Tired

Jeras picked up the bucket full of meat chunks, he strolled down the corridor to the blue door on his left. He slowly opened the door and took a peek inside, when he was certain there was no one inside he entered the room.

He locked the door behind him and walked into the room. The room was dark with an opaque window letting in little to no light into the room.

He sketched the room in his mind to avoid bumping into things and making noise. He took the moment and time to feel the cage inside the room before switching his torch on.

"Hey buddy," he said to the tiger that slept inside the cave. The tiger woke up upon hearing his voice walked towards him.

Buddy was a trained tiger, he was harmless unless provoked. He had been tamed like a house dog for the entertainment of the world and he was the one who tamed him. He fed the tiger and brushed his skin for a while before he needed to leave.

Leaving he locked the door once again and walked away, he needed to feed the lions and the other animals too. He was exhausted from the show that had just concluded half an hour ago but he had no choice but to work to get money.

He was struggling with his bills and chose to work extra time to pay the rent. His landlady was getting tired of the delay he was making to pay the rent and was threatening to throw him out into the streets.

He fed all the animals in the whole circus and returned to his tent to take some rest from the tiring day that he was having. He messed his hair before dropping on the bed to take a small nap.

"Mr. Larson," he heard someone call out to him. He groaned and sat up on the bed. A man in his mid-forties entered his room. "What are you doing?" he asked.

'Playing the violin,' Jeras thought to say but bit his tongue. The man was his boss and he could get fired from the job that he didn't even like but had to do because of the debts he owed his landlady. "Resting," he replied obediently.

"Well, it's good that you are well-rested. A new animal has been brought into the circus and I want you to go and have a look at him. Then tell me how soon you can have him trained," he instructed.

"Sure," Jeras said in between his gritted teeth. He hadn't gotten a single rest for the past twenty-four hours and the man just kept giving him more and more work like he was some kind of machine.

He watched his boss leave before getting up from the bed. He fell to the ground when his knees became wobbly from having supported him for too long. 'I need a vacation,' he thought and sighed.

He wasn't rich and could never afford to go for one even if he was given an off, he was barely making ends meet with the little he earned in the circus.

He struggled to get up from the floor with the support of the table. Once he was up, he took a glass of water from the nightstand and poured it on his face to keep awake. He tried to wash away the sleep in his eyes but it was too late for the water to work.

He was too tired to keep his eyes open. His eyes kept pushing to stay shut, he sighed and walked out of his tent. He was frustrated with his life and his job.

"Hey," he greeted the man at the reception. "Where is the new animal that has been brought in?" he asked the lady.

He received no reply from the lady, wiping his eyes he gazed clearly at the last to find that she was a man and a mime at that. 'No wonder he didn't talk. It's the mine code,' he said internally and shook his head to clear his mind. He was certain that he was losing his mind from how sleep-deprived he was.

As he walked away from there his stomach grumbled reminding him that he hadn't eaten a morsel of food in a while. He yawned and continued on his path. His feet felt wobbly and his stomach kept screaming for him to feed it making his walk unbearable.

He kept on illustrating a lot. Mistaking people's identities and their gender too. He found it hard to concentrate when his body was under so much pressure. "I can deal with the animal tomorrow when I am well-rested. Nothing much I can do right now," he said to himself taking a seat on an anthill.

He gazed up to the sky rethinking whether to give up his job and find sons other work to do or not. There was so much going on in his life and his health was getting worse each day working in the bust circus. His boss also is of the impression that he was superman and could do anything and gave too much work with too little pay.

"I am so tired of my life," he complained to himself as he was all alone. "I am so confused on what to do," he added his eyes threatening to close shut.

"Why don't you try listening to your heart," he heard a small tiny voice say. He opened his eyes wide and looked around the area. There was no way such a small voice belonged to a human. He was frightened of what it could mean. 'Am I being haunted,' he thought fearfully.

"Who is there?" he asked taking a step back from the anthill.

"Over here," the voice said again, this time with a few more voices along with it.

"W..where?" he asked not seeing anything. He blamed his lack of sleep and food for the voices in his head.

"Down here," he heard and looked down. All he could see were ants on the ground and nothing more. "Can you hear and see me now?" one of the ants asked him.

Jeras dropped to the ground in shock of hearing an ant speak and fainted. The ants cane towards him and surrounded him.

"Is he dead?" the ant asked his friends.