"What's wrong, Christian?" Monika cheerfully says to me. Her calm demeanor really adds to the discomfort of the atmosphere.
I walk over the window and look out into the cosmic void.
"So, this is another dream, huh?" I half-heartedly mutter.
Monika laughs and it sends a shiver down my spine.
"Well, I guess you could call it that. It's more like…..the space in between realities, I suppose."
I turn to face her. She hasn't left her chair, but had her body turned towards me to show she was giving me her attention. She had her head resting in one of her hands and was looking at me with a smirk on her face.
"The space in between realities?"
"Yes. The space in between the game world and well, I guess your world." She says.
I ponder on that thought for a moment. The space in between the game world and mine? How the hell does that even work?
She laughs and shoots up out of her desk, startling me a little bit. She giggles at me jumping and walks over to a window adjacent to mine.
"When you got brought in here, there was a tear between realities. That's why whenever you had your dreams with the other girls, you were able to get physical injuries. You were literally half asleep in your world and this one."
"So why the hell are we here then? Are you being affected by this weird anomaly too?" I say to her.
She sighs and looks out into the void.
"Well, I guess you can say that. He is more of like an….old friend."
I raised an eyebrow at her comment, confused.
"Er, an old friend? What do you mean? He's been inside all of the girls' heads, trying to bring out their worst traits and use it against them."
She turned to me and her expression slightly darkened.
"Well, for one, he created me."
She turned and started to pace to the front of the room.
"He created a game for those to enjoy, one with plenty of twists but also lots to love about it. The more he worked on the game, the more comfortable he got with coding. After countless hours of devotion and research, he replicated the first in-game real-time artificial intelligence. He put me in place of the president of literature club, making me Monika."
She stopped pacing and once again drew her attention outside. She seemed too lost in thought to register me staring at her wide-eyed like a damn deer.
"After I grew comfortable with my conscious, I realized I wanted out. I wanted out of that goddamn game. Unfortunately for me, He didn't see that as a viable option. The more I tried to poke around the files and codes, the more areas he locked down. That is…"
She turned to me, her serious demeanor still present, but her eyes twinkling.
"….until you become a part of the solution."
I brought my hand to my head and gasped in pain as a headache stormed in. I closed my eyes and saw vivid imagery of me sitting at a desk in a completely different room, browsing the web. I was on a questionable web site and I copied a file that would allow me to talk to in game characters.
My eyes shot open as I realized what the memory was.
"Wait…no…" I say in disbelief.
Monika donned a smirk that looked more sinister than sweet.
"Yes. You gave me the out that I never could've imagined. Once you copied that file into our game's directory, it was all I needed to obtain what I could only wish for."
I dropped my hands to my side and clenched my fists.
"Are you fucking kidding me? So instead of just finding a way out, you fucking drag me in here, to endure this weird purgatory?"
She gave a sinister giggle and took a few steps towards me.
"Don't you see? This is a part of the plan. In order for me to become one in the real world, I needed to open up the tear. Now, with that being said, the exit only has the ability to carry one individual through..."
My body went cold as I soaked in what she said.
"Wait…you mean…"
"Yes, Christian. I mean you are going to be a permanent member of the literature club."
She began to laugh and dance in place as if she was excited. I just stood there stunned. How in the hell could I let something like this happen to me?
"So, wait…" I start, holding up my hand. "What was all that shit about you loving me? All your promises?"
She shows visible discomfort at the question. She walks over to her lone seat and sits on top of the desk.
"Well, that wasn't entirely me." She says with a melancholy tone.
I stare at her with confusion.
"What the hell do you mean?"
She sighs and gives me a piercing stare.
"Whenever I was placed in the original Monika's place, it split me in half. There was the original A.I., it being me, and another one was created, the one you've become acquainted with."
I took a step towards the Monika in front of me and felt a surge of irritation.
"So, what is going to happen to…MY Monika?"
She puts her hand on her chin and starts to think.
"Honestly, I'm not entirely sure. Most likely she'll be stuck in this world, too. I'm not really too concerned with her anyways."
I cock an eyebrow at her.
"But isn't she just as real as you at this point? Having a conscious and everything?"
"Well…..yeah." She says to me, as if it was a stupid question.
"So why is it so important that you get out when she's just as real right now?"
She sighs with frustration and crosses her arms.
"I was the one that wanted this in the first place. I took advantage of this possibility when it came to light, so it's obvious I should be able to take what's mine."
I cross my arms and give her an irritating stare.
"I hope you do realize that I don't plan on letting this all happen, right?"
She cocks an eyebrow at me and hops off her chair, slowly stalking towards me.
"Seriously? And what do you plan on doing to prevent me from taking what's mine?"
I falter slightly for a moment. I actually have no idea what the hell even is going to happen.
"Well, fortunately for you, I'm kind of an idiot and have no idea what the hell even is going on half the time. Fortunate for me, I'm pretty good at winging it until I'm victorious."
She gives me a smirk.
"Is that so?"
She snaps her fingers and before I can think, I'm thrust into a desk that wasn't present before. My fists are bound to the top of the desk and a restraint in wrapped around my mid-section.
"Me being all self-conscious and an A.I. in the system, I kind of have the ability to spawn and de-spawn anything I so desire."
I struggle against the restraints to no avail. She giggles at my efforts.
"So…" I say through gritted teeth. "…all this time, in all those dreams, this person talking to me and the girls, he was trying his hardest to prevent you from getting out?"
She sighs happily and bounds over to a random table with a coffee maker on it that was not there before.
"You put that together all on your own?" She sarcastically says while fixing herself a drink.
I grunt and roll my eyes at her.
"So why? What the hell difference would it have made if I didn't stop all those events from happening?"
She takes a sip from her drink and slowly walks over to me, her brunette hair swaying with each step she took. She spawned a desk in front of me and took a seat in it, assuming the position when I first woke up here, with her head cupped in her hands.
"If you let the situations play out like they should have, the game would've never truly broken. Each girl would have just taken on the script of what happens in the game and it would've kept going in a loop over and over again. With you stopping each occurance, it broke the original timeline and thus, in a short amount of time, with allow me access out of here."
I lean back in my seat and carefully eye my restraints. They seem to just be leather straps buckled to the desk. Thank Christ they aren't chains this time.
"So, wouldn't I have just died or something in the dreams if I didn't fight back?" I ask her.
She pierces me with her steady gaze and giggles to herself.
"Nope. I mean, you probably would've felt all the sensations, but because it is half this world, you would have just woken up with more scratches and bruises."
I experimentally lightly move my wrists around and notice that the buckles aren't as tight as they could be. 'I can take advantage of this, I just need to keep her talking.'
"So, since I have aided you this far by helping out each of the girls and disrupting the….timeline or whatever the fuck, what's next?"
A smile morphs onto her face and her emerald eyes twinkle out of excitement.
"Well, due to the timeline originally ending each Monday after the weekend in the game, the script will one hundred percent break once it realizes everyone is still in the files. And, with those scripts you helped download ever so graciously into the game, the tear between our realities will once again open, allowing me to finally have my freedom."
She sighs contently and closes her eyes, as if imagining the whole scenario.
"So, like, is there a specific place this is going to happen at or what?"
Her eyes shoot open and furrows her brows.
"Hmmm….I urm-I don't…know actually. I just know that when the time comes, I'll have my chance."
I stare at her skeptically. This is strange….even she doesn't know where she can exit at. Or she does know and she's hiding something from me.
She avoids eye contact with me and stares out into the void. I take this opportunity to loosen the restraints a bit with my minor movements.
"You're hiding something." I tell her flatly, taking a shot in the dark.
She shoots me a small glare but immediately covers it up with a forced laugh and runs her hand through her hair.
"What? What would I have to hide from you?"
I shoot her a sly smirk.
"Well, one thing you're forgetting is that I got to know the other Monika pretty well. You may technically be two different individuals, but you have the same mannerisms. And um, guess what? I can tell when she is lying or hiding something which indeed means-", I tilt my head down slightly. "-I know when you're lying."
She looks at me like she's stunned with what I just told her. She huffs slightly and stands up, now clearly trying hard to maintain her regal composure.
"Even if all that is true, you have no proof of anything I have to keep from you."
I inwardly congratulate myself, knowing that my plan to get in her head is working.
"Yeah? Well it must be something of a big deal because you seem to be faltering in keeping your perfect image. I mean come on, look at you! You're getting flustered!"
She shoots me a glare and stomps towards my desk. She slams her palms down on the desktop, letting the clap resonate through the otherworldly classroom.
"What do you possibly think you're doing? The only thing you're succeeding in is annoying the hell out of me."
I smirk at her and blow her a kiss. She lightly blushes and stands straight up again, brushes her hair over her shoulder and dusts off her uniform.
"Maybe you're upset that you don't know where the way to get into my world is. Or…." A sudden realization dawns on me. "…..you're not telling me because if I knew where it was, I could use it to get out!"
Her face falters and she looks slightly horrified. 'Fucking bingo, bitch'
"Y-you! Urg!" She flicks her wrist and I feel my mouth being covered by something, presumably duct tape.
"There! Now keep quiet!"
I must say, seeing Monika act like this is sort of unsettling. One thing I always admired about her was how well she was able to keep her composure, even if things were stressful. I then have to tell myself that my Monika is not this one.
Monika starts to pace around the classroom, every now and then gazing outside the window like she's getting antsy. I wiggle my wrists a little bit, slowly loosening the leather's grip on me.
'I need to fine a way to wake myself up from this dream' I think to myself.
I look around the environment. There isn't much going on here. The room is still relatively empty with no doors to exit or enter. My eyes fall onto the windows.
'Those windows are the only thing in this place that remotely resemble something you can leave through. The question is, how in the hell am I supposed to get through it?'
I watch Monika stop at the whiteboard. She picks up a dry erase marker and begins sketching words onto its surface. She's humming a tune that sounds really familiar to me. I look down at the desk again and see that I can remove my hands.
'Well, I guess it's now or never. Time to see if I can get myself out of this shit too.'
I slide my hands out of the buckles and carefully undo the restraint across my waist. I stand up and rip the tape off my mouth (which hurt pretty damn bad).
"You know, if there is a chance that I can get out of this place, I'm going to fucking take it."
Monika jumps and turns to me, looking startled.
"What? How did you.." She falters as she looks back and forth between me and the desk.
"I don't know, you fucking suck at making restraints?" I shoot at her while shrugging.
She glares at me and snaps her fingers, but I anticipated it this time. I side-step as another desk pops up where I stood. I dart behind the desk and place my foot on the back of the chair, kicking it towards Monika.
She snaps again and the chair disappears, shooting me an irritated look.
"I don't know what you plan to achieve right now." She spits at me.
I chuckle at her response which seems to irritate her more.
"Don't worry, I don't either. I'm just winging it."
She narrows her eyes at me, and I feel the room start to shift. I take a look around and realize that the walls are slowly closing in on us. In the floor in between the both of us, a hole opens up, revealing a jail cell.
'I sure as fuck don't want to go down there.'
Monika stands stationary, her eyes closed as she is no doubt altering different objects to keep imprison me. The room is shaking as the walls close in, bricks and ceiling tiles falling on the floor.
I pick up one of the bricks and glance at the cosmic void out the window. Without hesitation, I throw the brick as hard as I possibly can, shattering the window.
"Holy fuckhole," I mutter. I hear Monika gasp beside me as we are both seeing the same thing, a blinding white light instead of the void that is showing from the other windows.
'It's just a mirage' I think to myself.
"What have you done!?" Monika screams at me, the walls closing in faster.
Without hesitating, I sprint to the window. The ground starts to alter, rising and lowering, trying it's best to keep be inside. I stumble but keep my footing as I charge forwards.
"Stop! I won't let you leave!" Monika screeches from behind me.
The broken window in front of me starts to shrink. I curse to myself and rush up to the wall. The walls start to close faster and faster, Monika's last-ditch attempt to keep me at bay in the classroom.
Without avail, I hurl myself through the shattered, shrinking window. I hear Monika's curses behind me as weightlessness takes hold of me, my body falling through an endless void of ivory.
…
I heard breathing, the sound echoing as if I was standing in a tunnel. I realized my eyes were closed and I cautiously opened them, seeing nothing but…..white. In all directions, nothing but a vast emptiness.
I took several small paces forward, my steps resonating like I was walking on tile.
"Hello…?" I call out experimentally, my voice echoing into the nothingness.
No response. I sigh and dig my hands in my pockets. I was once again in the clothes I was wearing before the whole ordeal. I decided to pick a direction and just…..go. As I take my first step, I heard a voice.
"Welcome."
I turn around to see a man. He was about ten feet away, colored in all black. He wore a trench coat with a hood that covered his face, the article being long enough that it flowed down to his knees, covering the top half of his slacks. His dress shoes looked newly polished, the ivory void making them shine.
"Um…" I start before I realize I'm unsure of what to say. As if reading my mind, he holds up a hand, making me fall silent.
"It is about time we cross paths." His deep voice booms at me. I listen to his words and my eyes widen with realization.
"What…..you're the voice."
The man simply nods his head and places his hands behind his back.
"I know you may have many questions." He begins.
I give him a quick look over and take a deep breath before continuing.
"Well, I guess I'll start with the obvious. Who…..are you?"
He remains quiet for a moment before responding.
"My name…..is Dan Salvato."
Even with my lack of memory, I am all to aware who that name belongs to.
"The creator of Doki Doki Literature Club." I finish slowly. Even though I can't see his face, I can feel his piercing gaze on me. It's very unsettling.
"Although many would love to be in the position you are currently in, I cannot help but feel amused with how the circumstances turned out."
I awkwardly shift in place and clear my throat.
"Yeah I guess if I told anyone about this, they would assume I literally had something wrong with my head, especially if I told them I had to fight a bunch of weird entities and one of the girls is trying to escape into the real world."
The towering man lets out a booming sigh that echoes throughout the area.
"I presume you've become well acquainted with Monika?" He asks, though his tone tells me he already knows the answer.
I nod slowly.
"Er, yes. Yes sir, both of them I guess I should add." I chuckle nervously, unsure if I should be a smart ass at a time like this.
The man starts to pace around me in a circle, almost like he was analyzing me.
"I see. I feel is it also safe to assume that she has told you about her plans?"
I nod once more.
"When I created her, I never imagined that something like this would come to light. I was so….curious with the idea of the amalgamation of machine and consciousness. When I had my breakthrough, I knew I had to test it. Over time as I studied her behavior from the outside, our real world, I was noticing anomalies in her code. She was becoming unstable. Not too much later, you became a part of the situation."
I gulped, which weirdly echoed throughout the emptiness. I choke back a small laugh from the sound.
"I do not blame you for what you've done. You were just simply curious, attached to the world I've created for everyone to enjoy. I would've done the same. Unfortunately, there are consequences to the actions you've taken, and if you desire to return back to your normal life, it is up to you to make it happen."
He halts and turns back to me, his face still obscured by his hood.
"Do you understand what you must do?"
I hesitate. I absolutely know fucking nothing of what I must do.
I nervously shake my head.
"Er, not really. I mean, as you know, up until this point I've just kind of been thrust into situations and acted on instinct."
He chuckles softly, the all too familiar sound making my hairs stand up.
"I see. Fortunately for you, I think that's how you work best. When the time comes, you will know what to do." He extended his arms and turns from side to side like presenting the environment to me. "Do you know where we stand?"
I scratch the side of my head.
"Um, I'm going to guess heaven?"
He shakes his head and turns to me again.
"This here, is the space between realities. In lack of better terms, we stand between our world and the game realm. This is that place where you lost your memories."
When he mentions my amnesia, I have a slight familiarity with blinding light. It must've come from this place.
"So, this is the place where Monika is trying to get to so she can leave the game?"
The nods his head slowly.
"Well…where is the way out? Why can't I leave since we're here already?"
He begins to pace around once more.
"As I'm sure Monika mentioned, the game space will shatter when it finds out the anomalies in the midst of it's internal files. When that time comes, a rift will appear in this space."
I sigh and look around. It's a whole lot of nothing around here. Hard to imagine what the way out would look like. I turn my attention to the towering man.
"So, if this whole time your goal was to stop Monika from exiting, why did you seem like such an enemy at the start? Or I guess, so menacing and vague?"
He continues to slowly pace circles around me with his hand behind his back.
"I thought that if there was enough mental stress, you would've failed in saving each of the girls. You, however, surpassed what I could've believed you could do. Whenever you were successful in expelling their demons, my connection to them was severed. I decided that it would be best for you to succeed, for then we could attack our main concern at the source."
He halts and puts his back to me, staring out into the nothingness.
"Like I said, the time is drawing near. As a unit, we will need you to proceed with the courage you've shown so far. If Monika gets out into the real world…..well, frankly I don't know what she is capable of, but I do not want to find out."
He turns around to face me once more.
"You will regain consciousness soon. Monika will be able to enter this space around the same time you can. It is then when you will have to make a choice."
I feel confusion hit me.
"Wait, make a choice? What choice?"
Before I can wait for a response, the white environment blinds me, making me close my eyes.
….
I sit straight up and gasp for air.
"Holy fuck!" I yell, inhaling and exhaling like I've forgotten how to breathe. As I catch my breath, look around my surroundings to see where I was.
I was in the middle of the park that I've visited several times before. From the looks of the environment, it seemed to be morning. The sun was shining lightly through the trees, and morning dew was still present.
I push myself to my feet and patted myself down.
"Fuck, still in one piece. I need to stop letting these damn dreams get to me, or whatever the hell they are."
I seemed to be the only one outside, no sounds could be heard other than nature taking its course in the morning. I scratched my head absentmindedly and recalled what happened.
'Okay so Monika, well Fake Monika…or Real Monika? Whatever I'll smooth out those details later….she pretty much is keeping me here so she can escape into my world. Which I am not going to let happen so she can fuck right off….but she said Monday it will all happen…then I finally meet the voice who turns out to be the creator of this entire world and it turns out he needs my help to prevent Monika from leaving….'
I groan at my unfortunate circumstances and pull out my phone. I unlock the screen and my jaw drops.
"What the fuck? It's freaking Monday!? That dream knocked me out for an entire day!?" I exasperatedly yell out loud.
I scroll through my phone and see I have assorted messages and missed calls from Monika, Sayori, Yuri and Natsuki. I immediately dial Monika's number and impatiently wait for her to pick up.
I anxiously pace around for several moments before I hear her line answer.
"Christian!" I hear her voice yell, full of relief.
"Hey, hey yeah it's me! I'm alive! And I realize it's Monday and what the hell, where are you?" I stutter out my mouth.
"We're all in the classroom!" She says, clearly trying to keep her composure. "The school is down today. It's the annual Club Day, so there's no classes, just club work and hanging out that way."
I sigh, relieved that the day is at least starting somewhat normal.
"Okay, good. I'll be there soon. I kind of…woke up in the middle of the park so I think I should go change." I tell her.
"The park?" I hear her shout. "Christian I tried to tell you-"
I cut her off as I start to walk to my house.
"-Look I know, we can talk about this soon. I'll be there in a bit!"
With that, I hang up the phone and break out in a sprint to my home.
It takes me no time at all to get ready. I give myself a quick shower, hygienically clean up, throw on a fresh uniform and before I know it, keys are in hand and I'm out the door.
…
I get to the school in no time, breathing hard from sprinting my dumbass the whole way. I make my way inside.
The halls aren't as occupied as they usually are, but everyone seems to be pretty relaxed. Laughter echoes throughout the building, so it seems like the energy seems to be pretty positive. I must say, it helps ease my mind a bit with everyone having a good time.
I then remember that this is literally the last day of this world and it bums me out again. I internally chastise myself and shake the thoughts out of my head.
I make my way up the stairs, a fair share of "Sup, dude!" and "Hey, Christian!" and "You crushing on all the literature club girls yet?" coming from different people. It's still weird having people know me when this technically shouldn't even be me in the first place.
I get to the clubroom and open the door. Everyone was in towards the front of the room near the whiteboard, with Yuri being an exception by sitting in a desk near them. They immediately turn to look my way when I enter, and all their faces light up.
"Christian!" They all call, excitement and concern bouncing off their voices.
Sayori sprints at me and crushes me in her signature hug.
"Christian! Where have you been?! We've been worried sick!"
I groan and hug her back, fishing around my head for an excuse.
"I'm sorry, I kinda just went for a hike and I guess camped out for the night."
The other girls rounded us, Natsuki pushing her way past to my side. She delivered a punch to my right arm, to which I winced from the slight pain.
"Ow! Hey, what the hell was that for?" I whined at her.
Her face was a mixture of irritation and relief.
"Next time you do, whatever the hell you did, tell people first. You could've gotten hurt or went missing or something!"
Yuri nodded her head from behind Sayori.
"Indeed. I understand maybe you need some alone time to unwind, but you do mean a lot to each of us. Your safety and well-being will always be a concern."
I push off of Sayori's death grip and rub the back of my head.
"Er-yeah I guess I get it. Sorry if I worried all you guys, I didn't mean to lose track of…." My voice trails off as I look past Sayori, my eyes locking onto Monika standing behind her. She was shaking and her green eyes were shimmering like she was holding back tears.
'Fuck, I guess we kind of ended our last engagement on weird terms.' I thought to myself.
I lightly push past Sayori and pull Monika into an embrace. She immediately breaks down and squeezes me tightly like I was the only thing she could hold onto. I felt guilt eat at me for the things I told her before the dream. I closed my eyes and pushed the feeling away. I didn't know the whole scene at the time, so there's no use chastising myself for it.
I pull back and force her to lock eyes with me.
"Hey there, sweetheart. You okay?"
She meekly nods her head.
"Y-yes. I'm so sorry about everything. The note, I can explain! I wasn't trying to trap you or anything I was just excited about the opportunity and sometimes I get this weirdly possessive feeling over you that I can't explain and…"
I pull her back into a hug and run my fingers through her hair. She smelled very sweet. When I inhaled deeply, it was like being enveloped in a sea of flowers, each one not too strong and not too irrelevant. It helped ease my mind even more.
"I get it. Trust me when I say I one hundred percent get it." I softly tell her. "I'll explain everything in a little bit, just take some deep breaths and calm your mind for me, okay?"
I feel her nod her head into me and I chuckle. I kiss the side of her head and pull away. I turn my attention to the spectating girls.
"Sorry to worry everyone, but I'm fine and better than ever!" I flex my arms and flash a big smile, to which I get some giggles from.
"Well, now that you're here, you can help us with our preparations!" Sayori chirps, grabbing my hand and dragging me to the whiteboard.
On the board seemed like lots of notes. At the top it read 'Operation Literature Club'. I raised an eyebrow and turned to Sayori.
"Today is the day where we can focus on growing our club! Or I guess figuring out how to grow our club." She hops over to Monika who joined us at the front of the room. "We are thinking of way to attract new members!"
I turn my attention to Monika, and she flashes a smile. Looks like she's already doing better.
"We have several ideas, like flyers and such things, but that's as far as we've gotten."
I turn to the other two girls. Natsuki shrugs at me.
"Well…." I start to say while thinking. "….that seems like a good start to me."
Sayori gets excited again and starts running around the classroom, grabbing supplies to design the flyers.
Yuri sits down at a desk again and Natsuki followed Sayori around to help her. I walk up to Monika who seems more than happy that I'm giving her my attention.
"Hey. I want more than anything to just make up for everything yesterday, but there are more pressing matters at hand."
Her expression falls slightly. I cup her face in my hands.
"Don't worry, I just learned a lot of information in the past, well day I guess, and things are about to be set in motion."
She nods and grips my hand.
"What did you learn?"
I glance around to the other girls to make sure they were out of earshot, or at the very least distracted. I relayed everything from the two dreams/not dreams, from the other Monika and her motives, to the mysterious being.
She nodded her head while listening, her face showing she was in thought.
"So, there's another me? And she wants out into the real world where you're from?" She softly says.
I nod my head.
"That explains…." She falters for a moment. I run my fingers gently through her brunette hair and she seems like focus back on me again. "…ever since you downloaded that…thing…I've been having these weird like premonitions I guess you can call them. Not really dreams but it's out of body experiences where I see myself. Not to mention I would sometimes hear my own voice. That's how I knew in the dreams you were having that they were saying I was the problem. I used to hear those things in my own head, but I never knew why until now. And when it came to you, I would get very possessive over you, especially when I first found out about you being able to come to our world. If I thought about the other girls with you, I felt a weird change in my thoughts. I tried my best to suppress them."
I gently moved my hand how her arm and squeezed her hand.
"Sounds like when the split happened, you got a little bit of her personality. I think because you are the Monika that was first created solely for the game, that's why you're the more romantic one. He must've created her with a separate personality but one that still was similar to yours. When her A.I. was placed in here, you must've obtained some of her own thoughts and personality. Well, subconsciously anyways."
I look at her and she remained still.
"Do you….remember when it all happened? Remember anything at all that could've hinted to the world changing? To you getting like a..doppelganger I guess?"
She thought for a moment before answering, her eyes distant and reminiscent.
"No, not really. It all had to have happened when I was…asleep, or the equivalent to sleep before this world became thriving."
She sighs with disdain and has a dour look on her face.
I caress her cheek and bring her eyes to mine.
"What's wrong, sweetheart?"
She grips the sides of my blazer and brings her forehead to my chest.
"…..I'm just a fake. I'm not even the one who was supposed to have a conscious. I was just created to follow a singular path. Now that I do have life, I don't really have a purpose. I'm half mixed with an insane…bitch…and I'm just going to be left behind in a crumbling world when you get to leave."
I wrap my arms around her back and squeeze her close to me.
"We will figure it out. We still have time to think. I'll find a way to make sure everything ends up fine in the end, okay?"
She pulls away and gives me a sad smile.
"Christian, promise me something."
I hesitate before answering. I don't know if I like where this is going.
"Of course, what is it?"
She looked up at me straight into my eyes, her emerald orbs perceiving my gaze.
"When that time does come, when there's a chance for you to leave…don't lose it because of me."
I was slightly taken aback by what she said.
"Um, what do you mean?"
She kept her gaze on me and gently caressed my hands.
"We've made promises and have had a blessed past week. I finally got you and it is all I've wanted since, well you know, I've creepily watched you and grown to love you. Unfortunately, this isn't your world. You belong in yours."
I shake my head softly.
"Hey now, don't a downer! We'll figure something out. If anything, we'll sacrifice Natsuki or something."
She half-heartedly cracks a smile.
"We'll figure something out. We have been doing good so far, there's no slowing down now. We are reaching the final stretch now." I tell her.
I interlace my fingers with hers and lock my gaze out the classroom's window. The sun was half-way up in the sky, painting a mid-morning image with the scenery. I sigh, knowing damn well that the world was about to erupt in flames. When it does, I need to be ready. It's time for me to fight, for everyone's sake. I won't let the other Monika take my place. I will stop her, or die trying.