"I'm leaving." That was all he had said that morning. She watched him go, and enter the world where the sun chased away all the shadows. He didn't return for weeks.

When he did, he seemed different.

"Nii-san." She mumbled weakly. She lay limply on the ground, under a shoddy grey blanket she had received from a passing orphan shelter owner who had stumbled upon her last week and offered her residence in his shelter. She had refused; she had to wait for her brother.

Her brother stood above her, stronger than she remembered.

"Why are you still here?" He had only come back to this place to retrieve his meager possessions.

"I was waiting for you to come back." She coughed softly into her hand. Her stomach hurt, and her mouth was dry and sticky. She had finished their remaining food rations days ago. Her brother sighed and picked up her frail body, her breath hot on his ear. Weaving through well known alley ways, he wandered into the yard of a worn, wooden building. He lowered her to her own feet. The ground was cold and wet with dew.

"Don't wait for me anymore." Then he left. She wanted to cry, but all she could manage were loud moans and crippling sobs that made her dizzy. That's how the orphanage owner found her.