Twelve-year-old Lena flicked back her brother’s hood. His head came with it. 

Her mother says it wasn’t her fault. Her mother says she’ll handle it. Her mother says Dad must never know. On Sunday, she serves him his favorite stew. 

After supper, Lena gathers what’s left from under the table and buries it beneath the juniper tree, where her brother’s mother lies. By morning, a bird is singing from every rooftop in town in a dead boy’s voice, and the whole internet is listening. 

My mother, she killed me. My father, he ate me. 

A family that looks perfect online. A father who never asks questions. A girl who finally learns what the knot meant. 

A modern reimagining of the Brothers Grimm’s “The Juniper Tree,” the fairy tale no one ever made cute.