Twins

My name is Harry Walker. I'm a survivor of the tragic, dark events of June 23rd, 2017, known as the 'Massacre on the Motorway' in media, which was a dark day that saw many innocent and guilty people dead or badly injured, vehicles wrecked, the ground covered in trails of blood, all at the hands of twin teenage girls. The police officers who attended the scene called what they saw 'horrific and evil', and that the crime could only have been carried out by a 'psychopath, someone with zero human traits'. Several parents of the victims called for a ban on violent movies, video games and modern music which they believed was to blame because it 'brainwashes vulnerable young people into thinking that sadism, murder and hostility have a perfectly normal place in society'. Some religious groups have claimed that the two teenagers responsible are 'the daughters of Satan' and their presence is a 'clear sign that we (mankind) are being punished for our modern sinful way of living'. That's what you know.

What you don't know is the full story; why the twins did what they did. They're human, like you and I, not aliens from another planet or monsters sent by the Devil. They had hopes and dreams like anyone else. Something must have caused them to feel so desperate to have ended their lives so young.

To understand why, you need to know my story.

I first came across the twins when I was eleven years old and had just started at secondary school. I'd just spent four years living in the west coast of Ireland. The school I went to there had a grand total of forty students and our next door neighbours lived half a mile away, so I felt more than a bit intimidated to be living in an urban environment where the school had closer to five hundred students and there were plenty of scary and threatening looking people about.

I was struggling very much to find new friends. The kids at the school had grown up with iPads and Playstations, trapped indoors, whereas my parents only had one old computer which my dad used for work, and I hardly ever watched TV. I spent almost all of my free time in Ireland cycling around the countryside with my friends, playing football, digging huge holes in the garden in the hope of uncovering dinosaur skeletons or making up adventure stories with Action Man and Dr. X.

A boy in the same year as me had noticed that I spent every break and lunch time on my own. His name was Henry and he had a reputation in the school for having anger problems and being someone that you didn't want to get on the wrong side of. He was also noticeably shorter than most of the boys in our year.

Every day while I was eating my packed lunch alone in the corner of the playground Henry would snatch my lunch box out of my hands, take out the food he fancied, stuff it in his trouser pockets and throw the rest on the grass. He would then jump on my back like an excited monkey and would put me in a headlock, squeezing my throat until I began to choke. Resisting only made it worse. Once that I was in his grip he could do whatever he wanted with me. I was his play thing.

I would hide in the school library or the boys' toilets and enjoy the luxury of eating my sandwiches while sat on the bog, but a couple of Henry's mates would always find me and drag me to him to receive my daily torment.

Then, one day, as if my magic my guardian angel appeared in the form of Scott, a boy in the older years. When I would normally reach the point where I couldn't breathe as Henry tightened his anger fuelled grip around my neck, I suddenly found myself kneeling on the ground gasping for air. A hand gripped my shoulder gently but firmly. I looked up to see Scott, who was well known by everyone at school as also not one to get on the wrong side of, but unlike Henry he was an incredibly nice person. He asked if I was all right and told me that he and his mates had sent Henry and his mates packing and that they wouldn't be be bothering me again. Scott and his mates looked like giants to me. "Hang out with us," Scott said, smiling at me, "until you manage to find some friends. We'll make sure no one pushes you around."