"You don't know me; my name is Monika." She extended her hand to Sonia. She looked shocked as if she knew what was going on. I tried to look away, hiding my face. I knew she would be able to tell who I was, but I hid instinctively anyway. I faced my back to the two, not knowing what would come of it.

Sonia didn't even shake Monika's hand; she simply wanted to figure out who I was. "Who are you?" She asked, pointing at me. "My name is Ellis," I said, itching my wrists, which had no scars yet. That was my one fatal mistake. As soon as she saw how reluctant I was and the clawing of my wrist, I guess she figured it out then.

"Wait, Eli?" My heart sank into a bottomless pit of despair. She figured it out. Once again, I could neither move nor speak at all. Thankfully, Monika saved me, or at least tried to.

"It's Ellis; we don't know anyone named Eli." Monika gave her a serious look as if she were wanting to punch her.

"No, you're wrong; only Eli does that," Sonia said. Monika gave off an intense feeling that only made me more worried. I began tearing at my arm.

Monika put herself in between me and Sonia.

"Get out of my way, Monika," Sonia said in a fierce tone.

"I won't let you hurt him," Monika replied, putting her fists up. "I'll make sure of it." She braced herself for an attack from Sonia. Sonia was both surprised and confused.

"Hurt him? I would never even think of hurting him."

Sonia did not back down until she saw what I was doing. I hadn't even noticed it myself, but my clawing was already tearing off my skin. Blood was seeping out onto the floor, and I continued as I couldn't feel anything. Sonia's eyes widened as she saw me continue. She tried to help me, but Monika, unaware of my situation, continued to block her way. In consequence, Sonia punched Monika, sending her falling against the door. I knew that punch was powerful as Sonia visited the gym frequently, and I had suffered countless losses in arm wrestling against her.

Sonia immediately grabbed my hand and said, "Stop this, Eli, please." I somehow managed to restrain myself from clawing at me and looked at Sonia; she had a concerned yet serious face. I couldn't bear seeing her like this because of me. I couldn't even begin to imagine how much pain I'd caused her. My own volition was my curse, and no matter how hard I tried, it would never leave me.

I couldn't bear the pain anymore—not the pain from my wrist, but everything—the past, Sonia, Monika, everything. Memories of Sonia began playing in my head. I miss those memories. Those happy times were now enemies, so I tried not to remember what I had lost. I couldn't feel anything anymore. I saw Sonia's concerned expression and Monika's horrified face. That was the last thing I could recall before I was taken to sleep by my panic and blood loss.

Did we reach him?

What?

I think we managed to intrude on his thoughts.

Who's speaking?

He doesn't know it is him speaking, interesting.

Get out of my head.

The subject is proving to be a suitable host, wipe the last five minutes and proceed.

Get out of my head!

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was a ceiling, precisely the same ceiling the school had. I was lying in a bed that was not particularly comfortable. As I sat up, I felt a weight on my legs. That weight was Sonia's arms wrapped around my legs, with her head resting on them. She was asleep, and from what I could tell, she was waiting for my recovery. I looked down at my wrist, which I had torn open, and saw bandages. They were thick and uncomfortable around my forearm. I then looked around the room; I was in the medical room. I looked at my hands; I could see my nails filed down to an uncomfortable length. I knew Sonia had done this, as this was not the first time it had occurred.

I didn't want to wake Sonia as I was fearful of what she would say concerning my incident. However, I couldn't move without waking her. Accepting defeat, I laid back in bed and stared at the ceiling, wondering, and thinking about everything. My mind began to run wildly, and I could not control it. This was another problem I dealt with. Overthinking is why I constantly want to occupy myself with something to do. It works almost every time. In those times, it doesn't. It's usually because my problem is unsolvable.

I thought about going to sleep again. However, the door to the room opened. Not knowing who it was, I pretended to be asleep. I could hear their footsteps coming closer to my vicinity. I opened my eyes slightly, and it was Monika giving Sonia a sorrowful glare. It was an expression of pity, and it looked genuine.

"Eli? Are you okay?" Monika asked me, her voice awakening Sonia. She was a light sleeper.

"Eli, you're awake!" Sonia said, hugging me. I said nothing as I was afraid of saying something wrong. "You dumbass, I was so worried," She said in a quivering voice. I felt horrible for making her watch what I had done.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to," Sonia cut me off, "Shut up please, It's not your fault. Nothing was ever your fault." At this moment, she began crying into my chest. I looked up at Monika. She had an expression of sorrow even more than it once was. "It's my fault. I shouldn't be so worried about you all the time. That's why you broke up with me." Those words made me regret breaking up with her, but I knew it was for the best.

"Sonia, I understand it's not my fault, but it isn't yours either. You didn't do anything wrong, I can assure you of that." I felt like my words were being listened to but not being accepted as truth.

"I love you," She said, pausing most likely for my reply. After realizing I wouldn't give her one, she stood up, wiping the tears from her face. I didn't love her anymore. My feelings for her disappeared long ago, I should have ended our relationship when I fell out of love.

"I'm sorry It's my fault you don't love me anymore it's always my fault." Before I could say something, she quickly left the room, leaving only me and Monika. I knew she would blame herself. That's one thing we have in common. We always thought it was our fault for the cause of problems. But I was learning that that was not the case. I don't think Sonia did, however.

Monika sat next to my bed, and we remained in silence for almost a minute till she spoke. "I didn't know you would hurt yourself to that extent." I once again remained in silence. There was nothing I had felt like saying. I felt as if anything I said at all would make the situation worse than it already is. I always felt like that. "She really cares about you, huh? At least she could love you when I couldn't. I was always jealous of her. Watching you guys cuddle together, I had no idea how it would have felt. I had always wished that it was me there instead of her." Monika's words hit me unexpectedly. I still pondered if someone could love this much. Never really seemed possible. However, this world doesn't seem likely to exist, so I guess it's to be expected.

"I didn't know," I said, "I didn't know you were trapped in here, I'm so sorry." I felt tears coming out of my eyes. "I should have done something, it's my fault you had to just sit back and watch when you didn't deserve to." There I went again blaming myself. I hated doing that. But I could never control it.

"What? No, Eli, it's not your fault it's no one's fault," She told me. Of course, I know it's not my fault, but still, I felt like it was. I sat up trying to get off the bed. However, my legs were not ready to stand. "Eli, please just rest. You're not ready to stand yet." I ignored her words and attempted once again, succeeding in only standing.

"Look, Monika, I just want to leave this place," I said, trying to walk with Monika expecting me to fall, ready to catch me.

"Eli, you need to rest. You lost a lot of blood when we were carrying you here." I didn't want to rest, I just wanted out of this school. I wanted to be alone. I slowly made my way to the door of the room. Before I could open it, the door swung open, and I came face to face with Sayori. I had forgotten about her. She was looking at me with a saddened expression. We both froze and stared at each other. I could tell she was on the verge of crying. She then threw her arms around me.

"Eli, I," Sayori said. She began crying into my shoulder. "I was so worried," Se said in between sobs. I could feel the sorrow in her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you like this."

"Shut up, you big dummy, it's not your fault," Sayori said. Monika walked up to us.

"She's right, you know," Monika said with a small smile, "about the dummy part." Sayori let go of me and wiped her tears with the sleeves of her blazer. We walked out of the room with Sayori holding onto my arm as I walked. I looked outside a window, and the light was darker than it once was. However, the fog remained.

"Sayori, I can stand just fine," I told her. However, it was fruitless as she continued to hold my arm. As a consequence of my words, I think she tightened her grip on my arm. It felt nice, especially after what happened. I hadn't remembered the last time Sonia did something like this. It was hard to recall since the last few months of our relationship were not the best. As we gradually fell apart. However, I knew how much pain I caused her, so I was perfectly content with our separation.

"Where did Sonia go?" I asked Monika. She shrugged and casually disregarded the question. I wanted to go to her and apologize, but that's probably not what she wanted me to do. "I guess I'll just head home for now."

Sayori chimed in, "I'll walk you home." I was hoping she would as I could not recall what house I was in.

"Would it be alright if I joined you?" Monika asked. Sayori and I nodded, and we made our way to the school entrance.

As we walked out the entrance, I noticed that the sky grew, even more darker with the fog showing no signs of receding. The street lights were not on. However, they should have been in this darkness. The absence of light was so prevalent that I could see a few feet in front of me and nothing more.

Sayori seemed not to be phased by this as if it were a natural and common occurrence that she had grown used to. It struck me as odd how she was not as tense as I was. Monika, on the other hand, was as anxious as me. Both of us were on high alert, hoping nothing would prevent us from reaching our destination. While this seemed like a supernatural occurrence, neither of us decided to speak anything about it.

Even more so, I had not wanted to speak as there were no sounds whatsoever. In the morning there were birds and the wind however now there is nothing at all. As if all life in this world had ceased with no warning. Why weren't they making any noise? What are they hiding from? Thinking about it was not doing any favors, I decided to just focus on my steps. It was somewhat difficult to walk as my legs felt weak, and Sayori was still clutching onto me.

I walked for what seemed like an eternity, and we finally arrived at the house. The number plastered on the door was zero, two, nine. It's Sonia's date of birth, February ninth. Why did they make it relate to her? I disregarded the thought and went through my bag to find my keys. As I pulled them out, Sayori let go of my arm.

"I'm going to come over tomorrow so, I'll see you then, Eli," She said as she hugged me tightly. She looked up into my eyes. Those innocent blue eyes. I can't believe she killed herself.

"Bye, Monika," She said as Monika gave her a friendly wave goodbye. She walked off, leaving me and Monika alone.

"Are you going to head home as well?" I asked.

"I was hoping I could sleep here. My house is more of a blank room." My mind immediately thought of that black classroom with its orange dark lighting coming from the windows. The inky black void changes into white and orange constantly like a sun going supernova or a galaxy dying.

"Yeah, that's fine. I was hoping for some company." It was true, I didn't want to be left alone. After all, I didn't want the voices to dominate my thoughts.

I opened the door to see the same interior as I could recall this morning. The kitchen was the closest to the door, with the living being past the left side of the stairs and the bathroom being on its right side.

Monika looked around the house while I set my bag down and explored the contents of the kitchen. The fridge was stocked with American food, no cheeseburgers and soda but brands from America. Milk, eggs, fruits, vegetables, meat, and water were all inside the fridge. I looked around the cabinets to find cans of beans, vegetables, non-perishable items, and the like. It was as if it was suited for me. However, it still felt odd how there were no Asian products or anything from that nationality.

I sat on the couch, already tired of standing and walking.

Monika sat next to me, "Are you alright, Eli?" I wasn't but I'm very talented at hiding my feelings.

"Yeah, I'm alright, I just need to rest. Wait, what's today?"

"Friday," She responded. So, no school tomorrow, then good. I could use a whole weekend off.

"Okay, I was just wondering." After that silence absorbed the room. Nothing was spoken for minutes; we simply sat in silence. I began to wonder about Monika's love for me. If it was as intense as her actions inferred, how is she so restrained? How can she simply sit here and do nothing when I, supposedly her entire world, was sitting only inches away?

"What's with the fog?" I asked.

Monika shrugged, "I don't know why there is fog here or even in the game files. I don't remember ever seeing anything relating to visual effects." Then maybe this is someone else pulling the strings.

"Do you remember when," I hesitated, "when I deleted you?" Monika crossed her arms and gave me a stern affirmative. "Sorry for doing that, but you lost the admin access to the game. The power was transferred to Sayori. What if that is happening here?"

Monika seemed to think about it with a puzzled face, "That could be true, but shouldn't I have that power since I'm here now?" She was right in that aspect.

"Perhaps the power was taken from you by someone of a higher authority?"

Monika still seemed puzzled, "Well that depends. Are we in the real world, your world, or are we in mine, in the fictional one?"

"We can't be sure enough to decide on it, but let's say this is the fictional world. The only person able to remove the admin permissions would be the player, right? So then that could be the reason you have no administrative access. However, think of it from a real perspective. We have been placed and forced to live here inside an artificial city. By someone who is probably very dedicated to making whatever project or experiment work."

Monika looked lost in thought. I doubted my second theory. Whoever this was can't just replace my body with a replica. It just doesn't seem possible.

"I think I'm just going to go to sleep. All this speculation is tiring me. If you want you can sleep in my room. I'll just make do with the couch here." Monika looked downward and made sure her face was not visible when she spoke.

"Is it alright if I sleep with you just for tonight?" I had considered the possibility of this question being thrown at me, so I was already more than willing to agree.

"Okay, well I'm going to sleep now so," I stood up, prompting Monika to do the same.

The feeling of lust began to manifest within me as I saw how the light from the window made the room a perfect brightness for romance. I didn't want to in my mind, however. The thought of sleep seemed more enjoyable. As I took off my blazer and kept my pants and undershirt on, Monika took off her skirt, blazer, and other items. Leaving her with pink undergarments and a white undershirt. We both entered the bed and faced each other. Her eyes, like Tsavorite, shone in the pale light. Nothing was said in this endless stare. I was memorized by her eyes.

"Goodnight, Monika," I said as I closed my eyes. I heard shuffling, and then I felt a kiss on my lips.

"Goodnight Eli," She said. She then pulled me into an embrace. Wrapping her arms around me like a child afraid of losing her mother. "I love you," She whispered while she caressed my hair.

"I love you too," I said as I opened my eyes to see her staring back at me. I cupped her cheek and softly caressed her face. It was like silk, a softness I had not known existed.

I closed my eyes and drifted to sleep.