Chapter 1 (Continued)

Sayori was shocked. Impossible, she thought, Monika isn't depressed, is she? The thought didn't really make any sense. Sayori wasn't a doctor, but she didn't she any of her symptoms in Monika. Unless she hid them from everyone too…

Sayori was even more confused, when yet MORE screaming was heard above her. She thought, Ok, I don't think people would scream when they're committing suicide, so I think these people just… slipped, or something…

Of course, the next people to land were Yuri and Natsuki. With that, Sayori put two and two together. Her friends must have gotten her text that she wasn't coming today, and gone to her house to check on her. When they arrived, Sayori must have been just leaving, and the team trailed her all the w at up the mountain. Why the jumped in, however, was still a mystery to her.

Natuki, of course, was the first to compose herself.

"Natsuki," Sayori started, "Why did you jump down here?"

"Well, you jumped down here, " Natsuki replied, "we thought you had some sort of secret play house of whatever down here."

" Actually, Natuski, " Monika said abruptly, "you were the only one who thought that."

" Well, why else would she jump down here? " a side Natuski.

Monika, knowing why, attempted to divert the conversation. "Well, there could be a number a reasons why she jumped down"

" Ok, Sayori, " Natuski began, "do you know any interesting things about this place?"

" Actually, no" Sayori replied, "I've never been down her before…"

" Then why jump?"

Sayori found herself backed into a corner. She looked around nervously and attempted to think of a reasonable explaination, but none came to her.

She had no choice but to tell them the truth. "Hehe… well, the thing is-"

Only for her to be cut off by Yuri. "Ummm, guys? Remember how everyone at school was talking about how everyone whom climbs this mountain never return?"

" Oh, come on, Yuri, " said Natsuki, "You don't actually believe any of that do you?"

" Well, the thing is, " Yuri responded, but with a tense tone, "this bed of flowers is… A-Alarming, to say the least."

" Yuri… " Monika said, "how is it worrying to find a bed of flowers here?"

" Well, nowhere in the area on or surrounding the mountain are there flowers of the variety, " said Yuri, "the only was they could've gotten here, is it they were brought here and planted."

Sayori's eyes widened. She just didn't want to be a burden to people any longer, but instead, she trapped her friends in a really deep, inescapable hole, with other people. She tried to make her friends' lives easier, but instead, she put them all in danger! She, however was grateful for this change in topic, and had to keep them from questioning her mental state.

"Maybe the people here are friendly?"

" Perhaps, but recently, I've been studying history, " Yuri started, "and apparently, a long time ago, after this vicious war, a species of monsters were sealed under this mountain."

This had Monika worried. As far as she could tell, they weren't in DDLC anymore. She could still access the files, but couldn't use console to summon objects of stuff. Even worse, all the character files were still in the DDLC folder, which was now out of here reach. If anything were to happen to them, she couldn't bring them back until she got back to the original game. Even further, if she were to bring them back, they would respawn where they died, and she probably wouldn't be able to transfer them back. As far as she could tell through the files, Yuri was correct. This world was filled with monsters. Now that she was away from MC and the player, however, she went back to realizing that these girls were her friends, and that she had to keep them safe no matter what.

Knowing that they would either be bored of trapped if they stayed in this room, Monika had to encourage them to leave, so she addressed them with her signature catchphrase.

"Ok everyone, I know this seems pretty bad, but Sayori might be right; just because the people here might be monsters, that doesn't mean that they're, monsters, ya know?"

Everyone except Sayori was unfazed by this encouraging speech of hers. She had to get them out of this room, just in case.

"I know it might be dangerous, but, there's no climbing back up to where we came from. We have to keep going to see if there is a way out. If there isn't, we should at least introduce ourselves if we're gonna be staying here for the rest of our lives. "

"Great idea Monika!" Saylor said, " I hope you're right about them being nice! "

The pressuring seemed to work on Natsuki and Yuri, as they both got ready to head down the only corridor.

"I hope you didn't just speed up our demise,' Natsuki said.

"Better than waiting for it," Monika replied.

Natsuki turned away with a "hmph" and headed towards the corridor, followed closely by Sayori and Yuri. Monika started moving towards the possible exit too when she heard a voice behind her.

"Hey…" the voice said.

Monika turned around and saw a person in which she had never seen before. He looked like a kid, but not too young, probably a tween, with shoulder length brown hair, red eyes, and a green sweater with a yellow stripe down the middle. She also noticed that this person was semi-transparent, as it be was a ghost.

"I'm really confused right now," he said, "but it's nice to meet you, my name's Chara, what's yours?"