Blank Eyes

Chapter 1

(Short story based on the poem"Out, Out-" by Robert Frost) This story was based on Robert Frost's poem, but I wrote it. Copying any of it will be Plagiarism....and that's not cool so like, could you not? Thank you for reading it, and please enjoy.

"So...what do you want to do?" I asked Lily as we sat on my bed. She shrugged, still seeming slightly nervous as this was the first time she had been over to my new house after school. My family had moved houses away from our old farm, to be closer to the school I went to. Lily had been my best friend since I was 10 years old. She let her eyes wander around the room, which quickly landed upon a picture sitting on my bedside table. Picking it up, she looked at me with curiosity twinkling in her eyes. "Who are these?" she asked, pointing at the picture of my eight-year-old-self hugging my brother. "That's my twin brother, Blake, and I" she looked at me with disbelief. "I have known you for 6 years and I never knew you had a twin!"

"HAD, being the key word..."

...was all that I responded with, before proceeding to tell the tragic story of the day I unknowingly murdered my best friend, Blake.

There I sat, in my mother's warm embrace, watching as the sun sank deep into the horizon. The leaves rustled beneath my tiny feet, and the slight breeze swiped loose strands of hair into my face. At the back of the garden sat the wooden shed, where inside my twin stood exhausted, helping dad chop the wood for the fast-approaching winter. The loud machine caused the sap in the wood to tint the air with a sweet touch. As I stared into the orange colour invading the sky, mum heard the oven timer call for her to check on the food.

After she had placed me off her lap, I followed her into the old Victorian-Style kitchen. Grabbing the mitts, she opened the oven door. I let the delicious apple pie smell engulf me like a blanket as it was placed on the counter. Bending down to my petite height, mum asked "Do you want to go get Blake and daddy for dinner?" I replied with an excited "Okay mummy!" before giving her a quick hug and retreating to the garden shed.

As I approached, the sap smell that infused the air intensified. I dragged open the tired wooden door to reveal my poor drained brother attempting, but barely succeeding, to chop hundreds of wooden poles. Dad was there too, but not looking quite as fatigued. "Supper!" I called out excitedly. Blake quickly turned around; his movements energized in an instant, as if the word 'supper' gave him a boost of energy.

The happiness of this moment quickly vanished. What happened next...nobody could have anticipated. The saw, as if also energized and hungered by supper, seemed to leap towards Blake's hand, slicing straight off. Everything happened so quickly, my memory is a blur. All the blood ...pouring out of him like a watering hose. I felt sick, dizzy. But him, he looked more scared rather than in pain. He looked me directly in the eyes, fear running rampant in his irises. I could feel his emotions. Sympathy, or twin telepathy, I knew exactly what was going through his mind. It hurt, his thoughts hurt me. My head suddenly felt as if it were spinning, as the life spilled from his arm. My eyes glazed over with a thick layer of tears as he pleaded to me "Don't let him cut my hand off- the doctor, when he comes. Don't let him, sister!" Me. He told this to me. I am his other half, we complete each-other. Dad could save his life, where I wouldn't be able to do much, but he still pleaded with me. He relied on me, as twins should...But I let him down. The dizziness took over, as my legs gave in and I collapsed onto the shed floor. It all went black.

I woke up nicely tucked into my bed, in Blake and my room. All I remembered at the time was Blake getting hurt. I felt a knot form in my stomach and in a heartbeat I was by his bed...but it was empty. I felt kind of strange....sort of, incomplete. But I dint know why, so I just grabbed my slippers and went on the search of my best friend. Maybe he got a splinter from all of the wood and was getting it disinfected. I galloped down the stairs into the kitchen where I found my mum having a mental breakdown on the floor. "Mummy?" I asked. I took a step towards her. She wiped the tears out of her face when she noticed me. If she was trying to hide the fact she was crying, she was failing miserably. Her eyes were red and puffy, glazed with tears, leaving red streaks down her face. Her hair was dishevelled, and her clothes were tear-stained and wrinkled. She looked like a mess. "Are you ok, mummy?" I wondered worriedly. Avoiding all eye-contact, she wobbled past me out the kitchen while saying in a trembling voice that was barely audible. "You look too much like Blake."

Confused, I walked towards the shed, the last place where I had seen Blake and dad. It was cold now, as the harsh winds swooping over my body sent shivers down my spine. The sky was pitch black now, unlike the happy pink it had been just a short while ago. The moon and stars didn't dare to shine through. The large wooden door was open, and as I stepped inside I took in the scene. The once sweet smell of sap was replaced with a metallic scent, foreign to my senses. The floor had small pools of red, and the room looked extremely disorganized. Daddy sat hunched on the floor cleaning up, looking just as dishevelled as mum did. "Where's Blake, daddy?" I asked confused. I still hadn't seen him. Dad turned around, shocked at my presence. "He's gone, baby girl" he replied, sadness overruling his features.

I ran up to him and gave him a hug, taking him by surprise. The feeling returned, the...incomplete, feeling. I started feeling uneasy. He hugged me tight against his chest, as if he never wanted to let go. "Well, when is he coming back? We have school next week, and he can't miss school, daddy!" I wondered. He stopped, held me at arm's length and looked me straight in the eyes. I could see he was holding back the tears. "I don't think he will be back for a while, sweetie" he said with a sympathetic smile, that didn't quite reach his eyes. I furrowed my eyebrows. "Well, when WILL he be back daddy?" The knot in my stomach grew tighter as my heartbeat quickened. "I don't know" he replied, exasperated "but we will join him one day." His voice was laced with melancholy emotions. Where is Blake? For how long would Blake be gone for? Can I even live without him? All of these questions swirled my mind, until my dad's thumb brushing away a tear, brought me back to reality. It hadn't been till now that I realized I had been crying. "Well, don't worry daddy, knowing Blake hell come back soon" I tried to be encouraging. Again, he offered me a half-hearted smile as he mumbled, more to himself than to me, "If only I had not worked him as a man before he was ready..."

By the end of the story, my hands were trembling, I was tripping over my words, and tears ran at a steady pace down my face. It took me a couple years to realize that Blake wan never coming back. He bled to death after the saw cut his hand off, there was nothing the doctors could do. I was broken, incomplete, alone now without him. And the worst thing was that it was my fault. I killed the thing that meant the most to me in the world. Mum never looked at me the same way, and what she said that night was probably the reason why. Blake and I were twins...and I looked too much like him, I would bring her back too many painful memories. My friend suddenly snapped me out of my daydream by hugging me. A real hug. One of those 'cry your heart out, I won't judge you' hugs. So I hugged back, still sobbing. It felt good to tell someone, to get it off my chest. But I still knew deep down that no matter what I did, the knot in my stomach at the mention of his name, or the heartache every winter and I helped dad cut the wood. I would never be the same. He would always be my other half.

Thank you for reading. I hope you liked it, even though it didn't exactly have the happiest ending.

My friend Pierced_Tattooed (Human Being) and I made a deal, I would post my story, if she posted hers, so you can check hers out, its really good.