The Criminal Diaries

      The several hours that Natalia, Raquelle, and Anna spend waiting for some news from their men become some kind of torture that takes all their strength. The girls are still at Daniel’s house, sitting on the sofas in the living room and literally hypnotizing the smartphones lying on the table or the wired line phone placed nearby in the hope of receiving a call. The dog Sammy does not leave the friends alone and sometimes presses himself to one or another girl with a wish to get some love and attention. And at the bottom of his heart, he kind of starts to feel that something awful happened to his owner. That’s why the retriever becomes much more restless and does not react to the girls’ attempts to calm him down.       “Gosh, when will everything end?” Natalia moans tiredly, walking nervously through the whole living room and keeping her hands on her forehead. “It’s been four hours, but we still have no news from these nor those!”       “I’ve got a bad presentiment,” Raquelle expresses anxiety, holding a clean handkerchief that she squeezes nervously with a wish to calm herself down in this way. “My heart is heavy. As if something terrible happened.”       “Oh, I’m starting to think something went wrong for the guys,” Anna sighs heavily, caressing the head of Sammy that presses himself to her legs tightly. “That they can’t do anything.”       “And Mr. Johnson is silent! He hasn’t told us any news since he called us two hours ago and said he’d go to that place.”       “And the guys haven’t called us even once!” Natalia exclaims. “And they don’t respond to our calls.”       “No doubt that we did the right thing by deciding not to hold our breath and to contact Mr. Johnson immediately,” Anna notices.       “Going to the home of such a dangerous man as Marcus Longbottom without any protection would be a great mistake. You all know what he did many years ago. How he literally terrorized the entire country.”       “Gosh, gosh, I wish they did it,” Raquelle begs quietly, putting her hands together and bringing them to her mouth. “I wish the guys were okay. I wish Helene were found healthy and alive.”       “I imagine what condition she would be in after everything she had to experience,” Anna says thoughtfully.       “You’re right! She’s gonna need a lot of time to recover.”       “I do wanna make Mrs. Marshall happy with the news about her granddaughter being found,” Natalia says with sadness in her eyes. “It’s so hurtful to watch her suffer so badly.”       “Yeah, we do pity her and don’t tell her everything,” Raquelle sighs heavily. “What would happen if she knew all the details? If she knew that her granddaughter… Was raped… Beaten… Treated like nobody knows what…”       “Thank God, Marcus and his accomplices don’t have the number of that woman,” Anna says confidently. “Otherwise, they would bring her to a heart attack by sending her some terrible things and scaring her with anonymous calls and messages with threats. Or bring her to death.”       “But they have Peter’s number and took it out on him all this time. They used the poor guy, whose psychological condition is far from being good.”       “Yeah, he’s lately been much more withdrawn, and he doesn’t wanna talk to us a lot,” Natalia notices. “It makes me much more worried about him.”       “I wish he had gotten better after the guys found Helene and took her with them.”       At this moment, Sammy starts barking and whining loudly and excitedly as if he tries to tell the girls that he has a very, very bad presentiment related to Helene.       “Quiet, quiet, Sammy, quiet,” Raquelle pronounces softly, caressing Sammy’s face. “It’s okay…”       “Wait for a while, baby,” Natalia says in a quiet voice, coming to Sammy, squatting down in front of him, and yanking him by the ears. “The guys will come back soon and tell us everything. And bring your owner here.”       Sammy expresses his heartbreak by barking heartbreakingly so that he makes the girls’ hearts squeeze with the pain, while their eyes water with tears.       “Sammy, please, don’t break our hearts by barking like this,” Anna begs with pity in her eyes. “The girls and I feel too bad without all of it.”       “Maybe he feels something?” Natalia asks hesitantly. “What if he’s so restless because he’s sure something happened to Helene?”       “That’s bad he eats and drinks almost nothing,” Raquelle expresses anxiety. “If it keeps happening, Sammy is gonna get very ill or actually die.”       “Oh, I don’t have an appetite, either,” Anna puts her hand on her forehead. “There’s so much food in the refrigerator, but I feel nauseated when I see it.”       “And I’m shaking,” Natalia confesses, gets up on her feet, and sits on the sofa next to Raquelle, glancing at her shaking hands. “Look, my hands are shaking now…”       “Yeah, doing nothing and just waiting for the news is much harder than having a deal with a problem itself,” Raquelle exhales sharply, running her hands over her pale face.       “We did everything we could to help the guys,” Anna shrugs. “This time, we surely know where they went. It would be a sin not to use a chance.”       Sammy comes to Raquelle in a slow step after she claps on her laps to suggest that he presses himself to her and accepts her caress and the way she caresses his head.       “Sammy, drink some water at least,” Natalia suggests softly. “Just a little. It’s wrong. I understand you don’t want it. But you haven’t eaten or drunk anything for this whole week.”       “We don’t want it, either, but we try to swallow something,” Anna adds and drinks some water from the glass that she takes from the coffee table. “It’s hard, I don’t deny it. But we know we need it.”       “Do you think we’re gonna have to wait for a long time?” Raquelle asks hesitantly. “It’s evening already, but we know nothing about anyone.”       “If we have to wait like this for four more hours, I’m gonna go crazy,” Natalia leans back on the sofa and leans her head back with closed eyes. “If none of them sends us a message with just one number or one letter.”       “What are we waiting for?” Anna wonders. “Let’s call someone?”       “Uh-huh, as if someone is gonna answer our call!”       “The guys might not answer, but Mr. Johnson would surely say something to us.”       “The question is what he’d tell us,” Raquelle replies. “Whether he’d make us happy or sad. Calm us down or make us keep pulling our hair out.”       Sammy whines quietly with pity, looking at the girls with his sad eyes.       “Anyway, we can be sure that he didn’t forget us. Mr. Johnson knows we’re waiting for his call and are excited. If he has some news, he will contact us shortly.”       “Yeah, you’re right,” Anna nods hesitantly. “We’ve asked him not to forget us and to tell us everything several times.”       “Maybe he has nothing to say yet?” Natalia calms herself down. “Maybe this is why we don’t get any calls and messages from him?”       “In short, let’s wait!” Natalia exclaims. “This waiting can’t last forever! Someone will think of us early or late and say something.”       Again, Sammy barks quietly and presses himself tightly to Natalia when she starts caressing his head. Anna and Raquelle also give some attention to the dog, understanding that it’s hurtful for them to see the doggy being so depressed and see true sadness in his eyes that no longer shine with a bright gloss and literally have no life. But some time later, one of the smartphones lying on the coffee table starts vibrating and playing a loud melody. Since it belongs to Raquelle, she takes it quickly and looks at the screen to find out the owner of the number that is calling her.       “It’s Mr. Johnson!” Raquelle announces.       “Finally!” Anna exhales sharply.       After running her finger over the screen and turning on the speakerphone so her friends can hear the talk, Raquelle pronounces confidently:       “Yes, Mr. Johnson!”       “Good afternoon, girls,” Victor greets gently.       “Hello!” Anna, Natalia, and Raquelle pronounce.       “You have some news?” Natalia asks excitedly. “Can you say something to us?”       “Yeah, I’m sorry about making you wait,” Victor apologizes. “Coming to the right place, ending all of this… It took a lot of time.”       “Have Marcus and his accomplices been caught? He harmed nobody?”       “Yes, we’ve caught almost all of them. We’re missing just one accomplice of Marcus Longbottom that we have to find. And Marcus himself will be rushed to the hospital.”       “The hospital?” Anna frowns slightly. “But what happened to him?”       “A suspicion of a strong poisoning. Supposedly, with the same thing that almost killed Edward once.”       “Oh, God…” Natalia horrifies, putting her hand on her heart.       “He suffers from dizziness, nausea, and weakness. He coughs up blood… And his fever is growing.”       “My gosh…” Raquelle pronounces thoughtfully.       “I can’t say anything about his condition. But anyway, when Marcus is released from the hospital, he will be taken to the police station to be questioned and put in jail. If he doesn’t die, of course… What if he is less lucky than Edward, who managed to come back to life after a cardiac arrest.”       “You see how much that man doesn’t want to go to prison! He’s ready to kill himself not to give up to the justice.”       “Marcus himself says he didn’t try to do this on purpose. So, we cannot say how the poison ended up in his organism. Though I must say that my colleagues found some packets with unknown powder and a half-filled cup of coffee when they searched the house. There is a version of him being poisoned with that thing.”       “Likely, he understood that he had no place to run and preferred to give his life at his wish,” Natalia assumes.       “Who knows, girls. I can say nothing to you since we are just figuring out how the poisoning could happen.”       “We see…”       “But what about the guys?” Raquelle asks. “You haven’t told us about the main thing!”       “Yes, Mr. Johnson, what about Daniel, Terrence, and Edward?” Anna expresses anxiety. “And what about Peter?”       “And where’s Helene?” Natalia adds. “You found her?”       “Luckily, the men are alright,” Victor calms down. “They are a little tired after a long and intense fight, but they’re alive and healthy.”       “Thank God…” Anna exhales with relief.       “Please, tell them that we want to talk to them,” Raquelle says. “They probably left their phones somewhere. There are beeps, but nobody answers.”       “Don’t worry, girls,” Victor says confidently. “The men didn’t forget you and know you’re waiting for their call. They will get examined by the doctors quickly and then call you and come to you.”       “Doctors?” Natalia rounds her eyes. “Something happened to them?”       “No, no, everything is alright. We just need to make sure they have no traumas. Marcus and his accomplices did not pity them and beat them on everything they saw.”       “Oh, my gosh…” Anna horrifies, closing her mouth with a hand.       “But don’t worry there, please! The guys feel great, even after everything they had to get through. And the doctor’s examination is just a way to make sure those people didn’t give them any severe traumas.”       “Are they really alright?” Raquelle asks excitedly. “Aren’t you lying to us?”       “No, Raquelle, I don’t have the meaning of lying to you. I promise that when the guys are examined, they will come to you shortly.”       “Oh, alright then… We will be waiting…”       “And Helene?” Anna asks hesitantly and swallows nervously. “Is she okay? You found her? Where is she now?”       “Erm…”       Victor bites his lip slightly as he says nothing for a few seconds, as if he tries to find the right words.       “Helene… She…”       “Don’t tell us you didn’t find her,” Natalia shakes her head.       Sammy whines and barks with pity.       “No, we…” Victor pronounces thoughtfully. “We found her… Erm… Almost…”       “What do you mean, almost?” Raquelle frowns strongly. “What do you want to say?”       “Oh, you know, my sweeties… Helene… It’s much harder for her…” Victor exhales with a shake, understanding that it’s madly hard for him to find the words to say what he still can barely believe. “She… She…”       “Speak, Mr. Johnson!” Anna demands the answer a little louder. “What happened to Helene? Why did you begin to stutter? Why is your voice shaking?”       “I’m really sorry…” Victor says in a little shaking voice. “It… It’s just too hard for me to tell you that. It’s always hard to say something like this to someone.”       “What’s wrong?” Natalia wonders. “If you didn’t find Helene, just say it! Why would you pull a cat’s tail?”       “Please, accept my condolences. I am really very sorry about what happened.”       “Condolences to what?” Raquelle rounds her eyes.       Sammy starts looking at the friends with eyes full of sadness, turning his head from side to side.       “My heart is breaking because of having to say it, but sadly, your friend Helene Marshall died,” Victor says with sadness, exhaling sharply. “The guys could not save her, and she became a victim of Marcus Longbottom. Another victim of him.”       Getting sharply pale, Raquelle, Natalia, and Anna get frozen in horror and look at each other with widely open eyes, feeling that it’s getting harder to breathe because of something pressing on the chest, everything goes black before their eyes for a moment, and their hearts start beating much faster. Sammy starts whining with great pity and looks at all the dumbfounded girls with true pain in his eyes as if he understands what has been said. Understands that his owner will not come back home and has left this world, in which he would have to live all alone.       Anna, Natalia, and Raquelle suddenly become speechless and shake their heads in mistrust, close their mouths with their hands, and swallow the air greedily since they lack it catastrophically. The body starts shaking much more strongly, and all the muscles are painfully tense – which is the reason why they can barely move. At some moment, the girls try to say just something, but their tongues kind of got numb, and their lips can barely close. Again and again, they think of the words of Victory about Helene Marshall dying and becoming the victim of Marcus. The brain protests so hard and refuses to accept this piece of news, after which there is no meaning in hoping for a miracle and thinking that they misheard it or the police captain told them the wrong information that would be denied by someone soon.       The friends spend some time trying to come to themselves after the news about Helene’s death. To be clear, Victor makes them wake up from the trance since he is seriously worried that the girls say nothing for a long time and do not make any sobs.       “Girls!” Victor pronounces anxiously. “Girls, can you hear me? Are you alright?”       “W-w-w-what?” Anna pronounces in a shaking voice, barely moving her kind of numb lips. “What did you s-s-say?”       “Helene w-w-what?” Raquelle cannot believe it.       “Helene died,” Victor repeats in a quiet, low voice. “Your friend is gone. Sadly, we came too late. We could not save her.”       “What do you mean she d-d-died?” Natalia wonders and sniffs quietly. “What are you talking about, Mr. Johnson?”       “Please, tell us you are wrong,” Anna begs desperately. “Tell us you didn’t mean it!”       “It would be happy to, Anna, but to my sadness, I cannot say it’s not the truth,” Victor sighs heavily.       Sammy whines heartbreakingly at this moment, sitting next to Raquelle, Natalia, and Anna, who are about to start crying.       “No…” Raquelle shakes her head. “No, it cannot be the truth… It cannot!”       “No, Mr. Johnson, for God’s sake, don’t hurt us like this,” Natalia sobs quietly. “Don’t tell us Helene died.”       “We will not take it… We will not take it if it’s the truth.”       “I am really very sorry about what happened,” Victor replies. “Telling people about someone’s death has always been an incredibly hard thing for me. Though I have to do this in the line of duty. And my heart squeezes and bleeds every time I do this.”       “We don’t believe it!” Anna states and wipes tears under her eyes. “We don’t believe what you say! It’s a lie!”       “Alas, but I don’t.”       “But why?” Raquelle wonders. “Why did she die? What happened to her? How do you know this?”       “Marcus gave an order to start a fire in the place where they held Helene. They did their best for her not to get out of there. And… She could really not do this.”       “My gosh…” Natalia closes her mouth with her hands, opening her eyes widely.       “It all happened before the eyes of the men. And they feel guilty of not being able to help her.”       “Wait, where were they at that moment?” Raquelle frowns slightly. “Why did the guys do nothing?”       “Helene wasn’t where the guys went. One part of Marcus’s accomplices was with them, while the other was with your friend. They contacted each other with a video call, thanks to which your men saw the death.”       “No!” Anna shouts. “No, it cannot be the truth!”       “The guys saw how she was dying?” Natalia cannot believe what she hears.       “Literally from start to end,” Victor says with sadness in his eyes. “They said they just helped her untie herself, but Helene could not escape the room that was set on fire. And the connection was lost at some moment. Later, Marcus contacted another accomplice of his, who showed them the fire burning the whole house. And they also exploded it. So, she had no chances.”       After hearing these details, Raquelle, Anna, and Natalia cannot hold down the tears that roll down their cheeks, ruining the nude makeup that each of them had made. Meanwhile, Sammy becomes more and more restless and starts whining and barking loudly and desperately.       “It’s awful…” Raquelle pronounces in a shaking voice. “I can’t believe it…”       “I refuse to believe it!” Natalia states. “I want to hear nothing about it!”       “Couldn’t she really do anything?” Anna wonders. “She could’ve jumped in the window, broken the door… Found many ways to escape that place!”       “The window was too small, and she was held in the room on the highest floor,” Victor explains. “And the only way was closed with fire. So, your friend had no small chance.”       “She could’ve taken a risk to save her life!” Raquelle states desperately. “She could’ve jumped out of the window and run far away from the fire.”       “I told you what I heard from the men themselves. The way they saw the full picture.”       “My God, I can’t believe it…” Natalia cries bitterly. “It must be a bad dream.”       “Yeah, it’s a bad dream…” Anna tries to calm herself down. “We’re about to wake up… We must… Now…”       “Listen, sweet girls, I completely understand your feelings,” Victor says quietly. “I also don’t believe such a good girl has become another victim of Marcus.”       “She didn’t deserve it!” Raquelle exclaims. “She didn’t deserve what happened to her!”       “God couldn’t punish her like this for her past sins,” Natalia says confidently. “He could not! She regretted everything a long time ago! Helene is no longer what she was before!”       “She wasn’t just lucky to become a victim,” Victor sighs heavily. “The victim, whom Marcus used to hurt Peter much more.”       “Why?” Anna makes a couple of sobs. “Why was it she? What did Helene do? Did she really deserve it?”       “Anyway, the guys will come to you soon and tell you everything. They will tell you how everything happened. Sadly, I’m not aware of everything yet, and I’m just finding out what led to her death.”       “I don’t believe…” Raquelle pronounces with a shake in her voice. “I don’t! We can’t lose Helene! We cannot!”       “Marcus’s accomplices have been taken to the station to be questioned. They surely know the place where they held Helene. And when we figure it out, the operative group will go there shortly. They will try to find… The corpse of your friend… That will be… Taken to the morgue for the autopsy…”       The words about the corpse and the morgue make the girls cry much more bitterly, and Sammy makes a much more heartbreaking howl than ever.       “I’m sorry about what I said. But this is the order of actions we will follow before Helene’s relative is allowed to take the body of her granddaughter to organize a funeral.”       “Why, God, why?” Anna embraces herself with both arms. “How could it happen? Why? Why?”       “I promised the guys to take responsibility for telling you about your friend’s death. And I did it. I did it with a heavy heart.”       “Thank you, Mr. Johnson,” Raquelle thanks in a shaking voice and sniffs quietly. “Thank you for letting us know it.”       “Yeah, and thank you so much again for agreeing to help,” Natalia adds. “We’re really grateful to you.”       “As I told your men some time ago, these situations happen, sadly. Cases don’t always end happily.”       “Thank God, at least our men are fine,” Anna makes a quiet sob. “Otherwise, we would go crazy from grief. We wouldn’t take it all.”       “They are alright, don’t worry,” Victor calms down. “The guys will come back to you and tell you everything soon.”       “How soon?” Natalia specifies.       “I can’t say. But I think they will call you when the doctor finishes examining them and treating their wounds.”       “Alright, we will be waiting then,” Raquelle promises and wipes tears carefully under her eyes. “Keep telling us about the investigation of this case.”       “Of course!” Victor exclaims. “If I have some news, I will tell you everything shortly.”       “Thank you so much, Mr. Johnson,” Anna thanks. “We are grateful to you for your effort.”       “Accept my condolences due to your friend’s death. Helene was a very nice and kind girl whom I liked. And I am very sorry that her life ended so early.”       “Tt-thank you…” Raquelle, Natalia, and Anna pronounce excitedly.       “Alright, I have to go. My colleague wants me to come to him shortly. So, I have to end the talk.”       “Alright, we got it,” Natalia says in a low voice.       “I will come to you when I have some free time. Maybe tomorrow, maybe after tomorrow. I will see. I need to solve it all.”       “See you later,” Raquelle pronounces quietly.       “Goodbye,” Anna says goodbye.       “Goodbye, sweet girls,” Victor replies softly.       When Raquelle finishes the talk with Victor by pressing the button on the screen of the smartphone, she puts it on the coffee table and keeps crying bitterly along with Anna and Natalia. While Sammy sitting on the floor looks at them with half-wet eyes and breaks their souls with his emotional bark and whining full of pity.       “It cannot be the truth…” Anna pronounces in a low, shaking voice. “No… I don’t wanna believe it…”       “I don’t believe it, either,” Natalia replies in the same voice. “Helene didn’t die. She did not die. I don’t wanna accept it!”       “I can’t believe everything ended in such a terrible way,” Raquelle adds. “I can’t…”       “What if it’s a mistake? What if Helene is alive? What if she managed to save herself? What if she did it, but nobody knows it yet?”       “How? Getting out of the fire is impossible! It’s like trying to survive when falling off a high mountain! A zero chance in both of these cases!”       “What if everything happens just like in the case of the father of Terrence and Edward?” Anna tries to calm herself down. “What if Helene shows up alive one beautiful day? What if it’s a lie? The lie that could make Marcus believe he got a victory?”       “I would like to believe it, but no,” Natalia shakes her head. “Mr. MacClife was found, but who would find Helene? They held her nobody knows where! In the place where nobody goes!”       “No, girls, let’s not get upset in advance,” Raquelle assumes nervously, breathing a little heavily. “Let’s wait for the arrival of Daniel, Terrence, and Edward. They will tell you everything… Say Mr. Johnson was wrong and didn’t know the situation yet.”       “He would hardly lie to us,” Anna shakes her head. “Mr. Johnson wouldn’t do this to us. He didn’t lie for sure! He surely knows that Helene died.”       Sammy barks excitedly.       “And Sammy wouldn’t fret and fume like this! He never does things without a reason.” Anna sniffs loudly. “This dog has sensed that something awful happened for a long time. He feels that his owner is gone.”       “Yeah, but I wanna believe in some kind of magic!” Natalia exclaims. “I wanna believe we’ve been deceived. I wanna believe the guys would come here now with Helene. We’d hug her tightly and say that everyone loves her so much.”       “We’re just calming ourselves down! We don’t wanna believe it has happened. We don’t wanna believe our friend died. And if she really burned in the fire and even exploded, we might probably be unable to bury her. Because nothing would be left of her! Nothing!”       “You think she has really become another victim of Marcus?” Raquelle asks hesitantly in a shaking voice, looking at Anna and Natalia with wet eyes. “You think that man got what he wanted?”       “I don’t wanna believe it at all.”       “Listen, girls, let’s really wait for the guys and ask them about everything,” Natalia suggests. “Let’s not panic in advance and think of the worst things.”       “Most likely, we’re really just trying to calm ourselves down,” Raquelle replies thoughtfully. “I’ve been obsessed with a bad presentiment for a long time for the reason. I was sure that something bad had happened.”       “Me too… I didn’t doubt it, either.”       “And my heart was bleeding,” Anna confesses. “Squeezing so that it hurt unbearably…”       Sammy whines with great pity as he looks closely at the girls shaking from tension, crying, and embracing each other tightly at some moment.       “S-s-sammy, our boy…” Raquelle pronounces in a shaking voice. “Sweetheart…”       Raquelle gets up from the sofa, gets down to his knees, and caresses the face of the depressed Sammy with both hands as she looks into his unhappy eyes that can express all the unbearable pain that he feels without a thousand words.       “Poor baby…” Natalia pronounces with pity in her eyes, gets down to her knees beside Sammy, and starts stroking his hair. “My God…”       “What’s gonna happen to you if everything is true?” Anna wonders, sitting on the floor to pet Sammy a little. “How are you gonna accept the death of your owner?”       After whining with pity, Sammy starts pressing himself to all the girls one by one, while they caress him everywhere with tears in their eyes and give him strong hugs, even if they understand that it will hardly help them and the dog feel better. On the one hand, Anna, Natalia, and Raquelle try not to get any illusions and to believe that a miracle may happen. But on the other hand, they realize that this is how they just try to calm themselves down, refusing to believe what they heard. That’s why the friends are waiting impatiently for the arrival of Daniel, Edward, and Terrence, so that they can confirm everything and upset them or calm them down and say Victor gave them the information that cannot be confirmed or denied.       

***

      Peter would also be happy to hear Helene did not actually die and is not somewhere alive and healthy. But he cannot believe it because he saw everything with his own eyes. He saw that his girlfriend ended up in a fire circle that caught her in a trap with no way out. He heard all the emotional screams of the one who did not want to say goodbye to her life and leave those she loved so much. He will never forget how one of Marcus’s accomplices raised the whole house up by pressing just one button to provoke a powerful explosion so that she did not have any chances to survive.       Rose calls these memories over and over as he goes to his home in the car, squeezing the steering wheel tightly with both hands and watching the empty road with his red and puffy eyes. He does not hold down the tears, while he is all alone, and sometimes sniffs his stuffy nose with the thought that he lacks air. The drivers in cars going by the crying Peter and probably ask themselves what could happen to him. Sometimes the guy falls into the memories of Helene’s death so deeply that he does not notice that he sometimes presses the gas pedal too strongly, so that the car drives at a high enough speed and puts himself under a threat of getting in a severe car accident. And he even provokes several dangerous situations when he may run into someone, and when someone may run into him. The blond ignores those who give him their claims and orders to learn how to drive and keeps moving forward, not thinking about where he may end up, but following the correct way automatically.       The death of the girlfriend is the thing that Peter cares about much more than the fact that he had a severe fight with Edward, Terrence, and Daniel, killed them with his own hands, and blamed them openly for what happened, and actually all possible sins. He does not care if they are alive or dead, healthy or sick. It seems that if one of them or the three men went to the afterlife, the guy would not even move his eyebrow. As if these people have never meant anything to him and have not become literally brothers to him. Though they did not stop caring about him even after all his bad actions, thinking it was just a protective reaction and a way to express his emotions.       Now, a sense of guilt for Helene is eating Peter inside. He blamed her for betraying him after Marcus’s successful attempt to turn him against her. The guy hates himself for letting himself doubt this girl, who was always near in the hardest times. Who could have easily sacrificed everything to make him feel good. She proved her unbreakable innocence so many times. She never criticized him, even if he was not right and did something that could make people’s hair stand on end. And after all of that, Rose believed the one he did not know at all and literally added his girlfriend to the list of his enemies. That’s why he was seriously thinking of breaking up with her once and forever.       But on the other hand, Peter cannot do anything about his trust issues that he has been suffering from for ages. The fear of his close person deciding to betray him and wishing to give him pain is the reason why he treated his friends and girlfriend with suspicion. And even if the peck was reached in his school years, the guy already had a feeling that someone had hurt him before. But he cannot still remember this. Or maybe he is afraid?! Afraid that the truth may give him a much stronger psychological trauma. Make his condition much worse, even if it’s far from good. Though Rose understands that he cannot live like this forever and must do something with it if he wants to become a normal man and learn to communicate with people, distancing himself from those who would not do anything good to him, and not letting them into his wounded soul and broken heart.       Probably, a miracle helps Peter arrive at the neighborhood where he lives with no problems, even if tears keep rolling down his cheeks slowly. He does not miss the twist and goes to the parking lot where there are several cars that belong to those who live in the building, near which it’s placed. When he finds a good place and parks his car, the guy does not rush to leave the salon and get the key out of the motor. His dead, puffy, and wet eyes do not blink and look closely into the distance, his arms are folded on the steering wheel, and his chin is leaning on them. But at some moment, he snuggles his nose in the steering wheel and closes his head with his hands, sobbing quietly at times and understanding that his whole body shakes from strong tension.       However, Peter decides not to stay here for too long and to return home to let all his emotions out with no fear of being caught by someone who wishes to judge and teach him. He gets straight slowly, wipes tears under his eyes with his fingers, looks at the rearview mirror, and fixes his disheveled hair slightly, being horrified by his red eyes and pale, skinny face covered with blood tracks and bright bruises. The guy understands he cannot cover it all quickly and decides just to leave the parking lot quickly, get up to the floor he needs, and enter his apartment. Though he is not sure if he can remain invisible at least for his old neighbors, who are always unhappy with something and literally occupy the bench placed near the building, and have started to live on it.       Nevertheless, when Peter exhales sharply, he leaves the salon confidently enough and locks it with the key that he puts in the pocket of his jacket. Then the guy turns around and, moving his eyes down, leaves the parking lot in a quick, nervous step. As he assumed, he meets several people on the way, but they do not pay attention to him, to his happiness, and someone who walks here for the first time is actually unfamiliar to Rose. And when he almost comes to the hall entrance in the high building, the blond, not doubting it could not be otherwise, sees Marta and Hillary sitting on the bench far from him, talking about something actively and glancing sometimes at someone they may not like just because of the appearance. While one of them twirls her rounded glasses with thick lenses in her hands and puts them on at times to look at something from afar, the other is knitting something easily and quietly with needles and a big skein of gray thread lying near her.       “Fuck, will there be just one day when these old women don’t live at that fucking bench?” Peter blunts under his nose in a low, rude voice. “I left, they were there! I am back, they are still here! I wish there were just one day when that thing is free so I could go somewhere quietly without hearing the evil comments of these fucking ladies. Ar-r-r…”       Growling irritably at the thought that he has no choice, Peter inclines his head and goes to the hall entrance in a wide, quick step. But when he barely comes closer to it, Rose can already feel a gloomy glance from Hillary that tells Marta about his return home by pushing her slightly in the ribs with her elbow.       “Oh, the cat dragged in!” Marta exclaims. “It’s not even been one day!”       “Where has he been?” Hillary asks.       “Jeez! You just look at what happened to his face! It’s all in blood and bruises!”       “Indeed! His nose is blue, and blood dried under it!”       “I wonder who did this to him?” Marta asks herself. “Whom did he get so mad that they beat his face like this?”       “Looks like someone got so tired of this insolent and non-educated puppy that they decided to show him where he belonged and give him a couple of education lessons.”       “But the question is whether it can help him? Does it make sense to try to teach a monkey to speak when it doesn’t understand what you want from it?”       “We can make an express test and find out if something changed,” Hillary suggests. “Let’s try!”       Hillary put aside the thing she knits when Peter goes by her and Marta in a quick, sharp step, clenching his hands into fists tightly.       “So, Rose, did you ask for trouble since someone beat your beautiful face like this?” Hillary asks loudly.       “You deserved it, young yobbo!” Marta states determinedly. “You are insolent as hell! You got a freaking star struck! You thought just because you played in a band, you had a right to do what you wanted and tell people to do something.”       Peter honestly wanted to go by quietly and ignore any attacks from Marta and Hillary. But he is so obsessed with a strong anger that he quickly loses his patience and has every muscle squeezed to the pain. That’s why the guy turns around and sends them such a burning glance full of hate that the ladies put their heads on their shoulders unconsciously with rounded eyes and feel that the frost gets over their backs.       “Do you really the fuck care about it, old fucking ladies?” Peter throws rudely. “Do you really care about what’s happening to me? Is your life so boring that you are following mine so hard?”       “How do you dare to talk to those who are older like this, undeveloped kid?” Hillary resents. “Are you out of your mind?”       “Is there a reason to respect you? You are sitting here all day long and collecting rumors! YOU ARE FUCKING REGISTERED ON THIS FUCKING BENCH!”       “Hey, hey, don’t scream here, you, fucking bastard!” Marta cuts off sharply. “Otherwise, I will quickly show you where you belong!”       “Yeah?” Peter puts his hands on his hips, looking at Marta and Hillary with an evil sneer. “What would you do to me? Hit me with your bag? Threaten with your finger? Ha! I am one hundred times stronger than you and can do my best for you two to get thrown two meters away!”       “Hey, friend, you just look at this yobbo!” Hillary shakes her head. “You just look what this stooge is doing! He must have his ass kicked with a belt and get a couple of slaps in the face!”       “The youth are out of their mind nowadays!” Marta resents. “The younger people used to be afraid to look into the eyes of someone who was older and were afraid of them like fire. But now what? They snap, shout, swear… Threaten!”       “Watch your children, ladies!” Peter demands coldly. “Why are you the fuck annoying me? You are NOBODY to me! Ah, yeah, pardon, I forgot… You don’t have children. You don’t have husbands… You two are old, childless ladies that only dirty the air as they live in this fucking world, even if nobody needs them.”       “That’s what we get when someone doesn’t have decent parents that would make him a REAL man. That would be gentle to older people, give way to them in a bus or a queue, hold the door, or help them carry heavy bags…”       “Oh, come on!” Hillary waves her hand. “Rose has never heard of something like this!”       “Ugh, your wet fantasies are so not interesting,” Peter winces strongly. “Dirty fantasies that did not come true because of your disgusting character.”       “Hey, puppy, close your mouth before we do this personally. We are closing our eyes to all your tricks and your nasty behavior toward us. But if you are too insolent, I swear we will turn your life to real hell.”       “M-m-m, wow… Some pathetic old ladies decided to scare me. They think they can make me put my tail between my legs immediately and lick their wrinkled asses and look into their eyes.”       “Gosh, it’s so disgusting that we don’t have any more men living in this building!” Marta exhales sharply. “No man to the core that would show you where you belong and teach you to respect older people.”       “Relax, all your admirers have already become natural fertilizer for the ground.”       “If your girl stopped agreeing to fuck you or replaced you with another man, it doesn’t mean you have the right to take it out on everyone,” Hillary states. “We aren’t guilty of you not being able to hold her next to you.”       “And how would you hold her down next to you with such a nasty character?” Marta adds. “She can find someone to be better!”       “She will never find anyone better!” Peter explodes with a heavy breath. “SHE WILL NEVER FIND! HEAR ME, NEVER! NEVER!”       “We aren’t blind, Rose, do not scream into our ears,” Hillary winces strongly as she leans back.       “What do you all the fuck need from me? WHAT? Why does everyone think they must put my nose in the shit? Why does everyone insult and humiliate me all the time? Why can’t anyone just leave me alone AND LET ME LIVE A FUCKING NORMAL LIFE? WHAT DID I DO? WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME?”       “God sees everything, puppy. He sees what you are doing and punishes you. You cannot hide any of your actions from Him. And when it’s time for your Judgement Day, you will have to pay for all your tricks. A place somewhere in hell is already prepared and waiting for you already.”       “I give a fuck about your notations!” Peter roars. “I GIVE A FUCK! I WANT TO HEAR NOTHING! NOTHING!”       “How could such an insolent freak like you come to this world?” Marta resents. “Your mother should’ve had something stitched not to give birth to some stinkers. And your father should have had something cut in his childhood.”       “Yeah, two freaks met and made a third one!” Hillary exclaims. “Normal parents would not make a defective baby. Normal parents educate them and keep them under harsh control. So that they understand what their fault is and what older people want from them at the sight of just one glance.”       “Hey, do all childless, old ladies think they know everything about educating children and have the right to give everyone some pieces of advice?” Peter surprises.       “I shall kick you now…”       Hillary grabs what she was knitting before and starts hitting Peter being obsessed with anger. At some moment, he grabs this thing sharply, tears it into pieces, and throws it angrily on the ground. And when the woman gets up and barely comes to him, he pushes her off rudely. That’s why she falls to the bench with a shout, while Marta getting sharply pale gets frozen and watches her old friend with horror in her eyes.       “Are you out of your mind?” Hillary raises her voice. “How did you dare to hit the old woman?”       “Next time, I shall push you so that you DIE!” Peter states coldly.       “You are a psycho!” Marta acts bravely, getting up from the bench and starting to hit Peter with her hands. “Nasty bastard that must have his ass kicked hard!”       Peter rudely pushes Marta off himself so that she falls on the bench with a piggy shout that gets the attention of random people going by here. Though they decide not to meddle and to keep moving on and doing their business.       “Do not dare to touch me with a finger,” Peter threatens in a low, rude voice. “Or I swear you will regret it! YOU WILL BE LYING IN A FUCKING GRAVE! FERTILIZING THE GROUND!”       “Do we call a mental hospital?” Marta raises her voice. “Did your brain go on a long adventure?”       “If you have mental issues, go to the clinic and get therapy!” Hillary demands. “Do not walk here and scare normal people.”       “My mental health is fine,” Peter says rudely, clenching his hands tightly into fists and literally making a hole in the foreheads of Hillary and Marta with his eyes full of evil. “Absolutely… You are all sick here… You are unhealthy…”       “Gosh, just look at yourself!” Hillary horrifies. “Look what you have become! You do not look like you anymore!”       “Uh-huh, you are kind of green from anger!” Marta notices. “And your eyes are totally black!”       “Yes, I have changed!” Peter states in an evil voice and raises his head proudly. “I am no longer the timid and weak boy that everyone humiliated. He is gone. How did you call him? Peter, I think! Alright, Peter is gone! There will be another me! Call me Theodore.”       “The guy is really out of his mind…” Marta shakes her head, exhaling sharply.       “Yes! Call me Theodore! THEODORE! This is the real me! REAL! REAL! I AM THEODORE! YA-A-AY!”       Peter starts laughing evilly and loudly, getting the attention of random people and discouraging Hillary and Marta, who look at each other tensely.       “Jesus Christ…” Hillary closes her mouth with a hand. “Are you now having schizophrenia? Or a split personality?”       “It’s been a while since he got the illness called parasitism,” Marta says confidently. “If the man were busy with a business that would be good for the country, he would have no illness.”       “Uh-huh! They came up with some depression, sadness, mood changes… Came up with psychologists… People did not have anything like this before! Everyone was happy because they were busy with their business. They worked and thought of husbands, wives, and children!”       “Blah, blah, blah, blah!” Peter shows quotes with his fingers as he rolls his eyes. “I’ve heard nothing good from your verbal diarrhea.”       “Although his gal probably acts like a prostitute secretly from everyone, I am sorry that she, silly girl, got in touch with this psycho,” Hillary confesses.       “And what are his friends doing?” Marta resents. “Why the hell do they need this mentally ill man? Who, as I really hope, was put on record in his childhood.”       “Oh, you are right! Of course, I don’t like his friends, but they don’t look like mentally ill folks and can control themselves.”       “From this moment, everyone must keep themselves far from me,” Peter says in a low, icy voice and raises his head proudly. “Because I am going to take revenge on everyone who has ever hurt me. Those who have ever betrayed me, insulted me, humiliated me, and framed me. No mercy for everyone now. I am not going to waste my time on such shit as excuses from my enemies. THEODORE SHALL NOT LET ANYONE HURT HIM ANYMORE!”       “God, the boy got a strong hit on the head!” Hillary pronounces surprisingly. “He suffers from boredom and has his face beaten by someone.”       “Your time will come, too, ladies. Everyone’s time will come soon. You, bastards, will all die. I shall take revenge on everyone. For the years of my suffering that I DID NOT THE FUCK DESERVE. I SHALL NO LONGER CLOSE MY EYES TO ALL OF THIS AND PRETEND THAT NOTHING HAPPENS! I SHALL NOT!”       “Hey, sucker, do not bark here,” Marta demands rudely. “And do not dare to threaten.”       “All my life, I was spineless and closed my eyes silently to all the attacks I didn’t deserve. But now I am done with this. You all will pay Theodore. Pay for daring to treat him like this.”       “Do you think everything in your life will suddenly change after you change your name?” Hillary surprises. “Do you think you will be different after you change it from Peter to Theodore?”       “I changed nothing. I have always been the one. And I want to inform you that Peter is gone from today on. He is dead. There is only Theodore. Theodore Longbottom. The one I was supposed to be when I was born. The one not to let anyone hurt him and to take revenge on everyone who doesn’t just look at him kindly.”       “Gosh, we are so unlucky with our neighbor!” Marta exhales sharply. “Rude, non-educated, and mentally unstable! The one to take a new personality and call himself Theodore.”       “Do not forget, we know the number of the ambulance and a mental hospital where they take you away at any time,” Hillary warns. “And you will go there if just one person dies because of you. We will tell the doctors and the police about you.”       “Ha, I would rather dance on your graves sooner than end up wearing a straightjacket!” Peter sneers evilly.       “I didn’t think someone would go crazy because of the problems with his girlfriend. Though it seems that you have always been a little insane. Like out of this world.”       “LEAVE MY GIRLFRIEND ALONE! DO NOT DARE TO MENTION HER WITH YOUR DIRTY MOUTH! DO NOT DARE!”       “Why are you screaming, hysterical girl?” Marta snaps. “Why are you screaming? You want to scare people around? My cats are permanently stressed due to your tricks, but should they forget about a calm life forever?”       “I advise you to hide your fuckin cats somewhere far from me if you don’t want to find their dead bodies in the early morning,” Peter threatens with eyes full of evil. “Because they are also in my list. The list of those I shall destroy in the nearest time.”       “Alright, Marta, it seems like he is ill,” Hillary waves his hand. “Nobody can help Rose now.”       “Now I would like to look at the people who gave birth to this boy,” Marta confesses. “Find out who let such a mentally unstable man come into this world. Who doomed so many people to suffering.”       “I am so fucking tired of listening to your bullshit,” Peter snuffs contemptuously, crossing his arms over his chest. “I am sick of seeing your old faces every fucking day and have no chance to go by here so that you do not know WHEN I leave and return.”       “Stop doing nobody the hell knows what, sucker!” Hillary throws rudely. “Get a normal job and work hard for hours. Create a family, after all: find a wife and make children! And provide for them!”       “Uh-huh, this is how you can get rid of all your stupidity!” Marta exclaims. “You would have no time to suffer after coming back home super exhausted.”       “Yes, yes! Do not count on your snotty songs. Someday, all these little girls will grow up and lose interest in all of this. And you will have nobody to beat your drums for.”       “It’s alright, undeveloped idler, when you turn forty or fifty, you will start to understand you have wasted your time on nobody the hell knows what. But it will be too late to change something because you will be old, nobody will need you, and you will not even be able to work as a cashier.”       At first, Peter says nothing and just growls irritably, crossing his arms over his chest and rolling his eyes.       “You know what…” Peter throws coldly. “Fuck yourself, you two! Since your asses are stuck to the bench, sit here quietly. Collect rumors. AND LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE! ONCE AND FOREVER! I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR OR SEE YOU! I WANT YOU, TWO BITCHES, DEAD! I HATE YOU! I FUCKING HATE YOU! BURN IN HELL, OLD ASSHOLES!”       Peter turns around sharply and goes to the hall entrance in a quick, sharp step, leaving Marta and Hillary resentful.       “Yea-a-a-ah, a yobbo to the core cannot be fixed even in a grave,” Marta shakes her head.       “You’re right!” Hillary exclaims and takes what she was kitting for a long time, but was torn by Peter from the ground. “And it seems like he is going out of his mind as hell.”       “The last time, when he was insane, he was quiet and silent. But now, literally the entire neighborhood sees that Peter Rose is a mentally unhealthy man who pretends to be Theodore.”       “Idleness, Marta. The problem is idleness. If Rose were busy with something, everything would be alright. But he is living for a reason that nobody understands. He is like some kind of trash.”       “I wonder what his girl did if he is acting like a psycho? Rose went out of his mind approximately after the day when he carried her in his arms when coming back home.”       “She cheated on him with another man, for sure! She met a better man and decided to leave this one.”       “It’s absolutely obvious! Who would date the one to be literally registered in a room at the mental hospital for a long time? Having a deal with psyches is dangerous. They are quiet and happy with everything, but then get loose and run from side to side like crazy.”       “Thank God, Rose doesn’t have a knife or a gun. Otherwise, you and I would give our souls to God!”       “That’s right!” Marta agrees. “But you know, honestly, I was really scared when he came to us. And when he pushed you and me so strongly. You saw how evil his eyes were? Black, full of hate and anger! And his body was shaking from tension!”       “Yeah, I didn’t feel calm…” Hillary confesses. “As if it wasn’t Peter at all, as if it was someone else. Something definitely changed about him.”       “I guess we should think twice before saying something to him. Or he may really take a knife. Start a mass slaughter in the city. Kill everyone he sees. Just like the men did in the 90s. You remember?”       “Yes, yes, I do! Because of him, one relative of mine died. And one familiar of mine was madly lucky to run away from that psycho and stay alive.”       “And that man killed my friend. She was such a beautiful woman, so young, so hard-working… She had a good husband, a wonderful baby…”       “When I watched all these reports about the evil criminals of Marcus, I was shaking,” Hillary confesses. “They gave so many details that could’ve been a basement for several scary movies.”       “And it seems like Rose decided to become his so-called follower.”       “What?”       “Didn’t you pay attention that he called himself Theodore Longbottom? And Marcus’s last name was also Longbottom.”       “Right! Why didn’t I guess it before?”       “Oh, I wish that psycho didn’t become Marcus Longbottom 2.0 and terrify the entire city with mass murders.”       “I would not be surprised! He decided to take revenge on everyone for the humiliations and insults. Marcus was probably humiliated somehow, and he got mad at the whole world in the end and started to kill everyone who stood in his way.”       “It’s alright, friend!” Marta exclaims cheerfully. “You and I will not close our eyes to this. If Peter-Theodore commits just one crime, you and I will call the police immediately and tell them about him. So they put this yobbo in prison or a mental hospital.”       “Oh, yeah! It would be a wonderful chance to get rid of him once and forever. Since he doesn’t want to get out of here, we can help him.”       “Right! This time, we know the personality of the new potential criminal and can do our civic duty and save hundreds of innocent souls from unfair death.”       “And who knows, maybe the police will even reward us with some money,” Hillary smiles slyly. “For catching a dangerous criminal.”       “It would be awesome! My pension has lately been too small for me. I can get through it somehow, but my cats need expensive food and new toys. And how much money I have to spend on vet doctors, injections, and cures.”       “By the way, haven’t you noticed that Marcus is really similar to our Rose?”       “Marcus? Rose?”       “Yeah! If Marcus were twenty years younger, it would be a copy of Rose in front of us.”       “Well… There is really something similar about them.”       “Imagine if they are connected with each other somehow. If Peter turns out to be a relative of the most dangerous criminal in the country.”       “I would not be surprised! It would explain why Peter has mental issues. Why the situation gets worse and worse every year.”       “Anyway, be ready, friend! After what we saw, we can expect anything from Rose.”       “Yeah… I wish he hadn’t decided to start a fire here to get rid of all of us.”       “We know who we should blame for all the sins if some weird things start happening at our home. We know what to tell the police when they come to question us and ask if there are those we suspect.”       “I would be so happy to tell the law enforcement about that non-educated rat. And watch them take him away from here, holding him under his arms and putting on handcuffs.”       “We can organize it with no problems.”       Marta and Hillary laugh shyly, looking at each other and keep talking about something, while they are sitting on the bench and sometimes watching what’s happening around. Hillary tries to save what she was knitting, but understands she has to redo a bigger part of the work. So, she has nothing but to sign disappointedly and start working on this, seeing everything not clearly enough, even with her glasses on, since it’s getting darker and darker outside.       

***

      Before coming back to the girls, who are waiting for them, Edward, Daniel, and Terrence spend some time getting examined by the doctors, who arrived to Marcus’ house after the police’s call. Then the three men go to the hospital, where MacClife, Sr., gets all the examinations to know how severe his back trauma is. He can move now, but he does it very slowly and with the help of someone. And when he gets the receipt and a list of recommendations to recover quickly, Terrence comes to the car with the help of Edward and Daniel in the large parking lot. He uses their help to seat carefully on the backseat, while his brother sits on the passenger’s seat, and Perkins sits on the driver’s seat.       Not wasting time, the guys leave the parking lot quietly and go on the highway that is now lighted with many street lamps since it’s getting dark outside. The roads are actually free now, and they can move fast without problems. Though they may end up in places where they have to spend some time in traffic jams or wait for the traffic light to change from red to green. On the way, Daniel, Terrence, and Edward do not talk at all after sharing a couple of words in the parking lot. Every one of them is busy with their dark thoughts and tries to get through what happened today: the fight with Marcus and his accomplices, Helene’s death, and a conflict with Peter, who went insane from grief. While Daniel is distracted by driving more or less and has to watch the road all the time, the MacClife brothers recall all the moments that make them shake again and again.       Some time ago, nobody cared about tiredness, but now the adrenaline weakens and is replaced with a breakdown and a sense of emptiness. Edward, Daniel, and Terrence are happy to stay alive after the hell they went through, but they are not proud that they could not reach their goals. They could not save Helene, who died without any chance to be saved. They saw her death with their own eyes and cannot say it’s not the truth. They cannot even imagine how they can look into the eyes of Raquelle, Anna, Natalia, Scarlett, and even Sammy after they promised them to come back with the girl. A sense of shame eats them inside and makes them disappointed in themselves and doubt that they really deserve to be heroes, as their sweethearts often call them.       A way to Daniel’s home takes a long enough time, but it lasts without bad events and too quickly for the men, who do not notice since they are busy with their own thoughts. The car gets close to the private neighborhood where Perkins gets in without problems and passes some distance before he ends up in front of the house he needs. When the automatic gate opens, he gets on the territory and parks in the place where he usually leaves his car. When he puts the car into gear and turns off the motor, Daniel, Edward, and Terrence do not rush to get out and spend some time thinking about something. While Perkins knocks his fingers against the steering wheel and keeps his head on the door of the car, MacClife, Jr., looks through the window with sad eyes, and his brother looks at his hands, on which he can see small scars and bright bruises.       But at some moment, Daniel wakes up from the trance first and moves his eyes to Edward sitting next to him for the first time, then turns back, and looks at Terrence. Seeing how depressed his friends look, he swallows nervously with the thought that everything inside him squeezes with the pain. The man understands that they cannot sit here like this, look into the distance, and think of the worst things forever. Though, speaking the truth, he does not know what to say in this hard situation and asks himself if it would be better just to say nothing and try to survive this grief silently. That’s why Perkins does not find the courage to speak for some time and looks at what surrounds him with sad eyes, paying attention to his own house with the thought that the girls are sitting there and waiting for their sweethearts.       Imagining the condition Anna, Natalia, and Raquelle may be in after the news about the death of their friend, Daniel’s heart squeezes painfully. This thought makes him put all his doubts aside and wake his friends up from the trance, since they are definitely not going to do this. After moving his eyes to Terrence and Edward, he sighs heavily and then says a little hesitantly:       “Hey, guys, we’ve come.”       Edward tears his head off the door and looks around quickly, while Terrence clears his throat quietly.       “Wow, I didn’t notice,” Edward says a little hesitantly.       “Me too,” Terrence confesses. “Couldn’t stop thinking of everything that happened.”       “Hold on, bros, we’ve gotta stay strong,” Daniel says quietly. “No matter how hard it is.”       “Don’t worry, buddy, I’m okay. I believe.”       “The girls feel much worse now,” Edward notices thoughtfully. “Mr. Johnson has already told them what happened.”       “I don’t feel good when I think about how they’re gonna react to this.”       “So, we have to put ourselves together and go to comfort them,” Daniel says confidently. “Confirm everything that happened before our eyes.”       “I don’t think I can be a good comforter now,” Edward assumes, running his hands over his face. “I still can’t come to myself after that hell. I still have those pictures on the screen before my eyes.”       “Agree, but who else except us can help the girls?” Terrence sighs with sadness in his eyes. “Moreover, we literally let them down. We didn’t keep the promise we gave. We didn’t save Helene. We let her die.”       “Gotta admit that Peter is right,” Daniel confesses with sadness. “We are kind of responsible for Helene’s death.”       “I really tried to recall where that house was,” Edward replies hesitantly, locking his fingers tightly. “It seemed familiar to me.”       “Don’t worry, bro, you’re guilty of nothing.” Daniel claps Edward on the shoulder.       “Or… Did it seem to me that I saw it somewhere? Maybe it was a similar house? But they meant the different one? Or maybe… I… Wanted to think that… I knew… I made myself think so…”       “Don’t rack your brain, Edward, don’t torture yourself,” Terrence replies quietly. “It’s too late.”       “I know we wouldn’t have had time to go there. But still…”       “Exactly! Even if we had been running faster than cheetahs. Even if we had gotten in the car and driven as fast as Formula-1 drivers. We would’ve only seen the fire and the ashes after coming there.”       “Nevertheless, the feeling when you don’t keep your promise is fucking disgusting,” Daniel throws gloomily. “It would’ve been better if we’d promised nothing. And now… How do we look into their eyes? What do we say? What do we say to Mrs. Marshall? And Sammy! He was waiting and hoping…”       “Now we’ve got a greater responsibility to comfort and support everyone,” Edward says hesitantly, looking at Daniel and Terrence with sad eyes. “Since we failed the mission of saving Helene, we can’t withdraw when everyone needs us.”       “This is not the only mission that we failed, guys,” Terrence sighs tiredly. “By letting Helene’s death happen, we lost Peter, too. And I don’t mean our fight with him and his craziness.”       “Right… Now we can’t help him anymore. Peter won’t 100% want to live after he lost his beloved girlfriend.”       “Nevertheless, I completely understand him,” Daniel confesses. “Breaking up with your beloved person doesn’t give you such unbearable pain.”       “And it’s much harder in the case of Rose,” Terrence adds. “Knowing about the huge amount of psychological traumas he's still living with.”       “In short, guys, we screwed it to the fuck!” Edward concludes. “And we’re gonna make everyone much angrier if we bury our heads in the sand and aren’t next to those who need our support.”       “That’s why we have to get up and do what we should do, no matter how much we don’t want it, putting our wish to act like psyches, cry, and withdraw deeply into our asses,” Terrence says with his head proudly raised.       “I hope it’s gonna be easier for us if we’re together,” Daniel expresses hope. “We will learn to live with this somehow. Just like I learned to live without my parents.”       “Let’s stay in the present, not look into the future,” Edward replies quietly. “Try to solve what we still have under our control.”       Terrence and Daniel say nothing and nod hesitantly, thinking about something for two seconds.       “Okay, why would we sit here?” Daniel exhales sharply. “Let’s go to the girls.”       “Yeah, if we spend more time in the car, they’ll come to us after they see us in the window,” Edward agrees, taking off his safety belt.       “Agree,” Terrence pronounces thoughtfully.       First, Daniel leaves the car and closes the door after himself, and then Edward does the same. Next, the younger of the MacClife brothers helps Terrence leave the salon, holding him tightly and letting him lean on himself, while the man does everything very closely and carefully.       “Hey, did they give you a tablet to make your life better?” Daniel asks. “You may go crazy from this kind of pain!”       “Nope, they didn’t, but they said painkillers would help me,” Terrence replies. “As well as cold compressors.”       “The doctors gave him a long list of recommendations,” Edward adds. “I will give it to Raquelle now so she controls everything and buys all the necessary cures.”       “At least, when I sit or lie, the pain isn’t so severe. But when I walk, I can feel it everywhere.”       “Wait for a while, buddy. They said you didn’t have any fractures, and it’s just a mild bruise.”       “Uh-huh, because of which half of my back is blue now.”       “Gonna be normal by the wedding, don’t worry.”       “Ah yeah, wedding…” Terrence pronounces thoughtfully. “I forgot about it due to all of this shit.”       “We’ve gotta talk to the girls about rescheduling it,” Edward notices. “Because we have very little time before it, but we can’t be happy and have fun due to our friend’s death. And Natalia and Raquelle won’t want to.”       “Let’s talk about it later.”       “Alright, you move on slowly, but I will go forward,” Daniel says thoughtfully. “Edward, you can do this?”       “Yes, yes, buddy, don’t worry,” Edward assures and puts Terrence’s arm around his neck. “Go.”       “Okay, don’t rush then!”       Daniel turns around and comes to the hall door, while Edward helps Terrence follow him in a slow step, holding his brother tightly, who winces strongly but overcomes the pain so hard with a reluctance to complain and look like a certain whining boy for the men. After coming to the door and grabbing the handle, Perkins thinks of something bad for two seconds with the thought that tension is growing inside him more and more. Nevertheless, he braces himself quickly exhales sharply, enters the house confidently enough, and closes the door, ending up in the living room.       After hesitating a little again, Daniel goes further slowly, not very confidently and sees Natalia, Anna, and Raquelle sitting on the sofa pressing themselves to each other with tears in their eyes and still refusing to believe in the death of their friend. This picture makes the man feel that his heart squeezes painfully and swallows up nervously. But understanding that these things are inevitable, Perkins takes several more tries. A quiet knock of the sole against the parquet floor makes the friends turn around. They see the depressed Daniel covered with wounds, bruises, burns, and blood spots from head to foot, and having his clothes ripped in some areas.       Opening their wet, red eyes full of tears wider, Anna, Raquelle, and Natalia get up from the sofa and ooh quietly when they see what happened to him after the cruel fight with Marcus, his accomplices, and even Peter.       “Mother…” Anna horrifies, closing her mouth with a hand.       A strong tension is the reason Daniel becomes speechless and can only look at the girls silently with a sense of guilt due to the failed mission, and folds his hands in front of himself. Maybe Raquelle, Natalia, and Anna understand that this glance speaks for itself and confirms the news they received before. But they keep refusing categorically to admit it’s the truth and hoping naively on some kind of miracle that is hardly possible. However, they start losing this hope as they look at the pale Perkins breathing heavily.       At some moment, Anna starts getting closer to Daniel in a very slow step, fastening it a little in the end. And when they are close enough to each other, the girl squeezes the man in her tight hug, putting her arms around his neck and pressing herself closely to the body of her boyfriend. He answers it with pleasure, putting his hand on her back and placing another on the top of the head of his sweetheart, who starts crying bitterly and shaking.       “I’m here, princess, I’m here,” Daniel pronounces in a whisper and kisses Anna sweetly on the temple, while she squeezes his coat on the back tightly. “Sh-h-h… I’m here…”       This moment makes Raquelle and Natalia cry much more bitterly, hugging each other tightly and caressing each other’s back. The heart squeezes painfully, and a wish to wake up and realize it’s just a nightmare gets stronger and seems unreal. Even a strong hug and close people by their side do not let them feel any kind of relief. However, if they had to get through the grief alone, it would be much harder for all of them.       And when Natalia and Raquelle ask themselves why Daniel entered the house alone, Edward shows up from afar, still holding Terrence tightly and helping him move. Seeing this picture and wondering what happened, the girls open their eyes widely, close their mouths with hands, and shake their heads.       “My God…” Raquelle pronounces in a shaking voice.       “Guys…” Natalia barely moves her lips.       Edward lets go of Terrence when Natalia runs to him and takes him in a strong hug with tears in her eyes, while Raquelle comes to his brother and presses herself to him as closely as possible. The men snuggle their noses in the shoulders of their sweetheart with a heavy breath, caress their heads or backs, and kiss them on the top of the head or temples with their shaking lips, trying so hard to comfort the girls, whose emotional cry breaks their hearts and makes them make a lot of effort to hold down a wish to shed a tear.       “Quiet, quiet, my girl, quiet,” Edward pronounces softly and runs his fingers through Natalia’s hair on the top of her head. “I’m here with you.”       “My baby…” Terrence pronounces in a whisper and kisses Raquelle tenderly on the forehead after he puts his hand on her cheek. “Sh-h-h, don’t cry, please.”       Daniel, Edward, and Terrence have to spend some time hearing the heartbreaking sobs of Anna, Natalia, and Raquelle, whom are madly happy to hug and press to themselves at such a hard moment when they need these girls so badly. They have to do their best not to join them and not to forget that someone must stay strong and keep their mind sober. To be able to help those, who are about to get a hysterical condition.       At some moment, Anna steps away from Daniel a little, still crying bitterly and understanding that her whole body shakes, while the body caresses tenderly her shoulders, arms, hands, head, and back, and tucks a strand of hair behind his girlfriend’s ear. While she looks into his eyes with a great despair for two seconds before she begs in a low, shaking voice:       “Please, tell me it’s not the truth. Tell me Mr. Johnson lied to us. Tell me Helene didn’t die.”       “I can’t…” Daniel shakes his head. “I can’t…”       “No, p-p-please, don’t do this… For God’s sake…”       “We’re so sorry, girls,” Edward pronounces with sadness, hugging Natalia tightly with both arms, while her hands clenches into fists are pressed to his chest. “We did everything we could.”       “No, no, no, no, shut up!” Natalia shakes her head sharply. “Don’t say it to us! Don’t say it!”       “It cannot be the truth,” Raquelle adds desperately, while Terrence caresses her head. “Helene didn’t die. She is alive. Nobody killed her.”       “We saw it with our own eyes,” Terrence replies in a low, quiet voice. “We saw Helene dying. Burning in the fire that Marcus’s henchmen started.”       “Please, don’t!” Anna begs desperately. “Stop telling us all of this! Don’t do this!”       “Edward, Terrence, and I would be happy to say it’s false information,” Daniel says tensely. “But… We can’t… Helene is dead.”       “We had no little chance to save her,” Edward adds and swallows nervously. “And even if… Even if we had had it, we… We wouldn’t have had time… Because… We were too far…”       “Maybe this is a mistake?” Raquelle keeps believing in the best. “Maybe everything isn’t what we think? What if a miracle happens? Just like in the case of Mr. MacClife!”       “The video record may actually be fake,” Natalia notices. “They could record it earlier and then play it to you.”       “It wasn’t a record, Natalia,” Terrence protests. “It was a video call. Those bastards showed us Helene’s death in real time.”       “We saw that girl, we talked to her, we tried to help her,” Daniel adds. “But she couldn’t make it. She couldn’t escape the fire that spread rapidly throughout the room.”       “For God’s sake, guys, don’t hurt us like this,” Anna begs. “Don’t make us feel worse. We are restless now.”       “We couldn’t lie to you,” Edward shrugs. “We couldn’t pretend that your friend was alive, even though the ashes were all that was left of her.”       “No, no, don’t say it!” Raquelle closes her ears with her hands. “Please, don’t! I wanna hear nothing!”       “Listen, girls, we still don’t believe it, either,” Daniel says quietly. “Even if we saw it clearly. We also think it some kind of a dream. But sadly, it happened.”       “We failed the mission,” Terrence adds guiltily. “We broke the promise that we gave you before we left.”       “It can’t be the truth!” Anna makes a loud sob. “You’re lying to us! Helene didn’t die!”       “Please, sweet girls, forgive us,” Edward apologizes. “Forgive us for letting you down like this. Forgive us for not keeping our promise. Forgive us for not saving Helene. Forgive is for failing it like never ever. And I’m sorry, Raquelle… I’m sorry about not keeping Terrence safe since he hurt his back after falling off the stairs.” The girls keep crying bitterly and make a heartbreaking shout that expresses their pain without a lot of words. Anna squats down with loud sobs and finds her face pressed to the chest of Daniel, who gets down after her. Terrence holds Raquelle in his strong hug, while she closes her face with both hands. And Natalia grabs and pulls Edward’s t-shirt, while he brings her to the sofa a little later and sits down next to her, caressing his fiancée’s head, cheek, shoulder, and shoulders. The men try so hard to calm down their sweethearts a little, even if they understand that it’s impossible, at least now. At least because they are not ready to accept the fact that their close friend is gone.