Lycée George-Sand La Châtre

Clémence and Naël collected the second prize ( French Writers Category) for their dark and tormented tale of rival siblings  :

A BROTHERLY PASSION

The Daily Whatever

Sunday, August 30th, 2006

A terrible destiny

In the night of the 28th to the 29th of August,on a mountain road, the HayStack family lost the control of their car, hurtled down the slope and crashed into tree. On this dreary night, both parents perished in the accident, their twins sons who were in a coma were taken to the Acorns Medical Centre in Middlewich, but in spite of the efforts of renowned surgeon Francis N. Stein, the infortunate children could not be reanimated.

The funerals will take place in Liverpool where the family has lived for 10 years, The Daily Whatever offer its condolences to the close family of the victims.

Monday, September 15th, 2009

Hi ! I’m Victor, I’m nine and I love playing football ! I live with my mother, I don’t have many friends but it doesn’t matter. She offered me this journal, I’m gonna tell all my adventures here, as if it was my best friend !

[…]

Thursday, February 19th, 2010

Dear journal, today Tom told all the class he doesn’t like me because I’m weird, so I fought with him. Mom is very upset now, she says he’s stupid and I shouldn’t listen to him. I don’t like school, I feel alone there, the other kids make fun of me and I don’t understand why, they’re all mean.
Last night I made a strange dream, I was sitting in a square with a man and a woman, their faces were familiar but I don’t remember them. Beside me a boy was laughing, and he looked exactly like me. Most of the time I forget my dreams or nightmares, but this one was so strange that I just can’t stop thinking about it.

[…]

Monday, March 9th, 2010

Today, it’s my birthday ! But I’m not very happy, mom is very angry with me. I’ve been fighting many times at school, I don’t understand why she’s mad at me, it’s not my fault...

[...]

Saturday, May 16th, 2010

It’s 2 a.m, and I just made an horrible nightmare. I was in a car with the same people whom are in my dreams for few months, then I heard a woman screaming and a child crying, I saw a white lightning and everything became dark, I thought I was dying. I just can’t sleep now.

[...]

Wednesday, August 12th, 2010

Mom wants to send me in a special school, yesterday I broke the bathroom’s mirror. It’s not the first thing I break in the house, I can’t control myself. Mom says she doesn’t bear me anymore, because I’m too violent. I went at the doctor’s office of my uncle. I don’t believe that this « school » is really a simple school.

Sunday, August 16th, 2010

I still make weird dreams with this couple, and this little boy who looks like me. Last night, I dreamt I was fighting with this boy about a little red car, I felt like I already lived this scene. I told Mom about these dreams, but she said it’s normal, and she started giving me medications.

Sunday, October 11th, 2010

Dear journal, I didn’t write anything here for a long time. I’m in this « special school » now, it seems more like an hospital. The doctors give me a lot of medications, but I still make these scary dreams with these familiar characters. I don’t tell anything about them, I don’t want to take more medications. The last days I spend at home, I gived a punch to my mom, I didn’t want her to send me in this weird place. I didn’t recognized her anymore, I felt like she always played a game with me. I’m very mad at her, she didn’t visit me since I’m here.

Saturday, December 26th, 2010

Yesterday, I saw my mother. She brought me a video game. I don’t care, I don’t want it. She looked like a stranger. She explained to me that she didn’t visit me for my property. But I have to stay here until the end of my shooling. I was extremely angry, I hate her. I don’t understand why she let me alone . I will know it and I will revenge to me.

[…]
Wednesday, April 18th, 2013
At the moment, I turn things over in my head... My psychologist said that our dreams are very important. I do the same nightmare with the same characters since I’m 8. I ask to me much questions. But I don’t want to talk about it, I don’t trust anyone. I would know my origins, my mother always told me that I was adopted at 7 years, but I don’t remember anything of my life before this moment. It’s very strange…

Victor stay in the hospital, the professor create a second son for his sister by taken the brain of Remy, Victor’s twin whom had died too in the car accident.

Friday, August 20th, 2011

My name is Remy, I’m eight and this journal is mine !
Today was a good day, I went at school and I played with my friends. But last night I made a strange dream I can’t forget, I was laughing with a boy who seems to be me, I mean he looked exactly like me, and a couple was looking after us. I can’t stop thinking about it…

[...]

Monday, September 13th, 2011

Dear journal, today Mom cooked the best chocolate cake ever, it smelled like heaven. My uncle visited us, he’s a very kind and smart man, he’s a doctor ! By the way I still make weird dreams with this boy, but Mom told me it doesn’t matter.

[…]

Saturday, January 14th 2013
Today I went to the swimming pool with James and Lydia, it was very cool ! However last night, I made a terrible nightmare, there was firemans, screams and blood, as if there was an accident… Mom tried to reassure me, I slept with her, but I was disturbed by the wildest dreams.

Thursday, June 13th 2013

All these questions haunt me, I have to find answers about my origins. By exploring the hospital, I found a way to escape from here. Tomorrow I’ll leave this center and discover the truth.

The next sentences were written by Remy a week after the tragedy…

Friday, June 21st 2013

I have to talk about my story, life can turn into a nightmare in only one day…

A week ago, when I came back from school, I discovered that my bed chamber had been turned upside down, and I saw myself sitting at my office. I mean,a stranger whom seems to be me was looking at me. I felt like I’ve already seen him somewhere... He was in a rage, he pushed me violently on the wall and said : « You’re the boy in my nightmares... » I was completely lost, we looked exactly alike he and I. He scared me, I didn’t know what to do. He ordered me to phone "his" mom. I hadn’t the audacity to say anything, so I complied immediately. I’ve been brief on the phone. Mom understood that I was in a panic, she arrived five minutes later, I felt like this minutes were never-ending. While we waited for her, the stranger was watching pictures of me and mom, his features were frozen, giving nothing away. Then he threw the frames on the floor, and broke them all. But he didn’t hurt me. I stayed on my bed, I heard him search all the house. Then someone slammed the door.
I rushed down stairs, when the boy came out of the kitchen, holding a knife. I step aside, and he attached her on a chair. I didn’t want him to hurt mom, I wanted to phone the police but he was keeping a close eye on me. She was terrified, and tried to reason with him :" Don’t hurt Remy. Keep calm please, I’m going to take you back in the center. You didn’t take your medications ? I know I should visit you more often, I’m very busy you know. I want you to have a great future. Come on Victor, drop this knife, I understand your anger. But I didn’t abandoned you, I send you in this hospital for your health..." She couldn’t stop to talk, as if it reassured her. He slapped her. He said that he wouldn’t leave until he knew the truth. He asked so much questions that I don’t remember all. He wanted to know why she let him in this center, why he was doing the same nightmares since he was eight, why he saw me in these dreams and what I was doing in this house. He breathed, and waited her answer.
Mom was in a panic. She told him that she didn’t know why he was doing these nightmares, and explained I was her son, that she adopted me when I was seven and that our physical likeness was a coincidence. Victor was in a rage, he broke some objects and threatened to kill her if she didn’t tell the truth. Nobody talked for a moment. Then she asked me to phone my uncle Franck, the surgeon, and said she would tell everything when he’ll be there. Frank arrived, Victor attached him too. My uncle was stunned. My mom was in tears, and asked him to tell the truth, they didn’t have the choice. Victor threatened them with the kife, she supplied Frank to confess everything. She said to Victor and I that she was sorry, then my uncle began to speak. I was petrified, I remember every single word he used.
"You have to understand that Ive done all of this for my sister, and for you. I don’t have any regrets. Seven years ago, a serious car accident killed a couple and their two childs. I tried to reanimate them, but it was in vain. In this time, your mother was trying to adopt a kid but this was extremely long and complicated. What I’m going to explain to you will be unthinkable and will probably scares you, I’m sorry about it. I found horrible that two twins of six years old died at this young age. This is why I decided to keep ther corpses. I only worked on one body, I replaced some organs and a part of the brain, collected the instruments of life around me, and after few months in an artificial coma, you was born Victor. Your mother adopted you, her happiness was infinite. We didn’t expect it, but as you grew up, you became more violent. You was talking about strange nightmares which were memories of your past life of course. We didn’t know what to do, it’s for your good and ours that we sent you in this center in hope that your violent behaviour will disapear when you’d grow up. Your brother’s corpse was still kept, so I decided to repeat the same experience, but I replaced a bigger part of the brain. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. Remy was born, he was blooming and calm, he was just doing the same nightmares as yours. I saved your lifes."
Victor couldn’t say anything, he was shivering. He screamed on his mother and his uncle, said that they were monsters, incredibly selfish, that they were only thinking of their happiness and didn’t imagine the real hell he lived for all these years in the center, the violence, the medications... He was destructive. Then he spoke to his mother "After everything I lived,you abandoned me in this hospital, as if I was a broken object you trown in the bin. You and your brother are horrendous. You don’t deserve to be a mother, you don’t deserve to live. Frank, you’ll see what it feels like to see your sister dying in front of you, unfortunately you will not transform her in a laboratory doll." Victor rained down blow upon our mother, and stapped her. He admired the horror in Frank’s eyes, and killed him too. A part of me was exulting. I liked to see them suffering after all the wrong they’ve done. Victor broke everything he saw. After a moment, I realized that I’ve lost my mom whom had ever been there for me and whom I loved so much. How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe. Victor came back in the room, he seemed extremely satisifed of himself. Tears were falling on my cheeks while I was watching the miserable monster whom my uncle had created. I managed to wake up from the floor, I didn’t feel my limbs, a cold dew covered my forehead. Victor smiled and laughed. I couldn’t bear this, I beat him with all my strength. He fall, his head hurt a table. I touched his throat, I didn’t feel his pulse. He didn’t breath anymore.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
144 Hilton Lane, Middlewich, July 1st 2:03 PM 

« -Hello, is this the psychiatrist Carlton’s office ?
-Yes it it !You should be Remy HayStack ! Please sit in the waiting room, the doctor will entertain you, I think he already studies your file.
Knock knock !
-Come in ! Hello Remy, I was waiting for you ! I was studying your file. Now that I knew all your story we can begin the therapy... I’ve read the two diaries, I know that it will be painful for you but we have to come back on some moments... Have a sit !
- Hello doctor. »