The House Fire

My older sister and I live in a small neighborhood. Both of our parents have passed away. We didn’t become orphans because by the time they did, we had both become adults. I’m 25 and my sister Jen is 30 years old.

When we were younger, my sister and I had always shared a room. Even in my early 20’s we still shared a room. Recently, we decided to have our own rooms. My sister took what used to be our parents room. We had it empty for the longest time. The house has a total of 3 rooms. My sister, my own, and an office.

Separating has been weird though. Every night before bed, we would always say goodnight to each other in the dark before falling asleep. Now we can’t do that.

I was getting ready for bed, brushing my long silk black hair and putting it in a ponytail. I was about to get into bed when I heard the fire alarm go off.

“Jen?!”

I rush to the kitchen and see the oven in flames. Jen rushes up behind me coughing.

“Jaiden! Hurry up let’s get out of here!”

We both leave the house. We turn to see half the house burn up in flames. 10 minutes later we see the firemen pull up but by the time they had arrived, the entire house was practically gone.

“Was there anyone in the house?”

“We live alone”

Says my sister as she watches the firemen put out the flames.

“Yeah, there was no one else in there”

I tell them. The fireman nods and goes back to help his team. Jen looks at me.

“You know what we should do” she says in a faint voice.

“What?”

“We can move far away from here, start over. We’ve just lost our house, we lost our parents, we aren’t happy with our jobs, let’s go”

“What about our friends?” I say.

“We’ll make more friends!”

I look at her and back at the house. This could be a fresh start.

“Yes”

I agree.

It’s been a few months now. We moved and started fresh. We live in a small apartment and we share the room once again. It was weird not to and the apartment was small so it worked out just fine.

It was weird to leave all my friends behind but family mattered more and I hope they understand. I haven’t been back there. My sister and I moved halfway across the entire country!

We would go see a movie every Friday and we both have jobs we actually enjoy! Ever since our fresh start, we’ve enjoyed life more than ever before.

“What are you dressing up as?”

Jen asks. It’s almost Halloween and I have no costume.

“No idea yet, what about you?”

“I’ll be a ghost”

“Cliché much?”

“I’ll dress up in white and put a light layer of white body paint across my body to make myself look more pale”

“That’ll work I guess. I can be a zombie”

“I’ll order body paint then!”

A week later, Halloween is here. I was invited to a costume party so my sister and I had plans. When we arrived I saw my old friend from high school.

“Carol! Hi!”

“Hey! It’s been such a long time, what happened to you?”

“House went in flames so Jen and I moved here and started over”

Carol looks at me and her smile slowly turns into a concerned look. I see Jen walk through the door with two drinks behind her. I wave her down to come say hi but she doesn’t move.

“Jen, get over here!”

Carol turns around and makes eye contact with my sister. Then she turns to look back at me.

“Jaiden... are you okay?”

I look at my sister who’s starring at me. She gives me a faint smile and walks away.

“What do you mean?”

I ask Carol.

“Jaiden... Jenna died at the house fire”

“What? No she didn’t, she was literally right there by the door frame. You just saw her!”

“Jaiden, there was no one there”

I couldn’t believe it. Did my sister actually die in the fire? She couldn’t have! I’ve spent the last few months with her! But at the same time, people did look at me weirdly when I went out with her. Was she really not there?

I couldn’t take the sudden news. I walked away from Carol and went home. When I got there, Jen was nowhere to be seen. I walk to my laptop and Google the house fire. There it states, loud and clear, Jenna White, sister of Jaiden White, found inside home after kitchen fire.

I shut the laptop with tears in my eyes. She’s been a ghost this entire time?

I wash off the body paint and put my pajamas on. I tie my hair into a ponytail and crawl into bed exhausted and heartbroken. I turn to look at Jenna’s bed. Empty. I’m all alone.

I turn off the lights and lay on my side facing the wall. How did I manage to fool myself for months! How did I not notice she had died?

I feel my eyes begin to get heavy.

“Goodnight Jaiden”

I hear my sister say from her bed.

“Goodnight Jen”