After school, Harper, Momoko and I made it to an empty field far from the walls of the city. There were waves of rolling hills and green grass in the distance with red farms and cow pastures occasionally dotting the horizon. The wall was just but a speck in the distance. I paid the cab driver a ridiculous amount of money (with my welfare payment, again!).

“So how are we going to get back?” Harper asked.

“Let’s not talk about it,” I said, dismissing Harper fully and wholly.

Momoko had her back turned to us. We walked over to her to see a huge smile on her face.

“Oh my god,” she exclaimed. “I love the countryside so…”

When we started talking to her, it was almost as if the happiness was wiped clean off her face.

“Um…” Momoko said, trying to bury the excitement. “So, let’s…”

Harper slapped her back. “No, enjoy the countryside. Tell us more about it.”

I laughed. “Yeah.”

Momoko started twiddling her thumbs. “It’s just that ANY strong emotion triggers the… not only…”

“Okay you know what,” Harper said. “Let’s go sit underneath that tree and try and find out what the causes are…”

My stomach started to grumble. “Harper…” trying my best to gain her sympathy with my cute face.

“Luckily I brought snacks,” Harper said, pulling out snacks from her bag pockets.

“You’re the best!”

…

We all sat on a mat under the tree, eating mac and cheese sandwiches. Harper and I sitting next to each other with Momoko across us. Sunlight flittered through the trees, dotting the grass below. The bright green fields stretched out ahead of us. It felt so serene.

“So,” I said after finishing the sandwich, wiping out the crumbs from my skirt. “Let’s talk about the Kaiju in the room.”

“What causes your transformations?” Harper asked.

“I said strong emotions,” Momoko said, shying away from the answers.

“Do you remember any specific instances?” I asked.

“One time, my mum said something sad, and I turned into a monster,” Momoko said. “The other time I was so excited about my birthday party that…”

She began listing a whole bunch of incidents that Harper and I began to lose track of them all. Turns out ‘strong emotion’ was a very vague term.

“You know what,” Harper said. “Let’s talk about the most recent incident. What provoked the last two monster incidents?”

Momoko turned red. “I… I don’t think…”

“Come on,” I said. “How bad could it be? We’re all friends here.”

“It’s not that,” Momoko said. “It’s…”

“Momoko,” Harper said gently. “We won’t be able to find out what’s wrong if we don’t know what caused the most recent transformation.”

Momoko turned away from us. She started muttering something in Japanese. Her face seemed to get redder and redder. “But it’s so embarrassing and…”

“Momoko,” I said firmly. “Like Harper said we can’t…”

“I liked a boy and I saw him with my best friend at the mall.”

Momoko said those words so fast that it took us a while to decipher it.

“And it made me so angry,” Momoko whined. “And sad. How could Claire do that. She’s such a… such a… after all I told her…”

It seemed Momoko had a lot to say about the situation. So much, in fact, that red scales started dotting her body like smallpox.

“Momoko,” Harper said nervously. “You might want to calm down…”

“What’s the English word?” Momoko asked. “Bitch.” The word combined with her Japanese accent made the word bitch a rhyming couplet with Litchie. “Bitch. She’s a bitch.”

Momoko realised what was happening, calmed down and took a breath. “Sorry, sorry.” She said sorry in Japanese a few times. “I’m just so fucking…”

I had to stop myself from grinning. Seeing the normally timid Momoko start swearing and huffing was a sight to behold.

“Oh no,” Momoko said, realising she just swore. “I am so sorry. Please…”

“No, it’s okay,” Harper said, unlike me she came in prepared and starting writing in her notebook. “Pop off as much as you want. And what about the second incident?”

Hearing the second question, Momoko turned pale. Her black eyes widened, making her looked like a frightened squirrel.

“Isn’t my first answer enough?” Momoko said.

“It is,” Harper said. “But we need more than one incident…”

“I gave you more than…” Momoko said.

“Specific incidents,” Harper said. “We need to know your mindset before…”

I placed a hand on Harper’s shoulder and shook my head. “I don’t think this is the way.”

“Look if I knew the interview would be this scary I wouldn’t…”

“Momoko,” I said softly. “Our intention isn’t to scare you but…”

“I…” Momoko said. “If I tell you about them. About what my dad…”

“Your dad?” I asked. “What does your dad have to do with…”

She started walking away. Harper and I started following her.

“Momoko,” I said. “We’re sorry.”

Harper nodded. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked such hard questions. We just want to help.”

“I know,” Momoko said, walking away from us faster. Her voice was starting to crack. “I know. I appreciate it. It’s just I don’t want you involved in this mess.”

“We want to be involved in this mess,” I said. “We want to help you…”

“You don’t know what they’ll do to you,” Momoko said, turning to face us. She was starting to breathe heavily, scales started appearing on her body. “You don’t… It’s happening…” She started to cry. “I can’t…”

Harper and I rushed to Momoko but before we could touch her, there was a burst of red light that sent us back. The world around me was an amusement park ride of grass, trees and farms as I was tossed through the sky like a doll until everything halted. I heard a familiar roar pierce the sky and heard heavyset footsteps. The last thing I saw was a hazy scaled leg that looked like a tree trunk and the distant sound of Harper screaming before everything went black.

…

“April,” I heard the distant echo of my name. It was a familiar voice. Momoko… no… Harper.

“Please don’t die,” someone… Momoko was pleading. “Please don’t die. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

I wanted to move. I wanted to speak. But no words came out, instead…

“Everything f…f…”

“She’s alive,” Harper exclaimed.

I heard Momoko’s excited scream.

“What’s that, April?” Harper asked.

“Everything…” my voice became more confident. “Everything fucking hurts.”

And it did. From the moment I could hear their goddamn voices, my body felt like it was being burned in hellfire. Every muscle I tried to move felt like trying to pull a rusty lever. I was in so much fucking pain.

But both Harper and Momoko were so excited and me being alive that they could not hear my complaints. And instead of helping me up, Harper decided now would be a good time to do the rundown of what just happened.

“So Momoko here turned into a monster,” Harper said.

“I’m so sorry,” Momoko cried.

“And it didn’t take her long to turn back,” Harper grinned like a maniac. “I guess with there not being a lot of things to destroy…”

“And I’m so tired of this,” Momoko said. “I’m so tired of living like this.”

“So Momoko decided to tell us everything about the most recent monster attacks, isn’t that great?”

I tried my best to smile through the pain. “That’s wonderful. But could you help me up first?”

“Oh, we’re so sorry,” both Momoko and Harper said at the same time. They heaved me up and sat me upright against a tree asking the usual questions: Can you walk? Can you see? What can you move? It was at this point I realised that Harper was equally as bruised as I was.

“How’d we get hurt?” I asked.

“Whenever Momoko turns there’s a huge blast of force that sends everything close to it reeling in the air,” Harper said. “That’s what happened to us.”

Momoko went out of her way to get me something. When she was out of earshot, Harper leaned in.

“Luckily there wasn’t anything fatal that could’ve…”

Killed us. That was what was implied. After being brought back to life I wonder what would’ve happened if I’d have died again? Another question to ask Mr. Silver I suppose.

Momoko came back with some apples. We each ate one of them and by God they were delicious.

“So, what was it you wanted to tell us?” I asked Momoko. “What happened during the second incident?”

Momoko’s body suddenly tensed. She was awfully silent, again. I wanted to roll my eyes, after everything we went through, she decides to go quiet on us, again. I couldn’t keep my exasperation from showing.

“Ugh, come on,” I groaned. “Why…”

“I’m sorry,” Momoko said, closing her eyes. “It’s just… the people I’m dealing with. They’re scary. Much scarier than me. They have eyes everywhere and they could be with us at this very moment.”

Harper and I stared at each other. I apologised.

“I’m sorry for getting pissed.”

Momoko shook her head. “It’s not your fault. I should apologise for hurting you the way I did and…”

Momoko sighed as scales started crawling up her body. She looked around like a meerkat and once she confirmed the coast was clear she took a deep breath.

“The private military guys,” Momoko said. “The ones that are after me. My dad told me they were going to take me somewhere safe and…”

“Hold on,” I said. “The private military guys, you mean Thanatos?”

The grim nod from Momoko was all the confirmation I needed.