Chapter 4：Something Is Wrong

When Juno wakes up she doesn't scream, but she whimpers. She holds her head and tries to calm herself by breathing deeply. Once the pain subsides she grabs her phone to check the time.

4:02 am.

Juno gets out of bed and goes in the bathroom, finding some pain pills to her relief. But her relief doesn't last long. When she glances at the mirror she sees something dripping from her forehead.

It's blood.

//No! It was a dream. Then what is this…?//

Her hand shakes as she wipes it off.

"What are you doing?"

This time Juno is certain her soul left her body.

She quickly turns and finds that it's Eve. She honestly doesn't look any better than Juno, her eyes have bags under them and she's frowning intensely.

"Eve!? I'm sorry, did I wake you up?"

"No."

"..."

"I can't sleep. I heard you."

"Huh?"

"You were crying in your sleep. Why?"

Juno pauses, slightly embarrassed but responds with, "Oh I just had a bad dream. But I'm okay now."

"You don't look okay."

//I could say the same about you!//

"Do you..."

"What?"

"…want to talk about it?"

//That's kinda weird! Eve is the last person to open up to. But then again…//

"Okay well, um… basically,"

Eve's glare says, Get on with it already!

"Ack. Well. I was watching my sister perform at a theater and she was so good but something was off. Then when she finished ssinging sh-sshe got hurt." Juno's voice cracked at the last part.

"Go on."

"I-I knew it wasn't an act. She was hurt. It was real. B-but I was too late. I couldn't save her. And then I think I got hurt too."

"Then you woke up."

"Y-yeah."

"Hm. You know dreams like that are tricky. They always mean something but they don't mean it will happen."

Before Juno could respond, Eve does something off-putting. She wipes something from Juno's face.

"You're bleeding?"

"Ah th-that's probably from earlier or something. Aha you know how clumsy I can be." she tries to lie.

She looks doubtful, "Maybe you should go get it checked out."

"It's fine!"

"If you say so," A pause, "Like I was saying, that dream you had. It must have meant something. You want to keep your sister safe but are powerless, that's how you feel."

Juno remains silent. What could she say? Eve's right. That's exactly how she feels.

"Keep her safe… from want though? She's older than me and knows how to take care of herself."

"I don't know. You should ask yourself that."

Juno slowly nods, "Yeah. Thanks Eve, I um didn't expect you to-"

//care so much.//

Juno doesn't say that out loud.

"Hmm. Also, you've stopped bleeding by the way. Wash your face. Or don't. I think dried blood looks interesting on you..."

//What!?//

"Aha. I'll do that."

Juno quickly washes her face and brushes her teeth. She decides to stay awake, there's no way she can go back to sleep. Besides, there's no point since she has to be up in about two hours. She hears the shower start, that must be Eve. Guess she also plans on getting ready early.

She scrolls through her phone. Nothing really interesting pops up, other than a potential rainstorm later. She hesitates at first but ends up looking at her texts.

Mila didn't reply.

Juno isn't shocked but after her nightmare she feels even more anxious. It's best to text her later; it's way too early now.

She hopes she answers even if it's just to tell her to shut up.

Morning classes go well, or well enough. Juno manages to pay attention in most and even sneaked in some nap time in one of them. The teacher was showing a documentary so it wasn't hard.

Regardless, Juno doesn't get a chance to contact her sister again until lunch time. She sits with her track teammates and she feels kinda rude ignoring them but they're absorbed in their own conversation.

Mila still hasn't responded.

Juno sighs and writes:

Hey. I'm sorry! I didn't mean to sound mad but can you please reply? With literally anything. ????

A few minutes pass. Hazel asks her if she's going to finish her strawberries, Juno smiles and gives them to her. She doesn't really feel hungry today. Mostly anxious.

She still hasn't replied. It's weird! Sure Mila's sometimes busy but she always responds with something!

Especially, when Juno's panicking or upset. Juno goes to check on one of her social media accounts. Mila actually rarely updates them but she still follows her anyways. She usually just posts some selfies on occasion of her and friends.

Her last recent post was about 3 weeks ago. It was about her being excited about getting the role she wanted.

Juno commented on it, congratulating her. Most of the other comments were congratulating her as well and they're pretty old except for one.

It looks like it's one of her friends? It was posted about a week ago.

[Flora⭐☑️:

Mila what happened? Where are you? I'm so sorry.]

Huh?

That's a weird thing to say.

She taps on her profile.

Oh. It seems that this "Flora Pierce" works with her sister. She also seems to be a newbie actress but has a pretty big following! Must be talented to be so popular.

She goes to look at her recent posts out of curiosity. Really! She's kind of cute too... So she can see the appeal. Anyways! She's really active on her account. Her latest posts are some pictures of her with the cast.

But... Mila isn't there.

Odd.

Why was she not there for them?

Wait a second.

WHAT!?

One of her top posts is a selfie captioned with:

[I'm so excited to be playing the role of The Princess! It's unfortunate that the former actress couldn't do it but I promise to do my best! ????????????]

No. That can't be right.

That's supposed to be her sister's role!

Is this why Mila didn't want her to come? Because she's no longer in the musical?

//But the real question is why isn't she? And why didn't she tell me!//

She searches up the official account for the musical to see if she can find out why. Unfortunately, all she finds is a post that says "Mila Dao has to leave the role due to personal reasons." That answers absolutely nothing!

It just doesn't make any sense. Mila would have told her, no matter what. She tells her almost everything! Why would she hide something like this? And if she's not been rehearsing her role this entire time then what has she been doing?

She texts her again.

Juno [11:48] : Why didn't you tell me the truth? I know u don't have the role anymore and I'm not angry Im just worried.

Juno [11:48] : is this why u didn't want me to come over? Don't u trust me?

She honestly didn't expect a reply, much less so fast.

Mila [11:51] : I'm sorry.

Juno [11:52] : Can you just tell me if youre okay? Please I'm worried

Mila [11:52] : Don't worry about me anymore.

//What?!//

Juno [11:53] : Huh??? Now I'm even more worried what's with you??

Juno anxiously waits for her response but it's no use she doesn't reply back.

"Hey Juno, lunch's over it's time to go."

And she didn't even really get a chance to eat.

"Oh," she looks up from her screen just now noticing people emptying out of the cafeteria.

"See ya at practice tomorrow?"

"See you guys later!"

"Wish me luck guys I have a test!"

She sits there watching everyone from her table leave, her hands trembling slightly. But she still manages to give them a small smile of reassurance.

Her head starts to hurt again.

Everything feels wrong.