"Hey. Wake up."
Groggily, he opened his eyes, stirred awake by a soft whisper directly in his ear.
He was met with Monika's smiling face, leaning over his bed with a familiar playful glint in her emerald eyes.
MC gave her a smile back, taking in her full appearance. Judging from the neat, gray buttoned shirt, orange sweater-vest and the red ribbon bowtie at her collar, she appeared to have put on her usual school uniform, despite them still being on break for another few weeks.
It struck him as a bit odd for a fashion choice- when she dressed up for their "scenes," she was usually pretty keen on selecting purely fictional characters to cosplay. Going as a regular high-school student seemed a bit… generic, for her usual standards.
But just as he was about to ask what the occasion was for, she quickly silenced him by putting a gentle, slender finger to his lips.
"Shhh, don't talk." Her smile grew wider as she raised a leg, giving him an absolutely jaw-dropping view of her short, blue skirt and thigh-high black socks. "Just lay back, relax, and let me do all the work…"
Ah, okay. So apparently we're doing this now.
He obediently followed her orders, remaining silent as she began climbing into bed with him, moving with a sensual fluidity rivaling that of a professional belly dancer.
The uniform actually worked surprisingly well. Of course someone like Monika had the natural beauty and confidence to rock any outfit she put on, but he had to admit a certain selection bias for the first thing he'd ever seen her wear.
Any remaining thoughts regarding clothes evaporated the moment she'd made it on top of his chest, knees spread out on either side of him.
"Oh, it's been way too long…" She purred silkily, sliding her hands underneath his pajamas where she began slowly caressing his bare chest. Her hands felt maybe a tad colder than usual, but that was hardly a valid point of criticism.
He was in heaven. There was no better way to describe the pure bliss experienced each and every time Monika gave him one of her "special" massages. It was like she had some kind of magic, invisible touch in her fingers which instantly turned him into soft, malleable putty whenever she felt like it.
Still straddling his chest, she began leaning downwards, descending until he could feel the weight of her amazing curves pressed against him, could see her face inches from his. His heart started pounding in raw excitement and anticipation.
It was funny. Even after all this time, he still had trouble actually believing someone like him had managed to land a girl like Monika. Someone so utterly out of his league, it just… didn't seem quite real.
Monika… and the others too, of course. He reminded himself. Natsuki, Yuri and Sayori. All absolutely perfect, and nobody's luckier than I am for having them in my life.
Monika's smirk widened as she leaned even closer to him, lining her mouth up to his ear. A tingle of pleasure buzzed throughout his body when he felt her hot breath on the side of his head.
"You've kept me waiting." She moaned softly. "Letting the others hog all the spotlight, without making time for me… I think it's time I demonstrate how to do things PROPERLY."
He couldn't help from frowning lightly at that. He thought they'd been keeping a very reasonably balanced schedule up till now, one that ensured everyone got a roughly equal amount of time with him. It wasn't really fair to the other girls for her to still be jealous. Heck, just the other day he'd spent the better half of an afternoon cuddling with her.
While he knew Monika was probably just joking and didn't harbor any real resentment towards anyone, it still didn't sit well with him to hear her say such things about the others.
However, just as he was about to ask if she could maybe tone down the fake selfishness, she'd snapped her head back into view, and promptly silenced him by plugging up his mouth with her own.
Any notions of admonishing the comment were swiftly forgotten, pushed from his mind by the feeling of her soft lips against his, and the wet, warm tongue venturing inside to explore every crevice of his mouth. With his senses overwhelmed by the incredible stimuli, he very quickly gave up trying to resist, closed his eyes and lost himself to the forceful passion of Monika's kiss.
He knew it probably seemed incredibly weak-willed of him to just give in to her advances like this, but… He was only human. Anyone who wished to criticize his passiveness should try experiencing just how good it felt to be loved this much by someone like Monika, and then see if they'd be any better at resisting.
Not that he wished to share her with anyone else. He wanted her all to himself.
Heh. Now who's being selfish?
…that being said however, he thought the kiss had gone on for quite a while now. And judging from the way her arms were currently snaking around his torso, it didn't seem as if Monika was in a rush to slow down anytime soon. Not that he was complaining of course, no man in his position had any right to complain about something like this, but-
All of a sudden he felt Monika's hands close, the tips of her fingernails digging deep into the skin of his back, almost painfully so.
…no, not almost. DEFINITELY painful! Ow!
He discretely tried pulling away from the kiss, not sure if he was really into this. He didn't want to ruin the moment, but… with the way her fingers kept steadily applying pressure, he thought she might draw blood soon.
…what was the safeword again? He thought, mild worry starting to seep into the pleasure. They'd agreed upon something a while back when she'd wanted to try something new, but she'd never given him a reason to use it before. Something to do with fruit, wasn't it? Banana? Orange? Tangerine?!
But even if he somehow remembered the word, he'd need her to actually detach from his mouth long enough to speak it, first. Something she didn't seem keen on doing, based on the way her lips chased him down each time he attempted to shake her off.
And then, he felt it. Something far more disturbing than her nails on his back, sending actual shivers all the way down his spine.
Monika's tongue was extending inside his mouth, going deeper. And deeper, and deeper, far further than her tongue should have been able to go (and he should know!) By the time he felt it enter his throat and began slithering even deeper, he began panicking and finally opened his eyes.
He couldn't see anything. Monika's face should have been right in front of him, he could still feel her on him, in him, everywhere. But instead, all that met his eyes was a sea of total, impenetrable, glowing red.
Am I dying?!
The thought was extreme, but very real. The nails had definitely penetrated skin now, but were still digging into his flesh on a steady road towards his spine. By now, the ever-advancing tongue had made its way to his larynx, blocking his airway. He couldn't breathe. He was going to pass out any second now. He couldn't breathe! He couldn't-
Miraculously, he felt the fleshy tentacle slide backwards out of his throat, moving with such speed he barely even had time to register how uncomfortable a sensation it was. The nails too retracted from his back one by one, each feeling like he was getting hit by a reverse stapler gun.
He greedily gulped in air, only to weakly cough it back out again as he tried regaining his breath. He hadn't even noticed the intense red vanishing from his vision.
"Ahahaha, whoopsie! Looks like I got a little carried away there!" He heard Monika's voice giggling casually, as if nothing more serious had transpired than a tiny love nibble. "I'm super sorry about that! I'll try easing you into that stuff more gently in the future, all right?"
With his eyes slowly regaining their focus, he could finally stare up at Monika again. She was still straddling him in an upright position, projecting that usual, lighthearted and playful smile on her face.
It was only then that he realized two things- one, his previous attempts at speaking had been foiled on purpose in order to mask that he was currently unable to produce a single sound. Two, this wasn't Monika.
"The penny finally drops, huh?" She laughed again, lifting a hand soaked in his blood to her face which she proceeded to lick clean. "Was wondering when you'd find out. Oh well, guess there's no reason in hiding it anymore!"
She leaned uncomfortably close again, until her face lined directly up with his own. Every single one of his instincts were screaming at him to roll over and run away before this impostor could give another attack. But as was always the case these days, he remained where he was. Trapped within his own body, unable to do anything but watch as the thing wearing his girlfriend's face winked at him.
"Boo." She said.
His heart almost stopped as her body morphed before his eyes, twisting itself into something so horrifically disgusting it hardly even resembled a human anymore.
It was as if someone had taken Monika's base appearance, screwed around with the sharpness settings and put her through a photo-copier about ninety times until it literally strained your eyes to look at her. In fact, every single part of her body was comprised of sharp contrasts- her hair and uniform were a horrendous shade of deep crimson whilst her skin had gone a sickly, bright yellow.
It didn't even look like actual skin. It was more akin to a thin, fragile layer of porcelain-esque material that might break apart any second, as evidenced by the large, web-like cracks already present across her cheeks, chin and nose.
A large, toothy grin was plastered across the porcelain face, but there was something wrong about her mouth. It didn't… fit. Kinda like someone had taken the lips and teeth from two entirely different women, and somehow applied them to this creature without worrying too much about it being too large to look natural.
But the absolute worst part was the eyes, still glinting with Monika's usual playfulness and wit, but perverted into something… evil. There was no other way to put it. They'd gone from beautiful, hypnotic green to slightly crossed, unblinking and glowing red. The exact same shade as he'd seen during the kiss…
"Sorry, did I scare you?" The creature asked innocently, laughing again. Its voice was as messed up as the rest of her, switching between shrill and high-pitched to low and deep in the same sentence, like some invisible DJ was randomly mixing her vocal chords on the fly.
The too large mouth wasn't even matching up with her words. The bottom jaw was just jankily twitching up and down like a particularly bad anime dub.
"Could we kiss again, please? I really enjoyed it a lot and it's been soooo long…"
Her left eye began twitching and convulsing madly in every imaginable direction. MC was overcome with revulsion as realization dawned on him.
I KISSED this thing?!
He closed his eyes tightly and began silently praying for the horror to stop.
She's not real. She can't hurt me. She's just a nightmare. She's not real. She can't hurt me.
It didn't.
"Oh, trying to wake up are we?!" Not-Monika screeched, and he felt rough hands shaking his shoulders violently. "You think I'll fucking let you?! We're just getting started on all the fun we'll have together! Don't you wanna have fun with your Monika?! Tell me how much you looove your Monika! You don't need anyone except your Monika! C'mon, tell me, TELL ME! Just Monika! Just Monika! JUST MONIKA!"
He endured her shaking, helpless to do anything else.
"MC? Are you okay? Hey, wake up!"
Monika's voice was still calling to him, but it was much more… normal, this time. Less hysterical, and more reasonably worried. The grip on his shoulder had slackened to a much more manageable level as well.
Tentatively, he tried opening his eyes- and started screaming uncontrollably upon seeing that same, yellow face staring back at him.
"Woah, calm down!" A warm hand settled itself on his mouth, gently but firmly deafening him. He wildly shook his head to get free, he didn't want it t- touching him again!
"MC, it's okay! Everything's fine, please stop screaming! If the others think I'm hurting you, they're never gonna let me in here again! Just- breathe, all right?!"
He didn't trust a word she was saying. Whatever sick scheme she was planning, he wouldn't fall for it. Not again. Never again.
Although, the longer he looked at her and got a chance to collect his breath, the less sure he got of her identity. Aside from the clearly yellow skin colour, there wasn't anything connecting this Monika to the one screaming at him less than a minute ago.
No cracks in her face, no abnormally large mouth. Her eyes weren't crossed or glowing red, but the same piercing green as the normal Monika's, filled to the brim with concern as she stared at him.
Even her hair was wildly different. Neither red or brown, but instead a short, brightly blue bob cut which he quickly identified as one of her many wigs bearing a weird, blue and yellow-striped cobra head in the middle. And as if all that wasn't enough, she also appeared to be wearing… fluffy pointy ears sticking up from either side of her head?
He furrowed his brows as he took deep, long breaths through his nose, trying to make sense of the creature. If this truly was another nefarious ploy by the Nightmares, he wasn't really sure why it'd chosen this form. It wasn't really that scary-looking, just… extremely bizarre.
"I'm gonna go ahead and guess you're probably done now?" The weird cat-like creature phrased the statement like an unsure question, speaking in a perfect imitation of Monika's voice. "So I'm just gonna remove my hand now, kay?"
As promised, she slowly lowered her hand, allowing him usage of his mouth once more.
He swallowed hesitantly, about 85% sure he was really awake now.
"W-" He croaked, elated to discover he'd regained use of his vocal chords. Make that 95% sure. "…why do you look like that?"
There were about a million different and unique questions on his mind all bursting to be asked, and yet none seemed quite as important as that particular one.
"Like what?" She blinked obliviously, looking herself down. He noted the elegant white, Egyptian-style dress replacing her school uniform, reaching all the way down to her hips.
"…oh, right." She said in a vaguely embarrassed tone, as if only now realizing her abnormal appearance. "Uh, so I thought it'd be fun to wake you up with the Ankha dance, and I miiight have gone a bit overboard with my cosplay. But then I came in to find you thrashing around and whimpering, so I tried waking you up and well, you probably know the rest?"
"The… what dance?"
"Ankha!" She repeated. "Y'know, Animal Crossing?"
He could only stare blankly back at her, struggling to comprehend what might as well be a foreign language. She sighed deeply.
"It's this really cool trend on TikTok where-" She stopped herself mid-sentence, shaking her head in exasperation. "Y'know what, never mind that right now. You had another nightmare, didn't you?"
"…yeah." He swallowed, trying to suppress his gag reflex. The phantom touch of something long and slimy pushing its way down his throat weren't leaving him without a fight.
"Ugh, it's all my fault." Monika groaned, facepalming. "I shouldn't have left you alone to put on all this makeup. I just… wanted to surprise you. Was it a really bad one?"
"I g- guess." He stammered out, utterly failing at sounding casual.
"Oh, you poor thing." Monika frowned sympathetically. "I keep forgetting these dreams can happen at any time of day, not just at night. I'll remember next time, all right?"
"It's f- fine." He tried to sound convincing, and failed again. "I'm… okay, now."
"Good to hear. And hey, I think I know a way to make you feel better…" A mischievous smile suddenly creeped its way onto Monika's painted face. "And I'm pretty sure you'll appreciate it as well…"
He felt goosebumps prickling across his skin as he watched her slowly lean closer. Under any other circumstances, he would've probably welcomed her advancing with exuberance, but in the wake of recent events…
"W- wait, Monik-" He weakly tried protesting, only to be promptly quieted by a gentle, slender finger on his lips.
"Shhh, don't talk." She shushed him, so close now that her lips almost touched his. "Just lay back, relax, and let me do all the work…"
He couldn't help it, his body acting on pure instinct and self-preservation upon hearing the repeated line.
He flinched away from her touch, turning his head sideways.
"…MC?" He heard her hesitant voice.
He didn't respond right away. How was he supposed to explain that he just wanted her to leave him alone for now without sounding horrible? He felt awful just thinking it!
"…I'm sorry." He muttered, hating himself for doing this. "I can't."
"…Can't what?" Monika asked, understandably confused. "Hey, look at me!"
He took a deep, shuddering breath, but refrained from meeting her eye. He knew he was being silly, pathetic even, but… he still couldn't trust her. The image of the nightmarish Monika was seared into his mind, tainting his perception of reality around him.
The other demon entities had been horrifying, but they had never tried to be anything else. They'd never been cunning enough to disguise themselves first, or clever enough to do a near-perfect impression of the girl they were portraying. For all intents and purposes, it had been the real Monika- right up until it hadn't been.
He knew it wasn't fair to her. After everything she'd done for him, she didn't deserve to be treated this way. But he didn't know what else to do. He wasn't even sureif this was real. That she was real.
"I'm sorry." He repeated. "But I just can't right now. I know I'm being a total jerk and you're probably really disappointed, but-"
"Hey, hey, no, it's okay!" She hurriedly assured him. "It doesn't matter to me at all, look!"
He really didn't want to. What if this was yet another scheme and the moment he looked up he'd see her green eyes turn red again? He didn't know if he could take that.
Are you for real?! A voice inside him yelled with righteous anger. Man the hell up and look at your fucking girlfriend!
He reluctantly raised his head to see her wipe away the yellow facepaint with a wet napkin. She then proceeded to remove the blue wig from her head, letting the long, loose brown hair beneath flow free.
"Sometimes you're just not in the mood, and that's perfectly fine!" She said, smiling. "I'd never pressure you into something you don't want to! Look, horny mode's disengaged, the dumb cat is gone, it's just Monika now!"
"Just Monika! Just Monika! JUST MONIKA!"
The maniacal, screeching laughter echoed against his skull like a hammer to an anvil.
"Just… talk to me. Please?" Monika asked sweetly, "If you share whatever it was you saw in that dream, I promise I'll do my best to help!"
With some effort, he managed to look into her large, earnest eyes. He knew she was being honest.
If she was real, that was.
"Deal?" She asked, hopefully.
Either way, telling her the truth of how he apparently saw her as some red-eyed, yellow monster wasn't really an option he had the luxury of choosing. Just like with Yuri and Sayori, he had to come up with something else.
"…all right." He gave a practiced sigh, buying himself time to remember suitable horror stories. "It… it was this old man."
"An old… man?" Monika repeated, her brows furrowing lightly.
"Like, extremely old!" MC nodded, selling the story. "And dirty too! Completely covered in grime and rot. He came through the wall, because everything he touched rotted away too, and then he smiled and told me he was gonna take me to a pocket dimension where he'd torture me forever-"
"Wait a moment." Monika cut him off. "You're… saying you had a nightmare about SCP-106?"
He had to blink, momentarily caught off guard.
"You… know about SCP?"
"Do I know about the biggest collaborative writing project on the internet?" She scoffed, sounding vaguely offended he even had to ask. "I created some of the heaviest hitters on that site when I was fourteen, before I got my thing for poems."
"Oh." He said, dumbfounded. This… admittedly put a bit of a wrench in his plans, but maybe he could still salvage it. "…then yes, I guess I had a nightmare about 106."
But to his ultimate dismay, Monika's frown only deepened.
"You're lying to me." She stated plainly.
"…what? No, I'm not!" He protested, really trying his hardest to sound as genuine as he possibly could.
Monika only needed to squint slightly in order to let him know that it wasn't working. At all.
"MC, you really don't wanna do this." She warned softly. "You already know I can read you like a book. Tell me the truth, now!"
He knew he was in deep shit now. Monika had caught him red-handed, and nothing short of a direct meteor strike would throw her off the scent now.
But at a complete loss of what else to do, he foolishly made the decision to dig his grave further.
"I just did!" He claimed in a voice so unconvincing, even he could hear it. "I read the 106 article recently, and I- I thought it was very scary! Sorry, but that's just how I-"
"Stop it!" Monika exclaimed, sounding proper annoyed now. "Why are you lying to me?! What, do you think I'm gonna make fun of you or something?! For God's sake, I didn't say anything about the red demons, so why-"
She froze all of a sudden, eyes widening in realization.
Oh no.
"…you were lying about those as well, weren't you?" She whispered in unmistakable shock.
"No, I didn-"
"You did! God, how didn't I notice earlier, it's written all over your face!"
She leaned in close to him, face etched with seriousness.
"MC, you need to tell me what's really going on! I can't help unless I know the problem and-"
She tried reaching out to grab hold of his shoulder.
Instinctively, he gasped and flinched away at her touch.
She immediately retracted her hand, crawling several feet back in the bed all the while clutching her arm as if burned at a hot stove.
"M- MC…?" She stammered, voice shakier than he'd ever heard it before. "Y- you're scared of m- me...?"
"No!" He assured her, feeling his own voice starting to break. "I- I'm not-"
"You are! You c- can't even look me in the eye!"
Only realizing now that he'd been staring slightly left of her face this whole time, he briefly shifted his gaze to her emerald eyes- only to avert it again upon seeing the tears trickling down her cheek.
He didn't know what to say. He hated himself for doing this to her. None of it was her fault, but no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't shake off this latest nightmare and what it'd done to him. Manipulated him using her voice. Touched him using her hands. Violated him much deeper than any of the other monsters had.
It'd felt… real.
"You kn- know I would never h- hurt you… right?" Monika asked, steadily reaching her own breaking point. "P- please, t- tell me! We need to be honest with each other if we want this relationship to work!"
Just tell her already! The voice inside his head was practically screaming at him. You're literally ruining the greatest thing that ever happened to you, and for what?!
And then there was the other voice, ever-changing in pitch and bordering on maniacal.
"C'mon, tell me! TELL ME!"
"L- look, whatever it is, I'm not gonna judge!" Monika assured, wiping her eyes. "Y- you've never judged me for any of my oddities, so of course I'm not gonna do that! B- but- I've never lied to you either, so I just d- don't understand why you'd… A- anyway, there's nothing you could possibly say to make me think less of you. I- I love you!"
He wanted to. Every fiber of his being was desperate to throw caution to the wind and just tell her already before he ruined the single greatest thing that'd ever happened to him.
But even so, he knew he couldn't. There was always the possibility that he'd ruin things even harder if he told her the true nature of his nightmares. At least this way, the collateral damage would be kept relatively minimal.
"I- I'm sorry." He whispered softly, still unable to look directly at her. "But I just… can't."
There was a brief pause where no one said anything. Then-
"You always do this!" Monika exclaimed, voice thick with anger. "Why?! Why insist on suffering by yourself when you have four girlfriends who'd all leap at the chance to help?! Hell, it's no wonder you and Sayori were best friends before the Arrangement since you act just like her!"
He snapped his head upwards, feeling his eyes widen in shock.
Did she just…?!
Judging from the horrified expression smeared across Monika's own face, it appeared she'd been just as shaken by her comment as he'd been.
"I- I didn't mean-" She squeaked in a miniscule voice, before promptly closing her eyes and taking long, deep breaths.
"…that was too far. I apologize." She eventually spoke again, far more modulated this time around. "I'm just very… frustrated, with you right now. I'm not sorry about that, because you're being an idiot. But it wasn't fair of me to drag my unjust, selfish feelings with her into this. That won't happen again, you have my word."
"It's… okay." He forced out the words, still trying to even process her outburst.
"So I trust you're still set on not telling me the truth?" Monika asked, much calmer than before.
"I'm sorry, but-"
"Okay then." She interrupted, taking a very deep sigh. "That's fine. Perfect, even. Don't tell me anything."
She matter-of-factly approached the opposite site of the bed, propped up a pillow and laid down next to him. She then pulled out her phone.
"Looks like we have another thirty-two minutes before Yuri comes to take over." She informed, not even glancing at him as she spoke. "Hope you don't mind me staying 'till then, just in case."
She began absently scrolling through her phone, as if just passing time in a waiting room.
"Uh-" He began, unsure about this abrupt change of attitude. "So… we're just going to ignore everything that happened then?"
"Isn't that exactly what you wished for?" She said simply, still not looking at him. "But to answer your question, no MC, this isn't over. Not by a long shot. You should know me well enough by now to know I won't give up until I get results. I will get to the bottom of this, with or without your cooperation."
Her voice was neither cold nor warm, betraying no emotion whatsoever as she continued scrolling with steady hands. He'd only seen her this stone-faced before during game nights when she was just about to win, or when shopping online for Christmas presents with an inquisitive Sayori in the same room.
He suppressed a sigh, laying his head back down in his pillow. There wasn't really anything else he could do, except pray he'd have the strength to repel Monika when she'd make her inevitable move.
What on Earth have I gotten myself into?