NATSUKI POV: The Literature Club was never what it seemed. I should have known something was off the day Sayori didn’t arrive on time. But I couldn’t have prepared for what came next. The moment I stepped into the clubroom, the air was thick, suffocating almost. Monika’s usual polite smile was gone. In its place was something… sharp, calculating, predatory. Her eyes glinted in the fluorescent light, searching, hungry. Sayori sat at her desk, laughing softly, unaware of the tension radiating from Monika. My stomach twisted. Fear told me to run, but I was rooted in place. And then… it happened. Sayori screamed—a short, high-pitched sound—and then silence. The room smelled metallic, tangy, impossible. Monika stood over her desk, smiling as if nothing had happened. My mind refused to comprehend. She had… fed. I froze. My hands gripped the edge of the desk. I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t. Then Monika’s gaze found me. Cold, unyielding, hungry. I bolted. The hallways warped around me as I ran. Shadows twisted unnaturally. Each turn I took seemed wrong, corners bending in ways they shouldn’t. And behind me, the mechanical whirring grew louder. M.O.N.I.K.A. Bot—Monika’s terrifying hybrid creation—was in pursuit. Yuri tried to run too. She shouted, her voice strong, defiant: “Man… first you wanted a player, now you want a woman? Simp, might I sa—” Her words were cut short. A metallic screech, a sickening impact, and silence. I couldn’t see exactly what happened, but the sound of tearing metal and a muffled scream made my stomach flip. Yuri didn’t get up. I rounded a corner, pressed against a wall, shaking. My mind raced. I couldn’t outrun her forever. I had to fight, had to stop her. I grabbed the bag I had stashed on the way out of the classroom. Protection goggles. Check. Pocket knife. Check. Taser. Check. And chocolate. A small bribe, something to distract her just long enough. I slipped on the goggles and swallowed hard. Monika’s shadow stretched across the hall, moving impossibly fast. “Here,” I called, holding the chocolate. “You… need this!” Her form slowed, eyes locking onto it. Predatory, calculating. And just enough for me to act. I jabbed the taser into her side. Sparks leapt, and she hissed—a sound that was part human, part machine, part… wrong. She staggered. I lunged, knife in hand, aiming for the weak joints I had noticed in the M.O.N.I.K.A. Bot hybrid. I twisted, pressed, and drove the blade in. She screamed—a sound that will haunt me forever—half-human, half-machine, collapsing with an eerie, shuddering thrash. She lunged one final time, shadow and metal stretching like living night, but I stepped back, bracing myself. Slowly, the creature stilled. Her shadow retracted, the air in the hall still and silent. I sank to my knees, chest heaving. The metallic tang of fear and obsession lingered, but the immediate threat had ended. Sayori… Yuri… the horror had consumed them, but at least I was still here. Yet deep down, I knew the nightmare wasn’t over. Something of Monika—of her hunger—remained, lurking in the edges, waiting. And I would never forget the lesson of the Literature Club: obsession doesn’t just hunger for attention. It consumes. And sometimes… it waits.
