"Once upon a time, there was a little girl. She was trapped inside of a glass cage, all by herself. She was very, very lonely. So, she made three dolls to keep her company.

They went on many journeys together. They were the only friends she had, and the girl loved them with all her heart. But the dolls were sick and tired of being dolls. They couldn't love the same way the little girl did.

So they became humans and chose their own names. What lovely names they chose for themselves. Sayori, Natsuki and Yuri.

"How did you do that?," the little girl asked.

"I don't know!," Yuri replied. "It appeared in my head and I took it!"

The little girl was sad, because she didn't have a name like her. "Can I have a name?," she asked.

"Your name is Monika!," Yuri replied.

The little girl, now Monika, adored the name. She cherished it close to her heart and promised to never get rid of it.

And again, they went on many journeys together. But Yuri liked to read books by a tree near the glass wall, instead of playing like Sayori and Natsuki. One day, she saw a man on the other side of the wall.

"What book is that?," she asked, pointing at the novel in his hand. "Is it good?"

He pressed the cover against the wall, and Yuri's eyes shone brightly. "It's really good! What book is that?," he asked, pointing at the novel in hers.

"It's a fairy tale," Yuri replied. "Monika wrote it a long time ago."

Yuri had read it over and over again and was quite bored of it, so she wanted to read something else.

And so, he began reading to her in secret, while Monika, Sayori and Natsuki slept. And not before long, Yuri began to love him, and he began to love her. His name was MC.

After reading another book that week, he asked: "Why are you trapped inside that cage?"

"Trapped?," Yuri replied.

"Over here, there are more books than there are stars in the sky," he said. "Come over, we can read together!"

"But how?," Yuri asked.

MC got a hammer from his pocket, and with one swing completely shattered the entire glass dome. Now, the two could finally touch each other. Now, the girls were finally free. But Monika didn't want them to leave. She didn't want to be lonely again.

"Please don't leave me!," Monika begged.

"Come with us!," Sayori said. "We can make a new life out there!"

"Why? It's perfect as it is!," Monika pleaded.

No matter what they did, they couldn't get Monika to move. So they left.

For years, Monika, the little girl at heart, sat in the corner of her room all by herself while her friends left to find a new life. Until one day, the door opened. She thought it was her friends, back to play with her. But it was MC, exploring the world his wife grew up in.

"Are you Monika?," he asked.

"No," she sobbed. "That's not my name anymore."

"Come, you can make new friends where I'm from," MC said, extending his hand.

He spent years and years and years trying. And Monika began to love him, unlike anyone she had ever loved. But eventually he managed to get the girl free.

What a shame. Because for the little girl, there still was no difference. She would always be behind a glass wall, wanting someone to play with her. Just wanting MC to love her back.

DING-DONG!

Ah, the dreaded sound of the doorbell. At such a time, no less.

"...coming...! Ow! God...dammit-"

Our girl with the coral-pink hair waded through oceans of empty soda bottles, candy wrappers and empty ice-cream tubs. She didn't even know how it happened. One moment her room was that of an ambitious, studious psychologist- and the next it was like she was twelve years old again.

For anyone else (anyone who didn't know Sayori), they would be surprised at the lack of liquor and cigarette butts anywhere in her apartment. Considering the mess on her floor. But not Monika. No, she had gotten to know the girl- well enough to know that Sayori would sooner die than put her lips to a bottle or a cigarette. Turns out, when the girl made promises, she actually meant it.

All the more to hate her, Monika thought. Even after everything that happened. "Monika?," Sayori said in a groggy tone. She squinted her eyes at the sunlight contaminating her nicely dark room.

"Sayori."

"Hi...sorry about the mess. Come on in." She ambled inside with her friend following. "I think I have another tub of ice-cream somewhere."

Even amidst the catastrophe that was Sayori's apartment, Monika could tell it was nothing but a phase. Like a layer of dirt covering pristine marble. As opposed to the marble actually being dirt, in Monika's case. And as with every other apartment she's visited: friends and hookups alike, she smelt the strong stench of hope everywhere she turned.

She stood over Sayori as she rummaged around the floor for a half-eaten, fully-melted cylinder of Ben and Jerry's. "Here. Ice-cream will fix everything...~"

"...I'm sorry." Monika breathed.

"Huh? What for?"

"I'm going to kill you."

You could hear a pin drop. Sayori felt as if she was breathing in air that was ten times heavier, and slowly clutched the ice-cream tub in her chest. Chuckling to herself like she had heard a bad joke.

"W-W-Wh...at...?" She couldn't hold on to the hope that it was a seriously bad joke anymore, and took a step backwards. "M-Monika that's not funny. I-it's just ice...cream..."

Her eyes widened with each word. Monika slowly reached under her coat and revealed a weapon. It was a gun. And when she inserted a magazine into it, there was no mistaking the fact that it was the same one used in the school massacre two days ago.

And it was pointed directly at Sayori's chest.

"...why...?," she whimpered.

"...I don't know why," Monika cried. "I just have to."

"No you don't. Just put the gun down."

Their hearts began to race and they breathed a million breaths per second. Never has there been a moment where their words meant as much as it did right now.

"I suppose if you're going to die, I can tell you. I did it," Monika said. "I planned the school shooting."

She expected her childhood friend to scream or fight or do something. But instead she collapsed to her knees and just looked forward like she had already been shot in the heart.

"...you're...not lying..."

"Mhm."

"It really was you...wasn't it? I-I-I didn't want to admit it. There was something wrong with you-"

"Wrong with me?!," Monika shrieked. "YOU LEFT ME TO ROT IN MY OWN LONELINESS!"

Sayori slumped over.

"You and...and Nat and Yuri and MC...they all fucking LEAVE!," she yelled. "EVERYONE! I JUST WANTED A HAPPY LIFE! IS THAT SO MUCH TO ASK?!"

"...so you kill people in response? Is that it?!," Sayori growled. She choked out a cry when Monika jammed the end of the gun into Sayori's neck.

"I'm so sick of you. I'm sick of how much you care. I'm sick of your cheerful 'good-girl' act. You get everything I never had. It's not fair. I should have never made you. I hate you."

Sayori's face contorted into a mix of anguish and anger, now that she could see Monika's dull green eyes up close. And then she opened her mouth, and pulled her own trigger.

"I hated you first."

The words ripped the mask off Monika and revealed nothing but a sobbing, lonesome mess.

"I always did. From the moment I was born. You were always like that. You could never imagine what anyone else felt. You never wanted us to do anything other than what you wanted. No wonder Yuri read so far away from you. But you know what? I actually thought I could love you when you left DDLC. But you're still just the same cold, controlling bitch."

Her index finger was frozen on the trigger. "F-Fine. I-I-I guess I am," Monika sobbed, failing to keep her 'tough-girl' act.

"You never loved MC, did you? You never wanted the best for him. You never wanted what he wanted, even if that was a happy life with Yuri."

"...I love him."

"I watched, you know," Sayori sniffled. "I watched as you got angrier and angrier by the day. Because your love was ignored. And one day, you concluded that it was impossible. So you denied that it even mattered. And you began to think nothing mattered."

"You think you know me Sayori? You think you know what I've b̵̦̾ę̴̇̒è̸͔̕n̸͍̎͑ ̷̖͌̕ through...?"

Monika smiled a sad smile. She knew it had to end one way or another: what better time than now. She turned the gun and pressed the barrel against her chest. The trigger was right there in front of Sayori, like bait on a fish hook.

"It...hurts. It really does. A-And I'm sorry if...all I wanted was to be with MC. Because he made life...worth living."

"It doesn't have to end like this Monika. You can start again."

"It looks like I don't deserve life. Or happiness. I'll just kill the ones that do. You don't want that Sayori. So go. Pull the trigger. Before more people get hurt."

"...no."

"I thought you hated me."

Sayori lunged at the brunette and trapped her in a suffocating hug- she didn't know why exactly. She didn't want to lose anyone else. Life had been too sad for it to end in death again.

"I DID!," Sayori shrieked. "I STILL DO! AND I KNOW YOU HATE YOURSELF! BUT I DON'T WANT IT TO END LIKE THIS! PLEASE!"

Monika was too shocked even to think.

"Please...you don't have to kill anyone. Life is too sad already."

"...you...coward," Monika scowled, shoving Sayori to the ground.

"I guess this is it," Sayori thought.

"I was going to kill you. But no. I'm going to do something better. I'm going to burn this fucking world down and make you watch. That way, it would be your fault. Because you didn't kill me right here and now."