Clarkesville (Chandler Riggs)

Chapter 20

One time, in about seventh grade, my mother gave me a babysitting job. She said that it was for her and her work friend, whom I have never met.

I didn't even ask how many kids there were or if I would get paid, she just brought me to some house in the middle of the woods at 6:00 in the afternoon.

There were two girls, both five years old. There was Olivia who was super perky and obnoxious. But her sister Emily was exactly the opposite. She was quiet and distinct, and didn't even want to play with her dolls or anything.

A few hour later of making chocolate milk and cooking macaroni, the girls wanted to go to sleep. I brought them upstairs and put them to bed, and I have to admit; I did that well for my first babysitting job.

My mother and her friend told me they'd be home around midnight, so I made myself some soup and watched a movie.

It was 11:34 when the thumping of the ceiling started.

My first thought was one of the girls just jumped out of bed to go to the bathroom. But that thought was disregarded when it got faster and faster in a pattern.

I wanted to ignore it and just watch the movie, but the image of one of the poor girls getting hurt upstairs kept poking at my nervous system.

Slowly, I grabbed my phone and started ascending the stairs. The banging began louder and less frequent as I made my way to the girls' room.

When I opened the flower covered door, the thumping sound stopped completely. I couldn't tell if it was coming from their room or someplace else, but it was definitely made by someone.

As I looked around the room, Olivia was sound asleep in her bed. "Emily?" I called out silently, trying not to wake her sister up.

Without thinking, my feet carried me over to the tangled green blankets. The young girl was no longer in her bed, but the light brown stuffed bunny Emily carried around was on her pillow.

I wished I could wake Olivia just so I wasn't alone, searching for a little girl in whose house which wasn't even mine. But judging by Olivia's annoying behavior, I was positive she would tell her mother.

"Emily..." I whispered again as I exited their room.

Almost scared out of my wits, I checked the bathroom, master bedroom, and all of the closets. She was in neither of them. The banging started up again, and I froze.

I remember how I could hear my heartbeat through my ears.

I returned to the girls' room, now knowing that it didn't matter if I got paid less or lost my mother's trust. This little girls' safety was all that mattered. Of course the patterned thumping noise stopped once again.

Olivia was in the same position, cuddled against her pink and yellow pillow. As was Emily, sleeping like a princess, with her hands under her cheek.

Everything was the way I had left it earlier, except her stuffed bunny lying on the floor, just out of reach of her frail touch.

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"Riley."

Chandler shook my shoulders to snap me out of my endless gaze. I fluttered my eyes and returned to what he was saying.

"Are you okay?" He asked me with concern. I nodded my head continuously, as I thought about how Freddy and Anna's story compared to mine.

Two different kids, one goes missing.

Emma had left her favorite stuffed Bunny in her bed to go who knows where. Anna had dropped the pocketknife that her brother told her never to lose. It was so similar, the way that I thought of it.

When I looked down at Freddy, his eyes welled up with tears, as the memory of the young girls faded from my mind, and I had no choice but to travel back to what was currently happening.

He handed me the knife as he whimpered through his pain.

"I told her to never let go of this! To keep in in her belt." Freddy cried, throwing his hands up to his head. "She could be dead without protection." I felt terrible for the boy.

"Hey hey hey, don't say that! She's going to be okay!" Chandler tried to comfort him, but we both knew that it wasn't going to help him that much.

This was all my fault.

If only I had just said something about the walkers coming up behind Homer, he wouldn't be dead, I wouldn't have lost the group's new trust, and poor little Anna wouldn't be missing.

"What do we do?" I asked Chandler. Freddy was counting on us, but we didn't have many choices but to go off track and search endlessly. Maybe the boy was right. What if she was already dead?

(*Authors Note; Sophia mwahaha season two*)

"I have no -" His sentence was cut off by Vincent's booming voice making an announcement.

"Listen up. Everybody but myself, the kid, Joy, Riley, and Jason are gonna settle up further up the river until we find the girl. Dead or alive." He snickered. My cheeks immediately began hot with an angry confusion.

He was so close to crossing the line that the toe of his ginormous army boot was slowly shifting it's way over it.

Joy flicked a finger in the air, ready to say something. "We think it's best that the rest of you stay safe up there. We'll find Anna and come back." She looked side to side, until her eyes found mine. Her light expression changed drastically after seeing my reaction.

"What makes you think I'm staying here? Why do just I have to look for her? Why can't someone else?" I tried to direct my words more toward Vincent instead of Joy.

My head pounded. I was not leaving Chandler - not after all the plans we had made earlier today. Even now that it was close to the evening.

"You seem to care about the boy, more than the most of us. You'll need to help him." Joy cooed, gesturing at Freddy. He was too focused on what could come out of the woods instead of the actual plan to find his sister.

I wanted to shout and say that they couldn't tell me what to do. I wanted to go up and stab Vincent in his face, but Chandler stopped me.

"Then I'm going with her." He wrapped an arm securely around my shoulders. My fury was still trying to dissipate from my body.

"No. We need as many people as possible up there with Bruno." Jason said. It was kind of surprising that he spoke since he hasn't said much at all since we met him.

"Jason's right," Vincent said, "you stay, and your little boyfriend will go."

"You can't tell me what to do." I shot back, stomping my foot. Ignoring Vincent's mean stare, I turned to Freddy and handed him Anna's weapon. "Hey, Freddy. You go find your sister. I don't think I can be much of a help. Sorry Buddy."

I gave him the strongest smile I could manage, and sighed with relief when he nodded his head. "I get it. Thank you Riley." Freddy smiled meekly and began walking into the woods, with Joy running close behind him.

Chandler and I branched off from the remainder of the group, as we huddled together and discussed our final plans for tomorrow night.

"Just go with it for tonight and tomorrow." He mumbled to me. "And hey, I was wondering about something."

"What?" I asked.

"What do we do if they don't find Anna. What if we end up finding her?" Chandler's question wasn't what I expected, in fact it was the opposite. And I didn't have an answer to it.

"I don't know."

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Sorry if there are errors. I kind of rushed this chapter.