James hadn’t realized his adopted sister’s mind was so…sad. There was gray, gray, and more gray. He found her sitting in the middle, legs pressed against her chest. All the color she ones had had been drained.

“Juno?” He asked, standing behind her. There was no answer, only quiet sobbing.

“Juno…”

Then, a memory appeared in the air. It should have been a happy one…but she seamed to morn it.

“I’m going to get you!” A girl shouted, chasing two year old Juno around a yard. It seamed to be her older sister. Her REAL family.

“Mian!” Another woman called from a. Window. “Mian, Juno, dinner is almost ready!”

Little Juno giggled as Mian caught her, spun her around, and tickled her. When Mian put her down, she dashed toward the house through trees, Mian close behind. But when Juno finally stopped, Mian wasn’t behind her anymore. Juno looked confused.

“Mi Mi?” She asked, voice seraphic.

“JUNIE!” The woman’s voice from before called out.

“Oh my baby!” She said, coming into view.

“Ma! Where Mi Mi?” Juno asked, tilting her head. The mother’s eyes filled with tears, a distant scream echoing through the forest.

“Mi Mi isn’t coming home…” the woman brushed a hand across Juno’s face.

“And neither are you..” a boy appeared then. James recognized him from the funeral two years ago. Sam, Juno’s real big brother

“Sam, take her as far away as you can. Don’t reveal anything about us until the time is right. Wait until 16 to tell her what she is.”

Sam nodded, lifting Juno up.

The memory skipped forward to Juno on her hands and knees. Her black dress billowing in the wind, rain pounding around her. She had been 14 when Sam was murdered.

James had spent the two years she had been in his house hating her, and for what? If he had known this was what she was battling all this time, he would have made a bigger effort to be a better brother. He wished he could go back, wished he could take back every word he had ever said. Now he understood that her silence was a cry for help. each time she looked at him with expectant, pleading eyes, she was trying to find a reason to keep living.

The gray around them darkened until he could see nothing.

(Vocab word: Seraphic. Meaning: Angelic, sweet.)