... who fell down the stairs.
Their father told them hundreds of times not to run upstairs. Rather, he told them hundreds of times not to run anywhere in the house, but he put extreme emphasis on not running upstairs. Of course, the prohibition sounded more like a challenge to one of the twins, and on several occasions Arthur had had to reprimand them for their disobedience, and under the constant threat of punishment, he had managed to calm the euphoria of the boys.
To Alfred, upstairs was the best place in the house to play tag. His favorite part of the game was being the one chased, he loved the adrenaline of the chase. But something was true; Matthew was too fast. Getting away from his brother was always an achievement, and therefore having to run after him frustrated him enormously, because he never managed to catch him. But with his speed disadvantage, he had designed his own means of escape. The only disadvantage was that it only worked on the top floor. This consisted of sliding downstairs over the railing upon reaching the stairs.
Matthew never dared to imitate his actions, therefore, it was always victory for him. His method was infallible.
Tiptoeing to the room he shared with Mattie, Alfred peeked through the door to see inside. His identical brother was facing away from him, probably playing with one of their many toys. A wide smile planted on his face, and making sure to make as little noise as possible, he approached where Mattie was, reaching out his hand towards his back to give him a little push, that startled the other blonde.
"You're it!" He shrieked amid an excited giggle that escaped his chest, hurrying to turn around and run out of the room. He immediately heard the footsteps of his brother behind him, and taking a second to glance at the other boy, he managed to catch the predator sparkle that shone in the violet eyes of little Matt, as he began to reduce the distance between them, despite the obvious advantage that Alfred had.
The boy didn't flinch, and making sure not to slow down even for a second, he visualized the place where the stairs began, and completely ignoring the scolding that came downstairs, once Arthur heard the footsteps upstairs, he reached out his hand to touch the wall slightly and stop a bit before reaching the stairs.
"I have told you a million times not to run upstairs! Alfred!"
He threw his hand towards the railing, but before he could get hold of it to stop completely, his feet stumbled over the carpet and Alfred fell headfirst toward the first step with the speed of a train. He heard Matthew's scream of horror from above and a frightening crack sounded from somewhere below his head as his body collided with what would have been the third step. By the time he reached the bottom step, his neck had already known at least three different angles.
Matthew watched in horror as his twin brother's body lay motionless at the foot of the stairs, and a small pool of red began to form under his head, having already left a trail of blood that ran along most of the carpeted steps. The alarmed voice of his parents came from one of the rooms below and both of them came running to find the scene.
"Alfred!" The scream of absolute horror filled the house, and the child stared completely paralyzed by terror at the big blue eyes that looked at somewhere over him from his brother's twisted face.