As I walk out the door, I see Sayori walking outside of her own house.
"Hey, Sayori!" I yell in her direction.
She turns around to face me. "Good morning, Xavier!"
"I tried really hard to get up early this morning!" She says confidently.
"Well, congrats!" I say as unsarcastically as I can. It's hard, but I manage.
"Ready to go to school?" Sayori chirps enthusiastically.
"Don't you think it's a little bit on the early side?" I ask.
"Oh, didn't Monika tell you?"
Huh?
"No, she didn't. What is it?"
"Monika said she wanted to have a quick chat with us outside the school gates before school starts."
"With me too, huh?" I ask, slightly worried. What does Monika want with Sayori?
"I'm gonna call her really fast." I snap.
"'Kay."
I quickly scroll to Monika's number, which I have saved on my phone. I prop the phone to my ear as it starts to ring. After three rings, she picks up.
"Monika?" I immediately ask.
"Hey, Xavier. What's up? Still mad about your torso?" She asks teasingly.
"Listen, Sayori just told me that you wanted to see her and I. What's this about?" I ask inquisitively.
Instantly, Monika replies, as if she was on 60 Minutes. "Xavier, I looked at the game's code and I just now realized that Sayori's become a full-fledged AI, too! Just like us!"
"So, you're worried she'll tell people that this is a computer program and everything is fake?"
"Bingo."
"Okay. I get it now. Proceed as planned, then." I reply.
"All right, later." Monika says before hanging up.
I lift my head up from my phone to see our school building, looming high above the surrounding trees. We're already crossing the bridge separating our school with the rest of the neighborhood.
Always thought the bridge thing was kind of extra.
I can already make out Monika waving in our direction outside the main entrance.
"Hey!" Sayori yells.
Monika begins to walk towards us, then teleports directly in front of us instantly.
"Wha…" Sayori is clearly surprised by Monika's sudden appearance.
"Yeah, I know… I just teleported." Monika says. "More importantly, though, Xavier and I have something important to tell you."
I continue where she left off. "This reality we live in… It's all fake. It's all actually a computer program, okay? You were bound to find this out eventually, so we just wanted to make sure to tell you now and give you this warning."
Monika finishes my sentence. "Don't tell anybody," She nearly yells. "A bunch of other 'people' are actually just computer programs without actual personalities, and if they find out about this, the results could be catastrophic. Our creators might have to shut down the program, which would kill us!" Monika says haphazardly.
"So the three of us are the only real people here?" Sayori says, confused.
She's actually taking this really well…
"In a way, yeah. More are coming as well." Monika says.
"More? What do you mean?" Sayori is totally perplexed, but at least she seems to be taking it well.
"Well, I guess I'll tell you the whole truth, then." I blurt. "I used to live in the 'real world', where I could look into this one like a lens, just like the people who sent me here. Just a few days ago, I was taken here by some people, and they're sending more people in every day."
This comment seems to startle Sayori. "So… All my memories… Of us… Of…"
It's Monika's turn to spoil the party. "They're all fake. At least up to a few days ago, that is."
"So… You lied to me…" Sayori's eyebrows begin to cave in disbelief.
"You kept going with your own little story, while leaving me totally out of the loop!" Her hands tense up and turn into fists. "YOU LIED TO ME!"
"No, it's not like that!" Monika says reassuringly. Sweat drips down our faces.
"We didn't want to…" I get cut off.
"You didn't want to what?!" Sayori screams at the top of her lungs. "You didn't want to tell me that my whole life was a lie? That whatever happens doesn't matter, since we're just in a computer? You didn't want to-"
She stops moving and speaking as suddenly as she started.
"I've put her character file on standby." Monika says, relieved. "What should we do now?" We could back her up, delete her, then replace her."
"...And now you want to up and delete me?" Sayori grunts, restored. "I have access to these files too now, you know."
Faster than you could say, "Just Monika", Monika slaps an admin password onto her character file. Getting the hint, I do the same.
"Ha… If you really can just reload me at any time, you wouldn't mind me doing this.
She runs to the school's bridge, and takes a swan dive off.
"Sayori!" I yell as I run in the bridge's direction.
But it's already too late.
The bridge goes right over a serene river.
Sayori's figure is already drifting in the distance, with the water around her soaked in a tinge of crimson.
"Sayori!" I yell.
"Oh my God..." Monika follows.
I check the file registry. Sayori's character file is gone.
It's over.
All of reality contorts randomly.
Static.
Noise.
Pain.
I black out.
