A swirl of embers wafted around me. I could hear the screams of two adults and tried to move. I saw the burned bodies of a man and woman running past and tried to cry out. They burst out of a door and, after a few minutes, a scream of sorrow came from outside teh burning house. It was a scream I knew very well.

I screamed as I jolted awake. I immediatly pulled my knees to my chest, buried my head in them, and cried. It was the same nightmare almost every night. I could feel my little sister's, Serena, arms around me, pulling me into her. She was three years younger than me and the only person I had left.

I heard her murmur, "Jacklyn, it's okay, it's okay. It was just another nightmare."

I eventually stopped crying and lifted my head. My sister's emerald green eyes were staring back at me, filled with worry. "Which one was it this time?"

"Mom and Dad," I whispered, not able to talk any louder.

"Oh," she said. "Was it living or seeing?"

Living was when my nightmare made me relive that night in my three and a half year old self. Seeing was what I just went through. "Seeing. I watched them run past. I-I-I couldn't move, just like always. The...the last thing I heard was my scream."

Serena sighed. "I wish Jackie and Jack were still alive. They were always better at calming you down than I am."

I tried to smile at her. "They also lived through the fire, Little Fawn. You were only a month old."

I looked over at the box that served as our nightstand. A pair of blue flipflops was sitting in front of the last picture of my entire family together. I reached over and took the shoes. They were the only thing left in the shell that used to be our house after the fire destroyed it. They were my mother's shoes, the same ones that my triplet sister, Jackie, and I used to love to play with. Our triplet brother, Jack, would always complain that his older  triplet sister (me) shouldn't steal from our mom and his younger triplet sister (Jackie) shouldn't be dragging me with her. We would always respond with chasing his around the house with pillows. Now, all four of them were dead. My parents died in the fire and my brother and sister died in the cholera epidemic that hit our orphanage a few years ago.

Serena laid her head on my shoulder after picking up the two pictures that were on our nightstand. One had my mother and father kneeling behind my brother, sister, and I. I was in the middle holding an infant Serena. The other picture was of my brother, sisters, and me. We were standing behind Serena, me right behind her, and Jackie and Jack on either side of me.

I looked at Serena. "Never forget, Little Fawn. Always remember our family."

She sighed with content and fell asleep on my shoulder. I put the pictures and flipflops back and gently laid her on our bed. I laid next to her, hoping to not get another nightmare if I fell asleep again.