Hey guys… This is my first Boondock Saints fic, so I hope you all like it :)

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They'd been walking home after school.

The country road was empty, as it always was, and Murphy was scuffing at the dirt with his worn sneakers. Connor was picking berries off the bushes, and shoving them into his mouth, being careful to avoid the empty patches of bush he'd eaten berries from the day before.

"Ah here, Connor, yer eatin' all the berries! Leave some fer tomorrow, will ya?"

Connor simply stuck out his berry stained tongue, and plopped another blackberry into his mouth. His brother scowls at him, and heaves his heavy bag onto his shoulders again with a wince. His face is pained, and Connor does actually feel quite bad for Murphy, as he'd been complaining about his shoulders hurting him recently.

"Okay, okay. Fine. Here, have one though. Then I swear I'll stop eating 'em, yeah?" Murphy simply shakes his head, and keeps trudging down the road. "What's wrong?"

His brother shrugs his shoulders, with another wince, and says, "Jus' have a bad feeling. Dunno why." Connor runs the extra few steps to catch up with him, and touches his shoulder gently, raising his eyebrows, "Don't give me tha' fuckin' look, Connor, I dunno. Jus'… Let's jus' get home."

That was the bad thing about living in the middle of nowhere, Connor supposed. They had a forty minute walk to school each day, down winding country roads, where everything was silent and still. They'd used to cycle to school, but then Connor had wrecked his bike, fallen off and broken his hand, and Murphy had given his away when they hadn't had enough money to repair Connor's. So now they walked, because Ma never wanted to drive them in the old banger of a car she owned.

Connor chews on his last blackberry carefully, wondering what was up with his brother. Murphy was normally the predictable one of the two, hot headed and full of energy. Maybe he was getting sick.

The walk home continued in silence. Every now and again Connor would snag a blackberry off a bush, just to see if he could get a reaction out of Murphy, but all he didn't even get a glance. Murphy just hunches his shoulders, a frown on his face, and chewed at his lip.

It was something that he'd always do when he was nervous, chew on his lip or on the skin at the sides of his thumb nail, but Connor can't think of a reason for it. He is almost certain that neither of them had any tests coming up, or that Murphy wasn't having girl troubles.

"Maybe we could get some 'a Ma's whiskey tonight? She said she was gonna go down ta th' Anvile tonight, get wasted probably. S'not like she'll notice a bottle anyway." Murphy just shugs, and then Connor gets mad, "C'mon, Murph, what's wrong with ye? Where's the banter got ta? Yer no craic this afternoon… Did someone start on ye at school? Cause ye know I'll—"

Murphy whirls around, and yells, "I said I don't know, Connor! I jus' have this feelin'! An' ye know I can fuckin' take care 'a myself!"

"I know ye can! But I'm worried about ye, Murph – the fuck's gotten inta ya?"

They were stopped, yelling at each other, just a few metres away from a sharp bend, but it doesn't matter because hardly any cars go down that road. The blackberry bushes are on either side of them, and Connor is yelling, and Murphy is waving his arms around angrily even though his shoulders hurt, and there are no cars around.

It doesn't matter that there are no cars around, until it does, because there are.

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Out of nowhere, this big fancy car comes tearing around the corner, swerving all across the road.

Both boys stop, and all the sound drains away from the world. Connor stares at the car, and can't breathe. It's going to hit him. The car is now less than a metre away from him, and he can practically see his reflection in the shininess of the hood. It's going to hit him.

But then something slams into him before the car can, and he's knocked onto his side, and he still can't breathe. His head smacks against the uneven concrete of the road, and he hears someone scream his name, and the car was going to hit him, but something else got there first, and—

Murph.

Connor is trying to sit up then, and he can hear the car speeding away, and there's a dark shape lying a few metres away from him. Murph. Something wet is trickling down his face, and he's almost positive that it's not sweat, and his brother still isn't moving. Murph. He tries to yell out his twin's name, but his voice isn't working right, and he still can't breathe, and Connor is slowly slumping back down to the ground, but he can't because he has to stay awake and…

Murph.

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He wakes up when the whole world is tilting, and there's lots of noise.

Connor's eyes snap open, and there's people everywhere, and something holding him down, and then the sky is moving. A woman looks down at him, and tries to talk to him, but Connor can't hear anything over the crushing fear.

My brother, he opens his mouth, and his lips are moving, but he has no idea if he's saying anything. My brother. More people appear, and there's something being stuck into his hand, and it hurts, and it's harder to breathe. Connor can see people all around him, their torsos rushing all over the place, and then he realises that he's on some kind of backboard.

His neck is immobilised, sticky tape stuck to his forehead to keep his head down, and Connor wants to scream.

So he does.

"Murph!" He yells, and his throat explodes in pain, but he doesn't hear any answer, "Murph! Murphy! Murph!" More people appear over him, and they're talking to him, but all Connor can hear is the lack of response from his brother, "Murph! Murphy, answer me—Murph!"

Still nothing. Everything is moving in fast forward, and suddenly he's being lifted into the back of an ambulance, and he's shaking and trembling because everything is wrong. He can't see Murphy, and the pain in his chest is getting worse, and he can't see Murphy anywhere.

Connor screams and cries and yells, but he can't hear his brother's voice anywhere. So he tries to kick and punch and thrash around, but they're holding him down, and he's still screaming, and why won't Murphy answer him?

Then the world starts to spin, and there's still hands restraining him, and Connor doesn't know what to do.

Because he's only sixteen, and that's too young for his life to fall apart, and all he wants is Murph to appear in the place of all these other people. Tears are streaming down his face, because the doors of the ambulance are shutting, and he's getting a warm feeling, and his eyes are shutting.

But there's no Murphy, only darkness, so Connor lets himself slip away.

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So… That was only a little teaser for you guys – normally my chapters are quite a bit longer than this, but I wanted to post this little bit as a tester. I'll get straight to writing more if you all like this, so please let me know what you thought of it :) Let me know if you want more!

Review…?

Thanks for reading,

ArmedWithMyComputer xx