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"Hope."
•••
THE WIND WAS cold on Juno's cheeks as she moved towards the group of boys sitting at the top of the rocks. After helping Leanne to a tent to get some medical attention, she had sought them out.
Huffing out, Juno sits beside Frypan and slumps against him. "You think we'll actually get some sense of calm now?" She asks curiously.
"If everything goes to plan, yes." Minho responds from Frypan's other side.
Newt chuckles. "When do things actually go to plan?"
June turns to look up at him. "Before I met you guys, all of my plans worked." She shrugs, sitting up straight to lean back and crack her back. "I think it has to do with you guys and your bad luck."
"I don't doubt it." Frypan nods, scoffing. "We do have the worst luck."
"Well, maybe now I'll bring you some good luck." June smiles sweetly.
Thomas walks up up to join them. "I hope so." He adds, having heard Juno. A silence settles across them as they watch the sun set.
There was that word —hope—. It was the thing Juno had, merely days ago, not let herself have. But now, sitting with these boys, that she would now call her friends, Juno had hope. She hoped they would find a safe-haven that would truly keep them from WICKED's clutches. She hoped that instead of running for their lives, they could live, because what good was all the running if they didn't.
"I wish Alby could've seen all this." Newt begins.
"And Winston." Minho adds.
"And Chuck." Thomas looks down at an object in his hand.
Feeling as if she's intruding, Juno stands and slips away from the group quietly as the boys continue to speak amongst themselves.
Making her way down the rocks, Juno waves to Aris, who returns the wave as he speaks with Harriet and Sonya. She watches Aris say something to the girls that makes the two throw their heads back, laughing.
A pang of sadness surfaces in Juno's chest. Aris has been reunited with his friends. After everything was said and done, he still had his family.
Shaking her head, Juno walks around a couple tents to sit on a rock alone. She needed to think.
Mixed in with all her sadness was anger. Juno was angry with herself. She had left her sisters behind to leave. To save herself. They probably payed the price for her bad deeds. Juno had failed them. After Rosalyn had escaped their maze with a group of older girls, June had promised the rest of the girls that they would be safe. That she would protect them. It was a big promise, but she never thought she would actually have to hold through with her promise so seriously. She never thought she would have to protect her sisters from evil forces like WICKED. Regret —guilt— was her constant companion. As the gears shift in Juno's head, she comes to one certain conclusion. She feared blood because the crimson liquid was a symbol of guilt.
