Mona returned to her room and just sat against the bed, hugging her knees to her chest as her mind raced at a thousand miles an hour.
John later came in with his priest robes back on. Mona stood up and helped him take them off again. Then she slowly sat on the couch as John went to the window.
"They're guarding this place heavily," he said to her. "Now even I can't leave." He looked over at Mona and saw the tears forming in her eyes. "Hey, it's going to be alright."
"No, it's not," Mona said hardly. "You can lie to those women and you can lie to those girls, but don't lie to me. It's not going to be alright. Someone is going to have to go to that stupid Japanese 'party', and it doesn't take much to figure out what they're going to do to whoever does end up going."
John looked at her sadly. "Mona…"
"John, I just…I…" There were so many things Mona wanted to tell him in that moment. She wanted to tell him all about what had happened to her before she found refuge in the cathedral. She wanted to tell him why she felt so protective of these girls. But she just couldn't seem to get the words out. If she told him her story, it made it real and she didn't think she was ready for that.
Mona quickly left the room and went downstairs to sit on the pews. She felt a few tears leave her eyes as she sat there thinking about the absolutely miserable situation she had been forced into.
Eventually, she heard multiple footsteps and she looked up to find the girls advancing towards the bell tower. She wondered why all twelve of them were going up at the same time and why it was the bell tower they were going to. A horrified look crossed her face as she put together why they were all going up there together.
They were intending to jump to their deaths so they wouldn't have to face the horrors the Japanese were going to put them through when they were forced to go to the event.
Mona sprinted to the cellar and pounded on the door. "Mo!" she cried. "Mo!"
The door opened and Mona found herself looking at multiple women.
"Come quick!" she said urgently. "All of you! It's the girls!"
All of the women rushed out of the cellar and followed Mona upstairs. She burst into her room where John was.
"John! It's the girls! They've gone up to the bell tower. I think they're going to jump!"
John bolted up and they all ran up to the bell tower where the girls were. Most of them were standing on the railing and one misstep would send them to their deaths.
"Girls. Shu!" John called. "Wait, just—"
"Go away!" Shu ordered.
"Come down! Okay, okay. Stay back, okay." He gently held his arms out so none of the women would step forward and cause the girls to jump.
Mo said something in Chinese to Shu, then George, who was at the bottom, also begged her not to jump.
John began to step forward again, but Shu said harshly, "Keep away! Step back!"
"Okay," John said calmly. "We're stepping back. We're stepping back."
Shu ordered the other girls to step up onto the railing.
"Shu!" Mona said taking a barely noticeable step forward. "Listen to me. I was a mom once."
When she uttered those words, she felt all eyes bore into her core as they were shocked by her unexpected five-word confession. She was always searching for the right time to tell someone her story and this seemed like a better time than any.
"And when you become a parent, the first thing you learn is that you will do anything to protect your child," she continued. "Right now, I feel like a mother to all of you girls. Which means that I will do anything I can to protect you. I promise."
Mo began speaking to her again in Chinese. Mona couldn't understand what she was saying, but it got Shu's attention. One of the girls lost her balance and nearly fell from the very tall height they were at. Everyone gasped, but the girl managed to stay atop the tower.
More of the women began speaking urgently to them.
"We're telling them the idea I told you about," Mo whispered to Mona and John.
"It's a good idea," John said quietly. "That's it, girls. Shu, come here, it's a good idea. It's a good idea. We can trick the Japanese. Alright? We'll make it fun. Come down, we think about it. We just come down, and think about it. We can make it work."
Some of the girls slowly began to descend from the railing. John, Mona, and the rest of the women rushed forward and grabbed them all away from the dangerous perch they had put themselves in and brought them back to safety.
Mona ran right for Shu and wrapped her arms around the girl's waist, bringing her back down. Once Shu's feet were back on the ground in the tower, Mona hugged her tightly and didn't let go for a while. Her hand rubbed the back of her head as she clung onto the girl. She could feel Shu's hands digging into her back, holding onto her as if she would lose Mona forever if she let go.
"You're going to be okay," she whispered.
Finally, they went back down the stairs and all the girls congregated in their room.
Mona was about to go inside when John lightly touched her arm. She slowly turned to face him, completely aware of what he wanted to say.
"You had a child?" he asked.
She nodded. "I've been living here for a while now. Why and how isn't important, but there was one day when I found a little girl on the streets who couldn't have been more than four. I took her in to live with me and began raising her. It may not have been legally, but for all intents and purposes, she was my daughter. I had never loved anyone so much in my entire life." She closed her eyes as she tried to block out the horrible memory that followed. "But then the Japanese invaded. And they took her from me. I'd rather not say what they did to her." She looked at him as a tear ran down her face. "Why do you think I'm so protective of these girls? Because I don't want them to have to go through the same things the Japanese put my own daughter through."
John looked at the pain etched on her face as a couple more tears made their way down her cheeks. He brought his hand up and lightly wiped away one of her tears. He meant to take his hand away, but it continued to rest on her cheek. Her skin felt so soft under his fingers. It hurt him to see the pain in her eyes that hadn't left since the first second he saw her outside the cathedral walls. Now it made sense to him why that pain was there.
They met eyes briefly, but Mona quickly looked away and went into the room the girls were in. John sighed and followed her in. All of the girls were sitting on two of the beds, so Mona and John sat side by side on one of the beds opposite them.
"If they went, how would the Japanese treat them?" Shu asked the two adults.
"Will they tear their clothes?" one girl asked.
"Will they beat them?" another said.
"What if the Japanese rape them?" Shu said.
"Are you kidding?" John laughed lightly. "No. Have you seen these women? Those Japanese don't stand a chance. These women…these women are formidable. Brave, exquisite, skillful. They've got character, like nobody I've ever met. The Japanese? Pfft, they're amateurs, amateurs. These women, they are professionals."
Mona looked at all the girls hugging each other as silent tears dripped down their faces. This was no life for young girls.
"Father John," one of the girls asked. "What exactly do they do?"
John paused and searched for the right words. "You know…they…they love and they hate, just like all of us. Maybe they know more about it than any of us. These women if they came face to face with the devil himself, he'd be putty in their hands. These idiots? These soldiers? You think they're scary? They're not scary. If you think somebody's scary, you picture them with their pants around their ankles, sitting on the crapper, alright? Picture that."
Mona laughed lightly along with him at his poor attempts to cheer them all up.
"Not so scary then. These women, and you girls, you got a strength and beauty that will never die."
Mona looked over at him and in that moment, she realized just how much he had changed since the first night he stayed here. He cared about these girls and he saw things in a new light.
"So don't you worry about them. Don't worry about them."
"But…but they don't look anything like us," another one of the girls said. "How can they go?"
"Hmm. That's where my powers come in," John smiled. "I don't do much very well. But that, that I do well. And I'll make them look like your twins. You'll see."
Shu slowly stood up and walked to the other side of John. "Father John, I was wrong. I'm sorry," she said tearfully.
"Shu, you don't have to be sorry," John said tenderly. "You don't have to be sorry."
"No, I was wrong."
"What is it?"
"From the first day she came here, I felt uncomfortable. I thought she was not good. I even thought both of you were not good."
"That's okay."
"I want to say to her, sorry. And say to you, I'm sorry."
"You don't have to say you're sorry. You got nothing to be sorry about."
Shu sat next to him on the bed and John took her up in his arms. Mona's heart broke right in half at the beautiful sight. When she first came here, she had no idea that she would eventually witness John hugging one of the girls like he was now. It was incredible.
John eventually went downstairs and sat in one of the pews with his hands clasped together.
Mona returned to her room and many thoughts began to hit her at once.
She held her little girl in her arms slowly rocking her to shield her from the horrors outside. Screams were heard constantly followed by a sickening thwack. Mona softly sang a Chinese lullaby to her daughter to block out all the noises.
Tears formed in Mona's eyes as she recalled the fateful day she lost her daughter. That would always be the worst day of her life.
The door was kicked down and three Japanese soldiers invaded her home. They ripped her daughter away from her arms. One of the soldiers wrapped his strong arms around her waist, forbidding her from being able to help her little girl.
"Mommy!" she screamed as tears began to run down her face.
Mona shut her eyes as her daughter's screams filled her head. They echoed in her brain and filled her with despair and regret. She had failed her baby girl.
"Mommy, get them away from me!"
"Don't touch my baby!" Mona screamed.
She watched in horror as the men ripped her daughter's clothes.
"Mommy, make them stop!"
"Stop this!" Mona cried. They forced her to watch them abuse her daughter in more ways than one.
When they were finished with her, the soldiers grabbed her daughter's legs and dragged her out the door.
"MEI!" Mona screamed at the top of her lungs. "Get off her!"
Though Mona did not see it, she heard a squish and Mei's screams and wails immediately silenced.
"NO!" Mona cried. The soldier holding her spun her around, and she knew he was about to do the same to her, but a fierce order from outside caused him to drop her on the floor and run out of the house.
Tears fell down her face at an alarming rate, and she slowly stood up and went outside. There laid the body of little Mei, stripped naked and covered in blood with a gaping hole in her stomach where they had stabbed her.
Mona held the lifeless form in her arms drenching her arms and clothes in Mei's blood. She began screaming and crying as she caressed the body of the little girl she once called her daughter.
Mona crashed to the ground as the memories hit her all at once and she began sobbing. She wasn't aware how loud she had been crying until the faces of all twelve girls appeared in the doorway.
"I'm sorry," she choked out, wiping away her tears only for them to be replaced by more. "I didn't mean for you to hear me. You don't need to see this."
Shu knelt down on the floor next to her. "When we mourn, we do not mourn alone."
Mona began to cry harder and all of the girls came over to her and put their arms around her to let her know that she could cry and she didn't have to appear strong for them any longer.