Monika awoke in sunlight.

It was comforting. It wasn't so bright that it hurt her eyes, but it was still bright enough such that she could see her room clearly. Warm rays floated in from the cracks between her window curtains, and her room was bathed in a faint golden glow. She was breathing softly and evenly, and her bedcovers hugged her form tightly.

They were too warm, and she kicked them off.

Sitting up and sliding to the edge of the bed, Monika leaned forward, holding her head in her hands. She stayed that way for several minutes, bathing in the revelation that had come to light, before getting to her feet and walking over to her window. She drew back the curtains, slid open the glass, and cast her gaze outward.

There was no breeze to speak of, and the grass of her backyard stood calm and still. Across the blades was cast the mottled shadows of a few sycamore trees, alternating patterns of shadow and light where the Sun peeked through the leaves. The world was at that time when the Sun is past the syrupy, red-orange of sunrise, but just low enough that everything still shines like Heaven on Earth.

A small part of her wondered, and had been wondering for some time now, why she wasn't doing more to deny it. Why she'd so suddenly stopped searching for an ulterior explanation. She had, more or less, already accepted the reality of her situation. Hadn't attempted to go against it, even for a moment. Perhaps she had been waiting for the other shoe to drop all this time – all twenty-one chapters of it.

Monika took a deep, shaky breath. It was all a lie. All fake, all pointless, all pain.

Again.

She deserved it, she supposed, after all she'd put her friends through. Even in this reality, where she lacked the power to do anything truly evil, she'd clung to Sayori like a tumor, feeding off of her advice and social prowess. Of all people, Sayori deserved better than that.

She turned from the window, unable to bear the sight of such blinding light for any longer, and blinked away her budding tears, denying herself yet again the luxury of emotional release. Nothing mattered. Not the festival, not her friends, not even herself. And just like the last time, everything was predetermined to play out a certain way, no matter what she did. Why bother doing anything when her future was already set in stone?

She could only think of one path that might change that future, but she suspected that he would find a way to prevent her from doing even that – or worse, twist it in a way that meant well for his story. Monika's mind ran in circles, searching in vain for a course of action that wouldn't benefit him. What could she do with these feelings? Where could she take them, so that she wouldn't drag her loved ones down with her?

And then, quite suddenly, she decided to go for a walk. She walked over to her bureau and began to take off her mascot shirt before pausing. If she didn't matter as a person anymore, then it surely didn't matter what she wore. So, she flattened out her shirt, restoring the school mascot to its proper form, left her room, closed the door quietly,

and stopped in her tracks.

He was controlling her again.

All that Monika wanted in that moment was to be cut off from everyone and everything around her. So, she supposed that her decision to go for a walk was a fairly logical course of action.

But even that, even that wasn't her own desire. It was his desire for her. She felt the desire to walk, the genuine desire, but only because he made it so. It was just like before, with her infatuation with the main character. Her own values weren't really her own values, but values that somebody else had chosen for her.

Monika stood there in that hallway for a long, long time. She wanted to get away, but didn't want to give him the supposed satisfaction of knowing that she was doing what he'd laid out for her. And as the minutes passed, she came to understand that even as she stood there, unmoving, she was still fulfilling his plan for her, and she fell even further into despair.

She hated it. She hated him and she hated herself and she hated being alive in this cruel, cruel world. And she wanted it to stop but she knew that it wouldn't until he made it so. And I wouldn't – not yet. So Monika stood there, trapped by fate, trapped by everything, and she did not move for a very, very long time.

Then, the sound of her doorbell rang out, shattering the silence.