Introduction

The dream always started the same way: my sister, Sarah, screaming my name, her face twisted in pure terror, pointing at a world where the dead walked.

This time, the screaming wasn't a dream. It was real, coming from down the hall.

"They're coming! I saw them!" Sarah shrieked, convinced her nightmares were prophecies.

My parents rushed to her, cooing about a bad dream, but Sarah insisted it was real, clearer this time, a prophecy of rotting flesh and dead eyes.

I lay in my bed, heart a slow drum, remembering my first life: the foolish concern, the attempts to reason that always ended with their blind siding of Sarah.

My logic was met with her tears, my calm with her hysterics, and our parents, Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, labeled me "insensitive," not understanding how "special" Sarah was.

My efforts to save their retirement, to hide car keys from her "prepper" conventions, led to slaps and silent treatments, to accusations of sabotaging her "survival instincts."

The family crumbled around her delusion, losing their house, savings, everything, and when the apocalypse never came, they blamed me for not believing, for not supporting their perfect, unified front of madness.

They cast me out, and I died alone in a homeless shelter, not from a zombie, but from pneumonia.

Now, I was 22 again, lying in my childhood bed, listening to the prelude of that same disaster, a second chance at a test I' d failed spectacularly.

This time, I knew the answers.

"It' s going to start with the birds!" Sarah yelled, predicting a mass blackbird death event, completely unaware I knew about the city' s planned fumigation.

My parents leaned into her every word, their faces a mix of worry and excitement, while a bitter taste filled my mouth.

I wouldn' t stop her. I wouldn' t save them.

This time, I would watch them burn.

And I would bring the gasoline.