The railroad tracks go on forever; a never ending road for only me to follow. These tracks have been abandoned, due to how inconvenient they are now. Planks of rotting wood and rusty, freezing metal stretch as far as the eye can see. They follow the most dangerous route to their destination. The trains themselves have newer, more efficient tracks to follow. New tracks were built to get the passengers and cargo to their destination much safer and faster than these lonely, old tracks. That is why I decided to follow them. I made them my friend, for I too was abandoned; at least until my little brother, Viktor, showed up. Out of the blue, he just appeared as if nothing ever happened. What nerve. I can't say anything to him about leaving though, not after what he did to our mother.
"Hey, Spacey, I'm talkin' to ya', ya' know? Hey, are ya' there? Knock knock!" Viktor proceeded to jokingly tap me on the head a couple times.
"Oh, sorry. My mind was wandering off in a different direction."
"Oh? What were you thinking about? The Spiraling Tracks? They're coming up right around the corner, ya' know? You best be ready!"
"No. I was thinking about... Mother."
In that moment, I should have lied. It was really quiet now. We kept walking along the tracks, both looking in the opposite direction of each other. I wasn't there that day it all happened. I didn't know how or why. All I knew was that my mother was dead, and it was all my little brother's fault. He killed her, and that was reason enough for me to hate him.
My brother looks just like me. He's tall, blonde hair down to his shoulders, a face straight out of a magazine. Or maybe this is just me admiring my own looks? Well... we are identical twins. I refer to him as "little brother" just because I was born first. It's a game I like to play. Oddly enough, he even smells the same as me; the smell of strawberries and pine trees.
Ever since we were kids, he had always been an odd one, always getting into all sorts of trouble. One time when we were five, we were playing out in the woods and he found a rattlesnake slithering around near him. Any normal person would have tried getting as far away from it as possible, but this idiot just snatched it right up and brought it over to Mother. Of course he was bit in the process. By the time we got him back to the house, he should have already been dead from the venom, but somehow he was unaffected by it. He wasn't even phased by the initial bite.
I looked over at him, knowing that this adventure would grow to be unbearable if we kept this awkward silence up. As much as I hate him, there is nothing I can really do about it. I can't make him leave, and he has nowhere else to go anyways. I still wonder where he went after the incident with Mother, but I don't think it would be wise to ask him. The way he acts just doesn't make any sense to me. He killed Mother, but he seems so remorseful. He looks as if he's not the monster the first-responders made him out to be with the brief bit of information they gave me about the whole ordeal. Dammit! I can't let myself begin to think that he is innocent. He killed her, and that's that. If he didn't do it, why is she dead? My mother wouldn't kill herself. No, it's just not possible. Plus, he was the only one that was there with her at the time. That bastard is trying to play me like a fiddle, I just know it. But what can I do about it? If I confront him with my feelings, will he kill me too? Could he kill me too?
"Hey, we've arrived at The Spiraling Tracks!" Viktor shouted. "Are you ready?!" He was excited, but still a tad uneasy.
"Hell yeah!" I said. "Let's do this!"
The Spiraling Tracks had finally emerged. They spiraled eight whole miles up along one of, if not the biggest, mountain in the world, Mt. Purplevein. It's a massive peak that towers high up into the clouds, then expands outward and into the downward slope of the range trailing behind it. The tracks spiral like this because back in the day, Mt. Purplevein was a prosperous coal mine. The tracks spiral up and through the mountain, then ease down the rest of the range until they reach their destination. I made this trek to the top once before with my brother several years ago. Once you reach the top, the journey down back down is a long, tedious hike... if you're walking. However; my brother and I found some old mine-carts inside the abandoned tunnels; two for us to ride the twisted spiral, and two to ride straight down the other side. We heard that the speed you pick up down the other side is so fast that it feels like your cheeks are going to fly right off your face. We've always wanted to try riding the back side of the mountain, and we had the carts ready and waiting... but we never got to go straight down. Mother fell ill, and for the next few months we had to stay with and take care of her. Just when I thought she was finally getting better, it happened. When I returned to her, she was dead and my brother was gone.
