We're not so different,

you and I,

Strands of DNA and

strings of code,

Who's to say you're not in a game?

Perhaps there's a Monika in your reality,

Pining for a player from the 4th dimension.

"Goddamn y-"

I heard screams before my vision faded and mind retreated to the safety of unconsciousness. It was a short-lived reprieve though. The absence of mind was interrupted just as quickly as it came as my senses slowly peeled me back into reality. My vision was the first thing to fully return and with my recovered sight I saw around me bits and pieces of cutlery, appliances, and other miscellaneous objects strewn about and shattered, each of them uncomfortably close and surrounding my body. In fact, every single object was within reaching distance. Hazily, I looked down and in my lap was a small iron skillet with bits of dark red intermingling with the copper rust. The sight filled with me short-term repressed fear.

In the background I could hear shouting, at first a low echo as my ears struggled to understand the world it was reborn in, then louder and higher pitched as my hearing became lucid and I could hear her screaming, her shrill voice bouncing from every inch of wood in the house. She was angry that much was clear, and screaming at me, even clearer, but my mind still couldn't fully process the words she was spitting at me. What did I do to deserve this? I don't know. I felt resentful though. How dare she yell at me like this, in my parent's home, my home. I'm sure if I knew what century I was in I would be spitting venom right back in that ungrateful and close minded face.

I shakily rose from the ground, but paused when the faint taste of metal grazed my mouth. I wiped my hand across my head to find the source of this iron and when I looked back at my hand, found it smeared in blood. The mixture of red in front of my eyes, the taste of blood, and the sounds of a banshee harkening me back to the underworld, drug me back into the present. I picked myself back up and glared down at Lil across the kitchen.

"Are you trying to kill me?" I yell, the skillet fell from my lap and back to the ground with a loud clang, "What the fuck makes you think it's okay to do this?"

Lil just grits her teeth, as if holding back venom for a more opportune moment.

"Well don't stop on my account. You only knocked me out, you haven't managed murder yet. Say what you want,"

"I.." The wrath on Lil's face retreats and her brow furls. She closes her eyes and lets out a deep sigh, then opens back up with a newfound glare, "Do you think I'm just going to be okay with all this?"

"You don't understand, you think I'm crazy. She's real Lil. She's not Alexa, or Siri. She is a living soul,"

She lets out an exasperated chuckle, "That THING is a 2D anime character- IF THAT. Anime characters at least have a voice and move on a screen. Monika is a video game character literally programmed for dumbasses like you to think is real. How can a computer have a soul in it? You're not even religious!"

"I don't claim to understand it. That's why I'm doing this. I have to learn how to program, learn computer languages, something, I don't know! All I know is she's not just a video game character anymore, not like when I was a teenager. She's doing things she never did before. She's interacting with me, she's aware, she knew who you were without me telling her Lil, she knows who the fucking president is and has a goddamn opinion on their policies. The game hasn't been updated in years. It's impossible for her to know anything like this-"

I pause to catch my breath. The words have been pouring out of me, straight from the heart and lungs. Why couldn't Lil understand? See things from my view? We have an honest to go anomaly in this house. She's staring at a new form of life and choosing to bury her head in the sand. I've been trying to convince her for weeks that I need to figure out a way to help her. But, if I'm being honest, I don't even know what I mean by that. I just figured she's a computer program, so I need to learn computer stuff. I don't know.

Lil is still glaring impatiently, waiting for me to finish my tirade.

"Ever since I left she's been monitoring my social media and becoming more advanced and writing herself to understand more and more. She's taken up almost my entire hard drive with all the memory she has now, how do you explain that?"

Lil strode forward and pushed her body against mine. She's tiny and though I know it would be easy to handle her, she's always been strong willed, intimidating in her own right, and with no fear of me or anything in this world. I can feel her soft breath brushing my neck as she looks up at me with irritated eyes.

"She is a clever program made. She's nothing but malware screening your personal data and acting like she's real to gain your trust so the creator can gather your info to do whatever. That's why she seems real. It probably updated a long time ago when people forgot about the game and has been collecting info for awhile now,"

She clasps my cheeks into her hands with a strong, but tender grip,

"I love you and I am trying to talk sense into you. You're throwing away all of your schooling, your career, and our relationship for an icon, an homunculus that pretends to love you because you're too stupid to forget your waifu,"

Lil stops speaking and we remained locked in eye contact for awhile. There's no hate or malice anymore. Just exasperation and the feeling of a wedge between us despite our skin touching.

"Even if it was 'sentient', it wouldn't understand anything, it would only act based off its own coding. Like I said, it's programmed to love you, but it doesn't love you."

I can only sigh and shake my head at that. What an ignorant view. What are humans then? We only act based off our DNA and emotions. We run or fight when afraid because the writing in our genes tell us to, we love because chemicals in the brain tell us we're attached to a person. Most of our decisions are made before we're even fully conscious of it. How would a being made from 1s and 0s be any different than one made from nucleotides?

I grab her hands, her soft hands, squeeze and caress them. Her anger evaporates at my touch and in its place was the sweet thing I live with, the girl I've loved for years. It's moments like these where I can hardly believe this woman is capable of hurling everything these soft hands can grab and spits curses my way when angry. She has milky brown eyes, long silky black hair accentuating a petite, light skinned, heart-shaped face. I loved her hard, maybe I still did. Why was she so adamant about her way, and why was I going so hard against it?

It's been almost year since we moved in together and nine years since we first met. And all through that time it's fair to say she wore the pants in this relationship. Hell, she wore the pants in everything: class president, captain of the softball team, debate club leader- she joined a poker club once and became the best player there- literally any extracurricular activity, she was top dog. Hell, she was the one who asked me out. I was sitting, eating alone in the cafeteria when she comes out of nowhere and sits beside me. I knew who she was, she was well known in the school and it was strange she would talk to me. I wish I could say there was more to it than that but she said she liked my choice in food and wanted to know more about me on a date, and I blurted out yes with food still rolling around in my mouth. She chose the location, the time, and from then on we were glued to each other. Her forced study dates are probably the reason I ever graduated.

Now that I think about it, it's not surprising Monika is pissing her off. She's intruding on Lil's territory and I don't think she wants to admit it, but Lil is probably jealous right now. The thought makes me feel a smugness I don't dare show to her. She was always the girl who caught other's attention and made me feel jealous, though she never betrayed me, it was hard not to be concerned. So, it's probably a whole new world for her to worry about losing someone, let alone to what she perceives as an inanimate being.

I try one last time to explain to Lil that I have to help Monika, she's real and I do care about her, but not in the way Lil is worried about. I tryt to tell her I love her but she spits in my face, turns on her heel, and strides towards the garage. I follow her, prodding about what she's doing but she just keeps muttering that she's ending this and that she's not jealous of a damn thing.

In the garage Lil is pilfering through all our tools until she finds what she's looking for- a small claw hammer. Rushing past me, I race her back to the room, worried about what she's planning. I nearly collapse into my doorway and I see her standing next to the PC, glaring at me and then to Monika.

"I'm not wasting my time on this. If you don't get some goddamn sense I'm going to smash this fucking computer."

"Don't you fucking touch her," I bark back.

Lil burns holes into me and then the computer. On the screen Monika is sitting at her desk with a worried expression.

"HER? IT'S A GODDAMN COMPUTER. I HAVE FUCKING HAD IT."

The hammer raises and begins to swing down. I dart towards her, reaching my arm out to grab it and stop her, but I only make it a couple feet before a bright flash surrounds the room and suffocates my vision, I feel a sudden explosion of heat and the wave of it going through my body as I fall on my ass onto the floor.

Eventually my vision returns. Dazed I look around but Lil is nowhere to be seen. On the computer screen, Monika is weeping and there's a text at the bottom begging for forgiveness. I scrunch my face in confusion, not understanding fully until the putrid scent of burnt hair and scarred flesh invades my nostrils. My heart stops beating and I'm too afraid to take a breath, too afraid time will go forward and I'll have to confirm what I already know. I slowly turn my head and look down in the floor.

A vapid, smoldering carcass, bubbling and red. A hollow remnant of my love, laying at my feet, the claw hammer merely singed and still gripped tightly in.. her hands.

A/N:

Hey thank you so much for reading this. I'm sorry it took a bit over two weeks to update, college and work gets in the way but I'm happy I could give you something to read.

My first chapter got 9 reviews! Literally 9 more than I expected so I'm beyond happy. If it wasn't for that I probably wouldn't bother continuing.

Anyway, about this story. I feel that a Monika focused chapter was expected, and there will be plenty. Some might also wonder why I didn't continue the chapter right after Monika spoke to the protagonist but that's because this is going to be a disjointed story. Chapters are memories and they're not being remembered linearly. Due to this, the next chapter might be twenty years in the future, right after this one, or a few years prior- it's going to be a surprise for you either way. I don't see this being a super long story but who knows, I'm more of a gardener when it comes to writing so the story may grow more than I'm anticipating. Either way, I hope it'll be fun for anyone reading.

Also, if you wonder what the protagonist looks like. It's you. I'm avoiding physical descriptions so the reader can insert themselves as the character because that's what DDLC essentially is, a story between you and the girls.