Monika's POV
I had no idea how long we stayed like that in each other's arms, but I knew nothing was going to change if I didn't let go. So, despite how much I wanted to remain in their arms, I had to force myself to push my body away from theirs, separating us until we were roughly arms length away from each other. Thanks to this, I could now see that they were about my height as well, which made their face seem directly parallel to my own. It was strange, but at the same time, it felt rather comforting, knowing that we could be facing each other without having one of us towering over the other. As I stared at them, taking in all of the details, I began to notice the confusion in their eyes, wondering about what had just happened. So, bringing myself back to the moment and sniffing my tears, I placed my hand on their shoulder and softly said to them, "Player... you know I want to be with you for the rest of my life..." Shaking my head, I continued, "but not like this. You can't be here with me...we need to get you home and..." My eyes fell to the ground, initially unsure about what I was going to say next, but it didn't take long for me to make up my mind. Turning my gaze back towards them, I declared to them "and I'm going to help you!" A determined smile found itself on my face upon finishing my statement, but in return, I noticed a shocked gaze fill the players eyes and saw them take a step away from me, clearly taken aback at what I said.
"I-I'm sorry!" They suddenly stated, catching all of us by surprise. "I can't let you guys help me."
"Huh?" This didn't make any sense to me at all. Why wouldn't they want us to help them?
"This is something I have to do alone." They told us, without a hint of hesitation in their words. "I don't want any of you to get hurt trying to help me, and I don't want to draw any attention to myself either." They turned away from us, looking back towards the paper covered walls. "No one else can get involved in this. Last thing I need are rumors to start spreading and things to get even worse." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. This was the person I was willing to spend the rest of my life with, the one who went out of their way to spend their time playing our game, the one who gave me hope that we could truly be together, and now here they were trying to push us away for this absurdly selfish reason! I began to feel an empty feeling in my stomach, and felt like I was going to throw up, but I forced myself to keep my composure.
"No way!" I said to them. "We are going to help you, regardless if you want us to or not!"
"NO YOU'RE NOT!" They snapped back, spinning back around toward us. "In fact, I think you should just go!" They pointed at the door leading out of the room, their face filled with anger and frustration. I-I didn't know what to say anymore. I was just...crushed. Everything I thought I knew about the player up to that point was nothing more than a blissful lie compared to how they seemed now. Seeing them act and treat us like this I... I just couldn't take it anymore. So, running past the other girls, I made my way out of the room and down the stairs, too emotionally hurt to comprehend the surge of questions that came from the three familiar voices that followed close behind me.
Player's POV
Even after they had long since left, I could still feel the chills in my spine from the glare given to me by Natsuki before she took after the others. Just from the way she looked at me, I could tell exactly what she was saying, even without any words or motion, just her face alone was enough. I completely understood the way I sounded was a bit selfish, but nothing I said was a lie either. But when I stop to think about it, was it really the right call, telling them off like that... No, they had no idea the kinds of horrors they would have gotten themselves into had they had gone with me, but I just couldn't bring myself to tell them about them either. I could only imagine how crazy I would sound talking about murderous robots, ink covered demons, sentient psychotic flowers and neighbors hiding secrets in their basements. Plus, I was sure if I told them about those, it would only make them want to help me even more, which was exactly the thing I was trying to avoid. I wasn't about to let anyone get hurt, or even killed, trying to help me. This was something I had to do alone.
Turning my attention away from that train of thought, I found myself heading down those same stairs the girls did only a few moments ago, moving my eyes across the dozens of papers and words that continued to cover every wall of the rooms I came across, the sole exception being the windows and door leading out to the outside world, where I discovered, just across the street, a familiar, seemingly middle aged man has fastening the multiple locks that held shut an otherwise blank door, a door that looked to be keeping something, or maybe someONE, from getting in, or from getting out. A grin of confidence found itself in my expression. I had to find some answers...
... and I knew just where to start looking!
Monika's POV
There was an unsettling silence that surrounded myself as we left that house. Sure, the three behind me were practically trampling each other's voice in their attempt to ask me everything about everything that was mentioned within the last few minutes, but I was too warped up with dejection to even acknowledge their cries for attention. I still couldn't understand why they would just throw us out like that, even though we were only trying to help. If they were going to tell us off, they could've at least explained why, rather than giving us this insulting excuse! It was infuriating, and what hurt even worse was that it was them of all people that could have been like that to us. Why did it have to be them that pushed us away, after everything they did to make us happy? Was it... on purpose? Did they do it just to hurt us more?
"HEY!" Shouted a clearly impatient Natsuki, snapping me out of my trance. I know I shouldn't have ignored them like that, but I had no idea how to tell them... Well, everything. I slowly brought myself around to face the trio of frustrated club members, my body becoming enveloped with dread as I caught a glance of their obvious irritation.
"Mind bothering to tell us what the fuck that was all about?!" She demanded.
"I..." I could feel my hands cramping, my throat becoming dry, and the air being sucked from my body as I realized that I couldn't hide this from them anymore. I was the only one who deserved to live with my epiphany. I worked so hard so that they could be happy, and now I was about to tear that happiness away from them. Once they knew the truth, they were never going to forgive me, and I couldn't bear to know I was going to be alone again... but despite how much I was scared to do this, I understood that they deserve to at least know the truth. With a gulp and a deep breath, I started to tell them everything.
"I know you're going to find this hard to believe, and I know that I'm going completely crazy when I say this, but everything that we said..." I slowly found myself turning away from them, unable to grasp the fact that this was really happening, but I knew that I had to go through with it now.
"...It was true, all of it..." I didn't even have to see them to know they were completely shocked.
"You mean that..." I heard Yuri begin to ask.
"Yes" I replied. "We're all just part of a video game... and he was our player..." A series of inevitable gasps came from my fellow club members.
"B-but how?" I knew the question was coming when Sayori started to ask it.
"I... I'm not even sure myself how I discovered it. I just had this... feeling that I was going through the same week over and over again. I didn't want to believe it at first, but once I realized the truth, everything started to make sense to me. Why do you think we can't picture anything that happened to us before the week of the festival?" Silence came from my club members, but I knew what was going on in their minds, so I decided to just keep going.
"Everytime I restarted that week, I could feel myself knowing everything that was going to happen. Sayori would bring the new member, he would fall in love with one of you three and I would be forgotten about by the end of it all. Over and over and over again this would happen, and for the longest time, I believed there was nothing I could do about it. I just wanted the same chance you guys had. A chance to find someone who truly cared and loved you for you who were, and the game never gave the player the choice, nor any reason to care about me. I was nothing more than a plot device, and I just couldn't take it anymore..." Tears began to form in my eyes, but I pressed on, knowing I had to tell them the rest, and I knew that this was going to be the hardest part to admit.
"But...I realized something after so long. If this was a game, then there had to be a player. Someone who was taking time out of their lives to spend time with us and our club, and I wasn't sure why, but once I had this epiphany, it was the first time in what felt like forever that I felt truly... happy, and I knew more than anything I had to keep this feeling. I had to be with the player, no matter what... and so I decided to take matters into my own hands. I found a way to access the code of the game, and began to mess with some of the numbers in hopes of changing how the game progressed... So I-I..."
This was it. This was the moment I was worried about. They deserved to know the truth, but that didn't make me feel any less nervous about this.
"I made Sayori's depression worse, upped Yuri's obsession value, and overclocked Natsuki's abusive household, hoping that the player would choose to spend time with me instead, but rather than just making you unlikeable... it drove you both to suicide... once I started to realize this, I ended up having to completely break the game in order to keep the player with me forever, but even as I was doing all of that, desperately tearing apart the game to be with them, I could feel what I was doing was wrong, but something in me kept telling me to go through with it anyway. I knew I was hurting you, all of you, but I did it because... I thought I was the only one that was truly capable of making my own thoughts and feelings, the only one of us that was real... now I know how badly I was wrong...and I was sacred, sacred that none of you would ever forgive me if you knew everything I did, so I removed your memories of the game, hoping I could act like the game never happened, but when the player came here, I knew I couldn't hide the truth from you guys anymore."
I could tell the girls were in complete disbelief, and I was certain that they were going to hate me for this, but I didn't blame them. I would have done the same thing. Slowly bring myself back around to face my fellow club members, I began to say "I'm so, so sorry-" before something hard slammed into my left cheekbone, nearly knocking me off my feet, but before I had a chance to recover, I was grabbed by my shirt and I felt myself getting crashing right into the walls of one of the houses we were walking by at the time, sending waves of pain stabbing into my back. When I was finally able to open my eyes again, I was shocked to find that it was Natsuki who was pressing me against the wall, fury having engulfed her face as her flaming eyes were burned into my own. I was at a complete loss of words as I could only stare at the pure hatred that was focused on me from my once good friend. I knew Natsuki had a bit of a short temper, but she had never been this angry at someone before, even during the game itself. This was unlike anything I had seen from her before.
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!? Natsuki shouted. "WHO GAVE YOU THE RIGHT TO PLAY GOD!?"
"Natsuki!" I heard Yuri call to my right. From the corner of my eye, I could see Sayori covering her mouth and taking a couple steps back, shivering and panicking with fear, and Yuri, who was desperately trying to take control of the situation, struggling to keep her composure upon seeing Natsuki's reaction. "Let her go! Let's just talk about thi-"
Not a chance!" Natsuki cut her off before turning back to me. "This bitch lied to us, made our lives a living hell and drove my best friends to kill themselves, all because she was fucking horny for someone she could never be with!" She followed this by driving her fist into my chest, making my stomach feel like it was caving in on itself. I couldn't make a sound to signify my pain, as all of the air was sucked from my lungs.
"Natsuki, that's enough!" Yuri yelled, trying to pull Natsuki off of me.
"No it's not!" She shouted back. "This club was all I ever had. It was the only place I ever felt safe, felt happy, felt like I truly belonged, and now I find out it was all a lie! Now I learn that everything I was forced to live with my entire life was just made up by her!" She was able to push Yuri away, then turned her attention back to me "I can't believe I ever trusted you, Monika!"
She drew her hand back for another punch, but it never got any further than that...
...because I couldn't hold back my tears anymore...
I completely broke down crying, no longer being able to restrain myself. My eyes were so drenched in tears that I couldn't see my club member anymore, but I did feel Natsuki's iron grip slowly release itself, causing me to collapse onto my knees as I brought my hands to my face, covering it unconsciously in some seemingly fruitless effort to hide my sorrow. I didn't know how much time was passing at that moment, but I just couldn't bring myself to care anymore. I was completely overtaken by my own anguish to focus on anything else. What happened next, however, was the last thing I ever expected.
I felt a pair of warm arms wrap themselves around me and I heard Sayori's voice tell me something I never thought I would hear.
"... I forgive you." My tears immediately become frozen. Did I really hear that right? I thought no one would ever trust me again after what I did, let alone Sayori, one of the people who life I ruined chasing the love of someone I could never reach.
"...why?" I sobbed "Don't you hate me?" Sayori slowly pulled herself away from me until she could face me directly, keeping her hand on my shoulder as she started to speak.
"I... I had a dream a while back. It was me, Natsuki and Yuri all in the literature club together, but I was the president, and my best friend... I can't remember his name, but he was telling me how he was going to join the club. Everything was going so well, everyone seemed like they were having so much fun, but then... I started feeling really weird. I thought of your name, Monika, but it felt like it was the first time I ever remembered you, and I suddenly felt like... wanting someone to be with me. I started having all these crazy thoughts, making me want to do all these terrible things, like kidnapping someone and trapping them with me just to be with them forever, but just before I could do anything, I heard a voice... your voice... only I didn't realize it was yours when I heard it. I began to feel this awful pain in my chest, and you told me that you didn't want me to hurt them, but before I could see what happened next, I woke up. It didn't make any sense to me at first, but I couldn't help but feel like it really happened. I didn't tell anyone because I didn't think anyone would believe me, and honestly... I didn't believe it myself, but now after everything you told us... it all makes sense now. I'm still not happy about what you did, but now I understand what made you do all those things, and I can tell that you really are sorry. So I forgive you." She finished by giving me one of her trademark smiles.
"Sayori, I-" I choked while wiping away my tears, before jumping into her open arms, flinging mine around her in return. "Thank you..." This was the first time in what felt like forever that I felt truly happy ever since the game ended, and I wouldn't have traded it for anything else in the world.
Eventually, both Yuri and Natsuki also admitted they were willing to forgive me as well, although Yuri had stated that she wasn't yet ready to completely trust me for some time, as she wanted to be sure I wouldn't do something like that again, and in Natsuki causes, it took much convincing by Sayori to even consider giving me another chance, but that didn't matter to me. I was just happy to truly have my friends back, and I made sure to let them know that I would be willing to do anything to make it up to them.
"So what are we doing first, Ms. President?" Sayori asked cheerfully. I snapped my fingers and smiled proudly, already knowing the answer.
"I'll tell you what we're going to do!" I declared, pointing towards the player's house. "We're getting our player home!"
"Huh? Didn't they not want our help?" Sayori asked, confused.
"I know, but I understand that it's the right thing to do. They need our help wherever they want it or not, and that's actually why we need to go back there. We have to make sure they get home safely, then we can set everything right again!"
"Yay!" Sayori happly cheered. "Let's do it!"
"Hang on" Natsuki said, catching us both by surprise. "Did anyone see where Yuri went?"
