“Death by giant frog” would not have ranked in the top ten of my list of “Cool Things to do in Junior Year”.

In fact, I don’t think it would’ve ranked anywhere on the list.

But here I am, barrelling towards a frog-monster with a ginormous glowing sword in my hand.

When I reach within a few feet of the beast, it hisses and attempt to pierce its claws through my stomach. I throw myself out of the way just in time; its nails scrape up dirt instead of flesh.

Analyzing my surroundings, I create a hasty, makeshift plan: distract the monster with something, roll under the monster’s belly, stab it, and then roll away before it collapses on me. It's a horrible plan that’s doomed to fail, but at least I have something. 

I sprint over to one of the old trees and snap away a rotting branch.

“Look, it’s an… arm,” I call out to the frog. It grunts as it appraises the long, dark brown wood, its beady eyes dispassionately taking it in. “Do you want it?” I ask. The frog-monster bares its teeth, and I yell, “Then go get it!”

I chuck the branch next to the frog and it just stares at it coldly.

Plan failed.

I begin to get desperate. I have to destroy this thing, or else it could hurt so many more people. I glance at Kris, whose body is still lying under the tree he slammed on. If he was alive then he could’ve helped me, but right now I'm all alone in this.

Irrepressible rage begins to fill my insides. How dare this repulsive monster murder Kris! How dare it make me fight for my life! My stomach clenches and I yell ferociously, blindly sprinting towards the frog-monster. By this point, Kris’ sword literally feels like it’s scalding my hands, but I try my best to ignore it.

The frog-monster whips one long arm at me, but I hit the dirt and dodge it. A surge of adrenaline fills my body. I feel invincible. Nothing in the world can hurt me; least of all this puny little beast. My vision sharpens. Little details become clearer to me, like the fact that there is a whitish spot on the frog-monster’s forehead that contrasts sharply with the moss green of the rest of its body.

Maybe a vital spot, I realize, and work out how I'm going to get to the top of its body.

“Hey, you!” I holler, jumping up and down and moving the sword wildly about. “You’ll never be able to defeat me, you… you crusty goon!”

Weak, but it does the job. The frog-monster perceives my rude tone through my jeers, and wildly brings his long left arm down on me. It seems to move in slow motion. Waiting for the perfect time, I jump up and drive my sword through its hand, causing the frog-monster to shriek in pain. It wildly waves its arm up and down, and when it finally brings its arm to its eye-level, I kick off its hand, extracting the sword in the process, and land on top of its head- right above its vital spot.

Mustering all my power, I raise the sword and plunge it into its forehead with a “Hi-ya!”

A bright white light fills the air around me and everything starts shaking so furiously that my teeth begin to chatter like a pair of maracas. I let out a panicked scream and leap 7 feet off the toad’s head and go tumbling onto the ground. Kris’ sword flies out of my hand. 

And that’s when I get a chance to look down at myself. Squinting in the brightness, I realize with a shock that the white light is coming from me.  I’m emitting some crazy glow from my entire body.

I look like a freaking firefly.

“WHAT’S GOING ON?!” I scream, slapping at myself to stop shining so unnaturally. “Oh my God, why am I glowing, why am I glowing, WHY AM I-,”

Suddenly someone grabs onto my waist and pulls me towards them. “Cease,” a firm, familiar voice commands, and all the glowing, all the light, all the burning just stops.

When the white brightness fades away, I take in the state of the forest. The tree trunks are blackened, with scaly yellow burn patches running up and down them. The toad-monster lies lifelessly on the ground, its belly upturned to the sky. Its body is oozing with dark red blood, dripping down onto the dirt.

It's dead.

I actually killed it. 

I exhale deeply. My adrenaline burst has just disappeared, leaving me very tired, very beat-up, and very, very scared.

The person who’s holding me turns me around to face them, and I realize with a shock that it’s Kris Wu. “I- I thought you were dead-,” I stutter softly, but he interrupts me.

“Who are you?” he asks, eyeing me warily. His eyes are cold, calculating, and hold a hint of some other unidentifiable emotion in them. 

“I don’t know,” I whisper, my voice beginning to shake. “I don’t know what I am.” Am I some kind of a freak? A monster myself? What did I just do?

I start sobbing in Kris’ arms. I’m clutching onto him like a lifeline; he's the only person who can explain to me what that frog-monster was, why fighting’s going on in the school forest, why I was shining.

And for a few minutes, he merely holds me. But finally, he clears his throat and begins to speak.