I Imagined

Chapter 3

~~~The time was five o' clock in the evening and Amara's mom came walking into her room without knocking or even acknowledging she was coming in.

"Run?" She questioned. Amara turned her phone off and quickly got off the bed, grabbing the clothes she wore from the morning run and trying to put them back on.

"I forgot, sorry."

"Exactly. I expect you to be gone one hour, dinner will be ready by then." 

"Of course." Her mom was leaving her room at the same time she was, changing quickly under her mom's watch.

"Be careful." She said, holding the door open for her.

"Of course." Amara pressed play on her phone and started another playlist, different from the one in the morning. She ran the same route, down the subdivision and into the trails in the woods where she always ran. Amara was running slightly faster this time around, scared of her mom and the setting sun. But running through the woods she started getting chills from the slight paranoia that spiked her. Her memories came flooding back from that morning when she remembered the previous year in her entry from her journey.

Amara's pace slowed as she turned down a separate path, different from before but familiar in her memories. Her pace continued to slow as the path started to end, fresh at the start but becoming more and more faded and covered as it went on. When the path ended Amara did too, walking until she reached the complete end. She didn't look up at first, hesitating. But eventually getting the courage to. She looked out into the field, the big open field that still remained the same as it was a year ago. Amara hadn't been to this spot in almost a year, the last time being with Claire.

"Claire if you're still out there," Amara started, "I'll never stop thinking about you, and I'll never stop trying to find you." The sun was barely setting, but it's shift had caused a different light to shine in the forest, causing shadows to form. With a slight panic Amara put her earbuds back in and sprinted towards the top. Once at the road she stopped sprinting and settled back into a comfortable pace running towards her house.

Amara made it back to her house around six-fifteen, she said dinner would be ready around six so Amara figured they started without her. But when she got inside they hadn't, she thought that dinner hadn't even been started yet, but walking around the corner to the kitchen she smelt the cooking food.

"Good, I thought we were going to have to start without you." Her mom said to Amara. "Go get changed."

"I need to shower," she said.

"Shower later. New clothes and some perfume will do the trick for now." Amara sighed as her mom patted her shoulder. She jogged up the stairs to her room but knocked on Malorie's door as she passed by. She left her bedroom door open as she changed, waiting for Malorie to come out and yell at her for bothering her.

"What?" She finally asked, leaning on her open door.

"Dinner's ready!" Amara yelled from her room. She tossed the shirt she was wearing off and into the hamper and pulled another short sleeve shirt on, this one a formal shirt. She left the leggings on as they were plain black and matched her solid color shirt. Lastly she pulled the hair tie from her hair and brushed out the strands, making it flat against her head. She grabbed a bottle of perfume from her nightstand and sprayed herself quickly. She then left her room and jogged back down the stairs, her thighs already feeling sore from running twice a day.

"How was the run kiddo?" Her dad asked Amara as she walked into the kitchen.

"Good, slightly cooler than this morning, but still a good one."