Snoring, sleep, dreams... beautiful dreams. On a beach, she runs wildly. Her feet get soaked by the wet sand underneath her heels. She screams happily as the sun kisses her face once more, happiness crested on it, being fueled by people she loves who are surrounding her. Her own parents are present; her mother holding her own baby in her arms, and her father burning barbeque by her side. Her boyfriend sits close to her, embracing the mother she is after she stops running. They get up later smiling happily and walk toward the old folks, happiness, and sincerity written all over their faces. As they approach the two, she notices her brother in another end who is smiling too, though his face is hidden with the bright shining light from the sun. She hears him calling, 'Ingrid, Ingrid... wake up.' She then decides to walk to him to hear him clearly. Ingrid, Ingrid... wake up. "Huh?" She asks herself, struggling to catch his sight. "Ingrid, Ingrid... wake up!" The voice is now closer. "Ingrid wake up!" The voice called out again and she is pulled away from that dreamland fantasy to see her mother on her bedside.
"Ingrid, get up," Layla called out to her again. The little girl opened her eyes a little more and saw the forty-six-year-old mom smiling brightly.
"Mom?" Ingrid cried out.
"Wake up!" Mother squealed in return, a warm smile on her face. "It's ten. You are required at school! We are so late!"
"It's Friday?" Ingrid cried out softly, "Already?"
"Yes. Get up. We are late for your disciplinary meeting." Layla told her as she checked Ingrid's bedroom wall clock. She was still in her silk nightdress and sandals. "The meeting starts in an hour, get up and prepare yourself," Ingrid mumbled out some words that clearly showed that she was in no mood whatsoever for school and she threw her head back on the soft beddings. Layla growled silently, shaking her head sarcastically. She immediately reached for Ingrid's duvet and pulled it away from her, leaving the girl exposed to the cold. She quivered instantly.
"Get up... Ingrid!" Layla laughed out. Ingrid rose and sat on the bed, all the while her hands tucked inside the T-shirt she had slept with to cover her belly in case it was too obvious. She frowned playfully at her mother and sighed.
"Fine... I'm up. I'm up." She spoke up, sleep still in her voice.
"Thirty minutes, downstairs! Okay?" Layla told her. "Prepare yourself fast... we don't have a whole day little girl."
"Stop calling me that..." Ingrid cried out again, sleep, and now a pinch of anger added on top. Layla took a good look at her daughter, who had covered below her bust with the duvet. She was standing by Ingrid's door now, almost getting out. She smiled so wildly, despite the thought that her daughter had been on suspension for fighting on school grounds which had sprung from Monday to Friday of that same week clearly in her mind. She was angry, yes, as all parents would be. But three days were a lot to hold a grudge on a little girl like her and the anger ended within the second day of Ingrid's stay at home. There was a way that Layla looked at Ingrid as if she took her as her younger sister. She reminded her of her own twin sister who had died one year before Ethan was born.
Layla Hawthorn and her twin sister, Ingrid, were the last born of a family of five children. Twin boys in the first lot, a girl who followed, and then Layla and Ingrid were the last born. Her ancestral family was full of twins, dating as back as five generations. It seemed like that it was already embedded in their DNA and it wouldn't surprise her if Ingrid, her daughter, would one day perhaps give birth to twins when the time came. A loving mom and a hardworking dad stood by the side of their five children, and the family was happy for a while, until the death of Layla's father which caught them by surprise. At first, it was him, succumbing to a strange illness. Her mother found it hard to raise all five children by herself and so within the end of that year, she married David Blake, who was the widower father of Ann Blake and she was the wife of Mark Stine of whom together had a son already, Karl Stine- Ethan and Ingrid's cousin. Things however got serious a year later after the death of Layla's biological father when one of the boys died in his early youth from the same illness. A week later after his burial, the middle daughter followed without much of a struggle from the same illness. Even with all the science at that time, the doctors involved were outmatched in finding its origin and cure. After three months of life adjusting, the last of the boys followed his siblings from a car crash while on work as traffic police. Layla and Ingrid remained for a while and unfortunately, Ingrid's day came too and she passed on from the same disease that had attacked the family. And in two years, from a large family, only Layla and her mother had remained from the side of their family with her stepfather and stepsister, now Ann Hawthorn, on the other side. One year after her marriage to Paul Purcell, her mother passed on from health issues that did not relate to her family's same illness. Ann Hawthorn Stine died thirteen days after the burial of Dylan Purcell.
Layla had never heard of death itself before it came for her father, and it became a routine for her when it finally knocked on her doors. She had been surrounded by death almost her whole youthful parenthood and would wake up every day feeling glad that someone she loved and cared for was still there. But of all the eight deaths, in exception to Dylan's (that one could never be compared to another), none had ever hit her like the death of her own twin sister Ingrid who died at the age of twenty-one, so young and full of youth. She had spent a lot of time with her in the family and there was a way that they loved each other that couldn't be compared to how all the other siblings loved them or loved each other. She was literally her own half and when she lost her... it was just a lot to take in. When she gave life to a baby girl eleven years later, letting her own sister's memory live on was what she wanted. And so the baby girl was named Ingrid, after her own sister.
"Okay, I'm going to prepare breakfast... please hurry up," Layla muttered as she brought her mind back to the present. Ingrid nodded and waited for her mother's next statement. She however turned and walked away, closing Ingrid's door as she left.
Ingrid gave out a sigh and got out of the bed staggering slightly as she headed for her bathroom. She stood in front of a mirror, with her T-shirt and undies as she brushed her teeth, green eyes clearly studying her face. She looked tired as the effects of the pregnancy were starting to take a toll on her with all the relevant signs at hand. She was becoming lazier and lazier with every passing day and ate a lot whenever she did, which was mostly all the time though it wasn't of her character. She closed her eyes for a moment and recalled Ayden's kisses and his undying love for her. She just couldn't wait for the day that her parents would know the truth and she would stop living the double life. Keeping a secret had its peaks too.
She raised her T-shirt and grazed at her belly. It was growing day by day. She closed her eyes in despair of what it would result in as she knew a time would come where it couldn't be concealed any further. 'Ayden will be here. They will love me.' She told herself. And then the memory of Freya's kiss rushed in. The way Freya took her in, the way her eyes looked at her, the way her rose berry breath invaded her... she hated it! All of it! 'That was so rude of her! How dare she kiss me in sight of everyone?' She laughed and shrugged at it. 'Doesn't she know I have a boyfriend? Doesn't she know I'm not a lesbian?' She guffawed at the thought shaking her head.
She headed and took a shower, came out and dressed her uniform, and added the white stockings on her feet. She gazed at herself in front of a long mirror before her and gasped. She almost forgot! She took her belly belt and tied it tightly across her waist to hide the growing pregnancy and tried to smile. She had to be positive about it as she had been for the past seven weeks. It's the right thing to do. She muttered heartily. She wiped off some tears that were coming about. "Stop crying," she told herself, "It's the right thing to do." She took out a large suitcase from the furthest end of her walking closet and put in her uniforms and personal items. She then carried her bag and headed out of her room, dragging the suitcase behind. She immediately looked at Ethan's bedroom door which was opposite hers. It was so quiet. She leaned on it and pressed her ears on the door in an attempt to hear what was on the other side. It was so eerie. Dead and silent. How much she missed her brother, she couldn't explain. She placed her free palm on the door. "I'm coming brother... hold on. I'm coming."