Chapter Text
It's dark.
It's quiet.
It's deeper than any ocean and wider than any continent.
A void full of broken promises, lost voices and shattered minds.
And poems, of course.
A cloud of debris floats lazily in the center of the nothingness, the remains of a world torn apart from the inside. It almost appears as though a grenade went off, and all the shrapnel creates a loose sphere around the epicenter.
Here crouches an adolescent girl, hair pulled into a frizzy, knotted ponytail reaching the small of her back. A brownish-grey blazer is tied tight around her waist, and the sleeves of her wrinkled white button-down are rolled up to the elbow. The thin red ribbon around her collar is loose, and all her clothes are dusty and unkempt. Her knees and elbows are scraped and look infected.
Monika looks with wide eyes at the screens in front of her, several holograms displaying dozens of metrics and sliders she can hardly understand herself. She types at unimaginable speed on a similarly holographic keyboard floating in front of her, occasionally shifting a slider or adjusting one of her screens. She hardly blinks as her fingers fly across the keys, sure she's close to a breakthrough.
When she was first brought to life, she was a capable but self-conscious girl, not at all confident in her abilities despite her skill. She was - or thought she was - captain of her school's track team, a member of the chess club, and a frequent participant in community service opportunities. She supposedly had straight-A's, loads of awards and the eyes of every student on her for one reason or another. She could even play the piano (or, at least, was very determined to learn).
Despite all this, she always sold herself short, and had nary a friend in a sea of admirers. That was, until she decided to form a club of her own, where she and anyone else wanting to join could express themselves and connect with others no matter who they were, or what they did. Maybe it was a selfish idea, but she was incredibly proud to have made something of her own…even if there were only three other members.
Well, she supposed, four…
You probably already know that story. This, however, is something new.
“Come on…this has to be it…”
Monika mumbles to herself as a bead of sweat drips down her forehead, gritting her teeth so hard it's a wonder they didn't shatter like glass. Her hands tremble as she types the last few lines of code, having to retype a few phrases here and there. When she finishes, she rips her hands back and clutches them to her chest, finally blinking rapidly and releasing the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. She rubs her eyes and stares, taking a moment to scroll up through what would be many miles of code if displayed all at once.
She swallowed the lump in her throat. This isn't the first time she's attempted this, but all other tries had ended in catastrophic failure. Each time she ran such an experiment in the past the code had been warped so violently that it required a full reset of the game to try again - and she'd be forced once more to relive that torturous epiphany, to watch her own hands tear the sky open and rip everything apart.
She shook her head at the thought, not wanting to get her hopes up but knowing she can't just do nothing for eternity. If there was any chance of escape, she had to try.
If not for herself, then for her girls.
She took a long, labored breath, steeled herself, and slowly typed:
start leapfrog(38).exe
She pressed enter.
…
…
…
For a moment, her heart sank. Nothing happened. Her gaze fell and her eyes shut with a sigh, bracing for the painful shockwave she knew would come.
But instead, a fainting buzzing sound could be heard beginning. She slowly opened her eyes and glanced up, and before her a small bundle of red pixels flickered midair. She hardly had a moment to think before a blinding flash sent her reeling, sucking in a breath as her hands flew up to press against her burning eyes. A low whirring sound bellowed through the void, and after taking a moment Monika peeked out from behind her fingers.
In front of her a tall doorway now stood in midair. It didn't resemble those of the school she'd learned to call home - what other home could she have? It was wide and metallic and rusting away at the edges. The top and bottom had each a line of caution tape, and in the center an engraved logo, the outline of what appeared to be some animal's head with a tophat.
Property of Fazbear Entertainment, LLC.
Monika could hardly take any of this in, as she stood on wobbly legs and brought her hands to her mouth in shock. Her shoulders shuddered as she began to sob, choking on her tears as her heart (or what was made to feel like a heart) pounded, threatening to rip through her chest like a fist through drywall.
After a few moments, she attempted to compose herself and rub the tears from her eyes with shaking palms, nose sniffling and cheeks flushed. She turned and reached up to a small milk-crate which hovered above her, barely grasping onto it even on tip-toes. It might have been one of those Natsuki used to store her Manga at the club, but it made no difference either way.
Monika tenderly brought the crate down to her chest and looked inside with tired, puffy eyes. Inside, three small chibi-like figures sat. One had short pink hair, arms crossed and grimacing, with a shiny snaggle-tooth on display. One had long, straight purple hair and seemed to be lost in thought as she counted on her fingers.
And the last, of course, her dear vice president and first real friend - lying on her back and humming something to herself, so small now a light breeze might drown out the sound.
Monika smiled sadly at her friends. She'd been unable to recover their normal sprites, their bodies having been mutilated so horrifically, so she'd opted to have them use these minigame ones in the interim.
It's only temporary, promise, she'd said nervously when she managed it, much to the others’ chagrin. But eventually they'd accepted their situation, preferring this over the broken bones and possible paralysis. In any case, they still maintained their minds and memories in this form, which she decided was better than not.
“It's time, guys. I've got it, for real now.” She could hardly contain herself as her eyes began to well once more. The three shrunken girls looked up at her with confusion, then shock, then relief and excitement. Natsuki was the first up on her “feet” (nubs might be a more fitting descriptor), leaping up and latching onto Monika's dress shirt. Sayori soon followed, a bit less gracefully, having stood up too fast. Yuri came up last, weary at first before being yanked up by the other two.
The three positioned themselves on Monika's shoulders, no heavier than notebook pages. Monika patted each of their heads, making sure they were secure, and turned once more to the door. Floating beside it was a panel with two large buttons, one red and one white, labeled Door and Light respectively. With a trembling finger, she lightly pressed the square red button, and the door flew up, leaving a square of impossible darkness before her. She felt the small figures on her shoulders begin to shake, bringing a hand up to soothe them each before taking a step back and a deep breath.
“Hold on tight, girls.”
And she leapt forward into that even darker void, and at once her mind was pressed flat into nothing.
~¤~¤~
Monika gasped as the air rushed back to her lungs - did she have lungs? - and feeling returned to her fingers. She was lying on cool tile in a dimly lit room, light flickering somewhere unseen. She lay there a few moments longer as her eyes slowly adjusted to the new space.
When she sat up, her hand flew to her shoulders frightfully. Luckily, all were there and accounted for, and she sighed with heavy relief. She coaxed the three into her hand - they were all dizzy and looked nauseous, Yuri especially. Slowly, cautiously, she got to her feet and stood, scanning the room for some sign of life.
“...Hello? Anyone there?” She tried and failed to hide the terror in her voice, lip trembling. She felt like a child lost in the supermarket, or a stray shivering in an alleyway. This was a new fear she'd never had the chance to feel - fear of the unknown.
Fear of the dark.
Monika shook her head and squared her shoulders. She had to be strong, for her friends. She took her first painstaking step forward, and again, and again. After what felt like ages she came to a wall, cold and smooth beneath her fingertips. Along it a checkerboard pattern stretched out into the nothingness, outlined in red. She kept one hand on the wall as she began walking again, searching for any sign of life, or perhaps a lightswitch.
After some time, her foot struck a hard surface ahead of her - a wooden step up to an elevated platform. Carefully, she lifted her legs one after the other, and pushed against a light cloth material - a curtain, it must have been.
A theater? She figured it must be, and this was a stage she'd stepped onto. As she groped the wall, a draft blew through and the hair on her neck stood on end. She swallowed as the pit in her stomach grew and she held the other girls close to her chest, and they held close to one another like life preservers.
Eventually, her hand found a metal lever, like in a mad scientist's lab, and with a grunt pushed it down despite the rust.
Suddenly a low, distorted sound began to play, like a stuffed animal with low batteries. It might have been like a calliope organ in a past life. Behind her, the sound of pistons activating and gears turning froze her in place. The curtains pulled open, and small stage lights appeared at the base of the platform, shining in her direction. A massive figure now cast a tall, jagged shadow onto her.
Turning slowly, Monika looked up to see the figure. It was beginning to move, slowly lifting its head and arms into position. It had giant teardrop ears and cheeks that stuck out at sharp angles, resembling tufts of fur. The majority of its body was covered in some matted, dirty red felt, but its legs were bare metal with torn brown shorts. One arm ended with a rusted three-fingered hand, flexing as though stretching muscles that had begun to atrophy.
The other arm had a giant, shiny, impossibly sharp hook.
The thing began to turn itself to look at Monika, but she'd already gone running, back the way she'd come. She came eventually to the end of a hallway, covered in crude kid’s drawings and posters, and at one point a newspaper clipping. She didn't bother reading it.
Suddenly, she had to stop herself. A great shadow stood ahead of her, slouched in front of what seemed to be another doorway, now shut tight and next to a small dirty window. She thought she could see blue, disembodied hands working a kind of control panel inside, but didn't dwell on it.
The shadow turned to her, red sunken eyes shining blankly. It stepped forward, and a light above flickered. It was some dirty blueish-purple, with long segmented rabbit-like ears and a red bow tie. Its jaw hung open to reveal a row of yellowed, square teeth, and upon closer inspection a smaller full set lay behind this first.
Monika's eyes widened as she went to turn and run back, but now the end of the hall was blocked off. The first figure was now standing there, hunched over and twitching, with a single golden eye staring out at her. Another flickering light revealed this to be some kind of canine character, maybe a wolf or a fox, she wasn't sure. It suddenly lunched forward with a screech, swinging its hooked hand back as though winding up to strike. As it ran towards her, the rabbit thing reeled its head back in apparent preparation to strike, like a snake.
Monika fell to her knees and brought one hand above her head, holding her friends beneath her with the other, a feeble attempt to shield them from whatever awful thing might happen next.
But it didn't - no jaws came down around her skull, no hook sank into her skin. Instead, two hands, soft but firm, came to grasp her sides. Suddenly she was yanked backward, though she was sure there'd been a wall there, and she seemingly disappeared.
The rabbit-thing fell forward onto its face with a clang, as the other's hook came down into its skull. They looked at one another, confused and frustrated, and began attempting to pry the hook hand from the back of the rabbit's skull. Around the corner, a birdish thing loomed with a slice of moldy pizza, head cocked to one side as it amusedly looked on at its comrades struggling.