The Lost And Forgotten Memories

      It’s been one and a half hours. Raquelle, Natalia, and Helene are still together and are not going to go home. None of them can call Edward, Terrence, or Peter because the men’s phones suddenly got turned off. Violetta, Christiana, and Blair are trying to comfort them and make them sure they may be worried for nothing. Sammy also does his best to comfort everyone and lets them pet him as much as they want.       “God, it’s been one and a half hours, and we still know nothing about them,” Raquelle exhales sharply, shaking her leg nervously and sniffing sometimes. “The lads also turned off their phones…”       “I wanna make myself sure that we’re worried for nothing, but I can’t,” Helene replies in a shaking voice, holding a glass of water, and moves her eyes to the sad and whining Sammy, whose face is lying on Natalia’s laps, while the blonde caresses his head and ears. “Even Sammy can’t calm down… So, this is a sign of something.”       “If only you knew how worried I’m about Edward,” Natalia sighs heavily. “I can’t stop thinking that something horrible might happen to him.”       “And I have no idea of what they could get into,” Raquelle says in a shaking voice, sobbing quietly. “Their only enemy is Wainwright… But how could they meet him if nobody knows where he’s hiding?”       “Gosh, what if Edward, Terrence, and Peter really meet that stinker?” Natalia gets horrified with tears in her eyes. “Wainwright may kill them! He’s insane! If the lads meet him, they’ll be dead! And then that stinker will reach us!”       “It will hardly happen,” Blair says confidently. “Wainwright will hardly go to popular places because he knows people will call the police. And your men understand what threatens them if they meet that man.”       “The only one, who might meet him by going to an unpopular place, is Edward,” Christiana notices. “That guy is too obsessed with a love for trouble. He can’t stay in the same place and needs some adrenaline.”       “It’s not a secret for us,” Raquelle agrees thoughtfully. “In this case, Edward is a little crazy. But sometimes Terrence might also be in similar places.”       “But Peter would hardly do…” Helene pronounces. “But if they all met Wainwright, I don’t exclude that he could stay and help.”       “Even if the men met Wainwright, where?” Violetta asks.       “Who knows where they might end up!” Natalia exhales sharply. “Where MacClife, Jr., might be brought, who can’t really calm down and still looks for what might shake him.”       “It’s like he keeps trying to prove to everyone that he is worth something,” Christiana frowns slightly. “Trying to prove that he is brave and could do many things.”       “I believe so,” Natalia nods. “Yes, Edward became much braver and more confident, but his love for trouble hasn’t gone… I think if he’s asked to do a risky thing to save someone’s life, he will do it. Without thinking of the consequences. Just go and do.”       “Do you want to say Edward might get into some trouble?” Raquelle frowns slightly.       “I wouldn’t be surprised,” Christiana says confidently. “Remember the story of Michael, in which Edward, Terrence, you, and even Natalia were involved. Edward was fighting with that man until the end, knowing how it would’ve been over for him. He did it at his wish, while Terrence, Natalia, and you did not want it.”       “Edward just wanted Michael not to get what belongs to him, Terrence, and their father,” Natalia explains. “Yes, he showed not the best side of him and made everybody think that he needed only money from his family. But that man has never wished anything bad to anyone. He just wanted to restore justice and prove that he was worth something.”       “I know. And I don’t try to insult Edward at all. He is a wonderful man with his own demons. Everyone has demons, and that’s fine… That guy has shown himself as a good protector many times and has grown up a lot over the past months.”       “Do you think Edward might get into something and drag Terrence and Peter with him?”       “Or they might not wish to leave him.”       “And if the case is about Wainwright, nothing will stop Edward,” Violetta adds confidently. “He still remembers what that man wanted to do to Natalia and can’t forget it. If he could, he would probably have a lynching of him. You told us about Edward almost killed that man in the courtroom, and they were barely broken up.”       “Right…” Raquelle nods. “Edward won’t miss a chance to fight with Eugene, and Terrence and Peter won’t dare to let him fight with that man alone.”       “Don’t doubt Terrence,” Blair replies confidently. “We all know how your fiancé treats his brother. He feels kind of responsible for Edward. Despite any shortcomings of that guy, Terrence loves him.”       “I actually love their relationship,” Helene confesses with a slight smile, petting Sammy’s head when he sits next to her. “I like the fact that the guys are so close and get along well.”       “They understand each other better than someone else,” Natalia notices. “And they know how to support and comfort.”       “That’s why I don’t doubt that Terrence won’t let Edward fight with such a dangerous man alone or go where he might suffer,” Raquelle replies confidently. “He’s very stubborn in this case. Either he will be cruel when trying to wash his brains, or he will follow him and protect him.”       “And Edward will follow Terrence if danger threatens him. He does understand that he can’t only accept but must also give. So, he’s ready to protect his brother at any time.”       “Of course, Terrence is doing a generous thing.” Raquelle makes a quiet sob. “But I feel hurt at the thought that he might put himself in danger to save Edward.”       “Trust me, nobody will stop him in this case,” Violetta replies confidently. “Terrence is ready to sacrifice and risk for his close people, and we’ve already made sure about it.”       “But they both would risk if they got caught by Wainwright,” Natalia expresses anxiety, making a quiet sob. “Maybe, it’s easier for them together, but if one suffered, another would have to count on himself. And it might lead to a catastrophe!”       “But let’s remember that Terrence and Edward aren’t the shyest men,” Christiana notices. “They can defend themselves and others in a dangerous situation. And if they put in a lot of effort, they’d deal with anyone on their own. Just like Edward fought off Wainwright when you and he met him.”       “Edward fights too cruelly and spares no strength. But that’s bad. He quickly loses his strength. It happened when Michael told his pals to bring me to him.”       “At least, Peter is also with them,” Helene says hesitantly with a scare in her eyes. “And I’m terribly worried about him… I’m not sure if he’d deal with such a dangerous man like Eugene Wainwright.”       “Peter is by far not weak,” Blair replies confidently. “He’s tough and strong and has a perfect shape… He has many workouts.”       “I know, but I can’t be sure…”       Sammy whines with sadness in his eyes.       “I know, baby, you’re worried, too,” Helene says with sadness in her wet eyes. “Imagine what I feel! One day, I went crazy when he almost died. If something happens to him again, I won’t bear it…”       Helene closes her mouth with a hand and makes two quiet sobs, and Raquelle caresses her shoulder and hugs her with the same wet eyes, while Sammy whines quietly again and touches his owner’s hand with his nose.       “Anyway, he won’t be scared,” Christiana assumes confidently. “Peter believes he owes his friends and remembers who saved him from death and loneliness. This feeling will make him do his best to protect them.”       “Peter is actually a holy man!” Violetta exclaims. “So kind, decent, loyal… His character doesn’t have bad features! Despite the cruelty of the people that surrounded him, he remained decent and didn’t become rotted.”       “You’re right,” Natalia sighs with sadness in her eyes. “Peter doesn’t forget who played an important role in his life. Moreover, we’re his only close people. He was literally an orphan, even if he had a living mother. There was nobody to support him…”       “I’m glad those events didn’t make Pete worse,” Helene says confidently. “He’s as loyal as a dog… And very honest… That man would rather tell you the bitter truth than lie constantly. If he had a choice, he’d confess everything and wouldn’t find excuses.”       “You said it right,” Raquelle agrees. “Peter is a wonderful man…”       Sammy barks confidently.       “But we understand what could make the men risk…” Raquelle says thoughtfully. “Assuming that they met Eugene… Edward wants to make Natalia’s offender pay for everything and protect her… Terrence can’t leave his brother, and he doesn’t want to lose him. And Peter is loyal to the men and can’t leave them in trouble.”       “But Edward wouldn’t get the guys involved in trouble by force,” Natalia replies confidently. “I’m sure he’d beg them to leave and not to risk.”       “I think you’re right,” Blair agrees. “Edward wouldn’t really love to frame his friend and brother.”       “God, I can’t wait for them to let us know about themselves,” Helene sighs tiredly. “Suspense is killing me…”       Sammy whines quietly and inclines his head, as if he says that he is worried about the men, too.       “What’s up, Sammy?” Helene asks with sadness in her eyes. “Do you think the guys are in danger?”       Sammy barks two times, and Helene sighs heavily and pets the dog’s head that he puts on her laps.       “Maybe, you try to call someone again?” Christiana suggests. “What if someone answers you now?”       “I doubt it…” Natalia sighs heavily.       Raquelle takes her phone, types Terrence’s number, and waits for the answer, praying that this attempt is successful. But sadly, she only hears the message about the number being unavailable.       “No result,” Raquelle says quietly, puts her phone aside, leans back in the sofa sharply, and closes her face with her hands, making two quiet sobs. “Go away from danger, Terrence, go! You might suffer! I mean, you will suffer or… Die… Like in my nightmare… Please, honey, go! Go back home! Please… Please…”       “I’m starting to think that your presentiment isn’t groundless,” Natalia expresses anxiety, grabbing her throat. “I’m also starting to get nervous and think that something ain’t right…”       “I’m also sure that something threatens the lads,” Helene confesses in a shaking voice. “The fact that we haven’t been able to call them for almost two hours is not fine. Their phones were turned on, but now they’re turned off! And Sammy can’t calm down yet!”       “I guess you should talk to the friend of Terrence and Edward’s father,” Christiana says quietly. “At least, warn him that a danger might threaten your men. So, the police can start the search quickly.”       Sammy barks loudly in approval.       “Yeah, I think it’s time,” Natalia nods.       “I need to find his number in the phone book and on my phone,” Raquelle replies thoughtfully. “I can’t remember that…”       Raquelle takes her mobile phone and checks the list of contacts with shaking hands, while Natalia drinks some water from a glass, and Helene scratches Sammy’s hair with wet eyes.       “Gosh, Edward, what are you doing?” Natalia asks in a whisper with anxiety and sniffs quietly. “Why do you put yourself, your brother, and friend in danger? If you meet Wainwright, he won’t let you go alive. Please… Take the lads and go away! Please, sweetie, please… I don’t wanna lose you…”       “If we knew where they are, we could send someone to help them,” Helene says quietly, looking into the distance, doubles over with a heavy sigh, runs her fingers through her hair, and closes half of her face with both hands, while tears roll down her cheeks slowly. “Gosh, Peter… Make the guys sure to go home and not to do stupid things… If Edward and Terrence are too stubborn, you must be more determined. Do it for their best and quiet of the girls and me… I beg, sweetie… Save them and yourself…”       While Raquelle is still looking for Victor Johnson’s number in her phone and the phone book that Blair gives her by her plea, the others say nothing and silently beg that Terrence, Edward, and Peter are alright. Sammy whines sometimes and looks at everybody with sadness in his eyes, letting them know that he is also worried about them and the men so much. And some time later, Natalia understands that her phone starts vibrating on the table. Everybody looks at the blonde with pity in their eyes, wishing to believe this call will calm them down. But her hopes die immediately when the girl looks at the screen.       “It’s not the lads…” Natalia says with sadness in her eyes and puts her phone to her ear. “Hello…”       “Hey, Natalia!” the cheerful voice of a man says. “It’s Christopher Morgan, Edward’s friend. Remember me?”       “Erm… Chris?”       Raquelle and Helene frown slightly, as they look at Natalia, whose eyes run from one side to another.       “Y-yeah, sure, I remember you,” Natalia says hesitantly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Hi. Haven’t talked for long.”       “How are you doing?” Christopher asks.       “Kinda good… And you?”       “I’m absolutely fine.”       “Thank God.”       “Eh-h, are you okay there?” Christopher gets suspicious. “Your voice is shaking strongly…”       “Erm…” Natalia says nothing for two seconds, looking at one and another side, and scratches the back of her head. “No, no… It’s okay… I’m just trying to solve my personal problems.”       “Are you sure?”       “Yes, yes, don’t worry.”       “Oh, okay then,” Christopher pronounces thoughtfully. “So, as for my call… Say, is Edward okay?”       “Edward? Erm…”       “I tried to call him. I wanted to talk to him and agree on the meeting… But his phone is turned off. And I tried to contact Terrence. But he isn’t available, either.”       “As long as I remember, you haven’t spoken to Edward for a long time. At least, he didn’t tell me he wanted to meet you.”       “I was a little busy! I had to watch my godchildren for a long time, while their parents were absent. They are too restless and must be kept under close view…”       “I see.”       “And I recently called Ben and Kevin, and we decided to meet. The men were also busy and couldn’t have hangouts with friends.”       “I don’t know what about Kevin, but I heard Ben was really busy.” Natalia turns on the speakerphone to let everybody hear her talk with Christopher. “But Blair said everything is okay, and Parker is back in the city.”       “I know, he explained everything. So, we talked and decided to invite Edward and Terrence. As well as Peter and Daniel. So to say, to have a hangout with men. We haven’t come together for ages.”       “That’s how…” Natalia looks at Raquelle, Helene, Blair, Violetta, and Christiana, while they frown slightly.       “But Daniel and Peter don’t also answer our calls,” Christopher confesses. “Nobody answers our messages.”       “Wow…”       “Please, Natalia, do a good thing: tell your fiancé to call us. The guys and I understand that Terrence, Daniel, Peter, and he are busy with their band, But we’d like to talk to this gang.”       “Oh, listen, Chris…” Natalia pronounces hesitantly, as she glances on different sides. “We got some problems…”       “With the men?”       “I’m now with Helene, Raquelle, and Blair at Terrence’s home,” Natalia says in a little shaking voice. “They are near and hearing the talk of you and me. So, we’ve been trying to call the lads for almost two hours, but nobody answers us.”       “What?” Christopher wonders. “What do you mean, you’ve been trying to call them for almost two hours?”       “We don’t understand anything, either. But we’re afraid that something happened to them. The guys disappeared all together… Edward, Terrence, and Peter don’t answer.”       “Why only three?”       “You see… Something happened, and we… Fought with Daniel… But it doesn’t make sense now… The most important thing is that the men of Raquelle, Helene, and me disappeared, and we don’t know where to find them.”       “Okay, okay, Natalia, wait, I understand nothing,” Christopher says quietly. “Calm down, please, and explain everything quietly.”       “Sorry, Chris, I… I’m terribly nervous…”       “Wait for a sec, I shall turn on the speakerphone.” Christopher turns on the speakerphone on his phone. “Kevin and Benjamin are with me now. We’re at a small bar. Went to a quiet place to talk to you,”       “Hey, girls,” Benjamin’s cheerful voice rings. “It’s Ben.”       “Hey, everybody, it’s Kevin,” Kevin’s voice sounds.       “Hey, guys,” Raquelle, Helene, and Blair greet.       “Hi, Ben, Chris,” Natalia says amicably.       “Glad to hear you,” Raquelle says with a slight smile.       “Us too,” Benjamin replies confidently. “So, what happened to you? Did Edward get into something again, so Terrence has to save him?”       “Most likely,” Helene replies. “But we ain’t sure that Edward got into something. The three men could get into something serious.”       “How long have you been trying to call the guys?” Blair asks.       “Just like you, for almost two hours,” Kevin replies. “But none of the four answers.”       “Of course, the band is a band, but they shouldn’t forget about their friends,” Benjamin adds.       “The problem is not about the band, guys,” Raquelle shakes her head.       “You think the lads got in trouble?” Kevin specifies.       “We listen to our feelings and my dog,” Helene replies confidently. “And we’re nervous because the lads haven’t answered our calls for two hours. At first, they hadn’t answered, but then they turned off their phones.”       “Wow…” Benjamin exhales sharply.       “Hey, guys, do you know that Eugene Wainwright ran away from prison?” Natalia asks.       “Yes, yes, I heard that this sick man got out,” Christopher replies confidently. “They said it happened more than one month ago, but everyone just found it out.”       “We suspect that the lads could run into him,” Blair confesses.       “Wainwright?” Benjamin asks surprisingly. “So you wanna say the lads know how to find that man?”       “No, they don’t know it, but Edward and I met him someday,” Natalia replies. “It happened in a deserted place.”       “But how could the guys meet Wainwright if he is hiding somewhere where there are no people?” Kevin wonders.       “Edward and Terrence love being in similar places,” Raquelle explains. “They and Peter could get caught by Wainwright or notice him. Edward could wish to deal with that man, Terrence decided to protect him, and Peter wouldn’t leave them and follow them.”       “So, are these three in danger?” Christopher asks hesitantly.       “It’s just our assumption, Chris. But it’s the most possible version now.”       “Hey, why did Natalia say you fought with Daniel? What did he do?”       “It’s a very long and tangled story, Chris,” Helene says a little hesitantly. “But something happened to Daniel and turned everything upside down. Someone washed his brains, and he thought it was the truth, blamed us for lying, and ruined our friendship.”       “Wow!” Benjamin pronounces. “What did they tell him?”       “He has amnesia after the head trauma, one Spaniard used it, pretended to be his fiancée, and made him think about what had never happened,” Natalia explains.       “Amnesia?” Christopher asks amazingly. “Head trauma?”       “He got hit by a car,” Helene replies. “Some time ago, Peter and I found him in a terrible condition. And he was diagnosed with brain damage. So, it became the reason for amnesia.”       “My gosh…”       “Who is the Spaniard that you mean?” Kevin wonders. “Where did she come from?”       “She used to work as a cleaning woman in the hospital,” Raquelle says quietly, “The Spaniard learned about Daniel somehow and started to pretend to be his fiancée. Uses the fact that he couldn’t remember us. And that girl told him so many bad things that he believed her and fought with all of us.”       “But what about Anna?” Benjamin wonders.       “He can’t remember it, and Anna left him for the reason that we don’t know.”       “What?” Christopher frowns slightly.       “It’s true!” Blair exclaims. “She found out that Daniel got amnesia, took her stuff, and went to live with one of her parents. She refuses to help him.”       “Doesn't he remember anything?” Kevin wonders.       “Anything,” Natalia nods confidently.       “Hey, why do people say dirty things about him on the Internet?” Benjamin asks. “They say he allegedly brought Peter to self-murder and literally threatened to kill him. And people wish him to die.”       “We know,” Raquelle sighs quietly.       “And the foreigner decided to use it and said Daniel something, and he blamed us for telling someone to publish that article and organizing the attempt on him,” Natalia adds.       “And Peter suffers much more,” Helene adds. “Perkins took it out on him and treats him like they’ve always been the biggest enemies.”       Sammy barks quietly in approval.       “Oh, what Brazilian passions…” Christopher says thoughtfully.       “And we all feel hurt,” Natalia replies with sadness in her eyes. “It hurts that we tell him the truth, but the guy believes a false girl, who wants to get married to him to stay in the USA legally. And get his money…”       “Is she an immigrant?” Benjamin frowns slightly.       “Yup. Illegal.”       “Hey, guys, you said you tried to call Daniel,” Helene says thoughtfully.       “Yeah,” Kevin replies. “But he doesn’t answer us, either.”       “He is not with them,” Blair says confidently. “After what happened, the guys wouldn’t love to speak to him. Because Daniel said very many bad things.”       “But we will see how he will start to excuse himself when he remembers everything,” Helene replies. “And we’ll think whether we can forgive him.”       “Oh, girls…” Benjamin sighs tiredly. “I don’t even know how to help you and what to advise…”       “Yeah, I didn’t expect it from Daniel,” Christopher says thoughtfully. “He seemed a good man to me…”       “You should thank the Spaniard named Blanca Moreno,” Helene replies confidently. “She did everything for Daniel to turn his back on us and literally betray Anna.”       “Listen, try to call the police,” Kevin suggests. “For example, Mr. Johnson! Or what’s the name of the friend of Edward and Terrence’s father… Who was in court…”       “We had wanted to talk to him before Chris called,” Natalia nods confidently.       “Then don’t waste time and do it,” Benjamin replies. “What if they really got into something. If MacClife, Jr., gets into something, his brother will not let him deal with it alone. And Rose won’t really leave them…”       “Sure,” Helene pronounces.       “And yeah, if you know something about the lads, let us know it. If they’re fine, tell them that we want to talk to them, or at least talk.”       “Okay, Ben, we’ll contact you if we know something,” Raquelle replies.       “You’re gems, girls,” Kevin thanks. “We’re always tuned. Call us if you know something or need any help.”       “Many thanks, Kevin.”       “Okay, we’ll talk later!” Christopher exclaims. “Contact Mr. Johnson now.”       “Sure,” Natalia promises. “Bye, guys.”       “Bye!” all the men and all the girls pronounce.       Natalia finishes the call, puts her phone on the table, and runs her hands over her face with a hard sigh, while Sammy whines quietly.       “Oh, what a day…” Natalia blunts.       “It seems like Daniel is so angry that he turned off his phone and doesn’t talk to the friends of the lads,” Raquelle says thoughtfully. “As if they also agreed against him…”       “Yeah, saying Perkins is with the lads is stupid,” Helene nods. “The men won’t forgive him for these tricks. At least until he gets his memories back.”       “Daniel really did a bad thing,” Blair says thoughtfully.       “And he scared Sammy when he threw the open bottles of water a few centimeters away from him.”       Sammy whines quietly, while Helene pets his head softly.       “We know, Sammy, we know,” Natalia says with sadness in her eyes. “We feel hurt, too.”       “Okay, girls, we should find Mr. Johnson’s number,” Raquelle replies confidently. “We can’t sit and do nothing. If the lads are in danger, we must take measures.”       Raquelle opens the phone book and turns the pages for a few seconds, reading every single name that she sees in it. Helene looks into the distance with anxiety, pets Sammy’s head, and yanks his ear softly, and Natalia fingers over nervously and looks at her hands, and slightly fixes her engagement ring. But they do not call Victor Johnson again because Christiana and Violetta return to the living room after leaving it for some time and want to say something.       “Excuse us, Raquelle, some visitors came to you,” Christiana says quietly.       “Visitors?” Raquelle rounds her eyes. “Who?”       Violetta invites someone to enter the living room by making a gesture, and everybody sees Rebecca and Jamie, who are a little anxious.       “Mr. MacClife?” Raquelle pronounces hesitantly. “Mrs. MacClife?”       “Hello, Raquelle,” Rebecca and Jamie greet at the different time and move their eyes to Natalia and Helene.       “Natalia, Helene,” Jamie pronounces.       “Hello,” Natalia and Helene greet quietly.       Raquelle, Natalia, and Helene get up from the sofa and greet Rebecca and Jamie by hugging them and sharing an amicable kiss on the cheek.       “Excuse me, we didn’t expect your visit,” Raquelle says a little hesitantly, locking her fingers tightly.       “Sorry for bothering you,” Rebecca apologizes. “But we came here because of a bad presentiment.”       “Bad presentiment?”       “By the way, girls, why are you all so excited?” Jamie frowns slightly, looking at Raquelle, Natalia, and Helene closely. “You are all kind of white and scared… Were you crying? Something happened?”       “Erm, just…” Helene tries to say hesitantly.       “Let’s sit down,” Raquelle suggests, points at the free sofa, and sits on the one placed against when Jamie and Rebecca sit down.       “Excuse me, you mentioned a bad presentiment…” Natalia asks hesitantly.       “We’re worried about our sons,” Jamie confesses.       “Girls, don’t you know where Terrence and Edward are?” Rebecca asks with anxiety. “Jamie and I tried to call them to ask them about something, but none of them answered. At first, we tried to call Edward and then Terrence.”       “We’ve tried to call them several times. But their phones are turned off. At first, they were turned on, but when we decided to try again, the guys turned them off.”       “Well, as you can see, there are no Edward and Terrence here…” Raquelle replies hesitantly.       “Don’t you know where they could go?” Rebecca asks.       “Actually, they wanted to spend time in the country,” Natalia replies thoughtfully. “Sit in nature, eat something, talk…       “Don’t they want anyone to bother them?”       “We’re not sure about it now…” Helene confesses with a scare in widely open eyes.       “What?” Jamie frowns slightly, suspiciously looking at Raquelle, Natalia, and Helene, who often wipe the tears off their faces. “Listen, what’s going on here? Why are you all crying?”       “Yes, girls, you are crying as if something happened to the guys,” Rebecca adds.       “Maybe, it will happen…” Natalia makes a quiet sob.       “Yeah…” Raquelle shakes her head with her mouth closed. “We believe that a danger is threatening our men.”       “But why?” Jamie wonders. “Do you know something? If you do, say it immediately!”       “Everything might be too bad,” Natalia pronounces in a shaking voice with tears. “The guys might suffer seriously… And we might not be able to help them…”       Rebecca and Jamie shake their heads, starting to be much more worried about their children and understanding that the presentiment does not betray them.       “My gosh, girls…” Rebecca pronounces with horror in her eyes, sits between Raquelle and Natalia, and embraces both of them. “Come on, my darlings… Don’t cry…”       “Gosh, will someone explain what happened to the men?” Jamie asks excitedly. “Where are Terrence and Edward?”       “We don’t know, Mr. MacClife,” Natalia shakes her head.       “We’ve been trying to call Edward, Terrence, and Peter, who is also with them, for two hours,” Helene jabs in a shaking voice. “At first, their phones were turned off. But now all the three turned them off.”       “Two hours?” Rebecca asks. “And haven’t they answered for two hours?”       “Exactly!” Helene moves her eyes to Sammy and pets his back. “My dog also feels something bad… Sammy has been very anxious all this time and can’t calm down. Whatever I do…”       “So, did these three disappear?” Jamie wonders.       “All three.”       “And we are afraid that they could meet Eugene Wainwright,” Natalia expresses anxiety.       “Wainwright?”       “But why do you think so?” Rebecca wonders. “The guys aren’t stupid to give up on him.”       “We’ve got an assumption that the three could meet him,” Raquelle confesses excitedly. “And Edward could wish to have something like a lynching. And Terrence and Peter wouldn’t let him do it alone.”       “Gosh, Raquelle, what you are talking about…” Rebecca pronounces with horror in her eyes.       “But that’s the truth, Mrs. MacClife,” Natalia says confidently. “If Edward sees Wainwright a few miles away, he will not miss a chance to deal with him. He will not calm down until he is put in prison.”       “It’s actually possible…” Jamie pronounces thoughtfully.       “But if it’s true, the men might die,” Rebecca says in a shaking voice, closing her mouth with a hand and feeling that her eyes get wet.       “But we don’t know if that is true,” Helene replies with sadness in her eyes. “This is just our assumption proved by nothing. Though, none of us doubts that the men could get into something bad.”       “I’m sure about it,” Raquelle says confidently. “When I get nervous and think that something happened or will happen, it always comes true. My presentiments never betray me.”       “Oh, Edward…” Jamie moans coldly. “The story of Michael taught him nothing… He did not get smarter after he was almost put in prison… He cannot grow up and stop looking for trouble… Gosh, what a restless guy! And he frames his brother and friend!”       “We don’t say the guys really met Wainwright,” Helene replies hesitantly. “This is just the only man, who could be a threat to them.”       “You know, girls, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were true,” Jamie says confidently. “We can expect it from Edward! He wouldn’t care about the consequences – he’d just go and do it, closing his ears and stopping to listen to everyone. He sees a goal – he doesn’t see barriers!”       “And Terrence would hardly leave his brother if it happened,” Rebecca assumes. “If he didn’t change his mind, he’d follow him.”       “So, Terrence is not harsh enough. He thinks he’d persuade him by just saying ‘please’. If Edward is stubborn, he must be grabbed by the collar and taken away. I see no other way to wash his brains.”       “And knowing that Terrence wouldn’t leave Edward, I’m madly worried about him,” Raquelle confesses with tears in her eyes. “I can’t get rid of the thought that something is going to happen to him. Since I saw the nightmare with him that still makes me shake.”       “I’m afraid that Edward will easily get his brother involved in some trouble,” Jamie sighs sharply.       “He will not do it, but Terrence will follow him,” Natalia fixes.       “It doesn’t matter!”       “Gosh, if I’d known something would happen to Terrence, I would’ve done everything for him to go nowhere,” Raquelle confesses with despair. “And I’ve told him to be careful so many times. But he’s never listened to me! Never!”       “Excuse me, darling, what nightmare do you mean?” Rebecca frowns slightly. “Did you dream of Terrence?”       “Yeah…” Raquelle shakes her head, looking at Rebecca with pity in her eyes. “His death…”       “Death?” Rebecca opens her eyes full of horror widely.       “I know you’d say that’s a dream that doesn’t make sense. But trust me, I’ve never been wrong about my presentiments and think that my nightmare might mean something…”       “Oh, gosh…” Rebecca shakes her head, feeling pain in her chest, and understands how fast her heart is beating. “But how did he die in your dream?”       “From a bullet in his heart. Simon Ringer shot him down…”       “My God…”       “So, do you think Terrence might die?” Jamie wonders.       “I’m afraid of it to death!” Raquelle makes a quiet sob. “If I lose him, I will have no reason to live!”       “Oh, gosh…” Jamie runs his hands over his face, being terribly nervous but trying not to start to panic and to stay collected. “Oh, my sons… One can’t live without problems and never thinks of consequences. And another doesn’t have enough brains to stop his brother.”       “Don’t be mad, Mr. MacClife,” Helene says carefully. “Terrence does understand everything.”       “Yeah, but he wants to do nothing not to let him do stupid things.”       “I’m sure he tried,” Natalia replies. “But if Edward was so stubborn, Terrence went with him because of the responsibility and a fear of losing him. Because of his wish to protect his younger brother.”       “Yeah, we all know they’re ready to sacrifice themselves for each other,” Raquelle adds.       “Rebecca and I are very happy our sons love each other so much and don’t fight like cats and dogs,” Jamie says quietly. “But we are upset by their behavior. While Edward turns off his brains when he’s got a chance to kick someone’s ass, Terrence must have them. He’s the oldest one among them. He’s the brains of the collective.”       “But they’re not alone,” Helene notices. “Peter is also with them and wouldn’t leave his friends.”       “Gosh, why is that guy doing it?” Rebecca sighs tiredly. “Wainwright is sick! He might easily kill them! Do the guys think that they would deal with him if they saw him?”       Sammy whines very quietly with sadness in his eyes.       “I swear, if Edward and Terrence show up and say they are going to deal with Wainwright, I will have an educational talk with them,” Jamie threatens angrily, clenching his hand into a fist. “Maybe, a good kick would help them understand just something.”       “Jamie, please, calm down,” Rebecca says quietly, caressing Jamie’s hand softly. “Don’t be so nervous.”       “I’m quiet, Rebecca, absolutely quiet. I just need to find my belt and kick the asses of my restless sons.”       “They knew what would happen,” Natalia says with pity in her eyes.       “They knew, but they did what they wanted! And their friend is the same! He does not understand what kind of trouble my sonnies got him involved in.”       “Peter went with them because of a sense of duty,” Helene explains quietly. “He does remember what his friends did for him and thinks he owes them.”       “If it’s so, he could change the mind of this duo. I mean, Edward’s mind. It turns out that the lads are suffering because of him.”       “For God’s sake, Mr. MacClife, don’t blame Edward, Terrence, or Peter,” Raquelle begs with pity in her eyes. “They’re guilty of nothing.”       “Yeah, nothing…” Jamie throws gloomily. “Innocent angels! Who have been playing on the nerves of their mother and mine!”       “I have to agree with it,” Rebecca sighs heavily. “I got many gray hairs because of Terrence.”       “Oh, I did tell both of them not to meddle in this case,” Jamie says, pinching the bridge of his nose for some time and doubling over. “I said the police would solve it all. What was unclear?”       “I swear, if we had known it before, we would’ve done our best not to let the guys go where danger was waiting for them,” Natalia says with pity in her eyes.       “Don’t blame yourself, girls,” Rebecca says softly, embracing Raquelle and Natalia. “You’re guilty of nothing. Edward and Terrence may be too stubborn.”       “Trust me, ladies, Edward will play on our nerves many times,” Jamie adds. “He can’t quietly stay in the same place and finds any reason to beat someone’s face or play a hero.”       “So, what do we do?” Helene throws her hands up. “We need to do something before it’s too late!”       Jamie thinks for a few seconds, doubling over and pinching the bridge of his nose, while Sammy watches everybody with sadness in his eyes. And then the man gets sharply straight and looks at the women, saying confidently:       “So, I’m going to call Victor Johnson now. If the guys don’t show up, the police will organize the search.”       Jamie takes his phone, types the familiar number convulsively, and puts it to his ear, shaking his leg nervously and clapping on his knee with his fingers. Raquelle, Helene, Rebecca, and Natalia look at the man with tears in their eyes and try to comfort each other somehow, wishing to believe that the men will be found very soon and remain safe and sound.       

***

      Edward, Terrence, Daniel, and Peter did not run away from Eugene because he entered the room where they found the young Cassidy. Wainwright is not mad at the appearance of the unexpected visitors. He is glad. Because it’s a perfect chance to fight with MacClife, Jr., again. While the men confidently look at Eugene and at each other, and the girl hides in the corner, presses her knees to her chest, and puts her head on her shoulders, the criminal comes in the room and looks at everybody with a sly smile.       “Look, I have some visitors,” Eugene says with a sly smile, making Edward terrified with his horrifying look. “I see that a little nasty barking puppy got into this place. That loves looking for trouble.”       Eugene sneers evilly and moves his contemptuous look to Terrence.       “But the puppy is not alone: he took his brother, the image of his father,” Eugene adds and moves his eyes to Peter and Daniel. “And these two freaks are familiar to me.”       Eugene looks at all the men again, while Peter looks at him with his head proudly raised, and Daniel just frowns, noticing that Wainwright’s face seems very familiar to him.       “So, here we go again!” Eugene throws his hands up. “I mean, you came to me. You managed to find me. Good job! I appreciated it.”       “Now you will pay for everything, asshole,” Edward hisses through his teeth, clenching his hands into fists so tightly that his knuckles get white. “I will not let you stay unpunished!”       “I think I warned you that my meeting with you and your dyed gal was not the last one.”       “That meeting was the last one for her,” Edward says in a low voice. “You will never dare to come to her again! What you did to her the last time was enough for me!”       “So, puppy, has your fiancée not come to herself?” Eugene laughs evilly. “Or did she die from fear? That dolly has a tender heart! She only needs a reason to faint and then die.”       “If it happened, I would bury you in the ground alive!”       “Keep dreaming, MacClife,” Eugene replies with contempt. “You will never kill me!”       “I will kill you with pleasure if I have to! And I do give a fuck about what will happen to me! At least, I will be quiet after revenging on the bastard, who dared to defeat my fiancée.”       “You speak beautifully, but your words are nothing,” Eugene crosses his arms over his chest. “You did not kill your uncle when he had great power and your brother, who, unlike you, was a favorite person of his whole family. A long-awaited child. Not the wrong one.”       “But I shall kill you WITH GREAT PLEASURE!”       Edward gives Eugene a strong slap in the face, and the criminal pushes him so that he falls on the table and slides down to the floor. Then, Terrence runs to Wainwright and hits him in the jaw with a fist as strongly as possible.       “Don’t dare to hurt him, nasty beast!” Terrence hisses through his teeth, literally killing Eugene with cold eyes. “Or I will grind you to dust!”       “Oh, the hysterical girl speaks,” Eugene laughs evilly, looking at Terrence with contempt. “You were not standing aside for a long time. You decided to join the fight immediately to protect your little brother.”       “I repeat, do not touch this man with a finger. Or I shall bury you in the ground! ALIVE!”       “Yeah… You haven’t changed since our last meeting, fucking parody of your daddy. By the way, how is he doing there? Is everything very bad? The company is not bankrupt? Or it’s about to be?”       “Uncle Michael would have a heart attack if he knew the company is doing amazingly. The company of my father, who brought everything he had back and took the place that he should’ve taken more than twenty years ago.”       “I see the MacClifes’ life got better… So, congratulations, the psycho Jamie got what he wanted. His mental health issues did not stop him from getting good results.”       “Do not insult my father!” Terrence hisses through his teeth. “Don’t dare to open your fucking mouth. Or you will die like a fucking rat!”       “Come on?” Eugene smirks contemptuously. “Did you get a love for your father? Who you ignored for a bigger part of your life! And you got attracted to your brother! You forgot that he almost killed you!”       “By the order of that old bastard, Michael. Because of whom the MacClife family suffered. Nobody the fuck knows how long!”       “Your family must be erased from the world. So, you do not hurt everyone’s eyes.”       “I can say the same about you and your lord.” Terrence sneers evilly. “And that’s good you didn’t think of helping him run away.”       “I would help the deeply honorable Mr. MacClife run away from prison with pleasure,” Eugene replies with a sly smile. “Just like I did it, planning everything well. But sadly, he is in a different prison. Not where I ended up because of your daddy, lawyer, brother, and his blonde-dyed gal! And the four-eyes man from the police, who was literally licking Jamie’s ass! A friend, I guess. The same as that idiot, Nicolas.”       “YOU will be back there soon, scoundrel,” Edward says rudely. “They are waiting for you with open arms! To beat your insolent face!”       “Do not even dream, puppy!” Eugene sneers loudly. “You will have no chance to betray me to the police. I shall kill you all if we have met here so luckily. If you decided to give up on me.”       “One against four?” Edward smirks contemptuously, walking in circles with his head proudly raised. “I doubt that it is possible! If there were a couple of pals of Michael, you’d probably resist somehow. But sorry, Wainwright, you’ve got no chance.”       “It’s funny to see you walk here like a peacock and pretend to be sassy.”       “No, it’s funny to watch you bravely wish to fight with fewer people.”       “Even if you took your brother and these two freaks here, it does not give you any power. You could not kill me alone when trying to defend your gal. And you will not do it with your pals’ help. Because I am much stronger.”       “But we outnumber you,” Peter notices confidently, crossing his arms over his chest. “And we have enough strength to deal with you.”       “Oh!” Eugene laughs evilly and looks at Peter with contempt, while the blond stays confident enough and does not look like a terrified boy. “Look, as it turned out, the blond can speak! Wow… I thought you’d be more cowardly than a mouse. Or this puppy.”       “It’s just your assumption.”       “You are not dangerous to me. I am not afraid of you.”       “Come on!” Peter sneers evilly. “Want me to hit you strongly?”       “Seriously?”       Eugene sharply tries to give Peter a strong hit in the jaw, but the blond avoids the attack easily, grabbing his hand and answering with a brilliant hit in the temple. After coming to himself and rubbing the hurt place, Wainwright sneers evilly, literally killing Peter, Edward, and Terrence with a cold, wild, and evil look, while they stand together and look at each other.       “Wave your hand as much as you want,” Eugene says evilly. “It will not save you.”       “Don’t think you have won, motherfucker!” Edward clenches his hands into fists tightly. “You will pay for everything you have done.”       “Who? You?” Eugene laughs wildly and loudly. “Don’t make me laugh, puppy! And don’t pretend to be sassy! The known last name does not give you any benefit.”       “Do not better make me mad, asshole. Or nothing will stop me. And I shall beat your face! So, any fucking plastic surgery can’t help you!”       “And how? The way you almost killed this freak?” Eugene points at Daniel, who does not try to understand what’s happening and watches everything without emotions. “Yes, yes, I watched you and saw you three attacking him. Or he attacked you… I didn’t get it! Anyway, it was funny to watch the four hysterical girls, who were confronting, waving their hands, and threatening to deal and kill.”       “That’s our business!” Peter throws rudely. “We will solve this problem!”       “Fuck, I don’t care about you! Though, I liked watching you.”       “My gosh…” Edward crosses his arms over his chest. “I thought you were obsessed with some shit that you sniffed. Which took you somewhere far away.”       “Huh, your shouts were heard a few miles away!” Eugene scoffs loudly. “I actually suspected that one of you would love to chase me. But I didn’t think all the four would go after me.”       Eugene shakes his head and moves his eyes to Peter and Terrence with a sly smile.       “Or did only one puppy want to hit me? But did you three go after him? One could not leave his little brother because he must be kept under view. And another… Another just wanted problems.”       “The way was hard and long, but it was worth it,” Edward replies confidently. “Because I will betray you to the police and do everything for them to watch you closely. Especially now, when we know you sniff and inject some shit into you.”       “So, baby, you wanna taste it?” Eugene takes a small Zip-lock packet from the pocket with his head proudly raised and shakes it with a sly smile and widely open eyes. “You’d feel new impressions! One sniff and one injection before you feel the unbelievable euphoria! And when the effect is gone, I shall give you more. And then again and again… I will be giving it to you until you die.”       “Do not even dream, Wainwright!” Edward takes a step forward, threatening Eugene with a finger. “None of us will try this shit!”       “Who will ask you?” Eugene sneers evilly. “I will just give you an injection, after which you and your gang will feel excellent.”       “Maybe, you inject yourself to death?” Edward suggests coldly. “We would not be sorry if you died! The world would say farewell to one more bastard! You’d lie in the ground and wouldn't poison people’s lives!”       “Don’t threaten me, puppy! I don’t hide that I hate you to death and want to strangle you with my own hands. But you, little bastard, will make me tear you apart.”       “At least something is mutual! Because I want you to die and burn in hell, as well!”       “But you will die. You will do it first.” Eugene smiles widely and slyly. “I will be killing you slowly. With this magical powder. I shall start to give a little and make a dose bigger.”       “You just described my dream. I would be happy to kill you in the same way.”       “And when I destroy you, I will find your sexual blonde and inject that thing into her to make her sweet and submissive. And I shall caress her body again… Naked one… M-m-m…” Eugene rolls his eyes. “Looking forward to the moment when my penis is in her mouth, and she licks it and sucks it with her warm, soft lips…”       Edward runs to Eugene sharply and grabs him by the collar with one hand, looking at him with bloodshot eyes and breathing heavily.       “Don’t dare to come to her, asshole!” Edward hisses through his teeth. “Or you will not live until another day!”       “When you try this thing, you will give a fuck about her,” Eugene replies confidently.       “I said, DO NOT DARE! If I know you dared to get closer to her, I swear you will be dead.”       “It’s funny to hear threats from the puppy, the grave of who is going to be set up at the cemetery.”       “Do not make me enraged, bastard!” Edward throws rudely in a low, rude voice. “Or you will regret being born!”       “Accept your fate, MacClife. And the fact that your dolly will be mine and make my wishes come true early or late. The day when I can caress every single part of her gorgeous body will come. When I spread her legs and get my thing deeply into her hole.”       “I repeat, YOU WILL NOT DARE TO COME TO HER!” Edward says rudely. “ESPECIALLY, WITH THIS SHIT IN YOUR HANDS!”       “Don’t be so self-confident, MacClife! Your pals and brother can’t make you stronger, and you can’t become braver and tougher. No matter how hard you show off, you will get nothing. You will remain a cowardly, worthless puppy for everyone.”       “Calm down, I don’t need your opinion. Call me what you want.”       “You want to be a hero, but you cannot do it because your attempts lead to sad consequences or some good things. So, no matter how hard you try to save the blonde gal, she will not hide from me. Rochester will suck me.”       “Don’t dare to come to Natalia! DO NOT DARE! I SHALL PUT YOUR DICK INTO YOUR SMELLY ASS!”       “Don’t worry, I have plans not only for that sexy dolly with the best boobs that I have ever felt up, but also for her gorgeous friends. Those, who supported your brother and pals. They are so chic! They will suck me enough, too.”       “Shut up!” Terrence hisses through his teeth, comes to Eugene sharply, and threatens him with a finger. “I will kill you if you come to one of the girls. And if something happens to my fiancée because of you, you will not stay alive, bastard. I shall turn you to dust.”       “Calm down, MacClife, your gorgeous cutie will not also hide from me,” Eugene promises with a sly smile. “How I could miss a chance to feel up the body of one of the sexiest women in the world. Of course, she doesn’t have such big boobs, but she is a goddess anyway. A goddess that would be fucking good if she was absolutely naked.”       “CLOSE YOUR MOUTH!” Terrence screams at the top of his lungs and gives Eugene a strong slap in the face. “If I hear something like this about my fiancée, you will be a corpse! I SHALL DO SOMETHING THAT THEY DON’T THINK ABOUT IN HELL!”       “So, in order to avoid problems with such hysterical girls like you and your brother, I will be looking for your sexy cuties when you are half alive,” Eugene says confidently with a sly smile.       “First, deal with us, son of a bitch,” Peter says confidently, coming to Eugene with a sharp step. “Let’s see if a pathetic drug addict being obsessed with young girls can take a victory over three people, who will not let themselves become something to beat…”       “Are you challenging me?” Eugene sneers loudly and shakes his head sharply. “So, I am accepting it with pleasure. You will probably not die tonight, but this is the last day when you saw your close people and friends.”       “No, Wainwright, this is the last day you see the world,” Edward says coldly. “You will die like a fucking rat. Or go to prison, where you will be dying. Slowly.”       “You said everything right, puppy. But you probably mean you and your pals. You mean that you all will have to get ready for your death. Which will happen very soon. When I give you very, very much magical powder of mine.”       “I mean, you will have to get ready to return to the rotten prison,” Edward replies with evil, clenching his hands into fists. “You have a little time to walk free, bastard.”       “I will not be in prison for what I will never regret,” Eugene sneers with contempt. “It will never happen! I don’t regret servicing the dearest Mr. Michael MacClife, caressing the naked boobs of your blonde, and getting my hand into her knickers. Of course, I’m sorry that I have not fucked her up yet, but I have time to do that. And she will have to pay me her debt.”       “Don’t even dare to think about it! You will never get closer to Natalia and do nothing to her.”       “I shall dare, baby, I shall. When I deal with you and your gang. I think the honorable Mr. MacClife would be thrilled to know this piece of news. And if someone killed your father, he would be the happiest man in the world.”       “The biggest enemy of Father is slowly dying in prison. I heard that he might have a little time to live because his health is not fine.”       “I hope I will find a way to set free that man and all my friends, whom your father and his pal betrayed to the police.”       “Father and his friend will do it again, so you are where you belong,” Terrence hisses through his teeth, clenching his hands into fists. “But you do belong to the darkest and most rotten jail! Or a clinic for psyches or drug addicts!”       “Keep dreaming, idiots! You all can do everything, but you will never catch me. I will not be back in prison! Your father and mother may not think that they would get off me.”       “Not only do our parents, my brother, and I want it, but also my fiancée’s parents, who would castrate you with pleasure,” Edward says rudely. “And her father would support my wish to kill you and bury you somewhere in the wood.”       “You want to go to prison again, boy?” Eugene laughs evilly. “You want to go back there? Do you like being beaten to half-death by someone? Or are you just restless?”       “For the quiet life of my fiancée, the girls of my brother, and my friends, I would do anything. I’d better go to prison than know that there is a nasty, smelly asshole that turns the lives of girls to hell.”       “Right, you are too cowardly to run away from justice. And you cannot also kill a person. Cowardly puppies could only bark loudly and stand in your way. You have been doing this all your life. Your fate is being the shit that people cannot get rid of because it does not the fuck drown.”       “You’re running from the police because you have no coincidence,” Peter says confidently. “Yes, I know that drug addicts don’t have feelings. They only want to drug themselves with some shit similar to what you’re holding in your hands. But you are out of your mind without it.”       “No, blond, you are wrong! I want to take a dose of good drugs and kill you and your pals. Find all of your girls, inject a magical thing into them, and do anything I want to them.” Eugene smiles like a pervert. “By the way, your brunette is very good, as well. As little as Thumbelina… That’s what I need! M-m-m… I’m sure she will love my big dick.”       “Do not dare,” Peter pronounces in a low, rude voice, threatening Eugene with a finger. “If you come to my girlfriend, I will break your legs and arms and pit the dog against you. Believe me, he will tear you apart.”       “Huh, I’m so scared!” Eugene scoffs, rolling his eyes up. “Do you think a dog could scare me? If I give it a strong hit on the head once, it will be lying unconscious as well as your pal did when Michael MacClife told us to bring the blonde to his house.”       “Don’t laugh, smelly piece of shit. We are not kidding: if you touch our girls at least with a finger, you will be dead. We will tear you apart if you come to the girls. And especially if you drug them with this shit.”       “Come on, stop threatening me! You will also do nothing to me because you are as cowardly as MacClife, Jr., is.”       “No, Wainwright, you know me badly. I mean, you don’t know me at all.”       “Why do I not know?” Eugene laughs evilly, looking at Peter with contempt and walking slowly toward him. “I know your face not only because you were supporting these two bastards and their daddy and mommy. But also because you are much weaker than MacClife and wanted to die. I heard you barely survived but recovered quickly.”       “And what, the fuck?” Peter snaps. “It’s my business! MINE!”       “Alright! I just say that people are still talking about it on the Internet. Then, all newspapers and magazines discussed that event. Everybody was terribly afraid of losing the one, who almost overshadowed Terrence MacClife. Who still thinks all kids go crazy from him.”       “Hey, can you read?” Edward wonders ironically. “And were you taught to use the Internet? As it turned out, you aren’t a caveman and have held something else except a spear and a rock!”       “Trust me, boy, but I even know who had to do with the blond’s suicide attempt,” Eugene smiles slyly when he looks at Daniel standing on the side and just watching what’s happening. “They say your pal, who is as silent as a fish in the water, had to do with that. This weak boy got so sick of him that he could not take it. Huh, blond freak? You wanted to die because of this scumbag?”       “I am going to tell you nothing,” Peter replies coldly, crossing his arms over his chest. “Some people already know all the truth.”       “So, is that the truth? If your pal had not had to do with it, you would start to cover him. Well…” Eugene puts his thick finger on his lip. “Damn, I forgot you both fought when this freak came to you and started a scandal.”       “We fought with him or not, it’s our business!” Edward replies rudely. “OUR, you, fucking bonehead!”       “You shut up, puppy! Nobody asked you!”       “Alright, we are done!” Terrence throws sharply. “We have no time to deal with you and listen to your bullshit. It’s time to go. Go, guys! Cassidy…”       As Terrence, Peter, Edward, and Daniel have a chance to leave, they come to the door confidently. But Eugene quickly finds a heavy thing, runs to MacClife, Jr., who is much closer to him, and tries to hit him on the head as strongly as possible.       “Watch out!” Cassidy shouts loudly.       Nobody reacts in time, and Eugene gives a strong hit to Edward. MacClife, Jr., falls sharply on the floor but stays awake and feels a strong pain on the back of his head. While the guy is lying on the floor and rubbing the hurt area, Wainwright attacks him with fists, raises himself above him, and gives him a couple of powerful slaps. Edward does not get confused and starts to fight, giving the criminal a strong hit with his legs and hands on everything he can. Terrence and Peter come to help shortly, trying to pull Eugene from Edward and not missing a chance to give him a few strong hits in the face or stomach. Cassidy presses herself to the corner of the room as closely as possible with her legs pressed to her chest and tears in her eyes, praying that these people save her from this horrible man.       Not only does Edward have to fight back with Eugene but also Peter and Terrence. But these three are by far not the weakest opponents and can protect themselves in any situation. Their hits are so strong that their opponent quickly gets a few bruises and some blood on his face, and some parts of the body start to hurt strongly enough. However, he does not care about this and is determined to deal with those he hates so badly…       “No one will leave, pricks!” Eugene hisses, looking at everybody. “NOWHERE! I SHALL NOT LET, ASSHOLES!”       Eugene sharply grabs Edward by the collar, while the guy has tousled hair and a thin flow of blood under his nose after many hits on it. He strongly hits the man’s head against the corner of the table and on the jaw with his fist. Everything happens so fast that MacClife, Jr., does not have time to react to it and lets himself be defeated, feeling a strong pain in the whole body. While Edward understands that everything gets black before his eyes, Terrence and Peter fight off successfully and are not afraid of attacks from the opponent, even if he is horrible. MacClife, Sr., sharply strokes Wainwright down and beats him as strongly as possible, not letting him take revenge and be on top. Rose also hits the criminal’s head against the floor several times, holding him by the hair tightly, smashes his fist against the man’s stomach, and smiles slyly when he winces his face and doubles over from the pain.       After an active fight, everybody breathes heavily enough and feels tired, but nobody is not going to give up. Everybody wants to win this fight. While Peter and Terrence look at Eugene with a burning look, he sharply strikes the brunet down and tries to hit him in the jaw. But the black-haired one grabs his hand by a few centimeters from his cheek, hits him in the groin with a leg, and strikes him down, getting on top. To give his friend a chance to catch a breath, Peter decides to deal with Wainwright, giving him a strong slap in the face, leaving a bruise under his eye, and squeezing his throat. The criminal understands that he lacks air and tries to get out of the blond’s grip. Of course, Rose breathing heavily does not have the goal of strangling him, but he squeezes his throat tighter and stronger every second.       But at some moment, Peter weakens the grip slightly. Eugene strikes him down sharply, but gets a strong hit in the stomach with a leg the next second and gets thrown aside. Rose runs up to Wainwright quickly and gives him a few strong slaps in the face and painful hits with his legs and hands, banning himself from showing some fears, no matter how horrible the criminal is. Meanwhile, Edward comes to himself a little, looks around the whole room, and sees Terrence trying to catch a breath and Peter fighting with Eugene alone, avoiding all of his attacks successfully. He bans himself from thinking of any pain or weakness, understanding that he is responsible for the lives of his brother and friend. MacClife, Jr., gets up quickly, runs to Eugene sharply, hits him in the jaw a couple of times with a fist, and uses a chokehold, starting to feel some pleasure, while the man starts choking from a lack of air.       “I told you that you would not catch us,” Edward hisses through his teeth and squeezes Eugene’s throat much stronger with an evil smile on his face. “Especially me. I shall not give up so easily and will sink my teeth into any chance to kick your ass.”       When Eugene tries to get out, Edward pulls him down sharply and squeezes his throat much tighter.       “Quiet, jackass!” Edward throws rudely, “QUIET, I SAID! DO NOT MOVE!”       Edward’s smug smile gets much wider while he watches Eugene choking more and more and trying to catch some air.       “It’s so nice to see you like this,” Edward hisses through his teeth with evil in his eyes. “Helpless, lying on the floor, with many bruises, blood, and unbearable pain in every part of your body… That’s the punishment, which everyone, who tries to rape girls, ruin their lives and push them to a wish to kill themselves, must get.”       “Don’t… Be… So… Confident…” Eugene barely pronounces, trying to catch some air and get out of Edward’s strong grip. “Bastard… May you die… Rat… Fucking… Cockroach…”       “No, YOU are a rat. A nasty, smelly rat that must die and burn in hell. Overtake drugs and die with terrible torture.”       “Let’s torture him a little,” Peter says confidently, looks at something sharp lying on the table, and smiles slyly. “So, he feels the new feelings that he is going to love.”       Peter takes the sharp thing from the table, comes to Eugene, and confidently makes a small cut on the front of his hand, from which a little flow of blood starts bleeding.       “AH-AH-AH!” Eugene screams at the top of his lungs. “FUCK!”       “It hurts, huh?” Edward hisses with inflated nostrils. “I know it is! My fiancée ALSO felt hurt when you, asshole, left her half naked on the street! WHEN YOU AND YOUR PALS TRIED TO GET YOUR DICKS INTO HER MOUTH!”       “NO-O-O-O!” Eugene screams hysterically again because Peter makes another small cut on his hand. “STOP! GET OFF ME! NO!”       “So, asshole, someone wants to kill you again?” Terrence asks confidently, raising his head proudly and looking at Eugene arrogantly. “Yes, we can do it! We can make it happen in real life. Not in your hallucinations caused by drugs!”       “I wish you all died! Die everybody, assholes! DIE!”       “You will no longer hide, Wainwright,” Edward says in a low voice with evil in his eyes. “It’s your time to pay for the evil things that you have done.”       While Peter gives Eugene a third cut, the criminal starts laughing widely, scaring the terribly pale Cassidy sitting in the corner of the room, crying quietly, and watching what’s happening with horror in her eyes.       “It’s not the end, cretins,” Eugene hisses through his teeth. “NOT THE FUCKING END! I SHALL KILL YOU, ASSHOLES! KILL!”       Eugene gets out of Edward’s arms, sharply strikes him down, and pushes Terrence and Peter to the other sides. Then he takes the blaze that the blond lets go when stumbling and falling on the floor and tries to get it into his heart. But Rose avoids the wound at the last moment, rolling on another side sharply, getting up, striking the sharp thing out of Wainwright’s hand with a leg, and striking him down with one push. Terrence and Edward get up and attack Eugene along with their friend, beating him as strongly as they can. But Wainwright seems a too harsh opponent, who is not so easy to be knocked out, even if he is beaten black-and-blue. At some moment, the criminal strikes everybody down again and beats their faces, on which there are too many bruises and much blood, and on the stomach, smiling evilly when they start to wince strongly.       Then Eugene looks at a heavy metallic stick, takes it sharply, and tries to hit the men on the head. However, Daniel suddenly saves them at the last moment, getting horrified by how terrible the exhausted men look. He takes another metallic stick, runs to Eugene, and hits him on the head from behind as strongly as possible. He shakes slightly first and then falls on the floor sharply, letting the stick go and not being able to get up but staying awake. While Perkins breathing a little heavily from tension holds the stick with both hands and looks at Wainwright with shocked eyes, who has just been knocked out with no effort.       Silence settles in the air for a few seconds, during which Terrence, Edward, and Peter try to recover their breath as they are lying on the floor, closing their eyes sometimes, understanding that their whole bodies hurt, and seeing the bruises that showed up in some areas. Terrence becomes the first one to sit up slowly and moves his surprised look to Daniel. Peter does the same later, slowly running his hands over his face and seeing the blood that belongs to him and Eugene. Perkins himself looks at him with widely open eyes and swallows up nervously because of blood that he fears or because of the tense atmosphere.       “Oh…” Peter moans quietly, whining from the pain in his arms and breathing heavily. “Thank you, Perkins… You spent a lot of time thinking if you should’ve been pleased to help us…”       “Yeah…” Terrence pronounces with a heavy breath. “We could’ve died several times or gotten knocked out and woken up nobody the fuck knows where. And gone crazy from some shit that Wainwright could’ve injected into us.”       “Aha…” Edward pronounces in a low voice, lying on the floor with a much heavier breath, as his legs are bent at his knees. “He was standing aside and blinking his eyes all this time, but now something clicked in his mind…”       Daniel looks at the men with some pity in his eyes for some time before he decides to open his mouth a little hesitantly:       “Erm… You… Are okay?”       “Us?” Terrence pronounces surprisingly and scoffs quietly. “Good question…”       “Oh…” Edward moans quietly and barely gets up on his elbow, feeling much worse and weaker than the others, breathing much heavier and having more blood and bruises on his face and arms. “Wonderful! Everything is fucking perfect!”       “Aha, I can even get up sharply and run,” Terrence adds with sarcasm. “Want me to show you?”       “Yeah… A minute… I’ve gotta get up…” Edward exhales sharply and falls on the floor like a stone, still lying powerlessly and not being able to breathe well. “Oh… No… Not this time… Pardon…”       “Erm, I’m actually serious…” Daniel pronounces hesitantly.       “And we’re seriously thanking you for helping us,” Terrence replies sarcastically with a heavy breath and pain all over his body. “You could’ve helped this asshole kill us.”       “Yeah, many, many thanks,” Peter says in a low voice, showing something big in the air. “Nobody managed to knock out this bull as brilliantly as you did.”       “Yay…” Edward pronounces tiredly and smirks evilly. “Sorry for calling you the weakest one. As it turned out, you are a hero…”       “Aha, when we got beaten strongly, this hero decided to help… Before, he was getting an orgasm from how Wainwright was beating those, who allegedly attempted him and his beloved Blanca.”       Daniel says nothing and just watches Edward, Terrence, and Peter with sadness in his eyes.       “Oh, listen, men, let’s get out of here before this bastard drugs us with some shit,” Terrence suggests tiredly.       “I can’t walk…” Peter moans quietly. “My body hurts.”       “I don’t know how we’ll stumble on my car, ‘cause it’s placed nobody the fuck knows where. But we’ve gotta get out immediately. Otherwise, we’ll be dead.”       “Maybe…” Daniel pronounces hesitantly. “Can I help you?”       “Oh…” Edward moans quietly, grabs his head, and shakes it, wishing to say something but barely connecting words because of a heavy breath. “I think I’ve got hallucinations, guys… I believe that Perkins wants to help us… I guess Blanca sent him a message at the distance, and he went to do it.”       “If you’ve got hallucinations, me too…” Peter replies and rubs his stomach, which hurts. “I went insane from the pain…”       “It’s clear that he wants to get off us as soon as possible,” Terrence assumes and raises his disheveled fringe, under which a strong flow of blood is bleeding. “And he doesn’t beat our faces because we’re the only ones to take him away from here.”       “Aha, he can’t wait to end up under the wings of his beloved Blanca,” Edward chuckles. “On her chest… Her puffy, soft breasts…”       Daniel pretends that he hears nothing, exhales sharply, puts the stick aside, and comes closer to the others, starting to look at them with true sympathy.       “Can you all walk?” Daniel asks.       “Why?” Peter sneers ironically. “Would you take someone in your arms?”       “Wouldn’t you break your back?” Terrence laughs evilly. “If you grabbed all of us?”       “Oh…” Edward winces strongly, shakes his head, holding a hand on his forehead, and raises himself on his elbows again. “Okay, guys… Let’s give Perkins a chance to be a hero… There would be something that he could tell people… Blanca is gonna be overwhelmed when she found out that her fiancé did such a good job…”       “No, thanks, I shall do it on my own,” Peter replies in a low voice. “Without this hero of the day… And loser at the same time…”       “I’m not helpless, either,” Terrence says confidently. “He’d better help Cassidy.”       All the men move their eyes to Cassidy sitting in the corner of the room as quiet as a mouse and pressing her legs to herself with red and wet eyes. Daniel watches the girl for two seconds, comes to her a little hesitantly, and squats down slowly.       “Hey, Cassidy, can you walk?” Daniel asks softly.       “I think I can…” Cassidy replies in a shaking voice. “But I feel a strong weakness…”       “Okay, try to get up. Don’t worry, I’m holding you.”       Daniel gets up on his feet and helps Cassidy do the same. Without his support, it’s very hard for her to stand due to her strong weakness, and he has to hold her tightly. When the girl stands up on her feet, she hesitantly looks at the man, who is much taller than her – the young girl’s height reaches his shoulders. She gets interested in looking at the owner of the same chocolate hair and brown eyes as hers. Cassidy is no longer afraid of Daniel and does not shake as strongly as she did before. And the man looks at the young girl better and sees some features that remind him of himself, understanding that she is really familiar to him. Meanwhile, Peter becomes the first one to find the strength to get up slowly and look around. Then he glances at his hands stained with blood and decides to sacrifice his gray t-shirt, wiping them with it, noticing that his dark blue denim jacket is slightly ripped in some places, and his jeans and shoes are covered with mud.       “Oh, shit…” Peter says under his nose. “I look like a ragamuffin…”       Terrence also comes to himself more or less and finds the strength to get up. He raises his head with closed eyes for two seconds, looks around with a tired look, and moves his eyes to Edward, who has not gotten up yet, and leans on the floor with both hands while sitting on his knees with his head slightly inclined and breathing heavily enough. MacClife, Sr., watches him for two seconds, comes to him slowly, and puts his hand on his shoulder.       “Hey, Edward, you’re okay?” Terrence asks anxiously.       “Yup, I’m fine…” Edward nods, slowly moving his eyes to Terrence. “Don’t worry.”       “You’re sure?”       “I am.”       “Can you walk then?”       “I can.” Edward clears his throat quickly and runs his hands over his hair. “Let’s go.”       After sitting on the floor for two seconds, Edward decides to get up, and Terrence helps him, taking him tightly under his arm and pulling him on himself. Everybody gets busy coming to themselves and does not notice that Eugene comes to himself quickly enough and sits up slowly with a strong headache. He looks at Daniel with bloodshot, widely open eyes, while he is standing with his back turned to him next to Cassidy. For some reason, the man gets a greater interest in him than the others. He does not care even about Edward, whom he terribly hates and wants to kill, as much as he cares about Perkins, who, in his opinion, must pay for something.       Eugene gets up silently, comes to Daniel confidently from behind, and uses a chokehold on him. While Perkins starts to lack air, and Cassidy screams with horror in her eyes, Wainwright pulls him aside rudely and pushes him against the wall so that he almost hits his head. Although Daniel does not know what’s happening, he manages to protect himself quickly, putting his hands on it immediately. The next second, Eugene gives him such a strong hit in the face with a fist that blood starts getting out of his nose. Perkins tries to protect himself and hits his opponent in the jaw and his stomach with a leg. But the man is literally used to any pain from hits and slaps and does not react to them, beating him much more cruelly every second.       A few seconds later, Eugene runs to the table, opens one of the drawers, takes a sharp knife, comes to Daniel, pins him to the wall, presses him as tightly as possible to it, puts the cold gun to his throat, and sets his wild look at him. He realizes how bad everything is when he feels the cold blaze pressed tightly against his throat. He swallows up nervously and starts to breathe heavily, looking at Wainwright with a scare in widely open eyes.       “We have met, asshole,” Eugene says in a low, icy voice. “Now you will pay for everything.”       “NO!” Cassidy screams with horror in her wet eyes and closes half of her face with both hands. “Don’t touch him! Move the knife off! Please! NO!”       Meanwhile, Edward, Terrence, and Peter look at each other questioningly and start watching what’s happening closely, while Eugene tenses all his muscles, and Daniel feels like a little, unprotected body in front of this man, who makes him feel terrified and feel a strong coldness on his whole body.       “It’s your time to pay!” Eugene says rudely and presses the knife much tighter to Daniel’s throat. “And you will do it right now!”       “I…” Daniel pronounces in a shaking voice with widely open eyes, getting sharply white from fear and understanding how fast his heart starts beating. “I d-d-do not understand… What are you talking about? Who are you? I don’t know you!”       “Maybe, you don’t know me. Now. But I know you very well.”       “Let me go now!” Daniel demands rudely and tries to get out of Eugene’s grip. “Let me go, I said!”       “So, you didn’t die and stayed alive after our last meeting,” Eugene smirks contemptuously. “So, let’s think you are lucky.”       “What kind of last meeting? I do not actually know who you are! I do not know! Hear me, I do not know!”       “Quiet, Perkins, quiet. If you resist and scream like a girl, it will be worse for you.”       “You confused me with someone! I am not the one you need! I don’t know you!”       “Oh, no, you are.”       Meanwhile, Edward, Terrence, and Peter look at each other.       “Guys, the message…” Edward pronounces thoughtfully. “Which he showed us… It also said something about the fact that he stayed alive.”       “Yeah, right,” Terrence nods.       “So…” Peter pronounces hesitantly and slowly moves his shocked eyes to Daniel and Eugene. “Is that Wainwright’s work? He sent the message?”       “What a twist!” Edward exclaims. “But how? What does Perkins have to do with this man? He knew him?”       “I believe Wainwright’s gonna tell us everything,” Terrence replies confidently. “Explain what he wants from Perkins, ‘cause he understands nothing.”       Edward, Peter, and Terrence move their eyes to Eugene laughing evilly and to Daniel, whose braveness immediately disappeared after he felt the knife against his throat.       “Oh, I see someone lost his memory,” Eugene sneers evilly. “Yeah… Hard case…”       “What do you need from me?” Daniel asks in a shaking from excitement voice. “What do you want from me?”       “Don’t worry, Perkins, I shall remind you of what you should do.”       “I should do nothing! NOTHING! NOTHING!”       Daniel tries to get out of the strong grip again, but Eugene gives him a strong slap in the face and puts the knife against his throat very, very tightly again.       “No, man, you should pay me a lot,” Eugene says confidently. “A lot.”       “What’s he talking about?” Peter wonders, glancing at Terrence and Edward. “Did he lose your brains because of these fucking drugs?”       “No, blond, your pal lost his brains, I mean, his memory,” Eugene laughs evilly. “Or your enemy!”       “What do you want from him, Wainwright?” Edward asks coldly. “Money for another piece of cocaine?”       “If he wants, he can give me a little. But it will not help him.”       “Whatever you say now, it will be a lie,” Peter replies confidently.       “No, blond, what I can tell you is not a lie. I can tell you much more about the one, whom you all knew badly. Who hid some facts about his life from you.”       “Hear, freak, didn’t you send the message with threats to him?” Terrence asks, crossing his arms over his chest. “You do know that Perkins survived somehow.”       “Yeah, Wainwright, will you confess it?” Edward suggests gloomily. “Did you really do much more tricks?”       “Yeah…” Eugene laughs evilly. “MacClife, Sr., does have the brains! That’s the long-awaited, beloved child. Who got much more attention. Unlike his brother, who everybody gave a fuck about. Who would not have been born if his mother had not gone to get an abortion.”       “Do not avoid the subject, bastard,” Peter says coldly. “Say, did you send that message?”       “Alright, I shall say!” Eugene smiles slyly. “Yes, that’s my work! I did really send the message to Perkins. I decided to remind him of me, so he didn’t forget about his duty.”       “Is that your work?” Daniel frowns slightly.       “Sort of. The threats are mine.”       “So, did these three send nothing to me?” Daniel points at Edward, Peter, and Terrence.       “Ha, I see you blamed your pals?” Eugene laughs evilly. “You blamed the blond for the conspiracy against you. Though, if I’d known you were sure about it, I would’ve lied to you. Maybe, you’ve done me a favor and killed these freaks to the fuck. And it would’ve been too late to regret it if you had understood it wasn’t their work.”       “Then, why did the fuck you do that?” Daniel resents loudly. “What do you need from me? WHAT? WHO ARE YOU?”       “Well, as you lost your memory, let’s refresh it. First, I am Eugene Wainwright. Second, the threats in the message is my work. And third, you need to pay for this young creature.” Eugene points at the crying Cassidy, who is looking at Daniel with horror in her eyes and worrying about him as if he is very close to her. “Cassidy owed me for drugs.”       “Cassidy?” Daniel asks and sharply moves his eyes to Cassidy. “She… Takes drugs?”       “She does, Perkins.”       “You did drug her!” Edward resents loudly. “And everyone knows that if you take it once, you will never stop! So, you ruined the life of the girl!”       “Cassidy must pay me a lot of money. This sweet girl was buying drugs from me for a long time and was able to pay for them, giving me many good things to sell or paying money. But now she doesn’t have a cent and said isn’t able to pay anymore. So… To give me a part of the debt, I suggested she let me do anything I wanted to her.”       “So, were you, asshole, raping Cassidy?” Peter gets enraged. “Were you shaking your fucking smelly dick in front of her face?”       “You must not only get but also give. But Cassidy didn’t know it when taking lots of drugs from me, swearing solemnly that she’d pay for everything on time.”       “Ah, you, bastard…” Edward hisses with evil in his eyes, clenching his hands into fists. “SICK MOTHERFUCKER! Hurting one girl is not enough for you? You almost raped and killed one girl! But now you decided to ruin the life of another? IS THAT NOT FUCKING ENOUGH FOR YOU? DID YOU DECIDE TO GET A HAREM OF YOUNG GIRLS? YOU GET YOUR PENIS INTO ALL POSSIBLE HOLES!”       “Wow, wow, you got so excited, baby!” Eugene laughs evilly. “Calm down, your tender heart will not bear it.”       “Bastards like you must get cured! OR BETTER CASTRATE! LOOK WHAT YOU MADE TO THE POOR GIRL! SHE IS AFRAID! SHAKING! SHE CAN BARELY STAND! BECAUSE OF YOU, BASTARD!”       “This girl agreed to be mine at her wish, mangy puppy. She understood that she would have to pay for everything. Give money or her young body.”       “Not truth!” Cassidy protests in a shaking voice with tears in her eyes. “You forced me!”       “I forced nobody, baby. I just suggested that I forget about the debt for permission to own your body.”       “But you didn’t say you would do everything only with my permission. That you would stop if I didn’t want something.”       “Since you agreed to be mine, I do not have to ask you for permission.”       “That’s not fair! Not fair!”       “Fair, Cassidy. Some drug addicts are held in drug dens and made to do dirty work, but you just have to spread your legs and do me a blowjob.”       “My whole body hurts!” Cassidy makes a loud sob with despair in her voice. “I always bleed! Because of what you do to me when I am drugged and do not understand what is happening. Sex with you is a terrible torture for me!”       “But you are so sweet and humble. You do not scream loudly and resist… You are just lying and looking at the ceiling… Or sleeping a magical sleep… I can undress you slowly and caress your young, naked body for a very long time… Kiss every single centimeter of it… Work my fingers in your hole… Lick it… Breathe in the smell of your skin… The smell of the young girl…”       “Shut up… Shut up!”       “And when my penis is ready, I get into you deeply with pleasure and moved my thighs until I get obsessed with a wave of an orgasm.”       “STOP IT!” Cassidy screams hysterically, closing her ears with both hands and breathing heavily enough. “STOP! ENOUGH! I DON’T WANT TO HEAR IT!”       “But I still have to teach you to do a blowjob because you can’t suck at all. But I don’t lose hope. Moreover, I am going to find one blonde-haired whore, who has sucked hundreds of men. She will teach you what you should know.”       “You are sick, Wainwright!” Terrence resents and knocks at his temple with his finger. “Cassidy is only nineteen! She is a young girl! But you, asshole, ruined her life!”       “No, MacClife, she did ruin it when she started to take drugs when she was twelve or thirteen.”       “So, are you also a pedophile?” Edward gets enraged. “You, nasty parasite, mocked her when this girl was of illegal age?”       “She thought she was an adult. She didn’t listen to her mommy and daddy, who told her what drug dependence would lead to.”       “BASTARD! SICK ASSHOLE! YOU MUST GET CURED! OR DIE! YOU CAN'T LIVE AS IF NOTHING HAPPENED!”       “Listen, I did not make her take drugs. She bought them from me. And she was able to pay at first. So, if she doesn’t have money now, may she pay in another way. Just like some whores do it, so their sugar daddies provide them with a happy life.”       “Fuck, we will pay you!” Peter shouts. “So, you leave her alone! CHOKE YOURSELF, SON OF BITCH!”       “How much do you need, cockroach?” Edward asks rudely. “Call the amount, and you will get it!”       “If you want, I will personally pay you,” Daniel says confidently. “How much should this girl pay you?”       “Oh, Perkins…” Eugene laughs much louder. “Don’t think that everything is so easy. Even if you pay her debt, this gal will not be free. I will not give you the one that you know very well.”       “How could I know her?” Daniel wonders loudly. “I don’t know who this girl is!”       “Come on!” Eugene moves the knife off Daniel’s throat with a sly smile, comes to the crying and shaking Cassidy, takes her by the shoulders, and turns her to the man, not letting her set free. “Don’t you recognize your own sister? Your younger sissy named Cassidy.”       Edward, Terrence, and Peter open their mouths and open their eyes widely, while Daniel looks at Cassidy closely, trying to remember who she is.       “Sister?” Edward pronounces hesitantly. “Cassidy is really his sister?”       “But Daniel never mentioned her – only his late parents!” Terrence throws his hands up.       “And he has never said anything about his parents,” Peter confesses confidently. “Only the fact that they died a long time ago and bought him the house where he is living.”       “But it might be the truth. Daniel and Cassidy have many common features.”       “And the same last name…” Edward adds thoughtfully.       “So, guys, surprised?” Eugene smiles slyly. “Do you think I am lying? No! This little girl is really the younger sister of your pal. Who did not definitely tell you many things. For example, he said nothing about his sister, the drug addict.”       “It’s not true!” Daniel protests. “You are lying!”       “Not at all! Her name is Cassidy Perkins. And you are Daniel Perkins.”       “And what? Do namesakes not exist?”       “You can believe me. Cassidy is your relative. Probably, the only one that you have.”       “I don’t know this girl!”       “You will remember her, Perkins, it’s a matter of time,” Eugene promises confidently. “And you will recognize your pals. Understand that you behaved like a fucking bastard toward them.”       Eugene shakes his head with a grin.       “Were you feeling ashamed to confess to your friends that your sister had been taking drugs since a young age?” Eugene asks. “You wanted to be innocent for them?”       “I do not know these three, either! But how you know about me is a guess to me.”       “M-m-m, you will remember that, too…” Eugene smiles mysteriously. “Just wait for a while. And you start to say different things. And you will confess to your friends that you were ashamed of saying that your sister had been taking drugs since a young age. Someone’s ashamed of their poor parents or relatives, who drink to the fuck. But you want to pretend that there is not a sister, who takes tons of drugs in your life.”       “I DO NOT KNOW THIS GIRL AND THESE THREE!” Daniel screams, pointing at Cassidy, Terrence, Peter, and Edward. “DO NOT KNOW! I HAVE NEVER KNOWN!”       Cassidy shakes her head, looking at Daniel with pity in her wet eyes and crying quietly at the realization that she has lost hope in his protection.       “Why, Daniel?” Cassidy whispers. “Why? It’s me… Cassidy… I know it’s you… Please, bro…”       “So…” Eugene shakes his head, hugs Cassidy by the waist against her wish, and presses her to himself. “Do you refuse to help this girl? Don’t you want to pay her debt? Alright! Don’t do it! Even if you and your pals pay for this cute creature, I will not let her go.”       Eugene confidently moves his hand from Cassidy’s waist to her buttocks with a sly smile, while she cries quietly because of fear of this man or the fact Daniel does not recognize the girl.       “Because she is mine,” Eugene adds confidently. “Cassidy belongs to me.”       “Are you the fuck going to fuck any young girl that you meet on your way?” Peter resents. “Anyone to have boobs and an ass?”       “Wishing a young, beautiful body is fine for any man, blond. Sex is a natural need for any person. Sometimes I need to relax a little: caressing and kissing the naked body of a young girl. Masturbation is good, but a blowjob from a naked girl can’t be replaced.”       “It’s fine when you do it with THE PERMISSION of a girl. Not AGAINST her will!”       “Cassidy gave her agreement.”       “When you drugged her with shit!” Edward throws irritably.       “She just needs to calm down a little. So, I inject some drug or strong sedative into her. Depending on what I want to do.” Eugene starts to run his hand over Cassidy’s belly and squeeze her small breasts slightly, while she gives quiet sobs full of pity sometimes. “Caress the body of an unconscious beauty and be sure that a threat to become deaf because of a girl’s shouts does not threaten me… Hear her sensual moans… Watch her bend like a cat and roll her eyes…”       “You are sick, Wainwright!” Peter throws rudely. “Just sick! I wonder, how many girls have suffered because of your dirty hands? I guess, not only Natalia and Cassidy! How many lives have you ruined? How many girls have you put in a grave? How many girls cannot come to themselves?”       “I have had many girls!” Eugene says with his head proudly raised. “Very many. But none of them can be compared with the gorgeous blonde and her friends. They do get me so-o-o excited… By their appearance… If I give them my magical powder, those chicks will make any wish of mine come true. Or just sleep tightly. Just like it happened to my blonde when she should have been brought to the world of magic sleep. She was freaking sexy at that moment! Ah! I will repeat it with pleasure when she is at my mercy…”       “SHUT UP!” Edward screams at the top of his lungs, tensing all the muscles with a heavy breath, clenching his hands into fists so strongly that his chuckles get white. “JUST SHUT UP! IF YOU SAY ONE MORE BAD WORD, I WILL BURY YOU ALIVE!”       “Are you taking an example from your sick brother again?” Eugene laughs evilly. “You look so similar to him when you are furious.”       “BASTARD! YOU MUST BE IN A GRAVE, NOT PRISON! RUINING THE LIFE OF ONE GIRL WAS NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU, AND YOU DECIDED TO BRING A FEW MORE TO DESPAIR!”       “Nobody will remember anything if I make an injection or put them to sleep with a sedative. Baby Cassidy still cannot remember what was happening after she started to be in nirvana.”       “Do you hate women so much! Did something happen in your childhood? I do not think you were born so sick! I guess a certain girl hurt you too strongly. You got rejected once and decided that you could fuck a girl against her wish, just knocking her out with drugs, sedatives, or chloroform.”       “That’s my fetish, shabby puppy. Some men do not like long foreplay and start to do what they want, but I cannot do it. I need to caress a girl for a long time and undress her slowly. Sometimes I may tie her up, so she doesn’t think of running.”       “I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re also a necrophile and can fuck even a corpse.”       “No, I don’t fuck corpses, I bury them. And there is nothing bad about non-standard sex preferences. Maybe, one of you would like something like this. Or maybe, someone would not mind tying a girl up, kissing her body, enjoying her sensual moans, and watching her bending.”       “Not when it happens AGAINST a girl’s wish!”       “Alright, close your mouth, puppy!” Eugene waves his hand sharply. “I am sick of hearing your bullshit!”       “You made everybody, who served that old bastard Michael, think that all of that was right. You all dreamed of mocking Natalia. You were waiting for Michael being obsessed with money and take revenge on my father to kill me. All your dicks were the fuck itching! YOU ALL!       “You speak too much, MacClife, it’s time to shorten your long tongue. And shut you up! SO, YOU DO NOT BARK ANYMORE!”       “You will shut me up WHEN I DIE,” Edward says confidently. “But you will not live until this moment. Because I will be fighting until the end to save my fiancée from what happened to Cassidy and protect my brother and friends.”       “Protect them as much as you want, but it will help none of you. You will die here and now or get high when I give you my magical thing. You will give a fuck about your chicks. You will think only about taking a greater dose.”       “NEVER, JACKASS!”       Edward wants to run to Eugene and beat him as strongly as possible. But seeing that the man is holding a knife, Terrence takes his brother by the wrist, takes him back, and pulls him down a couple of times to calm him down.       “Just let Cassidy go, and nobody will suffer,” Peter demands confidently.       “We will pay you any money, so you leave her alone,” Terrence adds.       “C’mon, are you deaf or stupid?” Eugene asks loudly. “I did say I do not need your money! And I will not give Cassidy to you because she is mine.”       “We will leave her here!” Edward says rudely.       “But you will not leave. Since we met so luckily, you all will have to pay for your wish to save this cutie.”       With these words, Eugene tightly hugs Cassidy crying quietly, and gets his hand underneath her clothes, caressing her naked belly.       “You will do nothing to these people, motherfucker,” Edward hisses through his teeth, clenching his hands into fists tightly. “Don’t touch anyone with a finger. Otherwise, you, asshole, will regret it!”       “So, MacClife, do you want to take another chance to play a hero?” Eugene sneers evilly. “Do you want to try to prove that you are not worthless, and that you are not a coward hiding behind your mommy’s skirt?”       “If you want to deal with someone, alright – I shall give you a chance. After you let these four go: my brother, Cassidy, and my friends.”       “No, puppy, you will not do a noble act by saving the others and sacrificing yourself,” Eugene says confidently.       “Do anything you want to me,” Edward says confidently. “But I will not let you do something to these people. And I WILL fight until the end. You will not make me give up. Never.”       “I shall win this war, MacClife, do not doubt it. AND NOBODY WILL LEAVE!”       Eugene sharply grabs Edward by the collar with a loud, irritated shout and throws him on the table. Then the criminal tries to get a knife into him, but the man magically avoids a death stab to his heart. But he falls to the floor not very softly because he sharply rolls aside, not seeing the edge of the table. While Wainwright tries to set free the knife from the table, MacClife, Jr., gets up sharply, grabs the opponent by the collar, and pushes him to the half-empty bookshelf that falls over the criminal after he sharply runs into it and falls on the floor. And when Edward runs to him to attack him shortly, Eugene leaves from underneath the rubble and throws his opponent so that he hits his back against the wall. Then Wainwright prevents Terrence's attempt to do something, hitting him in the jaw with a fist as strongly as possible and pushing him aside. Also, he easily strikes down Peter and Daniel standing in his way, while they fall on the floor like stones at a different time. After this, the man takes a packet with powder, a couple of needle syringes, and something else and sharply presses Cassidy to himself.       “NO!” Cassidy screams hysterically with horror in widely open eyes. “NO! DON’T TOUCH ME! HELP! NO! I DON’T WANT! STOP IT! A-A-A-A!”       “Shut up, kid!” Eugene throws rudely and strongly slaps Cassidy in the face, making her shout with tears in her eyes. “You will go with me!”       “HELP ME! SOMEONE! HELP! A-A-A-A!”       While Cassidy keeps resisting and screaming loudly, Eugene places her on his shoulder and carries her away from the room. Everything happens so fast that nobody has time to realize something. And a few seconds later, Edward gets up sharply, runs to the doorstep, glances at both sides, and turns on Terrence, Peter, and Daniel, who have already gotten up.       “Go away!” Edward jabs, waving his hand sharply. “I will deal with him!”       “So, he kills you here quietly?” Peter gets horrified loudly. “Don’t even dream!”       “It’s gonna be okay, I can do it. Go!”       “No!” Terrence exclaims. “I won’t leave you here!”       “I shall deal with that bastard, but you must leave! If that bastard wants a victim, let me be the one.”       “Don’t dare to say it!” Peter gets horrified. “Nobody will leave! Don’t even dream!”       “Go away and go to the police immediately! Come back with them! And I will do my best to hold that scumbag and not to let him go.”       “Are you insane?” Terrence knocks at his temple. “You want that asshole to drug you with some shit?”       “It’s gonna be okay, I promise.”       “Sorry, MacClife, but people are right when saying you’re too obsessed with a wish to play a hero,” Peter replies confidently. “It does cross all the lines!”       “I’m doing this for Natalia! For her calm!”       “Fuck, look at yourself!” Terrence exclaims loudly. “A couple of more hits before you have to go to the hospital! Wainwright is gonna beat you so strongly that you will become disabled!”       “I will not.”       “Think of Natalia and our parents! About their feelings! You have done enough! And here’s what it led to!”       “That’s why I’m giving you a chance to leave. You shouldn’t have come here. And now you’ve got a chance to stay alive.”       “Stop, Edward, ENOUGH!” Terrence shouts irritably. “You will not stay here!”       “Do you want that sick motherfucker to do something to Cassidy?” Edward wonders louder. “No, I will not let! I shall save that girl!”       “Fuck, you are really sick!” Peter resents. “Wainwright’s got a knife! He will easily stab you and Cassidy!”       “I know all the risks, but I need to deal with this shit and give you a chance to save yourself.”       “We won’t leave and will be helping you while we can stand!” Peter says confidently.       “Either all of us stay, or all of us get out!” Terrence adds.       “Go away, guys, I’m begging you…” Edward begs with pity in his eyes. “I don’t want you to suffer because of me. Come back here with the police and Mr. Johnson.”       “Do you want to be the same as Cassidy?” Peter wonders with horror in his eyes. “Or much worse! Drugs will destroy you quickly! If that bastard injects a great dose into you, you won’t survive and will die from an overdose.”       “Alright, I have no time! I’ve gotta find Cassidy immediately. I will do it, but you three leave as soon as possible! Save yourself! Don’t dare to stay here!”       Edward runs out of the room, not paying attention to Terrence, who tries to catch him, crying:       “Edward! Edward, stop now! Edward!”       But Edward does not hear it and is determined to deal with Eugene face-to-face. He runs some distance, looks around quickly, and looks in every single room with a heavy breath, understanding that Wainwright might be anywhere. In the beginning, he sees the door leading to a very dark, dirty, and cold kitchen full of dust. He does not enter it immediately because he barely opens the rusted door, but he leaves it because there is nothing here. The same things happen when he opens the doors of a bathroom and a small pantry.       At some moment, Edward hears Cassidy's loud plea for help and pleases to let her go. Breathing heavily enough, MacClife, Jr., runs to the source of the sound that he hears from the other end of the house, runs down a small hall, turns to the left, and looks around, listening to any noise. Two seconds later, Edward hears Cassidy’s scream again and runs to the source of the sound, understanding that he is getting closer. He does not even look at other sides and does not pay attention to the doors on both sides that are closed or opened. Running by one of the opened doors, MacClife, Jr., does not understand how someone tightly closes his mouth with a hand and pulls him into a room, despite hard resistance. Edward understands that’s Eugene, but does not react in time when he gets a strong hit with a fist in his jaw. However, the man strikes his opponent down the floor easily and starts a cruel fight with him.       Edward already feels a strong weakness and a taste of blood in his mouth and tries to wipe it off his face sometimes. His face is stained with blood, it has bruises and abrasions, his arms and legs are terribly hurt, there are many wounds on them, and he feels a slight headache after many hits against some things. It seems like he needs a little to lose consciousness and give up. But the man is holding on. The love helps him. The love for his future wife, his friends, and his family helps Edward hold on and fight while he can. This is the most important thing that he has… And if he loses just something from it, he will never be happy, confident, strong, and fearless… Maybe, the man used to be afraid of the man, who has crazy eyes and smells so bad. But now he feels much more confident and does believe that he has enough strength to tear anyone, who means a lot to him.       The fight between Edward and Eugene continues for some time. They raise above or end up under their opponent and beat all parts of the body with their hands and legs as strongly as possible. Even if MacClife, Jr., is beaten strongly and feels a little weak, and his hair has lost its original form, he keeps fighting and does not stop thinking of his close people. The opponents sink their teeth into each other and are not going to give up, having the pleasure of giving hits to the opponent in all parts of the body, dragging each other by the hair, and trying to use a chokehold sometimes. At some moment, MacClife, Jr., manages to reach a knife that his opponent let go of at some moment and tries to get it into Wainwright’s arm, but the criminal sharply rolls on another side and strikes this thing out with a movement of a leg. A little later, Eugene sharply throws Edward off himself after he gets a few painful slaps in the face. Then he strikes him down and pins his face to the floor, pressing it to the one as tightly as possible and twisting his arm painfully while his biggest enemy winces strongly from a strong pain and barely hold down not to scream at the top of his lungs.       “Do you think you will bring me down alone?” Eugene asks evilly, pinning Edward’s face to the floor. “No! You got in touch with the wrong man, boy! You picked up the wrong person to play games with!”       Eugene, grabbing Edward by the collar, raises him sharply and gives him a very strong slap in the face.       “I shall kill you now,” Eugene hisses through his teeth with a sly smile. “You, asshole, will die immediately! I WILL KILL YOU, MOTHERFUCKER! AND NOBODY WILL STOP ME!”       “No, bastard, YOU did mess up with the wrong person,” Edward replies in a low voice with a heavy breath, wincing strongly from a burning pain in his whole body. “You know me badly. You don’t know what I can do when I am mad.”       “You can do nothing, fucking puppy!” Eugene twists Edward’s arms around him stronger, making him shout quietly. “You can only bark and hide behind your mother’s skirt. Or the back of your brother. Without who you would’ve remained a piece of shit that reached nothing in his life.”       “You will know what I can do,” Edward hisses through his teeth with evil. “You will know what I can do when some assholes dare to harm at least one of my close people. YOU WILL THE FUCK KNOW!”       Edward rolls on his back sharply, sits up, grabs Eugene by his thin hair, and hits him in the jaw as strongly as he can, making him feel a taste of blood in his mouth.       “You underestimate me too much. Because I am different now.”       “It seems to you,” Eugene sneers evilly. “You were a barking, cowardly puppy and will always be the one.”       “The puppy can bite. Very painfully!” Edward strongly smashes his fist against Eugene’s temple. “I will not be silent when a certain scumbag dares to mock my close people. And I will not let you mock me! I AM NOT A DOLL THAT WOULD NOT HIT YOUR FACE AGAINST THE WALL!”       “Show off, MacClife, show off. You will not save your brother, your pals, and your gorgeous blonde, who will do me a blowjob.”       “Do not even dare to think about it. HEAR ME, SCUMBAG?” Edward strongly smashes his fist against Eugene’s stomach, seeing that he is wincing strongly from pain and doubling over. “Don’t dare just to think of her! I WILL KILL YOU TO THE FUCK! KILL!”       Edward keeps giving Eugene cruel hits on his face, not thinking of the consequences and being obsessed with a wish to deal with him. And at some moment, he uses a chokehold for him, not letting the opponent breathe in and set free from his grip.       “I will not be silent when a certain bastard hurts my close people,” Edward says confidently. “I will tear anyone for them! I give a fuck about who it’s going to be!”       At some moment, Eugene glances at something, with which he could definitely hit Edward on the head. Struggling with a lack of air, he tries to reach what is not placed so close to him. But a few seconds later, the criminal grabs it, rolls it to himself, and takes it.       “You will not save your pals and brother,” Eugene says with a sly smile. “Because you will DIE TODAY!”       Eugene strongly hits Edward on the head with the thing that he took. Everything immediately goes black before the guy’s eyes, and he sharply lets his opponent go and falls on the floor like a stone two seconds later. He does not lose consciousness, but he cannot move and feels strong dizziness and acute pain in the back of his head. And because his eyes are closed, Wainwright thinks that he knocked MacClife, Jr., out and celebrates the victory silently.       “Ha, I said I would win!” Eugene smiles slyly, looking at the half-unconscious Edward for two seconds, and gets up on his feet with an evil laugh. “You, little cad, got in touch with the wrong man. I am much stronger than you! MUCH, BASTARD!”       Eugene strongly hits Edward in the stomach with a leg, hearing his quiet moan that is hardly possible to hear and seeing how he winces from pain, not being able to answer due to a strong weakness.       “Say farewell to your life, kid!” Eugene says confidently. “Say farewell to your brother, mommy, daddy, friends, and beloved fiancée. You know the blonde’s fate. And your pals and brother will go on your way. I shall not spend my magical powder on you and will just burn this house down. I shall find the others and lock them somewhere. So, NOBODY can get out of here. YOU ALL WILL DIE, I SWEAR! And don’t worry about baby Cassidy: I shall choose her fate later. Knowing that her brother does not care about this drug addict.”       Eugene laughs loudly with a widely open mouth.       “Farewell, Edward Robert MacClife! Rest in peace! You will never see your close people, whom you tried to protect so hard.”       Eugene hits Edward in the stomach, seeing that the guy barely moves and winces strongly with a heavy breath. After throwing the last contemptuous look and wishing him to die, Wainwright leaves the room sharply, closes the door loudly, and locks it with rotted boards placed not far from here.       “Great, one is defeated,” Eugene says with a happy smile. “It’s time to deal with three more. I am sure that they are still here. Trying to save this puppy that is about to die.”       Eugene laughs evilly again, showing his bloody, rotten teeth, and goes to find Terrence, Daniel, and Peter with his head proudly raised. Wainwright starts checking all the rooms closely, looking forward to the moment when he locks all the men and burns this house down. The criminal tries to be very careful to attack first and not to become someone’s victim. But he can find nobody in the three rooms that are placed next to the one where Edward is locked. After making sure about it, he keeps moving on to check the other rooms, but there is nobody in the pantry, the bathroom, and the kitchen…       “Fuck, where are those bastards?” Eugene gets furious. “THEY COULD NOT LEAVE! COULD NOT!”       And a few seconds later, Eugene starts to hear some sounds. More specifically, the sound of knocking shoes not far from him. It makes him smile slyly and realize that someone is undoubtedly here. The man goes to the source of the sound confidently, dreaming of attacking first. He follows the sound very slowly and carefully and goes by the open doors, as if he is afraid that someone may attack him. But when Wainwright goes by one of the rooms, he gets sharply pressed against the wall and feels how someone squeezes his throat tightly. As it turns out, this is Terrence, who was waiting for a good moment and left the room where he hid and waited.       “What did you do to Edward?” Terrence asks in a low voice, literally killing Eugene with his furious, icy look, breathing heavily enough, showing his teeth like an evil dog, and understanding how tense all his muscles are. “What did you do to him?”       Terrence sharply grabs Eugene by the collar and shakes him strongly, looking at him with bloodshot eyes.       “ANSWER, BASTARD!” Terrence screams at the top of his lungs. “WHERE IS MY BROTHER? WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?”       “What your uncle Michael wanted to do,” Eugene says confidently with a sly smile.       “I swear, Wainwright, if you hurt him or especially kill, you will, asshole, regret it. SMASH YOU AGAINST THE WALL! STRANGLE YOU WITH MY OWN HANDS!”       “Calm down, MacClife, take care of your nerves. They are so broken. Though, you will need them when you are at the funeral of your brother and comfort your mommy and daddy and his gorgeous blonde. Of course, if you live until then. What if Jamie has to pay for two coffins.”       “Do not irritate me, scumbag!” Terrence hisses through his teeth. “I will not be responsible for myself if you do something to Edward!”       “Alas, but your brother can no longer save you and your pals,” Eugene says insolently. “Inevitable death is waiting for him. Just like you and those two.”       “No, inevitable death is waiting for you. IF I LOSE MY BROTHER BECAUSE OF YOU!”       “Oh, MacClife, stop taking care of that puppy like a chicken cares about its eggs,” Eugene laughs evilly. “He did put all of you in danger. He thought he’d be fighting with me alone. But no, you, three idiots, followed him.”       “Did you, jackass, think we’d leave Edward and let him go where you would kill him?” Terrence sneers evilly. “No! Don’t hope! I will not leave him alone!”       “And I’m supposed to appreciate it. Appreciate your love for your little brother… Appreciate the fact that friendship is very important to the blond, who decided to go with you. But it does not touch me!”       “I’d go through water and fire for my brother!” Terrence says confidently. “And I will be protecting him while I am alive!”       “You can stop trying. This is the last day when you saw that worthless puppy. I dealt with him, and now I will deal with you quickly. You both will die! And your parents will be crying over your corpses. If something is left from you, of course… Because I shall bury this house to the fucking ground! There will only be ash!”       “What did you do to Edward, motherfucker? Where is he now? ANSWER NOW!”       “Stop trying to find him,” Eugene smiles slyly. “He is slowly dying in the walls of this house. Even if you go away from me magically, he will not do it. I got rid of that bastard. The little bastard that should have never been born in this world.”       The furious Terrence hits Eugene in the jaw and the stomach with a fist.       “BASTARD!” Terrence screams at the top of his lungs. “WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM? OR I SHALL STRANGLE YOU WITH MY OWN HANDS!”       “Locked,” Eugene says confidently. “And now, he is dying after I hit him on the head strongly. He passed out immediately and could not get up and keep pretending to be a hero.”       “Remember, son of a bitch, if Edward dies because of you, you will be dead,” Terrence says in a cold voice, threatening Eugene with a finger. “I WILL NOT FORGET IT! YOU, MOTHERFUCKER WILL PAY FOR RUINING THE LIFE OF TWO INNOCENT GIRLS AND WHAT YOU DID TO MY BROTHER!”       “Calm down, tough guy, you can do nothing. And the same is waiting for you.”       “No, Wainwright, I shall not give up. You will have to try hard to destroy me.”       “Your brother said the same, but he is now lying half-dead in a locked room and not able to get up. So, don’t be so confident.”       “If someone dares to hurt my close people, I am ready to tear them apart. And I could hang the balls of a bastard like you on a tree.”       “Are you going to take revenge for that shabby puppy that has always been like the fifth paw of a dog?”       “Edward is one of the closest people that I don’t want to lose,” Terrence replies confidently. “The one I truly love. Who I cared, care, and will care about, regardless of anything.”       “I’m surprised by such a strong love for him. I am surprised that you are protecting the one, who almost killed you one day, so hard.”       “He did it against his wish, by the order of that old, sick man. And when I was going his home, I knew that Uncle would make Edward kill me.”       “Trust me, MacClife, if his gorgeous blonde Natalia had not been there, your brother would have easily killed you,” Eugene says confidently. “Mr. MacClife always knew what to press on to make that puppy do what he wanted. He was just lucky that the gal showed a wish to sacrifice herself and make him give up.”       “Edward is not a killer! And he will never be the one!”       “But his nose is too long and curious! You can’t deny that he is too obsessed with a wish to look for trouble. He did frame you and your pals! He must probably be ashamed that you three will die tonight because of him.”       “We went with him at our wish and help him for what’s hard for you to understand. Because you are nasty, rotted, and disgusting, and your brains are only obsessed with two things: raping girls and searching for drugs.”       “All your girls are my next victims. When you all die, I will start to search for them. I’ll start to give them a magical powder and inject what will help them relax. Nobody will find these girls. As well as nobody has found my baby Cassidy. They will all suck my penis and spread their legs by one. And I will be slowly caressing every one of those sexual dolls. And undressing them…”       “Don’t dare to touch my fiancée with a finger,” Terrence hisses through his teeth, clenching his hands into fists tightly. “Or you will be dead! I swear, Wainwright! I SHALL TEAR YOUR DICK WITHOUT ANY ANESTHESIA!”       “Your threats will not change my mind. All those girls will be mine. My loyal slaves.”       “You are much worse than my uncle. At least, he did not rape young girls and adult women and did not drug his victims.”       “He just had no time to do it. Nobody got lucky to caress the nude body of your brother’s fiancée again and find out if your fiancée called a freaking sexy girl by everyone was so good.”       “Bastards like you must be cured. You must be locked in a clinic and kept in close view. And never meddle in case someone wants to beat your ugly face. You deserved this pain. All these bruises… Everything!”       “Alright, MacClife, I am sick of hearing your bullshit. I should also find the pals of you and your brother. Of course, you all did a noble thing by deciding to fight with me, but I am unbeatable. Nobody will destroy me.”       “Are you asking for more strong slaps in the face? Or do drugs weaken your pain, so you, bull, give a fuck about it?”       “Maybe. But you will feel all my power now! And you’ll die as well as your brother!”       Eugene sharply grabs Terrence by the hair and pushes him into the room where Edward’s brother was hiding when getting ready to attack. Then he rudely pushes the man in the back, striking him down. Terrence does not get confused and starts fighting, hitting him on everything he sees with no fear or shyness and behaving cruelly enough toward him. He is fighting for his close people. For those, who give him a reason to live. Edward is one of his close people, for whom his brother would easily do any crazy thing. As well as for Raquelle, for his parents, and his close friends… The man has never lacked self-confidence and courage and always tried to keep calm in hard situations. But there is one weakness that might strike him down – the loss of at least one of the closest people.       His decision to go with Edward is absolutely conscious. Terrence did know how he would risk and remembered Raquelle’s warning. But a bad presentiment, a fear of losing his best friend, and a wish to do everything to save him are much stronger than a fear of suffering and dying. Fighting with Eugene cruelly, giving him strong hits, and trying to use a chokehold, MacClife, Sr., does not stop thinking of a wish to save his brother and friends and prevent Wainwright’s attempts to do something to Raquelle, Natalia, or someone else. His clothes rip in some places, he gets bruises from hits on his arms, his hair gets tousled, he feels the taste of blood in his mouth after many slaps and hits in the yaw, his nose is bleeding, and there are many scars on his face. Since Terrence has more strength than Edward, who quickly got tired, his hits and slaps are much stronger and more confident. That’s why Wainwright feels pain all over his body and the taste of blood in his mouth because of a couple of broken teeth.       But Wainwright does not give up and manages to throw Terrence off himself at some moment. Then he gets up sharply, grabs him by the collar, and throws him on the bed, on which the man falls like a stone. However, MacClife, Sr., pushes the opponent off himself by hitting his stomach with a leg and gets up when the criminal wants to fall over him and beat him strongly. He strikes his opponent on the bed, presses him to the one as tightly as possible, and gives him a few strong slaps in the face.       “It’s like you love pain!” Terrence hisses with evil in his eyes, grabs Eugene by the hair painfully, and pines his face to the bed, pushing him in the back at some moment. “Or you give a fuck about everything because of the shit that you sniff.”       Terrence sharply turns Eugene’s face on him and strongly smashes a fist against his yawl.       “The more someone beats you, the greater pleasure you get. People are definitely right when they say shit does not sink in the water! It’s all literally about you! We have beaten your face so many times that you are supposed to lie unconscious or die like a fucking rat! But you, son of a bitch, are alive! ALIVE, THE FUCK!”       “But you four are so weak,” Eugene sneers contemptuously. “Slapping you in the face several times was enough to watch you stain with blood!”       “But we are all alive and fighting!”       “Your brother is dying slowly. You and your pals are next!”       “He will survive, I know it,” Terrence says confidently. “No matter what you did to Edward, he will find the strength to get up and reach you.”       “I doubt it, MacClife, I really doubt it. But I am absolutely sure that you four will die TODAY!”       Eugene rudely throws Terrence off himself, gets up sharply, grabs him by the collar, and throws him so that the man falls on a small, mangy table and slides down sharply, painfully hitting the back of his head against a sharp corner. Wainwright strongly smashes his fist against the yawl and the back of his head and hits his head against the sharp corner of the table. That’s why the brunet winces strongly and feels a slight dizziness and darkness before his eyes, being afraid of losing consciousness at some moment.       “One more is done!” Eugene says confidently and shakes something off his arms. “Great!”       Seeing that Terrence is trying to get up, Eugene strongly slaps him in the face, and the man falls to the floor with a quiet moan again.       “See you in another life, Terrence James MacClife,” Eugene says with his head proudly raised. “Stay here, but I will deal with those two and burn this house to the fucking ground.”       While Terrence being temporarily weak cannot do anything and get up, Eugene turns around sharply, leaves the room, locks it with a few boards, and laughs very loudly like a crazy man from a mental hospital.       “So, I need to lock up two more pretty boys,” Eugene says confidently. “And yeah, I should try to knock them out immediately not to waste time. I guess those freaks are as rough as the shabby puppy and the image of his crazy daddy. I must be much crueler with them.”       Eugene determinedly goes to find Peter and Daniel, whose tracks disappeared. At least, no sounds are heard. Checking the other rooms carefully, he does not find the other men. The man walks into the house with widely open eyes like an animal hunting for something or someone and laughs evilly, looking forward to the moment when he defeats this brave four. He does not care about the strong pain, bruises, and possible traumas. Drugs literally killed all his feelings and caused aggression that a person could hardly deal with. He does not even feel tired and is ready to spend hours fighting with his opponents until they fall dead on the ground like on adrenaline.       Some time later, Eugene carefully comes to the room where he keeps all his drugs. But at some moment, the man turns his back on the opened door because he hears some suspicious sounds. And then he gets a strong hit on the head with a baseball ball, which makes him move aside. As it turned out, it's a surprise from Peter, who looks as brave and confident as never before.       “Hey, bastard, do you like it?” Peter smirks evilly, breathing a little heavily. “Since you’re challenging us, we accept it! At least, I am going to fight until the end!”       “Here you are, blond!” Eugene smiles slyly. “I have already defeated two folks – I only need to destroy you and your other pal.”       “I doubt that you knocked them out for a long time.”       “No, you are wrong. The shabby puppy is dying slowly after I beat that asshole strongly, and his brother cannot help him. He has been neutralized, too. They are ready to go to another world and stop hurting my eyes with their pretense.”       “And do you naively think I would give up on you easily? That I fall at your feet and say, ‘Kill me, my lord!’?”       “Don’t waste your strength. You can wave your sticks as much as you want, but you will lose. Because you are not able to fight with Eugene Wainwright, who never loses to some fucking pieces of shit.”       “Come on! Have someone ever told you that you must not underestimate your opponents?”       “You are not my opponent!” Eugene looks at Peter from head to foot with contempt. “An asshole like you wants to destroy me? Ha, keep dreaming! As your pals did not do, you will not do it, either.”       “Check it! So, you know what’s like to mess up with the one, who would tear their friends’ offenders apart if something happened to them.”       “Alright, if you want it, get ready to lose as well as your pals!”       Peter wants to hit Eugene with a baseball ball again, but the criminal avoids the hit successfully. Eventually, the blond strongly hits the wall, which gets a crack. The next second, Wainwright sharply takes this thing from Rose, throws it aside, pushes him into the room, and slaps him in the face as strongly as possible. But Peter is not going to be a whipping boy, who he was at school times, and attacks the opponent with no fear. The man fights off Eugene for a few seconds before he throws him on the table and starts holding and pressing him to it as tightly as possible. Later, the blond takes a sharp thing that he finds near him and makes a couple of cuts on the palm of his hand, making him scream from a burning pain.       “Hurt, asshole?” Peter asks, kind of mocking Eugene. “Hurt? The girls also felt hurt when you, motherfucker, got your smelly sausage into them! They were scared when you injected something into them, so they lost their mind or fell asleep, not knowing what would happen next.”       “A-A-A-A!” Eugene screams at the top of his lungs. “FUCK! STOP IT! HURT!”       “No, I felt hurt when I was cutting myself. You know how it hurts! How it’s actually hurtful to harm yourself! Thinking it would help you! Thinking it was something like a punishment!”       “STOP DOING THIS! STOP! NO!”       “Get it, scumbag! Peter makes another cut on Eugene’s hand and makes him scream loudly. “You deserved this pain! For doing so many terrible things!”       “I WISH YOU DIED, BLOND FREAK! DIE!”       “Maybe, I have a real chance to save my friends and thank them for everything they have done for me,” Peter says with a sly smile. “And I will do it.”       “IT WILL NOT HELP YOU! YOU ALL WILL DIE! NOBODY WILL LEAVE ALIVE! I SWEAR!”       “No, Wainwright, YOU will die! But my friends and I will stay alive!”       “You are sure, punk?”       Eugene sharply pushes Peter off himself, gets up quickly, strikes him down, takes the sharp thing that the blond lets go of, and tries to make a dead cut on his throat. However, Rose magically avoids it, holding the hands with the sharp thing above himself and moving them off after he hits his opponent between the legs. Peter gets up sharply, takes something flat, and tries to hit Eugene, but the criminal avoids the hit and strikes this thing out of his hands with a leg. After this, they start to fight hand in hand, trying to hit each other in all parts of the body. The blond stays confident enough and fights off the opponent’s attacks successfully, using his physical data to the fullest and thinking of his friends, for whom he is ready to sacrifice his life, and banning himself from thinking of any fears.       Although Peter has suffered less than the others, he has small abrasions on his face, his hair is tousled, and his clothes are ripped in some places and stained with blood. But he still has enough strength to fight and successfully avoids Eugene’s attempt to wound him with sharp things or hit him on the head. Peter also tries to hit him on the head with everything he can take, his legs, and his hands. Though, he also meets failures. For example, Rose does not avoid Wainwright’s attempt to hit him between his legs as strongly as possible. That’s why his body gets obsessed with burning pain, and he winces and doubles over. But despite this, he misses a hit in the jaw, and the opponent eventually hits his fist against the wall strongly and does not hold down a loud shout from the pain that echoes in his whole body.       “You’re fighting well,” Peter says confidently, looking at Eugene with a sly smile, breathing heavily and clenching his hands into fists tightly. “But you have less and less strength.”       “You are too self-confident, cretin,” Eugene hisses through his teeth. “Even much more than MacClife, Jr., is. But I must confess that you fight well enough.”       “I told you not to underestimate me.” Peter strongly hits Eugene in the yawl with a fist, seeing how the criminal shakes slightly. “You thought I wasn’t dangerous for you. That I would not hurt a fly! Yes, I would not! But when a motherfucker dares to attempt on my friends, I do not want and will not be silent.”       “It’s alright, as you’re so hot, I shall cool you down now. SO, YOU, ASSHOLE, HOWL FROM PAIN!”       Eugene gets sharply straight and slaps Peter in the face strongly with a loud groan. The blond turns his back on him and grabs his cheek, and Wainwright pushes him on the floor rudely, strikes everything that is lying on one of the small shelves over him, and slaps him in the face a couple of times. Everything happens so fast that Peter does not have time to understand it, feeling the pain in his elbows after he falls kind of painfully, and wincing after some things that might be heavy or sharp fall over his head.       “Alright, I have no time to deal with you!” Eugene throws rudely. “I shall lock you here and go to look for the last one.”       Eugene hits his leg strongly against Peter’s chest, depriving him of the ability to breathe for a while.       “Enjoy the last minutes of your life, blond,” Eugene says confidently. “And remember, the sooner I catch your pal and lock him in the house, the sooner your death gets closer. You wanted to die so badly – so, get what you wanted. And your gang will join you. I shall deal with baby Cassidy and your rebel girlfriends, who will belong only to me very soon.”       Eugene leaves the room with an evil laugh and locks it with boards, not paying attention to Peter, who gets up sharply and, barely tolerating the pain and a lack of air, starts to hit the door with both hands and legs when demanding loudly:       “Hey, open the door! Wainwright! OPEN IT NOW! WAINWRIGHT! OPEN IT, THE FUCK!”       However, Eugene does not react to it and gets the goal of finding Daniel, who could leave or stay in the house. And because there are two or three unchecked rooms, he decides to check them, being sure that he will meet Perkins in one of them. But the criminal cannot find any tracks of this man and starts to get nervous and enraged at the thought that his goal of killing the four men at the same time might not come true.       “FUCK, WHERE IS THAT BASTARD?” Eugene asks with evil. “WHERE DID HE GO? PERKINS, WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU? SHOW UP, BASTARD! SHOW UP!”       But after Eugene checks the last two rooms with widely open eyes, he does not find Daniel.       “ASSHOLE!” Eugene yells. “DID HE RUN AWAY? HE DID NOT LET ME KILL THOSE BASTARDS AT THE SAME TIME?”       Eugene decides to check other rooms again, understanding that Daniel could go where everybody had been when he was fighting with Edward, Terrence, and Peter. Wainwright opens every door with a leg and a loud evil and, breathing heavily, looks around the rooms with wild eyes. Sometimes he checks old closets and what is under beds because he is sure that his opponent might hide there.       “MOTHERFUCKER!” Eugene pushes one of the doors with a fist and hits it with a leg very strongly, looking at everything with a heavy breath. “I WISH YOU DIED, BASTARD!”       At some moment, Eugene realizes that he has not checked the second floor. So, the man goes to the hall as fast as a bullet, comes to the stairs, goes up to the door placed on the ceiling, opens it sharply, and looks around. But there is nothing here but dust and stuff. Wainwright growls irritably and angrily pushes the handle that he holds from evil, believing that Daniel left this place. But Eugene calms himself down with the thought that he can do it next time, and now he decides to destroy the locked men. The criminal closes the door and wants to go downstairs. But at some moment, he looks away and sees… Daniel… Who is running from one side to another and trying to find something.       “Aha, here you are, scoundrel,” Eugene pronounces evilly with a sly smile. “It’s your time to pay. Your sister will obviously stay alone in this world.”       Eugene goes down shortly, takes a heavy stick on the way, and goes to Daniel slowly but confidently, while he is standing with his back turned to him. After coming to Perkins very closely, Wainwright gets ready to hit him on the head. But at this moment, Perkins turns around slowly, sees Wainwright, magically grabs his hand, and moves it off himself. He also tries to strike this stick out of the criminal’s hands and does it successfully.       “You can stop fighting, it will not help you,” Eugene says confidently. “As well as your pals.”       “You are crazy!” Daniel pronounces in a high from excitement voice. “Just crazy!”       “So, tough guy, you peed your pants?” Eugene tries to slap Daniel’s face with a fist but hits his hand against the wall because the brunet squats sharply. “You got scared when I put the knife against your throat.”       “What do you need?” Daniel gets up sharply, breathing a little heavily. “Why did you the fuck start all of this?”       “Just want to use a chance to kill the puppy MacClife and his fucking gang.”       “What did you do to them? Where are they now?”       “Do you really care about it?” Eugene sneers evilly. “Seriously, Perkins?”       “I do!” Daniel slaps Eugene in the face with a fist brilliantly, and the man shakes and barely keeps his balance. “I do!”       “That’s how!”       “What did we do to you that you want to kill us?” Daniel asks rudely. “What?”       “What? The youngest of the MacClife brothers has dreamed of killing me because I go crazy over his gorgeous blonde and want to caress her naked body and get my penis into her hole. His older brother cares about him like a chicken cares about its eggs and behaves like a mommy that protects him from bad men and women. And the blond decided to become another hero and prove that he is not worthless and harmless, as it seems.”       “Yeah, but at least, I did nothing bad to you! Why do you the fuck threaten to kill me? I don’t know you!”       “No, Perkins, you are wrong,” Eugene laughs evilly, hits Daniel in the shoulder with his elbow, and sharply pushes him to the wall, against which he hits his back. “I want to destroy you because of Cassidy. Who you would love to save if you remembered everything.”       “I want to save her anyway! Even if I don’t know that girl, she must not suffer. Where did you take her? Are you going to kill as well as those three?”       “No, I still have some plans for that baby. Of course, Cassidy is not such a magnificent cutie as the fiancées of the MacClife brothers. But I do like her young age. Maybe, she doesn’t look as good because of my magical powder, as the girlfriends of your pals, but your sissy gets me excited. Since we met for the first time.”       “Cassidy is not my sister!” Daniel says loudly and rudely.       “Your sister, yours. You can think you saw her for the last time. Fate will no longer bring you together because you will die. And Cassidy has a little time. She’ll have a little time if I inject a great dose of drugs into her.”       “Whoever she is, you have no right to do those horrible things to her.” Daniel strongly slaps Eugene in the face and pushes him off himself rudely. “Look how she’s afraid of you! How she was shaking when you were feeling her up before our eyes!”       “So, are you starting to recognize your little sister?” Eugene smiles slyly. “Remember the one, who is your flesh and blood? Or do you understand that this baby is familiar to you?”       “I said, SHE IS NOT MY SISTER! NO! I DO NOT KNOW AND DO NOT REMEMBER HER!”       “You just lost your memory. So, you cannot remember that.”       “You can’t know it!”       “Believe me, I know everything. I know very much about you and your life. Cassidy told me everything.”       “Whatever you say, it will be an insolent lie!”       “You will make sure about it later. Just wait for a while.”       “I do not have to wait!” Daniel sharply bends Eugene down, hits him on his underbelly with a leg, and pushes off himself rudely. “I do know everything I need!”       “No, Perkins, not everything. You don’t know the important thing – who the people you are surrounded by are. And who those people, who were by your side in the past, are.”       “I want to hear nothing!” Daniel cuts off sharply. “I have heard enough lies this whole time and don’t want to drown in this fucking pool.”       “Okay, okay, tough guy, I will say nothing.” Eugene smiles slyly. “You will understand everything when you get your memory back.”       “Just let all of us go, including Cassidy, and we will forget everything once and forever,” Daniel demands rudely.       “Do not dream! Cassidy belongs to me, and you and your pals will die tonight. Those three are locked in this house and getting ready for their death. I only need to deal with you before I burn this house down, so you all die, and my baby is mine.”       “Where you locked them? Which place?” Daniel sharply grabs Eugene by the collar and shakes him strongly, setting his look full of evil in his wild eyes. “What did you do to them, beast? ANSWER!”       “What’s your problem, boy?” Eugene sneers evilly. “Since when have you been worried about them? I did hear you blaming them for the lie and saw those three wishing to beat your face.”       “It’s none of your fucking business, bastard!” Daniel throws loudly. “SET THEM FREE NOW!”       “Don’t even dream, dork!” Eugene smashes his fist against the yawl of Daniel, who cannot keep his balance and falls to the floor. “You will not also have a chance to do a noble thing and save those freaks and you sissy. Nothing will help you, and your pals are almost dead! Just like you are! ONE STEP AWAY FROM A GRAVE!”       Eugene strongly hits Daniel in the underbelly as strongly as possible. He immediately feels a strong pain and a taste of blood in his mouth after getting hits on the face, which the opponent hits, as well. And seeing Perkins lying down on the floor and doubling over, Wainwright tightly grabs him by the throat, sits him up by force, pins him to the wall with his back, raises his head sharply, and starts to strangle the guy, who starts to choke and tries to get out of the grip somehow.       “Scumbag!” Eugene throws rudely, stops choking Daniel, and grabs him by the hair painfully. “I thought you died after what happened to you, but you did not. You are alive!”       “Who are you?” Daniel resents loudly. “How do you know me?”       “I’ve known you since I saw you at the trial of me and the uncle of the MacClife brothers. You supported your pals and always took your gal with you. Who is also freaking attractive.” Eugene bites his lip for a second and clears his throat quickly. “And you know, Perkins, when I saw you in the court, I thought your face reminded me of someone. I couldn’t understand why. But after thinking for a long time, I realized that you were so similar to my girl, Cassidy. I knew she had an older brother named Daniel Perkins. And I remembered how he looked because I somehow found a photo of you on her phone. You were a kid, but I realized that it was you anyway.”       “What trial? What are you talking about?”       “The truth, Perkins. The truth. Moreover, you were at the trial of MacClife, Jr., Who was one of two defendants but made the judge sure that he was not guilty. I was not there, but I was aware of everything because the same lawyer was helping the uncle of the MacClife brothers, our friends, and me. But he messed up everything to the fuck. That brainless asshole could not get anyone out.”       “I give a fuck! I want to know just one thing, why do you mock the poor girl? Look what you did to her! Cassidy looks horrible!”       “I don’t mock her, I just let her pay her duty,” Eugene smiles slyly. “And I want sex… I don’t have the strength and a wish to wait for a moment when I fuck the blonde of MacClife, Jr., When I want to fuck someone, I give a fuck about whom a girl is, and whether she agrees.”       “You’re sick… Just sick…”       “Wishing sex is not an illness. Any man wants to fuck a young, beautiful girl. Trust me, I know everything about it! Of course, Cassidy is a little clumsy at seducing, but that’s fine. She is a baby and will learn everything slowly. Now, I am having fun with her. After I give her some magical powder… Before you drug her, she scratches and fights like a cat… Or like a girlfriend of MacClife, Jr., Though, if she thinks she has no place to run, the blonde calms down and brings me to orgasm by moaning sensually.”       “I doubt that her fiancée will let you come to that girl,” Daniel says confidently. “When you mention her, he is ready to tear you.”       “I have never cared about it. Especially now, when the puppy will do nothing to me. He is beaten black and blue, and his death is very close. He will die either from my hits or the fire. So, his gorgeous fiancée is at my mercy.”       “Even if you, asshole, locked them, I still have a chance to save them from death, which they do not deserve!”       “Oh, you did wish them to die.”       “I give a fuck about what I said. I will not leave them here.”       “Ha, did you remember them while they were trying to beat me so hard?” Eugene laughs evilly.       “At least, I know they are familiar to me.”       “So, are you pretending for your pals and trying to make yourself sure that you do not know them and me?”       “None of your fucking business, bastard!”       “I bet you recognize me, too. You understand that I am familiar to you. And you think you have seen my baby Cassidy before.”       “Maybe! But it changes nothing!”       “And yeah, when you remember everything, don’t complain that you messed up everything. You told your pals so much that they would not forgive you. You will have to spend a lot of time asking them for forgiveness. And doing one heroic thing will not be enough.”       “I shall deal with them! You DO NOT HAVE to do with it! And actually, get out of my way! I no longer want to talk about what does not make sense.”       With these words, Daniel tries to push Eugene off himself and get up, but the criminal slaps him in the face two times. That’s why his cheeks literally start to burn, and a thin floor of blood bleeds out of his nose. And then Wainwright grabs the man by the collar and sets his bloodshot eyes on him.       “Do not dare to resist, scumbag,” Eugene throws rudely. “Accept your loss! And death!”       “Never!” Daniel exclaims.       “You have lost, Perkins, calm down. You and your friends are living the last minutes of your lives. I am about to burn this house to the fucking ground! So, you all finally die!”       “Not this time and not in this life,” Daniel hisses through his teeth, moving his threatening look slowly to Daniel. “I SHALL NOT GIVE UP!”       Daniel sharply kicks Eugene in the groin and pushes him off himself rudely. And when the criminal doubles over with a quiet shout, barely standing on his feet, he hits him on the nape of his neck with his elbow and on the side with a leg, striking him down. Then, Perkins gives a start sharply and wants to run away somewhere. But Wainwright comes to himself quickly, gets up sharply, and runs after him. After catching the guy, Wainwright attacks from behind and strikes him down. Again, Perkins does not get confused, barely taking what he sees first, hitting the opponent on the head, and trying to run again. But Wainwright grabs his foot sharply and pulls him on himself, starting to beat him heartlessly on everything he sees. Daniel is fighting with his opponent with his hands, legs, elbows, and fists. They give each other painful hits on all parts of the body, drag each other by the hair, use any things they have near themselves, and roll on the floor. Daniel has enough strength to fight because he was not fighting as much as the men did and just knocked Eugene out one time and hit him several times. Now the man is fighting with his offender as if his life depends on who wins. And he would love to help the people, whom he lied about not knowing them. Especially now, when their lives are in danger, and they all might die.       Every second, Daniel realizes more and more that Eugene’s face seems very familiar to him. Even too familiar… And he thinks someone has already threatened him and put a knife against his throat. The feelings he had when feeling the knife against his throat were terribly familiar. And he has had to hear the threats of dying… There is a feeling that he was fighting with someone as cruelly as he is doing it now. How someone gave him the same strong hits and tried to strangle him… Perkins gets so busy with all of it that he just loses vigilance at some moment. Though, it does not help him remember what happened to him.       “This man is very familiar to me…” Daniel thinks, fighting with Eugene rising above him hand in hand. “What’s happening now seems familiar to me… As if something definitely connects me with this man…”       Meanwhile, Eugene clenches his hand into a fist and tries to kick Daniel in the nose. But at the last moment, the brunet rolls on another side sharply, making the criminal hit his fist against the floor. Then, Perkins decides to try to run away again and find the men. He creeps away from Wainwright, gets up barely, and tries to run as fast as possible. But Eugene grabs his foot with a growl and pulls it sharply on himself. That’s why Daniel falls on the floor, not letting his face meet the floor because he leans on it with both hands. The man resists Wainwright too hard and tightly grabs the foot of a small closet, breathing heavily and gritting his teeth with the unbearable pain. A little later, Perkins tries to hit his opponent with the leg that the criminal is holding but fails. Then the man lets the foot of the closet go, and Wainwright pulls him on himself sharply, gives him painful hits on his rib, and avoids the hits on his underbelly with a leg several times.       But later, Daniel barely manages to put Eugene on his back, get up and run away at some distance. However, Wainwright gets up sharply, catches Perkins, puts his arm around his neck from behind, and puts the knife to his temple after taking it from the closet, the foot of which his opponent was holding. While Daniel tries to get out of the tight grip, Eugene pulls him into one of the free rooms where the door is open. Then Wainwright sharply lets Perkins go, pushes him in the back, and threatens him with the knife after he turns on him.       “So, you fight well, I appreciated your talents,” Eugene hisses through his teeth. “But no matter how much you wave your sticks, it will not help you. As well as it did not help your pals.”       “Listen, man, let’s agree,” Daniel suggests quietly with a heavy breath. “We will give you anything you want. Just tell me what you want, and you will get it…”       “I need only one thing, Perkins: killing you, the little puppy, his brother, and the blond, who did a noble thing by deciding to go with you. And I want to find all your girls and subdue them to me with my magical thing. So, they do what I want as well as Cassidy does. And do not resist.”       “Have you always been such a sick scoundrel? Or does that shit impact you in this way?”       “As the honorable Mr. MacClife, the uncle of the puppy and his brother, said, kind people do not survive in this world. If you want something, you have to step on others and get what you want, despite someone’s wishes and possibilities.”       “So, do you give a fuck about girls’ wishes? Whether they want to talk to you! You give a fuck about the fact that they might be taken?”       “I have never cared about whether a girl is single or taken. If I like her, I fuck her.”       “Sick bastard!” Daniel throws rudely.       “Insult me or not, but you will have to confess that you four have lost and will no longer be able to protect each other and your sexy cuties, who are going to be mine soon.”       “Don’t dare to come to the girls, hear me!” Daniel hits Eugene in the yawl with a fist as strongly as possible. “DON’T DARE! YOU’VE DESTROYED ONE GIRL’S LIFE BY DRUGGING HER WITH SOME SHIT!”       “Stop yelling, jackass!” Eugene points the knife at Daniel’s chest, making him step back. “Do not take an example from the MacClife brothers. One of who was born mentally sick, and another is taking after him confidently.”       “Anyone would go crazy next to a bastard like you!”       “Alright, fine! I have no time to deal with you. Or those bastards will find a way to get out.”       “I WISH YOUR PLAN WENT THE FUCK DOWN!” Daniel screams at the top of his lungs. “CHOKE WITH YOUR SHIT! MAY IT BE A KICK IN YOUR THROAT!”       “Rest in peace, Perkins! You will die this time!”       When Eugene turns around and wants to leave the room, Daniel attacks him from behind and tries to strike him down. But Wainwright strongly smashes a fist against his face two or three times, letting his knife down, grabs his opponent by the collar sharply, and pushes him to a high shelf, on which some things are placed. Everything falls over Perkins, who cannot keep a balance, and slides down the shaking shelf, hitting painfully his back and the back of his head against the shelves. Despite the darkness before his eyes and his weakness, he tries to get up, but he cannot do this.       “HA, I’M THE WINNER!” Eugene laughs loudly and evilly, raising his hands. “AGAIN! YEAH! I TOOK A VICTORY UNDER ALL THE FOUR! NOW I WILL MAKE MY PLAN COME TRUE AND KILL THIS GANG!”       Eugene laughs much louder and moves his contemptuous look to the weak Daniel trying to move the blood off his face and under his nose.       “Say farewell, Daniel Christopher Perkins, your time has really come,” Eugene laughs evilly. “Of course, I’m sorry that your farewell with your pals and sissy was so sad. But it’s okay. Sadness and regret will be gone when you all die on the same day, at the same hour. Rest in peace, cretin!”       Eugene strongly smashes his foot against Daniel’s abdomen, leaves the room shortly, closes the door loudly, locks it with boards, and goes somewhere quickly. Perkins, who manages to come to himself more or less quickly, gets up immediately, rushes to the exit of the room, and does not manage to catch the opponent because the door is locked.       “HEY, OPEN THE DOOR!” Daniel screams at the top of his lungs, strongly hitting the door with both hands and unsuccessfully trying to open it. “OPEN THE DOOR, ASSHOLE!”       Daniel tries unsuccessfully to open the door with his leg.       “OPEN THE DOOR, I SAID!” Daniel demands rudely. “HEAR ME, BASTARD! LET ME GO! HEY!”       After trying to open the door several times, Daniel exhales sharply and puts his hand to his forehead, looking around the whole room.       “Sick cretin!” Daniel blunts with evil. “He will pay for that! Worse than all of those three! Ar-r-r-r-r! Fuck, what a day! Why did I the fuck leave my home?”       Daniel looks around for two seconds, leans on the closed door with his back, runs his hands over his face, looks at his palms, and sees that they are stained with blood. His whole face has blood and scratches, and his arms have scars and bruises. The clothes got strongly dirty after rolling on the floor and got tracks of blood somewhere. But since he is wearing almost all black, except a gray t-shirt, the blood on which is barely noticeable. There are small holes and tracks of dirt on his black, slightly shabby jeans, his leather jacket can be thrown in a trash can because of many cuts, and his t-shirt with ripped sides literally says that an animal with very sharp claws attacked the man and tore it apart.       Daniel looks into the distance for some time, breathing a little heavily and feeling how fast his heart is beating. He starts to panic at the thought that he might not be able to get out of here and forget everything like a nightmare.       “Fuck, is there no hope for salvation?” Daniel asks quietly. “I don’t want that bastard to win… I don’t want to die… Don’t want…”       Some time later, Daniel slowly comes to the empty bookshelf, leans on one of the shelves with his hand, and runs another hand through his tousled hair. He thinks about something for a few seconds before he thinks about Wainwright’s last words and frowns slightly, realizing that something definitely clicked in his mind when he heard them and was pushed to the bookshelf.       “Hm, your time has come…” Daniel whispers. “I’ve heard it before… And it seems like it was said by the one, whose voice is similar to the voice of that man…”       Daniel slowly looks around the whole room with rounded eyes and gives attention to the knife that Eugene lost. He comes to it, squats down, takes it, gets up, and looks at the knife better, wrapping it in his hands. This black knife can be closed and opened with just one movement and fits the palm of the hand. And a few seconds later, Daniel realizes that this thing is too familiar to him and feels that he has seen it before. Or he has already held it?! At some moment, the man draws something unclear in the air, as if he is trying to protect himself against a criminal, and realizes that he has done the same somehow. Then, the feeling of something familiar made him feel nothing special, but now Perkins understands that his hands get sharply sweaty and start shaking strongly. Every second, it’s getting harder for him to breathe, and his legs get kind of weak. And a little later, some thoughts come into his head. They are similar to the memories because the man believes that something like this has already happened…       

***

      What’s Daniel thinking about? About himself! Walking in a desert place in cold, gloomy weather. His mood is not good. As if he fought with someone. The obsession with negative emotions led the man to some unfamiliar places, which he reached on his own legs. Daniel is going where his eyes are looking and not thinking about where he can go, who he can meet, or how he can get out of here. He does not actually think of anything, as he slowly walks straight, putting his hands into the pockets of his gray jeans. And because he is only wearing a gray sweater with half-rolled sleeves, the man feels how goosebumps run over his body from the coldness.       Daniel is walking on the path near the auto road, on which nobody has driven yet. There are many high trees and rough roads on the right and left around. It’s very quiet and not very light here. There is no one. Even birds do not sing or make sounds. Being in this place somewhere in the deep evening or night would be horrifying because there are no streetlamps or anything that would light up this territory. And while he is busy with his thoughts, inclining his head slightly, someone suddenly runs to him, pushes him rudely, and starts to threaten him with a knife.       “Here you are, tinker!” the man’s familiar voice says.       Daniel turns around sharply and immediately recognizes this man as… Eugene Wainwright.       “Wainwright?” Daniel opens his eyes widely. “Eugene Wainwright?”       “Ha, I am!” Eugene sneers evilly. “You didn’t forget me, as I see.”       “What the fuck? What does it mean?”       “So, guy, did you naively think that I was servicing my sentence in the rotten prison?” Eugene asks rudely. “But I am not! I am free! And I am not going to pay for what I will never regret!”       “Fuck, you were supposed to be dying in prison!” Daniel clenches his hands into fists tightly. “What are you doing here?”       “Enjoying the freedom! The freedom that I lost because of the bastards, who you supported on the trial. And if you’re wondering how long I have been free, here’s my answer – a little more than two weeks. Or three weeks… I can’t say exactly. But be sure, nobody will catch me.”       “How did you the fuck run away from prison? HOW? It cannot be the truth! IT CANNOT!”       “There is nothing impossible, tough guy,” Eugene replies confidently, starting to wrap the knife in his hands. “It was super easy. I just wounded one brave dude, who wanted to do a heroic thing and put me in prison. Before, I examined the place where I was and planned everything well. I tried to run many times, but I constantly got caught and got injected with some shit that made me sleep all the time. But this time, I planned everything very well. So, here I am!”       “I can’t believe it…” Daniel shakes his head sharply. “One of the nastiest bastards I have ever known run away from prison.”       “Getting off me is not so easy. Moreover, there are so many things that I want to finish.”       “Do you still want to mock Natalia and rape her?” Daniel resents. “Ruin her life and make her wish to kill herself?”       “Oh, yeah!” Eugene smiles slyly. “I’ve been waiting for this moment! Every night, I dreamed of undressing that gorgeous blonde and caressing her nude body… Feeling her big boobs and tight ass… Of course, I was mad that this bitch dared to report me to the police and blame me for the rape attempt. But for her body, I am ready to forgive her for everything. The thoughts about her sucking my dick make me forget about my anger.”       “You will not get closer to her, Wainwright!” Daniel says confidently. “Edward will not let you do that! He will protect her until the very end!”       “I do not doubt it, but I do not care. The puppy will do nothing against me. It’s even funny for me to remember how he attacked me in the courtroom when I just squeezed his gal’s boob and slapped her ass. And how all of you tried to pull him away from me.”       “If he has to, he will beat your face again! Castrate you without any drugs!”       “That dyed blonde and her shabby puppy are gonna be shocked if they found out that I ran away from prison,” Eugene smiles slyly and widely. “I am going to make that gal mine, caress her for much longer, and fuck her. And revenge on her and MacClife for my lord. The honorable Mr. Michael MacClife, who has to serve his sentence. Just like all my friends.”       “Edward, Terrence, and their father will not let you be free!” Daniel says confidently. “They will take measures! MacClife, Jr., will not calm down until you are put in prison again or strangled by his own hands.”       “I wish someone killed all the members of the family that makes some sick freaks. The eldest of the MacClife brothers must be in a clinic and get cured as well as his psycho father, and the younger one must not have been born. He hurts everyone’s eyes with his pretty face. If his mother had gotten an abortion, one more freak wouldn’t have been born!”       “Don’t dare to insult my friends, Wainwright!” Daniel gets enraged, threatening Eugene with a finger. “Or you will regret it! I will not be silent when some bastard dares to insult one of my close people.”       “I’m not surprised. But I don’t care. You will do nothing to me.”       “I will! At first, I will tell the guys that you ran away from prison. They will immediately take measures, so none of them stand in your way. None of the girls get caught by you!”       “Ah, man…” Eugene sneers evilly, shaking his head. “Maybe you will tell, but it will give you nothing. I will be hiding where you will not find me. And I shall find a way to destroy those I cannot take.”       “Any bastard will pay the cost! And you will do it, too! Do not doubt!”       “I will not. I am going to have a lot of fun! And first, I shall make a surprise for MacClife and his sexy doll to get them shocked. Just showing up in front of them would be enough.” Eugene smiles slyly. “I think I said it wasn’t our last meeting when we were in court. But that puppy and his blonde girlfriend did not believe it! Just like his brother, you, and your blond pal. You all thought you got off Mr. MacClife, all our friends, and me. But no! You have not gotten rid of me!”       “Don’t even dare to get closer to Natalia and our girls!” Daniel demands rudely. “Or you will be dead! I swear!”       “What girls do you mean? Those, you and that blond freak are dating? M-m-m…” Eugene smiles slyly and rolls his eyes for a second. “Those cuties are gorgeous, as well! The one is red, the other is black-haired… Both are as short as Thumbelina! M-m-m… It would be easier to deal with them because they are skinny and light. They would not be able to fight with a man, who is much stronger and tougher.”       “Shut up…” Daniel hisses through his teeth, clenching his hands into fists with a heavy breath. “Just shut up…”       “MacClife, Jr.’s brother has got a fucking attractive and sexy fiancée. The one to be called one of the sexiest women on the planet… M-m-m… You, guys, know everything about gorgeous beauties! Young, incredible, skinny, attractive… AH! Those bitches would give me great pleasure. And caressing their nude bodies would be a paradise.”       “I SAID SHUT UP!” Daniel breaks into a cry, getting literally red from anger. “SHUT UP! DON’T DARE TO COME TO MY GIRLFRIEND! IF I SEE YOU NEAR HER, I WILL BREAK YOUR NECK WITH MY OWN HANDS!”       “Calm down, man!” Eugene smiles slyly. “Do not scream like the MacClife brothers. Don’t be like psyches.”       “Don’t make me enraged, bastard. Or you will regret it. Regret daring just to mention my girlfriend and expressing a wish to fuck her!”       “Don’t worry, those girls will be mine and suck me regularly anyway. And you and your pals will not stop me.”       “The guys and I will tear you if we know that at least one hair falls off the heads of our girls. I will not leave it unnoticed! KIDDING WITH ME MAY BE BAD!”       “Just like when you four were protecting your sexy gals so hard?” Eugene says with a wide smile and crosses his arms over his chest, biting his lip slightly. “When you all wanted to beat me… When it was time to call doctors from a mental hospital for MacClife, Jr.”       “YOU must be there!” Daniel shouts. “Not Edward, Terrence, their father, or someone else! They are fine, but you are sick! A sick bastard that is obsessed with women and loves giving them pain!”       “You forgot to mention the daddy of that stupid blonde, who wanted to beat me along with that puppy.”       “Yeah, are you going to kill him, too? Mr. Rochester would not also leave you alone if you dared to come to his daughter again! For her, he would tear anyone apart!”       “I shall deal with him later if he or her mother says something. Now I care about you, the MacClife brothers, and your blond pal. I don’t know what his name is, but I give a fuck. Just a blond freak!”       “Said by the smelly freak!” Daniel snaps. “When did you brush your teeth and change your clothes the last time? Homeless people smell better than you! In the courtroom, everyone almost choked because YOU were brought there! They should’ve told everybody to put on gas masks because we could’ve died from that smell.”       “You snap well. You’ve got the same long tongue as the puppy, MacClife. Either you have always been the one, or you’ve got a good teacher.”       “You can also be good teachers! And teach you good manners and GOOD behavior toward girls! Since you were not taught this in childhood, we will fix it quickly.”       “Your four only want to show off! You pretend to be nobody the hell knows what! The blond wants to prove that he is not harmless and could show his teeth. MacClife, Jr., just pretends to be a hero, even if he is actually a cowardly mamma’s boy. And his older brother is a sick, hysterical girl, who waves her hands for anything and screams like crazy. I’m surprised that he has not been taken to a mental hospital! I guess fame and money decide many things.”       “Shut up, scoundrel!” Daniel shouts loudly and irritably. “Don’t dare to insult my friends! I know them much better than you. MUCH BETTER. Those guys CAN behave well toward girls and were well-educated by their parents.”       “They behave like weak men! Pathetic, cowardly, weak people. And the MacClifes are actually mentally sick. Just like their daddy.”       “Mr. MacClife is a very good and fair man! Unlike his brother, who could do any dirty trick to get what he wants. Who went crazy with a wish to take revenge on that man! Went crazy with a lot of money. Sometimes money can be a strong poison. When it ends up in someone’s hands, it starts to poison them inside very fast until they lose their mind and become enslaved by it.”       “Michael always said that kind people would not survive in this world. If you want to get something, you have to step on others. And I absolutely agree with him. And I will do my best to get what I want.”       “You don’t have to betray and frame people to reach your goals…”       “Oh, come on, stop…” Eugene moans tiredly. “That shabby puppy MacClife said the same and could never reach anything. If not for his brother, whom he almost killed, the yobbo would have lived nobody the fuck knows where in poverty. And that gal would have never fallen in love with him. Because that man is not perspective and will never become rich and successful.”       “You will never understand why Natalia loves Edward, and why he loves her. I think you’ve never heard the word ‘love’. In your opinion, girls are born for someone to get their dicks into them against their wish, not for love.”       “I do adore getting into girls!” Eugene says confidently with a sly smile. “Though, not everyone, who makes me get excited, is sweet and gentle. However, it’s fixable. I need to put them to sleep, tie them up, or inject one magical thing into them, so they make any of my caprices come true. Never go against me. Look into the distance or sleep with a magical sleep.”       “Magical thing?” Daniel frowns slightly. “So, you give them drugs? Don’t you?”       “You are not stupid, Perkins!” Eugene replies with a sneer. “You understand everything! It’s clear that you know well what happens if you take drugs and hang out with bad people!”       “What?” Daniel opens his mouth. “How do you know my last name?”       “I know a lot about you. I know that the story of drugs is familiar to you like nothing yet because you had a deal with your sister, who was a drug addict.”       “My sister?”       “Yes,” Eugene pronounces quietly with a sly smile. “Maybe, the puppy MacClife or his brother never said it. But your younger sissy, Cassidy Perkins, did mention you.”       “Cassidy?” Daniel gets a little white and starts to breathe heavily, understanding that his heart starts beating fast from excitement. “How do you know my sister?”       “Oh… Cassidy had been buying drugs from the person, who knew me, and taking them. At first, it was such light drugs like marijuana, but then she paid attention to something harder like cocaine… And a little later, I met the baby personally, and she immediately made me think of the wildest wishes. Cassidy was such a baby… Young, innocent, and so unhappy… I’m not surprised that she decided to start taking drugs. The gal could not accept the death of her parents…”       “So, did you put her on that shit?”       “She was paying money, and I started to give her drugs personally. But later, her money was gone, and I told her to pay the cost. Cassidy asked me to wait for a long time, and I agreed. How I could refuse such a young and beautiful girl! But she never paid a thing. So, as I madly wanted her, I kindly agreed to forget about the debt if she had become my slave. Cassidy refused at first, but that baby eventually became mine. She had no choice.”       “Asshole…” Daniel shakes his head with widely open eyes and clenches his hands into fists. “Scoundrel…”       “But that’s the truth, Perkins,” Eugene shrugs. “Sometimes I had to pay for drugs with my money because they told me to pay. But for Cassidy, I agreed to pay her debt. I had to rob and steal to get money and something to sell to someone. But knowing that the baby would suck me enough and spread her legs for me, I was ready to forgive and forget everything.”       “So, not only did you drug her, but also rape her?”       “It happened according to her agreement.”       “I doubt it. You asked her about the fuck nothing.”       “Who cares! I’ve fucked her! Many times!”       “And how did you know she had a brother?”       “Very easy. I saw a photo of you, but you were a little kid in it. And when the trial of me, the honorable Michael MacClife, and our friends was happening, you were in the courtroom and supporting your pals. I saw you and thought that you were similar to someone. I could not understand who for a long time. But later, I realized that you were the image of the older brother of Cassidy, whom she told me much about. Being sober and on high.”       “Yeah, bastard…” Daniel hisses with evil in his eyes, breathing like a furious bull and clenching his hands into fists so tightly that his knuckles get white. “As it turned out, you have done much more than we thought. You took some shit, literally raped the young girl, and mocked the one, who was a little baby.”       “My baby still keeps pleasing me,” Eugene says with a sly smile. “I mean, I keep caressing her young body. She is freaking bad at a blowjob, but your sister can spread her legs well. When she’s unconscious.”       “What?” Daniel opens his eyes widely. “Still?”       “When I ran away from prison, I found Cassidy quickly and hid her where I am hiding now. When I got arrested, she ran away and hid somewhere. For a while. I knew that there was only one place where she could go. So, I went there, found her, put her to sleep, and took her to my place.”       “WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?” Daniel shouts loudly. “My sister is dead! She died many years ago!”       “Are you sure about it?”       “The police were searching for her for a long time, but eventually recognized Cassidy as missing. Dead! I did not find my sister! Because she died!”       “Oh, no, she did not die…” Eugene shakes his head. “Cassidy is alive. But she feels so bad that she has little time. Soon, she will really end up at a cemetery.”       Daniel rounds his eyes and says nothing for two seconds, becoming speechless after what he heard.       “No…” Daniel shakes his head. “No, it can’t be the truth… Cassidy is dead! I’ve considered her dead for many years. I… I barely made myself accept it.”       “Your little sissy is alive, Perkins, alive,” Eugene replies confidently. “And she still remembers you. She wants to find you, but she doesn’t know where. I mean, she is not sure if you are living in the house that your parents gave you before their death. She is afraid to go there. Though, I do know you are living there. Not alone. With your sweet dolly.”       “Where is she? Where did you hide Cassidy?” Daniel tightly grabs Eugene by the collar, setting his cold look on him. “ANSWER, WAINWRIGHT! WHERE IS MY SISTER? WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?”       “Calm down, boy, you will never find her,” Eugene says confidently. “I will not give you Cassidy. She will always be mine.”       “Don’t make me wild, bastard!” Daniel hisses through his teeth with inflated nostrils. “Or I shall do something worse than Edward. Who I understand much more now.”       “Do what you want, but your sister will not get off me. I will give her to nobody. Even to her own brother. Who did not watch his baby and did not keep the promise that he gave his mother when she was dying. Cassidy told me everything. Told me about you being a horrible brother, who gave a fuck about her.”       “Not truth! After our parents’ death, I took care of Cassidy and would’ve grown her up if she hadn’t run away from home.”       “Yeah! But you didn’t have money to cure her. So, your sister was doomed to suffer and die.”       “What do you want?” Daniel sharply grabs Eugene by the collar with both hands and sets his furious look at him. “What do you what to get to set her free? Tell me what I must do!”       “Well…” Eugene replies thoughtfully, putting his finger on his lip. “As I found her brother, who got money, you can pay me for the drugs that she has bought if you want it. But the cost is very high… You would hardly find it. But if you wish to pay Cassidy’s debts, you can borrow money from your pals and their girls. You’d get into debt, but pay the duty of your sister.”       “CALL THE EXACT AMOUNT, SCOUNDREL!” Daniel shouts. “I will pay you ANY money, so choke and set Cassidy FREE.”       “I believe you are a little stupid, Perkins. I said you could pay IF YOU WANTED. But I said nothing about your sister’s freedom. Even if you fork out and pay the required amount, Cassidy will be mine anyway. I shall not let go of the one, who gets me excited. While I don’t have a chance to fuck MacClife’s blonde, your sis will have to give me her ass. And when I find Natalia and hide her in my hideaway, Cassidy will probably die by that moment.”       “SHE IS ONLY NINETEEN, BASTARD!” Daniel resents. “My sister disappeared when she was underage! You were the fuck raping the little girl, who was not eighteen?”       “Yeah, it’s been many years since I met her. At first, she was a sweet baby, but now she has become a girl. Of course, she looks a little older because of drugs, but I do know that she would be a gorgeous flower without it.”       “You are a fucking pedophile! YOU MUST HAVE THERAPY! DREAMING OF FUCKING AN ADULT GIRL IS NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU! YOU DECIDED TO DO THIS TO CHILDREN!”       “No, I’m not interested in children. But I really like teenage girls. Moreover, most of them agree to jump in bed with any man. Someone gets pregnant and becomes a mother when she is a child.”       “What do you mean, asshole?” Daniel gets enraged. “Did you make her PREGNANT?”       “No, I don’t need those little parasites. I’ve never loved those screaming kids. I barely got out of my home, where there were five children, including me! FIVE! And as the eldest one, I was made to wipe the ass of those little freaks. And they always screamed at the whole neighborhood and wanted something. I got fucking sick of it and decided to live separately. Of course, I got the title of the ‘thankless egoist, who MUST HAVE taken care of his brothers and sisters’. But I gave a fuck! I took my stuff, left Salt Lake City, and went to New York, so they never found me. And I swore that I would never have children. NEVER! So, when I fuck someone, I never forget to use condoms.”       “I would not be surprised if Cassidy and Natalia were not the only victims of yours.”       “They’re not victims, they give me pleasure. Moreover, I don’t fuck them immediately. At first, I undress these cuties and caress their naked bodies for a very long time. My father never asked my mother whether she wanted sex. He just threw her on the bed and did his business. He could caress her a little in a good mood and take her by force in a bad one. I heard everything well because they never cared about having many children at home. And I am going to say more, I even saw them having fun when I was a child.”       “Now it’s clear when it all started. Your father was a bastard and made his sonny the same.”       “I see nothing bad about it. And I’ve never cared about whether girls wanted to fuck me. I quickly found a way to make them agree on everything.”       “Don’t think that I will leave it unnoticed. I shall personally report your crime. For raping someone not to be in a legal age you will give you a great term. But knowing how much you have done, you must get a life sentence. Just like Michael did.”       “You should prove it first. Prove that I rape your sister. The cops would not believe your words and would ask for proof. And Cassidy will tell you nothing because she will be under my view and run nowhere.”       “Don’t worry, I shall prove it! Do my best for you to get a few more years in prison! So, Natalia doesn’t have to survive what is happening to Cassidy!”       “That blonde chicken was just madly lucky that I just undressed her, felt her boobs and ass, and got my hand underneath her knickers.” Eugene smiles slyly. “But it’s okay, I shall find her someday! When the yapping puppy or someone else is not with her, I will finally make her mine. Not only her but also all the cuties of your pals. Including your short beauty.”       “SHUT UP!” Daniel slaps Eugene in the face two times as strongly as possible. “Don’t dare to come to my girlfriend! DO NOT EVEN DARE TO THINK OF HER! You have already ruined my sister’s life! I will not let you do anything to my girlfriend!”       “Just because you and your pals may beat me, I will attack your girls when they are alone in a desert place, without your protection,” Eugene says confidently. “None of you will do nothing to me in this case. And I will be able to subdue those cuties to me.”       “None of our girls will walk alone while you are free!” Daniel says irritably. “NOBODY! I SHALL THROW YOU AGAINST THE WALL IF YOU DARE TO COME TO MY GIRLFRIEND!”       “Dead people can do nothing, Perkins. They are lying in the ground at a cemetery and getting rotten.”       “I swear I will find my sister and save her from you. And do my best to protect my girlfriend. YOU WILL NOT HARM HER, BASTARD!” Daniel clenches his hand into a fist and hits Eugene in the stomach, keeping his head proudly raised when watching the criminal shouting loudly and doubling over with pain. “Soon, YOU will be rotting in jail! The police will catch you early or late and bring you back where you belong!”       “NEVER!” Eugene screams at the top of his lungs, breathing like a furious bull. “You and your pals will die soon! I SHALL DESTROY YOU!”       “Don’t doubt me, I will go to the police and blame you for raping my underage sister. You, bastard, will pay for everything you’ve done to her!”       “Your threats don’t scare me. It will not stop me from dreaming of dealing with you and your gang of bastards.”       “As if I am afraid of you!”       “And yeah…” Eugene smiles slyly and gets sharply straight. “This place is very good… To kill you first.”       Eugene takes a black jackknife from the inside pocket of his coat and puts it against Daniel’s throat, as he goes toward him, while he steps back with rounded eyes and a heavy breath.       “It is easy for me to stab you here and now,” Eugene says in a low, rude voice. “Nobody would find you because nobody walks here. So, as you came here with a wish to walk and breathe in the air, it’s very good to me.”       “Erm, listen, let’s agree without it,” Daniel pronounces in a little shaking voice, raising his hands up. “Don’t do this…”       “So, coward, you peed your pants? You got sharply white! You are afraid to die. You don’t want me to cut your throat.”       “I will give you any money, so you leave me, my sister, the men, and the girls alone. If you want, we will not even report you to the police. But don’t hurt anyone…”       “Ha, don’t even try to agree with me,” Eugene sneers contemptuously. “You messed up with the wrong man!”       “Don’t do stupid things, Wainwright!” Daniel begs in a high from excitement voice. “We can agree!”       “Scared, Perkins, scared… I thought you were really as tough and sassy as it seems. But you are the same coward as MacClife, Jr., Or, maybe, even a greater coward.”       “Just let my sister go and stop torturing her. This is the only thing I ask you about. And don’t dare to look for Natalia and my friends’ girls.”       “Cassidy is mine! And she will always be, no matter how much you don’t like it. She will always be my slave.”       “I shall find a way to rescue her!”       “Find, man, find. But you will get nothing.”       “How much I hate you, scumbag…” Daniel hisses through his teeth, clenching his hands into fists tightly. “Fuck… If I had known you destroyed Cassidy, I would have done my best to protect her from you. I would’ve testified on the court against you and told them how you mocked my sister with pleasure.”       “You can only dream about it.”       “Now I will be supporting Edward’s wish to deal with you much more. He will take revenge for Natalia, and I will take revenge for Cassidy.”       “So, you have a chance,” Eugene shrugs. “Though, I doubt that you will become a winner in this fight. Because NOBODY CAN TAKE A VICTORY UNDER EUGENE WAINWRIGHT!”       Eugene gives a strong, unexpected hit to Daniel's jaw. The man cannot keep his balance and falls to his knees, feeling the taste of blood in his mouth. He does not have time to come to himself and catch a breath because Wainwright wants to stab his spine with the jackknife. But Perkins avoids the hit in time, and the opponent’s knife gets into the ground. Eugene quickly gets it out of the ground, throws it aside, and hits Daniel on the collarbone with a heavy breath. The man falls to the ground and cannot do anything for two seconds. But it’s enough for Wainwright to attack his opponent, getting up over him and starting to beat on his head, face, nose, chest, and jaw. However, Daniel does not get confused and protects himself as hard as he can, closing his face and head and giving the criminal painful hits on all parts of his body with both hands, legs, elbows, and fists. He already has blood on his face and a nosebleed, and his eyes are watering strongly after the hit on his nose with a fist. A burning pain gets into all the parts of his body after a strong fist smashes against something.       Nevertheless, Daniel does not give up and fights as cruelly as possible as if his life depends on it. At some moment, Perkins takes revenge on Wainwright and gets on top of him, starting to beat him much stronger on everything he sees. And Eugene just gets some blood under his nose that flows out of it slowly and tolerates strong hits thanks to a very high pain threshold.       “Ha, did you think you’d defeat me?” Daniel smirks evilly and gives Eugene a hit on the temple. “No! I shall let nobody mock me!”       Daniel glances at Eugene’s jackknife placed on the ground not far from him, takes it, and starts to threaten his opponent with it, putting the cold gun to Wainwright’s throat.       “I’m so sorry that Edward is not here,” Daniel says with a sly smile. “I’m sure that he would be happy to watch you die. And add a little bit from himself. So, you suffer as well as all the girls that you have mocked.”       “You are too self-confident, bastard!” Eugene hisses with evil in his eyes. “Don’t dare to threaten that you will kill me. You cannot do it. You are as cowardly as that puppy, MacClife. Who has not killed his brother, the dyed blonde, and even himself. But your blond pal did it. He tried to die. And MacClife can only bark and hide behind his mommy’s skirt.”       “Come on!” Daniel puts the knife tighter to Eugene’s throat. “Do not underestimate people. And repeat what some people say like a parrot. You don’t know what Edward could do. And what I can do when a certain scumbag gets me enraged.”       “What can you do?” Eugene smirks contemptuously. “You become as wild as MacClife, Sr., or his father?”       “Don’t dare to insult my friends, bastard, or you will regret it.”       “No, YOU will regret it. Thinking that you would be STRONGER THAN ME AND ABLE TO TAKE A VICTORY OVER EUGENE WAINWRIGHT.”       Eugene gives Daniel a strong hit in the jaw, and the brunet raises the knife above the criminal’s chest and wants to stab it in anger. But Wainwright grabs the gun with both hands and holds it for a few seconds before he throws it aside. Then he strongly smashes his fist against his yawl, making Perkins fall to the ground immediately and wince from the strong pain. Eugene grabs Daniel by the collar, hits the back of his head against the ground several times, and squeezes his throat tightly with both hands, while the man feels that he cannot breathe and cravenly tries to get some air and get out of the criminal’s tight grip.       “Ah, how much I love to see helpless people and watch them suffer,” Eugene confesses with a sly smile. “How they beg for help… The things I cannot tolerate are some tender things, romantic things, and everything about love. Ugh! IT IRRITATES ME! TO DEATH!”       Daniel would say something, but he cannot do it because he lacks air and beats Eugene on his arms in the hope of getting out of his grip.       “I hate stories with a happy end,” Eugene says with evil. “I HATE!”       Eugene squeezes Daniel’s throat for a few seconds before he reaches his hand for his knife, takes it, and sharply runs the sharp blaze over the palm of the man’s hand. Perkins screams loudly from a wild pain and winces strongly, while blood starts bleeding out of it.       “FUCK!” Daniel screams at the top of his lungs. “IT HURTS!”       “So, you dislike it?” Eugene sneers evilly. “You want more?”       Eugene takes another cut on Daniel’s hand, making him wreck his voice as if he is tortured by the most horrible things.       “STOP IT!” Daniel screams. “I FEEL PAIN!”       “Listen, guy, what if I try to make your death look like a self-murder?” Eugene suggests thoughtfully and puts the jackknife against Daniel’s throat. “So, everyone believes that you don’t want to live anymore.”       “Not this time, scoundrel!” Daniel hisses through his teeth. “I will not GIVE UP!”       Daniel sharply sets free out of Eugene’s grip, slaps him in the yawl two times, gets up, and tries to run away. But Wainwright gets up immediately, runs after him, and hits him on the spine with a leg. The man loses his vigilance and grits his teeth due to the pain in his body. Then Perkins gets a hit in the stomach and barely avoids getting the jackknife into his chest. A few seconds later, Eugene tries to strangle Daniel, who gets a little tired, again, grabbing him by the throat with both hands and making him suffer from a lack of air.       “Die, asshole, DIE!” Eugene hisses through his teeth, having the pleasure of watching Daniel suffer. “Be the first one I will kill!”       Wainwright strangles Daniel for a few seconds before he moves his eyes aside and sees a black, metallic car that is coming here at a very high speed from afar. Seeing it, Wainwright smiles widely as if he came up with something, moves his wild look to Perkins coughing loudly, and grabs him by the throat sharply.       “Say farewell to your life, Daniel Christopher Perkins,” Eugene hisses with an evil smile. “Your time has come. NOW!”       When the car comes close enough, Eugene pushes Daniel on the road with a wild, hysterical laugh. The automobile starts to slow down with a squeak only when the confused Perkins is two meters away from it. He falls on the front of the auto, strongly hits the back of his head against the glass, and leaves a noticeable crack on it under his weight. The car carries the man in the front a few more meters and then stops sharply. Then Daniel falls to the ground, hitting his forehead against the asphalt, and rolls onto his back. His eyes close, and he falls into the infinite darkness, and his body covered with bruises becomes soft and motionless. While bright red blood appears on his face, head, and one of the plates of his hand and stands out against the very white skin.       

***

      Daniel shouts quietly in surprise, sharply letting the black jackknife go, setting his dumbfounded eyes into the distance, breathing heavily enough, and getting much more nervous than before. The man tries to understand what it was for a few seconds, feeling like he got a hit on the head with something heavy and did not lose consciousness, but vice versa, woke up from a trance.       “Wainwright!” Daniel exclaims loudly, while his widely open eyes run from one side to another. “Fuck… Wainwright…”       Daniel moves his dumbfounded eyes to the knife lying on the floor.       “I think I know what happened to me… I know… Wainwright pushed me… And I was hit by a car…”       The more time is gone, the clearer Daniel’s mind is getting. And moreover, he is even getting some memories back.       “Fuck, that bastard ran away from prison…” Daniel says in a shaking voice. “A long time ago… He… He’s keeping Cassidy here… Who…”       Daniel sharply grabs his hair with a quiet cry, opening his eyes full of horror wider.       “Damn, my sister is alive…” Daniel whispers and shakes his head. “Alive… Cassidy didn’t die, as I thought all this time… My sister is alive and… She’s here?! That asshole’s been holding her at this house!”       Daniel understands it’s heavier for him to breathe, and his muscles start literally shaking from a strong tension.       “Wainwright was mocking her… Raping her and giving her drugs. She is kind of paying her debts…” Daniel swallows nervously, looking around the room with dumbfounded eyes. “He wanted to drug not only Cassidy, but also…”       Daniel shakes strongly as if he got electroshock, starting to realize that he remembers what happened to him, but also who his friends and girlfriend are.       “He threatened all the girls of the men… Natalia, Raquelle, Helene, Anna… He wanted to find them and subdue them with drugs! To mock them! Mock much worse than he did it to Natalia.” Daniel shakes his head. “And in order for nobody to stop him, he decided to destroy Edward, Terrence, Peter, and me… He threatened to destroy us… And…”       Daniel opens his eyes widely and glances at the locked door.       “Oh, fuck, lads!” Daniel pronounces a little louder. “They’re here! They must be somewhere here! Wainwright is one hundred percent gonna kill them! He said he locked them! Oh, fuck…”       Daniel putting his hand on his forehead exhales sharply and looks around the room again.       “Fuck, I think I’m locked, too… Damn! Damn! Damn!”       Daniel walks nervously in circles in the whole room for a few seconds before he sharply stops and shakes after he realizes that he got serious problems with his friends.       “Oh, no!” Daniel grabs his hair sharply. “I… I fought with the guys! I… Blamed them for the lie and told them many bad things! I almost killed the men and openly wished them to die!”       Daniel closes his mouth with both hands and shakes his head, thinking of everything he told his friends, who decided to turn their backs on him.       “Fuck, what did I do?” Daniel swears in a shaking voice. “I messed up everything with my own hands… I ruined our friendship! I made them hate me! No… No, no, no! It can’t be the truth… I would never do that… I didn’t want it! I did not!”       But no matter how much Daniel does not want to believe it, he has to admit that it’s the truth, thinking of his fight with the men that happened before they went after Eugene. Standing in the middle of the room, the man looks around with widely open eyes full of horror, feeling such a great shame that he has never felt before.       “Damn, I messed up everything… Because of my stupidity and naivety… Because I believed that they were liars…”       Daniel slowly comes to the locked door and sharply hits it with a fist, still breathing heavily and understanding that something is pressing on his chest.       “Fuck! Curse! Shit! Shit! FUCK!”       With these words, Daniel sharply throws some things off the table with one movement. Then, he walks in circles nervously for a few seconds, grabbing his hair tightly. Later, he comes to the locked door, leans on it with his back, slides down powerlessly, and presses his knees to his chest.       “Fuck, I’m an idiot…” Daniel swears at himself. “Brainless asshole… How could I mess it up? How could do this to my friends? Damn… They won’t forgive me… I lost them… Especially, the men. Who got much more kicks. Who I literally beat, insulted, humiliated, and blamed for everything… I even said they organized the attack on me… That they wanted to get rid of me… Fuck… Fuck!”       Daniel moans quietly and runs his hands over his face.       “Why didn’t I listen to them? Why? Fuck! Why am I such a fucking idiot? Fuck, I wanna hang myself… I wanna die from shame… It’s insane… Insane!”       Daniel buries his nose in his knees, which he is pressing to his chest, and embraces them with both arms, feeling that his eyes are getting wet quickly.       “Fuck, I wish I remembered nothing…” Daniel pronounces in a shaking voice. “I wish I didn’t understand why my friends thought I was a scumbag. I wish I never knew I lost my close people forever.”       Daniel slowly runs his hands over the top of his head to the back of his neck.       “What a bastard I am… Just a bastard… I messed up everything! Ruined everything! Made everybody hate me! Fuck! Why didn’t I believe them? Why? Why did I the fuck listen to the liar, Blanca? That bitch said what I was literally ready to kill the guys. Because of her, I turned their backs on me. Because of her! Fuck! Fuck! FUCK!”       Daniel pulls his hair out strongly, still sitting on the floor with his knees pressed to himself, shaking slightly from excitement, and leaning on the closed door with his back. He does not care that his face is covered with blood and little scars, and he feels strong pain in his body. He does not care about the ripped clothes and disheveled hair. He just wants to burn with shame. From the realization that he stayed alone. Absolutely alone. Instantly. Maybe, forever. At some moment, Daniel slowly moves his dead eyes to the jackknife lying on the floor. He swallows up nervously, reaches it, takes it, leans on the door with his back again, and looks at it from all sides, opening it and closing it several times.       “Fuck, I’m locked in this room, the lads are somewhere here, and Wainwright wanna kill all of us,” Daniel says with horror in widely open eyes. “I don’t think he’s lying about burning this house down. We’ll die if we stay here. But I don’t want that asshole to keep living, mocking Cassidy, and doing the same to Natalia, Raquelle, Anna, and Helene. I don’t want… It must not happen.”       Daniel gets a little straight, glances at the door handle, looks at this for two seconds, and moves his eyes around the whole room again.       “I’ve gotta get out of here,” Daniel says confidently, leans on the floor with both hands, and starts to breathe heavily. “In any way. I must find the lads and my sister. We mustn’t let that bastard win… We must not. That scumbag must pay for what he did.”       Daniel sits on the floor for two seconds, gets up with the knife in his hands, looks around quickly, and tries to open the door again.       “Fuck!” Daniel swears and sharply hits the door with a hand. “How do I get outta here? How? There must be something that would help me! I can’t stay here and wait for that bastard to kill me!”       Daniel sharply holds a hand over his hair and exhales slowly.       “Think, Daniel, think…” Daniel pronounces with a heavy breath. “If you have a chance not to be a motherfucker again, do your best to help your friends. Even if you lost them.”       Two seconds later, Daniel decides to examine the room better and try to find something that would help him get out of here. He is breathing heavily, as he throws everything off the shelves and closets with his shaking hands and gets through the mess. But some time later, Perkins finds something heavy that looks like a sledgehammer in the worthless trash.       “It must help,” Daniel says thoughtfully, squatting down and looking at the sledgehammer. “At least, I hope so… Do I try to break the door with it? If I get out, I can do it this way. Because there’s no window here.”       Daniel gets up sharply, comes to the door, looks at it closely from up to down, stands against the exit two or three steps back from it, and sharply hits the door a little lower than the door handle with a loud shout two seconds later. The man sees that it bends slightly and hits it two more times, understanding that he might easily break this old, weak door if he tried hard. Thus, Perkins hits the door with the sledgehammer several times with a loud growl. He does it so cruelly as if this is his biggest enemy. At some moment the man hits the bent door with a leg in anger, making it bend more and more, and hits it with the sludge several times before it finally opens. Daniel throws the sledgehammer aside, takes the knife, puts it on the inside of his jacket, runs away from the room, looks at all sides quickly, and eventually decides to run on the left.       

***

      Some time before Daniel got his memories back, Edward starts to come to himself slowly after being cruelly beaten by Eugene. He would have continued to fight with him, but the strong hit on the head made him lose orientation and the ability to move for a while. Now MacClife, Jr., can move his whole body, but he does it slowly. He carefully sits up, leans on the tacky wall with his back, and looks around with dead eyes, moaning quietly from the pain in the back of his head, raising his head slightly and trying to breathe as deeply as possible.       There is a lot of blood and many bruises and abrasions on his face. His hair is strongly tousled, and he feels a hellish pain all over his body that he bravely tolerates thanks to a high enough pain threshold. The clothes also suffered a lot during the fight with Eugene: he can obviously throw off his old, shabby blue denim jacket that he has worn for a bigger part of his life because it’s absolutely torn, a dark blue t-shirt did not remain the same, his black shoes are stained with dirt, and his light blue jeans are torn on his knees, while the edges of them are dirty.       “Oh, I look like homeless…” Edward moans quietly one or two minutes later. “My clothes are ripped… My jeans and shoes are dirty… Damn… And my head hurts…”       Edward winces strongly, putting his hand on his forehead, raising his head up, and leaning on the wall with the back of his head, as he keeps his leg bent at the knee.       “Fuck…” Edward pronounces quietly. “Well, it doesn’t matter…”       Edward looks at the locked door and frowns slightly.       “Fuck, that bastard locked me. Not this!”       Bracing himself silently, Edward gets up slowly, reaches the door, and tries to open it, pulling it on himself and pushing it away.       “Shit, locked!” Edward exclaims and shakes his head, starting to breathe heavily. “Damn! Fuck! Fuck! No! I can’t let that sick bastard take a victory! No! It’s not fair! NOT FAIR!”       Edward hits the door with both hands several times and leans on it with his forehead, getting more nervous because he can do nothing to save himself and help Cassidy.       “Oh, I hope the lads got out of here…” Edward expresses hope. “I don’t want them to suffer. I don’t want…”       Edward looks at the door with his dead eyes, leaning on it with an elbow and putting his hand on it.       “I prefer suffering for a reason than letting them put themselves in danger. I can’t let them get involved in this case. If that scumbag wants it, he can deal with me. If he touches them with a finger, I shall tear him apart.”       Edward leans on the door with his forehead again for two seconds, slowly turns his side on it and then his back, runs his hands through his hair, and slides down sharply, bending his legs at his knees and burying his face in them, while his eyes get wet from tears.       “I’m so sorry, guys…” Edward pronounces in a shaking voice full of despair. “Forgive me for everything. Forgive me if something was wrong… I’m here for a reason… If you ran away from here, please, never go back here. Never. You will meet your death here… You must live. You must… I don’t want you to die…”       Because of the realization of the hopelessness of the situation, Edward gives up more and more. He no longer has hope for a miracle and an expected salvation. He is all alone. And he is afraid. Not, not to be alone. To die. To die and leave those he loves. To know that someone would be crying and grieving if they knew about his death. Thinking about it, the man feels how painfully his heart squeezes. How something is pressing on his chest and does not let him breathe. How his eyes get wet from tears that he barely holds down. MacClife, Jr., closes his face with both hands and pulls his hair painfully with his fingers, letting his emotions go out at some moment and letting himself shed a tear, while nobody sees it.       “Damn, I can’t really do this alone,” Edward says in a low, quiet voice. “Yes, I should’ve made the lads go… But… It’d be easier for me to fight with that sick bastard.”       Edward glances at his hands, which are shaking strongly from tension.       “I need someone’s help…” Edward sniffs quietly, feeling like a little, unprotected baby that got lost among unfamiliar people. “I don’t want to die… Fuck… I don’t wanna give up! I’m scared… Afraid to be here alone… I want someone to be with me…”       Edward pulls his hair out and looks at the floor for a few seconds, breathing heavily enough. And then he feels something weird in his chest. No, not pain or a feeling of lack of air. It’s something nice and warm. Giving hope, faith, and energy… The man needs some time to realize that a gilt necklace of Natalia is put in the inside pocket of his denim jacket, which is placed on his chest. He puts a hand to it and takes the little dirty necklace with the pendant in the form of the letter “N.” Edward looks at this for a few seconds, while it’s lying on the palm of his hand stained with blood, wraps it in his hands and runs his fingers over it. He realizes that Natalia was kind of right when she said that this thing made her some warm and nice feelings and made her believe in the best. The man starts to feel all the same…       This thing – the thoughts about its owner, to be clear – makes Edward sure that he must not give up. He gets ashamed for daring to doubt himself briefly. Because this girl finds him brave, caring, and fearless. Edward is her hero! But a hero does not have the right to lose. He must fight while he stands on his feet. Maybe, this is just an autosuggestion, but the thoughts about Natalia make MacClife, Jr., understand that he cannot even think about a loss while he has a reason to live and fight for something.       “No, I can’t…” Edward pronounces in a quiet voice and shakes his head. “I can’t… I can’t be defeated. For Natalia. I can’t make her think that I’m a coward. I have no right. I’m a hero to her. A brave, confident, fearless, and strong man. I promised that I would be strong for her. And I will…”       Edward takes the pendant in the form of the letter “N”, which shines with a beautiful gloss even in the dark room in the gloomy weather when he turns it on other sides.       “I won’t give up, Natalia, never,” Edward promises with a slight smile. “I swear on my life… I shall do my best to get out of here and end this story. Wainwright won’t reach you… Any problem has a solution, I haven’t lost. Because I’m still alive. I can stand on my feet. I’ve gotta fight as if my life depends on it. My cowardice can’t be excused.”       Edward sniffs, pumps a lot of air into his lungs, and exhales slowly, not moving his eyes off Natalia’s necklace.       “It’s not only for you, sweetheart,” Edward says with a heavy breath, as he squeezes the necklace in his hands tightly. “It’s also for those, who are close to me… I love all of these people. They are the dearest things I have. I may lose everything and have only my underwear. But I can’t lose my family, friends, and beloved girl. And I have a band. The band that I can’t betray. The guys believe in me, and I must meet their expectations. Prove that they gave me a chance to do what I love for a reason. All of that is what I must fight for. I must stop Wainwright. And save Cassidy. That poor girl has suffered much more than Natalia. Who would experience the same things if I didn’t protect her.”       Edward breathing heavily closes his eyes for two seconds and puts Natalia’s necklace to his chest, while tears slowly roll down his cheeks.       “Brace yourself, Edward, you can do this,” Edward orders confidently. “Just think of the people, who are close to you. Think of those, for who you are not a worthless puppy but a brave, confident hero.”       Edward exhales sharply, puts the necklace in the inside pocket, and gets up quickly. He looks around for a few seconds, trying to find a way to get out of here. And the first thing he comes up with is trying to break the door with a leg. The man hits the door handle with a leg strongly. But a few attempts do not give MacClife anything good.       “Fuck, it’s a too tough door, and it opens by pulling on me…” Edward says irritably, breathing a little heavily. “It seems like I can’t break it… I’ve gotta find another way out…”       Edward looks around and later stops his eyes on very old curtains that cover a part of the window closed with a bookshelf that he did not notice before. The man immediately runs to it, pushes it strongly, strikes it down alongside everything that is lying on it, and sees a medium-sized window.       “Yes!” Edward smiles slightly. “The window! I can get out through this!”       Edward stops his eyes on a big vase covered with dust and dirt. The man gets through the mess, takes it, and throws it on the window with squinted eyes, being at a more or less safe distance. The glass gets immediately crushed, and many pieces fall on different sides as well as the vase’s pieces. Not wasting time, Edward skillfully climbs on the table that he puts under the window frame and carefully gets through the window, trying not to hurt his hands with pieces of the frame. Then he jumps out, squats down, gets up, and looks at himself to make sure that he does not have cuts on his hands.       “I’ve gotta tell Mr. Johnson everything,” Edward says quietly, confidently. “Even if the lads tried to contact him, I will personally let him know that I’m fine.”       Edward runs fast to the entry of the house, which is closed with old furniture and some big and heavy things, not knowing Peter, Terrence, and Daniel are still locked here and trying to get out. He finds out that the gate is also locked with something when he tries to push them off himself and meets resistance. That’s why the man runs to the stoned fence, climbs up on it, making himself give a damn about any weakness in his body, and jumps down on the other side. Then he runs some distance straightly, stops sharply, and looks around. After listening to everything closely, Edward believes that he hears the sounds of automobiles that go somewhere near.       “I think I hear the sounds of cars…” Edward notices thoughtfully. “So, there’s really a road somewhere… Not far from here, I guess…”       Edward exhales sharply and puts his hands on his hips.       “I ain’t sure that I can explain to Mr. Johnson where I am ‘cause I don’t know these places. But I can try to send him a message with a screenshot of my current location on the map? But at first, it would be great just to call him, ‘cause I ain’t sure that I can use a mobile phone here.”       Edward takes his phone, which magically remained safe after such a cruel fight with Eugene. He sees tons of notifications on the screen about calls, messages, and other things but does not pay attention to them. The man opens the contacts list, finds Victor’s number, types it, and waits for the answer, looking around with widely open eyes and shifting his weight from one foot to another. A few seconds later, Victor answers him, who just manages to say, “Hello” because MacClife, Jr., starts to jab excitedly:       “Hello, Mr. Johnson? It’s Edward MacClife! I’m sorry for bothering you, but I need your help. If you do not help me now, the case might end badly.” Edward puts a hand on his forehead and exhales sharply. “I know where Eugene Wainwright is. The guys and I followed him. The hideaway of that man is far from the city – we took a long way. And Wainwright is not hiding alone: that man is taking the girl at the age of nineteen hostage. She is in a very bad condition because Wainwright drugged her with drugs or sedatives.”       Edward looks around excitedly.       “Sadly, Wainwright caught us and did not let us go, but we managed to knock him out. I persuaded the men to run to save them… But I stayed. He locked me in the house, where he was hiding with the young girl. But I managed to jump out of the window. Wainwright does not know it, but he wants to burn the house down, so I die there. That man said about the men, but I think they ran away.” Edward runs his hand over his face slowly. “Sadly, I cannot explain where I am because there are no signs around. But I will send you a message with a screenshot of my current location on the map. I’m asking you to send the police and an ambulance here for that girl. She must go to the hospital immediately. I will stay here and play time, so that man doesn’t run away.”       Edward takes a step forward, breathing a little heavily.       “Please, Mr. Johnson, help me,” Edward begs with pity in his eyes. “I’m afraid that I cannot deal with him alone. But I promise I will hold on and let him do nothing to me. If the men contact you in case they haven’t done it yet, tell them that I’m fine. So, they don’t worry about me. Calm them down… Especially Terrence. I know he’s too worried about me. Please, let him know that I will be alright and will contact him soon. I shall send you a message with my current location on the map. Thanks for the help earlier…”       Not letting Victor say anything, Edward turns off the call, opens the map on the phone, and marks his current location, seeing that there is really a road not far from here. The man takes a screenshot of the fragment of the map, types a message for Captain Johnson on WhatsApp, attaches the image, and sends everything to him. Then he puts his phone in a pocket and looks into the distance, clenching his hands into fists with his head proudly raised.       “I swear to fight as if my life depends on it,” Edward says confidently. “Fight until the last beat of my heart. Protect me in any way. Not to let that bastard run away. To stay alive and help Cassidy. It’s all for my closest people. Just for them… I am ready. Ready to fight alone. No matter how much it’s going to cost.”       Edward looks into the distance for two seconds, relaxing and spreading his shoulders sharply. Then he moves off the place and runs somewhere straight, not knowing where he will end up or whether he will get out of here after everything is over.       

***

      Terrence has already gotten better and stood up on his feet, despite feeling pain in the back of his head after hitting it against the sharp corner of the table. However, the man does not care about it and cares only about one thing – to get out of here and help his brother and friend. There are more abrasions and scars on MacClife, Sr., face than blood, and there are many bruises on his arms. A small flow of blood dries under his nose, but he wipes it off later, and the man feels strong enough pain all over his body after getting many hits. His black denim jacket with rolled sleeves is stained with spots of blood and ripped in some places, there are cuts and dirt on his dark blue jeans, his gray sneakers got dirty… And there are tracks of blood on his gray t-shirt slightly ripped in some places because the man sometimes wiped off his hands and face with it.       Terrence tries to get out of here, giving many efforts to open the door, but he cannot do it. Hits with a leg and attempts to break it with the shoulder do not give him any results. The door is very tough here and opens by pulling it on oneself. Realizing that he can do nothing, MacClife, Sr., hits it with a fist, comes to the bed, and sits on it, starting to massage his shoulder, which starts to hurt after many hits with a heavy breath.       “Raquelle was right when she said about her presentiments…” Terrence says quietly without emotions, looking into the distance. “If I don’t get out of here, I will have no chance to survive. Wainwright will burn this house down, and we will all die.”       Terrence raises his head and moves his eyes to the opposite, tacky wall.       “If the lads couldn’t resist Wainwright, they’re supposed to be here and locked as well as I am. They didn’t leave… I’m sure about it…”       After exhaling sharply, Terrence doubles over and runs his hands with small scars on them through his hair and slightly pulls his matted black strands out.       “Fuck, I don’t know what to do!” Terrence exclaims with despair. “The situation is hopeless! I can’t get out of here. I can’t help the lads. I CAN DO THE FUCK NOTHING!”       Terrence runs his hands over his face.       “No…” Terrence shakes his head. “No, no… I don’t want to die! I don’t want to leave Raquelle. She won’t take it… I can’t… No… I can’t give up… I can’t…”       Terrence swallows up nervously and closes his eyes for a few seconds, understanding how fast his heart is beating.       “I’m sorry, Raquelle… I’m sorry for doing what I wanted again and having to pay for my mistakes. I’m so sorry, my love… I didn’t wanna make you suffer and worried.” Terrence gets straight slowly and sets his sad eyes on the yellowish skirting on the ceiling. “I swear me, sweetie, I wouldn’t have gone here if… If Edward hadn’t wanted to follow Wainwright. I couldn’t leave my brother. I couldn’t… When I imagined everything that Wainwright could do to him, I felt bad. I should’ve done that. I should’ve gone with him and made sure he would be okay. I don’t wanna lose him. I don’t want him to die…”       Terrence sniffs and exhales slowly, trying not to succumb to the panic.       “Edward is not just my younger brother…” Terrence says quietly with sadness in his eyes. “He is my best friend, who knows me better than my friends. Who understands me immediately. I don’t have to say anything ‘cause we’ll understand what we think about and what we feel. I don’t have such a strong connection with some of my friends… He’s the only one, to whom I could tell what I wouldn’t tell someone else. He’s the one, to whom I will never be indifferent. Whatever Edward is, I love my brother… Even if he is a little, annoying rut rag, who irritates me more and more every day. Who loves looking for trouble.”       Terrence cracks a smile and moves his sad eyes down.       “I can’t leave him in trouble, even if he wants it. Edward might die right now if I don’t find a fucking way to get out of here. If he hasn’t died yet… Looking at him after Wainwright’s cruel beating got me horrified. Damn! If only he hadn't beat Edward to death… I don’t want to lose my brother… Father and Mother won’t also take it… And Natalia…”       Feeling that every single tense muscle in him shakes strongly, Terrence closes his eyes and starts to think of Raquelle. Her face. Her words. The man imagines the way she caresses his face, head, or hands, truly hoping that the reason why he is still alive will help him find the strength not to give up.       “Please, Raquelle, give me the strength…” Terrence begs quietly with pity in his eyes. “Help me survive it… I feel like I’m giving up. Wainwright must not win and kill all of us. I don’t want to die… I don’t want to leave you alone. I don’t want to let my brother and friends die. If I can save them, I can’t miss a chance. That’s my duty. As the oldest one of us, I am responsible for them and have no right to let something happen to them.”       Terrence glances at the broken pieces of the small mirror lying on the floor in the corner of the room, stands up slowly from the bed, comes to them, squats down, and starts looking at them, taking some of them carefully. To be honest, he does not understand why he got so attracted to the pieces of the broken mirror, but it’s hard for the man to move his eyes off them and throw them aside not to hurt his hands. A few moments later, MacClife, Sr., takes four pieces of the mirror, looks at them for some time, and tries to paste them together. The man eventually gets a small round of four almost the same pieces. And he unknowingly draws a parallel between these pieces of the mirror and Peter, Edward, Daniel, and himself.       “The power of four…” Terrence pronounces thoughtfully. “The power of friendship… The power of unity… When we were together, we held on. But when we were torn apart, each of us lost.”       Terrence separates the pieces of the mirror.       “So, one lost a part of the power of others…” Terrence frowns slightly. “When these pieces of the mirror were pasted together, they were an addition to one another and became one piece.”       Terrence cracks a smile.       “Just like the lads and me… These pieces are all of us: me, Edward, Daniel, and Peter… We’re different. But we complete each other. We are one price. When Edward joined our band, we became different. Much stronger, more confident, more energetic… We found the missing element that completed this image and made it perfect.”       Terrence looks at the pieces of the mirror and puts them together, seeing that he gets a small mirror and smiling shyly.       “To get a victory, we’ve gotta be together,” Terrence says confidently. “Fight against Wainwright and never let him harm someone. As they say, one for all, and all for one. We’ve gotta fight as a four. Or as a trio. This is how we will be strong, get a victory over that bastard, and take Cassidy from here.”       Terrence smiles much wider and silently looks at the pasted pieces of the mirror for a few seconds, raising his head confidently at some moment.       “You won’t lose me, Raquelle. No. I won’t let that bastard Wainwright win. Know it, sweetie. I shall be helping my brother and friends and protecting them as furiously as I can. I will be fighting until the last breath for my closest people and my love for them. Maybe, we’re gonna have many traumas and will be bleeding, but we must stay alive. We have the ones we live for.”       Terrence looks at the pieces of the mirror for two seconds, gets up confidently, and looks around.       “I must get out of here,” Terrence says confidently. “No matter how! I must!”       At some moment, Terrence comes up with the idea of finding out if there are windows here. Since everything is full of shelves and cases, the man starts cleaning up the boxes and turning the shelves with no regret. He does not care about anything in this house and is ready to destroy anything to save himself and the others. Boxes and shelves fall on the floor one by one with a loud crash, and something gets broken, but he does not care about it. And some time later, Terrence finds the same window that there is in the room where Edward is locked.       “Yes!” Terrence exclaims with a slight smile. “I can get out! Through the window!”       After looking around quickly, Terrence takes a heavy wooden stick lying in the corner of the room, steps back from the window, and hits the glass with a loud shout. It does not bear this pressure and breaks down immediately. Almost all the pieces fall into the same pile, but some fall on other sides. The man throws the stick aside, climbs up the small windowsill, grabs the window casement carefully, trying not to hurt his legs and hands, and finds out that he has to jump in the dirt. However, he does not care about it, and MacClife, Sr., jumps out of the window, falling into the dirt. Terrence gets stuck in it but applies many efforts to get out of it, cleans his feet somehow, and runs to the main door of the house that is closed with furniture.       “Fuck, where do I go? Try to enter the house and look for the lads? What if one of them is still there?”       When Terrence looks around and wants to get into the house, he looks at the ground, on which he sees some dents. The man runs to them, squats down, and looks at them closely.       “Tracks of shoes…” Terrence pronounces thoughtfully. “Different… I doubt these are Wainwright’s because he has too big flippers, Perkins ain’t also the owner of this size… So, these tracks belong to Peter’s shoes or Edward’s… Okay…”       Terrence gets up quickly and places his leg next to one of the tracks to compare them.       “Almost the same size… So, that’s Edward’s tracks! We have the same shoe size, while Peter’s is smaller. Yes, that’s my bro! Damn… Did he get out of here?”       Terrence looks into the distance, frowning slightly.       “The tracks are leading to the gate,” Terrence pronounces thoughtfully, as he glances at the house. “So, he got out… But how? The door is blocked!”       Terrence comes closer to the house, looks at some windows, and finds the one that Edward broke.       “The broken window…” Terrence frowns slightly. “It wasn’t broken when we were examining the house… So, Edward broke it, jumped out, and ran away. If it’s so, I’ve gotta find him immediately.”       Terrence looks around quickly.       “I’ll try to follow the tracks. I’m sure that they will bring me where I need.”       Terrence runs to the stone fence that he cannot open and decides to climb over it. The man climbs up to the top without problems, checking all the stones that he is going to grab carefully, and jumps down on the other side. After this, Terrence runs confidently, following the tracks of his brother, noticing some other tracks and hoping that they belong to Daniel or Peter.       

***

      Peter is trying to get out, as well. He gets pain in his arms because he is furiously trying to break the door with his shoulders and the plates of his hands. But unfortunately, he can do nothing. At some moment, the blond kicks the door with a leg in anger and hits it with a hand, steps back from it sharply, and leans on the table with both hands, breathing heavily enough and shaking from a strong tension. He does not care about the blood, scars, and bruises on his whole body. He does not care that his wheat-blond hair is tousled and matted, his gray jeans are stained with dirt, his dark blue denim jacket is ripped in some places, especially at his elbows, his gray t-shirt is stained with blood, and his black shoes are dirty.       Peter starts to lose hope that he will get out of here and help the men. Unfortunately, there are no windows that he could break. He can only get out through the door, but it does not succumb to him. Unsuccessful attempts to get out of here make him fall into despair. The fear of dying is getting stronger. Not only this. After getting some close people once, he does not want to lose them. One thought about their death gets him horrified and makes him feel how his heart squeezes strongly, so he feels discomfort.       “Fuck, I’m scared…” Peter says in a little shaking voice, looking into the distance and leaning on the table with both hands. “I don’t want to lose my friends… I don’t wanna be alone! I do fear loneliness! To death! If I stay alone, I’ll go crazy! I’ve gotta get out of here, but I don’t know how. I can’t save my friends! I’m powerless!”       Peter steps back from the table and nervously starts to walk in circles in the small room.       “Fuck, there must be a way to get out of here! That bastard Wainwright can’t win and kill us. No… I must help them! I’d even be ready to sacrifice myself to save them… Take a hellish pain from cuts on my wrists or whole body… Anything…”       Peter stops in the middle of the room and closes his eyes for two seconds, exhaling slowly.       “I’m ready for anything to help my friends and girlfriend. Yes, I could’ve left Edward and Terrence. But I didn’t do it ‘cause I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t leave my friends in trouble. I wanted to help and protect them. We could’ve cursed MacClife, Jr., because of his stubbornness and wish to get into trouble, but we didn’t… Terrence and I are ready to sacrifice and protect him.”       Peter swallows up nervously.       “I completely understand why Terrence didn’t want to let Edward go alone. And I could not let it happen for the same reason. They’re like my brothers to me… I’ve never had siblings, but those guys are not just my best friends. They’re my family.”       Peter smiles slightly with sadness in his eyes.       “My bros…” Peter pronounces quietly. “If not for their support, I would be lying underground and rotting… I’m alive thanks to my friends and the girl that I love so much. The girls are like sisters to me… While the men help me with words and actions, the girls are always ready to hug and take care. With them, I feel that someone needs me. I’m not forgotten and left.”       Peter exhales slowly and moves his sad eyes to the walls.       “They’re the only people I have. I don’t have a family. I am an orphan. I never felt like I had a mother. She always gave a fuck about me. She preferred vodka. I didn’t know what a loving family is… But… My friends became the one… They gave me what I had been deprived of my whole life. If I lose them and stay alone in this world, I’ll have no meaning in living. Nobody to live for. I don’t wanna stay alone. I’m scared. I get panic when I think of it.”       Two seconds later, Peter moves his eyes to his left hand, on which he still has a small, not very noticeable scar that reminds him of slowly destroying himself some time ago, withdrawing from everyone, and almost ending his life.       “And I’m terribly afraid to break down and start to cut again. This thing would immediately drag me into its web. And I wouldn’t have a second chance to be saved. I was lucky I held down when I almost did that at Helene’s home. But next time, I will hardly stop. Though, I don’t wanna disappoint them… Betray… I made a promise! I promised to brace myself!”       Peter’s dead eyes run from one side to another for some time, and he tries to hold down the panic, which is the reason why he is shaking slightly and can barely breathe.       “And I don’t want to leave Helene,” Peter says in a shaking voice. “She’ll suffer without me… Just like I will do without her. I can’t find the words to say how thankful I am for her. Helene gave me hope that I would get married and become a father someday. Even if I’ve never had a family, I can still create my own. And educate my children in love and care.”       Peter closes his eyes for two seconds, understanding that he can barely make every single sigh.       “Damn, how I wish someone was next to me…” Peter says with sadness in his eyes. “Even Sammy could help me… Maybe, he can’t speak, but the fluffy understands everything and knows what to do.”       Peter slowly moves his eyes down and pays attention to the bracelets and bandages on his right hand. He has not gotten rid of the habit of wearing many bracelets on one hand. Since he is now wearing clothes in gray and dark blue colors, he picked up bracelets in the same tone. But there is one silver bracelet that Rose wears with clothes of any color. This is a gift from all his friends on his birthday. It has an elegant carving as the phrase that always encourages the man, who sits on the bed, as he looks at his bracelets with interest.       “Always stay as kind, funny, loyal, strong, brave, smiling, and confident as you are now,” Peter read aloud with a slight smile and looks around the room slowly. “This phrase always makes me smile…”       Peter thinks for two seconds.       “Hm… As you are now…” Peter reads the phrase on the bracelet again and smiles much wider. “No… No… I must not give up. For those, who are close to me. For those I love. That’s my duty! I am not used to leaving my friends in trouble and refusing to help them when I can do it. No matter how horrified I am, I must help the people, who saved me. I can’t let them think I am a thankless pig.”       At some moment, Peter unzips the bracelet with a carving, takes it off, and wraps it in his hands for a few seconds.       “The lads and I must be together. Bigger is always better. So, it means there’s a higher chance to win. At least, I ain’t gonna leave my friends. I will no longer stand aside and be a coward, watching my close people suffer. It’s time to face my fears. Face the danger.”       A few seconds later, Peter puts his bracelet on his hand again, zips it, and looks at the scar on his left hand.       “No more Peter Rose, who everyone was bullying,” Peter says confidently. “Who was punishing himself by giving himself wild pain. Now there is Peter Rose, who will prove that he is not so cowed, unhappy, and weak. That they should not underestimate me. I am not a punching bag and will never be.”       Peter gets up from the bed, raises his head proudly, and looks forward with a confident look.       “You are a strong, loyal, brave, confident, honest, and fair man, Peter,” Peter says confidently. “That’s what my friends say. I mean, my family… I’m alive thanks to those people… And I must thank them for that. Now I know what I believe inside. Now it’s my time to do what I must. I will stand my ground and never back down. I ain’t gonna sell my soul to the bastard, who wants to kill all of us. You won’t get this pleasure, Wainwright. If you attack my brothers, you will have to deal with me.”       Peter moves his eyes to the locked door and frowns slightly.       “I’ve gotta get out of here in any way. I have no choice. There’s no window, through which I could jump out. So, I only have to break the fucking door. In any way. Even with my head!”       Peter runs to the door, knocks on the locker with a leg, as he shouts loudly, and hits it again with his shoulder. Then he glances at a baseball ball that he takes from the floor and hits the door with it two times. At some moment, the man sees that the door starts to bend little by little. That’s why Peter keeps reaching his goal, becoming more confident, and promising himself to run away and find his friends in any way. A little later, the man throws the baseball ball aside and decides to break the door with both hands and legs. Peter takes several hits before he takes the last hit with his heel. In the end, the lock falls on the floor, the bent door sharply opens, and the boards, with which it was locked, break.       “Yes!” Peter exclaims happily. “I did it!”       Peter runs out of the room as fast as a bullet and looks around, trying to decide where to run and where to find his friends.       “I think I heard some voices while I was stuck here…” Peter says thoughtfully. “I don’t know who they belonged to… But I did hear one of the lads screaming…”       Two seconds later, Peter decides to check all the rooms. He quickly runs to every door and looks inside, but it gives him nothing. But some time later, Rose runs to the locked door that someone probably tried to break.       “Hey, someone’s there?” Peter asks loudly, knocking at the door with a fist. “Someone?”       Not thinking too much, Peter tries to break the lock. The blond moves off all the boards and finds a scrap not far from here, breaks the door for a few seconds, and opens the door. But he finds nobody in the room and just notices the broken window, the pieces of broken glass, and the vase lying on the floor.       “The window is broken… I guess Wainwright locked someone here, but that one ran away through the window.”       Peter comes to the broken window, stepping over the pieces carefully, looks at what’s happening outside, and finds nothing interesting. So, the blond decides not to waste time and keeps checking the other rooms. After entering two more rooms, Peter finds nothing again, but later he runs to the second room, where the door is broken by Daniel.       “Someone else ran away…” Peter says thoughtfully. “So, I need to find one more room.”       Peter checks the other rooms, missing nothing, and even climbs to the second floor, where he finds nothing. And the fact that he cannot even find any tracks of the men starts to scare Rose a little and makes him think of the worst things. But later, Peter runs to the locked room, the door of which is barely damaged.       “Hey, who’s there?” Peter asks loudly. “Guys? Are you there?”       Peter gets no answer and decides to break the door with a scrap. He does it for a few seconds, runs into the room immediately, and is surprised that there is nobody here, too.       “Oh, shit, where are the guys?” Peter shakes his head with horror in widely open eyes. “The window is broken here, and it means someone got out of here through it…”       Peter grabs his hair tightly.       “Fuck, did they all get out and leave me here?” Peter wonders and looks around the room, in which almost everything is turned upside down. “Didn’t they even wanna try to help me get out? Damn! And Wainwright got out along with Cassidy.”       At some moment, Peter moves his eyes to the four pieces lying on the floor and pasted together. The man gets interested in these things, squats down slowly, looks at them with interest, and runs his hand over them, seeing his reflection.       “Four pieces of the mirror… These fragments are pasted together in one piece… Just like the lads and me… Everything’s gonna be different if one of us is out. We are an addition to each other… If at least one piece is missing, it will never be a circle.” Peter moves his confident look up. “If it’s so, we must be together. The bigger, the better. We aren’t as strong alone as we are together… Or at least, as a trio… Perkins undoubtedly used the chance to get out of here.”       Peter exhales sharply and runs his hands over his hair.       “Oh, I give a fuck about him, I must find Terrence and Edward,” Peter says confidently. “They aren’t in this house. So, I’ve gotta get out of here and look around the territory.”       Peter gets up sharply, runs out of the room, and decides to leave the house to look around outside. But when he runs some distance down the small hall where there are opened and broken doors, the man does not notice how someone sharply runs out of one of these rooms and runs into the blond. Both of them immediately fall to the floor, rubbing their foreheads or arms. After shaking his head, Rose moves his eyes to the one, who struck him down, and opens his eyes widely.       “Daniel?” Peter wonders.       “Peter?” Daniel wonders, rubbing his forehead too hard. “Damn, finally, I’ve found at least someone!”       At this moment, Peter stands up on his feet first, and then Daniel does the same.       “Where are Terrence and Edward?” Daniel asks.       “They are not in the house,” Peter replies quietly. “I checked all the rooms and broke the locked doors, but there was nobody.”       “I found nobody, too,” Daniel shakes his head, breathing a little heavily.       “They might be outside. The windows in two rooms are broken, and they could jump out of them.”       “So, we’ve gotta find them immediately! Wainwright is about to kill them!”       “Us?” Peter scoffs quietly and, staring at Daniel surprisingly, crosses his arms over his chest. “Why do you think we will do this together? I do not need your help! I will do it on my own.”       “Let me explain something.”       “And yeah, I am surprised that you haven’t gotten out.” Peter laughs evilly and puts his hands on his hips. “Did you like to play a hero so much that you decided to stay? And prove that you are worth something?”       “I’m serious, Peter!” Daniel exclaims excitedly. “If Wainwright kills all of us, our girls will be dead! That bastard will turn them into drug addicts and will be mocking them all the time or kill them!”       “Yeah, you know… Wainwright is very dangerous…”       “I do know it!”       “Yeah? Wow! I thought you knew nothing. As it turned out, there’s still something in your head.”       “Listen, now it’s not time for kidding and mocking.”       “Come on!”       “The situation is serious. Wainwright is more dangerous than we thought. He really wanna destroy us to find the girls and do the same thing that he did to Natalia. Not just undress and rape them, but also drug them with some shit. To death!”       “Stop, stop!” Peter raises his hand, looking at the excited Daniel with suspicion. “Stop, Perkins! You cannot know what happened to Natalia. And remember her name because you have not memorized our names. There are no Valeria, Pedro, or Elena among us.”       “But I do know it!”       “Because Wainwright said?”       “No, because Edward and Natalia said it!”       “Nobody told you anything personally!”       “I know everything!” Daniel says confidently, coming closer to Peter. “Absolutely everything.”       “You only know what you were told.”       “Not truth! I know everything! I know who I am, what happened, and who I know!”       “Yeah, he knows!” Peter laughs contemptuously.       “The memory came back to me! I remember everything and know everything I didn’t know before.”       “So, dude, did you pee your pants?” Peter puts his hands on his hips. “You shouldn’t have followed us! You are like a ballast that we do not need. Which we cannot get rid of.”       “That’s true, Rose!” Daniel exclaims excitedly. “Now I know everything!”       “Listen, Daniel, I understand that the situation is hard. That we might die, and you are scared and ready for anything to run to a safe place. But please, don’t go much crazier. Get out of here or wait for the lads and me to end it all and bring you home.”       “I’m not lying, I swear,” Daniel replies confidently. “Now everything is clear to me, and I know all the truth. And I know that if we don’t find a way to stop Wainwright, something terrible will happen. To our girls. If we don’t defeat that bastard, he will kill all of us!”       “Quiet, Perkins, quiet,” Peter says coldly, gesticulating smoothly. “I understand that your underwear got wet after that man put a knife against your throat. But do not go much crazier. Okay? You are acting like a sick fellow. And shaking like a coward bunny.”       “Listen, I understand I crossed the line and am really very sorry. But please, trust me. The case is very serious.”       “Do not worry, we will end it somehow. You can get out quietly. And Edward, Terrence, and I will deal with Wainwright.”       “Oh, no, I’m not going to get out!” Daniel says a little louder. “Until that bastard pays for what he did to Cassidy!”       “Oh, why do you care about that girl?” Peter crosses his arms over his chest. “Do you want to show off and look like a hero to her?”       “Cassidy is my younger sister,” Daniel confesses confidently.       “Yeah? So, Terrence and Edward are my siblings! Oh, no! I am a son of the English queen!”       “I am serious! The girl that we found is my sister.”       “Okay, great!” Peter pronounces in a lower voice, shaking his head with squinted eyes. “Why did we never hear about her?”       “It’s a long story. But the most important thing is that Wainwright had been drugging her and mocking her before she turned eighteen.”       “We know it without you!”       “Although he says Cassidy agreed to that, I will not believe it. My sister couldn’t agree to fuck him at her will!”       “Of course, not! As if Natalia wanted that sick motherfucker to undress her and fuck before the eyes of his drugged pals. As if she wanted to make Edward enraged on purpose.”       “If not for him, Rochester would have gotten through what my sister did.”       “How do I know that she is really your sister?”       “I know I’ve never said it, but…”       “Sorry, Daniel, but I don’t believe you,” Peter says coldly, shaking his head. “You are absolutely confused and don’t know what to say. Or you say that the men, the girls, and I lie to you.”       “I know, I know, I…”       “So, did we organize the attempt on you? Were you stuck in the hospital with brain damage because of us? Do you remember the fuck nothing because of us? And you believe the liar that we don’t know!”       “I can explain it all.”       “Do not explain anything to me. I do not need any explanations from the one, who made me lose my trust in him.”       Peter turns around confidently and leaves, but Daniel follows him immediately.       “Listen, Peter, I know I behaved disgustingly and said too much,” Daniel tries to find excuses quietly. “I am really very sorry. I didn’t want it to happen.”       “M-m-m, I was waiting for this moment,” Peter sneers evilly. “Waiting for you to start to find excuses for your terrible tricks and words. But you may not try – I shall not believe you. As well as the MacClifes.”       “Okay, let’s talk about it later. The most important thing is to find the MacClife brothers and take Cassidy with us. She must go to the hospital shortly.”       “Come on? Really? I did not know it!”       “Listen, blond, stop showing off! Don’t you see that Cassidy feels bad and might easily die? I am not going to lose my sister again! That bastard, Wainwright, ruined her life! She will have to come to herself for half of her life after everything she has experienced!”       “Ha!” Peter stops sharply and runs to Daniel, looking at him with contempt. “You said she is not your sister!”       “I didn’t remember her. I mean… I understood that the girl was familiar to me. But I couldn’t remember where and how.”       “Taking your words back? You got so scared that you put your tail between your legs and are now ready for anything?”       “I lied,” Daniel pronounces quietly. “Lied about everything.”       “M-m-m, you are lying now! So, who is actually lying?”       “Not you, the girls, and the men.”       “That’s how! So, you struck us out of the list of betrayers? Or is it a temporary measure? So, we bring you home? So, we don’t leave you here to die?”       “No! I do remember everything well and know who is who!”       “No, Perkins, you know nothing. You just went crazy from fear! You are standing so pale! From fear! When Wainwright pressed you against the wall, your toughness was gone.”       “You can listen to me and give me a chance to exclaim everything?”       “I don’t need your explanations.”       “I wanted to hurt nobody.”       “But you did!” Peter breaks into a cry with both arms crossed over his chest. “You made us mad and disappointed. Of course, I know you’ve got by far not the perfect character. But you crossed all the lines this time. I never heard this type of claim from you. The fact that you were laughing at the failures in my personal life and doubted my orientation was a stupid thing.”       “I didn’t expect it from me, either.”       “Don’t play on pity. It won’t work for me. As well as the others.”       “Listen, Peter, I completely understand that you, the men, and the girls are angry at me because of stupidity.”       “My gosh!” Peter nods confidently with a sly smile. “Did you finally learn my name? Did you remember that my name is Peter! Not Pedro!”       “Yes, I blamed all of you for lying… I behaved disgustingly… But I got my memories back and know that you told me the truth.”       “Oh, we are telling the truth now.”       “You all have a right to hate me. Especially, you and the men. Because you had to take much more shit. Especially you. I took it out on you and blamed you for nobody the fuck knows what. Even if you’re guilty of nothing.”       “Oh, no, I really attempted on you and organized the attack,” Peter replies ironically.       “Peter…”       “You wanted me to confess! So, I am confessing! I wanted to erase you from this world to death. Just because I have never liked you. I have tolerated too much from you. And I lost my patience at some moment. I decided to get you out of my way and persuaded Terrence and Edward to help me.”       “Wainwright attacked me. And he pushed me on the road, on which a car was driving. It hit me…”       “I don’t care! It’s your problem!”       “Listen, I confess that I was wrong and said too much. I behaved like an absolute idiot.”       “Glad that you recognize your lack of brains.”       “You’re right…” Daniel relaxes his shoulders sharply and looks down for two seconds. “There’s no limit to my stupidity… I’m ashamed of what happened… It would’ve been okay if I had just insulted you, but I also started to fight…”       “Aha, and you wished us three to die. Wanted the girls to leave us. You literally threatened to put us in prison!”       “I know…” Daniel puts his hand on his forehead for two seconds. “I’m really very sorry…”       “I won’t hide that I wanted and still want to beat your face.”       “It’s your right. You all have it. And it would be fair.”       “How beautifully you speak… I am listening deeply… I’m about to listen open-mouthed and believe the one, who will hardly get the trust of those, whom he literally betrayed.”       “I know I’ll have to put many efforts to get forgiveness. I should’ve thanked you for trying to help me. But I showered all of you with mud and behaved like a sick psycho.”       “That’s why we all pissed you off. So, you deal with that shit on your own. We give a fuck about what you got into, who lied to you, and what happened to you.”       “That’s Blanca…” Daniel shakes his head. “That liar turned me against you, and I believed her blindly and thought that she told me the truth.”       “Oh, yeah, you became a pussy-whipped guy for that foreigner, who we don’t know! You do everything she tells you. You would’ve hardly thought of what you said to us.”       “I didn’t even think of that. Blanca turned me against you.”       “Yeah…” Peter exhales sharply. “That madam did a good job! She said so much that you were ready to cut our throats.”       “That bitch used the situation very well and knew what to answer to any question of mine. As if she planned everything… My amnesia was definitely a benefit for her.”       “And you, brainless asshole, became a pawn in her hands. Blanca is doing everything she wants to you, but you don’t notice it.”       “She will not do it anymore!” Daniel says confidently.       “Oh, yeah! You will run to her when she calls you with a finger. And when Blanca gives the command ‘Bite,’ you will attack us immediately. Grab a gun and kill us to the fuck!”       “She will not control me anymore. I shall say everything to that insolent liar and piss her fucking off!”       “Come on, you are saying it from fear of dying. When we get out of here, you will threaten to kill us again and put us in prison if we get closer to you or your imitable Blanca.”       “I know I shouldn’t have trusted her. I never felt she was familiar to me. Unlike the guys and you. All this time, you did seem familiar to me, not that gal. At first, I trusted you somehow because I felt good with you, but… At some moment, I stopped doing it…”       “And you lied insolently, saying you didn’t know us. And then you said what contradicted that.”       “My blame…”       “Then why were you lying and contradicting yourself?”       “I was scared.”       “What? The protest of your queen, Blanca?”       “Nope, the case is not about it… I…”       “You did a disgusting thing, Daniel!” Peter stops sharply. “How could you be such an idiot because of a gal, who found out what happened to you nobody the fuck knows how, and started to play with you as she wanted? And why didn’t you the fuck tell about her?”       “I told the girls about her when I was at Terrence’s home somehow. They said they didn’t know Blanca, but I didn’t pay attention to it. And later, I thought that Helene, Raquelle, and Natalia lied to me.”       “We have never lied to you! And we feel madly hurt that one idiot did not believe us when we told him the truth!”       “Yeah, I know…”       “We did waste so much time helping you remember everything. And how did you thank us? You screamed at us, blamed us for the lie and the betrayal, threatened to put us in prison or actually kill us, and wished to die!”       “I get it…”       “We would’ve better pissed you off and done our business. Going on dates, meeting our friends, and getting ready for the wedding of Edward and Natalia and Terrence and Raquelle…”       “Please, don’t think that I don’t appreciate your efforts. Vice versa, I’m really grateful to you for your help.”       “If you hadn’t come to the lads and me, none of us would have looked at you. You pissed us off – we did the same! Fine! Live as you want! We give a fuck about you and your fucking Blanca!”       “Yes, I get it… I get it…” Daniel crosses his arms over his chest and glances aside for a second. “I know that I won’t get the trust of my friends back after what I did soon. Maybe, you three and your girls will not actually wish to speak to me.”       “Huh, do not even hope that we will forget everything and speak to you as if nothing happened!” Peter sneers evilly. “A human can forget and forgive many things, but you crossed all the lines this time!”       “Don’t worry, I shall get it. But remember that the guys and you can count on me now. I will help you get rid of Wainwright. Even if I have to fight with him alone, I will not stand aside.”       “Thanks, we don’t need your help!”       “I am not going to leave without telling that bastard everything I think of him. That son of a bitch will pay me for almost depriving me of my sister.”       “Just because Wainwright said he sent the message that the MacClifes and I allegedly sent you?”       “Not only.”       “Don’t tell me you also met him.”       “I did. I met him on the day I got hit by the car.”       “Come on!” Peter frowns slightly.       “That’s true. I was walking quietly, and then that stinker showed up from nowhere.”       “And what does he want from you?”       “He threatened me.” Daniel turns on Peter. “We were fighting for some time… Wainwright tried to kill me and threatened me with a knife… With which he cut my hand…”       “How could he know that he needed to find you?”       “He memorized you and me during the trial of him, Michael, and their gang. Wainwright talked a lot about his wish to destroy you, Edward, Terrence, and me, find Natalia again, and rape her. Do the same to Raquelle, Anna, and Helene. And then the talk was about a wish to give them drugs. Also, that bastard mentioned Cassidy.”       “And how did he know that you were her brother?”       “Wainwright said he realized it on the trial. He saw a photo of mine on Cassidy’s phone and memorized me. So, he found out that I was Daniel.”       “Anyway, she did not get in touch with him at her wish.”       “No, vice versa! Cassidy was buying drugs from him for her money for a long time. And when she wasn’t able to pay, she was borrowing drugs. But a little later, Wainwright said he’d forget about her debts if she agreed to become his… Slave… Not to clean, wash, and cook… But please him… Let him fuck her as much as he wants.”       “Oh, yeah, and that girl agreed!”       “She did. I’m not sure if she did it at her wish, but Cassidy did it. And when she resists, he drugs her with drugs or sedatives and does everything he wants.”       “If it’s true, the case is hard.”       “The case is horrible! I can easily report that bastard to the police and blame him for raping my sister, who was not of legal age. And I shall do it! So, that scumbag is put in prison for many years! He must pay for what he did to Cassidy and what he could’ve done to Natalia.”       “Wait, have you been aware of Wainwright’s escape for a long time?” Peter frowns slightly. “We all heard it some time ago, but we know it’s been a little more than one month since that moment.”       “It’s been a lot of time since our latest show. So, I found it out two days later after it.”       “Oh, shit…”       “When the judge sentenced Wainwright, Cassidy ran away from the place where he was hiding her. But when that bastard ran away from prison, he found her again and hid in this house.”       “He could try to run away many times.       “It wasn’t the first attempt. Wainwright said he tried to run away several times, but he always got caught. However, he planned everything the last time. He stole a pistol, shot a member of the prison staff, and ran.”       “We thought so…”       “And he told me what he said to all of you: even if we pay Cassidy’s debts, she will not be free. Wainwright won’t let my sister go and will keep mocking her. He wants to do something like a harem by finding our girls, drugging them with some shit, undressing them, and starting to fuck them.”       “We do know Natalia was madly lucky that Edward protected her,” Peter says thoughtfully. “Otherwise, she would’ve experienced the same thing that Cassidy did.”       “That scumbag is sick! He is really obsessed with young, beautiful girls! He’s ready to fuck anyone, who stands in his way! It all started in childhood! He said his father was fucking his mother without her permission, and their five children were the witnesses to their games. And he openly says he doesn’t care about her relationship status. He gives a fuck about her wishes! He doesn’t care that she may feel pain! The most important thing is that he finishes it!”       “It won’t happen! Edward, Terrence, and I already did our best to protect the girls.”       “I’m afraid it won’t help. The girls will be saved only if the police get him arrested, or he dies. There is no other way.”       “It is clear for us without you. You did not discover anything genius.”       “Don’t you believe me?”       “I would do. If I was sure that you are telling me the truth. What if you dreamed up half of what you said and want to wash my brains?”       “I am dreaming up nothing!”       “Yeah? And how could you change my mind?”       “At least, this,” Daniel takes the jackknife from the inside pocket of his ripped leather jacket and shows it to Peter. “Wainwright had threatened me with this knife before I was hit by the car.”       “Oh, shit!” Peter rounds his eyes, takes the jackknife from Daniel sharply, looks at this, and opens and closes it several times. “It’s the same knife!”       “What?” Daniel frowns slightly. “What do you mean?”       “Helene and I found the same jackknife near you in the place where you were lying unconscious.”       “Same? All the same?”       “Exactly! But there was also the black ring…”       “Ring?”       “Yeah… A male one, I guess.”       “And where are those things?”       “At my home.”       “Damn, it happens that you were really there?”       “With Helene. We walked with Sammy not far from there.”       “Oh, damn! But how did you end up there? It happened nobody the fuck knows where!”       “At first, Sammy brought your wallet with documents and money, and then he led Helene and me to you. But we didn’t understand what he wanted from us at first and believed the fluffy was just too excited. We couldn’t assume that you would be not far in such terrible condition. We thought you just lost the wallet with your driver's license, cards, money, and other pieces of paper and wanted to give it back to you at the meeting.”       “I see…” Daniel thinks for two seconds and frowns slightly. “Hey, you say you have the same knife at your home?”       “Yeah, but there was blood on that. Likely, yours.”       “He cut my hand with this knife.” Daniel moves his eyes to the hand that Eugene cut with a knife. “That was horribly hurt… I screamed like crazy…”       “Interesting…” Peter frowns slightly, looking at the knife closely. “Does it mean Wainwright had another knife like this?”       “It doesn’t make sense now.”       “Maybe…”       Daniel glances aside, and Peter gives him the jackknife, which the brunet puts in his pocket, and crosses his arms over the chest.       “Alright, let’s assume that I believe it,” Peter says coldly. “It sounds true. And Wainwright hinted that he knew it.”       “I told everything I could,” Daniel shrugs.       “But it doesn’t mean your story will change something. No guarantees that you will not get wild again as well as you did two hours ago or three or four days ago.”       “Fuck, I did explain everything! What do you want?”       “Nothing. I need nothing from you. I need nothing from the one, who literally spat in our faces.”       “I’m very sorry, Peter,” Daniel excuses himself with pity in his eyes. “I swear, I didn’t want it to happen like this.”       “That’s all?” Peter sneers evilly. “Is this everything you want to say to excuse yourself?”       “Please, understand me. Looking at someone when you’ve got amnesia is like looking at someone you’ve never met.”       “We would’ve understood you if you hadn’t started hysteria and blamed us for nobody the fuck knows what! The guys and I understood everything! We tolerated everything! We knew it wouldn’t be easy! But we didn’t expect what you did!”       “I was like a rope in the hands of my friends and Blanca. Everybody wanted to get me on their side. When someone got stronger power, I surrendered to the flow and was swimming with it. I was like a little naive boy, believing everything I was told and thought it was true. I didn’t even try to get deeper. Only words were enough for me… I told Blanca to give me proof only once. But I just got excited because of her hysteria.”       “And what?” Peter wonders. “Pity the poor boy Dan, who became a pussy-whipped person of a certain Blanca and believed that he was really connected with her?”       “Fuck, how could I feel the lie when I barely understood myself? I didn’t know who I was! I doubted that I lived in my body!”       “It’s your problem.”       “But, Peter…”       “You’re an idiot, Daniel. A brainless moron. It would be harder to fool a child than you! Because they’ve got much more brains!”       “I know, but…”       “And you know just a part of the problems. Trust me, you got serious problems. And you will hardly solve them for one day. Or maybe, you’ll never solve them.”       “Okay, what do I do? What do you want from me? What should I do for you to trust me?”       “I said, nothing!” Peter cuts off loudly. “And actually, get off me and get out of here! I wasted too much time on you, even if I could’ve spent it helping the MacClifes. Who are in great trouble.”       Peter turns around and wants to leave with a quiet step, but Daniel takes him under an arm sharply and turns the blond on himself, saying:       “Listen, Peter…”       “Don’t touch me!” Peter sharply gets his arm out of Daniel’s grip.       “Just listen.”       “Shut up! Just shut up! I give a fuck about what you want to say. Go to your Blanca and live as you want with her. Leave the guys and me alone! Once and forever! GOT IT? DON’T DARE TO GET CLOSER TO US!”       “Before I deal with this bastard Wainwright and take Cassidy away, I shall not leave,” Daniel says confidently.       “We will take care of Cassidy. But you get out of here while you are alive! Before I bury you here in anger!”       “Do what you want…” Daniel exhales sharply. “I am ready to pay for my mistake.”       “But if you want to be a hero, alright, go to fight and kill. But do not dare to stand in our way! And especially, ask us for help! Do what you want, and do not count on us.”       “But…”       “Alright, get off! I’m going to find Terrence and Edward. And you go home alone. We aren’t going to see your face for two more hours.”       Peter turns around sharply and goes down the hall in a quick step, but Daniel starts to follow him immediately, not wishing to lose what means so much to him.       “Dude…” Daniel pronounces with sadness in his eyes. “Dude, let’s talk. I’ll explain everything!”       “Go to the fuck, asshole!” Peter throws rudely. “And stop walking after me!”       “Listen, I’m really very sorry that it happened. I know that they will not forgive me for what I did soon… But I don’t want to lose my friends because of stupidity and naivety.”       “You have lost them! Once and forever!”       “No, I will not accept it!”       “Your problems. May Blanca replace those, who you shamelessly struck out of your life.”       “I struck out nobody! And I wasn’t gonna do it!”       “Leave me alone, Perkins!” Peter throws in a low, rude voice. “Get out of here before I hit you in your face or your balls!”       “No! I will not leave it so and will be looking for ways to get forgiveness.”       “Do not count on me! As well as the MacClife brothers! And the girls will not especially forgive you because they’re by our side. So, you can get out of our lives. Nobody will feel sorry!”       “Reject those, who became my second family? I’d rather forget everything again and survive everything I did!”       “Don’t dare to call us your family!”       “Please, brother…”       “I am NOT YOUR BROTHER!” Peter sharply stops and turns on Daniel, setting his bloodshot, widely open eyes on him. “DO NOT DARE TO CALL ME THE ONE AFTER WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!”       “I didn’t want it, I swear! I don’t know what I was thinking of when deciding to take it out on you!”       “You did it CONSCIOUSLY! BY THE ORDER OF YOUR BELOVED BLANCA!”       “Not truth! She washed my brains and told me what made me believe her!”       “Say it to someone else, but I’m sick of hearing you!”       “But, Peter…”       “I SAID, SHUT UP!”       When Peter raises a hand to give Daniel a strong slap in the face, the brunet avoids the hit easily, grabbing his hand that he is holding two centimeters away from his face.       “Hey, hey, hey, don’t do this, Rose, no!” Daniel jabs loudly. “Calm down! Calm down, I said!”       “Let me go, jerk!” Peter tries to set his hand free. “You will ask for trouble! Let me the fuck go! Are you deaf? Or stupid? I swear, I shall kill you! KILL YOU! HEAR ME!”       “Just listen to me and go where you want! I will not hold you!”       “I give a fuck about what you want to say!”       “You will have to. And you will the fuck listen to me!” Daniel sharply lets Peter’s hand go and pushes him off himself, while the blond is breathing too heavily and tightly clenching his hands into fists. “I am very sorry! I would never do everything that I did if I remembered everything. If I had listened to my feelings and trusted the guys and you, not Blanca.”       “You have always been a stupid sheep and did not change after the memory loss. Which made the situation worse.”       “Please, don’t think I am a thankless bastard, who wouldn’t say ‘thank you’ to their friends for trying to help. I am really grateful to all of you for not leaving me, even when I asked who you were.”       “You confessed who you are.”       “But I want to fix it.”       “Late, Perkins.” Peter turns his back on Daniel and steps aside, crossing his arms over his chest. “I want to fix nothing.”       “Would you forget all the years that we’ve been friends so easily?” Daniel shakes his head with widely open eyes. “Dude, we’ve known each other for ages and overcome so much together!”       “You remembered it too late. And I knew you too badly. I didn’t know that you were actually a mean scumbag. I mean, I didn’t want to notice the first sighs when you started to shower me with mud, covering it with your wish to joke.”       “Don’t tell me you want to end our relationship.”       “I didn’t want it. But after all your actions, I have no choice.”       “No, Pete…” Daniel shakes his head with pity in his eyes and comes closer to Peter standing with his back turned to him. “Please, don’t turn your back on me… You’re like my brother, whom I don’t want to lose. I have never had a better friend than you! And I will hardly have!”       “Oh, how touching you have become…” Peter rolls his eyes with an evil sneer. “I need to find a handkerchief in my pocket. I’m about to cry now.”       “Maybe, I’ve known and befriended many people. But a bigger part of them betrayed me or just stopped speaking to me. Many of them lied to me and framed me… Sometimes I could stop speaking to them. But not you. You have never betrayed me. You’ve never lied. You’ve always been ready to help in a hard situation.”       Peter shakes his head silently, keeping his arms crossed over his chest and not thinking of turning on Daniel.       “I completely understand it,” Daniel adds quietly. “I recognize my mistakes and am sorry for them. And I don’t want all of that to become a reason for the end of our friendship. Just let me know that I have a chance to save it.”       “How do I know if you really remember everything and don’t lie?” Peter asks in a low voice.       “Okay! What if I say what I could not know when having amnesia? Ask me anything, and I will answer!”       “Speak! Amaze me!”       “Okay! For example, I would’ve hardly known that you started to play only after the second attempt because you were terribly nervous and weren’t sure about your play when we were auditioning for Albert’s band. And when everyone, who wanted to join the band, had to play in groups of fewer people, you didn’t brace yourself at once.”       “And who made me brace myself?”       “Me! I helped you! Even if you did not aim to speak to me. And you barely spoke to the others. But you did it and played with those they chose for us perfectly. And what was the result? You and I joined the band, but two more boys, who played with us, did not!”       “And who knows it?”       “Just you and me. We’ve never told Edward and Terrence that.”       “And which number I was playing under?” Peter turns around sharply and comes to Daniel, setting his confident look on him.       “Thirteen. Many guys laughed and whispered that the thirteenth number wouldn’t be lucky. But you made them shut up, even though thirteen is an unhappy number.”       “Alright…” Peter pronounces thoughtfully. “Now, say everything you know about the scars on my hands.”       “After you tried to kill yourself, you got a scar on your left hand because of a very deep scar.” Daniel glances at Peter’s left hand. “It’s not seen now, but it hasn’t gone. That’s why you’ve been thinking of getting a tattoo on that area.”       “Good.” Peter glances at his bracelets. “Now the story of one of my bracelets on my hand. How did I get it?”       “The silver one…” Daniel looks at Peter’s silver bracelet. “The friends and I gifted it to you on your birthday. It has a little wish that you should read if you feel you give up or are on edge. That’s what we said when we gifted it.”       “And what words?”       “Always stay as kind, funny, loyal, strong, brave, smiling, and confident as you are now. The phrase has nothing special, but the guys and I thought it would help you in hard times.”       “And whom does every single word belongs to?”       “My word is 'funny'. I chose it because I want you really to be really happy, not to pretend to be the one. Terrence’s word is ‘loyal.’ Edward chose the word ‘confident.’ Helene – ‘brave,’ Anna – ‘smiling,’ Raquelle – ‘strong,’ and Natalia – ‘kind.’”       “That’s correct…” Peter nods. “Now harder questions: call the names of two neighbors of mine, who I constantly fight with.”       “Marta and Hillary. Marta Sheppard… Hillary Walker…”       “And the one, who I speak well to?”       “Clarissa. Clarissa Larson.”       “Why was Edward almost put in prison?”       “The murder of the friend of his father, Nicolas Carter.”       “Name of the man, who is guilty of the death of Raquelle’s parents and almost killed her and Terrence?”       “Simon Ringer.”       “Name of the main accomplice of Michael MacClife?”       “Eric Brown.” Daniel shakes his head sharply and stares at Peter surprisingly. “Damn, dude, what kind of examination?”       “Name of the girl, who was singing in Albert’s band and acting like a queen?”       “Alright, stop!” Daniel cuts off sharply. “Enough! Did you decide to ask me questions until the evening?”       Silence settles in the air for a few seconds, during which Daniel and Peter look at each other tensely, but then the latter breaks it:       “Okay, let’s think you’ve passed the test.”       “No more amnesia,” Daniel says confidently. “I’ve finally become me! The one I’ve always been! And I no longer feel like I am living someone’s life.”       “That’s bad it happened too late. When you turned everybody against you.”       “I would never do anything like that, knowing who my friends are, and who tells me the truth.”       “But you did it, even if you felt that we were familiar to you, unlike Blanca.”       “I know…”       Peter says nothing and glances aside for two seconds, while Daniel looks at him with pity in his eyes.       “Please, Peter…” Daniel pronounces quietly. “Forgive me… Forgive me for believing in this bullshit and saying too much… I didn’t want everything to end like that. Don’t forgive me now if you can’t. But… But just let me know that I have a chance. A chance that I could still call you my friend and count on your support and help.”       There is something that makes Peter change his mind about his attitude toward Daniel and think about whether he regrets refusing to save their friendship. The man remembers all the good things that this person has done for him. At the bottom of his heart, he confesses that he wants to give a chance to his friend, understanding that it’s not so easy to strike someone he has communicated with for so many years.       After waiting for a few seconds and getting no answer, Daniel decides that there is no meaning in continuing this talk.       “Okay…” Daniel pronounces tensely and glances aside. “You… Wanted to find the MacClifes… Go… I will no longer hold you. And the guys need your help.”       When Daniel goes Peter around and wants to go, the blond turns on him and, lowering his hands, pronounces quietly:       “Hey, wait.”       Daniel turns to Peter, who says nothing for two or three seconds before he nods and says quietly:       “I’m sorry for acting like an asshole. Maybe, I also crossed the line and said too much in anger.”       “That was fair,” Daniel replies with a slight smile. “I can’t judge you for the way you all treated me.”       “I hope you will turn your brains on next time.”       “I shall listen to my feelings better.”       “Good,” Peter nods with a slight smile.       Silence settles in the air for two seconds, after which Daniel points his hand to Peter a little hesitantly and pronounces quietly:       “So what? Peace?”       “Yeah,” Peter smiles much wider. “Peace.”       Peter and Daniel shake each other by the hand, smiling much wider every new second. And two or three seconds later, the young men hug each other strongly, sharing a clap on the back with a sigh of relief and slight smiles on their faces.       “Glad you’ve recalled everything,” Peter says with a slight smile.       “And I’m glad to be myself again,” Daniel chuckles quietly.       After clapping each other on the back or shoulder the last time, Peter and Daniel step away with a slight smile.       “Yeah, you don’t look well…” Daniel frowns slightly.       “I know, I had to fight much with that bull,” Peter exhales sharply. “Though, you don’t look better.”       “Yeah… That bastard is strong…”       “Oh, okay,” Peter says thoughtfully, scratching the back of his head. “We’ve gotta get out and find Edward and Terrence. Being here is dangerous, ‘cause Wainwright might come back at any time.”       “By the way, what did he do to you three after Edward ran after Wainwright, and Terrence followed him?”       “I guess he locked them in different rooms. But they got out through broken windows. There is a mess in two rooms, and the windows are broken.”       “He locked you, too?”       “Yup. I was waiting for him in one of the rooms and strongly hit him on the head with a baseball ball. But he didn’t even blink…”       “He locked me, too… He dragged me into a room, beat me, and locked the door. Luckily, I managed to break it.”       “Me too… But I had to apply some efforts to break that fucking door.” Peter massages his shoulder, which still hurts after a few attempts to open the door. “My shoulder still hurts…”       “Yeah… I thought breaking these doors would be easy…”       Silence settles in the air for two seconds, after which Daniel looks around quickly, running his hands over his disheveled hair.       “Oh, okay, we’ve been here for too long…” Daniel says quietly. “We’ve gotta get out. If Terrence and Edward got out through the window, they’re somewhere outside, and we must find them there.”       “I’m afraid we’ll have to find them for a long time…” Peter exhales sharply, running his hands over his matted hair. “I think the guys aren’t near. As well as that stinker.”       “Anyway, they couldn’t go far.” Daniel gives a start sharply and makes a calling gesture. “C’mon! We’ve gotta find these pretty boys before that bastard kills them. C’mon, c’mon, Rose, don’t sleep!”       While Daniel runs somewhere down the small hall, Peter, frowning slightly, watches him and then rushes to catch him. A few seconds later, the two end up in the hall and look around.       “Hey, what’s on the second floor?” Daniel asks.       “Only dust and some stuff,” Peter shakes his head.       “Nothing interesting?”       “Absolutely!”       With these words, Peter comes to the hall door, tries to open it, and finds out that it’s locked and does not succumb when pulling it away and pulling it up.       “Fuck, the door’s locked!” Peter exclaims, as he shakes the door lock.       Daniel comes to the door, tries to open it, and meets a failure.       “Damn, nothing works!” Daniel swears.       “Motherfucker!” Peter hits the door with a hand. “That asshole locked the house!”       “I guess we’ve gotta break it.”       “No choice. But fuck…” Peter moans quietly, massaging his shoulders and neck. “My shoulders and legs hurt after many hits on the door… I almost hurt everything when trying to get out of here.”       “Breaking it is impossible because it opens by pushing it on oneself. We’ve gotta find something to break the lock.”       “There’s much shit here…”       Peter comes to one of the corners of the hall and starts to examine the mess. And a little later, he moves his eyes to an old, squeaky black closet, through which a little shot of light shows up.       “Hey, hey, look!” Peter exclaims and comes to the closet. “There’s a window behind this closet!”       “Window?” Daniel wonders, comes to the closet, and examines it, seeing the same shoot of light. “Right! There is a window!”       “We could move off the closest, break the window, and get out of here quietly.”       “If only we can…” Daniel unsuccessfully tries to push the closet. “Oh, fuck… It’s heavy… Can’t be moved off…”       Peter also tries to move the closet but cannot do it.       “Maybe, we break it to the fuck?” Peter suggests.       “Or try to move it together?” Daniel suggests back.       “Okay! Take it from one side, and I will take it from another.”       Daniel grabs one corner of the closet, while Peter grabs the other one. Then they get ready to just move it off for a few seconds.       “Ready?” Daniel asks.       “Yup,” Peter nods.       “Let’s go!”       Peter and Daniel try to move off the closet together, applying as much effort as possible. And later, it gives them some results because this thing moves aside slightly.       “Something is happening…” Peter pronounces.       “It’s weak, about to break by itself,” Daniel warns.       “Watch out!”       When Daniel and Peter move the closet again, it starts to crush quickly. The men barely step back, so this big thing does not fall over their heads. The weak closet eventually breaks into a few parts that fall to the floor with a loud sound. That’s why the vortex of dust gets up in the air, making both of them start to cough quietly and wince strongly. But the friends really see that there is a window behind the closet.       “Damn, how much dust…” Daniel pronounces through a cough.       “Not only…” Peter pronounces, moving dust off himself with his hand. “There is much dirt… They haven’t cleaned it up for hundreds of years…”       “We’ve gotta get out of this hell.” Daniel first feels a tickling in his nose and sneezes loudly with his mouth closed with a hand. “Or I’m gonna be allergic to dust.”       “I’ve been since childhood. That’s why I regularly clean my apartment.”       “But that bastard doesn’t have it.”       “So, we’re one step closer to freedom. I think breaking the window is gonna be easy.”       “And there’s something that would be perfect.” Daniel finds a heavy stick and shows it to Peter, who sniffs quietly at this moment. “One hit before the glass is destroyed.”       “That’s what we need!”       “Hey, you better step aside! What if pieces lie down on different sides…”       While Peter steps back for his safety, Daniel gets ready for a hit, strikes a good pose, holding the stick with both hands, and knocks out the glass strongly. It immediately cracks and gets broken into a million pieces that eventually fall on the floor under the window frame.       “Nice hit,” Peter nods in approval.       “Thanks,” Daniel pronounces and throws the stick aside. “It’s easier than breaking doors.”       “Definitely…” Peter comes closer to the window frame and looks at this for two seconds. “Okay, let’s get out of here! But be careful. Don’t cut your hands on pieces of the window casement and don’t step on them.”       Peter climbs up on the small windowsill and stands on the frame carefully, holding it tightly and trying not to hurt himself. Daniel does all the same after the blond jumps down and shakes some dust and dirt off himself. Two moments later, the brunet also jumps down without consequences. The men breathe in the fresh, little cold air that they definitely lack. Then they look at each other, turn to the left, and notice that the hall door is locked and closed with large-sized objects.       “Look, that deadbeat blocked the door with furniture!” Peter exclaims.       “Yeah, Wainwright planned everything…” Daniel notices. “But he screwed up with the windows that we could break easily. He could at least set up a lattice or something like this if he decided to kill us.”       “He can do what he wants to it.”       Silence settles in the air for two seconds, during which Daniel and Peter just look around. And at some moment, the blond notices the tracks of shoes on the dirty ground, comes to them, and squats down.       “Hey, the tracks of shoes!” Peter exclaims. “Recent enough. As if someone went by here some time ago!”       “As if it will give us something,” Daniel rolls his eyes, comes to Peter, and bends to look at the tracks better. “There are so many!”       “No, no, these tracks will help us find the lads!”       “Aha, and who do they belong to?”       “Well, this one doesn’t obviously belong to any one of us!” Peter points at one of the tracks. “I guess that’s Wainwright’s one. Even a hippopotamus doesn’t have such big paws.”       “And it’s kinda mine…” Daniel places his foot near one of the tracks placed further. “Right! They’re the same! But the tracks lead to the house, not from the one…”       “And it seems to be the track of a sneaker,” Peter says thoughtfully, looking at one of the tracks. “Only Terrence is wearing them now.”       “I think he compared his track shoe with this one,” Daniel replies and points at the tracks that are placed next to one another, look differently, and have almost the same size.       “With Edward’s track! They’ve got the same shoe size!” Peter, frowning slightly, gets up quickly, and places his foot next to the tracks of shoes. “Right! My shoe size is less.”       “Well, mine is gonna be bigger.” Daniel places his foot next to the three tracks and chuckles kindly. “Listen, it looks good! We could also leave the tracks of our hands. Think that we’ve attended the Walk of Fame and perpetuated our hands and feet.”       “I’m starting to recognize the former you,” Peter laughs quietly. “Now I can believe that you’re back.”       “Didn’t questioning me make you believe it?”       “It did. But your jokes are another wonderful proof. With amnesia, you wouldn’t have been able to say a good joke.”       “One more reason why I didn’t feel like me.”       “Oh, okay, buffoon, save jokes for later.” Peter clears his throat quickly. “So, we’ve gotta follow the way of these two tracks. Thus, we can find the MacClifes. I am sure they’re together. One obviously of them ran after another.”       “Okay, Sherlock, let’s try,” Daniel replies tiredly and watches the way the tracks of Edward and Terrence’s shoes and sees that they end near the gate. “But since Wainwright locked the gate, we’ll have to climb over it. I think the MacClifes did it if their tracks lead to the gate and the stone fence.”       “That’s why I will climb over the fence,” Peter replies confidently. “I’m sure that the gate is locked outside, and we can’t open it.”       Peter comes to the stone fence quickly and tries to climb up, checking closely every single stone that he grabs. Daniel does not waste time and decides to climb over the fence, even if he is not happy that he will have to do this. While Rose climbs up easily and waits for his buddy, sitting on the fence, Perkins has some problems. When he climbs up a little higher, his foot slides down from one of the stones, and he gets sharply dragged down and falls on his elbows.       “Ay!” Daniel winces strongly, feeling that the pain in his elbows echoes in every single part of his body. “It hurts! Fuck… I fell… I would’ve rather fallen on my ass… It would’ve been much softer…”       “Sorry, I don’t have a pillow with me!” Peter says with a loud chuckle, sitting on the top of the fence.       “You decided to mock me?”       “Not at all! I’m just encouraging!”       “You’d better help me climb up instead of sitting and laughing!”       “C’mon, c’mon, buddy, shut up, get up, and climb up,” Peter encourages funnily. “If you fall again, it’s okay. You could get a tougher ass.”       “I’ve got the most beautiful and toughest ass of the four of us!”       “And your arms are weaker than a girl’s ones.”       “Ar-r-r, shut up, idiot, or I shall strangle you,” Daniel growls irritably. “Don’t irritate me as well as the MacClife brothers irritate each other!”       “Climb up first and work your tongue then.”       “I wish you fell off there! With your head first!”       “C’mon, c’mon, no talks!”       Daniel gets up with a loud, irritated moan, shakes some dirt off, and tries to climb up on the fence again, doing everything as slowly as a turtle this time and checking every single stone closely. He takes half of the way before he almost falls down because he does not grab a stone in time.       “Yeah, Perkins, you’re a worthless athlete,” Peter shakes his head with a quiet laugh. “You don’t even deserve a wooden medal for the Olympic Games.”       “Now, now, you will ask for trouble, talkative birdie,” Daniel moans irritably again. “When I’m on top, I shall kick your ass. Get all of your feathers out! Educate you as well as Terrence educates Edward!”       “By that time, I will jump down and run a few meters away.”       “Don’t be so confident, Rose. This is not the… AY!”       Daniel slides on one of the stones again but holds on magically. Peter laughs quietly and then decides to help the man, understanding that it might last for a long time, and gives him a hand when he says:       “Hey, give me a hand!”       Daniel takes Peter’s hand tightly and climbs up little by little, but almost falls a couple of times.       “Go, go, one more pull-up!” Peter exclaims.       Some time later, Daniel ends up on top and sits on the fence. But he and Peter do not rush to get down and try to come to themselves, breathing a little heavily.       “Oh, we’re on Everest now,” Peter exhales sharply.       “I don’t want it again,” Daniel replies and massages his neck, breathing heavily enough. “Damn, my whole body hurts…”       “Hold on, man. Something tells me that we’re gonna have an intense workout.”       Peter jumps down the fence, and then Daniel does the same. After this, they quietly start to follow the tracks that lead deeper into the woods.       “Agree,” Daniel agrees. “Who knows, how long we’d have to run on these tracks.”       “And who knows what Edward may come up with,” Peter replies. “That idiot won’t leave Wainwright alone.”       “I hope Terrence will wash his brains. He didn’t look too good after Wainwright beat him strongly.”       “MacClife doesn’t understand that this bastard could send him to another world for a few seconds.”       “If only we didn’t have to drive him to the hospital along with Cassidy.”       “Before doing it, we’ll have to carry them on our backs. But Terrence’s back is too far from here.”       “I feel bad when I think that we’ll have to take a long way. With two victims, who we’ll have to carry.”       Peter and Daniel keep going where Terrence and Edward were supposed to go. Although the tracks lead them somewhere, nobody is sure that they will go where the brothers are, who will definitely need help when they find Wainwright and have to fight off him.