The rain pattered on the dark stone pavement and seeped into his oversized sweatshirt and mesh shorts. The sky was dark and overcast, solemn clouds blocking out the sun and casting the urban landscape into shades of gray. His feet sounded quickly and lightly on the ground as he ran through the misting rain, breath quick and loud in his ears, heart pounding a mile a minute. He couldn’t think straight, had no idea where he was going. All he knew is that he needed to run, run, run.

So he ran.

O ~ O ~ O

“Why?” asked Daniel, voice quiet and barely above a whisper. His throat was thick and dry and he barely managed to force the words out of his mouth. The young boy stared down at his folded hands, unable to meet the eyes of the one in front of him. The one he had loved and trusted and looked up to for as long as he could remember.

He could hear the shift of cloth as the other adjusted his position.

“They were in the way,” came the calm, emotionless voice.

Daniel’s throat closed and his eyes snapped up. “In the wa-” He couldn’t finish, feeling suddenly sick.

Eyes flashed at him behind metal bars and pale fingers clenched prison-issued coveralls, knuckles white with strain. “They were trying to take you from me.”

O ~ O ~ O

“Justin!” a young boy of three shouted, running toward his older brother.

The little boy shrieked as much longer arms scooped him up and spun him in the air.

“Justin! Don’t do that!” the little boy exclaimed, hitting the older boy’s arm to let him down. The other chuckled, setting him on the ground and ruffling his messy brown hair.

“It was just a little fun,” the older boy teased, flicking his tiny nose.

The toddler scrunched up his face and pouted, causing his brother to laugh again. Strong arms suddenly wrapped around his shoulders, pulling him into a tight embrace. “I missed you, Daniel,” the older boy said, unable to keep the emotion from seeping into his voice.

Daniel’s arms came to wrap around his brother’s back. “I missed you, too.”

O ~ O ~ O

The walls were white, white, white. Everything was white here.

They said it was to create a bright and cheerful atmosphere. It just made Daniel’s eyes hurt. They said he was sick, that he was sick because of what had happened and that they needed to keep him here to help him heal. They made him wear scratchy clothes and swallow stupid pills and talk to a stupid lady who wore too much lip stick and talked to him like he was some dumb little kid.

Any other time, this would have made him angry. He wasn’t a little kid, he was six! But Daniel couldn’t bring himself to care. Daniel couldn’t bring himself to care about much of anything. He wondered if that made him heartless.

Maybe that just made him sick.

He was really growing to hate the color white.

O ~ O ~ O

“Who’s that?” the small child asked, leaning over his mother’s shoulder to point at a little baby in a glossy old photo.

“That’s you!” his father exclaimed before tickling his sides. The boy shrieked in laughter.

“No way! That’s not me! He’s too small!” the boy cried through his gasping breaths.

His mother chuckled. “Well, you used to be very small once. Everybody starts out small. You have to be a baby before you can grow up.”

The boy’s eyes widened. “Even you?”

His mother nodded.

“Even you?” he turned to his father.

“Yes, even me.”

A look of complete and utter disbelief took over the little boy’s face.

“Even Grandma Lily?” At the child’s look, his parents burst into laughter and his father ruffled his hair.

“Yes, sport. Even good ol’ Grandma Lily.”

O ~ O ~ O

“Why’s everyone crying?” asked a three-year-old Daniel.

“Because they’re sad, honey,” responded his Mommy.

“Why’re they sad?” The boy was confused.

“Because someone they love is dead. It means they’ll never see him again,” responded his father, laying a hand on his young son’s suit-clad shoulder.

“Why not?”

“Because that’s what happens when a person dies. You don’t see that person again until you die and meet them in heaven,” his Mommy explained.

“But if they’re gonna to see him again, why’re they sad?” His parents weren’t making any sense!

“Because in order to see him, they have to die too and until that happens, they’ll be separated for a while. Like when your Daddy goes away on business trips, except unlike Daddy, he can’t come back.”

“Then I never want you or Daddy or Justin or Grandma Lily to die,” the boy said vehemently.

His mother’s smile was weird and she crouched in front of him, taking his small shoulders in her gentle hands. “Oh honey, everyone dies sometime. It’s the natural way of life. But just know, that even when the people we love die, they still live on in our hearts, until the day we get to meet them again.”

O ~ O ~ O

Daniel slowed to a stop. He had been running for what felt like forever and now it was completely dark. The rain was pouring now and he was cold and tired. He didn’t care. He curled up under the minimal shelter of the awning of one of the empty park shops and hugged his knees to his chest.

O ~ O ~ O

He had a younger sister. Her name was Cameron and she was born when he was four. He may have been little at the time, but he could still remember the day he first saw her, all tiny and pink and weird looking. Daddy said all babies looked like that when they were born. At first, he didn’t like her. All she did was cry and scream and poop and cry some more. But one day, his Mommy gave her to him to hold (he had to be very, very careful) and she opened her big blue eyes to look right at him. When she smiled, he immediately fell in love.

Daniel loved his little sister and he did everything with her (except for change her diapers, of course; that was icky). He was determined to be the bestest big brother in the whole wide world – just like Justin. He started spending more and more time with her reading her stories, showing her his action figures, telling her about his friends at daycare. He started to spend so much time with her that he didn’t have much more time to spend with Justin. But, well, Justin was older and he had school so it was fine.

About a month after she started drinking from a bottle, Cameron started to get really cranky. She started crying a lot more and kept the whole family up all night. After a few days, Mommy and Daddy decided to take her to the doctor. A week later, his father walked in the door looking like he hadn’t slept in ages. He gave Grandma Lily a look and she closed her eyes. That’s when he found out the bad news.

Cameron wouldn’t be coming home.

Daniel ran into his brother’s arms. Justin held him to his chest that night as he cried and sobbed out his grief and confusion.

Justin never cried once.

O ~ O ~ O

“What’s the matter, Daniel? Who did this to you?” Daniel didn’t like his brother’s voice. It was scary.

“Just some boys at school. They were making fun of me because I’m so short.”

“Who. Did. This?” Justin looked really, really angry.

“It was Matthew Dayhew and Patrick Lane. They’re always picking on me.”

Justin nodded and walked out. The next day, his teachers told him that Patrick and Matthew were absent because they were in the hospital and the doctors weren’t sure if they’d ever come out.

Daniel never told Justin when someone hurt him again.

O ~ O ~ O

“Daniel,” the voice of the doctor snapped him out of his mental wanderings. He had been doing that a lot lately. The doctor called it ‘zone-ing out.’

Not that he really cared what the doctor said.

“So, this is the first week you’ve spent with your foster father. How has it been?”

The boy shrugged and muttered a sullen, “Good,” before proceeding to stare out the window. The rest of the session continued in the same manner.

When Daniel left, he ignored the sigh the doctor didn’t mean for him to hear.

O ~ O ~ O

“Justin?! Justin, what happened?! Wh-What did you do?!”

“I got rid of them.”

“What- what do you mean? Why do you have a knife? Why is there so much blood?! Where’s Mommy and Daddy?!”

“You don’t have a Mommy and Daddy anymore, Daniel. I got rid of them. Now they can never steal you from me again.”

O ~ O ~ O

“Isn’t that the kid with the crazy brother?”

“Yeah, I heard he slit his parents' throats open and poisoned his baby sister. And he was only sixteen.”

“Why would someone do something like that?”

“’Cause he’s crazy, that’s why.”

“I heard he’s crazy, too.”

“Well, his brother is, so I guess that makes sense. They are related.”

O ~ O ~ O

Daniel heard the sound of footsteps approaching his hiding place. He didn’t move. The footsteps stopped.

“There you are. I’ve been looking all over for you.”
Daniel didn’t respond.

“You’re all wet. Let’s get you home and dried up before you get sick.”

Daniel felt large, strong arms lift him up to cradle him against a broad chest. The arms were firm but gentle, holding him in a warm, comforting embrace. Daniel rested his head on his foster father’s shoulder as he carried him home.