Torn Apart • TWD

Chapter 7 - the happy girl danced

Tessa returns from her search for the prison empty-handed, same as every other day, making the attempt seem futile at this point. At the start of the search she would feel disappointed at her lack of results but now she isn't bothered by it, because each time she fails to find Rick she gets to spend another day with Lola.

She likes returning from the exploration to see Dolores' sleeping face, peaceful as she rests. Sometimes, she would come home to find Lola already awake, and the smile she would release after catching sight of the girl was brighter than the sun.

Today is different though, instead of seeing a tranquil infant, she enters the basement to see a screaming and squirming baby. Her breathing is quicker than normal which makes Tessa run to the crib in alarm. This is wrong, she should be playfully rolling around in her crib, as usual.

"What's wrong Lola?" She asks in a calming voice to try relax the baby, but she continues to cry as if she didn't hear the girl. Placing a hand on her wriggling body, Lola's skin feels warmer than normal also.

A cough is released between the babies sobs, and it scares Tessa's mind to search her memories of her siblings, thinking if this had ever happened to them. With the infants nose running, along with the dry sound that comes when she coughs tells her all she needs to know.

Dolores is sick.

Tessa is officially panicking at the realisation, she doesn't know how serious it is for an infant to contract a cold, for all she knew this could be a death sentence, especially without any antibiotics around.

She looks around the room as if there was something in the basement to help ease her. Dashing for a toy that's been abandoned on the floor, she holds it in front Lola's face, hoping she will calm down with the distraction, but she doesn't even open her eyes, they are screwed shut as she screeches. With her screams more high-pitched than usual, her guardian obtains a headache within minutes.

The girl takes Lola into her arms and rocks gently at first, but quickly becomes desperate and rapidly sways the baby, attaining nothing but dizziness. She was fine when the girl left, she fell asleep quickly without a fuss, but now she's sneezing and coughing wildly.

Taking a new route, Tessa places her in the baby swing and rushes over to where the bottles sit and prepares the formula, hoping that a full belly will help subdue the baby, but once the liquid was ready she wouldn't even take the nipple, the girl tried pushing it into her mouth mid-scream but she just kept crying like it wasn't there.

Her face is red, and every cough the baby releases is like a dagger to the girl's heart. The triplets all got sick once, but her parents sent Tessa to stay with her aduela for the week so she wouldn't be disturbed at night and so they could focus on the babies, so she knows nothing about how to fix this.

Thinking of Dolores in pain made Tessa's eyes misty, not knowing how to help or even what to do, it made her feel useless just like how she felt when Andy, Wes and Gabby were torn apart. She can't lose more family, it would break her.

Her breathing has sped up, matching Lolas. Tessa feels like she's walking down the stairs and then misses a step, but that mini heart attack isn't going away, it just continues as the baby wails.

With no end in sight for the baby's recovery, the child settles herself on the mattress in the corner, no longer trying to quiet the baby and just holding her in her arms, trying to bring some comfort.

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Three days. Three hellish days of screaming, vomiting and crying. Seventy-two hours without sleep and without leaving the stale basement, except for the moments of peace she would steal while making a trip to the diaper-filled hole. The girl had to dip into the canned food, making the circle much smaller than she would prefer since hunting was a no-go with Dolores demanding her attention at all hours of the day.

During those days, the girl would curse Lori for not giving better directions to where her group had set up camp, and then maybe the baby's father would have black bags under the eyes and be unable to walk in a straight line without wobbling.

In the rare instance that Lola would doze off, the girl would set her down and try to hunt for food, but the moment the baby no longer felt the girl's skin on hers, she would shoot awake and cry for her only companion, which had resulted in Tessa falling asleep while holding the baby, almost dropping her on her head had she not have regained her senses and steadied the infant in her arms.

She has grown accustomed to the wailing, trying to match the uneven noise with a tune and singing it aloud, more for her sake than the baby's.

In the days she has spent trying to help Lola, she realised just how difficult her situation truly was. A child taking care of a smaller child, it's like a horse taking care of a dog. Unfeasible and hard to watch.

The days were filled with nothing but worry. She worried the baby would starve. She worried the baby would not recover. She worried the baby couldn't get enough air with all the screaming.

She worried the baby would not survive.

All the responsibility that had been thrust upon her so suddenly made the girl's head spin. At ten years old a child should be playing in a park, riding her bike and playing sports. She shouldn't be responsible for another's life.

There were a few moments when she just couldn't take it, she had crumbled into a ball in the corner as tears fell freely. Just watching the baby struggle in her crib, wondering if she'd have to dig a small grave next to Loris.

Imagining that she would find the prison, only to deliver the news and give closure to the man that he had lost not only his wife but his daughter because of the child's incompetence.

But finally, after prayer upon prayer, Dolores' fever broke and she could take the bottle without throwing it back up, the girl was so mollified that she fell to the floor in happiness, and now the child has hope that the baby would sleep with a full tummy and no more discomfort.

Tessa is settling down on her mattress, laying on her side so she is facing the infant, who is lightly gurgling as her eyes close. The girl was fighting sleep since her head hit the pillow, her hand lightly sitting over the baby's swaddle. Pillows have been lined up on Lola's other side, not wanting another rolling off the mattress and onto the floor incident.

"Bailaba la niña alegre en una noche estrellada." Too exhausted to even realise she is speaking Spanish, the girl sings a lullaby that her mother would use to settle the triplets. The cheerful girl danced on a starry night.

"Movíase al son del aire, bajo la luna de plata." Her fingers trace the side of Lola's face, her nails stained with dirt, softly scraping the baby's cheek. "¡Cómo bailaba la niña! ¡Cómo la niña bailaba!" She moved to the sound of the air, under the silver moon. How the girl danced! How the girl danced.

"Con ojos como dos faros y finas pestañas bordadas." Tessa gently sings, watching as the infant's eyes roll back under her drooping eyelids. With eyes like two lighthouses and thin embroidered eyelashes.

"Con el corazón muy blanco y mariposas en el alma." A faint smile appears on the girl's face, though Dolores has been hell to deal with while sick, she was worth it. With a very white heart and butterflies in the soul.

"Danzaba la alegre niña bajo la noche estrellada." She delivers the next verse with closed eyes, taking her hand off Lola's delicate skin and encasing it around her tiny body without disturbing the drowsy baby. The cheerful girl was dancing under the starry night.

"Cómo bailaba la niña, cómo la niña bailaba." Tessa barely finishes the tune before she follows the infant into darkness. How the girl danced, how the girl danced.