The Criminal Diaries

      The next day, Anna, Raquelle, Natalia, Edward, Daniel, and Terrence went all together to the home of Scarlett to try to support the inconsolable woman, for whom the death of her beloved granddaughter became a strong hit. At such a hard moment, all of them try to stay together with the hope that it would be easier for them to get through this grief, which they still cannot believe.       The girls do not have makeup on their faces, their hair is brushed in ponytails, and they, as well as the men, are wearing all black clothes as a sign of mourning for their friend. Although there are still tears in the eyes of Natalia, Anna, and Raquelle, they do not cry so bitterly now, even if they do not let go of the handkerchief and aim to press themselves to each other or their men, who try to hold on and remain the only ones to keep their minds straight. However, it’s also hard for them. Especially after they saw the death of Helene with their own eyes.       “The police are currently working on the crime scene and have hired rescue workers,” Daniel says with sadness in his eyes, rubbing his hands nervously as he sits on the office chair with his legs spread. “They are cleaning up the mess and cleaning the territory.”       “Yeah, the explosion these stinkers started reached the house itself, but also a big part of the territory,” Edward adds, leaning on the writing table with his buttocks with his arms crossed over his chest. “Many century-old trees fell off, and the house turned out to be large enough and multi-floor.”       “So, they have to work a lot before they can start searching for the corpse,” Terrence says, sitting on the edge of the bed with his locked fingers. “To establish the reason. I mean, what they used to make the explosive device.”       “Oh, I don’t care what they’re doing now,” Scarlett sighs resignedly, lying in the bed in a half-lying position, while Anna, Natalia, and Raquelle hug her and caress her hand or shoulder. “My granddaughter is dead. They did not save her. Other things don’t matter to me.”       “Trust us, Mrs. Marshall, it’s as hard for us now as it is for you,” Anna assures, holding Scarlett’s hand. “We still can’t believe it. It seems like we’re about to hear that it was a mistake. But no. Nobody does.”       “I don’t even know why I should keep living in this world for. Helene was the only meaning of my life after Roger’s death and Wendy’s disappearance.”       “No, darling, don’t say that,” Raquelle protests softly, caressing Scarlett’s shoulder. “Don’t talk about death.”       “Come on, babe, why would I live now for? I am old, sick… I don’t work anymore, and I live on what I get from my pension… And Helene’s money that she earned.”       “You probably have some friends,” Natalia assumes. “Or other relatives, with whom you lost a connection a long time ago.”       “Oh, I don’t have anyone…” Scarlett sighs heavily. “And even if I had someone, everyone got busy with their business. When my husband and I were young, we had many friends and familiars, but later, we only had each other.”       “I think you should contact someone,” Edward suggests. “You probably have someone’s phone numbers. If they know about your tragedy, they’ll leave their business immediately. If they really take care of you.”       “Honestly, I don’t want to talk to anyone at all. I want to be alone and cry. Sit in silence. Pressing the photo of my baby to my chest.”       “We get it, but you must not stay alone now,” Daniel protests. “I personally know what having nobody to talk to is like. It happened after the death of my parents.”       “Why would I say the same things a hundred times? I’ve already said everything I wanted. I said I saw no meaning in living and wanted to die to reunite with my husband and granddaughter.”       “I don’t think Helene would be happy if she heard these things,” Terrence assumes. “She would like you to live as long as possible.”       “But you don’t dare to think about it,” Scarlett warns. “You’re all still very young guys, your whole life lies ahead. Love, wedding, children…”       “Oh, Mrs. Marshall, what kind of wedding now?” Raquelle sighs heavily. “It’s not the time to think about it!”       “Yeah, we aren’t able even just to register the marriage without a wedding ceremony,” Natalia confesses.       “Will you cancel your wedding?” Scarlett specifies.       “We will put it off for an indefinite term,” Edward says. “The guys and I talked briefly about it, and we were ready to take these measures.”       “Those we invited are aware of the situation,” Terrence adds. “We hoped everything would end well. Helene would be found, and Marcus would be arrested. We thought nothing would change. But after her death, it would be a disrespect to come together and have fun.”       “I get it,” Scarlett nods hesitantly. “Maybe you will feel a little better later and come back to this again.”       “We will hardly feel better in the nearest time,” Daniel sighs tiredly and glances down shamelessly. “Knowing that the men and I saw everything. We saw it, but we could do nothing.”       “It’s not your fault, guys.” Scarlett caresses Terrence’s shoulder softly, while he inclines his head. “You’re guilty of nothing, and I blame you for nothing. Vice versa, you’re fine fellows. And I am madly grateful to you for your effort.”       “We’re really very sorry, Mrs. Marshall. We’re sorry about not saving your granddaughter.”       “We’re really ashamed of you,” Edward adds, putting his head on his shoulders. “We didn’t know how to look into your eyes after you found out everything.”       “Don’t worry, my sweeties,” Scarlett comforts. “It’s alright. I repeat, you’re all fine fellows, and I value your effort.”       “Not only did we lose Helene, but also Peter,” Terrence notices with sadness in his eyes. “He’s ignoring us now and blaming us for what happened.”       “Hasn’t the boy shown up?”       “Sadly.”       “And before leaving, he actually wished us to die and said it would be better if we were instead of Helene,” Edward adds.       “I’m sure that he didn’t say it because he really thought so,” Scarlett assumes. “He’s just suffering a lot and cannot accept her death. He is mad that he could do nothing.”       “We get it, we’re hurt anyway,” Daniel confesses. “It hurts that we risked our lives like this, but we eventually got all of this: bruises, burns, wounds… Terrence’s back is harmed… My broken tooth… And Edward suffered a lot…”       “When will you fix it?”       “I made an appointment for tomorrow morning. I hope they will do this quickly. Because living with what I have now is not good.”       “And you, Terrence? How’s your back doing?”       “A little better, but it still hurts a little,” Terrence confesses. “It’s easier with the ointment that the doctor prescribed. And they told me to wear a special corset. It weakens my pain, too.”       “Thank God, you have nothing serious!”       “I wonder if Peter ever wants to talk to us again?” Anna sighs with sadness in her eyes. “Is this the end of our friendship with him?”       “I worry about him, too,” Natalia confesses. “Though I must admit that he did a very bad thing to the men.”       “Yeah, I still can’t believe in all of this,” Scarlett shakes her head.  “Though if it’s the truth, I can understand him.”       “Alright, let him stay along for several days, and then we will think about it,” Raquelle replies. “We have too many things to do. Take care of each other. You. Sammy.”       “Oh, my heart does bleed for Sammy…”       Scarlett glances at Sammy lying in the corner, making no sound, and looking into the distance with sad eyes.       “Is he lying like this all day?” Daniel asks hesitantly.       “Yes, since you drove him here. I try to call him to me, but Sammy doesn’t come. He doesn’t react at all. All your relatives were here yesterday and tried to feed him and give him water, but the boy didn’t even look at the food. And he once showed aggression and almost attacked them when they insisted that he eat.”       “God, he’s gonna get sick and die of starvation!” Anna horrifies. “How long has Sammy not eaten or drunk?”       “He ate something when Helene was just kidnapped. But every day, there was more and more food in the bowl.”       “Poor guy…” Edward shakes his head.       “Sammy doesn’t even care about all his toys. They are in the box in the hall, and he doesn’t touch them. He doesn’t play at all.” Scarlett sobs quietly. “He keeps lying quietly in the corner all day long and looks into the distance like this.”       “He goes to walk?” Terrence asks.       “My neighbor, who spends time with me when everyone leaves, walks with him. I mean, she tries to walk with him. Sammy refuses to go too far from the house. She says the dog just sniffs the grass, looks around, and asks to take him home.”       “Peter has lately been thin, too,” Raquelle notices thoughtfully. “He looks too skinny, and his clothes are big for him.”       “Besides, he hasn’t visited me for a long time,” Scarlett sighs heavily. “Peter was here with all of you the last time. When you barely calmed him down after his hysteria in the bathroom.”       “Hasn’t he visited you at home since then?” Natalia asks surprisingly.       “Not even once. And I have no strength to go to his home. Though I need to put myself together and visit the boy. Let him know that I’m here.”       “I don’t think he will want to talk to you,” Anna assumes. “Yes, of course, Peter will do nothing bad to you and will take it out on Daniel, Terrence, and Edward. But nevertheless…”       “Anyway, he must not stay all alone. Especially knowing about his problems. He’s got ruined mental health, and the death of my granddaughter is going to break him down.”       “We know, Mrs. Marshall,” Terrence nods with sadness in his eyes.       “Oh, if only he did nothing to himself. I wish he hadn’t tried to kill himself again. We will hardly know what this boy came up with this time.”       “We’re afraid of it, too,” Daniel replies. “But there’s a possibility that we can do nothing this time. After Helene’s death, his life is deprived of meaning. And we aren’t as important to him as your granddaughter.”       “No, Daniel, don’t say it. You all mean a lot to Peter. As far as I remember, this guy has always said good things about all of you. And he’s never reproached you for anything Helene talked about someday.”       “We know we’ve never been perfect friends,” Edward says thoughtfully. “We haven’t always treated him well. We were stupid when we did many things that made him mad. But we’ve never meant to do it on purpose. We’ve never thought of using Peter and wanted to hurt him on purpose.”       “I believe you, guys,” Scarlett replies quietly and sniffs quietly. “Nobody is perfect. Do you think my husband and I had a perfect life? No, we fought a lot for nothing! Especially when we were young! There was so much we could not accept. But you can adapt to everything. You can agree with anyone. The secret to a long life with your beloved person is easy: fight less, listen more, and learn to accept. It’s easy to argue over nothing, but it’s much harder to make peace and keep moving forward.”       “And it wasn’t always easy with Helene…” Anna recalls. “She wasn’t always nice and obedient.”       “Helene gave us a lot of problems and made Roger and me pull our hair out many times. We thought we had no problems with our daughter before her pregnancy, it would be easy with our granddaughter, too. But she turned out to be different.”       “And what was her father?” Natalia asks.       “Similar to her to some extent. Brooklyn’s family educated him harshly, banned him from many things, and paid a lot of attention to that guy's education. But Wendy said he often had conflicts with his family because of it. He wanted to have more freedom, but he didn’t have it. However, Brooklyn wasn’t strong enough to resist them for a long time. All his protests and hysterics were prevented quickly.”       “Did you and your husband end Helene’s hysterics quickly, too?” Edward specifies.       “I wasn’t good at that, but Roger was much better at that. I would even say he sometimes crossed the line. That’s why Helene feared him a little, even if she loved him. It was especially hard when she became a teenager. My granddaughter started riots that made my husband and me deeply shocked.”       “At least, she didn’t stand in the way of her mother and didn’t give you a great-grandchild wrapped in a blanket,” Raquelle shrugs.       “We tried so hard not to let it happen. We banned Helene from talking to boys and literally went to school and university with her. Sometimes, Roger even drove her to work and took her out. We made sure she didn’t get in touch with a stinker and get pregnant by him. It’s one of the reasons why Roger and I didn’t stop watching her and controlled everything she was doing.”       “How many boyfriends did she have before Peter?” Terrence asks.       “Despite our bans, Helene dated a couple of boys. And when Roger and I found it out, we ended it quickly. Our granddaughter was terribly mad, but we told her clearly that she wasn’t allowed to have boyfriends until she got a good education and found a job.”       “My grandfather was the same,” Raquelle confesses thoughtfully. “He literally walked with me everywhere. He didn’t literally let go of my hand. And he didn’t want me to live separately from him. Before meeting Terrence, I was thinking of renting an apartment. I was sick of him telling me to get married and give birth all the time. He didn’t make barriers, but he didn’t hide that he wasn’t happy. And he wasn’t happy with the fact that I left the university for my modeling career.”       “Helene also told us she’d rent an apartment after getting a chance. That’s why she started to work at two or three places in her free time. She kept money for rent and checked out the ads. She even went to examine the apartment and agreed on everything with the owner. But Roger and I found it out at the last moment. I mean, my husband found a copy of the rental contract and a great amount of money that she was hiding from us in her bag. Then he took everything to the last cent, ripped the contract into little pieces, and threw them in the trash. Like, you will not leave our home, babe.”       “Maybe you shouldn’t have been so harsh?” Daniel asks hesitantly. “The girl wanted freedom! She wanted to live as she wanted!”       “I get it, but we didn’t just want her to take after her mother. We didn’t want Helene to bring in the hem, just like Wendy did. This is the reason for our overprotection.”       “I personally left Mom’s home when I was like eighteen or nineteen,” Terrence recalls. “I already had money to pay for the rent. And I was so happy to get much more freedom that I needed. I could quietly bring my friends and girls home, feel free, and spend time in any way I wanted.”       “Yeah, but she was such a baby!” Scarlett exclaims with pity in her eyes. “Who must have been under the view! If Roger and I hadn’t held her down, she would’ve repeated Wendy’s fate and gone to our home with the news about her pregnancy. And then she would’ve left her child and escaped. And my husband and I would’ve had to spend our strength to educate them. Though we weren’t young and active at that time. We raised our daughter and granddaughter, but we didn’t have the strength for great-grandchildren.”       “We understand it, Mrs. Marshall, but many people start an independent life after they turn eighteen,” Edward notices. “A bird grows up and leaves the nest – it’s natural. Did you want Helene to live with you until the end of her life?”       “We wanted her to live with a husband. And give birth to children from him. That’s how we were educated in childhood – nothing before the wedding. We could only take each other’s hands shyly in the best case. But what would have been waiting for her in case she had been lonely? When it was a good enough time to think of creating her own family, Helene didn’t rush. She rejected many good guys that my husband and I liked. I remember we even tried to match her with the sons of our familiars, with whom we talked back then. But my granddaughter didn’t look at anyone.”       “I guess she was very careful in this case and didn’t want to get married to the first one to propose to her,” Anna notices. “Isn’t it better than hanging on the neck of the one to call her with a finger?”       “But time was going by! The youth and beauty of a girl are not infinite. As everyone knows, a woman’s life is short. A man can create a family at any age and make children, but a woman’s time is limited. And if you don’t jump on a train, it will be too late to run after the one.”       “Helene was just twenty-six!” Terrence exclaims. “A too young girl, whose life lay in front of her. She was by far not stupid. Since she disliked previous admirers, it means something wasn’t right with them. It means Helene didn’t feel comfortable with them.”       “I’m going to tell you a secret that I disliked Roger at first sight, too. And he didn’t pay attention to me at first. We didn’t have conflicts, but at first, it was uncomfortable for us to be with each other. But it happened that we ran into each other many times and had to talk. And our relationship got much better little by little. Though after several years of marriage, his hard character began to tense me. He was a man with a lot of pride, living with him was hard enough. I had to spend a lot of time learning to live with him. Learn to keep my mouth shut with the thought that a man is smarter and knows what to do better.”       “Anyway, your granddaughter didn’t stay alone,” Raquelle notices. “Helene fell in love with Peter. And she would’ve probably gotten married to him if she hadn’t died.”       “Peter was seriously thinking about proposing to her after buying a new house,” Edward confesses. “He said many times that he wanted to solve his housing issue and then think of creating his family. Because… He didn’t want to bring his girlfriend to the place where he lived.”       “I’m so upset that she didn’t do it…” Scarlett sighs heavily. “I’m so upset that Helene didn’t become a wife and a mother. Didn’t give me any reason to live. If I had a great-grandchild, I would find the strength in them.”       “Yeah, but you can take care of Sammy,” Anna notices. “He was like a child that she took care of with all her heart. And your granddaughter would’ve been upset if you’d forgotten him and… Kicked him out.”       “No, no, come on, baby! I will not do this to Sammy! I will not kick him out.”       “If it’s hard for you, we will be happy to help you watch him,” Natalia promises.       “Unless he doesn’t get sick and dies from hunger.”       “Sadly, we don’t know what to do when a dog loses its owner,” Terrence throws his hands up. “But we will get through this. We promise.”       “Oh, guys, you’re having so many responsibilities…” Scarlett sighs heavily. “I can’t imagine how you’re going to get through it all. You have too many duties.”       “It’s alright, it will be easier for us if we’re together. Besides, our relatives and many other friends who know what happened already support us a lot.”       “Honestly, I don’t feel better at all from being surrounded by everyone who takes care of me.”       “Of course, nothing will change for two days,” Natalia shakes her head. “We do realize it. Nothing will change in one week and two weeks.”       “I don’t know how to live alone. I can’t live for myself. All my life, I’ve had someone by my side: a husband, a daughter, a granddaughter. And I am confused. I don’t know what it is. And I don’t understand those who love to live alone. Who don’t aim to have someone by their side.”       “You’re not alone, Mrs. Marshall,” Daniel protests, sits on the bed, and caresses Scarlett’s hand. “We’re with you. We will be until the end. If you need something, you can ask us about it.”       “Thank you so much, guys,” Scarlett wipes tears carefully under her eyes. “Thank you for trying to support. I really appreciate it.”       Silence settles in the air for several seconds, during which the girl tries so hard to comfort the crying Scarlett, caressing her hands and shoulders. The men surround them to support the inconsolable woman and their sweethearts, who do not suffer less. At some moment, Sammy lying in the corner moves his sad eyes to them and just watches them until he moves them aside again, putting his face on his front paws folded in front of him. And he does not care about the unexpected ring on the door, while Scarlett and the visitors pay attention to it.       “Are you waiting for someone?” Raquelle frowns slightly.       “Maybe my neighbor came,” Scarlett assumes. “She probably brought me something to eat or just decided to sit with me.”       “Want us to see who’s there?” Anna suggests.       “Yes, please, if you can.”       “\I will see who’s come,” Daniel says. “One second…”       After getting up from the bed, Daniel goes to the hall and unlocks the door quickly enough. Then he sees Jessica, who looks as tear-stained as Anna, Raquelle, or Natalia are.       “Daniel?” Jessica pronounces surprisingly and sniffs quietly.       “Hi, Jessica,” Daniel greets. “It’s a been a while.”       “Hi, what are you doing here/”       “Came here with the guys to support Mrs. Marshall. And… Judging by your watered eyes, you know what happened, as I understand?”       “I do…” Jessica sobs quietly. “And I came here to support Mrs. Marshall.”       “Come in. She is now in her room.”       Danie steps away from the doorstep and invites Jessica to enter the apartment with a gesture. While she goes to Scarlett's room, the man closes the door quickly and follows her when the girl enters it and sees the old woman surrounded by those she has already met before.”       “Jessica?” Terrence pronounces surprisingly.       “Hey, guys,” Jessica waves her hand. “Hello, Mrs. Marshall.”       “Jessica, sweetheart…” Scarlett pronounces in a little shaking voice.       “My God, darling…”       Jessica comes to the bed, sits on the edge, and takes the crying Scarlett to her strong hug, while Daniel comes to Edward standing near the writing table and hugs him around the shoulders.       “Can’t believe it’s the truth,” Jessica sobs, steps away from Scarlett, and takes her hands. “Can’t believe Helene is gone.”       “It’s like I’m in a nightmare,” Scarlett confesses. “I can’t realize that I stayed all alone.”       “Why? How could it happen? How did those cads get what they want?”       “It’s the fault of the guys and me,” Edward meddles hesitantly. “We couldn’t save Helene when she was dying slowly in the fire. We were too far and didn’t know where to find her.”       “My gosh, poor Helene…” Jessica closes her mouth with a hand, shaking her head in mistrust. “Friend… My gosh… It’s awful… I don’t know what to say…”       “We prayed so hard that she was found alive,” Anna confesses. “But Marcus and his accomplices got what they wanted.”       “Marcus is a bastard! How can this asshole actually live in this world? The killer that must have been executed a long time ago!”       “Now he will pay for everything he has done,” Raquelle assures. “Just like those who pleased him.”       “Is there confirmation of the fact that Helene is really dead? Did the police find her body? You saw her?”       “After what the men and I saw, we don’t need any confirmation,” Daniel sighs tiredly. “Helene died right before our eyes. She burned in the fire and was exploded on the self-made bomb.”       “My God!” Jessica horrifies, opening her eyes widely. “It’s so unfair!”       “We can’t say anything about the day of the funeral yet,” Natalia says thoughtfully and sniffs. “The police need to find her body in the mess, and the doctor should take it to the morgue so they can establish the reason for her death.”       “She was so young… She should’ve lived long! Did she deserve it all? Why was it Helene? What’s my friend’s fault?”       “I know, babe,” Scarlett replies in a shaking voice, caressing Jessica’s hand. “My granddaughter became a pawn in the hands of the stinker.”       “Gosh, poor Peter… Poor guy… He’s probably going crazy from grief.”       “You noticed it right,” Raquelle says thoughtfully. “Peter really went crazy. And in anger, he almost killed the men.”       “The men? But why? They’re not guilty!”       “But Peter ain’t think so,” Daniel shrugs. “He openly blamed Edward, Terrence, and me for Helene’s death and doesn’t wanna talk to us now.”       “Is that why he’s not with you now?”       “Yes, he distanced himself from us and doesn’t wanna hear or see us,” Edward confesses. “And our attempts to excuse ourselves and say something to him don’t lead to anything good.”       “Maybe I can do this? Is he at home now? Let me go there and talk to him! I will try to assure him that he’s unfair to you!”       “No, Jessica, don’t do this,” Scarlett shakes her head. “Peter will not listen to you.”       “But that’s wrong!” Jessica exclaims excitedly. “We can’t just sit and do anything! What if he cuts himself to death again? What if we don’t save him again?”       “Remember what happened when you once went to his home, and he went wild and literally threw you off the stairs,” Daniel recalls. “Trust us, it was nothing back then. Now Peter is much more aggressive. He could take a knife from the kitchen and threaten you.”       “My gosh, Daniel, don’t scare me like this!”       “We don’t scare, Jessica,” Terrence shakes his head. “Peter was running after us with a pistol and a knife and beat us three strongly. And he was shooting us, Marcus, and his accomplices with no regret.”       “No, it can’t be the truth! Don’t say these things! C’mon, guys?”       “Look at them, Jessica!” Anna exclaims. “What you see is not just the result of the tortures Marcus put them under. Peter tried hard, too.”       “Yeah, look at my tooth!” Daniel adds and shows Jessica his broken front tooth. “He did it. Now I have to go to the dentist and restore the filling.”       “Come on?” Jessica horrifies, staring surprisingly at Daniel’s tooth. “Did Peter really break it?”       “I could barely dodge him! It was like a demon possessed him! Something kind of possessed his body and controlled it. It wasn’t our Peter.”       “He called himself Theodore at that moment,” Terrence confesses. “Which is his real name.”       “What?” Jessica frowns. “What do ya mean? Isn’t his name Peter?”       “His birth name is Theodore Longbottom,” Natalia confesses. “But this name was eventually changed to Peter Rose.”       “Longbottom?” Jessica shakes her head sharply. “Hey, don’t ya wanna say Peter and Marcus are related somehow?”       “Peter is Marcus’s son,” Raquelle announces. “The son of the man, who hated him at the thought that his wife died because of him. He didn’t feel any shame when he sold him to those who sold children into slavery to some rich people abroad. But in the end, the blond was raised by the strange woman.”       “Marcus is Peter’s father?” Jessica surprises loudly. “Is this a joke?”       “Nope, no jokes.”       “If one of those scums hadn’t decided to steal the child, Peter would’ve been far from here,” Edward adds. “Being a slave of a random bastard.”       “Does it happen that Cornelia Rose is actually nobody to him?”       “Nobody. She raised him, but she is not his mother. Though we know that the woman adopted Peter officially and changed his name.”       “Do you mean Marcus was trying to kill his own son all this time?”       “To take revenge for the alleged murder of his wife, Julia,” Anna specifies. “Who knew she must not have been born due to her aneurysm, but decided to do it anyway. The one he should’ve blamed was only Julia herself.”       “And as I understand, Marcus got rid of Helene to make Peter feel the same pain?”       “It’s correct!”       “It’s awful… It’s awful… It’s horrible…”       Jessica closes her mouth with a hand, still crying bitterly but quietly.       “Because of one bastard, I lost my best friend. Because he came up with something.”       “Trust me, daughter, it’s hard for all of us,” Scarlett says softly, caressing Jessica’s shoulder. “I don’t actually know how to live alone. I’ve never had this experience. And I’m deprived of any meaning of life.”       “I’m very, very sorry, Mrs. Marshall. I can’t imagine what you’re feeling now.” Jessica looks at everyone here. “Can’t imagine what you all are feeling, guys.”       “And what Sammy is feeling,” Natalia says thoughtfully. “He feels too bad now.”       “Where’s he, by the way?”       “There, lying in the corner.” Terrence specifies, pointing aside with his hand.       Jessica moves her eyes to the side Terrence points at and opens her eyes widely when she sees Sammy being in a deep depression.       “My God, Sammy, boy…” Jessica closes her mouth with a hand. “Baby…”       Jessica gets up from the bed, comes to Sammy, gets down to her knees in front of him, and caresses his head tenderly, while he looks at her with dead eyes.       “The baby’s gotten so skinny… You’re skin and bones now. And the gloss in your eyes is gone…”       Sammy whines with great pity, while Jessica scratches his face with both hands.       “It’s so painful for me to see you like this. So painful to see you so depressed.”       “He’s been too quiet since the day when my granddaughter disappeared,” Scarlett confesses. “And now he’s deeply depressed.”       “Sammy kinda felt something terrible happened to his owner,” Raquelle assumes. “He had been whining and pressing himself to us for a long time before Mr. Johnson called and told us what happened.”       “I don’t even know what to advise,” Jessica says hesitantly, caressing Sammy’s head. “I’ve never had a dog, and I don’t know how to behave in these cases.”       “But I had a dog, and I don’t know what to do,” Daniel confesses. “Chelsey didn’t have to survive her owner’s death. My family and I had to accept her death. The death of the pet that we loved so much.”       “Anyway, we must not leave him alone,” Natalia adds. “And he doesn’t want it since Sammy doesn’t aim to hide from us.”       “Guys, maybe you would persuade the boy to eat somehow?” Scarlett asks with pity in her eyes. “Just a little. Look what he has become lately.”       “He doesn’t eat anything at all?” Jessica asks surprisingly. “No food, no treats?”       “Nothing. He can just drink a little bit of water, but he does it one or two times per day.”       “Maybe you should go to the vet and consult? What if they advise something?”       “Yeah, it would be great… I have the contacts of the vet that Helene visited for Sammy’s examination and injections. But I’m not able to do this now.”       “Don’t worry, Mrs. Marshall, if we can’t do this, we will surely consult with the vet,” Anna promises.       “And we should solve the problem with Helene’s job. All her colleagues are worried about what happened and are waiting for the news impatiently. Her boss calls me almost every day. Though I haven’t told him about my granddaughter’s death.”       “It’s alright, things will get better little by little,” Edward assures. “And you don’t have to solve it all at the same time and right now. You can do something today and save something for tomorrow.”       “It makes me horrified. The only thing I want now is to lie in my bed and view the photos of my granddaughter. The only thing I have.”       “If you want it, do it,” Jessica says confidently, gets up on her feet, comes to the bed, and sits on the edge in front of Scarlett. “Do anything if it helps you feel better.”       “That’s good my husband and I had a good photo and video camera back then. We pictured everything: every stage of the growth of our daughter and granddaughter. Roger recorded all the videos on cassettes that we played somewhere on weekends.”       “If you want, we can help you arrange a viewing,” Terrence suggests. “We can view them all together.”       “Oh, the player doesn’t work for ages! I somehow wanted to play one of the cassettes, but it just ‘spat it out’.”       “Sorry,” Jessica pronounces with sadness in her eyes. “I wonder what she was like in childhood. And see what her mother looked like.”       “But we can view the photo albums. I have them in that closet on the highest shelf.”       “That one?” Daniel specifies, pointing at the wardrobe in the room.       “Yes, can you get them, please?”       “Sure!”       Daniel gets up from the bed, comes to the closet, opens it, and finds several thick books with colorful covers that he takes with no problems. Then he carries all of them on the bed, while everyone takes one to examine it better.       “Wow, you have so many of them!” Raquelle pronounces surprisingly.       “It’s like you pictured literally every step of yours!” Natalia adds.       “My God, I just realized how long ago I held the albums in my hands,” Scarlett confesses, opening the first page of one of the albums. “Though Helene and I wanted to sit down and recall the past.”       “Is that your husband?” Terrence asks, pointing at the middle-aged man with dark hair and brown eyes holding a young, sympathetic girl who looks similar to him.       “Yes, it’s Roger. He is with Wendy, our daughter. She was a baby back then.”       “Beautiful,” Raquelle notices thoughtfully, looking at the album in Terrence’s hands. “Looks like Helene.”       “My husband dreamed of another child, but we didn’t make it to our great sadness. And while we tried, Wendy got pregnant by herself. So, we had to put aside our dream of the second child.”       “I don’t understand anything about genetics, but wasn’t your granddaughter supposed to have dark brown hair?” Daniel frowns slightly. “Just like your husband and your daughter…”       “Most likely, Helene took after me,” Scarlett assumes. “When I was young, I had long black hair that I made a little lighter later. Though there was a short period when my granddaughter was blonde. But that color didn’t fit her at all. She didn’t have the type of appearance for it. And later, she realized that she’d better be a brunette, came back to her natural color, and never made experiments.”       “And what about her father?” Edward specifies.       “Brooklyn had light brown hair. Though Helene inherited almost everything from Wendy, in the case of her appearance. But her character had features of both parents. She was smart, educated, and nice, but rebellious at times.”       “You don’t have photos of him?” Natalia asks.       “Nope, I don’t have. Wendy had something, but she ripped everything and threw all of it when he left her and rejected the child.”       At some moment, Sammy gets interested in what’s happening, gets up on his paws, and comes to everyone who is viewing the photos now.       “Ah, I still remember the day when we took our granddaughter from the hospital,” Scarlett sighs with a sad smile, holding and viewing a photo of herself and Roger holding a little white bundle wrapped with a pink ribbon. “One of the nurses took this photo at the hospital doors at our plea.”       “Didn’t your daughter photograph with your granddaughter?” Daniel specifies.       “Nope, Wendy refused categorically. She didn’t actually want to take the baby and wanted to write the official refusal, but my husband and I could not leave her and took the granddaughter out, despite our daughter’s protests.”       “Yeah, Peter said…”       At this moment, Sammy whines with great pity, putting his face on the edge of the bed, while Natalia caresses his head tenderly.       “Helene was so little, so cute…” Scarlett sighs heavily. “We were even afraid to take her in our arms. She was madly pretty, so unprotected…”       “Didn’t her mother give any kind of interest to her daughter?” Raquelle wonders.       “No interest. No matter how softly Roger and I tried to get her involved in the care of the baby, she turned her nose up. She said the child was disgusting to her.”       “If the father of the child hadn’t left her, everything would’ve been otherwise,” Anna assumes.       “Right. Wendy wanted Brooklyn and her to get married and live like a family. She really wanted the child and was ready to educate her, even if she was a baby. But alas, Helene’s father wasn’t so determined and brave to fight for his rights and be responsible for what he did.”       “I think they wouldn’t have lived together for too long,” Terrence replies thoughtfully. “First, the age. Second, the responsibility for the child. And third, the lack of the opportunity to live the same life full of parties, fun, and other things.”       “Roger and I were ready to take care of the baby so that Wendy could keep studying and have fun. Nobody made her watch the child all day long. And we told her about it many times.”       “I wonder how she would’ve reacted if she’d known about Helene’s death?” Jessica asks.       “I will never know it. My daughter disappeared a long time ago, and she hasn’t shown up. And I lost any hope of meeting her.”       “Never say never,” Daniel shrugs. “I also thought I lost my younger sister and spent several years with the thought that she was dead. But no, she was alive. She was found.”       “No, I don’t expect anything anymore.”       Sammy whines quietly again as he looks at everyone with sad eyes.       “Oh, Helene was one year in it,” Scarlett says thoughtfully, seeing the photo in Jessica’s hands. “She just learned how to walk and started to examine everything. She was very curious. We had to watch her closely so she didn’t get her fingers in the socket.”       “I wonder what she saw on the ceiling if she looked at the one with interest?” Anna asks, viewing one of the photos of Helene in the bed as she looks up.       “We played sunlight spots. There was the bright sun outside, and I used a small mirror. So, Helene looked at them with interest and smiled.”       “And who made her laugh like this?” Edward asks, taking one of the photos from the album that he is holding.       “Roger. He showed some funny faces to her, and she rolled on the floor from laughing. Just like I did. Though it wasn’t typical for him because my husband was usually serious and collected.”       “I think she had love for dogs since childhood,” Terrence assumes, viewing the photo of Helene standing near the small decorated tree and embracing tightly a teddy dog that is a little bigger than her. “She’s so happy with this toy in her hands.”       “Oh, yeah! Helene asked us to let her get a dog since she was a child, but we didn’t let her do it. I mean, we were worried that she’d get sick of it quickly, and we’d have to take care of it by ourselves. You can’t kick the dog out, though. It’s an alive thing. My husband and I weren’t sure if she was ready for that responsibility.”       “Maybe, you should’ve suggested that she watch a dog of your friends?” Jessica suggests. “You could tell her if she did it well, you’d let her get a puppy.”       “The case wasn’t just about a responsibility. Roger was categorically against pets in our home. We had a very small apartment that was too tight for three people. And having a dog requires a lot of money. But with our salary as teachers, we could only have the necessary things and weren’t allowed to live in luxury.”       “We get it.”       “Oh, before that walk, Roger and I forgot to put on shows on Helene and went outside like this,” Scarlett confesses, noticing the photo in Natalia’s hands. “She only wore socks. But when we noticed it, we laughed together and came back home.”       “Where was she walking if she got so dirty and had pigtails ruffled?” Terrence asks, taking another photo from the album.       “Oh, she climbed on everything back then!” Scarlett waves her hand. “Trees, tables, chairs… Windowsills, swings that she saw… She couldn’t stay in the same place, in short! She was a motor that didn’t just want to sit quietly in a sandbox with other children, play, and build castles.”       “She was restless at school, too,” Anna recalls.       “She was, but my husband and I had our hair grey from her tricks. We told her to get off the high tree, but she refused. She kept sitting on a thick stick and shaking. She was about to fall and break something!”       “And she fell?” Raquelle specifies.       “She did. But thank God, not from a high height. For example, she fell from a bike many times and skinned her knees. Stepped over something… She had any traumas, bruises, tears, shouts…”       “I guess it’s a part of growing,” Edward shrugs. “A part of examining the world and discovering something new. A child is interested in everything. And it’s fine.”       “Yeah, but when she was examining, biting, licking, and touching everything, my husband and I got one thousand years older from worrying. We didn’t expect that our granddaughter would be so restless. Our daughter was different. She was much quieter and intelligent. We could sit quietly aside and watch her play with the children. And sometimes she could be all alone. We just needed to give her a bucket and a shovel so she could be in a sandbox and build something.”       Sammy whines with great pity when seeing another photo of Helene in Anna’s hands and moves his sad eyes to Daniel when the man caresses his head.       “And how many problems with her we had in her school years!” Scarlett exclaims. “Yes, she studied well, no questions. But her behavior was far from good. And she didn’t choose the best friends. We thought they’d be shy, kind, and decent. But she befriended selfish ladies who asserted themselves by humiliating weak people.”       “The girls and I forgot and forgave Helene for what she did a long time ago,” Raquelle replies. “Because… She didn’t do it because she was bad, she was just afraid to be one of us. One of those who were criticized and humiliated all the time. Everyone who was a part of the bullying did it.”       “No matter what, it was a very bad thing of hers. It wasn’t what we taught our granddaughter.”       “It all doesn’t make sense now,” Jessica replies quietly. “What’s done is done. Let’s forgive Helene for all her mistakes and remember only the good things about her.”       “I was never mad at her for all those tricks, even if she sometimes made me disappointed and hurt. That’s my granddaughter. My beloved granddaughter, whom I adored with all my heart. I wouldn’t have forgiven myself if my husband and I had decided to leave Helene and let her be raised in a strange family.”       “The important thing is that she was surrounded by love and care,” Terrence says confidently. “She wasn’t left on her own because of her own mother.”       “At least, I didn’t have to ask my child to give birth to grandchildren, just like many women do. Of course, I didn’t plan to become a mother at thirty-six. But I thought about Helene as my daughter, not my granddaughter. The second child Roger and I wanted so badly.”       Again, Sammy whines with pity, accepting the caress of Anna, who caresses his head softly and scratches his face. Everyone keeps viewing the photos in all the albums, noticing that Helene was a very sympathetic and sweet girl in childhood. Scarlett comments on every single photo with sadness in her eyes when she sees pictures in the hands of her visitors, even if she can sometimes barely remember events when they were taken. And nobody notices that all of them feel much better as they recall the moments related to the dead girl. Remember what she was like. Nobody even thinks about reproaching her for the mistakes of the past and saying something bad about her.       “That’s good you took so many pictures back then,” Edward notices. “You’re going to have something to remember.”       “The only thing I have to do,” Scarlett sighs heavily, closes the album in her hands, and puts it aside. “To sit and view photos. Feel sad, recalling the moments I can’t bring back.”       “I don’t know what about you, but I feel a little better as we talk about her and recall events connected with her,” Jessica confesses and puts the album aside. “Of course, I still want to cry, but… I don’t know… I want to remember what she was like… And I do…”       “We’re very sorry, Helene,” Daniel apologizes with sadness in his eyes, viewing one of the photos of Helene in her adult age. Please, forgive the men and me for not being able to save you. It’s always going to be our shame.”       “No, no, buddy, don’t say it! I’m sure that you three did everything you could. I don’t believe you didn’t save her on purpose.”       “As we’ve said already, Peter is partly right,” Edward says thoughtfully. “We have a fault in this situation, and denying it doesn’t make sense.”       “It’s alright, guys, you’re guilty of nothing. Even in this case, you remain heroes for us anyway. Brave and determined heroes.”       “Thanks a lot, Jessica.”       “Jessica is right, boys,” Scarlett agrees. “We are grateful to you for your effort.”       Sammy barks very quietly with pity.       “Sammy understands everything, too.” Scarlett caresses Sammy’s head softly. “And he will not take it out on you because of the death of my granddaughter.”       “At least, he accepts the attention from us,” Terrence shrugs.”       “I'm glad he doesn’t withdraw into himself and tries to be next to us. He doesn’t do what Peter does.”       “Quiet, quiet, buddy, we’re here,” Edward calms down softly, comes to Sammy, gets down to his knees, and caresses the dog’s head. “Here…”       “By the way, he whined so loudly last night that my heart was torn apart.”       “Whined last night?” Terrence asks.       “He was walking in the apartment and whining. I even woke up and got up to try to comfort him. But when I offered his favorite bone that he bit all the time, he threw it aside. And I decided not to bother him, remembering that he almost attacked your relatives when they tried to feed him.”       At this moment, Anna asks Daniel to go aside with her to talk about something, knocking at his shoulder with her finger, while he is squatting down and petting Sammy. When the man gets up, the girl takes him aside and starts talking to him about something, embracing herself with both arms.       “I think he needs to get through all of this,” Natalia assumes. “All of us should let it through ourselves, and the dog should release all his emotions.”       “Yeah, but how much time will be gone before it happens? One week? Two weeks? One month? One year?”       “It doesn’t matter!” Raquelle exclaims. “The important thing is to be with him and let him know that everyone loves him so much and will never leave him.”       “Maybe, he should change the place for some time?” Edward suggests. “Or actually introduce him to a doggy? Maybe a new friend is something that can help him come to himself.”       “Oh, I don’t know…” Scarlett sighs heavily. “But I can surely say that I don’t have the strength to do this all by myself. At least, now.”       “Don’t worry, Mrs. Marshall, I will be happy to help you watch Sammy,” Jessica assures. “Walk with him, play, take him to a vet if he needs it… Just ask me…”       “If only you knew how uncomfortable it is for me to ask you for help. It’s always been hard for me to ask someone for help. Bother them, distract them from their business…”       “It’s never a shame to ask for help,” Raquelle notices. “Especially when you need it more than ever.”       “I am so sorry about having to put so many responsibilities on you.”       “Stop, Mrs. Marshall,” Edward protests softly. “It’s alright.”       “We will watch Sammy as long as you need it,” Terrence assures.       Sammy whines quietly at this moment, pressing himself close to Jessica caressing him, while Daniel and Anna look like they have made a decision after having a short talk.       “Are you sure you want it?” Daniel specifies. “Are you sure you won’t be afraid?”       “I’m not afraid of Sammy,” Anna replies. “I know he’s a kind and good one that wouldn’t harm us.”       “But what if the situation changes, and he starts to show aggression?”       “Anyway, I think we should do this. This now, and we’ll see it later.”       “You really agree?”       “Yes. Let’s do this.”       “Okay, my princess, let’s do this.”       Daniel kisses Anna sweetly on the forehead and takes her in a strong hug several times, caressing her head. And then he, hugging her around the shoulders, takes everyone’s attention on him by coughing quietly.       “Erm, listen, friends…” Daniel takes a word. “Anna and I talked about the situation with Sammy. She suggested something, and I agreed.”       “Yeah…” Anna pronounces thoughtfully. “Let’s do this, and then we will see it.”       “In short, we decided to take Sammy to our home for some time. If… Nobody minds, of course.”       “Really?” Scarlett rounds her eyes. “Do you really want it?”       “Yes. We have a large house with enough space. There are even some things that were used when Chelsey was alive. Bows, toys, something else… They’re good to use. We don’t have to buy anything.”       “And I have a lot of free time that I can spend taking care of Sammy,” Anna adds. “It’s not going to be a problem for me.”       “If you really agree, I don’t mind it,” Scarlett nods. “And if Sammy doesn’t mind it.”       Sammy barks quietly at this moment.       “It doesn’t look like he minds,” Terrence says thoughtfully. “Or he doesn’t care about where to live and with whom.”       “In short, he can live with us now, and then someone can take him later,” Daniel suggests. “I think a new place is going to be good for the doggy. It can distract him a little.”       “Thank you so much, Daniel, Anna,” Scarlett thanks with all her heart. “I will be really grateful to you for your help.”       “And yeah…” Daniel locks his fingers tightly. “If it’s possible… Could you give us Helene’s thing? So it has… Her smell… Maybe it would be easy for him if something just reminded him of his owner.”       “Her thing? Erm… I don’t even know…”       “Anything: a handkerchief, a scarf, a shirt…”       “Listen, go to her room and try to find something. You can take anything.”       “Hey, what about the scarf lying in the corner?” Jessica asks, pointing at the thing she means. “Sammy was kinda lying on it before coming to us.”       “Great, it’s good for us!” Daniel exclaims. “We will take it with us.”       “I’m afraid you will have to take Sammy’s stuff by yourself because I don’t have the strength.”       “Don’t worry, Mrs. Marshall, we will do this,” Anna assures.       “He doesn’t have too much: a box of toys, a big packet of food, bows, cures, and something else… In short, you can find something in the kitchen, and something is in Helene’s room.”       “Got it!” Daniel exclaims, holding Anna in his strong hug. “We will find and get everything.”       “Anyway, thank you so much for the help. I don’t know what I would do without you and your relatives that support me, too.”       Nobody says anything, and everyone just looks at each other, and Terrence and Edward come to Raquelle and Natalia getting up from the bed and take them in a strong hug when they see the girls can barely hold down the tears. And Sammy accepts the attention from Scarlett, who caresses his face lying on the edge of the bed with her wrinkled but soft hands covered with veins. He keeps whining with pity at times and barking quietly as if he begs everyone to do something and bring his owner back since he misses her so badly. The one who will no longer feed him from her hands with something tasty and caress him fully. The dog no longer has an opportunity to joke at her kindly during, for example, water procedures that have always been the thing he does not like a lot.       

***

      Peter could not fall asleep after seeing probably the worst and most horrifying nightmare he had ever seen. However, judging by his puffy, inflamed eyes, it’s clear that he does not know what good, long sleep is. But even if he falls asleep, he sleeps for only some time. The guy does not think of eating enough and just eats some snacks at times, and it may not always be healthy and hearty. That’s why he sometimes suffers from stomach pain, a sense of weakness, and dizziness, but he ignores it so hard.  All his thoughts are about Helene. Her death that he could not prevent. And the question about who he really is. Which side he should stay on. Which side of the two he should get rid of once and forever. The hallucination in the form of his copy named Theodore makes Peter think of the things that he preferred not to think about for years, even if he is not sure that he is ready to come back to the things that make him hysterical. But still, he understands that he should really understand the reasons why he is not able to live a normal life.       However, after losing the meaning of his life after the death of his girlfriend, Peter does not want to fight for anything. Sitting in the office chair in front of the writing table and viewing some photos that he has in the albums, in the photo library of his smartphone and his laptop, he wants the invisible strength to take him away so he can reunite with Helene and be with her forever. Tears show up in his eyes, while he recalls all the best moments they went through together when they were friends and when they were already in a romantic relationship. And cats kind of start scratching inside him again when he thinks about him being unfair to his second half and giving her pain with negative words and charges without proof.       “I’m so ashamed, honey…” Peter whispers under his nose, viewing the selfies of him and Helene smiling widely in the camera and looking very happy. “Ashamed of all the moments when I was unfair to you. When I attacked you with false accusations and thought you’d stab me in the back. I know you’d never do that. You proved your loyalty so many times, but I, bastard, dared to doubt it. I dared to believe the one who just wanted to drive me crazy.”       Peter sighs with sadness in his eyes as he runs his fingertips over the face of Helene on the screen of the smartphone.       “Yes, I still can’t trust people completely. I don’t trust you, I don’t trust my friends… I don’t trust myself at times. But… I can’t live like this forever! I can’t run after everyone all the time.”       Peter swallows nervously.       “I want to love. I want to be happy. I want to talk to people and make friends. I want to trust them. But I can’t do this. I can’t understand myself and solve my problems.”        Peter glances aside.       “Though… Why would I solve them now? Why would I do something when my life is deprived of any meaning? When I don’t have any reason to stay in this fucking world! That gave me just one reason to feel happy for my whole life – you. You’re the only one who could breathe into me. But what do I do now when you’re dead? What do you think I should do? I don’t wanna live without you! I don’t! I don’t need any other girl! I don’t!”       Peter scrolls and views more photos of Helene on his smartphone, while more and more tears roll down his cheeks every second. At some moment, he blocks his phone sharply, puts it aside, folds his hands on the table, and hides his face in his arms, crying bitterly again and not holding down the wish to make heartbreaking shouts with no fear of his neighbors that may not like it.       “Did I deserve it all?” Peter wonders in a low, shaking voice. “Why was it me? What did I do? Why can’t I be happy? Why does happiness leave me when I find it? Why did they the fuck take my beloved girl away from me? The only one I truly loved! Am I gonna be chased by failures until the end of my life? Am I gonna lose something important again and again? Lose the opportunity to get the long-awaited happiness?”       Peter makes an emotional shout as he snuggles his nose in the surface of the table.       “It seems like I’m asking too much! As if I’m asking to do something unreal for me! As if I’m asking to get a star from the sky for me!” Peter sobs quietly. “I don’t ask too much! Just a little bit of true love and care. People who wouldn’t deceive me and wouldn't betray me. The girl who would bring back my belief in humanity and love. The belief in the thought that the whole world isn’t against me. Please…”       Peter cries bitterly for some time as he keeps hiding his head in the arms folded on the table, shakes from a strong tension, and understands that he lacks air. And his own voice that belongs to him by far not the kindest and sweetest copy named Theodore gets him out of the condition that is close to the breakdown at some moment:       “If you wanted, you’d change the situation for the best. You’d answer all your questions and keep living as you want.”       After sniffing quietly, Peter tears his head off the table, turns in the chair, and sees his hallucination in the form of Theodore is now lying imposingly on the bed right in his shoes, keeping his legs bent at his knees and spreading them aside.       “You again…” Peter throws gloomily.       “Every person is responsible for their own life, which can be changed by them only,” Theodore notices, cleaning dirt from under his fingernail with no shame. “Nobody is gonna wipe your ass and do something for you. And you are well aware of what to do.”       “Do me a favor, get out of my bed. Stop dirtying it with your dirty feet. And clean your nails in a different place.”       “Serious?” Theodore laughs evilly and loudly with a widely open mouth. “Are you saying this to me?”       “Yes, idiot, I am saying it to you! My fucking copy that I am sick of to fucking death!”       “Relax, man, even if I start a mess here, it’s going to remain in your head only. Your sick head.”       “I’m not crazy!”       “Come on? Isn’t talking to yourself an illness? Is it okay to see what other people don’t see?”       “I’m still hoping you will leave me alone one beautiful day.”       “I’ve told you a million times what you should do for me to leave you alone.”       “It's a fucking shame that you show up every time I feel fucking bad!”       Peter gets up from the office chair and comes closer to his bed.       “Why the fuck do you hit me much more? Especially when I want to be alone.”       “Even if you don’t see me when you feel kinda good, it doesn’t mean I’m not near,” Theodore says with a sly smile and folds his hands on his stomach, crossing his feet at the same time. “I’ve always been near. I’ve always lived in your mind. I’ve been doing it since your early years.”       “Dude, do me a favor, save me from the perspective to see your fucking face. Let me stay alone.”       “Said by the one to have the same face as mine.” Theodore laughs evilly. “Ha, ha…”       “I’d be more sympathetic,” Peter snaps.       “Oh, yeah! Judging by the number of girls who have ever hung on your neck with the hope of getting everything at once, you’re definitely lucky in this case.”       “I doubt you’d have more of them.”       “Much more than you,” Theodore smiles innocently. “More than the one who’s fallen in love just two times in his life. The kid who decided to use you as the object of a bet with her friends. And the recently late cutie that was fucked by a crowd of men when you weren’t near.”       “Do you think I should’ve shaken my penis in front of everyone? Anyone to cling to me?”       “There’s something to shake, huh. Girls love something bigger so they can take it in the mouth better. Not some whistles that would fit a small lady’s palm.”       “Fuck, here’s what I’ve come down for!” Peter rolls his eyes, putting his hands on his feet. “I am having a senseless talk with myself!”       “Your friends would be fucking overwhelmed if they knew their pal was a little insane. Though they do think you’re mentally unstable due to your depression, detachment, and attempts to save this world from you.”       “I don’t deny that I’m not okay. But I don’t think I’m sick.”       “You know, buddy, everyone says it. They truly think they’re healthy, and they’re sure that people around them are not healthy. They must be put in a mental hospital.”       “If I got rid of you, half of the problems would be solved immediately.”       “You have a chance. A wonderful chance. But you don’t rush to use it. You don’t rush to get to the truth and do what you should do.”       “Do you want me to go insane? Do you want me to have a nervous breakdown because of what you’re trying to tell me so hard?”       “How do you know it’s gonna make you have a nervous breakdown?”       “I know it for sure. I know I won’t like what I may remember. Because just one mention about that makes me panic and wish to fall into hysteria.”       “But you’ll have to do this. No matter if you want it or not.”       Theodore sits up at first and then gets up from the bed with a proud look, pulling down slightly his black t-shirt and pulling up his black jeans.       “This is your only way to figure yourself out, solve your problems, and think about what to do next.”       “This is another wonderful way to bring me to the wish to kill myself,” Peter says determinedly. “I’ve got a lot of them, but I may get another one.”       “Is there something that still holds you in this world?”       Theodore starts walking slowly around Peter, who does not let him end up behind him.       “Since you lost the meaning of your life after the death of your girlfriend, why would you keep dirtying the air? Get a knife in the kitchen, go to the bathroom, and cut yourself as fuck. And the most important thing is that you tell nobody about it. Otherwise, they may come here to save you again.” Theodore puts his finger on his lip. “Through… Hardly… Someone would hardly love to talk to you after you and I kicked their asses together. I mean, I did it in your body.”       “Aren’t you sick of being so bloodthirsty?” Peter wonders. “Aren’t you sick of craving blood and murders of someone all the time? How did you get this love for people’s suffering?”       “I’d ask you the same question.”       “I don’t want murders!”       “Oh, oh, don’t pretend to be a good boy that regrets being close to sending his pals to the afterlife.”       Theodore stops sharply and squeezes Peter’s jaw tightly with his fingers, looking at him with such a crazy look that everything inside Rose turns upside down from fear.       “Since you let me possess your body, it means you didn’t mind it. It means that if you get a little reason, you and I can become a good enough team.”       “I am fucking sorry about what I did!” Peter cuts off sharply, pushing Theodore off himself. “I am sorry about turning the guys against me and making them have a terrible opinion about me.”       “Come on, Peter, admit that you liked it. Admit that kicking someone’s is fucking funny.”       “Kicking the ass of my best friends?”       “Oh, jeez! What kind of friends are they? They walk around you just because they need something. Everyone looks for those who can give them a benefit. Nobody would talk and befriend you without a reason, without needing anything from you.”       “You say it because you’ve never had them. But I do know what real friendship is.”       “Right, you’ve never had friends.”       “And I can be a loyal friend.”       “Trust me, buddy, nobody needs your loyalty. Everyone just uses your kindness and weakness. And you believe you’re surrounded by good people so hard that you stopped to notice that you ended up in the crown of mean rats that only think of themselves.”       “There have been and will always be rats. We can’t change it, sadly.”       “Right, we can't. But which is the best way to save yourself from rats? Right! Withdraw into your cocoon and never show up!”       “I can’t spend my whole life in it!”       “What do you fear more: loneliness or pain? Is a fear of getting a knife in your back again and again and being betrayed by someone better than the perspective of staying in your little world where nobody hurts you? Where I would be the only guest of yours.”       “Pain is an essential part of life, the one we are born with and die with. A part of life that no one has ever managed to escape.”       “After listening to you, anyone may unconsciously think you’re some kind of masochist. Would normal people like to live with pain, suffering, and humiliation at their wish?”       “I am used to feeling pain for the years of my life.”       “Ah, do you mean it has become a normal thing to you?”       “Killing a person for nothing is fine for you.”       “This is my way to weaken the pain. My way to get through it. The feeling when your enemy is defeated is fucking warming.”       “Or your way to take it out on innocent people and take revenge on them for the pain, humiliations, and insults. Just like in the case of Marcus.”       “Father did the right thing. And you should do the same. The main rule is not to pity your enemies. If one bastard dares to hurt you, cut their throat once with a knife. Or just break your enemy’s neck. They’d die immediately in both cases.”       “Kill them yourself! I am not a killer! And I am not going to be the one!”       “But you will become the one. I mean, you became. Not now. A long time ago. And if I possess your body again and control your mind, your enemies are gonna be dead.” Theodore pulls the black choker on his neck slightly with his finger. “I must confess that this is my favorite thing to do. And it’s much more hilarious to watch you realize what’s going on after I leave it and start to cry like a girl, not understanding what bite you and what people would think of you.”       “The only person I can kill is you,” Peter says rudely. “Because I am fucking done with you for all these years! Fucking d-o-n-e!”       “You can’t kill me,” Theodore smiles innocently. “Because I’m a ghost, technically. Something that lives in your mind only and can be seen only by you. You can grab scissors from the table and try to get them into me, but nothing’s gonna happen to me. And for people, it’s gonna look like you wanna get them in the air.”       “A-a-a-a, shut the fuck up!” Peter growls irritably, grabbing her hair. “I am sick of listening to your bullshit!”       “By the way, I could help you get through the pain caused by the death of your sweetheart if I possessed your body. All your anxiety and worries would be gone immediately. And if you want, I can even erase your memory. You can forget who Helene Marshall and those bastards, who could not save her, are.”       “I repeat, I’m not a killer and not going to harm anyone to take revenge.”       “Come on, boy, I do know you liked being sassy and scaring everyone with your threatening look. Would stupid people love to be weak folks that everyone uses as rags. It’s fucking cool when everyone is incredibly afraid of you and dreaming of hiding. It takes just a few attempts to understand that it’s what you’ve always needed.”       “Why do you insist that I start to kill people so hard? I don’t want this! I don’t want to give anyone pain! It’s not about my character!”       “So that you can get rid of the pain that’s eating you inside. Since you don’t wanna accept the other and answer all the questions, okay, I’m gonna exist in your head as a separate persona. So people think you’re having a split personality. And a bipolar disorder… M-m-m… Combo!”       “Fuck yourself, Theodore!” Peter throws sharply.       “Think better, Peter, think better.”       Theodore comes to Peter and hugs him around the shoulders.       “I can help you get through the grief. Just give me the green light so I can arrange everything quickly.” Theodore pinches Peter’s cheek. “I do see you’re close to the edge after the death of your girlfriend.”       “You’re like a bastard that offers someone a joint after listening to the problems of their friend or familiar.”       “Okay, first, we can just go to the shop, buy a bottle of expensive alcohol, come back home, and drink it fully.” Theodore laughs evilly. “Well, or we can play a dangerous game and steal it. And run from the cops and sellers fucking fast. It would be fucking funny.”       “It would be funny for you, but I’d have to be in prison because of you!” Peter steps away from Theodore sharply and goes aside. “Though I wouldn’t like to!”       “You do wanna die, actually! Life without Helene doesn’t make sense to you. So, have fun to the fullest and fuck off all the rules and bans. Robe, kill, scream, drink… Maybe you’re gonna love it so much that you’d love to live.”       “I’m not a robber and a killer and will never be the one! I repeat it for you, fucking bastard that irritates me more and more!”       “Whoa, whoa, calm down, princess, why are ya so nervous?” Theodore raises his hands in front of himself and goes to the other side of the room.       “Because you annoyed me to the fuck!” Peter runs his finger over his throat. “I am done with you!”       “Don’t subdue your negative emotions inside you, Peter. Don’t play the role of the good boy and lie to people about being a kind, caring, decent, and loyal man that they can always count on. The truth is before your eyes. I am the truth. I am your true self. But you're denying it and trying to suppress it so hard. You don't want to accept it. You want to play with destiny itself and try to rewrite it. Even if everything is decided for you.”       “Everyone can choose how to live!”       “If someone is destined to live one hundred years, they will, even if they drink, smoke, and eat bad food. But if you’re destined to die early, healthy food, no bad habits, and regular sports will not help you. Your case is the same: if you’re destined to become a killer and a robber, you will be. Early. Or late.”       “I said, NEVER, NOT FOR ANYTHING!”       In anger, Peter grabs the first thing he sees on the writing table and throws it at Theodore with an irritated shout. While the copy keeps standing like a column in the same place with an innocent smile. While the thrown thing gets through his body and falls to the floor with a crash.       “It’s funny!” Theodore exclaims, crossing his arms over his chest. “To try to kill something that’s living in your mind only.”       “Just leave!” Peter demands coldly, breathing a little heavily. “Get out of here and leave me the fuck alone.”       “What are ya gonna do? View the photos of your late girlfriend and cry, being sorry about not being able to save her and being mad at your friends, who actually did not do anything to prevent it?”       “None of your fucking business!”       “Wow, how many photos you took!”       Theodore comes to the writing table and looks at a couple of open albums and Peter’s smartphone.       “It’s enough for a couple of albums! And the memory of your phone is probably filled because of so many pictures with this sweet creature.”       Sneering evilly, Theodore looks closely at one of the photos of Helene posing on the beach in a black bikini, showing her slim body, and looking like she does not feel comfortable in these clothes.       “M-m-m…” Theodore whistles, biting slightly and licking his lips. “The gal is really a cutie. I must confess that you’ve got taste. Helene Marshall is really fucking awesome. Her body is cool, her butts is incredible, and her boobs are fire!”       “Hey, freak, close your mouth!” Peter throws rudely, running to Theodore. “And wipe off your saliva! I see you’re feeling hard already.”       “I’d be fucking happy to fuck this cutie and get my dick into her hole…” Theodore strokes his chin with a filthy smile, scanning Helene’s whole body with interest. “And put her on the knees so she sucks me as fuck… I wonder what sex with her would be like? How fast would I get an orgasm?”       Theodore moves his eyes aside and thinks about something for two seconds.       “Though… I do know it! I’ve fucked her already! Many times!”       Theodore glances at the tense Peter clenching his hands tightly into fists.       “In your body. She thought she fucked Peter Rose, but she actually had a deal with Theodore Longbottom. Because he’s a lord of sex things and knows how to bring a girl to an orgasm. But my pathetic parody doesn’t know what he can get his fingers into her front hole so that she feels super good. And he can’t kiss girls at all. Even his friends’ pieces of advice didn’t help him excite Helene enough. So, I had to work on this because I couldn’t let that cutie remain unsatisfied. She should’ve moaned and screamed from pleasure, and I was able to get it.”       “Don’t irritate me, asshole,” Peter hisses through his teeth, getting kind of red from anger and clenching his fist into fists. “Otherwise, you’re gonna regret it.”       “I’m not afraid to tell the truth. You are worthless at sex things and can’t satisfy a girl. You must thank me for all of Helene’s orgasms. I helped you not to fail it. In the opposite case, she would've found someone to be a real sex machine and had you as just a friend.”       “You’re saying bullshit.”       “You know it’s not. You know that you fall into a stupor at some moment and don’t know what to do when you’re in bed with a girl. When she, poor creature, begs you to take her, but you look at her as if you ask her for help and wait for her to do everything for you.”       “Shut up!”       “I know, I know, no man likes hearing he’s worthless at sex, and his penis is smaller than a toe. But you have no reason to worry because you have me. Until you come back to the roots and work your problem out, I give you a chance to feel like a sex lord by possessing your body and doing your work. And as you see, my effort was worth it. Helene was always happy.”       “I have a normal penis size and enough experience in sex to make a girl happy.”       “It’s a shame that she didn’t suck you and me. She didn’t work her tongue and caress our dicks with her tender fingers and tongue. Though I’m not sure she would’ve done it because your girl was shy enough. Having to undress herself had her stressed. She didn’t forget the words of her grandma and grandpa about this thing being shameful and sinful. Though everyone knows that we’re born naked. And if adults didn’t shame their children for nudity, they’d grow up with the thought that it’s absolutely normal. A boy would be running and shaking his dick, and a girl would be shaking her boobs.”       “It’s weird that you don’t come to me in clothes, not naked, with these thoughts,” Peter hisses through his teeth.       “You see the naked you every day when you take a shower or change your clothes. And besides, I’m not a girl and can excite you with my genitals.”       “I’d be happy to rip them completely so that you, bastard, feel fucking hurt.”       “M-m-m how bloodthirsty you are…” Theodore sneers evilly. “But you say you’re not a killer. You are a killer. But you haven’t realized it yet, or you have done it, but you’re denying it so hard with a wish to be good for everyone.”       “I feel that I’m gonna take a gun if you fuck my brain for a little longer.”       “You already did it when you were shooting your mother and his friends with no shame. When you wanted to bury your friends with your own hands.”       “I didn’t want it!”       “Yeah, I made you do it. I used your vulnerable condition after your girlfriend burned in the fire and exploded. But trust me, you will take it at your wish someday. When I don’t have to take control of your mind.”       “It won’t happen!”       “Yeah, let’s bet? Let’s bet I can make you do what I want again!”       “There’s nobody to kill here. So, you can relax.”       “Why? There are neighbors who are sitting on the bench outside, talking about you, saying you’re a nasty and non-educated bastard. There are cats that I am fucking done with, too. There is you, in the end. You have so many variants! Choose whichever you like!”       “Shut up!”       “Okay, you won, we won’t hurt those who did nothing to you. Those who don’t know you and live a quiet life. But we must deal with all those bastards who added fuel to the fire and made your psychological condition much worse. I’m on your mind and coming for you to remind you of the part of the soul you reject, and those assholes from school bullied you as fuck.”       Theodore sneers contemptuously.       “They’d one hundred percent erase you from this world if they knew you’ve been suffering from hallucinations since childhood and see what others can’t see.”       “That’s why I have to make an effort not to let anyone guess it,” Peter replies. “Not to let anyone guess that I sometimes wanna fall into hysteria because of what you’re doing.”       “People would understand it all if they saw you talking to yourself and trying to fight me off with a stick. They don’t have to be too smart people to guess that someone needs a strong drug.”       “Things will get better if I get rid of you.”       “I will not leave. Until you do my claims.”       “I can’t do this!”       “Not my problem. So, if you’re happy with everything, you’re gonna keep being in my slavery. Let’s think your father sold you to me, and I control you now.”       “A pathetic illusion will not dare to control me,” Peter threatens Theodore with a finger. “Hear me, never! I will not obey you! NEVER! HEAR ME! NEVER!”       Theodore takes a pistol from the pocket of his leather jacket and points it sharply at Peter, making him hold a breath and step back sharply with widely open eyes, but then exhale, pull down his t-shirt, and raise his head proudly.       “You can’t kill me, either!” Peter states determinedly. “So, I give a fuck about your gun!”       “Ah, yeah, pardon, I didn’t think…” Theodore pronounces thoughtfully and puts the pistol in the pocket again. “So… Since I can’t kill you with my own hands, I’m gonna exhaust you psychotically, just like I always do. Play with your mind in any way I want. I can do this.”       Theodore starts getting closer to Peter, who steps back with a heavy breath at this moment.       “All my previous attempts to make you kill yourself failed, but this time, I’m surely gonna be lucky. You won’t do any stupid things, and your friends will know nothing.”       “No…” Peter pronounces in a shaking voice. “Please, don’t do this…”       “What’s wrong, Peter? You peed your pants? You suddenly want to live? You give a fuck about your dead girlfriend? You think you can live without her?”       “I have a band… The guys can’t do this without me… The band is gonna be broken up.”       “And why? If it’s broken up, give a fuck! Nobody’s gonna care about it! And people won’t even remember one and a half songs of yours soon.”       “I gave them a promise! We promised each other to fulfil our dreams!”       “Torturing yourself for a pathetic promise? Smile at all these little folks, while chaos is happening in your soul?”       “Please, Theodore…”       “You will break down early or late. One fateful day, you will be found dead after hanging yourself or swallowing tablets. So, why would you torture yourself for so long when you can end this shit right now?”       Theodore raises Peter’s face by the chin and sets his cold look into his inflamed eyes.       “Life without your beloved girl in this cruel and unfair world where everyone wanna hurt you is gonna be your worst nightmare, Peter. You’re gonna be lonely and unhappy. Nobody is gonna give you a hand of help. People will keep using you again and again. Because this is your destiny. The destiny of Peter Rose that you got when you got a new name.”       Peter says nothing and just swallows nervously, understanding that Theodore is right to some extent against his wish.       “The only way to change everything is to kill yourself. To kill Peter Rose inside you. Give up to Theodore Longbottom, who can fix all your mistakes and live his life in the way he is destined.”       Tears show up in the eyes of the pale Peter, who starts shaking slightly.       “I feel so bad without her…” Peter replies in a quiet, shaking voice. “She was the best thing that I had ever had in my life.”       “That’s why you must do your best for you to be together.”       “I’m scared… Death is… It’s terrible…”       “Afraid and can’t find the courage again?”       Peter falls into silence and starts crying much more bitterly, making Theodore sigh resignedly.       “Okay, I have to give you a powerful kick on your ass since you’re such a weak bastard,” Theodore says quietly. “I have to do everything for you…”       After Theodore clicks his fingers, a small black spot shows up in the air, making Peter open his eyes widely. Then it kind of gets through his chest, getting deeper and deeper underneath the skin. He stops sobbing and showing any emotions on his face, and ends up being fully controlled by the twin that does not exist.       “So, what, you feel better?” Theodore smiles slyly. “No fear, no indecision?”       “Emptiness,” Peter pronounces monotonously, setting his dead eyes into the distance. “Absolute emptiness.”       “Again, I didn’t have to make any effort! It seems like you’d immediately fall into a trance if a hypnotist worked with you.”       “Who knows…”       “So, do you want to reunite with Helene? Don’t you see the meaning of life without her?”       “I do. I want to be with her. I don’t want to live without her. She’s the most valuable thing I have. The most valuable thing that the bastard named Marcus stole.”       “I will be happy to help you with it. Come with me.”       Theodore leaves the room first, and Peter follows him automatically, feeling like he is hypnotized and considering everything around him something surreal. No sounds but the voice of the copy exists for him. He follows obediently the one in a slow but confident step, coming to the bathroom at some moment. Theodore gets through the wall as if nothing happened, and Peter opens the door without emotions on his face, enters it, and feels up the switch that turns on the light.       “So, we’ve come!” Theodore exclaims. “You have everything you need here!”       Theodore calls Peter with a gesture, while the guy comes to him obediently as he looks into the distance with dead eyes.       “M-m-m, do you remember how your life almost ended here one day?” Theodore smiles evilly, looking around. “You remember that everything would’ve ended earlier if you, idiot, hadn’t called your friends, who came here eventually and called an ambulance?”       “I regret doing that…” Peter replies without emotions. “I regret letting them know about my plans. I could’ve stopped suffering back then.”       “But this time is different. Nobody can stop you from doing what you want.” Theodore puts his arm around the neck of Peter, who suddenly feels dizzy and has goosebumps run over his skin. “And this time, you have a much stronger motivation – the reunion with your dead girlfriend.”       “You’re right… It’s time to end it…”       “I leave it to you! Come on! Let’s go!”       Theodore pushes Peter in the back, while the blond comes slowly to the sink in a half-conscious condition on his weak legs and gets stuck on the drawer with the mirror hanging about it for some time. He gets stuck on the reflection of the guy who lost a lot of weight and is exhausted by stress, with messy blond hair, red, inflamed eyes, and shrunken cheeks with tracks of tears on them.       “Don’t be a weak coward!” Theodore exclaims. “Be a man! Keep your promise!”       If Peter were alright now, he would probably be horrified by his appearance. But now his eyes are absolutely dead, and his face expresses no emotions. He is acting like he does not care about anything. No fear, no aggression, no pity, no regret. Emptiness. The infinite emptiness that cannot be filled with anything.       “If it’s still hard for you to find the courage, remember how Helene died in the fire. Remember how you just had to stand and watch. How your friends did nothing to save her.”       Looking at his reflection in the mirror, Peter starts breathing heavily and grabs the sink tightly when he calls up the memories of losing his girlfriend because of one horrible man. That’s why tears roll down his cheeks again, and the thought about his life not having meaning and not being able to get better gets much stronger.       “She is dead,” Theodore whispers in Peter’s ear after he comes closer to him. “Helene is gone. You can’t bring her back. You can’t be happy. Because she was the only meaning of your life. You loved her like crazy, but the bad man dared to take your sweetheart from you.”       “I want to die…” Peter pronounces in a shaking, low voice. “I don’t wanna live… I don’t wanna live in the world that rejects me like something foreign.”       “Don’t fear death. Yes, you’re gonna suffer a little, but the darkness is gonna come after this. The infinite darkness that’s gonna embrace you tightly. No worries and sadness. And you’re gonna have a chance to reunite with your girlfriend and meet the mommy that died because she gave birth to you.”       Peter spends some time standing in front of the mirror and looking into the eyes of his own reflection, focusing all his attention on the beat of his heart and the voice of Theodore. Who starts singing quietly a little creepy song that makes Rose feel that the goosebumps run over his skin. The words are unclear, but he can feel the vibes of something evil and tense in the air.       “Come on, Peter, you were told what to do!” Theodore exclaims with an evil smile. “Do this if you don’t want to feel bad. You know that joking with me is bad.”       These madly familiar words make Peter feel that a panic attack is getting closer, hear his own heartbeat in his head, understand that his hands get sweaty, and grab the sink much tighter due to the weakness in his legs and dizziness. It’s getting harder to breathe every second, things happening around seem more surrealistic, and the thought that he is about to die possesses his mind more and more.       “I hope you told nobody about what happened? Right, huh? Yeah? Be careful, boy, if someone knows about it, I shall kill you. I shall find you and cut. Rip you apart. You will pay a lot for your long tongue. Just like other talkative creatures paid after they didn’t hear me and told people everything. I hope I will not have to cut your long tongue.”       Peter bends over the sink with the thought that he is about to clean his stomach, but nothing happens, despite the retching.       “M-m-m, since your body reacts like this, it means it remembers,” Theodore says thoughtfully. “It remembers what happened…”       Theodore’s hints become another reason to do the terrible thing for Peter. Not for the first time. Not even the second one. He gets obsessed with the feeling that something like this happened before, but he stayed alive and kept suffering for some reason.       “Oh, c’mon, forget it! You are kind of going to die! Follow your sweetheart. If it’s so, you must bring this case to an end.”       Theodore brings his face to Peter’s ear with a wish to whisper something:       “And not to let another attempt go wrong.”       While Theodore squeezes his face tightly in his hands, Peter breathing heavily looks at his reflection in the mirror before he opens the drawer above the sink slowly with a shaking hand and takes a plastic box with several razor blades placed carefully in a row. Holding it with both hands, the man looks at all of them like he is under a spell. He gets stuck on the colorful shades that show up under the bright lamps in the bathroom. He runs his fingertips over every single blade, literally feeling that they take control of him and make him take one of them to leave a couple of mild scars on his hands or get it deeply and do his best for something terrible and unfixable to happen.       And some time later, after hesitating and doubting a lot, Peter takes one of the blades, puts the box on the sink, and sets his dead eyes that do not blink on this thing. On the one hand, he cannot wait to do the thing quickly and leave this cruel world once and forever, using the fact that nobody knows what’s happening. But on the other hand, Rose is still in doubt. Something makes him stop so hard when he brings the blade slowly but confidently to the wrist with tracks of his past cuts. When the edge of it barely touches the tiny skin and freezes in this position, while the guy is having a battle inside him and resisting what he is going to do so hard.       

***

      After visiting Scarlett, who stayed with her neighbor when they decided to leave, Edward, Natalia, Daniel, Anna, Terrence, and Raquelle do not rush to go home and decide to keep getting through their grief together. They go to the home of Raquelle and Terrence and spend some time there before several people joined them: Benjamin, Cody, Joseph, Christopher, Kevin, Olivia, Odette, and Emma. All of them found out what happened and could not stay aside without supporting their friends, for whom Helene’s death became a real shock.       “It’s awful!” Benjamin horrifies after everyone finds out all the details. “Poor girl…”       “Can’t believe her life ended so early in this way,” Christopher shakes his head. “Such a good and sweet person is dead now.”       “That Marcus is a bastard!” Kevin resents. “Killing hundreds of innocent people many years ago wasn’t enough for him. He decided to kill a couple more!”       “There would’ve been more victims if we’d sat down and done nothing,” Terrence replies thoughtfully, lying in his room on the bed with his hands folded on his stomach.       “Yeah, Edward is really awesome!” Cody exclaims, raising his index thumb up. “He didn’t get confused and saved all of you.”       “It’s a shame that Marcus didn’t burn in the fire he started himself,” Joseph throws gloomily.       “But he poisoned himself with the same thing that almost killed Edward,” Daniel replies. “We know nothing about his condition yet, but remembering what happened to MacClife…”       “Anyway, the most important thing is that the police finally caught that cad,” Raquelle notices confidently. “And now Marcus is going to pay for everything he’s done. For Helene’s death. For those we lost because of him.”       “Although the girls and I barely knew Helene and met her recently, we’re very sorry anyway,” Olivia says with sadness in her eyes.       “I think she was a very sweet and good girl,” Emma notices. “I’m glad I was lucky to meet her.”       “Can’t imagine what her grandmother is feeling now,” Odette shakes her head. “Through an old person must not be worried at all.”       “Mrs. Marshall has been spending almost all the time in her bed and not letting go of the first aid kit with cures,” Anna confesses thoughtfully.       “Does someone watch her after you leave?” Christopher specifies.       “Her neighbor,” Natalia replies. “She visits her regularly and helps her with everything when nobody else spends time with her.”       “She must not stay alone,” Joseph notices. “Someone must be with that woman. Who knows what may happen…”       “We know,” Anna nods. “Through she says she wants to be alone so badly. She’s a little sick of being with someone all the time.”       “Did she stay all alone now?” Olivia asks. “No husband, no children?”       “Sadly,” Terrence pronounces with sadness in his eyes. “Her husband died a long time ago, her daughter disappeared after Helene’s birth, and Helene herself…”       “The woman’s got a bad fate!” Benjamin shakes his head. “She’s gonna be all alone at an old age, and she lived longer than the young girl!”       “Anyway, she can always count on our help,” Natalia replies confidently. “And our families don’t stay aside and support her in everything.”       “That’s good you’re not alone in this situation,” Odette notices. “Otherwise, it would be too hard for you.”       “We’re with you, too, guys!” Kevin states determinedly. “If you wanna talk, we’re available at any time!”       “Yeah, folks, if you need something, feel free to ask,” Christopher adds.       “Thanks a lot,” Edward thanks.       “And yeah, boys, don’t even dare to blame yourself for anything!” Cody encourages. “You didn’t put your tails between your legs, you weren’t afraid of Marcus and his gang of sheep, and did everything you could.”       “We know, Cody, but a sense of guilt doesn’t let us go,” Daniel confesses. “We gave a promise to save Helene. But we failed it in such an inglorious way.”       “And don’t take everything Peter said to you,” Emma says. “He’s now as shocked as Mrs. Marshall. You know what people can say and do when they’re obsessed with anger?”       “But at these moments, you tell people all the truth,” Edward notices. “You release everything you think of any person or any situation. So, Peter did it, too. After what we heard, we understood that he’d never considered us his close friends and had been waiting for us to betray him all the time. And now, he thinks it has happened.”       “C'mon, guys, don’t pay attention!” Kevin encourages. “I understand you feel hurt, but it’s something like a protective reaction. He doesn’t wanna show his weakness, but he should release his emotions somehow. So, the guy started to show aggression.”       “It’s alright, we understood everything completely,” Daniel replies thoughtfully. “And we’re struggling with a wish to regret everything we’ve done for him.”       “I’m sure he’ll regret it all and rush to you to apologize,” Emma says confidently. “He’ll spend time alone, get cool, calm down, work his brains…”       “I’m afraid we’ve lost him, too,” Anna sighs heavily. “Peter will no longer want to talk to you. And… He is not Peter anymore… He calls himself Theodore now.”       “Theodore, who acted like a psycho,” Raquelle adds. “See what he did to the men all alone! One can barely creep, another has back issues, and the third had his tooth broken.”       “Actually, Marcus is guilty of my issues, not him,” Terrence recalls.       “Yeah, I agree, he really crossed the line in this case,” Benjamin replies thoughtfully.       “You know, I used to think Edward was weird, but now I see Peter is much weirder,” Christopher confesses. “Something is wrong with that guy…”       “Honestly, when he went crazy due to Helene’s death, Peter didn’t look like himself,” Daniel says thoughtfully. “It was like… A different person. A copy of him… The dark version…”       “Agree!” Edward exclaims. “Something suddenly changed about him. Eyes… They… They were kinda cold, strange… Full of hate and contempt. It seems like he’s never had a place for kindness and love.”       “It wasn’t really our kind and reasonable Pete,” Terrence adds. “At that moment, we thought he was gone. We were fighting someone else…”       “Didn’t anything like this happen to him before?” Joseph asks. “What if Peter didn’t become another person for the first time?”       “Nope, nothing like that…”       “But it was impossible to recognize him during his aggressive attacks,” Daniel confesses. “When I fought with him over my jokes, Peter was so crazy that everything inside me was shaking. I was scared to death and thought he’d kill me.”       Daniel glances aside for a second.       “I’ve never told you that, but…” Daniel swallows nervously. “Everything was… Much worse than you think.”       “What do you mean?” Anna frowns slightly. “What are you talking about, Daniel?”       “You all know we shouted and argued for a long time, and we even attacked each other with fists in the end. So… At some moment, we fell on the bed, and then Peter suddenly took a knife from the pillow, pressed me with his weight, and put it against my throat.”       “What?” Terrence and Edward open their eyes widely.       “Peter threatened you with a knife?” Raquelle cannot believe it.       “I was scared to death and thought he’d really kill me,” Daniel confesses. “His eyes were full of true anger… And Peter… He wasn’t like Peter.”       “What a twist…” Natalia closes her mouth with a hand.       “But I didn’t show it and kept pretending to be sassy and snapping. And later, I paid a lot for that when he tried to get a heart into my heart. I tried so hard to protect myself and told him loudly to open his eyes and think of what he was doing, but Rose didn’t kinda hear me.”       “My God, Daniel…” Anna pronounces in a shaking voice with half-wet eyes.       “Can’t believe it…” Benjamin shakes his head.       “I thought he was a normal man!” Kevin adds.       “Uh-huh, Peter always seemed a smart, reasonable, and educated man,” Christopher confesses. “What bit him that time?”       “I applied much effort to protect myself,” Daniel continues. “Though it did lead to the consequences… Peter managed to wound me. He cut my hand deeply enough… My wrist… My vein… Blood was getting out of the wound rapidly. And… I thought I’d die right there… I started to feel freaking dizzy from weakness quickly.”       “Shit…” Terrence cannot say anything else. “Fucking shit…”       “I was ready for the continuation of the wounding, but luckily, Peter woke up and fell into a stupor when he saw my bloody hand. He stood like a column for several seconds and thought of finding a first aid kit, taking me to the bathroom, and washing the wound. He treated it and put on a bandage. He did it all silently. I heard no regret, no apology.”       “But why didn’t you tell me anything?” Anna wonders. “I did see your bandaged hand and asked you what happened! But you started to lie and find some stupid excuses: you cut it with a guitar string, you burned it with something, or something else.”       “Indeed, Perkins, why were you silent?” Terrence repeats. “I saw you had a bandaged hand, too, but you explained nothing to me at all!”       “I’m sorry, guys…” Daniel apologizes, inclining his head. “I was deeply shocked back then. I didn’t wanna believe my best friend could do that to me. Yes, I know I crossed the line with my jokes, but I didn’t deserve to get a knife wound. Besides, I was in a situation where I couldn’t blame Rose for anything. Everyone thought I was guilty of his problems.”       “Did you agree not to think about it?” Edward specifies.       “We agreed about nothing. It just happened so: he was silent, and I said nothing. Though from that moment on, I started to be afraid of him to death. I was really mad because of all his words and actions, and was worried about my life. I thought Rose would go crazy again and surely get a knife into my heart or just cut my throat.”       “So, does it happen that you had many more reasons to hate him?” Raquelle concludes.       “Exactly!”       “Hey, Daniel, has Peter ever tried to come to you and apologize?” Benjamin asks. “Or he thought he was guilty of nothing and acted as if nothing happened?”       “Not even once,” Daniel confesses quietly. “Peter never came to you from that moment on and never apologized. And he didn’t even try to explain what he did. Yes, he sometimes looked like he was sorry, but he never expressed it with words. We haven’t talked about it since that day.”       “Did something like this happen again later?” Odette asks.       “It did. And at these moments, it happened by itself. I was doing my business quietly, but Peter suddenly rushed to me and attacked me with fists or a knife… And one time, he even came to me from behind with a lighter in his hands and tried to burn my hair. I noticed it in time and started to fight back. But I got a little burn on my stomach because of Rose.”       “Listen, guys, I’m starting to feel creepier,” Anna confesses hesitantly, embracing herself with both arms. “If it’s all the truth, it happens that Peter is insane. Since he attacked the man and tried to kill him like this…”       “By the way, I just recalled one of the cases when Peter attacked Daniel with my pretense,” Terrence confesses. “It all started with a fist fight and ended with Rose pressing Perkins to the floor and starting to strangle him with a guitar string that was lying on the floor.”       “It’s true,” Daniel confirms as he nods. “Terrence really barely managed to pull him away from me. By that time, everything went blurry before my eyes, and I was about to pass out from a lack of air.”       “The guys from the studio came to help after they saw what happened. I told them to take Rose to the restroom and wash him with cold water so he calmed down, but I helped Perkins come to himself. I tried so hard to keep calm, but I was deeply shocked by what happened.”       “And the situation was worse because I covered my fear with aggression and kind of provoked Peter. So, it happened that I had my ass kicked. Because of the man, whom I really started to be afraid of. He seemed crazy to me.”       “Hey, Terrence, has Peter ever shown that aggression toward you at least once?” Joseph asks.       “Nope, luckily, he never attacked me with a knife,” Terrence shakes his head. “He could only say something rude when I tried to calm him down. Daniel was the one to have his ass kicked all the time. And I wasn’t surprised. Like, he annoyed the guy with his jokes. He didn’t shut up in time. I was sure it would lead to something bad early or late.”       “Had Peter ever shown this aggression before that conflict happened?” Odette specifies.       “Nope, but I sometimes caught his bad, careful glances that made me feel freaking creepy,” Daniel confesses. “And when I asked what was wrong, Peter said he was just thinking. And I didn’t care about it a lot. Though it was the first sign. The sign of that man not being alright.”       “After listening to all these scary stories, I’m starting to think Peter is mentally unstable,” Christopher says thoughtfully. “He is ill with something.”       “Indeed, guys, what if his attacks of aggression are not mainly connected with Daniel’s jokes or something else?” Olivia assumes. “What if the problem is the illness. I dunno… Schizophrenia, a bipolar disorder, a split personality…”       “Uh-huh, what if Peter hears some voices that tell him to kill all of you,” Cody adds. “Tell him that he shouldn't believe you. You kind of wanna do something against him.”       “Maybe that’s why he’s expecting a betrayer from us?” Raquelle assumes. “If Peter is really suffering from something like this, it’s explainable enough.”       “Imagine if he’s suffering from all the illnesses Olivia called!” Benjamin exclaims.       “That guy is becoming really dangerous then,” Kevin adds. “He may kill anyone at any time.”       “No wonder, remembering who his father is,” Edward says thoughtfully. “Remembering that everyone is outta their mind in Rose’s family. His uncle is a schizophrenic, his mother had a low self-rating, his grandmother was all in depression and killed herself… I’m sure there are many more special folks.”       “But Peter wasn’t always like this!” Anna throws his hands up. “He seemed a normal enough man for most of the time!”       “Maybe, pretending?” Natalia assumes.       “I advise you to be careful, guys,” Emma says confidently. “I don’t like all of this. Having a deal with psyches is always a risky thing.”       “Honestly, when Peter went insane after Helene’s death, I unconsciously recalled the way he attacked me like that,” Daniel confesses. “He was also heartless and aggressive…”       “But since you knew what it could lead to, why did you start a fight with him so determinedly?” Edward wonders.       “We had a choice? Our lives were at stake! If we hadn’t protected ourselves, we wouldn’t have been killed by Marcus. We would’ve been killed by our friend Peter. Or Theodore… Who the hell knows who he really is!”       “And if he really suffers from some mental illness, they can’t be cured, as usual,” Anna says thoughtfully. “Doctors can only relieve symptoms. And he has to live with it.”       “Maybe he goes crazy at stressful moments, but calms down more or less when his life gets better?” Christopher gives his version.       “Right!” Benjamin clicks his fingers. “While Peter’s life is fine, he seems normal. And when he runs into stress, he gets his illness back.”       “The question is whether Peter has ever been truly happy?” Raquelle sighs heavily. “Was everything as fine as we thought?”       “At least, when Anna and I had problems, I truly thought Peter was okay,” Daniel confesses. “More or less fine. He was a reasonable, smart, and calm man who gave us wonderful pieces of advice, always listened closely, and supported us.”       “Agree, I thought so,” Edward says thoughtfully. “I thought the most acute phase was over.”       “Yeah, Peter didn’t deny he was still struggling with himself,” Terrence recalls. “But I was sure he’d get through it. Moreover, we were near and supported him.”       “It means we missed something,” Natalia says hesitantly.       “Don’t blame yourself, guys,” Odette says softly. “It’s not your fault.”       “Yeah, knowing his full story that you told us, it’s not surprising that Peter became like this,” Benjamin adds. “All these things were supposed to impact him somehow. Even people with a truly strong spirit can’t get through it all.”       “And the story of the blocked memories!” Cody recalls. “Since Peter forgot it all, something really awful happened. Something that impacts his whole life, even if he doesn’t realize it.”       “We really wanna help him, but how do we do this in this situation?” Daniel throws his hands up. “We don’t know what to expect from Peter! He is a weak, vulnerable, and sensitive guy who gets close to us and wants to be hugged tightly and comforted. Or he becomes a heartless and ruthless bastard who is mad at the whole world and would even murder his beloved people. We… We don’t understand how to behave. We don’t know what to do. We’re so confused.”       “And after Marcus turned Peter against Helene, he started to attack her, too,” Raquelle confesses. “The guys even had to pull him away from her when he almost strangled her.”       “Oh, listen, I don’t really know what to advise,” Cody sighs tiredly. “And Joe and I don’t know Peter too well because we just recently met him.”       “I wonder if he takes some cures?” Joseph asks. “Isn’t he getting any kind of therapy?”       “Peter always grumbles if he has to take some cures,” Edward confesses. “And he does especially refuse to visit psychologists and psychiatrists.”       “Yeah, when he was in the hospital after his suicide attempt, a psychologist was sent to him, but Peter refused to talk to them and said he’d get through by himself,” Terrence adds. “Some time before Rose’s release, his doctor told us that the blond wanted to open his veins with something sharp again one time. I dunno what: a piece of a vase that was there but broke or the mirror that suffered magically, as well.”       “Yes, yes, it happened,” Daniel confirms. “They stopped watching him because the doctors thought he was getting well. But after that case the nurses spent literally days with him before his release. Even if he said he didn’t want it and did it accidentally. Like, it’s a habit, folks, I can’t get rid of it. The psychologist was really sent to the blond, but they left the room in two or three minutes.”       “Interesting…” Cody strokes his chin.       “Anyway, the doctors from a mental hospital have a note about him,” Benjamin notices. “He’s on the hook. And if Rose wanna kill himself or murder and wound someone, he’ll be taken to therapy by force. Especially, if he is pronounced insane.”       “I wonder if he actually wants to harm someone and kill people?” Emma asks. “Or is he kinda controlled by the voices in his head?”       “Well, since Daniel said Peter sometimes looked like he regretted his actions, he probably didn’t want it,” Odette shrugs. “Maybe, he calms down sometimes and thinks soberly.”       “Fuck, our friend is a mentally unstable man!” Daniel exhales sharply. “As I understand, it’s time to start to regret starting a talk with him and suggesting that we become friends.”       “Thank God, he doesn’t harm Natalia, Raquelle, and Anna!” Christopher exclaims. “He treats them more or less well.”       “No, no, Peter has never done anything bad to us,” Anna shakes his head. “I have a wonderful relationship with him, and Raquelle and Natalia get along with Rose. All his anger is on Daniel, Terrence, and Edward. Though he is mad at Daniel much more.”       “Yeah, dude, you made him super mad since he started to take it out on you,” Cody exhales. “He attacks you with a knife and tries to strangle you… If he had a chance, he’d definitely push you off the roof.”       “Yeah, I agree, I wasn’t always such a perfect friend,” Daniel replies. “But I didn’t do it on purpose. I’ve never wished Peter anything bad and never wanted to hurt him. I just thought I was playing fun.”       “We get it, but the question is why you actually forgave him for that so easily?” Olivia wonders. “That guy almost killed you. He’s done it several times. But you’re pretending that everything is okay and talking to him as if nothing happened.”       “I remember everything and forget nothing. But we’re united by many good moments. And there are more of them.”       “Sometimes one terrible thing may strike out one hundred moments,” Kevin notices.       “I’m stopped by the fact that he’s sorry. When Peter is normal, he looks like he really regrets it all. Like… He doesn’t understand what he’s doing. Yes, I may sound stupid or like I try to excuse him, but… I sometimes think… Something controls him. I dunno… Like he’s a marionette in someone’s hands.”       “In the hands of the voices in his head?” Anna specifies.       “Peter isn’t always so aggressive. Sometimes he’s the sweetest, the wisest, and the kindest guy.”       “Nothing personal, buddy, but someone like him must be put in a mental hospital,” Cody states determinedly. “Today, Peter tries to kill you, but tomorrow, the men, the girls, or someone else may become his victims.”       “He’s about to become the second Marcus Longbottom and kill everyone!” Joseph exclaims. “If I’m not wrong, his father started to murder people approximately at the same age as Peter’s current.”       “Anyway, I can’t treat him indifferently,” Daniel confesses. “Peter is my first real friend that I got. The first one, to whom I was important, not my money. Unlike those who’d surrounded me before.”       “Of course, you decide, but I advise you to think twice about whom you keep next to you,” Emma insists. “Something is wrong with Peter – it’s obvious.”       “I don’t know what I’m gonna do if Peter really turns out to be a mentally ill man. If he’s a schizophrenic or two-faced. If two people live inside him. Of Peter… Not just Peter.”       “We get it,” Olivia pronounces quietly. “But it’s not fine.”       “Oh, after these confessions, I’m deeply shocked, honestly,” Edward sighs tiredly. “Friendship is friendship, but Peter may really be dangerous. For all of us.”       “Agree, and our cuts and bruises are a wonderful proof of that,” Terrence adds. “That’s good, we thought of hiding the pistol. Otherwise, we would’ve gone after Helene.”       “If Peter is really so dangerous, I swear I will ban Daniel from talking to him,” Anna states determinedly. “If that man killed my boyfriend at the order of any voices, it would be too much.”       “Edward won’t be talking to him, either!” Natalia raises her head proudly.       “Terrence, too!” Raquelle exclaims. “I will not let!”       “C’mon, folks!” Kevin exclaims. “Maybe we’re wrong! What if Peter is actually absolutely healthy, but all his problems are caused by stress, a lack of sleep, and exhaustion?”       “Do you mean Rose put a knife against Perkins’ throat and cut his vein just because he didn’t sleep and got too busy with his business?” Christopher surprises loudly.       “You can’t believe it, but these things may be the reason why a person hallucinates. And the blond has a lot of reasons to be a psycho: one thing happens, another, third…”       “But that’s wrong, too!” Emma exclaims. “He almost put the man in the grave! He almost killed everyone in his way after Helene’s death! Is that fine?”       “But the version about hallucinations is possible,” Edward replies thoughtfully and bends one leg under himself. “I often noticed that Peter looked strangely aside. With a scare, with tension, or with anger…”       “I think he even talked with someone,” Daniel recalls. “There was a moment. We were kinda doing something, but Rose looked aside at first and then whispered something coldly. Not looking at any one of us, but looking at that side.”       “And when we asked him who he talked with, he said he talked to nobody or made us sure that we dreamed it up,” Terrence adds.       “Okay, guys, let’s not rush to make conclusions so we can calm down,” Cody exhales slowly. “I know the situation is bad, but there’s a high chance of becoming a victim. But we just torture ourselves with these guesses.”       “Anyway, I don’t wanna believe Peter can be cruel and ruthless,” Anna shakes her head. “I wanna keep thinking he’s a good and kind man. And Helene made the right choice by deciding to be with him.”       “Anyway, let him stay alone and think about everything for a while,” Raquelle says quietly. “We shouldn't bother him now, as I think.”       “But when do we try to talk to him?” Natalia asks. “When is this a good moment to do it?”       “The question without the answer,” Daniel replies thoughtfully.       “Focus on taking care of each other and yourself,” Benjamin advises. “And Helene’s grandmother, of course. And Sammy.”       “Yes, Daniel and Anna did a good thing by deciding to take the dog with them,” Odette notices. “They can have something to do. Think about how to cheer him up.”       “It’s gonna be a hard thing…” Anna sighs tiredly, glancing aside and seeing that Sammy is sitting in front of the door and looking at something with his sad eyes. “Sammy refuses to eat and play with toys and doesn’t want to sleep.”       “Try to do your best for his regular life to remain the same,” Olivia advises. “Feed him, drink him, walk with him when Helene did it. Be near. The dog must feel that he’s not alone.”       “We try,” Daniel shrugs.       “Terrence and I are gonna have something to do,” Raquelle says thoughtfully, putting her hand on Terrence’s shoulder. “To treat his back. Take cures, go to get a massage… The doctor gave a long list.”       “Natalia and I will come up with something, too,” Edward promises. “Try to distract ourselves from what’s happening, while the police are investigating it all.”       “Hey, when’s the day of the funeral?” Joseph asks hesitantly. “When should we be ready?”       “We dunno yet. The police need to find her body and give it to the morgue so they can establish the cause of death. After that, her body can be taken and buried.”       “Do William and Jeremy know what happened?” Benjamin specifies.       “Yup, Edward and I called them and told,” Terrence nods. “The guys are shocked and can’t believe it.”       “Hold on, guys, we’re all here!” Cody exclaims. “We can help you with everything.”       “I know what the death of a close person is,” Olivia confesses. “I spent almost one year coming to myself after my mom’s death. Though I still can’t let it go, honestly.”       “Thank you so much, men, girls,” Anna thanks. “Your support means a lot to us.”       At this moment, everyone splits into a male and a female company when Raquelle gets up from the bed, comes to Sammy, and squats down to caress the dog looking through the balcony door on the head.       “Men, just in case, we can sit somewhere at a bar and drink a glass at any time,” Christopher says, coming together in a circle along with other men. “So you can talk enough.”       “Thanks, Chris, but we said everything we wanted,” Edward replies thoughtfully. “At least, I have nothing to add.”       “Well, we could help you distract yourself a little!” Cody exclaims. “All of this may make you crazy! Look at what’s happening to Peter! You want to go crazy and talk to the voices in your heads, too?”       “We’ll get through it,” Daniel assures. “We’re strong. We’ve gotta be strong. For the girls. For those who need us.”       “Damn, when will you finally relax?” Joseph exhales. “Every day, more shit happens in your life!”       “You’re right!” Cody exclaims. “The guys can’t even focus on the music and get ready for the wedding!”       “The wedding has been indefinitely postponed,” Terrence announces. “We’ve notified our families about it, and now we’re telling you about it.”       “And of course, the album will be released ‘cause everything is solved and scheduled,” Daniel adds. “But we won’t probably be promoting it. And we have to think about the plans for a tour later.”       “Your manager is probably fretting and fuming because of what’s happening,” Cody assumes.       “Nope, he gets it all,” Edward assures. “George always says he doesn’t care about money when his wards have problems that prevent them from working to the fullest.”       “That’s good you have such an understanding manager,” Kevin notices. “Another would make you go on stage even if you died in two minutes.”       “If only we didn’t actually have to disband due to Peter’s mental issues,” Terrence expresses anxiety. “I don’t think he wanna keep playing on it and see the guys and me. We’re literally enemies to him now. The enemies that are guilty of all his troubles.”       “Wait for a while, guys,” Benjamin advises. “I think everyone goes crazy when they close their closest people. Would you keep your mind sober if something like that happened to your girls? I don’t think so!”       “You noticed it right, Ben,” Terrence replies thoughtfully. “We all become psyches when we lose something that means a lot to us.”       “Anyway, don’t make Rose a psycho earlier,” Joseph advises. “I know there can’t be so many coincidences. But you need to get deeper and watch everything closely.”       “We know, Joe,” Daniel says quietly. “Anyway, we aren’t gonna refuse to befriend him for nothing. Even if Peter turns out to be mentally unstable and wanna keep talking to us, we won’t turn our backs on him. We… We won’t treat him like a psycho. Just like I don't treat my sister like a drug addict and consider her a normal person.”       “And he does need a doctor’s help,” Cody says confidently. “So, he can solve his problems with a psychologist and start to take prescribed drugs. There’s nothing bad with it. I got therapy several years ago when I had a nervous breakdown due to the overload. And I don’t hide it.”       “Anyway, I have a familiar psychologist,” Kevin confesses. “I can give you the number so Peter can call him. And you can go for a couple of consultations if you feel too bad. When Edward and I witnessed the murder of his father’s friend, I got a couple of consultations to come to myself. It helped me a lot.”       “Thank you so much for your help, guys,” Terrence thanks amicably. “I don’t know what we’d do without you.”       “Always at your service!” Benjamin exclaims.       Daniel, Edward, and Terrence say nothing and just smile a little falsely, looking at Christopher, Kevin, Benjamin, Joseph, and Cody, who clap the guys on the shoulder at some moment, with sadness in their eyes. Then they all look aside and see Olivia, Emma, and Odette try so hard to comfort Raquelle, Natalia, and Anna, whom they hold in their strong hugs, saying something to calm them down. The girls also do not forget about Sammy, who does not react to their attention and keeps looking into the distance with his sad, half-wet eyes, sitting in front of the balcony door and whining quietly at times.