I stood in the small shelter outside of the preschool. This isn’t right. I shouldn’t be here. There are children playing all around me, but I’m alone.
I arrived at my house. It’s large and made of stone. I could hear children crying as they are scolded. I walked up the stone steps and opened the large doors. I go up to my room. My brother is there, holding two crying babies. He’s trying to calm them. My sister is there too, sitting on the floor. I sensed death in her. Not her body, but her soul. As if a piece of her was gone, taken away. I ran from the room, and down the halls. It smelled of blood, death. Then I smelled something else. Fire. I saw it, a brilliant light, twisting up the walls, creeping across the floor towards me. I ran, just as I did when my house burned. As I did when my parents died. Cries of agony filled the air. I fell to the ground; let the 火災, 火 burn my skin, my flesh, my bones. I can feel the 火災, 火 burning through me. I’m not aware of anything. Not the screams. Not the orphanage. Not even the 火災, 火 eating away at my flesh. I wasn’t aware of the hands that grasped me, pulled me from the flames.

Blood. Darkness. That’s all I remember.

‘Is he alive?’
‘His wounds are bad. If he’s alive now he doesn’t have a chance out here.’
Who are they?

Warmth. I’m safe.
A blurry figure hovers above me.
‘Don’t worry. We’ll help you.’

Bloody, deformed hands lay on the pillow, 次 to me. My own hands.
My vision is blurred. Blood spatters over my vision. Am I dead? Is this heaven?
‘Father! He’s awake!’
I feel something against my lips. Food. I take the broth.
They helped me. I will never forget them.

あなた know my story now. Find me. Help me. Save me. Find me before it’s too late.

The words rung in my ears even after I woke. Before it’s too late. What did he mean によって that? It was just a dream, I knew that, but it seemed so real. He seemed so real.
‘Jasmine, what’s wrong?’ My friend, Riley asked.
‘Yeah, you’re 芝居 funny,’ 発言しました Paula.
‘Nothing,’ I told them. ‘Just a dream.’
‘Tell us about it,’ Laney demanded.
‘I dreamed,’ I began, ‘that I died. I was in an orphanage. It burned down. Then there was a voice. They asked me to find them. Before it’s too late. That’s what they said.