The Criminal Diaries

      Under the cover of darkness in the evening, too little light enters a half-ruined, abandoned house located somewhere in the depths of the woods, where there are tons of broken windows. Tense silence settles and can be broken only by the monotonous sounds of drops of water that fall on one or another side. And due to the dust in the air, everything seems a little blurry. A big crowd of people could be placed in a large room where much trash is thrown everywhere: from rotten sticks, stones, and bricks to plastic bags, packs, cigarette butts, and goopy mud. It seems like rotten boards on the ceiling are about to break and fall over someone's head at any time.       There is a very old chair that has not broken in the middle of the room. The young man with blond hair is sitting on it with his head inclined powerlessly. To be clear, he is tied up to this chair with ropes that are tied around his wrists. The blond is unconscious, judging by his eyes closed tightly and pale skin. There are many bruises and much blood on his face and his whole body, and his simple t-shirt has many holes now. Peter was madly unlucky to run into four people who managed to beat him and knock him out with no problems, even though he tried to resist so hard.       At some moment, Peter moves his fingertips slightly and then shakes his head with a quiet, painful moan. He raises it very closely, feeling that it’s literally tearing from pain, and opens his eyes slowly, seeing everything in a daze. Weakness in his whole body and pain after a strong beating let him know about it immediately and gives him a strong discomfort when he barely moves. And when he tries to pump much air in his lungs, something starts pressing on his chest. The blond spends a few seconds trying to get rid of the veil in front of his eyes by blinking quickly, doing his best not to pay attention to the pain he feels every time he moves. After focusing his vision more or less, the man looks around slowly and understands immediately that he is now in an unknown place.       “Oh, what the fuck…” Peter moans painfully, trying to breathe deeply with the thought that it will help him. “What actually happened? What am I the fuck doing here?”       After another moan, Peter just realizes the main reason for his discomfort – his hands and feet are tightly tied. He tries to move them, but he understands that they are motionless.       “Fuck, shit…” Peter blunts under his nose and tries to set free his hands that are tied behind the back of the chair with no success. “Seriously?”       But no matter how hard Peter tries, he cannot break free. He even tries to tie them up by himself, recalling the way someone does it in movies and TV shows, but he cannot help himself. That’s why the man growls irritably, getting mad at himself for this failure.       “Damn, it’s too tight… I can’t… Fuck!”       Starting to breathe a little heavily and closing tightly the eye that is now puffy after the beating, Peter looks around again and notices that he is kind of all alone here, and winces slightly because of the sounds of dropping water that irritates him. He has already realized that he was brought here by the people, whom he had to fight alone. And a sense of powerlessness and despair, the man starts to panic. From fear of absolute loneliness. Fear of the fact that nobody will help him for sure. There is a wish to scream at the top of his lungs, but he understands that no one will hear him here.       “Damn, what do I do?” Peter asks himself. “How do I get out of here? And what’s this place?”       Peter just realizes that his cell phone is not in the pocket of his jeans, and there is no Sammy around. This thought makes him panic much more and feel that his heart is beating much faster, so that the beat echoes in his temples, which hurt a lot from pain. The guy starts to blame himself for not watching the dog enough and is sure Helene will be angry if she knows it. But he tries so hard to calm himself down with the thought that someone will find him and bring him back to his owner thanks to the pedant with her home address and number. But it does not help him a lot because his bad presentiment is way stronger.       Peter starts to go crazy little by little from fear of absolute loneliness and despair, being afraid that today was the last day he would see his friends and girlfriend. Today would be the day someone gets rid of him, after all. When someone makes their threat real and sends him to the afterlife, using the moment when none of the men can save him. And when Rose hears someone’s steps that get closer and closer, he literally stops breathing and starts listening to them very closely, seeing everything that’s far from him badly due to his bad vision and the smoke in the air. The sound of the sole hitting the asphalt gets louder and clearer, his heart starts beating much faster, a lump gets stuck in the throat and cannot be swallowed up, and his body, which is now so weak after all the cruel hits, shakes from shock and pain.       Peter has to squint his eyes strongly to see the strange blond-haired, middle-aged man showing up out of the smoke like magic and wearing a simple gray sweater with half-rolled sleeves, white pants, and dark shoes. He gets closer to the guy with his head proudly raised as he literally makes the hole on his head with his contemptuous look that makes Rose feel how the goosebumps run over his skin and holds his breath for a moment.       “Hey, did you finally wake up?” the man asks with a sly smile.       “Huh?” Peter opens his eyes full of fear widely, putting his head on his shoulders with the thought that invisible hands are squeezing his neck tightly.       “You made me wait for too long. I even thought that you wouldn’t wake up. That my people overdid it and killed you accidentally.”       “Is this some kind of joke? What does it all mean?”       “It means you and I have finally met.”       The man brings his face sharply to the face of Peter, who leans his head back slightly with a heavy breath.       “You cannot even imagine how long I was waiting for this meeting. How long I wanted to know what you were.”       “Who are you?” Peter hisses through his teeth, making himself hide his fears deep inside by force. “What do you want from me? Why did you the fuck tie me up? What am I doing here? Where did you bring me?”       “Ah, yeah, sorry. I should’ve started with introducing myself.”       The man inclines his head slightly, putting his hand on his heart.       “I’m Marcus,” Marcus introduces himself. “Marcus Longbottom.”       “And what do you want from me?” Peter asks in a low voice. “Marcus Longbottom…”       “Oh, it’s like I want to tell you everything now! Don’t rush, boy. Slow down.”       “Do you have your brain dumped at an old age? Do you have the fuck nothing to do? Did you decide to play a fucking criminal?”       “I advise you not to keep your mouth shut, freak.”       Marcus squeezes Peter’s jaw strongly as he sets his contemptuous glance on his eyes.       “Otherwise, your face will be squeezed, so that even plastic surgery cannot fix it.”       “I ask you again, what do you want from me?” Peter demands the answer. “I do not know you! And I have done nothing to you!”       “What do I want?” Marcus steps away from Peter sharply and crosses his arms over his chest. “I need your body. Alive, preferably. To turn it into a bunch of rotten meat later.”       “Didn’t you have any other victims, except me?”       “I don’t care about others. I do need you, Peter.”       “You know my name?”       “Of course, I know. I know everything about you. About you, your friends, and your gorgeous girlfriend. Who is going to cry bitterly soon when she knows my people had to bring you here by force.”       “What?”       “Of course, we didn’t hope you would love to go with the guys at your wish. But hitting you on the head, putting you in the car’s trunk, bringing you here, and tying you up was a forced measure. As it turned out, you look like an angel, but you can sting like a bee.”       “Wait…” Peter realizes. “It’s all you… You started it all… All these chases, attacks, and attempts to kill my close people…”       “Yeah, I will not deny that it was my work,” Marcus confesses with no hesitation, with a sly, wide smile, and crosses his arms over his chest. “I am the one who’s wanted to erase you from the world all this time.”       “Asshole…” Peter hisses, showing a contemptuous grin. “Bastard… It’s all you…”       “I was so lucky my familiar guys were so obedient and did all my orders. And they gave me new ideas again and again.”       “And why did you do this all? WHY, THE FUCK?”       “Hey, don’t shout here!” Marcus slaps Peter strongly in the face. “You’re talking to the man, who is much older than you, not your friends.”       “Oh, yay, the old bastard that went insane,” Peter snaps fearlessly.       “M-m-m… It seems like you weren’t taught to respect older people and be silent when they speak.” Marcus smirks evilly. “Well, what I’m talking about. If you told the truth about being on your own since childhood in the interview, there’s no way you could get lessons in good manners.”       “And why did you start it all?”       “Just to kill you.”       “What do you want? Money? Take everything! Just leave my friends and me alone!”       “No, my boy, I don’t need your money. Don’t think I saw you on a TV, found out you were famous and played drums in the band with your bros, and decided to get some money.”       “Yeah?” Peter pronounces with mistrust. “Why else? I am really famous, loved… I earn a lot of money from any performance… Why wouldn’t you use this chance?”       “I care about your money much less, Peter. If you were a multibillionaire, I would give a fuck about you.”       “Leave me alone then! Stop chasing me and let me live a quiet life!”       “Oh, no, I will not leave you alone. I shall not calm down until I see your name on the grave.”       “So, do you refuse to explain why you the fuck started it all?”       “Now it’s not the time for shocking confessions, my dear. If I told you everything immediately or made my friends responsible for this, it wouldn’t be so interesting. But first, I want to torture you enough. Make you suffer. Drive you crazy.”       “Congratulations, you got what you wanted!” Peter throws rudely. “The guys and I now have to walk outside and look around to detect spying all the time.”       “Excellent!” Marcus exclaims. “I am so happy.”       “How much did you pay all those bastards to make them put our lives in danger again and again? One bastard attacked me after the show, another tried to strangle me, the third one pushed me off the stairs… Another almost hit my friend with the car… Someone actually wanted to drown my girlfriend… And one girl added poison to the water that another friend of mine drank.”       Peter sneers evilly.       “You have surrounded yourself with a gang of jackals, honorable! I guess you’re supposed to be a rich man to please all these asses.”       “Why do you think you should pay someone a lot of money, so they do any dirty work for you?” Marcus surprises as he rounds his eyes. “Wouldn’t anyone like to help you for nothing? At their wish!”       “A sane person would hardly put themselves in danger and please one bastard for just a simple ‘thank you.’ Who would love to spend the rest of their life in jail alongside tons of criminals?”       “M-m-m, do you pay your friends, so they befriend you? Does nobody want to talk to you for nothing? Is that why you pay all these bastards so much money, so they lick your ass?”       “True friendship can’t be bought for any money. Even if you run this scam, this deal will not be successful, and the system will fail one beautiful day.”       “As it turns out, you can. Since all those boys protected you from my people so hard. Pretended to be superheroes. Fucking Batmans!”       “Did you, old bastard, naively think they would pee their pants, run away, and stand aside, watching you kill me?”       “They should’ve known they would have to pay a lot for this.”       “The guys did understand everything.” Peter smiles slyly. “But it didn’t stop them. Just like they didn’t stop after my pleas of letting me solve it all by myself.”       “Initially, I didn’t plan to do anything to them. I thought I’d deal with you with no problems whenever I wanted. But their actions made me change my plans urgently.”       “My friends are guilty of nothing for you. You have no right to harm them.”       “Oh, they are. They decided to protect you.”       “A normal behavior for those who appreciate strong male friendship and loyalty.”       “A normal behavior for those who love asking for fucking trouble. Who cannot sit quietly in their places. Who don’t want to do their business without meddling in the business of strange women and men.”       “That’s what I respect the guys for. For not being afraid when the case is about their close people. The guys are ready to get through water and fire and even give their lives for them.”       “Do you think I’m supposed to melt and cry because it’s too emotional? Get emotional over your unity? Admire your determination?”       “I give a fuck about what you will do!” Peter snaps. “I only want one thing – you and all those bastards to leave all of us alone.”       “I shall do, alright. When you are in the afterlife. After that, I will leave you alone with pleasure and live a quiet and peaceful life.”       “Why?” Peter explodes. “What did I do to you? I am nobody to you and have no idea what my fault is?”       “You will understand everything soon, my boy. Soon, you will know what made me hate you.”       “Deal with my mother on your own since she stood in your way. Even if she made some mistakes, she must fix them on her own.”       “The answer is not on the surface,” Marcus pronounces tensely as he furrows his forehead strongly. “You need to get deeper into it. Much deeper.”       “I repeat, the business of that woman is not mine at all. Deal with her by yourself. Don’t get the fuck her son involved since he is guilty of nothing.”       “I promise when the time comes, you’ll know all the truth. I shall tell you the full story from start to end. Alright, I shall show generosity and let you know what made me do this. Even though you will not need it in the afterlife, alright. You have the right to know everything.”       “Thank you, the fuck!” Peter roars and shakes his tied hands sharply. “And now untie me now!”       “This is the protection from resisting like a cat here. From showing your claws.” Marcus smirks evilly. “The guys told me all the details about how hard you were fighting with four tough guys at the same time. And how the dog helped you. The dog that would be so good as meat for dinner.”       “What did you do to him? What did you do to the dog? WHERE’S HE? ANSWER!”       “We did nothing to him. The dog just stayed to spend her short life in the place my people took you away from when you were unconscious.”       “ASSHOLE! YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!”       “If the dog is lucky, someone will find him and contact the owner. As far as I know, he’s got a collar with the label with her contacts.”       “If something happens to the dog, I swear I will strangle you all with my hands. I shall kill anyone who beats him with feet and hands with no shame.”       “That piece of shit was the same barrier as your friends. You aren’t kinda his owner, but he protected you as if it was your creature.”       “Because he loves me!”       “Because you feed him!” Marcus throws rudely. “Dogs would even please the devil for food. Fucking corrupted assholes that love their feeder much more than ever. If you wave a piece of meat in front of them, they would even fly to the Moon.”       “Wrong, honorable, they do have feelings! They can love, worry, befriend, and hate! And sometimes dogs are much more loyal and more human than people. Among whom there are real rotten bastards. Someone like you and your gang of jackals.”       “Oh, yeah, don’t tell me you and your gal, who is his owner, consider him your child. A member of your family. You humanize him by calling yourself a mom and a dad of that bastard.”       “If it’s so, do you really care about it?”       “I don’t, actually!”       “Excellent! Untie up, so I can go!”       “You will go nowhere, little cad.” Marcus squeezes Peter’s throat with his fingers tightly. “I shall not let you go.”       “I will not close my eyes to this!” Peter says, choking from a lack of air. “You will pay me for everything you’re doing!”       “You are able to do nothing, Peter.” Marcus weakens his grip and raises Peter’s face by the chin. “You cannot prove that I am guilty of what’s happening.”       “Why can’t I?” Peter rounds his eyes. “Now I know your name and have memorized your old, wrinkly face well. That I would be fucking happy to hit with my foot if you untied me.”       “Would you raise your hand on an older man?”       “Bastards and assholes have no age.”       “Guys, be nice, hit this asshole as strongly as you can,” Marcus orders with a sly smile as he glances at Luther and Ronald standing not far from him.       Luther moves off first, runs to Peter, and smashes his fist against his face as strongly as possible. Then Ronald does the same thing, but from the other side. That’s why the blond’s head turns to the side by inertia, and he feels the taste of blood in his mouth.       “You’re playing a dishonest game, gentlemen,” Peter laughs evilly, spits out a little blood clot at Luther’s side, making him step back sharply, and glances at him contemptuously. “All against one. Nobody does it.”       “Rules don’t exist for us, bastard,” Luther says with his head proudly raised. “We do what we want.”       “You can beat me even to death! It will not change anything. I thought you were bastards, and I shall think so.”       “You know, we give a fuck,” Ronald says rudely. “We give a fucking fuck.”       “It’s alright, guys, we will give him a couple of lessons on good manners,” Marcus says confidently, hugging Luther and Ronald around the shoulders. “We have a lot of time.”       “As I understand, did you kinda kidnap me?” Peter laughs contemptuously. “You brought me nobody the fuck knows where, tied me up… And now you began to beat me…”       “If you don’t stop showing off, it will happen again and again,” Elijah says with his head proudly raised as he is standing next to Marcus. “The best thing you can do is shut your mouth down.”       “You always talk about respect for older people. But has someone ever told you that you must treat young people with respect, too?”       “Young people must only obey older people and shut up.”       “Yeah? Shouldn't they also bow to you? As I understand, you greet your lord with a low bow and a kiss on his hand and feet, not a handshake?”       “M-m-m, since you’re snapping, you are scared…” Marcus smiles slyly. “But you don’t want to show it. You think you would hide your feelings if you showed up.”       Marcus starts walking in circles around Peter, while Luther, Ronald, and Elijah go aside.       “But I know you are scared now… I can feel you are shaking… I hear how fast your heart is beating…” Marcus grabs Peter by the hair from behind and pulls his head sharply back. “You are afraid to be alone to death. Without your friends. You are only sassy next to them. Because you are sure you can always hide behind their backs.”       “Don’t think I will cry like a girl and beg you to let me go,” Peter replies in a low, rude voice.       “Don’t do. I do see clearly how scared you are. I see a great fear in your eyes.”       Marcus sets his eyes on the widely open eyes of Peter breathing heavily and feeling that every single muscle of his body is squeezed, and dizziness possesses him due to the lack of air.       “When you woke up, the first thing you did was look around. I guess you were looking for your henchmen. But you didn’t find them. That’s why you peed your pants. Because there was nobody to fight for you. Nobody to save you.”       “Don’t worry, honorable, I can do this all without the men’s help,” Peter says in a low, little shaking voice. “I don’t have to be with them to stand up for me. I’m not as helpless as you want to think.”       “Yes, you’re trying, but you’re afraid deep inside. The way you show off is just a mask. You just don’t want to admit you’ve always been a cowardly and insecure boy. And you haven’t changed at all since friends came into your life. I mean, you assured yourself that you got rid of the boy named Pete. Though that’s not the truth.”       “You know nothing about me. You cannot know who I really am.”       “No, boy, I know everything about you. I know even what you don’t know about yourself.”       “Huh, what don’t I know about me?” Peter shows a contemptuous grin.       “Many things. But I can tell you one thing: you are a coward.”       Marcus squeezes Peter’s throat with one hand tightly.       “A pathetic, insecure coward. The coward who hides behind the backs of his loyal henchmen all the time.”       “I give a fuck about what you think…” Peter barely pronounces and coughs quietly. “You’re nobody to me… To listen to you…”       “You are in a hopeless situation, Peter,” Elijah says. “Screaming doesn’t make sense because nobody can hear you here. Your friends are not around. And nobody is going to untie you because you’d start to fight and try to run away shortly.”       “My friends will find me anyway! They won't leave me when they understand what happened.”       “They can,” Marcus smiles innocently. “They have nothing that would help them. They don’t have any information about me and my people.”       “But we’ve got the information about the gal that got an order from you to poison my friends before the show.”       “It happened.”       Marcus lets Peter go sharply, and the blond starts coughing quickly and catching the air greedily.       “One day, Luther and Elijah told me about this brilliant idea, and I agreed with pleasure. And Luther’s friend didn’t refuse to help us when we told her everything.”       “Ha, did she jump for you on her hind paws for a simple ‘thank you’?”       “No, I paid Carla some money. So, she could please herself and her baby. She is a good girl, she did what she was told. Poisoning at least one of you was already enough. And I am really happy the girl did it. But I’m sorry that she did not poison all the bottles.” Marcus hums quietly. “One little asshole showed up and started to pretend to be sassy, threatening her with the police. So, she had to find an excuse to get out of her workplace urgently.”       “ASSHOLE!” Peter explodes. “My friend almost died because of the shit that she added to the water!”       “Yeah, yeah, I’m aware. They talked about it so much on the news. And everyone on the Internet was excited. Of course, I am sorry that people know about the poisoning. But that’s good everyone blamed his indigestion for that.”       “He had a cardiac arrest and a respiratory arrest. He was barely revived! He was lucky he was a tough and healthy guy with love for life. He recovered quickly.”       “And as I understand, he drank almost the full bottle.”       “Exactly!”       “Nothing would’ve happened to him if he’d taken a couple of sips. Yes, of course, he would’ve had a strong stomach pain, but no cardiac arrest would’ve happened. And your friend was an idiot.”       “What did you the fuck add to it? Glass cleaner? Drain cleaner? Some kind of rat poison? That even the doctors could not detect!”       “That’s the thing I shall tell you nothing about.”       “Don’t do. The doctor assumed it was a foxglove. And when I had free time, I read a little about it. I found out that the symptoms of poisoning with this shit were the same as the ones my friend had. And you’d feel fucking bad if you mixed it with some chemistry.”       “M-m-m, you are not such a stupid boy! Yeah, the poison is strong enough. And there is really a foxglove in it. Somehow, it was used for the treatment of chronic heart failure. But it has the strongest poison that has a negative influence on the stomach. In the worst case, a person has a cardiac arrest. And then they are one step away from death.”       “If we’d lost him because of you, I WOULD’VE MADE YOU DRINK THAT FUCKING WATER! SO, YOU, ASSHOLE, CHOKE AND DIE!”       “Yeah, the puppy was really lucky,” Elijah says. “If he’d drunk one more bottle, he wouldn’t have avoided the tragedy. No doctors would’ve been able to help him.”       “One friend of mine almost became a victim, too. He had stomach pain after drinking that water. And it hurt for two more days.”       “It seems like that one had some brains to stop. He saw how his friend was suffering and thought, ‘Shiver me! I wanna live yet!’”       “You, bastards, almost sent two people to another world! TWO! TWO, THE FUCK!”       “Hey, stop screaming here!” Ronald throws rudely and beats Peter strongly on the back of his head. “Stop screaming!”       “I SHALL KILL ALL OF YOU, BASTARDS! FOR NEARLY LOSING TWO FRIENDS OF MINE!”       “Getting your friends out of my way was my goal,” Marcus says.       “I WISH THAT POISON WAS IN YOUR CUP OF COFFEE! I WISH YOU DRANK IT ACCIDENTALLY AND DIED!”       “Hey, bastard, did we not beat you enough?” Ronald roars and smashes his fist against Peter’s puffy eye, under which there is a bright blue bruise. “NOT THE FUCK ENOUGH?!”       “Honestly, you irritate me so much that I would be happy to kill you right now,” Marcus confesses, crossing his arms over his chest.       “What are you waiting for? COME ON! KILL ME!”       “You scream, but your voice is shaking and betraying you. Showing all your real emotions.”       “Aha, he probably thought he would be saved by his friend, who was walking with him and that smelly dog,” Luther puts his hands on his hips. “But that asshole got out after they fought over something.”       “To his luck,” Elijah adds. “The boy saved his skin. In the opposite case, these sweethearts would’ve been sitting in front of us together.”       “Yeah, we would’ve knocked out the second one without problems and brought him here,” Ronald adds. “There were more of us. So, Rose and Perkins had no chances.”       “I am really happy he got out!” Peter says with his head proudly raised. “I am glad we fought! Because he literally saved himself.”       “It’s alright, my boy, one beautiful day, all your friends will be sitting in front of me,” Marcus assures. “And I am warning you again: if they keep saving you again and again, they will be dead.”       “Don’t even dare to touch them with a finger. Hear me, old bastard? DO NOT DARE!”       “Yeah? Who would stop me?”       “I shall kill you if something else happens to them,” Peter threatens at the top of his lungs, while his nostrils inflate due to the anger that fills every cell of his tense body. “And you will pay me after two of them were close to death. I SWEAR ON EVERYTHING I CAN!”       “Yeah…” Marcus sneers contemptuously. “When you have no opportunity to wave your hands and feet, you can only work your tongue.”       “I SHALL WORK!”       “Don’t make me give the guys the order to tape your fucking mouth.”       “Don’t you want to do something personally? Why do you make others do everything?”       “I want! I can do many things! But here’s the thing that I can do right now.”       Marcus gives Peter a strong slap in the face that makes him smirk nervously.       “Why is it so weak? Slap me much stronger! Or can’t you do this at your age?”       “I have an excellent age! I'm only fifty-seven.”       “It’s time to think about an appointment to the retirement fund. Well, or at least work hard, so your long-standing does a good thing for you.”       “Don’t worry about my standing. I have a good job, a stable salary, and no problems with taxes.”       “Do they know what you are doing? The way you are trying to kill innocent people?”       “Not so innocent.”       “Much better than you and your gang.”       “Hey, freak, show showing off!” Elijah roars. “Be nice to respect older people! You will show off for your friends! And you must respect the lord!”       “In short, old man, I am not going to waste my time on you anymore. Tell your oafs to untie me now. RIGHT NOW!”       “Don’t worry, nobody will find you here,” Marcus says. “My guys found a wonderful place where there is nobody for several miles.”       “They WILL BE searching for me! And when the time comes, YOU WILL ALL PAY FOR WHAT YOU ARE DOING! NOT JUST YOU, HONORABLE, BUT ALSO THESE BASTARDS!”       “Nobody knows about me, I don’t appear anywhere.” Marcus raises his head proudly, squeezing Peter’s jaw strongly. “This is my advantage. Nobody would even dare to think I am guilty of anything. And my guys are innocent in the law’s eyes. They all have an official job. For the society, we are all good and hardworking people who work for the well-being of their country.”       “Are you sure you planned everything so well?”       “Absolutely. Well, even if someone gave me information about Carla or Darren, who was arrested for his attempt on you, you cannot use it anyway.”       “M-m-m, I imagine how much money you had to borrow to cover that bastard.”       “Not so much. But things didn’t move on further. Darren just paid a penalty for violating the order. That’s all, the case was closed.”       “But you say don’t need money!” Peter sneers evilly. “Ha, you do need! How else would you please your henchmen?”       “I see you got head issues after you got a strong hit on it. You cannot even remember what you are told.”       “Don’t worry, I remember everything clearly. Even if my head is about to explode from pain.”       “But I shall remind you of it nicely.”       Marcus starts walking in circles around Peter, who swallows nervously at this moment as he is breathing heavily and sometimes pulling his tied hands with a little hope of setting them free by himself.       “I don’t need your fucking money. You can use it as toilet paper if you have too much. But I am just a simple worker who was lucky to get many friends.”       “Wow, as it turned out, you love young boys. You definitely don’t care about old men. I think you love them because you feel cheerful and active next to the youth. As they say, with whom you lead, from this and pick up.”       “Hey, freak, shut your fucking mouth down,” Marcus gets enraged, clenching his hands tightly.       “I don’t mean what you would’ve probably thought about. I mean, you should get friends of your age.”       “I had them, my dear. I had. And I still have. But to my sadness, some of them died too early. And if you want to know, all the guys you met today are sons of some of them.”       “Ah, I got it all! The sons just continue to do dirty tricks of their daddies and don’t mind getting into the shit they left after themselves.”       “Not everything in this world can be solved with money, pathetic creature,” Elijah notices.       “Yeah, these guys help me for nothing,” Marcus adds. “They tribute and remember their fathers. As well-educated men, who were taught this by their parents.”       “I’d like to see the bastards who raised more bastards,” Peter snaps.       “Hey, asshole, do not even dare to insult my father!” Luther clenches his hands into fists. “If you say just something about him, I will put your dick in your ass!”       “I’m not done with you, bastard! You and I will have a special talk.”       “I warned you, jackass. DON’T DARE TO SAY ANYTHING ABOUT MY FATHER!”       Luther hits his foot against Peter’s groin with a deafening growl, using the moment when the blond’s knees are spread. That’s why Rose screams painfully, tensing all his muscles in the pain. Also, the chair he is tightly tied to almost falls to the concrete floor, but it does not happen because Ronald puts it back in time.       “And do not open your mouth to say something about mine!” Ronald threatens in a low, rude voice, squeezing Peter’s jaw from behind and putting the knife to his throat. “Otherwise, I shall kill you! You will not understand what happens.”       “You can only beat faces,” Peter smiles falsely by force. “You don’t have brains for anything else.”       “That’s a shame you don’t have the brains to shut up,” Marcus sneers evilly. “And you have no education!”       “Then, educate your henchmen since their mommies and daddies passed away.”       “It’s alright, my boy, the guys and I do not rush and would be happy to give a lesson. Make you afraid of even the mention of our names.”       “Did you want to say these bastards would teach me a lesson? And you would be standing aside and enjoying my suffering.”       “Your suffering is like balm for my soul.”       “You know, your name on the grave would also be a wonderful gift for me.”       “Ronald, Luther, how much do you want to beat this bastard again?” Marcus asks with a sly smile as he glances at Ronald and Luther.       “I would be happy to hit his face against the asphalt!” Ronald says with a wide smile.       “And I wouldn’t mind testing a new type of tornado kick on him,” Luther raises his head proudly.       “And I will finish while hitting your head against the wall and keeping your face underwater,” Peter snaps.       “I am getting closer to the moment when your gal sucks me. Very soon, this beautiful day will come.”       “I SHALL CUT YOUR FUCKING BALLS IF YOU SAY IT AGAIN! SO, YOU HAVE NOTHING TO PUT IN HOLES!”       “The boy is mad, he is…” Elijah smiles slyly, crossing his arms over his chest.       “Oh, oh, yea-a-a-ah, look how the boy is fretting and fuming…” Marcus shakes his head. “How mad he is at the thought that the girl is not with him.”       “Come on, Mr. Longbottom, relax,” Luther pronounces quietly. “This bastard will not do anything to me because he is tied. And I give a fuck about all his empty threats.”       “WE WILL SEE IT, BASTARD!” Peter screams at the top of his lungs with a heavy breath.       “You were told NOT TO THE FUCK SCREAM!” Marcus explodes, getting red from anger, and slaps Peter in the face. “DON’T SCREAM! STOP! ENOUGH!”       “I curse you, Marcus Longbottom. I wish you all the worst. I wish you to die long, in torture for a very long time. I WISH YOU ALL OF THIS WITH ALL MY HEART!”       “Hey, did you go the fuck crazy?” Ronald gets mad, putting the edge of the knife to Peter’s throat and leaning his head back sharply after grabbing him by the hair sharply. “DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE TALKING TO? ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY, ASSHOLE?”       “I’m having to deal with bastards.”       “Guys, beat him as strongly as you can,” Marcus orders without emotions in a low voice. “It seems like what you did before is not enough for him.”       “With pleasure, my lord,” Ronald smiles smugly. “Now David and Darwin will come soon and join our fun kindly.”       “What if we put him under several little tortures?” Luther smiles mysteriously. “What about shooting him with an electric gun?”       “Or scratching something on his arms?” Ronald suggests as he looks at the knife in his hands. “Let’s say… Freak… Or… Bastard…”       “Just in case, I have a lighter,” Elijah hints. “We could burn his skin a little. Or burn his gorgeous hair down to the fuck.”       “Do what you want,” Marcus approves. “But remember that I need Peter alive yet. Don’t kill him earlier.”       “Oh, does it kinda mean I should thank you for such a generous thing?” Peter surprises.       “Go, guys, start it. Start an unforgettable show for me.”       Excited from happiness and anger, Luther and Elijah move their ice looks to Peter, who starts breathing much heavier due to the hopeless situation. His widely open eyes are running from side to side chaotically, his heart is beating like crazy, and his hands are starting to hurt more and more since they are tightly tied. The guy barely realizes how he gets a strong hit on his nose from Luther, but screams heartbreakingly when Ronald smashes his fist against his solar plexus. Ah, how much he wants to stand up for himself and answer his enemies in the same way. But he does not have a chance to.       Peter is powerless in front of this gang. He feels a powerful pain in his jaw, and a thin flow of bright red liquid blood starts getting out of his nose, rolling down, and dirtying his t-shirt and jeans. And while Marcus enjoys his suffering as he is standing aside with a sly smile and sometimes whispering about something with Elijah, who does not also rush to join his friends. Luther and Ronald get pleasure from giving Rose strong hits on his whole body. Yes, sometimes the blond cannot hold down his deafening screams. But he literally bites the bullet not to let himself break down even under such terrible tortures and not to start to cry bitterly, begging the bad men to let him go. Though he has been beaten so strongly in a short time that there is nothing in his body that does not hurt.       And later, David and Darren join the torture after showing up out of nowhere. They do not refuse to give Peter many more strong hits, gloating over their domination over the tied man, who cannot resist them. At some moment, Luther takes the knife from Ronald and takes a few small cuts on Rose’s arms that give him unbearable pain, which is the reason he even gets tears in his eyes. And meanwhile, Darren takes a tiny cable from the backpack lying not far from them and puts it around Peter’s neck as tightly as possible, starting to strangle the blond, who is choking from a strong lack of air. And he quickly feels that dizziness gets over him little by little, everything goes blurry before his eyes, and all the sounds get kind of more defeating every second.       

***

      Some time later, Raquelle, Natalia, Helene, Edward, and Terrence come all together at the house of Anna and Daniel, who has not shown up yet, making his friends think he has been taken away alongside Peter. Sammy is also with them and looks terribly excited and upset at his failure in saving the boyfriend of his owner, who tries to comfort him with words and caresses, even though she is also excited and worried about her beloved man.       While Edward is leaning on the back of the sofa with both hands, and Terrence is walking in circles in the whole living room, Raquelle and Natalia are doing their best to comfort Anna and Helene, who keep crying bitterly at the thought that something terrible happened to Daniel and Peter. Even Sammy does not stay aside and lets the girls pet him, putting his face on their laps, pressing himself to one or another girl, and not stopping to look at them with pity in his eyes as if he apologizes for not being able to prevent the worst things.       “I have no idea of what to do,” Edward says disappointedly. “We’ve got no clues. Nothing that could help us catch their track.”       “Yeah, finding Daniel and Peter is gonna be hard,” Raquelle agrees, sitting on the sofa next to Anna and pressing her to herself. “I mean, impossible. Knowing that we know nothing about those who surround the one who started it all. And we’ve never seen the leader.”       “Hey, did you find out something about the girl who added poison to Edward’s water?” Natalia asks.       “Nope, we were told she was kinda swallowed by the ground,” Terrence throws his hands up. “She has stopped going to work since the day Edward was poisoned.”       “She does know she’s gonna be in trouble if she shows up there,” Helene assumes and sniffs quietly, pressing herself closely to Natalia.       “But the police should’ve gotten her address and gone to her home!” Anna exclaims. “Human resources were supposed to give them all the necessary information.”       “They got her address,” Terrence replies. “But when the police arrived at the right place, nobody opened the door.”       ‘Yeah, and when they questioned some of her neighbors, they said they knew nothing about her since she had gone somewhere,” Edward adds.       “The shameless bitch has run away…” Natalia pronounces thoughtfully. “She almost sent the guy to the afterlife and thought she’d get away with it.”       “Yeah, she’s gonna cover herself with the child and pretend to be fucking holy,” Raquelle throws gloomily.       “Anyway, the police have already put her out on an APB,” Terrence says. “Blake has given them a detailed description and helped them to create a sketch. They sent out a finest message to all the stations, airports, shops, and other places.”       “I hope it won’t be worthless,” Anna expresses hope, squeezing tightly a paper handkerchief in her hands. “What if that girl managed to run away before they began to look for her.”       “Maybe,” Helene nods hesitantly. “As you said, Blake caught her somewhere two hours before your arrival. She had enough time to leave her workplace, come back home, take her stuff, take her child, and go somewhere.”       “It’s alright, that bitch will not hide,” Terrence throws gloomily in a low voice, crossing his arms over his chest. “She will be found.”       “Moreover, Mr. Johnson is aware of the situation and following the investigation,” Edward states.       “Don’t the police have anything about Carla?” Raquelle asks. “What if she’s ever been caught in something? What if that girl is not so holy?”       “As far as we know, the police have nothing against her,” Terrence shrugs. “She has never been caught in a crime. Carla was innocent in the law’s eyes for the time being.”       “My gosh, why didn’t she wanna live a quiet life?” Helene wonders. “She’s got a child! She should’ve thought about it! About her child not being able to stay alone if she were arrested by the police.”       “The child probably has some other relatives,” Anna assumes. “And she thought she’d leave her child with them if something happened to her.”       “What can we expect from the one who knows assholes?” Edward surprises. “From the girl! Don’t think she’s freaking holy just because she is educating a child alone.”       “Agree, a decent girl wouldn’t agree to do that,” Terrence agrees. “She wouldn't get in touch with such bastards as the leader and his henchmen.”       “It’s okay, if I meet her someday, I shall personally pull her hair out,” Natalia threatens in a low voice. “She will pay me for what she did to Edward. I won’t close my eyes to this, I swear!”       “I’m afraid, Natalia, we will never find her!” Raquelle sighs heavily. “That bitch got out somewhere a long time ago, and she’s now hiding with the hope that everything will get better by itself.”       “Early or late, she will betray herself and get noticed by someone,” Terrence says confidently. “Some people on the street will probably recognize her or pay attention to that girl if her behavior is strange.”       “Yeah, she will,” Edward nods. “She will hardly keep calm. She probably knows the police are looking for her and is now madly worried because of this.”       “Besides, let’s not forget that if she has some friends and relatives, they may betray her,” Anna notices. “The police may go to visit them and ask them where Carla is.”       “Who knows,” Natalia shakes her head. “They may cover her. Or actually be aware of her tricks.”       “But people outside or members of some buildings’ staff will not do this,” Helene says confidently. “If they are conscientious, they will immediately call the police and give them the information about her location.”       “It would be great if she were found,” Terrence says thoughtfully. “She is now the only one who could help us find out who all those bastards are.”       “I wonder who she is to them?” Raquelle frowns strongly. “A familiar, friend, lover… Or actually someone’s ex-wife?”       “Imagine if one of those bastards turned out to be the father of her child,” Edward adds.       “I wouldn’t be surprised!” Natalia exclaims. “And I am more than sure that she does know about their plans of harming Peter.”       “And she probably knows they wanted to take him and Daniel somewhere,” Anna adds, sobbing quietly.       “They could’ve planned to take us away, too,” Terrence assumes. “But Perkins was less lucky.”       “Thank God, at least you two are gone,” Helene sniffs.       “I guess there could be more than one or two people,” Raquelle says thoughtfully. “Most likely, they weren’t able to deal with them physically. They got rid of one, but another attacked shortly.”       “And how strongly did they beat Sammy if his face was all in blood?” Edward asks with a horror in his eyes. “And he whines from the pain in his belly…”       “You’re right, they’re some kind of monsters!” Natalia exclaims. “Since they mocked the poor doggy like this.”       At this moment, Sammy barks quietly and whines heartbreakingly, looking at Helene with pity in his eyes, while she pets him.       “Quiet, quiet, my boy, it’s okay,” Helene pronounces in a soft, calming voice.       “He’s so worried,” Terrence notices, coming to Sammy and yanking him softly by the ears. “Not less than all of us.”       “He’s probably sorry he couldn’t protect Pete and Dan,” Edward assumes.       Again, Sammy starts whining much louder with a greater pity, howling at some moment.       “No, no, baby, it’s okay, you’re guilty of nothing,” Anna says quietly, petting Sammy’s head. “You did everything you could. And you’re awesome anyway.”       “Sammy wouldn’t have made it anyway if there had been too many people there,” Helene replies in a little shaking voice. “A crowd is always stronger. You can’t deal with it by yourself. Even if you have ten blue belts in karate. Even if you’re a world champion in samba. Life isn’t what you see in movies when one person can deal with ten people.”       “When forces are unequal, you’re gonna lose it, too,” Natalia adds. “If there are more people in one company than in another. You can only be a winner in a fight with ten people when you’re a main character of a movie and can’t die. In real life, you’re under a threat of having your ass on your nose.”       “Listen, it looks like we have to walk into companies only!” Raquelle exclaims. “Since two people couldn’t deal with them, the case is serious.”       “It doesn’t mean we’d deal with them if there were four of us,” Terrence throws gloomily.       “Aha, there would be four of us, and there would be eight of them!” Edward exclaims. “And luck wouldn’t be at our side again.”       “And what do we do now?” Anna asks with tears in her eyes. “How do we help the guys? What if those scums wanna kill them? Or harm them, so that they feel pain from just moving?”       “Listen, Natalia, didn’t you find anything interesting at that place?” Terrence asks. “Maybe you forgot something?”       “Yeah, friend, think better!” Raquelle encourages. “Maybe those men forgot some of their stuff? I dunno… Wallet, money, documents, something else…”       “Nope, nothing like this,” Natalia shakes her head. “I looked around there many times, but I found nothing interesting except Peter’s phone.”       “Think a little better!” Helene begs with pity. “Maybe, there was something else!”       “No, guys, I swear, there was nothing. And if there had been something, Sammy would’ve made me go with him and shown me. But he only gave me the smartphone.”       “Oh, shit!” Edward throws gloomily, hitting his fist against the back of the sofa. “Are we now powerless in front of those assholes?”       “And Mr. Johnson can’t do anything,” Terrence adds. “Because there is no information.”       “Hey, hasn’t Pete tried to find his mother yet?” Helene asks. “Mr. Johnson did advise him to go to the place where he grew up and talk to his neighbors!”       “No, I think Rose hasn’t gone anywhere. And I think he isn’t even gonna do it.”       “What if we go there?” Anna suggests.       “Good idea!” Edward clicks his fingers. “We can contact Jessica, who studied with Pete in the same school. She could tell us where to go and where the necessary house is located.”       “Right!” Terrence exclaims. “Since Rose doesn’t wanna go there, we can talk to Jessica and ask her to drive us there. So, we can see his former home and talk to his neighbors. Maybe, someone really knows something about that woman.”       “Maybe, they wouldn’t like to talk to us, but those people definitely know and remember Jessica,” Raquelle adds.       “Yeah, it’s amazing we didn’t think about it before!” Anna notices. “If, as Helene said, all this hell has to do with Peter’s mother, we should find her. Since the girl, who poisoned Edward, got out, we can find Cornelia Rose.”       “Though my gut tells me that our talk with the woman weaned to alcohol would hardly be informative,” Natalia says thoughtfully.       “Even if it’s true, we’ve gotta try!” Helene exclaims. “We’ve gotta try everything. We can’t just sit, do anything, and wait for them to wish to kill us.”       “Ah, if we knew where they took Daniel and Peter away, Terrence and I would go to help them out,” Edward exhales sharply. “But we can’t even imagine where they are now.”       “And whether we’d see them alive…” Anna adds in a low voice with tears in her eyes.       “Anyway, it would be easier for them together,” Natalia notices.       “There’s a little hope that Daniel’s able to contact us,” Raquelle says. “Sammy didn’t find his phone. It means those stinkers didn’t think of taking it and throwing it out. Or they didn’t find it.”       “Aha, if his hands aren’t tied, and he isn’t lying somewhere unconscious,” Edward crosses his arms over his chest. “Or if his cell phone wasn’t thrown out much later.”       “Those cads would do something to them, and we wouldn’t even know it,” Anna says in a low, shaking voice. “We wouldn’t know we lost them.”       “Right, we wouldn’t know they would get what they want,” Helene agrees with tears in her eyes and sniffs loudly. “We’d know it if the police found their bodies and told us they’d been murdered cruelly.”       “No, no, girls, please, don’t cry,” Terrence says confidently, sitting on the sofa next to Helene and hugging her around the shoulders, puts her head on his shoulder, and caresses it softly. “We promise it’s gonna be okay.”       “They’re strong guys and wouldn’t give up so easily,” Edward adds softly, sitting next to Helene and hugging her tightly, while Natalia strokes her hand and sometimes wipes her tears off with a handkerchief. “Those cads would have to work hard to get rid of them.”       “And when we know their approximate location, Edward and I will go there immediately and take Peter and Daniel out.”       “We will find them. Wherever they are. And no matter how many bastards watch them.”       “It may be too late,” Helene replies as she chokes on tears that roll slowly down her cheeks. “They’d do their best for us to know everything when the guys are dead.”       “We know the situation is complicated,” Natalia says softly. “But we’ve gotta believe the guys are gonna be okay. Don’t bury them in advance.”       “Besides, we should notice that at least one of those bastards has been arrested for violating the law,” Raquelle notices. “We know the police arrested the man who attacked Peter after the show.”       “If it’s so, they probably have his contacts. The police could easily visit him and ask him about all this shit. Maybe, he even knows the girl who poisoned Edward.”       “Well, yeah…” Edward pronounces thoughtfully. “If we think a little, the situation isn’t so hopeless, after all. We can get some variants if we work our brains a little.”       “And if we press him tightly to the wall and question him with degree, he’d call us the place where Perkins and Rose are now,” Terrence adds. “Yes, of course, he wouldn’t speak out immediately. But… A couple of cruel tortures can make him work his tongue.”       “And we’d be about to find out who the leader is…”       “Excellent plan that we would hardly make real,” Anna throws gloomily.       “Aha, that man wouldn't tell you everything immediately!” Helene exclaims. “Do you naively think he’ll really betray his gang and help us set the guys free?”       “If he doesn’t want, we will make!” Edward raises his head proudly.       “How, I’d like to know?”       “If we don’t fall into despair and give up, we can find an answer to any question.”       “That’s how we’re just calming ourselves down,” Helene says in a low voice. “Lying to ourselves. Don’t wanna admit that the situation is much worse, and we’re absolutely powerless.”       “Yes, the case is hard!” Terrence agrees. “But we will solve it, surely. Just like we solved everything we had to run into before. When we thought there was no way to solve the problem.”       “We were able to make a move. But now we don’t know where to put a simple pawn.”       “Nevertheless, there’s so much we can try to do,” Raquelle says confidently. “There’s always a chance to get on the opponent's field and ‘eat’ their queen or rook. You should just be very careful.”       “We’ve got a small chance just to get some information about the leader and his gang of jackals,” Anna protests. “Not to save Daniel and Peter.”       “Don’t worry, girls, we will find a way to solve this problem together,” Edward promises with his head proudly raised. “I am sure we will get something that can help us move off the dead point soon.”       “Or actually end this story once and forever,” Terrence adds.       Sammy barks quietly in approval two times.       “Sammy agrees with us, as I see.”       “It’s so insane,” Anna sighs heavily. “Just one thought about losing Daniel drives me crazy.”       “I don’t know what I’m gonna do if those cads kill Peter, after all,” Helene says in despair. “I’ll have no reason to live.”       “Girls, sweeties…” Raquelle pronounces with a greater pity, hugging Anna much tighter and pressing her to herself.       “We get you so badly…” Natalia adds, caressing Helene’s head.       Sammy barks quietly again and puts his paw on Helene’s paw as if he says he is obviously by their side. After that, Edward pets the dog’s head with a shy smile, and Terrence claps the dog slightly on his back, while the retriever wags his tail amicably and looks at everyone with a guilty look. The girls do not stay aside and show some love and caress for him, showing that they do not think he is guilty of what happened and are really proud of being fearless again and being ready for anything to protect his close people.       The friends get so busy paying attention to Sammy that they do not notice that the hall door opens quietly. After this, Daniel crosses the doorstep, being absolutely quiet as if nothing had happened. Since he is holding two big packets with everything he may need to repair the living room, he closes the door with a strong push of his hip against the door.       “Sweetheart, are you home?” Daniel asks loudly. “I’m back!”       Daniel’s voice makes everyone in the living room freeze sharply, while Sammy looks at them questioningly. They feel that their hearts stop for a moment, but at first, they do not believe it’s really their friend, who is alright, as it turned out. And Anna getting sharply pale from horror opens her eyes widely and moves her eyes to where she hears the voice of her beloved man. Who calls the girl two more times and goes to where all his friends are now with packets in his hands.       “Oh, hi, guys,” Daniel smiles shyly and puts all the packets on one of the sofas. “Didn’t know you’d love to come.”       Anna sniffs loudly, gets up sharply from the sofa, rushes to Daniel, and takes him in a tight hug, putting her arms around his neck. While the man being a bit confused presses the girl to himself and gets suspicious when she starts crying bitterly, snuggling her nose in his shoulder.       “Hey, Anna, what’s wrong?” Daniel asks softly and caresses Anna’s head tenderly. “Why are you crying?”       “Don’t do this to me anymore, you hear me?” Anna chokes on tears. “Never!”       “Come on, my little baby? Quiet, quiet, don’t cry, please. Baby, what’s wrong?”       “I can’t take this. I will not take this!”       “Sorry, sunshine, but I don’t understand you.”       “Seriously?” Edward wonders loudly. “You don’t understand?”       “Fuck, Perkins, where have you been?” Terrence wonders. “We almost went crazy here!”       “Why did you ignore us for so long?” Raquelle asks. “Why didn’t you react to our messages and calls?”       “Yeah, I called you like ten times, but you didn’t respond!” Natalia exclaims.       “Settle down, guys, don’t be so nervous,” Daniel says quietly, raising his hand. “And don’t jab, please. Speak by one.”       “Was it so hard to send us a short message and say everything was okay?” Terrence resents. “Why did you the fuck make us sit and guess?”       “Of course, it’s nice to get care from you, but I’m okay,” Daniel replies with a slight smile, caressing the back of the crying Anna. “And I didn’t just hear calls and messages.”       “Was it really so hard to find two minutes to calm us down?” Helene wonders with tears in her eyes. “Was it so hard for you?”       “Guys, no panic! I went to the hardware store.” Daniel points at the packets lying on the sofa. “Bought something I’d need to repair the living room. There was a large and noisy room… Many people, loud music. I just didn’t hear your calls. And I haven’t checked out my phone yet.”       “Why?” Anna steps away a little, moving her red, tear-stained eyes to Daniel. “Why did you do this to us? Why did you almost drive me crazy?”       “Hey, babe, why did you get so worried?”       Daniel caresses the shaking Anna’s face with both hands and wipes tears under her eyes with his thumbs.       “I’m fine. And I warned you that I’d go to the hardware shop this morning. Did you forget and panic, calling the guys out?”       “We really thought you were in trouble.” Anna sniffs. “We thought they took you out… You were taken away by some cads…”       “Why should someone have taken me away?” Daniel asks hesitantly.       “It’s true, Daniel! It’s true!”       “And yeah, guys…”       Daniel frowning slightly glances at Edward, Helene, Terrence, Raquelle, and Natalia sitting on the sofa.       “What are you all doing here? We didn’t kinda agree to meet today!”       “Anna said you could’ve been taken away for the reason,” Edward confesses.       “I don’t get it… What’s going on here? Terrence, Edward, why are you sitting with widely open eyes like you’re electrified? Helene, Anna, why are you crying bitterly? Sammy… Why are you squeezing and whining as if someone hit you with a skillet?”       Sammy starts whining loudly with great pity, trying so hard to tell what happened today.       “And yeah, why isn’t Peter with you?” Daniel surprises.       “The problem is with him, Daniel,” Raquelle says with sadness in her eyes.       “Yeah? But what happened to him?”       “Peter has disappeared,” Terrence says. “And we don’t know where to find him.”       “Disappeared?” Daniel rounds his eyes, getting sharply pale. “What do you mean he’s disappeared?”       “We know nothing for sure yet, but it seems like some cads have taken him away by force,” Helene explains.       “And the worst thing is that we can do nothing,” Anna adds. “We don’t know where Pete is, who he is with, or whether he stays alive.”       “Fucking shit…” Daniel pronounces excitedly and reflects on something for two seconds, starting to breathe a little heavily. “No way. What are you talking about, folks? What does it all mean?”       “Alas, buddy, that’s the truth,” Natalia says with sadness.       “Do you think the girls would be crying so bitterly if we joked?” Edward surprises.       “Yeah, they’ve been crying since they found out what happened to Peter,” Terrence adds. “And Sammy can’t stop whining.”       “But how could Peter disappear?” Daniel wonders. “Where could he be taken away? Who?”       “No doubt, it was the members of the gang of the stinker who wanted to kill him,” Natalia replies confidently.       “Alright, guys, wait, wait. Let’s talk about everything in order. I’ve got a mess in my head because of you.”       Daniel brings Anna to the sofa, sits down with her, and hugs her tightly around her shoulders, while she keeps crying from great relief, and puts her hand on the man’s chest.       “First, why did you actually think Peter disappeared? And second, why do you think I was supposed to be taken away? Why did you start to panic like this?”       “You did say you were gonna meet Peter and play with Sammy!” Anna recalls.       “Yeah, I did, we met. And then I went to the hardware store. Alone.”       “Wait, Anna, does it mean you knew Daniel would go to the hardware shop but said nothing to us?” Terrence surprises.       “Yeah, but I was so excited that I forgot it,” Anna confesses hesitantly. “When I read Natalia’s message about not being able to call him, I stopped to think soberly.”       “Oh, my God, Seymour!” Raquelle claps her forehead, exhaling sharply. “Forget such an important thing!”       “So, did you think I disappeared along with Peter by mistake?” Daniel concludes.       “Yeah, exactly!” Natalia confirms. “You didn’t respond to any of my calls, and Edward and Terrence said Pete wasn’t with them when I contacted them.”       “We tried to call you, too, but we didn’t make it,” Terrence confesses. “That’s why we thought the case was serious.”       “Okay, when did it happen?” Daniel specifies.       “Somewhere three or four hours ago, if we’re not mistaken,” Helene replies thoughtfully.       “Oh, damn…”       “The case is that I drove by one place for my business,” Natalia says. “And then I saw a dog running on the road. It didn’t leave and barked when I was getting closer and beeping. I began to slow down and decided to stop. I left my car and saw it was Sammy.”       “Sammy?”       “He was all alone there. Scared to death, excited, with blood on his face.”       “But where was Peter? He couldn’t leave Sammy there and get out to the fuck!”       “There was only his smartphone.” Natalia takes Peter’s phone from the coffee table and shows it to Daniel. “It’s really his phone. I tried to call Pete’s number and made sure about it.”       “Shiver me…” Daniel shakes his head with widely open eyes.       “In short, I took Sammy with me and started to call the guys. I thought I’d find out something. But they were surprised when I told them everything.”       “Are you sure Rose wasn’t there? Maybe he just left somewhere?”       “No, Daniel, I checked everything closely. Peter wasn’t there. And Sammy gave me nothing but the cell phone.”       “And where did it happen?”       “In one desert place. But I looked around and saw that a park was two miles away from it.”       “But where did he go then? What happened to him?”       “That’s what we wanna know,” Edward replies. “But we can’t even assume where to find him.”       “Damn, did those bastards show up again?” Daniel swears. “They caught Pete in a desert place and took him away quickly?”       “And most likely, there were many of them,” Terrence assumes. “Rose would’ve dealt with one person. But he would’ve hardly done it with two or more people.”       “As you see, Sammy did his best to protect him,” Anna says in a low voice, wiping tears under her eyes. “But they were stronger.”       “Yeah, these monsters likely decided to beat the dog, too,” Raquelle throws gloomily. “Sammy whines if we pet him too intensively. He starts to whine. His belly suffered especially much. You shouldn’t touch it at all. It hurts strongly.”       Sammy whines with great pity as if he confirms it, while Helene pets his head tenderly.       “When will those assholes stop?” Daniel wonders. “How long are they gonna mock the guy?”       “Not just him,” Helene adds. “Mocking only Peter wasn’t enough for them.”       “Right, they decided that the guys should’ve suffered, too, since they refused to do their business and weren’t gonna stop protecting Rose,” Raquelle adds.       “Yeah, they’re really trying to terrify us,” Edward agrees. “But we won’t give up. We’ll be protecting Peter as much as needed.”       “And if they wanna deal with us, they can try,” Terrence raises his head proudly. “They’ll get the answer they deserve.”       “Or they’ll do everything surreptitiously,” Anna assumes. “It’s like, since the guys are lovers of fights, we should do something different. And the case of Edward proved that we mayn’t even know where danger may be waiting for them.”       “But even in this case, we could’ve avoided the worst,” Edward notices. “We should’ve just been super careful and checked everything and everyone. But sadly, I was stupid!”       “I’m even afraid to imagine what they’d do next time,” Natalia expresses anxiety.       “Gosh, Peter, why?” Helene sighs loudly. “How could you let them take you away? How?”       “What could he do if he were really surrounded from all sides?” Terrence shrugs. “What if there was a big crowd of jackals? How could one man get away with it in this situation?”       “You better ask why the hell he was doing in the desert place?” Raquelle crosses her arms over her chest. “Couldn’t he walk in the park Natalia talked about? He does know that’s what those scums are waiting for!”       “Yeah, nobody would’ve hurt him there,” Anna agrees. “Nobody would’ve dared to.”       “Aha, and you say something about me,” Edward throws gloomily. “Like I don’t have brains.”       “You two are idiots!” Terrence exclaims. “You, babies, must always be under the view! When we turn around, you start to eat dirty sand and put your fingers in a socket.”       “Oh, shut up, so-called daddy!”       “Damn, if I counted it right, everything happened after we went our separate ways,” Daniel says thoughtfully under his nose. “After he stayed alone…”       “So, didn’t you help him at all?” Terrence specifies.       “Nope, and…” Daniel swallows nervously. “Does it happen that… I’m guilty of all of this? Has Peter been taken away because of me?”       “Hey, second, Daniel, I didn’t understand…” Raquelle says thoughtfully. “Where were you when Peter was kidnapped?”       “Yeah, buddy, you just said you were with Peter and played with Sammy,” Helene recalls. “Where did you go when the attack happened?”       “I wasn’t with him at that moment,” Daniel confesses. “Pete and I really met and went to walk with Sammy. We found an area for dogs and played and ran a lot there. And we talked to some other owners of dogs. Some of them liked Sammy too much. They questioned us, and we asked them something.”       “What’s next?” Edward frowns slightly.       “Next, we walked in the park a little and…” Daniel bites his lip slightly. “I left. I went to the hardware store.”       “And why the hell did you leave him alone?” Helene resents. “You do know the current situation! You know we all must walk in companies in popular places, so nobody hurts us.”       “Yeah, guys, I know. But…”       “What actually happened between you?” Terrence wonders. “You walked, walked together, played with the doggy sweetly, and then you suddenly went on separate ways. It’s all kinda weird…”       “Oh, we fought a little!” Daniel exhales sharply, rubbing his forehead with his hand. “And I decided to get out of harm’s way. I didn’t wanna make the situation worse.”       “My gosh…” Anna rounds her eyes.       “But why?” Edward surprises. “What didn’t ya share?”       “Did you recall the old times and decide to bully him because of his failures with relationships again?” Terrence asks gloomily as he crosses his arms over his chest.       “No, the case is not about it,” Daniel shakes his head. “We fought over Helene.”       “Over me?” Helene opens her eyes widely.       “Yup… To be clear, his suspicious of your lie and betrayal.”       “Wow…” Natalia closes her mouth with her hand.       “What did ya tell him if you had such a serious fight?” Raquelle wonders.       “Nothing special!” Daniel throws his hands up. “I just disliked the fact that he showered Helene with mud. And I honestly told Peter I couldn’t and didn’t want to stand by his side and support him. Because he believed the open lie and wanted to know some kind of truth.”       “Whoa…” Anna pronounces surprisingly.       “I ain’t gonna lie in this case and pretend that it should happen. I don’t share Peter's position and told him honestly about it. He was unhappy but held himself down somehow at first. But at some moment, Rose got mad and started to attack me with charges. It was like, why I defended Marshall so fucking hard and didn’t wanna slander her with him. Like, what kind of friend I could be if I didn’t wanna support him. I think if people hadn’t been around, he would’ve hit me. It was clear he held himself down.”       “How far he’s gone…” Natalia shakes her head.       “Right, they washed his brains a lot!” Terrence horrifies. “They turned him against his girlfriend.”       “He said those bastards sent me messages literally every day, saying that Marshall was a liar and a betrayer who could stab him in the back,” Daniel says. “I tried so hard to change his mind, saying they wanted to fool him, but he couldn’t hear me. He believed some asshole more than his best friend.”       “I don’t know how to make him sure that I wouldn't harm him and betray him,” Helene says in a shaking voice. “And I feel hurt. I’m hurt because Pete believes the stranger much more.”       “Sadly, it happens,” Natalia replies with sadness in her eyes. “Sometimes, we believe a stranger’s lie more than the truth of someone we consider a close person. It’s some kind of paradox: the closer we are to someone, the more we doubt them in case they give us just a little reason.”       “So, did you leave Peter alone after he started to give you charges?” Edward concludes.       “Not quite,” Daniel clarifies. “I wasn’t gonna leave. And I didn’t plan and want to fight with Peter.”       “But why did you leave him?” Raquelle wonders.       “At some moment, he told me something that touched my nerve. What made me really mad at him.”       “What was that?” Terrence frowns slightly.       “He reminded me of Blanca, who pretended to be my fiancée and literally made me cheat on Anna when I had amnesia.”       Daniel swallows nervously and inclines his head slightly.       “And he wished me to be instead of her someday,” Daniel adds in a much lower voice. “To choke on anger at the sight of her hugging and kissing another man.”       “Wow, he went too far…” Natalia pronounces thoughtfully, rounding her eyes.       “Did he really say that?” Anna asks hesitantly, looking at Daniel with eyes that are still wet.       “I was terribly mad,” Daniel confesses, locking his fingers tightly. “I wanted to hit him in the face so fucking badly and pull him by the hair.”       “But Pete knows it’s a painful thing to you,” Helene replies. “You try not to think about it and to forget it forever.”       “Rose hardly thought about it at that moment.”       “And did you fight?” Terrence asks.       “Nope, it didn’t happen. I had to apply much effort to hold myself down and do nothing to him. I didn’t want it deep inside. I didn’t wanna harm him. Even if I hated him to death.”       “My gosh, what was Rose thinking of?” Edward wonders. “Yes, he was mad. I completely understand his feelings. But that was wrong.”       “He probably regretted it at some moment. Peter started to apologize and excuse himself shortly. Like, he didn’t wanna say it. He was kinda too mad, he was scared, and something like this. But I didn’t care about it at all. I didn’t wanna talk to him not only because I wanted to hit him against the asphalt with his head, but also because he didn’t hear me at all. It was like I was showing off before the wall.”       Sammy barks quietly at this moment.       “In short, I just got out of harm’s way. I didn’t have a little wish to bring the conflict to the point of no return, and thought I’d avoid it if I just left in time. Yes, Rose said something, but I gave a fuck. I wanted to know nothing. So, I just told him to think about everything he was doing and advised him to come back home. And then I left.”       “I can praise you in this case,” Terrence says thoughtfully. “That’s good you didn’t wanna let the conflict grow.”       “Yeah, but how much effort I made! I held myself down just because it was hard for Peter. Like, the poor guy was chased by one rat and wanted to be killed. And if I attack him and wanna ruin our friendship, he’d feel much worse.”       “I show my respect for you,” Edward pronounces confidently.       “Anyway, Peter is my friend. My close friend. Almost a brother. He means a lot to me and became the first one who befriended me not for a benefit. I can’t just strike out the one who’s the important part of my life.”       “Good, Daniel, it was right,” Anna says softly, stroking Daniel’s hand that she takes with both hands at some moment. “I’m sure Pete doesn’t think so and doesn’t wish you anything like that. He was just too mad and said it without thinking. In anger, you can say and do so much that you may wanna shoot yourself. In the tense race of two opponents, anger crosses the finish line first and does a lot of things, the consequences of which the mind won’t be able to solve immediately.”       “I was also happy I decided to leave. Though if I’d known it would lead to such terrible consequences, I’d do my best to stay and help. I’d be ready to bite my hands to hold down the anger I was obsessed with.”       “Again, the freaking idiot was freaking lucky!” Terrence crosses his arms over his chest. “He magically avoided the threat of getting a hit on his head with a bat and waking up nobody the fuck knows where alongside his friend.”       “I calmed down a little when I was walking a lot in the large hardware shop and looking for what I needed from the list. And I thought, ‘Was it right to leave? We do know the current situation! Maybe I did the wrong thing?’ I even wanted to call Rose at some moment and ask if he was okay. But… I didn’t call. I was too busy searching for what I needed and forgot everything at all.”       “Anyway, it’s really hard to defend Peter in this situation,” Natalia says thoughtfully. “Yes, we understand his feelings, but it’s not a reason to attack his friends. They’re guilty of nothing.”       “I’m afraid those scums will start to turn Peter against you and me soon,” Daniel expresses anxiety. “Tell him so much that we may be his number one enemies. And we’d be able to do nothing. No excuses would help us. And he’d walk and look at us gloomily, just like in the case with Helene.”       “Anyway, you shouldn't have fought with him over me,” Helene says hesitantly.       “I didn’t fight with him, Helene! I just explained my position clearly, and I wasn’t gonna change it even for pleasing my best friend.”       “I don’t want anyone to fight with Peter because of what’s happening between us. It’s our business. We’ll solve it somehow. And if you stand by my side openly, those scums won’t even have to try hard to turn him against all of you.”       “Sorry, Marshall, but your boyfriend is unfair to you,” Edward says confidently. “You’ve done nothing bad to Peter to make him call you a liar and talk about some love affairs.”       “I know, guys, but please, don’t defend me. Don’t make your relationship with Pete worse. Otherwise, you’ll give him a strong pain. It’s not a secret to us that he’d never been okay. No matter how hard we’ve tried all this time, Rose is still sick and hasn’t recovered from all the mental health issues.”       “Yeah, but we can’t support his attempts to slander you!” Terrence exclaims. “Since Edward and I were in his place, our duty is the mission of washing his brains.”       “We had nobody to wash our brains, but Pete has a chance to avoid the worst if he listens to us,” Edward adds.       “Peter is worried about your conflict with the girls in the past,” Daniel confesses. “He thinks you didn’t tell him everything on the day he brought you here to introduce you to them and pronounce you his girlfriend.”       At this moment, Raquelle, Natalia, and Anna look at each other with suspicion and glance secretly at Helene, who swallows nervously and squeezes the handkerchief in her hands tightly.       “But we…” Helene pronounces hesitantly. “We solved it all a long time ago. I explained everything to the girls and apologized to them, and they forgave me and promised not to recall it all anymore.”       “Yeah, we decided to try to establish our relationship for our men,” Raquelle recalls. “But with time, Helene became our close friend.”       “Besides, we’re all adults,” Natalia adds. “Why would we think about our conflicts when the person regretted and apologized?”       “And I’ve never had conflicts with Helene,” Anna shrugs. “I didn’t really like the way she treated my girls. But it didn’t impact our relationship at all.”       “But is Peter wrong?” Daniel frowns slightly. “Did you really tell us everything? Is there something else?”       “Nope…” Helene smiles falsely, touching her neck with her fingers. “We told you everything. Peter’s wrong.”       “Sure?” Terrence presses.       “Yeah… Sure…”       “Alright!” Edward exclaims. “What if it happens that we’re really standing by Helene for nothing. And she’s hiding something terrible.”       “No, guys…” Helene lies hesitantly and swallows nervously, locking her fingers. “I’m hiding nothing… Nothing. It’s alright.”       Terrence, Edward, and Daniel say nothing and, frowning slightly, look at each other, while Raquelle, Natalia, Anna, and Helene share a glance with each other. Maybe the men feel that something is not right with this story deep inside, but they decide not to torture the girls with questions, with the thought that they will tell them everything if they think they should do it.       “Anyway, it’s your business,” Daniel says quietly. “You should solve it.”       “Don’t worry about Peter, guys,” Helene says with a slight smile much more confidently. “I will never betray him. Not for any wealth. I won’t surely be the one who would harm him and stab him in the back.”       “Don’t worry, Helene, we believe you,” Terrence replies softly, stroking Helene’s shoulder. “And we still think Peter wouldn’t find a better girl than you.”       “Oh, I’m afraid those scums will get what they want and separate us.” Helene runs her hands over the top of her head to the nape of her neck with a heavy sigh. “And I’ll be able to do nothing. Something will change if they confess that they wanted to slander me. This is the only way for Peter to understand that he’s been unfair to me all this time. But alas, the criminals will never admit it and will keep saying I’m a liar, prostitute, and something like this until the very end.”       “We’re so sorry, friend,” Raquelle pronounces with sadness in her eyes. “We’re doing everything we can to make Peter softer.”       “I am really grateful to all of you for what you’re doing. And I think it kinda works. Peter listens to you in one or another way. Because… If you didn’t make him think soberly, Rose would piss me off a long time ago.”       “Maybe,” Daniel agrees. “But he forgets everything every time he thinks of the day when you almost drowned.”       “He said that?”       “Yup. Peter said it made him forget everything, forgive you for everything, and close his eyes to any of your actions.”       “Anyway, he does care about what’s happening to you,” Anna notices with a slight smile. “Peter loves you and still keeps thinking about your well-being.”       “Maybe. Since he agreed to take me out of the water and revive me.”       “Sammy would’ve torn him apart if the blond had refused to do it,” Daniel assumes. “Rose would’ve been his real number one enemy and started to do really bad things to him. Instead of playing the fool with him. This dog wouldn’t have forgiven him for the death of his owner.”       Sammy barks quietly as if he says he agrees.       “Come on, talking about it doesn’t make sense!” Helene exhales sharply. “We’ve gotta think about how to find Peter before those assholes dare to kill him quietly.”       “Sorry, guys, but I have no little ideas,” Daniel throws his hands up. “I saw nothing, I know nothing.”       “We’ve been racking our brains, too,” Terrence replies. “Yes, there are some variants, but they could only help us find the leader of the gang. Not Rose himself.”       “But we’ve gotta do something,” Edward notices. “We can’t just sit here and wait.”       “First, we should talk to Mr. Johnson,” Daniel suggests. “Yes, we have nothing to tell him, but he should know what happened.”       “Obviously,” Helene nods. “But first, we can wait for several hours. If Peter doesn’t show up, we will take some measures.”       “Damn, no hints, nothing that could help us find his location!” Anna swears.       “Maybe, we should go to the place where Natalia found Sammy and search it closely again?” Raquelle suggests. “What if she missed something?”       “No, I said there was nothing else there!” Natalia exclaims.       “But since the phone was thrown out, we can conclude that Peter has really been caught by some bastards,” Daniel says thoughtfully. “They did it not to let him contact us.”       “If they hadn’t done it, we could try to track his location with the location on the phone,” Anna replies. “The police could do this.”       “Alas, friends, it’s impossible,” Edward shrugs.       “Alright, folks, in short, let’s do this thing: we will wait for several hours and then contact Mr. Johnson and find a solution with him,” Terrence suggests determinedly. “What if Peter is lucky to run away from those assholes and contact us. And I am sure he will do this when he has a chance.”       “How?” Helene rounds her eyes. “He doesn’t have a phone!”       “But there are lots of telephones in the city,” Edward recalls. “Find a couple of coins and call anyone you want. Well, he could also stop someone outside and ask them to let him call. Lie a little or tell the truth.”       “Fucking shit, I feel so guilty now!” Daniel exhales sharply, running his hand through his hair. “It’s my fault. Peter’s been taken away because of me. I shouldn’t have left.”       “No, no, don’t worry, sweetheart, it’s okay,” Anna calms down softly, hugging Daniel around the shoulders and caressing his forearm that is closer to her. “You’re guilty of nothing.”       “If I hadn’t gotten out, everything would’ve been okay. But after he stayed alone, Peet couldn’t make it. Even Sammy could do nothing.”       “If you hadn’t gotten out, you would’ve been taken away along with him,” Raquelle replies confidently. “And we would’ve been thinking about how to find you two.”       “With me, it would’ve been easier for him to get away from them. But I, idiot, left him all alone.”       Daniel closes his face with his hands, while Sammy comes to him and puts his face on his lap with a quiet whine as if he shows his sympathy and regret.       “Damn!” Daniel swears. “If those assholes kill him, I shall never forgive myself for that. Never.”       “Please, Daniel, don’t blame yourself,” Helene begs with pity in her eyes. “Nobody blames you for anything.”       “What kind of friend am I after this? A friend doesn’t leave you in trouble, no matter what! But I got mad and got out!”       “You just didn’t wanna fight with him and harm Pete,” Raquelle excuses. “And it was right.”       “No, Raquelle, it was wrong! No matter how mad I was, I should’ve stayed. Moreover, Peter understood that he had said too much in the end and tried to make amends. Yes, of course, he didn’t stop thinking Helene was a betrayal. But I think he understood that I had a right to my opinion and could agree with him and judge him.”       “Being friends doesn’t mean pleasing, flattering, lying, and tolerating the unfair attitude toward you and your close people,” Edward notices. “If you disagree with your friend, it’s absolutely fine. You tell your opinion, and any person can decide if they wanna listen to it or do what they want.”       “I’m sorry, guys…”       Daniel pets Sammy’s head with sadness in his eyes.       “I screwed it up. Again. And now, Peter is probably in great danger because of me.”       “Stop, buddy, it’s okay,” Terrence calms down. “You wanted to make it better.”       “Peter is guilty to some extent,” Edward adds. “He shouldn’t have gotten out of the park and gone where those assholes could do their dirty tricks.”       “And he should’ve kept his mouth shut and never said anything like that.”       “I understood he could say it all in anger,” Daniel confesses. “But I felt freaking hurt. I got obsessed with the memories of the time that makes me wanna bury my head in the sand. With what I’d be happy to erase from my life with pleasure. I felt much worse than I did when I had to experience my parents’ death, Cassidy’s disappearance, and the indifference of my friends who didn’t need me without my father’s money.”       “We completely understand you, Daniel,” Anna says confidently in a soft, quiet voice and kisses Daniel sweetly on his cheek. “We know how much pain you’ve had to take.”       “I briefly thought Peter really thought so. That he really wanted to watch me suffer. That he wanted a boomerang to come back to me.”       “No, Daniel, it’s not true,” Helene protests. “Peter saw and understood everything clearly. And he was truly worried when you felt bad.”       “I know,” Daniel pronounces in a low voice. “But it was madly painful to hear these things from my best friend.”       “Don’t be mad at him, Daniel,” Edward advises. “All of us told each other so many terrible things that we’re ashamed to remember that. None of us is holy.”       “Right now, I’m not mad at him. And I can’t be mad. Knowing he’s in trouble. Literally because of me.”       “Anyway, you can talk about everything when we find him,” Raquelle notices. “If Peter really understands he shouldn't have said it, he will apologize to you.”       “At least, I will surely apologize to him for leaving him,” Daniel promises. “For not being next to him in trouble and avoiding it magically.”       Daniel chuckles nervously.       “Terrence said the right thing… An idiot. A freaking idiot that was freaking lucky. Again.”       “I guess you’ve got a powerful guardian angel,” Natalia assumes. “With your carelessness, you would’ve hardly lived until twenty or twenty-five if not for their protection.”       “You’re right,” Daniel chuckles kindly. “Grim reaper chases me everywhere, but I manage to run away from them again and again.”       “Anyway, you scared all of us to death,” Helene confesses, putting her hand on her heart. “You disappeared, you didn’t respond to our calls…”       “You’re alarmists, guys. Just alarmists.”       “What should we have thought?” Terrence surprises loudly. “If you’d sent us at least one SMS, we would’ve calmed down. You did give us a reason to think you were taken away along with Peter.”       “Okay, guys, I’m sorry, forgive me. I didn’t really mean to scare you. It just happened so.”       “I did almost go crazy when I thought you were in danger!” Anna exclaims excitedly. “I couldn’t calm down! I thought I’d lose you.”       “Aw, Anna, my little girl…”       Daniel takes Anna in a tight hug, pressing her closely to his chest and kissing her sweetly on her temple.       “My silly girl! You scared the guys and got yourself exhausted. I always tell you where I go. You know where to find me.”       “I am scared every time you leave home,” Anna confesses. “Because every time may be the last one.”       “Don’t worry, princess, I’m gonna be okay. I can stand up for myself and won’t be silent if someone wanna mock me.”       “Peter also thought he’d be able to stand up for himself. But he didn’t make it.”       “It’s okay, next time, nobody will dare to touch him with a finger.” Daniel caresses Anna’s head and back tenderly, while she presses herself to him tightly. “And when we know who that asshole, who wanna get rid of him so badly, is, they will have to pay a high price for it.”       “Thank God, you’re okay,” Helene exhales with relief. “At least you’re with us now.”       “And my gut tells me Rose doesn’t feel good now. These bastards may understand that nobody can stop them and start mocking him in all possible ways.”       “I’m not quiet, either,” Edward grabs his throat with a hand. “Would we have time to save him? Or is Pete gonna die?”       “Anyway, he counts on us,” Terrence notices. “And we can’t let him down. We must find and save Peter. One day, we gave him a promise to help him and always support him.”       “And I will not leave him,” Helene promises. “No matter how hurt I am after all his charges, I know I will make a mistake if I leave Peter. I will let you down and break the promises I gave you. But I can’t let it happen.”       “The girls and I are with you, guys,” Raquelle says confidently, putting her head on Terrence’s shoulder and putting her arms around his waist. “You can count on us in everything.”       “We’re stronger together!” Natalia exclaims, taking Helene and Edward’s hands at the same time.       “Since we did it back then, it means we can do this now,” Anna adds, pressing herself closely to Daniel and keeping her hand on his chest. Sammy barks confidently two times as if he confirms that he will not leave the guys and will do his best to support them and help them if he has a chance to do it. While Daniel and Anna being much closer to him pay some attention to him, the others just look at each other with a slight, encouraging smile, feeling anxious deep inside because of the thought that something horrible is probably happening to Peter right now.