Noise and static: Chapter 2

The events of the day had left me a broken mess. Images and sounds were scrambled up, shifting and distorting in my shaken brain, senses going into overdrive and pulse going haywire. I slumped down against a trash bin in the alley that was behind the movie theater downtown. The rain was pouring down on the pavement as I caught my breath for the first time since I started booking it five or ten minutes ago.

I rubbed my eyes, it may have been the waterworks in the sky or waterworks in my irises, but either way tears were dripping down from my face. I clenched my fists and rubbed my eyes with my wrists, sniffling away from the stress and fatigue.

It took me a little while before I could finally see clearly, and by that I mean before I could finally see anything besides hallucinatory shapes and blurry messes. When I looked around, Monika was nowhere to be found. It was a small relief that the devil wasn't sniffing me down and prowling around me in a time of distress. She was always there when something went wrong before, each time a disaster occurred..

Despite my best efforts to calm down, the realization that Monika was like a warning sign of an incoming disaster began to spook me, as if it was the seed of a greater evil looming over my shoulders. That moment in horror flicks where the final girl starts to put it all together? I was living that moment, at least in part..

I began to give in, "maybe the girls are real.." and "Monika must be the reason why everything's going to hell today..", exactly what I wasn't supposed to be doing. It took me a long while to finally snap out of my paranoid state of mind, to finally realize that I was supposed to diminish the static and the noises that grew in my ears instead of amplifying them by diving headfirst into my hallucinations..

"Breathe.. Breathe.. Breathe.. Three seconds breaths.. And let go.. Let go.. Five seconds.."

With controlled breaths and forced rationalizations, I began to find a logical explanation for what had happened today, how Monika saved my life and helped me prevent my classmates' deaths.. "My unconscious mind.. Paranoid side.. It's what's making me believe all of this happened.. Nothing more.." The radio static started to decrease, music stopped playing in my eardrums, and I could finally begin to hear the sounds of the rain falling down on the trash bin and in my hair.

It took me around five minutes to finally regain my composure. As I stood up, the world seemed fine.

But when I took my first step, a woman appeared out of nothingness in front of me. Not just any woman, but one I knew well, one we all know well here.. My arms were soon wrapped around her waist, her arms wrapped around my neck, her shy yet alluring smile. The scenery changed as a dimly lit ballroom took over the grim alleyway we were standing in a few seconds earlier, she wore a purple laced dress, and I a brown suit and tie.

I spun around with her, watched by the three other girls with expectant eyes. Her chin resting against my neck, my hands around her waist, we waltzed to a song I never heard before without saying a word..

When I came to my senses, the girls had disappeared, the rain was still pouring down in the alley where the homeless would dump dive behind the movie theater. I took a hazardous look at myself in the reflection of a puddle on the ground. Saying that I looked like I died would be far of an understatement. The only light source illuminating me - A few light poles standing high and mighty - only made my bruises from earlier today seem worse than they already were..

I couldn't remember what happened exactly, only that the girls were harassing me all day, especially Monika and Yuri. Reaching to my phone- it was missing, probably stolen alongside my ten dollar bill for dinner - my memories of today flooded back to mind. Monika pushing me to the ground, the school shooter, the way I handled it with her and running away into this back alley.

I sighed and exited the dimly lit and narrow alleyway, the lights of main street blinded me for a few precious seconds. When my vision returned, I noticed I was in Maitland street, corner of Outsider Park. Hands in my pockets and mind running at full speed, I forced myself to remember about what had happened today, forced myself to get a fucking grip on myself.

The memories were slowly coming back, the beginning of my day, Monika crying, Sayori and Natsuki's first appearance as hallucinations in my life, and most importantly, how my life was saved by the same girl I swore to hate for as long as my heartbeat was a reality.

Without Monika's help, I'd have probably been the first one to start eating flowers by the roots, six feet below.. For all the evil she was and did, it was undeniable that she and the dokis had saved my life and my classmates'... Hands in my wet and dirty sweatshirt pockets, I tried to rationalize my issues yet again.. "It's all a trick of the mind. You're dreaming again.. Go home, get some rest.."

"But they weren't.. Monika pushed a table over, she punched me in the stomach.. There's something more to this, isn't it?" I don't know who said that, but I heard it. "No, I was just. Just dreaming! That's it." Another voice spoke up. "You're laughable, what a pathetic excuse for a thank you!" I couldn't quite- "Shut up Natsuki! I'm sure he's.. He's trying his best!"

"Come on guys, stop arguing, I'm sure he'll come to accept us soon enough!" That was.. Sayori's voice? At least, what I imagined Sayori's voice to sound like.. The noise in my mind grew louder, I looked around for them, a glimpse of purple or pink hair, or even just a source for their voices to be coming from.. Nothing. Yet they were still arguing.. "This is bull! We saved his life and he doesn't even acknowledge our feelings? Not our existence even? What the hell is this cold shoulder huh!?"

I grabbed my keys and rushed into my own house house, screaming as I felt like my ears were burning. "T-THIS IS TOO MUCH! LEAVE! LEAVE! LEAVE ME ALONE! LEAVE ME ALONE YOU DEVILISH BITCHES!" I yelled, collapsing down on the living room couch as I blocked my ears with both hands. The parasitic voices in my brain were quieting down, resistance coming from Natsuki's voice as I kept yelling for it all to stop..

My mother.. My poor mother.. She was trying to get me out of my panic attack for.. longer than I wish she did. When I finally noticed her presence, when my senses finally turned down a notch, I noticed the tears of fear and worry the flowed down her cheeks. "Oh my god.. You're okay?! Please tell me you're okay!" It took a while for me to formulate the words, and she was too tired to keep screaming for me to get a grip. "I'm.. I'm sorry.. I'm sorry.."

"It was all over the news! Oh my gosh. I was so scared.. They said that a maintenance worker at your school had been shot and, and there were sounds of gunfire ringing and holy shit I was so worried about you! I almost broke down here and there!." I patted her back, not acknowledging the static that started howling in my head alongside all the stress. "I'm okay Mom, I'm okay" Her tears dripped all over my shirt, and I was forced to sit down with her, soothing her hurt heart.

"You're all I have, please.. Promise me you're not doing anything stupid, and promise me you're not being stupid like you usually are.." I nodded, only now noticing Sayori sitting on the couch with Natsuki, fiddling with the remote. "You've always been my little angel, my entire life, so please take care of yourself..." I could only half focus on my mother's words as the two girls began bickering about what to watch. The static grew. "What world are we living in baby? Sweet Jesus.."

Natsuki switched the TV from the news broadcast to a cooking contest, Sayori seeming satisfied. I immediately froze, pointing my finger at the television. "D-D-Did you see?" I asked, looking at my mom.

"Don't worry darling, it's been doing that ever since about five in the afternoon.. It's terribly annoying, I'll call the cable company tomorrow. But don't focus on that, please.. Just take a breather, give me another hug because I'm scared, and try to get some rest." She said as Sayori almost started to drool at one of the contestant's dishes, a filet mignon with some pepper sauce on top. I started shaking as I saw a few pillows move around as the pink haired baker began lying on them, my mother completely unaware of the fact that a video game tsundere with an attitude issue was lying on her couch like a vegetable watching TV

"Hallucination.. Hallucination!" I repeated to myself, trying to remember that what I saw was not real. It simply couldn't be, and it was just my mind playing tricks on me, the dokis weren't real, and I needed to get that message through my brain for it all to stop.

"It's true my love, we are in a video game" Monika added in a sing song voice from the kitchen, sitting on a chair near the mini bar as if she owned our place. Her smile was awful, it looked fake and she was trying to make me empathize with her in the most forced way I'd ever seen anyone try to do so. I wanted to argue with the monster.. But under no circumstances should I give more importance to these hallucinations then they already had been given. I still wanted to punch her and knock the daylights out of her stupid face.

"Not cool.." She sighed, almost dejectedly from the kitchen.

Get out of my head.

Keeping my calm, I headed upstairs to my room, not listening to what my mother yelled at me from downstairs, probably " I love you ". I just couldn't, anything that would disturb me could make me cry out of fear and anguish. I locked the door and sat on my bed, my head filled with worry and doubts.

"Oh.. H-hi! I-I'm sorry, I.. I didn't see what.. I mean.. Who's room.. I mean.. I'm sorry.."

Yuri.. Looking through my shelf, probably searching for a novel to read. She always stuttered, always acted so reserved. In the game and in my daily life.. If only she could be real.

"B-But I am real.."

I kept quiet for a moment, looking at her. Things were too messy recently and I needed to remember that even if I saw things, I wasn't insane. I was normal, a senior year student hoping to become a psychologist, with dreams and aspirations, going through a life equally as complex as others around me were..

But this? This was so much. I was doubting my eyes, my ears, my senses. Did Monika punch me? Was it a dream? A hallucination? Are the pillows in the living room making me relapse into a hallucinatory state? What was happening, and most importantly were they real?

I laid down on my bed, Yuri standing in the middle of the room, awkwardly fiddling with her hair. I was torn on whether to speak to her or ignore her. On the one hand, she was a hallucination. On the other one, something had happened recently, and my perception of reality was getting blurry.

I closed my eyes and sighed, grabbing my tablet and plugging my earphones in. What if Monika was real? She was the one that flipped the table over after all. Where they all real? They seemed to have a physical presence after all. It just happened that Monika had been the one to harass him when the shooter came..

I couldn't bear it anymore, slowly closing my eyes as the moon shone at my window, mere reflection of the sun's brightness. Yuri, after a great moment of silence, laid next to me, wrapping her arms around my shoulders. Looking away from her, on my side, I was blushing.

Yet honestly, today was perhaps the only day in the last few years when I felt.. Like fire, hellfire, the fire in my skin and the burning desire to right the wrongs that were brought on the world. What happened was basically, telekinesis. And telekinesis was what people'd call, a pretty amazing superpower.. It was weird, but in that spur of the moment kind of thing, a thought crossed my mind. Just for a night or a day, I'd wanted to try my hand at being a sort of superhero.. Beating up bad guys, being cool and helpful, becoming something other than the slobbering mess I had become recently.. The situation I was in was insane, but I'd have been even more insane had I not taken advantage of it.

I looked ahead of me, at an old black crate I'd kept in the corner of my room. It was a large wooden crate, a metal shining padlock with a four digits code, in it was something I cherished. I lazily squirmed towards it, not wanting to stand up, and dragged it towards my bed. The combination was "One-Nine-Eight-Seven" I whispered as the numbers went into place.

When I opened the box, with Yuri looking over my shoulder, there it was. A black coat I wore when I was younger, it was way too big for me and quite frankly, it was edgy. I used to be so proud of it still I'd run around the neighborhood with both hands in the oversized pockets, watching as it would float behind me with each gust of wind that picked it up and lifted it behind me. I grabbed it and put it over my sweatshirt. It fitted me, the cloth closer to my back dragging down to the floor

I grabbed one of the switch blades I hid behind my desk, tearing a small hole in my right sleeve, one barely visible but wide enough to let phones or blades or even lollipops enter and exit with a flick of the wrist. I smiled and put the blade in it, taking the coat off and locking it away in the box once more.

"W-What do.. You plan to do.. With this?" Yuri asked, confused as I sat back down. Thinking about it, if I wanted to be the vigilante that every teenage boy dreamed to be, with superpowers and an unfailing morality, I needed to rally the girls over to my side, and make sure they'd be my allies, at least for a night... That meant acknowledging their presence and crossing the border between real and illusory..

"I'm preparing my costume." I said in a hushed voice, not out of fear of being discovered, rather of embarrassment over the sentence. "To.. Do good in the world." I added before turning my face towards hers. "With you and the others."

She got flustered, putting her hands close to her chest as she hid her blush "W-What do you mean?" I brought my body closer to hers. "No one can see you or hear you but I.. If you're really real, that means you can.. Well.. Fight." The girl almost froze, yet regained her composure, like a lagging program.

"B-But I don't.. Have any experience with fighting.." She looked away. "It doesn't matter, just push around trash bins, act like a scary poltergeist, or punch someone in the nuts, no one can fight what they can't see" I said whilst laying my hand on her visage. She was the woman of my dreams, so was she a dream? How come the sensation of her smooth and warm face felt so real if I was the sole one able to see her?

"Fighting crime? Being a super hero!? That sounds so super freaking fun!" Sayori chirped from the hallway as she jumped onto the bed, pulling us in with her as she wrapped her arms around us both and pushed us down onto my undersized mattress. "SAYO!-" She cut Yuri off "GROUP HUUG!" She giggled as she hugged the both of us, not letting go as we wiggled around. Eventually, the three of us just embraced it, laying on the bed and closing our eyes.

The last thing I saw before falling asleep was what I had seen earlier, albeit in a dream, but it was the exact same. It was her.

Monika was watching silently.

I fell into a deeper slumber, and as my brain went into sleep mode, I didn't notice the devil shedding a tear, before grabbing the drapes and putting them above us three. The last thing I heard was a faint whisper coming from the monster.

⋆—✧◦ ◦✧—⋆

As she walked up to the window, Monika bit her lower lip. She was beaten, destroyed, annihilated. But she knew it wasn't right, the second chance she was given wasn't to be wasted. Grabbing her arms keeping them close to her chest, she let her tears loose, crying her heartbreak away. Though it wouldn't be over in one crying session, just like it hadn't been over in one session before either..

The girl opened the blinds and looked outside, the moon was bright in the sky, it was probably midnight. The stars were bright and shining brighter, and considering what she heard of the conversation between Yuri and him, they would get to see the stars quite often. In the streets of the town, getting in pointlessly dangerous predicaments, just to have some fun.. She couldn't let the one she cared about just die off like that, shot or stabbed by a bunch of thugs.. What choice did she have

She couldn't exist away from him, the thought of it made her shiver with fear. And if she didn't help, the other dokis would.. If they didn't, he would be in danger.. Could she really leave the love of her life just like that? It was annihilation, an absolute cremation of the earthly joys she was possibly able to have. She had nothing, nobody to love, nobody to laugh with, and didn't even know if she could survive away from her friends and the person who hated her most..

Monika wiped her tears away, closing the blinds and heading towards the bathroom where Natsuki was brushing her teeth, Ralph's mother sleeping on the living room couch that night.

Life was commencing for the girls, and it was already a bumpy start.