Just Monika

What's Going On?

"Everyone? What do you mean? There's no one else here besides-"

"And Monika! Where's Monika?"

"Well uh, you know where she is. She's lying down in my dads bed." He turned away.

"Is she okay?"

"Danny, you already know what happened."

No, I just saw her. She was alive and healthy.

I guess it was another fuck you from the world. Giving me false hope and making me think that she was back.

"Ah right..."

"But I wanted to wake you up because the computer turned back on."

"What?"

"Yeah. I wanted to let you know so we could go check on Monika."

I got up from the couch and rubbed and stretched. "Alright, let's go."

I quickly headed downstairs and gently opened the door. Monika was lying in the same position we left her. I approached the side of the bed and looked at her.

"Monika?"

Her head slowly turned to me. "Danny?"

She sounded extremely weak. Her eyes were still gray and her skin was still pale.

But she was alive.

I tried to hug her, but I just phased through her.

"Monika... what happened?"

"I don't know. All I remember is the pain in my neck. I don't remember anything after that."

Even though I couldn't grab her hand, I put my hand on top of it. She gave me a weak smile as I did.

"I love you Monika."

"I love you too, Danny."

I stared into her gray eyes. We just smiled at each other. I had a feeling this would be the last time we saw each other, so we just embraced the moment and smiled.

Keith suddenly tapped my shoulder. "Uh, Danny."

I looked back at Keith. He was pointing at Monika's feet, which seemed to be slowly disappearing.

"What's happening," I asked.

I looked at Monika, who was still smiling.

"Danny, I love you very much." Her smile faded away. "But I think my time here is over. I can feel myself being taken away."

"I'll wait for you Monika. I'll find a way to bring you back."

"Danny, don't wait for me. I want you to be happy, even if it's not with me. What would make me happier than knowing that you waited for me, is knowing that you didn't. Live the rest of your life, Danny. I don't want to hold you back. You mean everything to me, and I'm glad we got to spend some time together. I'm glad I met you, and I'm happy to have been your girlfriend, even if it was only for a short time."

Her body was fading with every second that passed.

"I love you, Monika. I really hope that wherever you go, you'll be happy and safe."

"I love you too Danny, I'll never forget you."

"And I'll never forget you, my darling Monika."

She gave me one last smile before she completely disappeared. It was as if all the little pieces of her were floating towards the ceiling. They looked like a bunch of little pixels. I wonder where they were heading. Oh wait...

The computer!

"Keith, we gotta get to the computer."

I immediately ran upstairs. Keith ran after me. I saw the tiny bits of Monika being taken into the computer. I took a seat in front of it and just waited for all of the little pixels to go inside.

After about a minute or so, the last pixel finally entered. After it did, the computes whirlpool seemed to be closing.

I looked at Keith. "I guess that's it," I said.

The computer suddenly made an odd noise I turned back to it and saw the whirlpool fully open again.

A hand suddenly came through.

"Monika!"

I grabbed the hand, but it slipped out of my grip and pulled back into the computer.

The whirlpool didn't close, though.

I heard a couple of other noises. What exactly was going on in there?

"Danny!"

I suddenly felt myself being grabbed. Monika came out of the computer and hugged me. She was crying and holding onto me as if something was pulling her back. Half of her body was still in the computer.

I held onto and her and did my best to not let her get taken back. It seemed impossible though, it seemed like she was getting pulled harder by the second.

There was suddenly a harsh tug. I didn't let her go. Then there was another, harder than the last. Monika suddenly stopped crying and her grip started to loosen.

"Danny..."

Her voice trailed off. I tried to hold her close to me, but I was no match for the force the computer was creating. She slipped from my grip and got taken back into the computer. The whirlpool closed and the computer showed Keith's desktop. It was back to the way it was before Monika came to be. The background was back to normal, with Monika sitting at her desk in the space room.

At least I knew she'd be safe now.

"Keith, do you have a flash drive or an external hard drive or something?"

"I think I do, let me check."

He went to his closet and took a quick look around. "Yeah I have one." He handed me an external hard drive. "What are you gonna do?"

"Monika's in the computer somewhere. I'm gonna copy your files to the hard drive so that I could put them on my laptop. So that I can keep her with me."

"Ah I see."

I connected the external hard drive to computer and copied all of Keith's files to it. I even copied the ones that weren't compatible with windows, just to be sure. After the copying was complete. I disconnected the hard drive and thanked Keith for letting me use it before heading downstairs. My laptop was in his dads room since I had left it here when Monika and I were using "Monika After Story." I connected the hard drive and copied all of the files to my laptop. I put them in a folder labeled "Keith's Mac Files." Monika's file had to be somewhere in there. I just needed to find a way to bring her back.

After moving the files, I headed back to Keith's room.

"Hey Danny, did you do it?"

"Yeah. All the files are stored on my computer."

"Alright cool." He yawned. "What time is it?"

His yawn made me yawn. I took my phone out of my pocket and checked the time. "It's 1:12."

"We should probably be going to bed soon, it's pretty late."

"Yeah." I looked at the couch. "Could I sleep here?"

"Sure."

I lied on the couch and got comfortable. I felt sad about Monika disappearing, but I also felt peaceful. She was safe now, and she resided somewhere in the computer, whether it be mine or Keith's.

I cleared my head and fell asleep. Goodnight Keith. Goodnight Monika. And goodnight Danny.