It was a rude awakening.
Felt like rolling off your bed in the little hours of the night in the middle of a passionate dream and waking up to the cold floor in your face.
Reality hit her like a truck, crashing into the forefront of her mind, sending all senses tumbling off the road and leaving her to pick everything back up where she stood.
Yes, standing. In the middle of a well-lit room, no bed or cold floor to smush up against. There was a damp towel in one hand, another thing in the other. Soft to the touch and staring at the girl with its black, button eyes. It was a doll of a woman, sharply dressed with long, black curly hair, a pair of wings clipping to her back, a rat-like tail with a blunt end, and not one but two pairs of horns stitched to her cheeks and above her temples. Its gaze was empty and lifeless. It was just a doll, after all. But despite that, she couldn’t look away.
She felt as if the world constructed itself around her as they stared, it shook her to the core, yet she couldn’t pry herself away from the plush devil’s terrible gaze- until she felt someone gently touch her shoulder from behind.
“Monika?”
Monika recognized her name. She turned around to meet the familiar gentle face of a purple-haired girl. The sight of her worried eyes opened the floodgates. Memories began bombarding her brain. They felt foreign, alien, but after a moment, they felt like they were always there. She wouldn’t have thought about it if it weren’t for that second-long delay for information to complete itself to reignite her suspicion. Missing information filled in on its own, and things she didn’t know popped into her consciousness. She felt sick. But before she could completely digest that information, her mouth acted independently.
“Anything wrong, Yuri?” God, is that what she sounds like? Even her voice was strange to her.
”O-oh, nothing–” Yuri stammered. “I just finished preparing the clubroom for today’s meeting and came to check out with you, but you just…” she rolled her long, violet locks around her finger. “Stood there. Is everything alright? Why- Is that a voodoo doll?”
Monika was about to express her confusion, but Yuri took her hand to examine the artifact. The girl is timid and reclused until she finds something related to her interests. That’s when she becomes a chatterbox for everything on horror and the arcane.
”Amazing!” said Yuri, looking at the doll from every odd angle.
“It’s hand-made, expertly so…” she mused. Monika could see her eyes glimmer through her bangs. “And so professionally handled, you can see all the indents and punctures–” She suddenly stopped, eyes widening at a horrible realization. “Oh goodness, this couldn’t be Carrie’s, could it?”
”Carrie? Who–”
As if the universe was eager to answer her question before Monika could even voice it, the doors suddenly slammed open, electing a terrified shriek out of Yuri.
”PRESIDENTIAL ONE!!” yelled a masked girl as she stormed into the clubroom, donning a gothic black dress that resembled tentacles to match her alarmingly detailed three-eyed Kraken headpiece. “A Great Calamity Had Fallen Upon Us!” warned the mock cultist, stepping up to the pair. Monika took it surprisingly well, considering Yuri looked like she would fold into herself if she physically could.
“Just Monika–” she swallowed, “Just Monika is fine, Carrie,” she said, smiling politely. As best as she could, at least. “What’s the matter?”
”It Appears I Had Misplaced An Accursed Trinket Of Mine; Befalling To Unworthy Hands, It Could Seal An Unspeakable, Terrible Fate On An Unfortunate Soul! We Must Secure It Before Such A Thing Would Occur!”
The room fell silent. The three girls stared at each other, then the voodoo doll in Monika’s hand.
“HOW COULD YOU!” Carrie gasped and snatched the doll from her grasp. She hastily examined that the plush was the same as the last time.
“I Thought You’d Know Better Than To Smother Your Grubby Mitts On The First Cursed Artifact You Find!” Carrie accused, holding the doll close.”Have You Any Idea What You’ve Done?!”
Yuri covered her mouth, an attempt in vain to mask her terror. “How badly cursed is it? You can’t be saying that Monika will die just for touching it!”
“Nay, Tortured One. Her Fate Is Worse Than Death. This Avatar Depicts The Greatest Sinner Roaming This Plane. It Has Suffered Years Of My Hatred And Malice! By Touching It, The Presidential One Has Exacted My Lord’s Wrath On Herself! Her Demise Is Beyond Her Fleeting, Mortal Comprehension.”
Monika wanted to shrug it off. She “remembers” that Carrie is a faux cultist: Cthulhu doesn’t exist, but try as she might, the pit in her stomach screamed louder than her common sense.
“Fleeting comprehension…?” Monika echoed.
“Ah, You’ve Noticed, Haven’t You?” Carrie’s head slowly turned. “Reality Shifting Under Your Nose? The World As You Know It Crumbling To Dust As Your Feeble Mind Attempts To Make Order In The Chaos?”
Monika’s eyes shot wide open.
She stumbled backward, hitting her back against the wall. She could barely see it before, but now everything was clear. It’s all wrong.
This isn’t her school.
Neither she nor Yuri were wearing their uniforms, and Yuri’s arms were bandaged and bloodied; something to do with her Electi ability? This made no sense. The artificial memories overflowed her brain, offering feeble explanations she couldn’t believe but involuntarily accepted as truth.
The walls of their classroom were different- this wasn’t a classroom, she recalled: their club always met at the library study room– except it never did. Did their school even have a library?
She couldn’t see the mountains from the window, but they were right outside, as beautiful as she always remembered. Rows of evergreens coating the horizon, a sight she fell in love with ever since she arrived at E.R.A. yesterday– What is an E.R.A.?
Monika could feel her heart as she stared down Carrie’s dimly glowing third eye. Yuri held her hand out, but she couldn’t notice her over the arguing voices debating what to believe in her head. Her eyes darted between the doll in Carrie’s hand to her hollow eyes.
“…and then?” Monika cautiously asked, only for Carrie to snicker at her superfluous question; the answer was obvious.
“Only Master Is Privy To The Ruin He Will Bring To This Mortal Plane. All Who Associate With The Great Sinner Will Suffer For Eternity When Doomsday Comes- Perhaps If the Two Of You Meet, The Collective Hate Will Be Strong Enough To Bring Ruin To This World Finally!”
“She’s here?!”
“Yes! And Together, You Will Bring About THE END!”
Monika couldn’t even fathom what that cou