Nineteen Minutes

This is a continuation of the first page of the book Nineteen Minutes which i wrote for my english creative writing coursework. Please let me know your opinion.

In nineteen minutes you can end a life or save it...

The light flowed through the cracks in the boarded up window like sands of time in an hourglass. Time was creeping away from me. Not long left until I took my revenge. Silently, I crept past the child deep in slumber who used to be my brother. In his sleep he looked peaceful, innocent almost angelic. His curling blonde hair framing his delicate features warped with brutality. His latest victim was cowering in the corner her hands bound viciously together with a length of rope. Their faces haunted my every waking moment. Their faces always merged into one. My own. I couldn’t trust him anymore. It hurt me to say it but I knew I couldn’t help him. I couldn’t save him from himself. His desire for revenge had eaten away his humanity; all that was left was a monster hungry in their desire to satisfy their need for revenge. I knew it would be me soon. He couldn’t help himself.

My mother was an evil woman. Quite unlike the caring person one would expect. Her cruel words crushed me with their heavy blows and my brother often fared much worse. She did all kinds of unimaginable, unforgivable things.

One night my brother snapped.

Her cold words had pierced his heart once too often. He stabbed her. Her body slumped against the wall with scarlet tears running down from her heart. I can still remember her face to this day; the total shock. I can’t say I missed her but at least she had given us a home and somewhere to belong. We ran away that night in cover of darkness to the old, long forgotten hospital. Dust clung to every surface and rats were hidden around every dark corner. But nothing could be worse than living with my mother. I told myself that every day. From then on my older brother who had protected me from my mother’s powerful hand was no more. Something had changed within him and he wanted revenge. He had had a taste of it. He saw her in everyone and then he could not resist reliving the moment when he had demolished my mother’s power. He saw her in me and I knew that soon he would forget the bond between us and he would do to me what he had done to so many others. I had to stop him. It had to be done. Her memory was like the moon in a total eclipse blocking my brother’s heart from the sun ; just out of reach .If only he could reach beyond her and let the sun shine on him. We had the chance of a new and better life but her ghost swirled around him still. She was causing him even more harm in death than she had in life.

6:00 am - Tears cascaded down the victim’s face as I untied the rope. I told her run. Far and fast. Before going out into the chilly winter’s morning air myself. The cool air surrounding me lent its power and strength to my weakening certainty. It had to be done.

6:09 am – I arrived. I gripped the door handle tightly with my shaking hand. With fear? No, but with excitement. Nearly there. Nearly to my revenge. It had to be done.

6:13 am – We travelled to where he lay sleeping unaware of what was to come. He had nothing to fear. I would make sure he did not suffer. I loved him more than I loved myself. But it had to be done.

6:19 am - The police burst the doors to the hospital open with me standing directly behind them. My brother winced. The blinding light burning his eyes. He called my name before the policemen grabbed him and bundled him into the back of their car. Tears gathered in a pool on my eyelashes before dripping onto the cold hard concrete.

I had saved him. I knew it ,but it still hurt to think of him isolated in a cramped prison cell. They would make him better and he would learn what he had done was wrong. They would cure him I was sure of it. In making him better I would take revenge on my mother. We were going to have a better life. One that she couldn’t be part of. She had taken too much of our lives and I was going to make sure that me and my damaged brother made the most of what we had left.

In nineteen minutes you can take revenge. In nineteen minutes you can end a life or save it...