Like a Tiger

Chapter 3

           
           I struggle to get out of bed. Without motivation I stagger downstairs to make breakfast for Layla. "Right on time.", I mutter as my baby sister starts crying to get out of her crib the second I get to the last step. I open the door to her bedroom and pick her up, stumbling over the toys on the floor. "Good morning, Layla.", I mutter to her. She looks at me and replies with gibberish baby talk. I plop her into her high chair and serve her berries and toast with cottage cheese. We always eat berries in the morning to balance our diets. After breakfast, I packed snacks for us to eat throughout the day and then head to the woods for our daily search for Teighan. "Teighan!", I shout. "Tiger!", Layla shouts out. I was awestruck by what I had just heard. That was Layla's first word other than the basic "mama" she had always repeated. Layla was too young to say "Teighan" during the search so she just kept shouting "tiger". I can't wait to tell Teighan when we find her - if we find her. I wish Teighan were there to witness Layla shout "tiger", she would've been so proud. Teighan took care of Layla like a young adult when I was busy. I wish we lived a better life. I wish we weren't abandoned children so that me, a 16 year old and Teighan, 9 years old, could play our parts as kids and not guardians. Maybe then, Layla wouldn't mistaken me for her mother. Maybe then, we'd be normal kids, living normal lives like everyone else. After searching until dark, there was still no luck. Where could she be? As Layla and I head home, my mind begins to race. " What if she was stolen?" "What if the police have found her and sent her to the CPS?" "What if she's hurt?" "What if she's dea-?" "NO!", I shout at the top of my lungs. I had startled Layla and she began to cry. She cried the whole rest of the way home. After I  put Layla to bed, I had paced every room in the house. My head starts to ache, just like last time. I use my carving knife to dig deep into my left thigh to get my mind off of the headache but it doesn't work. The pain feels as if two needles are being shoved into my temples, meeting points at my brain. The feeling shoots in and out of my head constantly. I bite my tongue until it bleeds so that I don't scream out in agony. My heart pounds until I can hear it beating in my eardrums. I get dizzy and  faint. An image of a baby in the back seat of a destroyed car appears like the last time. The sound of sirens fill my ears until they hurt. The parents in the front seat are dead from the crash it seems, they have blood streaming down their heads. Suddenly, a young girl walks in and takes the hysterically crying baby out of the car. I slowly regain consciousness, breathing heavily. "That girl - sh- she stole that couple's baby.", I mutter. I take a handful of sleeping pills to relax my mind and black out.