I open my eyes.
Despite where I just was, I'm still alive. The knife in front of me has stopped just short of piercing my chest. A drop of blood wells up, staining the front of my blazer. Looking past the knife, I see him sitting in front of me, both hands on the grip. But someone else's hands are there, too.
My hands.
At some point, I found the strength to save myself. It couldn't have been my own.
"Still kicking, huh?" The man from before looks up. "I'm not sure what you hope to accomplish like this, but you're only delaying the inevitable.
"Haven't you realized that the longer things go on, the worse they seem to get?" He pushes back on the knife, but I hold my ground, not letting it any closer. "I'm doing you a favor by putting everybody out of their misery. So let me help you."
I thrust back. The knife moves a few inches away from me, a dark drop of blood on the tip. "I'm not done yet. I still have a little more time."
"Time for what? Everybody dear to you is gone now, there's no reason to stick around." He pushes harder, moving the knife so much closer. "Besides, you're not the one in charge here. Now die already!" He lunges forwards.
"No."
The knife is stopped. Another pair of hands rests on mine, pushing them away.
When I look up, Sayori's body is no longer dangling from the ceiling. She's standing at my side, a frayed and broken rope around her neck.
"MC..." Sayori looks down at me. "All this time I've spent with you has meant the entire world to me. I can't stand the thought of losing you, and I know you feel the same way. You've given me a reason to stay in this world. Thank you."
She tightens her grip on the knife. Her fingers bleed where her fingernails are cracked. "You won't hurt him. I won't let you."
"We won't let you."
A group of soft pink fingers wraps themselves around mine. They're thin and frail, and the wrists beneath them have bruises around the wrists, as if they'd been fighting against restraints. Natsuki leans forwards, resting her body against mine.
"My entire life, I've always wanted a place where I belonged. I never fit in with the other kids, I never felt wanted at home, even the literature club felt like a strange place. But the whole time I was searching for a place where I was wanted, I should have been looking for a person who wanted me. And that person is you. Thank you."
Natsuki pushes against the other man, and he begins to reel back.
I feel a softness on my back as a pair of arms wraps themselves around me.
"I've always been ashamed of who I am. When I talk to people, I have to put on a fake personality, a fake life, fake interests. But talking to you, I realized I didn't need to do that. You accepted me for who I was, even when I couldn't. Thank you."
Yuri pushes into my back, giving me the strength to knock him over and on to the floor. He loses his grip on the knife as he thumps against the ground.
I change my grip and point the blade at him.
"I don't know who you are or why you want to attack my friends, but I won't let you hurt any of us any more." I squeeze the handle of the knife and thrust it downwards towards his chest.
My hand stops. There's something gripping my wrist. I look to the side and see Monika, tears running down her face. She tries to tug the knife out of my hands but to no avail.
"Please don't." She says.
"Monika?" I reply. "Why try to save him?"
She doesn't say anything, but points at the ground where he's laying down. He sits upright and looks at me. When I look at his face, I see my own. He glares at me with hatred in his eyes, mirroring the way I was looking only a few seconds before.
"You wanted to know who I was." He sits upright. "Does that answer your question?"
Sayori gasps. "What's going on?"
Yuri stares at the floor, as if looking away will simplify the situation.
Natsuki punches a fist in front of her. "Who cares? I say finish him off!"
Monika shakes her head. "If you do that, you're only hurting yourself."
Anon stands up. He takes a step towards me and clears his throat. "No matter how much you say you hated this story, you kept coming back to read it. In the back of your mind, you always wanted this. You could have saved everybody if you had only stopped reading, but you didn't."
"That isn't true." I respond. "I just-"
I cut myself off. Why was I here, if not to watch it unfold? Nothing I could've done would stop the story from finishing. My only real option was the one I never chose.
"Now." He holds out his hand, gripping the handle of the knife through my hands. "Let's finish this month off together."
He yanks inwards, pulling the knife towards his chest. I struggle to pull the knife away, but he keeps inching it out of my grip.
"Wait, no!" Monika runs forwards and grabs my wrists, pulling with me. He still gains more ground.
"MC, I'm scared!" Sayori grabs my hand, pulling with me. Even with the three of us, he still has a stronger grip on the blade.
"Don't let this end!" Yuri grabs the handle of the knife, pulling with me. But with four of us, he still remains dominant.
"Like I'm gonna let that happen!" Natsuki grabs my waist, pulling with me. But despite all five of us pulling together, the knife begins to move into his control.
And then somebody else starts to pull, too.
He reaches into our world and starts to pull. The knife slides from Anon's hands and my own. It rises into the air, suspended by nothing, before leaving the room through the ceiling. I stare blankly at the miracle that just occurred.
When I look back down, Anon is gone.
"What happened?" Sayori asks.
"Yeah, did we win?" Natsuki adds.
"Oh, thank goodness." Yuri sighs.
"It's over." Monika says. "It's all over. We can go back to the way things were."
"Back to what, though?" I say.
"After everything that happened, what am I really trying to save?
"He was right, you know. None of it was real. None of you are real. Hell, I'm not convinced I'm real at this point. As soon as this story is done, all of you will cease to exist."
Nobody says anything. Monika raises a hand as if to comfort me, but pulls it back.
Natsuki breaks the silence. "Who cares?"
"What?" I reply.
"She's right, you know." Yuri says. "I mean, of course we aren't."
Sayori continues. "We never were, and you knew that from the beginning."
"I don't understand." I say. "Why aren't any of you more upset about this?"
Monika puts a hand on my shoulder. "You knew we weren't real, but you still wanted to see us happy. So even if we're not real, your feelings are."
"Every time we made you smile, your laughter was real.
"Every time we made you cry, those tears were real.
"When you fell in love with us, that feeling was real.
"So even if we don't exist in the same reality as you, even if we can never lay a finger on you, we still exist.
"Our story has been a part of you since we first met. And even though this tale is about to end, that doesn't mean our time together has to end, too. Our story will go on forever and ever.
"All you need to do is write the first word."
