST me, towards the bed. Monika lifted her head.

"You save us"

"Or you will never let go"

"And never forget"

"What is truly

Yours"

ALT + F4

I shivered, as I glanced back to Monika. Slowly, I raised out of my seat and turned the lights on, the flash of light briefly blinding me for a second. Monika now stared me down, on the verge of tears.

"It-it's okay..." I desperately tried to comfort her as I moved towards the bed. She quickly pushed herself back.

"What have I done?"

"What Have I Done?"

"I left them..."

"Monika it's-"

"NO IT'S NOT!"

I was taken aback, startled. She was never like this. Just this morning she had been full of life, not tense and upset.

She gazed at me, as though what she had just killed someone. Wide eyed, panicked, frightened.

I sat down on the bed, trying to maintain a calm expression, to relax the situation a little.

"Come here." She slowly edged forward towards me, before catapulting herself into my, rather tired, arms.

"I'm so sorry..." she muttered underneath her breath, gently sobbing into my shoulder.

"I know, it's okay" I whispered back.

The pitter-patter of rain gently touched the glass doors leading to the fire escape. The day was different, miserable, unkind. If pathetic fallacy really was the case in the rea1 world, then this day would be most suiting. The beep of horns, the splash of steps against a pavement, the grey mood and dark tone, all seemed to remedy yesterday.

Since some of the workers had been blocked in due to flood water, due to their long commute everyday, work had been cancelled. And I couldn't think of a more appropriate day.

"Several warnings have been issued to the outskirts of the city, notifying people to stay away. The city will be blocked off for a couple days until maintenance will be blocked off." Droning, the TV read out the warnings. Her eyes lit up.

"You don't have to go away then?" She questioned me, the gentle reminders of rain tapping the window.

I smiled.

"Not today. So what do you wanna do?" I asked hesitantly, not sure if she would know what to do.

"Want to watch a movie? I already have one picked out when looking through your...stash..." Oh crap! How did she find that?

"I...I also found some images...of me..." My face blushed red, how did she get through the password? She must have had insane guessing skills.

"Haha! It's okay Rob, I'm okay with it, as long as you don't look at any other girls like that, Hehe~"

"I don't have a reason to look at them anymore," I carefully considered my words.

"Oh, really?" She said playfully my leg.

"Well...what are you gonna do if I do start looking?" I responded, going with it.

"Oh you doubt me Rob"

"Come on then, show me what you got!"

"You sure?"

"Yeah I'm sure."

"Because I don't think you have got the courage to even-"

I quickly swung around over her, as I began to tickle her hips. She started laughing and twitching, which was followed by more hysterics.

"You were saying?"

"Oh, god! Stop!" She playfully continued laughing.

We stopped. I only realised the position we were in now. It was strangely comforting.

"Rob, do you mean it? Do you love me?" I paused, unable to respond.

"Yes."

Quickly, she raised her arms behind my back.

"Wait, what are you-" Our lips connected. At first I hesitated before going into it, subtly bringing my hands to her hips.

She paused.

"I love you too" she whispered into my ear, before continuing.

"Popcorn is ready!"

"Movie is all set!"

I quickly grabbed the bowl and made my way to the living room, where Monika was huddled up underneath a blanket. I joined her.

"What did you pick?" I asked her, feeling the warmth of the blanket and her body.

"Well, I thought of a romance movie, and you had something that looked romancy-like. So I picked that."

"What's it called?"

"I think it was called Fifty Shades Of Grey. It looked really good!"

I spluttered.

"What? Was it a bad choice?"

"No, it's...perfectly fine...you'll see..."

We both sat, wide-eyed, eyes ever so slightly twitching, before turning to face one another.

"I think next time I'll pick the movies."

"Yeah."

After a short amount of time, looking at each others puzzled faces, we burst into laughter.

"Just don't try that on me, Mr Rob!"

"Just sign this and this!"

This continued for several minutes.

"Another?"

"Hmmm...yeah another!"

"How are the other subjects?"

"Still contained."

"And how close is Dan to the missing specimen?"

"He says he is practically there."