I wasn't always so shy. Like any other child I was happy, cheery, and I even made friends easily. I wish that was the case now; but for some reason, whenever I try to talk to someone else it feels like my throat is trying to crawl into my stomach. I only started to act like this after my parents died. I remember it vividly. It was a Saturday night when I was 5, and I was doing my teeth when the house caught fire. I was on the second floor when I heard my mom screaming. I started to run towards her but stopped in my tracks when I saw the flames licking at the staircase. I backtracked towards my bedroom, and I climbed down the tree outside my window. I ran over to my neighbors' remembering what my dad told me to do in an emergency. call 911. It's all blurry after that. The fire engines came, the ambulance came, I remember sitting next to my dad in the back of an ambulance repeating "Please don't leave me" over and over again. They were in the hospital for a week before they died. After that my aunt took me in. My life has been going okay so far. I still have nightmares that i'm stuck to the ground, and the fire creeps it's way up the staircase engulfing me. I don't have anyone to talk to except for Xavier, but he's a dragon. No-one else sees him or hears him, but that's okay because he's shy too. I have lots of drawings of him with his shimmering turquoise scales. Sometimes I wish I could be like one of the heroes in my books. Saving the city from monsters, but I'm content just settling with my life how it is now.