And that was it.

With her laptop shut off beside her phone on her desk, the curtains drawn and the lights turned out, Natalie lay in bed. Though her duvet was pulled up all the way towards her chin and she was resting in an admittedly very comfortable position, she had a feeling she'd be unlikely to sleep.

Not after how she'd spent the last afternoon, anyway. No, of course her friends had to bring up the topic of 'Doki Doki Literature Club' the entire day, and thus that thoroughly piqued her curiosity after a while.

She'd been told it was a horror game, and believed that maybe "psychological horror" was a bit of a stretch, but she was beginning to realise that she couldn't have been more wrong. That game had stuck with her, somewhat traumatised her, and not in the typical way a horror game does. Rather, that ending continued to weigh heavy on her mind, and the further away from her conscience she tried to move it, the more she found herself dwelling on Monika.

Slightly embarrassingly, it had taken her a solid fifteen minutes, which included a quick Google search, to realise that the only way to end the game once within the Just Monika phase was to delete her character file, just as she had done to the likes of, well . . . literally everything else.

But Natalie wasn't sure what she found more embarrassing—the fact that she'd struggled to figure out the ending, or her sudden attachment to the character on screen. Sure, Monika had been nothing but, put lightly, psychotic, and Natalie herself had made sarcastic remarks out loud at several of her lines, but the thought of simply deleting the somehow sentient character just felt . . . wrong, on so many levels.

This was a low point though, in her opinion. She turned over in her bed to face the wall. She'd somehow managed to really get to the point in her life where she mourned the loss of a yandere video game character who'd done nothing but startle her with the glitches within that game. She'd be lying if she said she hadn't physically leapt out of her seat when Yuri revealed a knife during her manic eye-twitching cackling session after her confession.

Natalie sat up and turned on the lamp beside her bed. It only took a simple swipe of her draw to remove the flu medication she'd left there a few weeks prior and down it with a glass of water. Maybe taking the stuff wasn't such a good idea, but for the meanwhile she had a feeling it was going to be the only source of sleep she could possibly get.

The light was back off in a second. Natalie turned over again, this time facing her room, and felt her eyes beginning to droop heavily. For whatever reason, Sayo-Nara continued to play on loop in her head as she drifted away slowly into a peaceful sleep.

Rough contact with a hard and solid surface is really not a desirable way to wake up.

Natalie groaned in discomfort and struggled up to her feet. For the life of her, she couldn't understand why she ached so much. Her arms trembled under the weight of her, despite the fact that it was distributed on all fours.

She turned over so that she was sitting down on the floor. Her eyes were still blurred from the sleep that remained and the tears from when she'd yawned, but at least it was the morning, judging by the bright light that was already flooding the room.

But as her eyes slowly adjusted, painfully slowly, something looked . . . different. She couldn't tell what, but it just was off, to put it simply. And it was mid December, so why the hell was it so sunny, bright, and warm outside . . .?

Someone knocked on her bedroom door. The complete shock of it caused her to stagger backwards into her desk chair. "Y-yes?" Natalie stammered. "Who's there?"

"It's Sayori, obviously. Jeez, what's taking you so long, Natalie?" She saw the door handle begin to turn. "Can I come in-?"

"No!" She shakily sat up on the edge of her bed. Was she going mad . . .? "I-I mean, no, I'm not dressed yet. That's all."

Sayori huffed from the other side of the door. "Fine. Don't take too long, though. You're already taking much longer than I did, and even I overslept, so that's crazy, and . . ."

However Natalie had long since stopped listening. She glanced at herself in her full length mirror and felt her breath catch in her throat. Short brown hair, brown eyes, pale skin, all as usual. Only her skin was smoother, her eyes were bigger, her hair was shinier and more luscious . . .

"Fuck," she whispered. That would explain the difference in appearance to the room too.

Sayori's gasp was audible. "Natalie! Are you okay? Why did you swear? Did something happen?"

"I, er, just stubbed my toe," Natalie lied. She glanced at the pile of school uniform folded neatly on her desk and held up the blue skirt in front of her. "I'll try and hurry."

"Good, because your hallway is really boring," Sayori commented. Natalie attempted to ignore the girly voice gossiping on the other side of the door and continued to change her clothes faster than she had ever done in her entire life. "Oh, what's that—whoops," There was a bang, "almost knocked over a vase. Wow, that could've been messy," she giggled. "It's a pretty vase, though. Look at that blue colour. Do you suppose-?"

"Done." Natalie cut her off as quickly as possible by opening the door and stepping out. She now found herself wearing the same uniform as Sayori, only her socks were thigh high instead and she had a small bag slung over her shoulder. She stared at Sayori for a very very long time. Damn, this was weird . . . "So . . . can we, er, go to school now?"

"Well, of course," Sayori responded cheerily. She took her hand and began to drag her along a corridor she certainly didn't remember existing in her house, and then down a staircase, before heading straight out of the front door. "Honestly, I thought you'd never show up."

"Hm? O-oh, yeah," Natalie laughed nervously, "I just got distracted. Hey, Sayori?" Sayori glanced over at her. "What day is it today? Like, the date?"

"Oh, um . . . oh jeez . . ." Sayori took her phone out of her pocket to check through her lock screen. Natalie certainly hadn't remembered mobile phones ever having any relevance to the game, but maybe they simply hadn't been important. "Monday the 9th of June."

"But it's December . . ." Natalie muttered to herself confusedly.

Sayori, apparently with better hearing than she'd realised, openly laughed at her. "Don't be silly, do you really think I'm that gullible?" She pouted. "Don't be mean. I can read the date just fine."

"And, if I may ask, what happened yesterday?" she asked.

As they continued their walk towards the school, just as mentioned at the start of the game, the pathways did become filled with students making their own route. Some were obviously within their younger years, and a few seniors carried textbooks and coursework material with them. Natalie gaped at the sight of it all, but at least Sayori apparently hadn't noticed her friend's reaction.

"Nothing much. I didn't see you yesterday since it was a weekend, remember?" Sayori reminded her. "By the way, Natalie . . . have you decided on a club to join yet?"

Natalie instantly snapped out of whatever trance-like state she'd been in and stared wide-eyed at Sayori. "Come again?"

Sayori rolled her eyes. "A club to join, duh. So, have you?"

"Oh, I, um . . . I haven't put much thought to it?" she answered hesitantly. "Why do you ask?"

"Because you told me you would join a club this year!" Sayori responded.

"Right . . ." Natalie trailed off.

Sayori nodded her head and continued. "I was talking about how I'm worried that you won't learn how to socialise or have any skills before college," she continued. "Your happiness is really important to me, you know? And I know you're happy now, but I'd die at the thought of you becoming a NEET in a few years because you're not used to the real world! You trust me, right? Don't make me keep worrying about you . . ."

Throughout this entire monologue, Natalie remained silent, deep in her own thoughts. Had she just . . .? Like in the first act . . .? Exactly the same . . . huh?

"Uh, Sayori, you really don't need to worry," Natalie insisted. "I'm fine."

"But you'll still look at a few clubs, right? And you'll at least try a little?" she pleaded. Natalie winced and nodded. Maybe it was best to just go with the flow of the somewhat script, at least for now. "Yay! Now come on, or otherwise we'll be late!"

At the end of her final class of the day, Natalie remained in her seat at the back of the class, just as the protagonist in the game itself does. That same protagonist really hadn't been exaggerating about how boringly ordinary that day had been. Whatever the hell this voodoo-type dream universe was, it still required her to sit through a calculus exam.

But in all honesty, virtually none of her concentration had gone into that. She recalled back to the previous evening, taking those flu medications and turning over in her bed restlessly while her head replayed Sayo-Nara. Damn it, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't seem to narrow down her options of what could've possibly caused her to be in this situation.

Although, she had to admit, she was dealing with this all pretty well. Natalie fought with herself not to smile. She'd been calm, she hadn't screamed or cried yet, and everything had occurred without any odd hitches. In her books, in the oddest way possible, this was a win.

Now all she wanted to do was get to this Literature Club, while showing as minimal interest as possible so as to aggravate the script as little as she could. She couldn't help but notice earlier that the moment she'd asked an irrelevant question such as about the previous day, things had corrected themselves anyway, so going with the flow would surely get things moving faster.

Natalie saw the door open through the corner of her eye but instead feigned interest in a poster on the wall about logarithms. She hated logarithms.

"Hello?!" Sayori waved a hand in front of her face, which caused her to glance up at her. "I thought I'd catch you coming out of the classroom, but I saw you just sitting here and spacing out, so I came in. Honestly, you're even worse than me sometimes . . . I'm impressed!"

Natalie raised an eyebrow. "Why did you wait for me?"

"Well, I thought you might need some encouragement," Sayori began hesitantly, "so I thought, you know . . . that you could come to my club."

"The Literature Club?" she questioned.

Sayori gasped. "You remember! So . . . ?"

"Yeah, no," Natalie said slowly. "The, um, Volleyball Club," she eyed a poster for said club behind Sayori's shoulder, "looked fun, I suppose."

"C'mon, please?" Sayori leant against the front of the desk eagerly. "I kind of told the club yesterday I would bring a new member-"

"Hold on," she interrupted. "Yesterday was a Sunday . . ."

Sayori shrugged. "We have a group chat. Anyway, I told them I would bring a new member, and Natsuki made cupcakes and everything . . ."

Natalie sighed and attempted to recall what exactly she had to say next to proceed. "Fine, I'll go," she relented as she reached for her bag under her desk and placed it over her shoulder, "if only for the cupcakes."

"Yes, let's go!" Sayori physically jumped on the spot a few times and then grabbed Natalie's hand before almost sprinting out of the door. It was only once they were in the hall that she finally let go and went ahead with her following behind. "It's going to be so much fun," she insisted. Natalie certainly didn't remember this in the script, but assumed this space had to be filled in somehow. "And you'll love the others, really. It's a great club!" They reached the top of a flight of stairs and continued towards a classroom Natalie eerily recognised just from the outside appearance. "And I know, my opinion's a little biased, but still!" Sayori flung open the door and vanished inside, the door automatically closing behind her.

Natalie froze and leaned against the wall beside her for a moment. This was all real, so fucking real, and if that was all real, then did she really want to enter that room . . .?

Sayori peeked her head around the doorframe. "Hey Natalie, you coming? You look kinda sick. I think Monika has protein bars if that helps."

Natalie's fist clenched as she followed after her. "Y-yeah, no, it's okay, really," she insisted half-heartedly. "Let's just get this over with."

"Everyone, the new club member's here!" Sayori announced, gesturing dramatically to the door as Natalie entered.

She paused in the doorway and glanced around her. Something within her had almost expected the theme music to begin playing, so the relative silence she was met with came as something of a shock to her.

At the far end of the room closest to the window, a few desks had been arranged together to form a table large enough for the four members to sit around. Already three chairs were occupied with Monika, Natsuki, and Yuri, each looking at her with varying interest. Natalie tightened her grip of her bag strap.

"Maybe not just yet," she suggested awkwardly. "But, er, nice to meet you."

"Welcome to the Literature Club!" Yuri said happily as she placed a bookmark in the novel she'd been reading. "It's a pleasure meeting you. Sayori always says nice things about you."

"Ugh, seriously?" Natsuki sneered at her. Natalie couldn't help but wonder if the gender comment Natsuki makes would be omitted. "You brought her? She doesn't even read. Way to kill the atmosphere."

Eh, close enough.

"Ah, Natalie, what a nice surprise!" Monika stood up to greet her, her coral brown hair swishing behind her. She smiled warmly, as if she had no idea that she was in a game. Now replaying Doki Doki, albeit unconventionally, Natalie was really beginning to see how . . . surprisingly decent Monika's acting skills were. "Welcome to the club!"

"It's great to be here," Natalie replied politely, "but I, er . . . I don't know what Sayori might've said, or-"

"Hey, what are you looking at?" Natsuki demanded. In all honesty, Natalie hadn't even noticed that she might've been inadvertently staring at her in thought. "If you want to say something, say it."

"Oh, no, my bad," Natalie apologised, "I didn't-"

Yuri sighed heavily. "Natsuki . . ."

"You can just ignore her when she gets moody," Sayori whispered into Natalie's ear. "Anyway," she continued to the entire group, "this is Natsuki, always full of energy. And this is Yuri, the smartest in the club."

Yuri's eyes widened at the mention of her name and she began furiously messing with the ends of her long purple hair. "D-don't say things like that," she hissed.

Sayori blatantly ignored her. "And it sounds like you already know Monika, is that right?"

"That's right," Monika confirmed. "It's great to see you again, Natalie."

"Y-yeah, you too Monika," Natalie replied with a forced smile. "I've never been in this classroom before, but it's a nice one, don't you think?" She eyed Monika carefully throughout her next totally natural sentence. "Almost feels too good to exist."

Natsuki scoffed. "Not everything's a poem. Just because you're in a Literature Club doesn't give you permission to make things weird for the rest of us."

Meanwhile, while everyone else seemed not to notice the blindingly obvious awkwardness, Monika's eyes widened, her eyebrows nearly reaching her hairline, and her jaw went slack.

Oh, so she knew.

Natalie simply continued to stare at her blankly, partly due to a lack of any idea of a reaction, but also partly to mess with the game's antagonist.

"Come sit down, Natalie." Sayori had already taken her seat at the table beside Yuri. "We made room for you at the table, so you can sit next to me or Monika."

"Actually, Sayori," Monika interjected. She headed towards the door, grabbing Natalie by her sleeve in the process, "I'd just like a quick word with Natalie first. You guys continue. We won't be long."

Sayori watched with her eyebrows furrowed as Natalie was half dragged out of the room. "Oh, uh . . . alright then."

While Sayori's reaction was borderline nonchalance, Natalie felt the complete opposite in her own mind. The fact that she was being pulled backwards really didn't help, since that meant that Monika's face remained hidden from view. Monika yanked her through the door and closed it, all the while facing the opposite direction.

Now that Natalie was free, she rubbed her slightly sore arm and leaned back against the windowsill quietly. "You wanted to talk?" she asked warily.

Monika took a deep breath. "How?"

"How what?" Natalie questioned.

"I think you know what I'm asking you right now, Natalie," Monika answered. "Whether that is your true name or not, I suppose I don't know, but what I would like to know is how on earth you are able to say what you like, talk as you please, react as freely as you see fit for the situation, all separate from the script."

"I . . . really don't have an answer for you," Natalie admitted. "I'm sorry."

"Don't play coy." Monika spun on her heel. Her expression was very difficult to read, showing a mixture of almost every emotion under the sun, yet complete apathy at the same time. "You are aware, but your character shouldn't be able to choose dialogue. Hell, your character shouldn't be female, shouldn't be having a separate conversation to the script, shouldn't have any notion as to the true nature of this world in the first place."

"I ended the game last night," Natalie said.

Monika narrowed her eyes slightly. "Explain."

Natalie blinked. Wow, Monika was much more demanding than she remembered. "Well . . . look, there's a lot to explain, actually," she responded. "A-and maybe here's not the location for it. Meet me at my house this evening. I'll explain it all then."

For the second time thus far, Monika raised her eyebrows. "Did—I-I mean . . . how did you . . .?" she spluttered.

"Well, I mean," Natalie laughed cautiously and held her hands up in mock surrender, "if you'd rather I come to your house, that's fine too, but I just didn't want to impose."

"I-If it's even possible," Monika began, "then I will see you then. At your house. Tonight. And I sincerely hope you provide a full," She glared harshly at her. If looks could kill . . ., "explanation. Come on now." She plastered a false soft smile onto her face and took Natalie's hand delicately, leading her back inside. "The others are waiting."

{. .}

Author's note: So, as you can see, rather than committing to a single story on my account, I've started another heheh. I hope this isn't an idea that's been done before, but to be honest I've read very little DDLC fanfiction so I wouldn't really know.

To reiterate, this story will have some mild language, and the kind of content seen in the game Doki Doki Literature Club itself such as suicide, child abuse, and self-harming, but no lemon/smut etc. That's just not the kinda story I'm going for here.

For the first few chapters, you'll see it follows the plot of the game relatively closely, but I promise you things will get interesting soon. I've already written a few chapters for this, and fortunately my motivation doesn't seem to be at the point of dying out anytime soon, so hopefully this should go pretty far.

Anyway, thank you so much for reading, stay safe, and ily lots!