The Disappearance Of Will Black / REWRITING /

⸢ vii ⸥

I had two things on my mind when I stepped into the empty house. James Warden and my missing brother. 

All the lights were switched off. The living room was dark. The curtains were pulled all the way together, and the upstairs lights were unilluminated. That didn't make any sense. 

Trying to ignore the eeriness that gnawed at my instinct to turn around and run outside, I shut the door and felt for the light switch. The relief of finding it lasted for a few seconds at most. As soon as light met my eyes I caught sight of a figure standing a few meters in front of me, leaning on one of our dining chairs. 

"Fuck!" I yelped, dropping the keys on the floor. My heart pounded loudly in my ears, snaking it's way into fear. 

I felt the immediate urge to hurl myself out of the door, but something nagged at me to investigate what scared the living shit out of me. I stood there, my arms wrapped around my beating heart and stared at the source of my surprise. 

It was an ordinary boy with darkly framed glasses, a possessive smile and an outfit consisting of just black. 

"Sarah," He said, his voice monotone but uninviting. 

"William?" I responded, but the statement flew out of my mouth as a quizzical question that I so desperately needed an answer for. I put a clammy hand to my swimming head. The oxygen here was thin. 

He pointed at the keys which lay solely on the floor. "Better pick those up before you lose them." 

I didn't move. I just kept staring at his existence, trying to come up with a solution. It should've been obvious from the second I saw my supposedly missing brother - I was about to experience another panic attack. Hallucinating Will being here was supposed to be soothing, to know that he was alive and standing in front of me, but this hallucination just made me wish he was anywhere else but here, even if that whereabout was six feet under the ground.

Will looked as alive as when I saw him that day in the grocery store. He looked as handsome as the old Will, as smart as the old Will, but he just wasn't Will. 

I ignored the keys and made my way to the kitchen to pry the curtains away from its closure. Maybe some sunshine could wake me up. 

As I fumbled with the curtains, my waist leaning against the sink, William materialized beside me, right where the cabinet was. He wasn't close enough to touch me, but he was close enough to make me question my hallucination. The distance between us threatened to press against my windpipe and exhaling seemed to be harder than ever. 

My brother dropped his gaze to the drawers. He drew one out of its slot and I watched as his eyes glazed over the recently washed cutlery. I swallowed a bullet when he daintily picked up a sharp knife with his careful hands. 

I ripped the curtains free of its darkness and watched the sunlight stream in automatically. It wasn't enough. The room still felt utterly dark, even with the dim lights and the bare window. 

I bit the inside of my cheek and wasted a few precious seconds to watch Will play with the knife. One little slip and it would slice his flesh open. 

He stopped fidgeting with the knife and turned his dark blue eyes towards me. His eyes looked more like the darkest pits of a sea, right where an angelfish would nest in. Right where I could drown. 

Before he could make his second move, I lunged forwards in an attempt to snatch the knife from his grasp. Everything that happened next was a blur - Will's powerful fist flew to my face before I could wrap my hands against his weapon. The contact was so robust that it sent me flying against the counter. My head slammed against the edge of the sink, my hand dragging a pile of plates that lay on the marble surface that was meant to steady the blow. 

The plates toppled over the corner and crashed onto the floor just inches before my feet. I screamed and pressed myself against the wall to avoid any shrapnel from getting into my skin. All the blood subsided in my head as the never ending sound of plates falling onto the floor bombarded my brain. 

I stood there with my eyes shut, hands clenching the counter, even after the noises stopped. I waited there for a good few seconds before opening my eyes. A whole wad of plates was broken into thousands of pieces on the floor, just in front of where Will stood with a non-surprised look on his face. 

"Clumsy Sarah," He tutted under his breath, and the first sign of emotion lit up his face. Humor. "And you thought only knives were sharp." 

I shook my head in disbelief. Old Will would've hugged me tightly and asked if I were alright. I could see it in my head - we would check my head for any major wounds, clean up all the plate remnants on the floor and William would take the blame for it once my Mom came home. 

But here he was, flipping the knife in one hand, smiling at the scene that unfolded before his eyes.

I ignored my taunting brother and put a hand on the back of my head. There was no blood, but the impact of the marble against it still hadn't worn off. I lightly tested out both feet, which were free of glass shrapnel. Good. 

I blinked back to hold back tears. New Will couldn't see my cry. I didn't think that I would be able to bare his further taunts. 

Will stepped forwards, his shoes crunching against the broken plates. I took a few steps to the right, away from the messed up floor, away from my brother.

He followed my footsteps, his jaw set. I was soon crab-walking across the room, trying to avoid all the obstacles that threatened to trip me. 

As soon as my back hit the wall, Will caught up with me and closed the former reassuring space between us. He then grabbed a handful of my hair and whirled my face around with the force, pressing my forehead against the window beside us. I shrieked in pain, grasping the hand that was tearing my hair from my scalp, but he wouldn't give in. 

"Open your eyes!" He shouted for the first time, jabbing my face at the window. I could see the Windsor's family's house, with Mr. Windsor opening the door and stepping out with his three-year-old daughter in his hands. They looked jovial, embracing the cold weather of January. 

I writhed under the pain he enveloped me into. "Please, please let me go!" I begged, clawing at his iron hand. William ignored my wails, his face steely for the first time. His once-attractive face was inflicted with an unquenchable anger, an anger I had never witnessed before. 

"Open your eyes and observe, Sarah. Break the glass. Break that vision of perfection that you already see because you know nothing. It's all blurry for you, but you'll get it soon. You'll get it, and you'll wish that you didn't." 

"Will!" I screamed, tears running down my face as he yanked my hair for the final time. He let go of me so abruptly that I went crashing onto the floor, weeping in a puddle of fear. 

Suddenly the main door flew open. My eyes flew to the visitor and never felt more relieved - until I saw what he was carrying. 

My dad's mouth flew open when he saw me. His eyes were hazy and his steps were uneven. He nearly dropped both bottles of alcohol when he saw my tear-streaked face and wild hair. 

I looked around for Will. He was gone - and for a bitter second, I wished he was dead. 

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A/N: I really don't know how to feel about this chapter. smh.