January 1st, 2017.

12am.

Sana is woken up by a knock on her apartment door.

She tried to remember what else she had done that day. No gathering, no celebration - she had declined it all. This New Years was meant to be spent between her and Momo.

That's right, she was waiting up for Momo. Sana had made an attempt of putting away the christmas tree, but procrastination had gotten the better of her, yet again. It was too cold and her heater was still broken. It seems like she had fallen asleep before the girl could arrive.

Only, she didn't.

The first day of the year, on the dot, Sana was woken up to a policeman at her door.

Momo was hit by a train.

They lived quite far south. How and why was Momo so far up north? Sana doesn't know. The beaming lights of the police vehicle out front was jarring against the dark of the night, she couldn't help but focus on it.

What had they planned for the night, anyways?

The questions came flooding in, her mind still thick with sleep from her long shift, and now this sudden shock of news.

This couldn't be real.

He had his hat off, held against his chest as he regurgitated the speech of condolences to her.

An accident, he had said.

A thick coat of snow was blanketing his crew cut, was all Sana took in.

Momo knew to look both ways, she wasn't stupid. The boom gates should have been loud enough, she wasn't deaf.

No family or next of kin, Sana was asked to come in tomorrow to identify and claim the body. They had found her wallet and ID, still attached, on the body.

She was too disfigured on arrival to identify.

How a flimsy wallet that Sana always scowled at surpassed the wreckage of being hit by a train angered her.

But that's all she felt now.

After the policeman gave her another sympathetic glance, she was left on her own. All plans of watching the fireworks on the tv was gone now. Sana just wanted to close her eyes, let the joke pass, then wake up to Momo next to her.

Sliding onto her side of the bed, her hands graze by paper as they glide under her pillow. Why on earth was there something under her pillow besides her bedsheets?

Pulling the out-of-place item, Sana finds an envelope in the palm of her hand.

Sana, don't open until January 1st, 12:15am

Glancing at her alarm clock, it read 12:13am.

Curiosity was always her downfall. What was in the envelope? Why so specific? And why now of all times?

She swears, if this is some pathetic suicide letter from Momo, she’ll reach down into hell and kill the girl again herself.

Time was always agonizing when staring at a clock, willing it to move faster. Her thumb grazed at the flap of the envelope, playing with it to ease her hasty impulse.

12:15am couldn't have come any slower.

Nearly ripping it, Sana yanks the paper out from its enclosure.

Open the front door

It wasn't what she was expecting, but it was Momo’s ugly handwriting alright. If it was the girl’s dying wish for her to get snow in their apartment and die from hypothermia, then who was she to decline it.

She was curious, anyways. Maybe it was all a sick a joke.

She had barely turned the doorknob fully before a body smashes it open, the door ricocheting off of Sana before being slammed closed. Panting and covered in snow was Momo, pressed up against the front door. She had her head turned away from Sana, as if trying to peek out of the window.

A minute of silence passes between the two of them. Sana knew the punchline of the joke was coming, but seeing the girl that was pronounced dead right in front of her didn't stop the tears from finally falling.

Momo didn't see it coming, looking the other way and all. She didn’t have enough time to defend herself as Sana punched every inch of Momo’s chest, letting out her battle cries of anger and delayed mourning.

“Hey! Sana - stop - that hurts!” It takes Momo a good second to catch the flying fists, using her grasp on the sobbing girl to pull her into her chest - muffling out the cries. “Shhh, don’t move.”

Sana glances down at Momo’s movement. A wristwatch that’s familiar but she’s never seen Momo wear, sits snugly strapped around the girl’s small wrist.

When it hits 12:25am, Momo lets her go. She doesn't say anything to her as she moves towards their bedroom.

“Care to explain why the police came knocking? They said you were dead, Momo.”

The girl continues on, moving to her side of the bed. “Momo is dead.” Knelt before the bedside table, she pulls it from its rightful place.

“Are you drunk or high off the firework fumes? What do you mean you're dead? You're right here!”

Sana didn't like this joke.

“I didn't say I was dead. Momo is dead, that's what I said.” Her fingers dig at the edges of the floorboard before pulling one loose.

First her world was falling apart, and now her apartment too? Momo has gone crazy and decided to tear their home apart in her wrath. What a great start to the year.

“Good, they're all here. She’s set it for 12:45am.” Momo stands up and turns to look at her, as if everything that's happening makes absolute sense. “That means we’ve got seven minutes to spare.”

“I'm on the brink of a mental break right now. So, if you don't start explaining this horrible joke, that's not even funny might I add, I'm going to start hitting you again.”

Momo sits down on the bed, spreading out three pocket watches she must have fished out from the cranny under the floorboard. She picks up the one on the furthest left, “Your Momo is dead, but not for long. I’m not your Momo. I jumped the dimensional plane to get to your universe, but that's an entirely different story for another time.

This,” Momo taps her nail against the golden case, “is the reversal. When set backwards, time reverses. You click the latch once, set the time you want, then push the latch down again - passed the first click and into place.” She places the watch down before grabbing the one in the middle, a silver one this time. “This is the stopper. Click latch all the way down, time stops.” Placing it down and moving to the last one on the right, a bronze one, she picks it up. “This is the traveler, similar procedure to the reversal, however, you set the time forward - hence, time moves forward into the future.”

Momo is crazy. How does someone admit another person into a psychiatric ward? How much does it cost?

Sana is too busy trying to work this all out whilst Momo bunches all of the watches back into her palms. She comes to a stand and that's all it took to grab her attention.

Momo has always grabbed her attention at every little thing she did.

“Seems like seven minutes is almost up. It's been fun, seeing you again. I miss you, you know. Even if you’re not my Sana.”

She doesn't process much of what Momo is saying, but the girl looks solemn and like she's ready to leave. Sana doesn't like that look on Momo. Ever.

Hastily moving to grab her hand, because she’s lost her once and she doesn't want to ever again, Sana tries to stop Momo from leaving. It was a fleeting moment but it was enough for her to know what emptiness felt like, and that she’s utterly lost, and very angry too, without Momo beside her.

Momo flinches at her touch, trying to move her hands away. Sana's about to ask what was wrong before everything felt dizzy. It was like she was having an episode of vertigo. Momo was screaming something at her but she heard nothing but a deafening ring. Things were moving so fast around them that everything just blurred into strings of colours.

When everything fell into place, Sana literally falls too. She could've sworn there were two Momos screaming now, but she couldn't tell. Not when she could feel her brain pulse against her skull - her head was spinning and ears were still ringing. Is this what crazy felt like?

“Dude, what the hell?”

Momo is by her side, hands cradling her head. She falls into her chest because her head feels too heavy for her neck right now. Momo is saying something but she can't register any of it.

“When they said backup I didn't expect for Sana to be part of that backup.”

“She wasn't. She touched the watch just as your set time came.”

“And you just let her?”

“Well, what did you want me to do? Kick her away? Are you that rumoured abusive Momo? Wow, do us other Momos have something to tell you!”

“Oh god, no, I'm not that Momo. Don't mistaken me for that . I'd never lay a hand on Sana.”

Now she’s certain there must be someone Momo was talking to. That or they've both lost their minds.

Moving out from Momo’s arms, Sana was ready to check herself into the ward because sitting in front of her was Momo in the pyjamas she was wearing this morning, and standing next to her was Momo who ran the door into her before.

“W-What is going on?”