One Wrong Turn

Chapter 1

There it was, again, staring back at him. That same thing, every night. His hands were sweaty as he stared into the darkness of the windows, wondering what lurked behind them, what stirred within that horrid building. He did not know why, but he had always gotten an odd feeling every time he looked at it, and the longer, the worse it got. He approached the house with his hand stretched out to take hold of the rusty old doorknob to open the crooked blue door, the paint chipping off all over, just like the rest of the outside. He looked around as he grabbed hold of the knob yet jerked backward suddenly against his will, so he thrusted himself forward as to not fall. 

There was a loud bang and a throbbing pain in the boy's forehead. He reached up and rubbed the spot he hit with his hand, finding himself in his room, or rather their room. He looked up to see the board of the bunkbed he had slammed against when he sat up abruptly. He groaned and stood up out of the bed, knocking against the side panels of the top bunk to wake his younger brother. 

"Get up, Tommy." He muttered and stretched as he sleepily headed for the bathroom. He heard his brother groan back in the bedroom, and he smirked. Another normal day. He brushed his teeth and got ready before heading over to their kitchen. They lived in a small one story house with only two bedrooms and unfortunatly, he had to share the small space with his brother. He sat down at the kitchen table and heard his brother come in and sit down, still in pajamas. 

"Go get ready, or else you'll be late. See, Jacob is ready for school and you look like you just rolled out of bed." Their mother sighed as she turned back to the pancakes she was making. This time it wasn't Tommy who groaned. 

"Moooom...please call me Jake, everyone else does." He set his backpack beside his chair and yawned. "Alright, alright. Tommy, go get dressed, we are having pancakes." She replied and set the pan on the table. Tommy sighed and headed back to the room, muttering. "Why do we have pancakes again? Thats what it's been for the last week!" Their mother replied with a sigh and her hands placed on her hips before raising her voice slightly so Tommy could hear across the tiny house. "If we could afford something else, we would have something else." 

Jake began eating and mumbled between bites. "Why can't Dad just find a better job?" She inhaled deeply as she was in thought. "Why can't you just be happy you have a roof over your head and food in your stomach? We are trying, sweety."

He shrugged. "Better job could mean we could afford better things." Her brow pinched and she glared at him. "Be happy with what you have." He sighed and left his plate on the table as he made his way outside, avoiding multiple boxes and things piled up around the small space they had. He grabbed his skateboard off the porch and began to skate to school, a pancake still hanging from his mouth as he munched on it on the way there.

He got there and spent a normal day being a Junior in highschool. He headed back and took the normal route, glancing around for possibly something interesting to do while he headed home, because he didn't feel like going home yet.

He found a road that branched off his normal one, it looked like it lead the same direction as his house, so he had the urge to take it. He skated down about fifty feet before shaking his head and turning back around to head back the normal way. He didn't want to get lost and not be able to find his way back home.

The next day, he woke up to the same routine, but not a word was spoken at breakfast. He huffed and left for school again, like he normally did. Pancakes again for breakfast. He got to school and decided on the way home this time, he would take that new road.

Just as he planned, he made it to that road, and began to skate down it. He passed many houses and found the road going on longer than he thought it would. He thought of turning back but wanted to go further to see what it was like. The houses were new and nice, the plants and animals were lively and a rather pretty sight. He found himself at a tunnel of trees overhanging the road. He got a little nervous but pressed on. At last he reached the end of the road where the trees opened up.

There he stood, staring into the yard of the plot on the end of the road. It seemed so familiar, yet he knew he had never been here before. The plot was empty, no house, no animals, no sign of even plant life beyond the vines and thorn bushes growing around the fence.

He shook his head and turned around once again, heading home and awaiting the scolding he'd get for being late.