The only thing I remembered was how to speak English.

That was all. I sat up on the bed, which was surrounded by people. Where was I?

A fat woman wept. “Carter,” she whispered. She was looking at me, so that must’ve meant my name was Carter.

“Thank you,” I said without thinking. They all frowned. “Um, sorry. Can you tell me where am I?”

A man with flaky hair said, “Carter, you’re at the hospital. You had a car accident remember?”

I arched my eyebrows. “I… don’t. I had a car accident? When? And who are you guys?”

They sighed and the fat woman wailed louder. My ears were buzzing; my head was beginning to pound. My head fell back to the pillow as I closed my eyes, trying to ease the discomfort. I heard someone say, “Please move… He may be an amnesia patient, so please don’t pressure him. Nurse, guide them outside. Cart-”

But I had already blacked out.

When I came to my senses, the doctors filled me in the matter: my name was Carter Wren, and that I had a terrible car accident, where I had severely injured my shoulder and that my skull was also cracked. I had been found near the sharp rocks below a valley, and that Toby, my mute and handless brother, had found me.

The police came in and questioned me about the accident several times, despite me telling them I remembered nothing. My mind was blank.

Next, my family came in. I identified Toby, but I had a hard time recognizing the others. There were my parents, my wailing grandmother, my friend Sasha, whose head was bandaged, Toby and my twin brother Chris.

During the introduction, snippets of memories began to gather in my mind; my parents congratulating on my scholarship on some university I forgot, my grandmother feeding me cookies, the time Sasha and I hugged when we got to know we would be going to the same university, the time I defended Toby from some bullies, and me apologizing to Chris for some secret that I’d accidently said to someone.

“How did I end up here?”  I asked. “I know it was a car accident, but where was I going?”

For some reason, Chris told the rest to go home. They left, leaving Chris and me alone. He said, “You were going to a party.”

“What party?”

“You said it was an after-school party.”

I had expected something to pop in my head, but again my head was blank.

When I got home, my friend, Quentin, called me. After assuring him that I remembered him, he asked me how the accident happened. I told him I didn’t know and that I was going to some after-school party.

He paused.

“Hello?”

“Carter,” he said, “what party are you talking about?”

“What do you mean?”

“We never had an after-school party.”

Soon I confronted my grandmother and parents about this but they were oblivious. They hadn’t even known about the matter until the hospital called them. Chris had gone to hang out with his friends, so my only hope was Toby.

He nodded at me and pointed outside with his arm. He was pointing at a blue car; the doors were a bit dented and the windows shattered.

One flashback struck through my mind like a bullet; sweating and stressing… a crash… shards of glass tearing through my skin… my reflection... I tried to remember clearly, but I gave up.

Toby wanted me to drive. I started the car and we drove straight to the valley. When we needed to turn right, Toby would jerk his head to the right. It was hard to concentrate on the road and his head movement.

When I reached the edge of the valley, Toby began to make weird noises through his mouth.

“Am I supposed to stop?”

He nodded. I stopped, got out of the car and held the door open. He got out but then again started making weird noises.

I frowned, but the next second I heard a gun load behind me. I froze, my heart skipping a beat, but the person’s voice made my skin crawl. I was aware that the gun was pointed at the back of my head.

“Hello, brother.”

Flashbacks began to fill my mind as I scanned my surroundings. The oak tree. The cold wind.  The moonless night.

I hadn’t been going to any after-school party. I had been going to the airport with Sasha. We both had a flight to our university. The reason my parents had no clue about this was because they had told me to go after a month. I had refused, because we would be very late for the semester. So Sasha and I booked our tickets, and that night, we both sneaked out of our homes and drove to the airport. I had to take Toby with me, since he had seen me already.

Then in the middle of the road, Toby made those weird noises and kept pointing behind, even though Sasha assured him that there was no one. I also wanted to check, so, being the idiot I was and not checking my side-mirror, I had turned back.

Which had been the exact moment when she’d screamed, “CARTER, LOOK OUT!”

How stupid could I get?

I didn’t know what had happened, but the next second, Sasha had been unconscious, her head bleeding and shards of glass scattered on her lap. I tried to unbuckle my seat belt, but my vision was beginning to feel blurry; the last things I had seen was Toby frantically trying to wake me up, and my reflection waving at me from the top as I slowly fell down…

It wasn’t until now that I realized that it hadn’t been my reflection.

It had been Chris.

I faced the gun and Chris’ face. I wanted to say something that would make him fall to his knees and beg for mercy, but all I could ask was, “Why?”

Chris smirked, flipping his gun. “You’re right. There’s no point in shooting you. Your future’s destroyed anyway.”

 “What-?”

“Was planning to flee with Sasha, weren’t you? Well, that plan flopped because you missed the flight. And I also convinced the Kane University to cancel you guys. I’m surprised you haven’t gotten the mail yet.  Sasha did, and she’s probably crying in her sleep right now.”

My dream university. Sasha who had spent sleepless nights just to get in. I grabbed Chris by the collar and slammed him against the rocky wall. His smirk was beginning to boil my blood. “Just answer my question. Why?”

He looked at the oak tree. “You had broken our promise.”

“What?”

“You promised not to tell my secret to anyone. But you did.”

My eyes widened; my chest tightened.

It had been the day of our interview. We both had applied for The Kane University. So that day, in the middle of nowhere, we both started an argument, and without thinking, I blurted out the secret. I told the one thing he told me not to say.

That he had been cheating in his exams for the past 2 years.

Now it didn’t seem like a big deal, but the fact that I had blurted it out in front of the interviewers… well, he got rejected and I got in. People suggested he could always apply to another university, but The Kane University had been his life-long dream too. The difference between us both were that I could sacrifice my goal for the greater good. Chris would kill to achieve his goal.

“How many times should I apologize?” I said helplessly.

“I don’t want to forgive you.” He leaned back. “Just suffer and we’ll be alright.”

“You almost killed Sasha, Toby and me! You gave me amnesia! And now you were about to shoot me! What else do-?”

I heard someone else mutter, “Well, thanks for the confession, Chris.”

I turned. It was Sasha, Toby and the police.