Love and Litterature

ACT 3: WEDNESDAY

You wake up, trying to remember the strange dream you had last night of a white doorway in a black void, calling out to you. You rub your head, and walk downstairs, praying to see your mother again. Instead, all you see is Monika, sitting on your couch, watching the news. Monika turns to you as you walk down the stairs, and smiles.

"Good morning! How'd you sleep?"

"Fine, I guess." you respond.

"I got you breakfast as well." Monika chirps with a smile.

You grab the pancakes off of the counter, and sit down, trying to keep a reasonable amount of distance between you and Monika.

"Enjoy your breakfast, I made it just for us."

You just nod, and eat silently, watching the news. None of the stories interest you, all of them are just average things in your local area.

You can tell Monika is bored as well, so you change it to a nature channel, and listen as some old guy describes the living habits of birds.

"Nature really calms me down." Monika says, leaning onto your shoulder.

You look at her, and wonder if this is what having a real girlfriend is like, but you know that this is all wrong. Monika shouldn't have picked you, there were so many better guys in the school, you were the bottom tier, bad looking, not smart, lazy, but Monika saw something in you she wanted for her own.

"You ok?" she asks, squeezing your hand.

"Yeah, I'm... fine."

Monika looks into your eyes. "You still miss them, don't you?"

"A little bit." you respond, looking away.

"I know you want them back, but I'll do better than any of them ever could, ok?" Monika says, gently, holding your hand.

You just sigh, and go back to watching the documentary, while Monika leans against you. After half an hour of silence, Monika looks up at you again.

"I should probably change into something more comfortable, hm?"

"If you want." you muster, half heartedly.

Monika stands, and leaves for the bathroom, giving you a chance to check something you wanted to check: the literature club. You open your front door, and enter the clubroom again. You instantly dart for Monika's desk, and open a drawer, finding nothing but a pen and paper. Rifling through more drawers, you find another poem, and against better judgment, you read it.

But he wasn't looking at me.

Confused, I frantically glance at my surroundings.

But my burned eyes can no longer see color.

Are there others in this room? Are they talking?

Or are they simply poems on flat sheets of paper,

The sound of frantic scrawling playing tricks on my ears?

The room begins to crinkle.

Closing in on me.

The air I breathe dissipates before it reaches my lungs.

I panic. There must be a way out.

It's right there. He's right there.

You stuff the poem in your hoodie pocket, and when you reach for another drawer, you hear a familiar "ahem."

"It's rude to look through a girl's stuff." Monika chides, hands on her hips.

You mutter a weak sorry, and shut the drawer, and look up at Monika, who's now wearing an off-shoulder sweater, a black choker and leggings.

"How's this?"

You so badly want to say you hate it, but you don't, she looks amazing in it.

"You look... great." you mutter, looking away.

"Aww, you're sweet!" Monika says, smiling.

Something inside you wants to keep it like this. Monika is happy with you, and is trying her best to make you happy as well, but another voice chimes in, reminding you that this... creature is the reason Sayori is dead.

Monika looks around the dim room, and sits down at a desk, staring out the window at the sprawling void you neglected to register yesterday.

"This reality is unstable." Monika mumbles, her green eyes glittering from the field of stars and galaxies outside.

"Of course, you wouldn't understand, but if one of us vanished, the reality would tear itself in twain, and everything would go back to how it used to be, with only the survivor remaining, although scarred."

That gave you an idea. You had to find a way to get rid of Monika, and go back to how life should be lived. You sit down next to her, and do your best to act neutral, staring out the window as well, trying to avoid Monika's gaze.

"Why would you put in all this effort for... me?" you ask, looking over.

"Because I care about you in ways the others didn't.

"What about Yuri? She cared about me in ways none of the others did."

"She was using you, don't you get it?! She didn't LOVE you, I LOVE YOU."

"If you DID care about me, you would have said something." you snap.

"Do I need to PROVE I care about you!?"

"Try it."

You smirk, not expecting Monika to be able to do anything, but she puts her hands on the sides of your face, and kisses you. You feel your heart drop, but your face turns red.

"Are you convinced now?~"

You can't bring yourself to respond verbally, so you just nod your head, feeling some kind of disgust.

"Good."

Staring out the window, into the sprawling void out of shock rather than interest, you ponder how to get rid of Monika for good.

Monika pulls out a pen and paper, and starts writing, catching your attention. You read the words as it progresses, but Monika folds it up and it disappears when she finishes it.

You stand up after getting bored of the star-filled sky outside, and return to your home, go to your room, open a drawer, grab the papers you got nearly 2 weeks ago, and read them.

As you read it, the feeling of longing grows, hitting its apex when you get to Sayori's poem.

You feel your eyes well up with tears, the grief of Sayori's untimely demise being refreshed in your mind. You sit on your bed, and stare at it, grabbing mentally at anything to remember her by. What if you made a plan that didn't work? What if Monika found out and kept you here forever?

You flop down on your bed, feeling utterly hopeless, faintly registering Monika's footsteps coming up the stairs.

She opens your door, and sits down on the edge of your bed, looking back at you.

"Is this your room?"

"Yeah." you mumble, staring up at the ceiling.

"Pfft, you nerdy dork." Monika mused, looking at your dusty manga collection.

You look over at Monika who's smiling at you, making you feel strange.

"You can't just nap the whole day away, I can make us lunch if you want."

"Okay." you mumble, sitting up. Monika gets up and leaves, going downstairs once more.

You follow behind after a few minutes, and Monika is already sitting on the couch, with a place of grilled cheese on her knee, and motions for you to sit down.

Sitting down, you eat the grilled cheese, occasionally looking up at the TV that Monika had turned on, vaguely following the documentary she has on.

You close your eyes after you finish dozing off eventually, once again being met with Monika's green eyes, staring at you from the doorway in the void, a different phrase echoes throughout your mind.

"Delete her."