Wrong Choice | aaiptr

Ch 1

It was a cloudy Thursday afternoon, Amara road her bike home from school. Noticing a fairly large crowd surrounding a tall-brown newspaper stand, she pressed the brakes and stepped off her bike. She began pushing through the crowd grabbing a newspaper. Quickly adjusting her self back on the bike, she shoves the newspaper into her pocket and peddles past the birds on the sidewalk, leaving them startled. It was getting late and Amara didn't want to come home face to face with her mothers scolding. Arriving just in time before her mom, Amara sits in her living room couch pretending to have been there for way longer. She attentively looks down at the now wrinkled newspaper. Hearing the front door open, she puts on the act she had prepared for no further suspicions her mom may have.

"Amara?" looking up at her mom, she gives a simple "uh huh?". Confused to see her daughter so invested in an old paper rather than her phone, her mother responds, "What are you reading?" Oh i just thought I'd have a break from my phone." she says as she turns the page. "I'll be making dinner, if you'd like some I'll leave it in the kitchen for you." Amara nods her head and continues to examine the newspaper. The bottom right corner reads:

BABYSITTER NEEDED!

We are looking for a volunteer to babysit!
If interested,
please contact immediately!
24th Recker rd, NJ
$35 an hour

No phone number or email? $35 an hour? That's a lot more than your average babysitting job. I'll just have to go to the address. For a long time Amara had been thinking about getting a job but had never acted on it. A babysitting job doesn't sound half bad. Amara gets up from the steep couch and walks towards the kitchen to ask her mom about the job. "Mom?" "Yes Amara?" You know how I've been thinking about getting a job recently?" "Yes? You're telling me you've found one? asks her mother, as she pours water into the pan and setting it on the stove. "Yeah... well, kind of. I was reading the newspaper and it said they were looking for a babysitter," Amara points towards the small section on the newspaper. "You think a babysitting job would work out for me?" "It's a pretty good idea, besides you're sixteen now! It's time for you to get a job,"  she replies. "Yeah, okay mom." Walking up the wooden stairs, Amara opens the door to her room and sits on the edge of her bed.

I should go there tomorrow, Amara thinks to herself as she grabs her phone from her nightstand and lays down on her stomach. I'll go tomorrow on my way to school.

***

The next morning Amara eats her breakfast in a rush as she thought about the babysitting job. Repeating the address over and over again in her head so that she wouldn't forget. "Why are you awake so early?" Asks her mom as she peeks her head out from the hallway with a dozed off look. "I want to go see the place where the babysitting job is at." "Oh okay, just make sure to be safe, don't want you getting hurt." "Okay mom," Amara takes her last few bites and gets up to wash her hands. Opening the front doors she takes a step outside. "Mom I'm leaving now!" She shouts as she closes the door behind her.

She gets on her bike and goes around looking for the address. The longer she road her bike the more she realized she couldn't find a "Recker Rd." Where's the house? Five minutes go by, ten minutes go by and still no sight of the house. Amara now out of breath decides that she should just go to school now since this unknown address was no where to be found. She rides past several houses on her way to school still looking out for this "Recker Rd."

After getting to school she sets her bike down and enters the building. I only got here 5 minutes early most of the time I get here at least 40 minutes early. She enters her class and sets down her bag. From the corner of her eye she notices someone sitting not far from her. Is that a new kid? I don't remember seeing him here before. The boy looks directly at her causing her to quickly glance away. As the teacher takes attendance Amara closely pays attention and waits for his name to be called. "Lukain?" Calls out the teacher, "Here, and please call me Luka." Got it his name is Lukain or how he likes it, "Luka."

Throughout the day Amara kept seeing this mysterious boy in the hallways. At lunch Amara sits down with her friend Emily and starts to explain how she found a babysitting job. "Emily! I found a place to work at!"  Amara exclaimed excitedly. Emily knew she'd been looking into jobs. Oh really? That's great! Where are you working?" "It's a babysitting job," Emily proudly looks at Amara and smiles. "The weird thing is.. I was trying to find the house but I couldn't find it anywhere, so maybe it was like some kind of joke." "Wait hold on, what do you mean?" Asks Emily , "I mean, it's like the address isn't even real." "Strange," she replies. After lunch she goes to her last class and there he was again. It had felt like she'd been getting followed or something. While the class continues the strange vibe she was getting from him was gaining all her attention.

The bell rings and everyone rushes out of the class, she notices Lukain was significantly fast in the hallway, eventually fading into the crowd of students. She carefully grabbed her bike and through her self onto it. She started heading back home. Riding her bike down a somewhat steep road past the trees while the wind blew at her hair was the best feeling ever. Amara gets home and opens the front door. "Hey, Amara how was school?" Asks her mom. "Oh it was pretty boring mom." "So did you go see that babysitting job this morning?" "Yea, but I couldn't find the address anywhere." "Oh that's a shame, it's okay we can always find another job," reassures her mom. "Thanks mom."

Amara goes to her room and sits on her bed. To be honest today was pretty strange, she thinks to her self. She later finishes her homework and places her backpack down on the floor beside her bed. It's now around midnight Amara still can't fall asleep. She takes her phone out opening the maps app. "Recker Rd," she murmurs to her self as she types it into the search bar. Instead of finding the location she finds that it had lead her to a road with a completely different name. It is still located in New Jersey but it wasn't "Recker Rd."  She quickly thinks of an idea, quietly she tip toes out of her room. Putting on her shoes and opening the front door, hoping her mother didn't hear her. She get on her bike and follows the new address. The new address said, "24th Lanken Rd."

The creepy aroma of the night sky filled her lungs. Something felt wrong like she shouldn't be doing what she was doing. She quickly ignores those feelings and thinks she must just be paranoid. A couple of minutes go by and she's finally at her destination. She stops her bike and looks around. Wait but this is all just a bunch of land? No houses. To her luck about 2 hours ago it had rained, the air was foggy. She's confused because it's just a creepy opened space with no property. Then why did it say on the news paper an incorrect address? That's what I get for taking and old news paper, no one even uses those anymore. That's when it all clicked for Amara, An old news paper. That's why it wouldn't give a correct address nor phone number or email. She had left the news paper back home.

No wonder it didn't make sense. A few moments later the fog had cleared up. Amara looks out into the distance. She sets her bike down and walks a bit closer. In amazement she notices a tall grey castle. Something you'd only see in movies. Her only way to get over to the castle would be with her bike. She walks back grabbing her bike. Amara goes on her bike and starts to peddle. "I'm going home." She says out loud in a tired tone. She would surely go check it out with Emily tomorrow. She follows the maps app back home. She gently placed her bike outside and enters her house quietly. She gets into her room and searches for the newspaper. After finding it she looks for the date in which it was made.

1922

This is vintage, how did I get a hold of this? That's explains everything. Is the castle abandoned? I wonder if anyone else has found it. She lays on her bed and falls asleep. After peddling her bike all day she's exhausted.