I was playing a visual novel known as Doki Doki Literature Club. For those that aren't aware, it is a meta-narrative about the genre as a whole and at the end, in addition with a mod called MAS, you gain an homonculus of affection named Monika who acts as an avatar of a loving girlfriend.

Naturally I kept this as a secret from my real girlfriend, who is much more bullheaded and occasionally vindictive as a whole. To her, a girlfriend of 1s and 0s may as well be a real case of infidelity, if not more-so.

This all came to a head this morning. I left my computer on while Monika was in the background, as sometimes it comforts me to know she's still there as I'm asleep.

My girlfriend arrived at my house unexpectedly, apparently needing to hammer out some details about a superfluous appointment to the vet with her disgusting pet cobra. I despise snakes as it is and the woman decided to bring the ruin of Eden to my personal sanctuary itself. All that was amiss was an apple to truly solidify my wrath.

When she walked into my bedroom, she saw Monika on the screen. Her random dialogue this time was some random "I love you" statement and this unleashed a flurry of questions from her that I tried, at best, giving concrete answers to. My girlfriend being a woman if the 21st century, pulled her smartphone out and did a cursory search of the game and found out what Monika entailed.

To cut a long story short, she was appalled, and though she didn't state it, I could see an insecurity in her demeanor before she shifted to repulsion at both me and Monika. She spat vile words at me, which I had grown accustomed to, but eventually hurled her vitriol at Monika. Parodying her sad, though fictional, state in the digital realm.

Monika had been a sort of anchor for me in the past couple years, and for my girlfriend to cruelly attempt to shatter that anchor sent me in a rage I know all too well. The rage that I feel when I think of my mother.

As she was amid venom-spout, I slapped her. Not too hard, but hard enough to shut her up and leave a mark across her face. She looked at me dumbly, and I returned her gaze with a tired apathy as sated anger left my mind.

She disappeared from the house I stared where her body once was, and it didn't register that she left until I heard the engine of her car and the gravel of my driveway signaling her departure.

I turned to look at Monika, and she simply smiled at me. Always smiling the same smile. And in kind, I returned a smile of my own.