To-Do List: Find Me.

Child - 2

Red woke up the next day. The sun was shining, but barely showed its face. She got up. Walking towards the window, she pressed her face against the cold glass, staring at the snow outside. White and Grey was plastered all over the landscape, hiding dark Green trees.

Red pulled away from the freezing pane. She had slept soundly on the couch last night, Brother tucked in with her comfortably, resting on the armrest she laid her head on. Michael had offered her to sleep on his bed, while he slept on the couch. She declined.

Basing on the sounds she heard, Red walked into the kitchen to look for any one of the siblings. It smelled lovely. Like warm dough, and butter. A smell that traced back to the deepest corners of her memory. She saw Michael toss around three slices of bread in a pan, Mika hanging on his back. She glanced over his shoulder. Brown bread and Yellow eggs. Lovely.

"Ah, Red! You're awake! Good morning!" Michael greeted her, flipping a toasted bread and a fried egg each onto a plate skillfully.

"Good morning, Michael. Bread smells good," she greeted back, catching Mika, who awoke when she heard her brother greet the woman and decided to jump into her arms.

"Thank you. It's homemade. How's the butterf- Brother?" he questioned to be polite, visibly still trying to get used to this strange woman and her behaviour.

Red patted the critter gently. "He is good. Quite... alright?" she responded, her tone asking Michael if she was using the right word.

"That's the right word, don't worry about it." He placed the plates on the dining table. "You do know how to speak, it's just that you've forgotten quite a lot of them, so you should be able to get them right once you remember them anyways."

"That's good to hear."

"Yep. Plus you've been improving a little, starting to use more intricate vocabulary and all. You remind me of my sister, in a way." As he said this he ruffled Mika's hair.

Gesturing to the food on the table, he said, "Eat up while it's still hot - food gets cold easily here."

Mika and Red quickly hopped into their seats, hungrily wolfing down the simple meal. It wasn't much, but they didn't need to eat a lot either, so it sufficed.

Michael however did not eat. He just stood there, watched the two finish their breakfast, and when they did, he left. "You can have mine. I'm not hungry at the moment," he assured them when Mika protested. He went to put on his coat; heading outside?

Once her brother was out of earshot, the small girl pouted. "He's always like this! He always puts others before himself! But then he falls sick and has to rest, and that stresses him out even more, so I always tell him to take care of himself but he won't listen!" she ranted, quickly wiping her watery eyes to hide her tears. "I just want him to not worry too much. It's not like I'm going to die anytime soon! I'm still young!"

Red listened to the girl dutifully. Something about Mika's words nagged at her thoughts, some strange feeling of deja vu. Brother fluttered by her hair, but she barely registered it, being too deep in thought.

Mika suddenly stood up. "I'm gonna go find my brother! That dummy won't survive alone out there, I always protect him!" she announced, running heroically to the front door. She jumped and grabbed her Brown coat, the one Red saw her wear when they met. Throwing it on her, she opened the door and stepped outside.

Just before she left, she turned to Red. "If you wanna come along it's okay too! Brother will get mad if I go alone, anyways." And then she sped out of the house.

Red didn't think twice -- she quickly got up to her feet and followed Mika. She doesn't know why she did it ; she wasn't particularly worried for the kid, or attached to the siblings in any sort of way -- it was like some sort of instinct took over. Pushing the thinking for later, she ran out to catch up with the girl.

It was harder than it looks. Mika was a very fast runner, slipping through small spaces between trees only she can get through. There was no hesitation or pausing from those young little legs. Obviously Red had a hard time keeping up, and soon she lost track of the kid.

Red stopped once Mika was completely out of sight. Her breathing was laboured and short. It was hard to run in the snow for her. She hadn't used her limbs for such quick movements for long periods of time, especially in this sort of weather. Having bare feet didn't help at all; the snow stung her soles and felt like it burned them, ironic for the sub-zero temperatures.

What's more, all she wore was a thin white cloth draped over her, barely shaped like a dress. It exposed her back to the freezing air. "...How? I didn't feel cold yesterday?..." she pondered out loud.

Against her better judgement -- or maybe it was for, she couldn't tell them apart anymore -- she decided to walk back to the house. Turning around, Red started to walk back towards the way she went from. However, it soon dawned on her that the White and Grey had covered her light footprints, and every side of her surroundings looked like an exact copy-paste of the other.

"Oh no... Where they could be? At least I am not alone... Brother is with me..." She glanced at her shoulder. Then the other. Then it set in. Brother wasn't with her either.

She was absolutely lost and alone, unintentionally abandoned by the siblings.

A bad feeling begin to set in. Red didn't know its name, or if it even had one, but she hated it. It made her heart race, her limbs shaky, her head dizzy.

Cold air filled her lungs. It burned in her chest, restricting her already pathetic breathing even more. Her legs trembled against the sharp wind. Snow piled around her legs, bounding her to the ground. She remembered that Michael had talked about something like this happening often last night.

"A s-storm..." she stuttered, her teeth chattering noisily -- another victim to the cold.

She fell to her knees, then those collapsed too. Red laid in the snow, unable to protest against the weather's merciless torment. Combined with the extreme cold, and her improper clothing for such weather, her exhaustion became too unbearable. Her vision darkened as the snow piled upon her body. Right before her consciousness left, she remembered the name of the feeling. The utterly horrible feeling she felt.

"Panic."