The Criminal Diaries

      “W-w-what?” Daniel barely finds the strength to break the silence. “What did you say?”       “No…” Helene shakes her head sharply as she sobs. “No, please, tell me it’s not the truth…”       “But it’s the TRUTH!” Peter cries inconsolably. “I was rapped! A CHILD! I was seven! JUST SEVEN! SEVEN!”       “My God, Peter…” Anna barely holds back tears, closing her mouth with a hand. “My God…”       Sammy whines with pity and touches Peter’s knee with his paw to show his sympathy.       “R-r-r-rap-p-p-ped?” Edward pronounces hesitantly in a hoarse voice. “Y-you?”       “Oh, shit…” Terrence shakes his head with widely open eyes, grabbing his throat.       “I was rapped…” Peter repeats. “I was raped. Raped! RAPED! RAPED! I am a MAN! I WAS RAPED!”       “Is that what you…” Raquelle tries to say. “What you… Tried to forget?”       “Do you remember now?” Natali wonders. “You remember what happened to you?”       “I WISH I HAD NEVER DONE IT!” Peter screams. “I would rather keep living and know nothing! And now I don’t know what to do! How to handle it!”       “Peter, sweetie…” Helene cries bitterly.       “It’s been twenty years, but I haven’t the fuck come to myself. I AM STILL FRIGHTENED! I STILL SUFFER BECAUSE OF THAT MAN DID!”       “A man?” Daniel opens his eyes widely, “You were… Was it a man? A man did it?”       Instead of answering, Peter only makes a couple of loud sobs and runs his hands sharply over his hair from the top of his head to the nape of his neck.       “Peter, brother…” Anna cries quietly, grabbing her throat with a hand, with a lack of air.       “I was only seven…” Peter shakes and sniffs, swallowing the air greedily. “I escaped home one day… After my mother’s psychosis… I was running where my eyes looked… And on the way, I met that man. He was asking me… Asking… And then he tried to invite me to his home… Like, I can show you kittens and puppies… So that you calm down… And I went… Without thinking…”       Peter falls into silence for two seconds as he keeps swallowing the air frantically and shaking back and forth with his legs wrapped by his arms and his knees pressed to his chest.       “He said something… He looked at me kinda weirdly… Caressed… Called me a sweetheart… I felt uncomfortable, but I didn’t understand why… And then… Then I asked him about the kittens I didn’t see there… And he said he’d give me candies… But I should’ve been quiet and obedient… That man locked the door of the room where he led me to… He started to get close… At first, he beat me with his hands and a belt, shouted… And then he… He… Then… He did it…”       At this moment, Peter’s voice cracks, while tears roll down his pale cheeks with no control.       “Damn, buddy…” Terrence pronounces in a shaking voice.       “I tried to resist…” Peter continues. “I tried to escape… But he didn’t let me… I didn’t have the strength to fight… He was heartless… It was horrible… At some moment, he actually closed my mouth with his smelly hand and… Kept doing what he was doing…”       “Peter, sweetheart…” Helene cries bitterly, closing her mouth with both hands.       “And when everything ended… He threatened… Like… If you tell someone, you’ll be dead… I’ll kill you… He told me to make it our little secret… While I was lying and crying… From pain… From fear… From helplessness… Not understanding what was happening to me… And when he made me promise I’d say nothing to anyone… That man kicked me out of his home… Like a puppy… In ripped clothes… With naked feet… With insane pain in my body… My stomach hurt, my arms hurt, my legs did… And my ass was kinda torn in two… I was going… But I had blood on my hands… I was bleeding… I felt a severe pain… I was walking under the heavy rain… Under thunders… Under lightning… Just like now… Literally, the hurricane was happening… The hurricane destroyed a lot back then…”       Sammy whines with great pity again.       “It’s awful…” Natalia barely pronounces with horror in her eyes.       “My mother saw my condition when I came back home, but she gave a fuck,” Peter says. “She gave a fuck about me being wet and bleeding. She gave a fuck about my ripped clothes. About my ass burning. About coming back in the deep night. Even when I confessed that I was just rapped, she just waved her hand and said she didn’t care. She drank vodka and fell asleep right on the floor. I tried to say it to her again in the morning and begged her to protect me, but I only heard the furious lecture. About me being a nasty asshole that ruined her whole life. About her being happy with my death.”       Peter closes his face with both hands and sniffs.       “Several times. I tried to tell about what that man did several times. I begged her to do something. I begged her to protect me… But she pushed me off again. Like, solve your problems on your own. And… It happened in the case of those I decided to come to with a wish to complain. They all fucked me off. Nobody believed me. They said I wanted to slander a decent man. He was the one in their eyes. And I was a child. A non-educated child, who must have been punished for being rude to older people. And my mother did it. Everything had hurt so badly, and I could barely walk after her punishment. And then she took me outside in just my underwear, brought me to the place where all our neighbors came together, and told me to stand on my knees and apologize to that man. Who was pretending to be innocent. I didn’t apologize, but they pressed on me. All our neighbors. They shamed me. Resented. They read lectures about the spoiled present generation. They gave me some slaps in the face. One man actually used the belt. And in the end, I said, ‘sorry’. I apologized to my rapper. For him rapping me. For breaking me. He got away from it, but I turned out to be guilty. Everyone called HIM a victim, not me. And he was HAPPY. HE WAS FUCKING HAPPY!”       “I’m speechless…” Raquelle shakes her head. “I dunno what to say… I’m frightened…”       “Though… Why am I telling you that? You will not believe me anyway. Just like they didn’t believe me. I’m gonna be a slanderer before your eyes. YOU WILL THINK THAT MAN WAS GUILTY OF NOTHING! I DREAMED IT ALL UP ‘CAUSE I WANTED ATTENTION!”       “No, no, honey, no, don’t say it!” Helene jabs excitedly and takes Peter softly by the shoulders. “We believe you! We all do!”       “No, YOU DO NOT BELIEVE! You think I am a liar! I dreamed up this story! But it’s not the truth! I DREAMED UP NOTHING! IT’S THE TRUTH! I was rapped! And then I started to mistrust people. I had tried to believe in a miracle, but I started to doubt after that case. And after the guys from my school started to rape me regularly at a teenage age, I ACTUALLY LOST MY BELIEF IN HUMANITY!”       “Were you rapped several times?” Anna opens her eyes widely.       “When it happened for the first time, they knocked me out with a body check, drove me out of the city, tied me up to the tree, and mocked me for a long time before one of them came up with the idea of taking his pants off. His friends caught the wave: the boys released their genitals, the girls took off their knickers and… They did it… All together… Again!”       At this moment, the dumbfounded Edward, Terrence, and Daniel look at each other with eyes full of horror, realizing more and more that they went too far today.       “That’s why…” Daniel whispers under his nose.       “The next day, the entire school knew it already,” Peter confesses, pressing his knees to his chest. “And they called me a certain whore. A slut. A princess. Everyone wanted to fuck me. And they did it. No matter how hard I resisted. Every fucking day. At school, outside the one… Everywhere! And I started to get much more furious. Because of the cruelty of this world. Because of my powerlessness. Because of adult people’s reluctance to stop it all and protect me somehow. I was all alone. Nobody wanted to protect me. NOBODY! I FACED THEM ALL ALONE! AND I WAS LOSING THAT BATTLE! THERE WAS NO CHANCE TO FIX SOMETHING! THEY FUCKED ME LIKE A PROSTITUTE! ALL! ALL OF THEM! AND I COULD DO NOTHING WITH IT!”       “We crossed the fucking line, guys…” Edward realizes. “All these things became a trigger to him. The reason to remember what happened.”       “Fuck, what a shame…” Terrence puts his hand on his forehead. It’s just… I dunno what to say!”       “Come on!” Peter screams, “Come! Go! Attack me! Say I am lying! Say I dreamed it all up! That I am trying to pity you! Men cannot be raped! Or I asked for trouble! COME ON, GO FOR IT! LOOK INTO MY EYES AND SAY IT ALL! STOP THE FUCK BEING COWARDS! TELL ME THE TRUTH!”       “No, no, Pete, we do believe you!” Helene jabs excitedly, taking Peter’s hands. “We do, sunshine… We do, my sweetie…”       “Good job, buddy,” Raquelle approves, caressing Peter’s shoulder. “That’s good you confessed it. It took a lot of courage.”       “You don’t believe me,” Peter explodes, taking his hands out sharply. “YOU DO NOT! I DON’T BELIEVE YOU! TELL ME YOU ARE LYING! TELL ME THAT, LOOKING INTO MY EYES!”       “Quiet, quiet, Peter, quiet, it’s okay, it’s okay,” Natalia says softly. “You did the right thing by telling us everything. Good job, friend, good job!”       Sammy barks confidently two times, putting his paw on Peter’s knee.       “Stop lying to me!” Peter shakes sharply. “Stop calming me down! Stop pretending that you are for me. I KNOW YOU’RE ALL AGAINST ME! I KNOW YOU DON’T BELIEVE ME! YOU’RE STANDING BY THE SIDE OF THAT MAN!”       “No, Peter, heaven forbid!” Helene opens her eyes widely. “What you’re talking about! That man must be executed! It’s freaking disgusting!”       “Now we understand why you don’t trust anyone,” Anna says softly. “After what happened to you, it’s not surprising. You are a victim of violence.”       “Exactly!” Peter exclaims. “I am a victim! The victim whom nobody believes! Who was eventually made guilty! Who was put on his knees in front of the rapper and forced to apologize for allegedly slandering him!”       “They didn’t believe, but we do believe!” Natalia raises her head confidently. “And we’ll do our best to help you learn to live with this horror. And if that bastard hasn’t paid for that, Mr. Johnson will do this quickly.”       “NO! I WILL NOT! I WILL NEVER LEARN TO! I DON’T WANT! I CAN’T! I CAN’T!”       “You can!” Helene exclaims harshly. “We will give our everything to help you.”       “I don’t wanna live… I don’t wanna live after what I found out. I don’t want! I will not handle this…”       “Peter, please…”       “I WANT TO DIE! PLEASE, LET ME DIE! MAY LIGHTNING HIT ME NOW! MAY IT TAKE ME BACK TO THE PLACE I WAS! I WANNA GO THERE! I DON’T WANNA STAY HERE! I DO NOT!”       “Quiet, quiet, honey, quiet, it’s okay.”       Helene hugs Peter around the shoulders and kisses him sweetly on the cheek, while Raquelle, Natalia, and Anna caress the guy’s hand or forearm.       “We’re here, we’re here… You’re safe with us. It’s okay… It’s gonna be okay…”       “A-A-A, PLEASE, LET ME DIE!” Peter makes a heartbreaking scream. “I DON’T WANT TO LIVE! I DO NOT WANT! I DO NOT!”       “No, Peter, no, don’t even dare to think about it!”       “Please, kill me… Do something for me to die… I WANNA FEEL HAPPY! I AM SICK OF ALL THIS SUFFERING! LET ME FIND MY PEACE! PLEASE! KILL ME! KI-I-I-I-I-I-I-IL ME!”       Sammy baking quietly with a great pity touches Peter’s knee with his paw and butts his head against his legs, while the man pulls his hair out strongly with an emotional scream.       “Hey, hey, quiet, buddy, quiet,” Daniel tries to calm down, ending up in front of Peter and taking him by the forearms. “It’s okay. It’s okay.”       “Nobody’s gonna hurt you,” Terrence calms down, putting his hand on Peter’s shoulder. “Don’t be afraid.”       “Quiet, quiet, Pete, quiet,” Edward pronounces quietly, clapping Peter on the head slightly. “It’s okay, we just wanna help you.”       “Go…” Peter demands as he chokes on tears. “LEAVE! LEAVE ME ALONE!”       “Peter, please, don’t do this!” Helene begs with pity in her wet eyes.       “I said, I WANT TO SEE NOBODY! WHY CANNOT YOU ALL JUST GET THE FUCK OFF ME? WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT FROM ME?”       “Please, don’t pretend that you want it!” Anna exclaims. “We all know it’s not the truth. You don’t want this at all.”       “What the fuck do you all need from me?” Peter explodes. “WHAT DO YOU THE FUCK WANT? HOW LONG ARE YOU GOING TO MOCK ME? IS IT SO HARD TO DO WHAT I AM ASKING YOU ALL ABOUT?”       “You don’t want it!” Raquelle replies loudly. “But you’re afraid! You’re afraid to trust us and lose us!”       “I have nothing to lose!” Peter cries bitterly and looks at everyone with watery eyes. “I HAVE NOTHING! I LOST EVERYTHING! I LOST EVEN WHAT I HAD! WHAT I DIDN’T SAVE! BECAUSE OF MY STUPIDITY!”       “You didn’t lose us!” Natalia replies confidently. “We don't approve of all your actions, but friendship is not always about supporting your friend if they are not right.”       “Please, guys, I am begging you, leave me all alone. Stop… ENOUGH! I said I needed nobody! I WANNA STAY ALONE! I WANNA DIE! I WANNA BE WHERE I BELONG! WHERE I WOULD NOT SUFFER ALL THE TIME!”       “I know you can barely get through this,” Helene replies in a shaking voice. “But please, trust us. I promise, nobody will hurt you. Nobody will harm you. It’s gonna be okay. Just don’t turn your back on us. Don’t push us off.”       “I HATE YOU ALL!” Peter breaks into a hysterical scream in passion and exhales with a shake. “I HATE YOU! YOU ALL HURT ME! ALL OF YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! H-A-T-E Y-O-U! ALL OF YOU! A-A-A-ALL OF YOU-U-U-U-U-U!”       Doubling over and breathing heavily, Peter sinks his nails painfully into the skin on his head, while his heartbreaking screams break the hearts of the girls, the men, and the dog that puts his tail between his paws because of the loud voices, as well as thunder and lightning that can be heard above their heads again and again.       “I HATE THIS WHOLE FUCKING WORLD! For all the pain it has given me! I HATE! I HATE EVERYONE! For stealing my happy life! IT WAS RUINED! RUINED! Everyone laughed at me! Nobody believed me! I was a liar to everyone! Even though I was a victim! The victim who just wanted love. Just human love! But I did not the fuck get that! Instead, everyone hated me, everyone despised me! They fucked me! WHY THE FUCK WOULD I LOVE THIS FUCKING WORLD FOR? WHY THE FUCK WOULD I TRUST SOMEONE? WHY WOULD I BELIEVE NOBODY CAN BETRAY ME ANYMORE?”       Peter falls into silence sharply and starts coughing loudly due to the tickle in his throat caused by all these hysterical screams, with which he literally releases what he has kept inside for weeks, months, and years.       “It’s okay, Peter, it’s okay, don’t be afraid,” Anna tries to calm down, caressing Peter’s shoulder. “Nobody will hurt you anymore. You’re gonna feel good with us.”       “Where were you all before?” Peter cries bitterly as he chokes. “When I needed you so badly? WHERE? WHY DID YOU SHOW UP WHEN IT WAS TOO LATE? WHERE YOU WERE BEFORE? WHE-E-E-E-E-ERE!?”       “We’re here now,” Edward replies confidently. “We will not leave me, hear me? We’ll always be with you now. And we’ll not repeat the mistakes we made before!”       “A-A-A, I HATE YOU! I HATE ALL OF YOU! I HA-A-A-A-A-A-ATE! GET OUT OF HERE! GET OUT! GE-E-E-E-E-ET O-O-O-O-O-O-OUT!”       Sammy barks quietly as he watches Peter with wet eyes full of pity and puts his tail between his paws when the man makes a long-lasting, heartbreaking scream again.       “Please, Peter, stop!” Helene begs desperately, caressing Peter’s shoulder, and kisses him on the cheek with her shaking lips. “Please, don’t break my heart! My heart does hurt when I look at you!”       “GET OUT!” Peter strains his vocal cords. “GET OUT! I DON’T WANT TO SEE YOU! I HATE YOU! ALL OF YOU! HATE! HA-A-A-A-A-A-ATEE-E-E-E-E! GET OO-O-O-O-O-OUT! A-A-A-A-A-A-A…”       At some moment, Peter’s voice cracks sharply, and he makes several hysterical sobs. It’s getting harder and harder to pump air into his lungs since something heavy presses on his chest as hell. His heart starts beating like crazy, his hands are shaking, and every single muscle is squeezed in painful seizures. Everything turns upside down, he feels nausea in the throat, his stomach literally wants to turn inside out. Every sign is hard for him and gives him tormenting pain. Heat and cold start a cruel fight, burning him with something fierce or pushing him into an ice hole. There is a hum in his ears, he feels dizzy, and everything becomes just a blurry spot before his eyes.       “Peter…” Raquelle pronounces excitedly and takes Peter’s hands. “Are you okay? Hey! Peter, can you hear us? Peter! Hey, c’mon, buddy?”       “Can’t…” Peter swallows the air frantically, grabbing the ground and clothes with his shaking hands as if this can help and become something like a support to him. “Can’t breathe…”       “Quiet, quiet, Peter, it’s okay,” Helene tries to calm down, hugging Peter around the shoulder. “You’re with us. You’re safe. Relax.”       “Breathe, brother, breathe,” Daniel says quietly. “We’ll help you. Just do what we say so that everything is okay.”       Sammy makes a heartbreaking bark and sits on the side of Peter, pressing himself to him closely, while the man starts to choke more and more and lose control of his body, in which he feels kind of locked. He doubles over or bends backward sharply, while his heart literally tries to hollow out a way out, hitting him on his temples and chest with no mercy. The invisible loop tightens on his neck more and more so that he does not have access to the oxygen and feels a much stronger sense of dizziness.       “I’m dying!” Peter pronounces with anguish, grabbing his throat and shaking his feet nervously. “Dying… Can’t feel my body… I’m losing it…”       “No, you’re not dying!” Terrence protests, stroking Peter’s back softly. “You’re with us, you’re alright!”       “I feel bad… I’m dying… Help me!”       “Quiet, quiet, Peter, I’m here, it’s okay,” Helene pronounces softly, taking Peter’s hand, with which he tries to grab something desperately. “Breathe deeply. And slowly. It’s gonna be okay.”       “Heart… Heart… I'm having a heart attack!”       Doubling over and wincing strongly, Peter grabs his heart sharply and pulls out his wet, white, sleeveless shirt, which sticks to his body.       “I’m dying… I’m about to die…”       “Calm down, buddy, it just seems to you,” Anna tries to say quietly, even though her voice is shaking. “You’re not dying. And your heart doesn’t hurt.”       “Breathe, Peter, breathe!” Natalia insists. “Look at us. Focus on our words. Hear me, don’t think of bad things! Look at us!”       “I can’t see anything…” Peter horrifies when he looks around and only sees the infinite darkness. “I can’t see anything! NOTHING! WHAT’S HAPPENING?”       “It’s okay, Peter, fear nothing,” Helene calms down, running her hand over Peter’s chest. “I’m here. Hear, my sunshine. It’s okay… It’s okay…”       “Stomach… It hurts… Freaking badly…”       Peter screaming in pain grabs his stomach with both hands and doubles over. And then he closes his mouth sharply with his hand due to the sense of nausea that is the reason why he wants to clean his stomach.       “Focus on your breath!” Edward orders, putting his hand on the shoulder of Peter swallowing the air greedily. “Try to breathe slowly and deeply. This is your main task now.”       “You are alive, mark my words!” Terrence exclaims. “You did not die! You are with us! It’s alright!”       “I don’t want to die…” Peter jabs in a high, excited voice. “I DON’T WANT TO DIE! HELP ME! I DON’T WANT TO DIE!”       “You'll not die, Peter, hear me, you will not!” Daniel exclaims determinedly, taking Peter tightly by the shoulders. “We’re here, we’ll not leave you! Whatever you do and say!”       “I’m scared…” Peter sniffs two times, sobbing constantly and still seeing nothing in front of himself but feeling that tears keep getting out of his eyes. “I’m about to go crazy… Losing control of me… I’m scared… I’m scared!”       “You’re not alone, Pete, we’re here,” Anna recalls. “We’ll help you. Just listen to us and do what we say.”       “I can’t hear anything…” Peter pronounces in a shaking voice, while the words of his friends reach him literally through the deaf wall. “I can’t see anything… NOTHING! I AM IN A TRAP!”       “Hey, look at me, look at me!” Daniel demands, shakes Peter by the shoulders, and then grabs his face tightly. “Hear me, look into my eyes! Look!”       “I can’t see anything! I can’t hear anything! Who’s here? WHERE AM I? WHO SURROUNDS ME?”       “We will not leave me, hear me! Never! We will not leave! No matter how hard you beg us to! We are here! We will always be!”       Sammy barks confidently and touches Peter’s knee with his paw, while the man keeps swallowing the air greedily, trying to grab something and still seeing nothing but the darkness. Before this moment. The memories of the day when someone did some awful things when he was seven get into his mind again. The picture is so bright, and all sounds are so clear as if twenty years have not passed by since that moment. As if it happened yesterday.       “NO-O-O-O!” Peter screams, pressing his knees sharply to his chest, while he does not literally hear or see any of his friends. “No, sir, don’t do this! No, let me go! I’ll say nothing to anyone! Just let me go! DON’T DO THIS, SIR! LEAVE ME ALONE! DON’T DO THIS!”       “Hey, hey, quiet, quiet, buddy, quiet, quiet,” Terrence says quietly, hugging Peter around the shoulders. “It’s okay, don’t be nervous. You’re with us. It’s okay.”       “HELP! PLEASE, HELP ME! I AM HERE! SOMEONE! Please, Uncle Garret, pity me… I’m hurt… I’m really hurt… Please, sir… I don’t want to die… Please, sir, leave me alone!”       “Don’t think about it, Peter, hear me, don’t think!” Edward demands loudly, shaking Peter by the shoulders. “Get all of this out of your mind! Now! Come back to reality! Wake up! Hear me?! Wake up!”       “Why did you do this to me, sir?” Peter pronounces in a shaking whisper, breathing heavily and grabbing his throat with a hand. “Why? Why does everyone treat me so terribly? WHAT DID I DO?”       “Please, Peter, wake up!” Helene begs desperately with tears, grabbing Peter’s arm and starting to shake him. “Please, come back! Come back! Wake up! Look at me! I’m here! I’m here! Please, Pete, wake up!”       “I just wanted to be happy and be loved… I need nothing more… Nothing… Nothing…”       Crying bitterly, Peter doubles over, grabs his hair painfully with his fingers, pulling it strongly, and then closes his ears tightly with both hands with a heartbreaking scream.       “Peter…” Anna literally cries. “Peter, please, don’t scare us…”       “I don’t want to die, I want to live…” Peter pronounces in a shaking voice, shaking back and forth. “I don’t want to die, I want to live… I DON’T WANT TO DIE! I WANT TO LIVE!”       “Hey, Peter, listen, listen to me!” Daniel says confidently when Peter sinks his teeth into his own hand and starts biting it painfully. “Wake up! Wake up, hear me! Come back to reality! Wake up! Focus on something else! Look at something! At your hands! Look at your hands!”       “I’ll not handle this… I will not… No…”       “The light…” Edward pronounces thoughtfully, turns on the flashlight, and starts moving it from side to side. “Focus on it! Look at the light! Look!”       But reaching out to Peter and assuring him to do just something turns out to be a hard enough mission since his widely open eyes keep looking into the distance closely, and an attack of suffocation, dizziness, and his heart working at the maximum capacity make him believe that he is about to go crazy or die.       “We’re here, brother!” Terrence exclaims. “We will not leave you, hear me! We will not leave you! You can count on us!”       “Look at us!” Natalia says. “Say, which colors are our coats? What color is our hair? Say, Peter! Look at us! Distract yourself with something!”       “I feel bad…” Peter keeps choking. “Too bad… I’m gonna pass out… I’m gonna die!”       “No, no, you will not die!” Raquelle protests. “It’s gonna be okay. Just breathe. Just breathe deeply.”       “I’m scared…” Peter grabs his stomach sharply and doubles over with a sense of burning cramps in it. “I am stuck… Stuck in me! I can’t escape… I’m dying…”       “Take my hand!” Daniel says, giving his hand to Peter. “Take it tightly! Squeeze it! Hear me! Squeeze my hand! C’mon, Peter! Squeeze it! Take my hand!”       Daniel has to tell him to do this two more times before Peter breathing heavily takes the hand that is given to him and squeezes it tightly enough.       “Great, great! Excellent! C’mon, Peter! Don’t worry, don’t worry, squeeze it as tightly as you want.”       “Squeeze my hand, too!” Helene jabs excitedly, giving her hand to Peter. “Come on, Peter, take my hand! Squeeze it as tightly as you want. C’mon, sweetie, c’mon!”       After he sniffs, Peter takes Helene’s hand with his second hand and squeezes it tightly too.       “Excellent, excellent, good job!” Helene caresses Peter’s cheek tenderly. “Okay, my sweetie…”       “Focus on us!” Daniel orders. “Look at us! At us, Peter! We’re here, buddy, we’re here!”       “How many fingers do I show you?” Anna asks, showing her index finger to Peter. “Count them! How many?”       “Two…” Peter pronounces randomly in a shaking voice, breathing heavily. “Three… Maybe…”       “Look closely! How many fingers? How many, Peter? Look at me! How many fingers?”       “I don’t know! I can’t see! I feel bad! I’m dying! I’m about to go crazy…”       “Okay, buddy, breathe, just breathe…” Anna insists, rubbing Peter’s back energetically with her hand and massaging his shoulders. “Use your nose to breathe. Pump much air into your lungs, hold your breath, and then exhale slowly. Try to count how many times you inhale and exhale.”       “C’mon, brother, you can do this, you can do this!” Daniel insists, clapping Peter on the hand with his free hand. “You’re not dying, you’re with us. And it will be gone. It will surely be gone. You just need to wait. And do what we say. You must hear us and do our orders.”       “Don’t worry, Pete, squeeze our hands as tightly as you want,” Helene says confidently. “Don’t be afraid to harm. If you feel better in this case, it’s okay.”       At this moment, Sammy whines with great pity and presses himself to the pale, shaking Peter, watching him suffer a lot with sad eyes full of anxiety.       “It’s okay, Peter, it’s okay,” Natalia says softly, caressing Peter’s shoulder. “You’re safe, nobody will hurt you.”       “You see, we’re all here,” Raquelle adds. “We’re here to help you. And remember you’re not alone now. You’ll never be alone anymore.”       “C’mon, buddy, focus on your breath!” Edward exclaims. “Let’s breathe together. Look, inhale slowly with your nose and exhale slowly with your mouth. C’mon, repeat after me.”       Edward uses like two attempts to assure Peter to start to repeat after him, and then the others join them to give him an example of what to do.       “Good job, Peter, good job, keep doing the same,” Terrence smiles cheerfully. “Do it two more times. Okay. Good job, good job! Excellent! Keep going! C’mon! Do it!”       Peter does not notice that his breath starts to slow down little by little, and his mind gets clearer, while he, however, keeps shaking strongly, and his fingers squeeze the hands of Daniel and Helene tightly enough, while they feel hurt but do not show it at all. And when he starts to get his vision back, he looks at everyone by one, seeing they watch him with a quiet glance full of anxiety.       “I’m scared…” Peter pronounces in a strongly hoarse voice and sniffs. “I will not handle this…”       “You can resist!” Daniel states determinedly. “And you will! Because we are here. We believe in you. We will not let you give up.”       “I can’t live with that… I don’t know how!”       “It’s gonna be okay, we’ll help you,” Helene assures. “This time, everything’s gonna change. You’re not alone. We’re here with you.”       In reply to this, Peter sniffs again and inclines his head slightly as he catches the air frantically with his mouth, while drops of tears roll down his pale, exhausted face. Loud, uneven sobs full of despair get out of his mouth again and again and make his chest rise, and the rest of his strength leaves his body shaking from the burning frost and tension that drives him crazy. It’s like he wants to make a scream full of pain, but he subdues this wish so hard, starting to bite his lips and twirling like a fish on the coast.       While Sammy starts whining with pity and barking quietly again, Daniel does not think a lot when he squeezes Peter in his tight, amicable hug. The blond does not try to break free and answers it shortly as if he had dreamed of it for a long time. And at some moment, he breaks into an emotional and loud cry and a convulsive shake that he cannot and does not want to stop. At this moment, he feels like a little child, not like an adult man. A little, broken child, who lost any hope of getting some love and care from someone, and stopped being invisible to everyone, or someone anyone could take it out on.       “Quiet, quiet, brother, it’s okay,” Daniel tries to calm down in a quiet and calm voice, caressing Peter’s head and back, on which he also claps slightly. “Hey, hey, I’m here, hear me. Here. I will not leave you. Never.”       Peter keeps crying bitterly, snuggling his nose in Daniel’s shoulder and squeezing his coat with his fingers. While Helene, Anna, Natalia, and Raquelle cannot hold down their tears even if they try not to cry loudly. However, it’s also hard for Daniel, Edward, and Terrence to remain indifferent. It’s possible to see how little drops of tears shine in their eyes, and they sometimes wipe them with their fingertips.       “We can get through this…” Daniel exhales with a shake and closes his eyes tightly for a second to hold down the tears he feels in them. “Together… We’ll defeat any evil spirit… Any…”       “I can’t handle it…” Peter pronounces in one breath in a low voice. “I will not! I’m too weak. I don’t wanna be alone… I don’t! I can’t!”       “You’re not alone. You’ll never be alone. I will not leave you. No matter what. Whatever happens.”       Peter squeezes Daniel much tighter in his arms, shaking much stronger after this and crying much more bitterly with no fear of seeming weak to everyone. Because he is. Weak, broken, insecure. And at some moment, the guy shakes slightly when he feels that one hand squeezes his shoulder, and another claps him on the back. He quickly understands it’s Edward and Terrence looking at their crying friend with true sadness in their eyes. A couple of short glances before the men make a group hug they start to show their support to Rose, who is so exhausted after everything that has happened today that he does not have the strength to cry bitterly and scream emotionally. Now, when the panic attack gets weakened, he gets a feeling that something sucked all his energy out to the last drop and took all his emotions: from happiness to sadness.       “Don’t leave me…” Peter begs in a whisper. “I need you… I can’t do this without you…”       “We’ll not leave you, brother,” Edward promises. “We’ve never left.”       “Please, guys… I have nobody else to count on. Yes, I'm a monster… But… I’m not a monster… I don’t wanna be the one. I don’t! It’s not me! I’m not a monster! I’m not a killer! Not a criminal!”       “Quiet, quiet, buddy, it’s okay. We’re here. We’re here.”       “Whatever happens, we can manage everything,” Terrence assures. “Anything.”       “Don’t leave me…” Peter begs. “I will die without you… It’s like I’m dying without you… I will not survive without you… This world is gonna eat me alive. People will destroy me. I won’t be able to fight them all alone! I can’t!”       “We’re here, brother, we will not leave you.”       “I don’t wanna be a monster. I’m not the one… I don’t wanna be the one… It’s not me… I’m not a monster… I’m not a monster!”       Sammy barks quietly, comes to Peter, and starts snuggling his nose in his hip, finally making him pay attention to him and caress his head. And at some moment, Terrence steps away from the men, thinks a little, and suddenly starts singing a song quietly after a flash of lightning. Hesitantly at some moments, but more confidently and louder with every line. With the thought that it can calm Rose down. Who, opening his eyes widely, stares surprisingly at MacClife, Sr., whose piercing, emotional singing gets his attention out and out.       Not thinking a lot, Edward joins him with the thought that it was not such a bad idea. Even though Anna, Natalia, Helene, and Raquelle look at each other in surprise, they decide not to meddle and just watch what’s happening, while Peter stops making sobs stop little by little. And when Daniel joins the brothers, a tired but true smile shows up on the blond’s face. And Sammy, no need to hide, cheers everyone up a little by howling quietly in some moments.       And when they stop singing the song that touched some nerves deep inside him, Edward and Terrence clap Peter inclining his head on the cheek or elbow with a cheering smile, while Daniel is holding him tightly by the shoulders. Sammy is sitting in front of the blond and watches him closely with eyes full of sadness, stopping to pay attention to flashes of lightning, claps of thunder, and heavy rain that is not going to stop.       “Hey, how are ya feeling?” Edward expresses anxiety. “Ya feel better?”       “I dunno…” Peter pronounces without emotions. “I feel nothing…”       “You’re wet and freezing,” Terrence notices. “We must come back to the house, give you dry clothes, and give you something hot to drink.”       “I don’t feel the cold, either. I feel nothing.”       “After everything that happened today, it’s not surprising,” Helene says softly, caressing Peter’s cheek. “You need to have a good rest.”       “I think… I have never… Given such a fucking fuck about everything. Really. I give a fuck about everything. Everything. It’s like someone sucked all my energy out.”       “It’s all over, bro, you’re safe now,” Anna smiles cheerfully, caressing Peter’s hand. “You did it. You did a good job.”       “Listen, guys, let’s come back to the house now,” Raquelle suggests, looking up to the sky, while Sammy whines quietly due to a very bright flash of lightning. “It’s too dark, but the weather ain’t gonna change. We’ve gotta get out of here before we all get freezing, wet, and sick.”       “Hopefully, we’ve got the place to come back to after this hurricane,” Natalia expresses hope, embracing herself with both arms. “I wish just something remains…”       “It’s really not safe to stay here,” Daniel agrees. “We’ve gotta come back home now.”       “We’ve been here for too long!” Terrence notices cheerfully. “It’s time to wrap in blankets and drink hot coffee with sweet candies.”       “I hope someone remembers the way back,” Helene replies thoughtfully.       “We have Sammy!” Edward exclaims. “His keen sense of smell can bring us to the right place quickly! Right, buddy?”       Sammy barks confidently as if he agrees.       “Oh, if not for him, we wouldn’t surely have found Peter,” Raquelle smiles shyly, yanking Sammy by the ears. “Though it was hard for him ‘cause the rain got rid of all the smells.”       “To be honest, I can’t remember how I ended up here,” Peter confesses without emotions, looking at his shaking hands. “And… Actually… I don’t remember anything from what has happened over the past two or three hours.”       “The most important thing is that we found you,” Helene smiles shyly, caressing Peter’s cheeks with both hands. “We almost went crazy at the thought that we wouldn’t do it.”       “Sorry… I’m really very sorry about it…”       “Hey, alright, folks, stop sitting here!” Terrence takes a word confidently. “Get up here and leave! We’re all wet to the bones and shaking as strongly as rabbits! We gave a damn about hoods and are now walking here with wet heads.”       “Yes, yes, get up, everyone!” Daniel agrees. “C’mon, c’mon, girls, men! Let’s go!”       “Damn, we didn’t think about taking something warm for the blond at all!” Anna swears, rubbing energetically Peter’s ice skin on his forearm covered with goosebumps. “Pete is freezing and in a sleeveless shirt! And he’s wet! And he’s been outside like this for nobody knows how long!”       “Since you didn’t take, we’ll give him ours!”       Daniel unzips his coat without any hesitation, takes it off, and helps Peter put it on, while Helene puts a hood on the blond’s head. Meanwhile, Anna finds an unused raincoat in the backpack and gives it to her boyfriend, who opens the package and puts it on, being happy that it can at least cover him from the rain. Not the coldness, huh.       “Alright, guys, let’s get out!” Daniel orders. “Get up, everyone! Get up! Boys, girls! Sammy, you’ll show us the way!”       Sammy barks two times and waits patiently for Edward and Terrence to help Anna, Natalia, Raquelle, and Helene get up on their feet, and Daniel helps Peter, whom he grabs tightly when the blond’s legs bend sharply from a strong weakness. Terrence comes to help him, grabbing his friend from the other side and putting his arm around his neck. Meanwhile, Natalia and Raquelle take Edward under their arms, and Anna and Helene try to warm themselves up in a hug of each other and decide to move forward when the dog starts leading everyone after himself confidently enough, knowing surely where to go thanks to the familiar smells that he still feels in the air, despite the heavy rain.       “Quick, guys, follow him!” Helene makes a calling gesture.       “C’mon, Sammy, don’t let us down!” Anna exclaims. “We’re counting on you!”       The way back turns out not to be easier than the way here since it’s much darker outside, the heavy rain keeps getting into the face, and everyone has absolutely forgotten how they reached this place. However, while Sammy leads them after himself, making them get through the bushes, overcome deep pools, and get into the dirt, they call the memories of them being at these places. Lighting up the way with flashlights and their phones, the friends make this mission much easier and can see where they go more easily. Bright lightnings are still seen in the sky, the strong gusts of the wind, and the heavy rain waters their clothes that get heavier and stick to the body.       After what happened, they look exhausted and empty. Every single step is hard for them. They do not have the strength to try to make the atmosphere less tense with a joke or just to say something like, ‘Uh’. Nobody complains, however. Everyone keeps following Sammy, who does not look cheerful and starts to spend several seconds reflecting on where to go at some moment. Peter keeps silent too, as he barely moves and looks into the distance with dead eyes. No thoughts, no emotions. He just wants to lie somewhere motionless like a bag of something heavy. He does not care about the coldness, he does not hear the sounds around him, and does not notice the fact that he is wearing all wet clothes. He does not care that Terrence and Daniel are holding him tightly from both sides and taking him after themselves as they see clearly that he has no energy to move on his own, while his arms are wrapped around their necks. At some moment, the men try to say something cheerful to him, but sadly, the blond does not react to this and just lets them take him in the right direction.       They get rid of any tiredness when lightning hits the tree placed several meters away from them. It almost hits Sammy that stops and steps back with a warning bark in time. Shouting in fear and jumping back, everyone fastens a step, wishing to get out of this place as soon as possible and come back to the house where they can finally warm up, put on dry clothes, and drink something hot. And they feel anxious when the dog gets lost several times and cannot understand where to go, looking closely at everything that surrounds him and trying to catch familiar smells in the air. The friends encourage him again and again and beg him not to stop and to keep moving on, but he always finds the right way to the house magically.       So, after a long and exhausting way through the thick woods, during which someone falls or keeps the balance with the help of the others, all of them finally end up at the place where there are two roads: one of them leads to the neighborhood with houses, and another lets people leave this place and go to the city. Slight but tired smiles show up on their faces when they fasten a step a little more, literally making themselves pass the last several meters to reach their goal. After barely looking around, the friends notice that all the nearest houses suffered a lot due to the destructive hurricane that is not even going to end. Broken signs, wooden pieces, trees, several street lamps, and a piece of the gate are lying everywhere, and some cars have their glass broken and their roofs pushed through.       When they only have to pass a little before the goal, they all almost get struck down by the powerful gusts of the wind and get pushed two meters away. Nevertheless, the friends, biting the bullet, challenge the weather and fight the one furiously. Someone even manages to see someone’s faces in random windows with the thought that these people are definitely horrified, as someone is really walking outside when the real chaos is happening there. Doing their best, everyone manages to come to the gate of the necessary house. Terrence has to lead Peter all alone because Daniel closes the gates after everyone enters the territory of his home, opens the hall door with the keys, lets his friends in, closes it by force, showing a furious resistance to the hurricane wind, and switches the light on in the living room where there was absolute darkness.       “Oh, God, finally!” Natalia moans tiredly, running her fingers through her wet hair. “Did we really come back here?”       “Oh, my clothes are so wet now…” Edward complains, trying to unstick his wet clothes. “And I’m freezing as fuck…”       “Hey, everyone, change your clothes now!” Daniel orders. “Take your wet clothes off and put on dry ones! All of you! Men, girls! Now!”       “C’mon, c’mon, guys, go to the up, everyone!” Anna jabs. “I will not give you two baskets, in which you should put all your wet clothes. And don’t forget to clean all the pockets!”       “Wipe yourself with towels and dry everything you can with a hairdryer!” Raquelle exclaims. “And don’t forget Sammy! He's wet as hell and freezing, too! Look at how he’s shaking!”       When Anna brings two big baskets and takes a bunch of clean towels, everyone goes up to the second floor. When they get one basket and dry clothes she and Daniel take from the dressing room, the men go to one room, and the girls go to another room. Everyone helps each other take off the wet clothes and shows, wipe everything with towels, dry something with a hairdryer, and put on something fresh. After putting on soft, warm hoodies that are one or two sizes bigger, wide pants, and wool socks, all of them get better to some extent.       When all the dirty and wet clothes are in the baskets, Anna carries them to the first floor, puts some of them in the washing machine, and presses buttons several times to run it. Then she, Raquelle, Helene, and Natalia start making hot drinks for everyone in this house. They also do not forget Sammy, whom the friends wipe well with towels and dry with a hairdryer since he is wet to the bones too. Also, they wash his paws well since he dirtied them after walking in the woods. Then they decide to give the dog warm, fresh water that he starts drinking super fast as if he has been suffering from a thirst for a long time.       This time, Edward, Daniel, and Terrence do not make the same mistake and do not leave Peter alone, and are sitting with him in one of the rooms. They do not even have to persuade him to do something because he does what they say without minding, even though he prefers to be silent and look into the distance for most of the time, showing no emotions, and still looking pale and super exhausted. Nevertheless, it does not make sense to deny that he comes to himself a little after his friends dry his hair with a hairdryer, put him in the bed, cover him with one blanket, and put another on his shoulders, seeing how strongly he is shaking and how icy his skin, which looks kind of blue now is. He also feels much better in dry clothes than in wet and heavy ones. And it’s also nice for him to get care and feel the true anxiety of his friends.       “Hey, are you okay?” Terrence expresses anxiety, keeping his hand on Peter’s shoulder, as he is sitting on the bed in front of him. “You feel better now?”       “Feel like a squeezed lemon…” Peter replies quietly in a low voice, pulling the blanket much more on himself and squeezing it with his fingers. “I have no strength at all…”       “If you said you had them after everything that happened today, I wouldn’t believe you, definitely,” Daniel says, installing himself comfortably on the bed along with Edward and Terrence.       “I guess you feel fucking bad too?”       “Much better than you, buddy,” Edward flashes a slight smile. “Much better.”       “I’m really very sorry about what happened today. Because of everything that has lately happened. I’m sorry about giving you so much trouble.”       “We can’t deny that we’re fucking tired. And we’ve regretted getting in touch with you one hundred times.”       “I get it… I am really very sorry…”       “Fuck it, buddy, it’s okay!” Daniel encourages. “Let’s live as if nothing happened.”       “We hardly will. We’ve still got a bad feeling.”       “We do. But we also completely understand you.”       “Yeah, Pete, don’t worry, please,” Terrence adds. “We promise we will never reproach you for what you did.”       “I know I acted like…” Peter swallows nervously. “I don’t even know what word to choose. Worse than… Just a fucking bastard.”       “We are not all perfect,” Daniel smiles shyly. “We all made mistakes.”       “But I probably outstood all of you. You’re some saints next to me.”       “You know, buddy, if I lived the same shitty life as yours, I would behave in the same way,” Edward says confidently.       “And it’s actually a miracle that you held on for so long and didn’t turn into a bastard,” Terrence adds. “You didn’t take after, let’s assume, your father.”       “Not quite…” Peter pronounces hesitantly. “At some moment, I began to hate this world and blame it for all my problems. At first, I was wondering why it was happening to me and tried so hard to be good for everyone. But when I realized that people gave a fuck and continued to shower me with mud, I thought it didn’t make sense. My hatred was growing. A wish for revenge was getting stronger. I was losing more and more of my good side.”       “And what stopped you?” Daniel specifies.       “Cowardice. I did nothing out of fear. I was afraid to stand against someone who was much stronger than I was. And if something had happened, I would’ve had to run into the consequences. I didn’t have protectors. Nobody would’ve covered me. So, it happened that my revenge didn’t come true. I didn’t fulfil my greatest wish. Though I was fucking dying of the great wish to bring it to an end. The wish to make someone suffer as much as me.”       “We get it,” Terrence nods. “It was something like a sense of dissatisfaction.”       “Right. And it was driving me crazy. And after all these mockeries, my trust in people was gone forever. I started to see a threat in every person. I expected something bad from any person.”       “And did you decide that you’d rather attack first with the hope that you’ll hide your fear?” Daniel asks.       “On the one hand, I felt much more confident when I snapped. But on the contrary… I suffered from a sense of guilt fucking badly. I did understand that someone wasn’t guilty deep inside. I knew I hurt them. But I could do nothing for myself. I couldn’t stop.”       “I get it…” Edward pronounces thoughtfully. “It’s hard to trust someone after someone mocks you for years.”       “Since my early age. They disliked me from an early age. I was like a thorn in the side for them. Children and adults despised and hated me. Nobody wanted to let me into their company. Everyone gave a fuck about my feelings and emotions. My complaints. And everyone didn’t care about all the bad things others did toward me. I was a child, but I already had to take care of myself. By myself… I could barely talk and walk, but I was forced to do my best not to die of hunger and cold.       “Don’t forget about which neighborhood you lived in!” Terrence exclaims. “There were only drug addicts, alcoholics, thieves, and other shit! Adult people fell into the hole and stayed there, but their children took confidently after them, seeing not the best example and understanding that nobody is going to punish them for terrible actions.”       “That’s right! Crimes always happened there! Stinkers worked in the police, and they didn’t even care about what was happening. Thefts, abductions, murders, riots, violence – yes, they know about everything, but they didn’t rush to investigate anything.”       “Yeah, and they decided to give the child to the alcoholic, who lived in such terrible conditions and drank as fuck!” Daniel resents. “Couldn’t they find someone better, huh?”       “I don’t even know if it would’ve been better if they’d sold me to someone abroad, just like my father wanted.”       “I don’t think so. They could’ve sold you to a much worse bastard. A leader of a sect or a forbidden organization. They would’ve washed your brain and forced you to commit crimes. And if something had gone wrong, you would’ve experienced something much worse than you experienced because of those motherfuckers you lived among.”       “In short, from whichever side you look, you can always see I am destined to suffer and be a punching bag for everyone all my life,” Peter sighs tiredly, moving his sad eyes aside.       “It’s really awful, but everything is over now,” Edward notices. “All those fucking bastards stayed in the past now. But if you meet someone else, you’ll no longer have to fight them all alone.”       “Everything’s over, but the deep wound hasn’t healed. As well as all the small ones around the one. They’re still bleeding. They’ve never stopped.”       “You can count on us,” Terrence assures. “Just let us know how to help you so that we can do it.”       “What can you do?”       Peter wraps himself much tighter in the warm blanket with a tired sigh, pressing his knees to his chest.       “What can you do when everything has happened? When adult and children showed their disgusting attitude I did not deserve back then. When I was a child, I never did anything bad. No matter how hard they hurt me.”       “Maybe you can feel better if you speak out?” Edward assumes. “If you say everything you’ve kept inside for more than twenty years? What’s been asking you to release it and poisoning you for so long?”       “Speak out?” Peter asks without emotions.       “Nobody makes you speak if you don’t want to,” Daniel replies. “If you don’t wanna remember some things, don’t do. But if there’s something different, we’ll be happy to listen.”       “No… I think… I should really speak out… Tell you everything, without a censor.”       “If it’s hard for you to speak, you can express your feelings differently,” Terrence suggests. “With creativity, for example. With music. You can express all your pain and share it with everyone.”       “Yeah, but I can’t directly write a song about me being raped by a man when I was a child.”       “Right,” Edward agrees. “But many artists address delicate things in their tracks and sing about what they care about much more. And people love them much more than banal songs of unhappy love.”       “Maybe I will decide to write a song about it someday. Tell about how people’s cruelty killed my trust in people. How my cowardice didn’t let me finish my transformation to a heartless bastard.”       “Think about it, if it were easy for you to express your pain and do it,” Terrence advises. “And we’re ready to help you with it.”       “Now I just wanna talk about everything openly. Yes, it’s gonna be unpleasant. Yes, I’m gonna be scared. But I have to. I have to say everything I didn’t say before.”       “We remind you that nobody makes you do it,” Edward says confidently.       “I want it. I wanna talk about it openly. I don’t have the strength to keep this pain inside anymore. I have no strength to deny everything and pretend that it didn’t happen to me. I want to deal with this once and forever. Though I’m gonna warn you that you won’t like many things you’re gonna hear now,”       “We respect your decision,” Daniel replies. “Say everything you think you should say. And if some words or actions become a trigger, let us know shortly.”       “Thanks for the understanding.”       While Peter falls into silence, inclines his head, and sets his tired, red eyes into the distance, the door opens quietly, and Sammy whining quietly enters the room. The dog comes to the blond being covered with a blanket and leaning on the headboard with his back, jumps on the bed, and presses himself closely to the guy, who caresses his head with sadness in his eyes.       “Sammy, who let you jump on the bed?” Terrence resents. “Get off here now!”       “C’mon, it’s okay!” Daniel waves his hand. “I’ll change the bedclothes later.”       “Wow, the girls washed his paws already,” Edward notices, taking carefully one of Sammy’s paws and noticing that it’s very clean. “They were all in dirt before.”       “Sammy is such a good boy!” Daniel runs his hand over Sammy’s back a couple of times and claps him slightly on the stomach. “Even if he was scared, he went to look for the blond anyway. He put himself together and went toward the disaster.”       “He’s afraid of lightning and thunder to death,” Peter confesses. “He always hides under a closet or a bed if something happens outside. Or just presses himself to someone.”       Sammy barks quietly to confirm it and moves his sad eyes to Peter, who yanks him softly by the ears, even if there is no little hint of a smile on his face. A little time goes by before Helene, Anna, Natalia, and Raquelle enter the room, holding trays with several cups of hot tea they just made for everyone.       “Hey, guys, drink something hot now!” Anna exclaims. “We made a cup of sweet tea for everyone.”       “C'mon, c’mon, take it!” Raquelle exclaims.       “Pete, we have the biggest cup for you!” Helene adds. “You must drink it all first of all. To the last drop.”       “Watch out, it’s hot,” Natalia warns.       With these words, the girls give all the cups carefully to Edward, Daniel, Terrence, and Peter, who accept them willingly. Then they take the other cups for themselves and install themselves comfortably on the bed in front of Rose, while Helene fixes the blanket slightly on their shoulders.       “Drink it, sweetie, drink, warm up,” Helene pronounces softly. “You will warm up now. In this hoodie, under such a warm blanket…”       “I turned on the heater in the room,” Daniel says. “We’re all freezing here… My hands are as icy as hell.”       “Alright, folks, you can relax and calm down,” Terrence says confidently. “Everyone’s safe and sound, and we’re in the house now.”       “Yeah, we can stop fretting now,” Raquelle replies thoughtfully.       “Uh-huh, we will do it when we have to get rid of the consequences of the hurricane,” Helene adds.       “Oh, we will deal with it later!” Daniel waves his hand. “Doing something doesn’t make sense now. Because the hurricane isn’t gonna stop, definitely.”       “Nah, it’s fine!” Edward exclaims. “We can spend time together. We haven't come together for ages.”       “Too bad the events that let it happen are not so nice,” Anna sighs tiredly.       “I’m sorry, guys…” Peter apologizes quietly with sadness in his eyes. “It’s all my fault… I shouldn’t have left the house… An idiot could see that something was about to happen. Judging by how it was hot outside, and then getting darker and darker.”       “We didn’t watch you enough…” Helene says guiltily. “The girls and I were so busy talking that we didn’t think of you immediately.”       “Yes, buddy, forgive us, please,” Natalia says with pity in her eyes. “We’re sorry about not watching you enough.”       “No, girls, it’s me who should apologize,” Peter shakes his head, drinking tea carefully from the cup and warming his hands up with it. “For all my stupid things. For all my crazy actions.”       “How do you feel now?” Raquelle expresses anxiety. “Do you feel a little better?”       “I think I obviously feel like five percent better. But I actually feel too exhausted. I have no strength to do anything. And… I’m just starting to realize that I’m freaking freezing.”       “It’s okay, you’ll warm up now,” Anna assures. “Don’t fret. You’re gonna have to stay here until tomorrow.”       “Hey, don’t burn your hands!” Daniel warns and blows on his fingers after burning them slightly with the cup with a hot drink. “Tea is freaking hot!”       “My fingers are so numb that I can easily hold this hot cup in my hands,” Peter confesses. “And I don’t feel it’s burning.”       “That’s why you shouldn't do it,” Helene replies. “Drink slowly, with little sips. Or you’re gonna burn your throat at all.”       Sammy whines with pity again, still pressing himself to Peter, who drinks hot tea carefully along with the others. Even if Helene sees that the dog is lying on the bed without permission, she decides to ignore this fact and closes her eyes to it. Claps of thunder break the silence that settles in the air for some time, and everyone tenses a little when the light in the room is about to turn off or informs them about a power surge in advance.       “It’s been twenty years, but it seems that it happened yesterday,” Peter breaks the silence in a low, quiet voice, looking into the distance with dead eyes. “It’s like I experienced the most awful minutes in my life, was kicked out like an unnecessary puppy, and walked outside in ripped clothes with naked feet yesterday.”       “Peter, sweetie…” Helene pronounces with pity in her eyes, putting her cup on the table near the bed and caressing Peter’s shoulder.       “Still can’t believe I’ve become one of them… One of the victims, who is forced to think they’re guilty of it. Guilty of provoking. Asking for trouble. Though it sounds so absurd…. I am a man… And I was a child. How could I provoke someone? I didn’t even know what it was!”       “Did you know the man who did that to you?” Terrence asks carefully.       “I didn’t know him personally before that day. Garret Vernon, it’s his name. He lived in a further neighborhood, but he often walked in my place. At first sight, he was a harmless man: he worked, got along with everyone, and fought nobody. He was never married, but I knew his son, who moved to the city sometimes, visited him.       “And what was he doing in the place you lived?” Daniel asks. “He had some relatives there?”       “Nope… He had nobody there. He went there to watch the children. Every time I saw him, Garret always smoked and watched children play with each other, run, play the fool… He watched them go somewhere. And… I always felt uncomfortable at the way he looked at them. Very… Weirdly…”       “But why did you come with him since you saw it all and felt that he was bad?” Raquelle wonders.       “I was horrified by my conflict with my mother. She drank too much and started a real chaos at home. She destroyed half of the house and attacked me. She insulted and humiliated me with words at first, but then she started to attack me with fists. She even grabbed a knife at some moment. I begged her to stop, screamed, and cried, but she didn’t hear me. And when she grabbed something heavy and wanted to hit me on the head, I escaped home in horror. I was running easily where my eyes looked. My mother ran after me for some time, but then gave up. But I was running, running… Until I ended up in the neighborhood where Garret lived. In the neighborhood I didn’t know at all. The one I didn’t know how to leave.”       “And he saw you and came to you when he saw you were alone and got lost?” Natalia specifies.       “Yup… He asked what I was doing outside all alone. Like… There was a heavy downpour and lightning, but I was running… I said I got lost and didn’t know a way home. And he told me. But when I wanted to leave, he started to invite me to his home. Like, he had kittens there. Like, I could look at them if I wanted. And I… I agreed…”       “I think he knew you one hundred percent since he walked in your places often,” Edward assumes.       “He did. Garret said he often saw me and watched me with interest when he caught me with his eyes. And I caught his glance at me many times. The glances that made the cold run over my back and made me hold my breath. From horror I couldn’t explain before the day he broke me morally.”       “So, did nobody know about his unhealthy tendencies?” Anna horrifies.       “Nobody. For them, he was a sweet and innocent man who wouldn’t hurt a fly. Though they said he took grass or something like that when he was young. And when I tried to blame him for what he did to me, nobody believed me. Because I was a stupid child, but he was an adult man. So good, so kind. Adult people defended him so hard, but Garret himself pretended that he was shocked by my charges. My attempts to slander him. I wanted to get the protection from someone, but I was eventually found guilty. And they made me apologize to that man on my knees. Apologize to the one who rapped me.”       “Did nobody believe you at all?” Helene opens her eyes widely.       “At all. My mother, my neighbors, other children… They attacked me much harder when I stated that Garret looked weirdly at other children. He went to us on purpose, sat down, and spent hours watching children and teenagers. And on the day when I ended up at his home and looked around, I saw a bunch of cassettes and discs in transparent boxes. As it turned out, it was something forbidden. There were… Children… The same age as mine back then… And he once forced me to watch all of this. And he felt… Good. So to say… Garret was obsessed with these disgusting things…”       “Sick bastard!”       “I tried to tell everyone that they should’ve been afraid of him. Tell them which cassettes he had at home. But they didn’t believe me. I was told to shut up and not to shame my mother and me. And stop slandering the older man, whom I must’ve respected. And later, my mother gave me claims because she was blamed for educating me badly. Like, she was told she must have kicked me much more with a belt. She said she experienced the worst shame in her life. Because of me. Though it was another drunk show of hers. She gave a fuck about educating me shortly after I managed to get out of bed and use a pot for the first time.”       “Gosh, sometimes I'm shocked by how cruel people can be,” Raquelle sighs heavily. “How could they treat the little child, who was unprotected in front of the world, like this?”       “After that case, I already stopped being good for everyone. I didn’t try to make everyone like me on purpose. Because nobody valued it. I got a demon inside me. And the more they mocked, the stronger it was getting. The tighter it was squeezing my throat.”       “Did you see that man after that case?” Edward asks.       “I did. Since I decided to tell everything immediately and ask adult people for protection, he was really furious when I met him for the first time after that case. Garret looked like he would really make good on his threat of killing me and burying me in the woods if I said something to someone. But it did not happen. I guess he was afraid that people would believe me. Instead, he was pretending to be an innocent angel, wondering why I treated him like this. And until this topic was closed, and I was humiliated and made guilty, he didn’t touch me at all.”       “And then?”       “Then I met him several times. He caught me somewhere and mocked me all the time. Strangling, beating, threatening… And there were a couple of cases when Garret even came to him from behind, closed my mouth with a hand, dragged me with him, and brought me to his home, and… Did what he had done before again… Beating me painfully with a belt, hands, and feet. Made me watch the cassettes I told you about. And when he got sick of it, he kicked me out of the home, and I went home literally in the buff again. Humiliated, broken, asking myself why everyone threatened me so badly.”       “I dunno what to say…” Daniel pronounces with horror in widely open eyes. “I just don’t know!”       “After all of that, I could spend hours crying my eyes out. I started to be afraid of any stranger. I started to be afraid of anyone standing in my way. Especially men. When I saw them, I aimed to hide from them. I was so scared that I stopped greeting everyone and ran by my neighbors, who quickly pronounced me an insolent and uneducated person. Again and again, I recalled what Garret did to me. He started to come to me in my nightmares, which made me wake up with cold sweat. It was all driving me crazy. I wanted to live less and less every day. I… I understood I couldn’t handle all of that. I was too weak, unprotected, and lonely. I had nobody to count on… I was alone in this cruel world. I had nobody…”       Sammy barks quietly and whines with pity, while Peter squeezes the cup in his hands much tighter.       “But one day… The memories were gone. Instantly. I woke up one day and realized that… I remembered nothing. I couldn’t remember what happened. Why I felt so bad. My body kinda kept remembering something. Why I suffered from severe pain in my stomach. Everything squeezed inside. And my head was empty. I… I was confused. I was still frightened, but I didn’t understand why. I didn’t understand how to express my pain. How to explain my condition. It… It was so weird… So scaring… I… I surely know something happened to me, but… I didn’t know what.”       “Which means it was the moment when your psyche blocked those memories to protect you,” Helene concludes.       “I guess so… Though I didn’t feel better, huh. They kept mocking me. My mother didn’t love me, adult people despised me, and children were cruel… Even stray dogs ignored me. There was nobody by my side. Though I wanted to complain to someone so badly. The only person I could complain to was me. So… At some moment, I started to imagine myself next to me. Myself being more confident, more determined, and stronger. I created a friend… The friend, with whom I talked about everything for hours. Whom I named… Theodore…”       “Why was it Theodore?” Terrence frowns slightly. “Did you… You knew it was your birth name?”       “Nope, I didn’t. But I often heard this name from my mother. She often mentioned a certain Theodore. And when I tried to find out who it was, she refused to answer. Well, Cornelia stated it wasn’t my real name when she drank a couple of times again. Like, I’m not Peter at all. And… Why did I name my imaginary friend Theodore? Because I didn’t associate this name with anything. I associated it with nothing! All the names I’d heard were connected with people who hated and humiliated me. So, I started to call my friend Theo… Theodore…”       “We get it…” Edward nods.       “At first, Theodore was just near and said nothing. Just listened. And then he started to answer me. Mention everything I had on my mind, but everything I was afraid to admit to myself. He spoke about all my secret desires aloud. About how I wanted to take revenge on everyone for my suffering. There were cases when I was humiliated, but Theo provoked me to do something bad to them. But I was afraid. I was afraid to get in touch with them. I was afraid to make people, who reproached me for something I couldn’t remember, much more furious.”       “Does it mean Theodore…” Daniel pronounces thoughtfully. “Wasn’t your hallucination? Was it just an imaginary friend?”       “Who was the reason why I didn’t go crazy and managed to survive in this world somehow. I felt a little better after talking to Theodore and complaining to him about the injustice of this world. When he encouraged me and tried to assure me that I could be strong. But… Even though he was my friend, Theo acted like an enemy at times. He said dirty things about people, provoked me to criminal actions, and assured me that this world deserved my revenge. I mustn’t have shown mercy and sympathy. However… I didn’t care… The important thing was that I had at least someone to hear me. Someone didn’t care about my feelings as fuck. Who hugged me tight when there was nobody around. Theo didn’t just live in my mind. I considered him a person who really existed. My lost twin, who understood me like nobody else.”       “Did someone know you were talking to an imaginary friend?” Natalia asks.       “Almost everyone! I was caught talking, as they thought, to myself many times. They thought I was going crazy. That I must’ve been put in a mental clinic. Like, it’s not okay to look aside, say something, laugh, and embrace something that doesn’t exist. They devalued my feelings and needs again. They made me a weirdo again. I guess you noticed me doing something like this, too. I don’t doubt it.”       “We did,” Daniel nods.       “That’s why I started to withdraw into myself more and more and… I spent all my time with Theodore. Who, sadly, couldn’t protect me when I met my bullies. He only told me to hit one, push another, or say something to a third one… And it never led to anything good.”       “In this situation, you only had to create your own little world and hide in it along with your imaginary friend, who would always listen and comfort,” Anna shrugs. “Who wouldn’t leave, saying, ‘Get off, I don’t have time for you!’”       “I would say Theodore is the reason why I… Not exactly I accepted it… Likely, I learned not to pay attention to the signs my body gave me. Not to ask myself why I stopped trusting people, started to be afraid of men, and created an imaginary friend. Of course, my life didn’t get better, but… I did have some strength to live and get through all that hell.”       Peter takes a sip from his cup.       “But then they started to rape me again. In my teenage years. I was fourteen when a group of motherfuckers from my school caught me somewhere outside, knocked me out with a hit on the head, drove me out of the city, and tied me up to a tree. They mocked me for a long time before one of them took his pants down and… Did the same thing as Garret. In parallel, the others joined him. The boys and the girls. They fucked me all together. At the same time. I screamed, begged, and tried to break free. But it was worthless. My hands were tied up, and they were kinda deaf. Pain in my stomach that I always chalked up to expired food came back to me and tortured me much more strongly. There weren’t any prerequisites, but I was literally twirling from how bad I felt.”       Peter glances briefly to the window when a deafening clap of thunder is heard outside.       “And when everything ended… They made me say nothing and threatened to kill me if I said just one word. And that time, I said nothing. I realized it was worthless. I thought nobody would believe me anyway. Everyone would make me a victim again. So, those cads got away with it after this case of rape. Just like all the others that happened after. When the entire school knew what had happened, a long queue formed in front of me. Everyone wanted to hurt me. They all fucked me like… Like a fucking prostitute…”       My God, it’s awful…” Helene closes her mouth with a hand as she keeps her eyes widely open.       “After that, I was disappointed in this world and made myself think that there were no good people and there would never be any. Along with my mistrust of people, my wish to take revenge and harm someone back was growing. But cowardice didn’t let me do it again. That’s why I… Kinda punished myself by leaving deep scars on my hands and finding other ways to harm myself. Even if I wanted to kill all those assholes, I didn’t have the courage. My head kinda worked. I understood that I’d run into terrible consequences after all of that. Nobody would stand by my side. Nobody would stand up for me and talk to someone. I’d go to prison if I did just one little thing. But I didn’t wanna go there. I knew there were even worse bastards in jail than in that neighborhood.”       Sammy barks with pity at this moment.       “My own powerlessness made me mad. I was mad that I could do nothing, while those assholes did what they wanted. They pinned photos of me being fucked in all the holes in the entire school. They gave a cassette with a video that dirtied my name from hand to hand, and everyone made tons of copies. And since the Internet was developing actively back then, they probably leaked these ‘masterpieces’ on a porno site where some perverts laughed at me, dreaming of fucking me in the same way.”       “Sorry about a very delicate question, buddy, but did you feel when you had sex for the first time with that gal from your school?” Daniel asks carefully. “Well, the one… Who humiliated you by saying she just bet you with someone.”       “You want to know what really happened?”       “If you think we need to…”       “That girl took me to bed by force, too. One day, she invited me to her home and offered me a drink. It was alcohol, in which, as it turned out, she added something. I realized it when I started to feel dizzy at some moment. Kristina pretended that nothing had happened and kept talking about the beloved herself. She drank too, but looked normal enough. While I was getting worse and worse every second. And when I understood that something was wrong, I tried to leave. She didn’t stop me, but I could not leave. I fell on the floor and tried to resist my condition for some time, but that girl helped me get up and led me to the bedroom, saying I should’ve had some rest. I felt too bad, but I remember that she lay me on the bed and started to undress herself. And I passed out when Kristina was already naked. And… I woke up the next morning only… Absolutely naked, with a strong headache, next to the same naked girl. Who was snoring as loud as a train. And I am not kidding now.”       “Whoa…” Terrence pronounces surprisingly.       “When I asked her what happened to me, she didn’t confess that she added some shit to my drink. But she talked a lot about how good we felt. About how she fell asleep with an excellent feeling when everything happened between us. While my eyes were about to pop out of my head, and my mind was twisted. And I could barely creep and realize something for two or three more days. But on the day when she humiliated me publicly, that girl took her words back, saying I was absolutely worthless at sex, and she did not get an orgasm. She said I couldn’t give her pleasure even after she added a strong drug to my drink. She was freaking disappointed by sex with me and the size of my penis. Oh… In short, she showered me with mud from head to feet.”       “My God…” Natalia horrifies.       “I didn’t just feel humiliated and dirty. I was freaking furious on that day. So furious that I wanted to kill someone. And I got much madder when I was fucked again. When I was forced to feel dirty. After that, I was just walking in the city where I looked. I was close to the center of the city when I saw two overdressed gals who were walking and talking about a certain man, who couldn’t satisfy one of them. But then they said goodbye to each other and went on different roads, but I decided to watch the one who wasn’t satisfied. I waited for the moment, crept to her from behind, closed her mouth, and… I dragged her to an alley. Where I fucked her… Without thinking… As hard as I could…”       “Did you…” Helene barely tries to say as she chokes. “You raped her?”       “I did,” Peter confirms hesitantly and takes a sip from his cup. “I didn’t let her go until I did my business, no matter how hard she shouted, begged for help, and begged me to let her go. And then I threatened that… I’d kill her… If she… Told someone about it. And… I kept walking… Feeling pretty good, I must confess.”       “Oh, shit…” Daniel swears.       “Oh, fuck, man!” Edward surprises. “I didn’t expect it from you…”       “I didn’t expect, either,” Peter replies without emotions. “When I saw those girls, I couldn’t get rid of the wish to take it out on them. I wanted to fuck someone as cruelly as everyone fucked me. I was sick of punishing myself. I wanted to punish someone freaking badly. Even if they were guilty of nothing for me.”       “Do you understand you ruined the life of that girl?” Terrence asks. “Overdressed or not, but she was guilty of nothing.”       “Hm, do you think I stopped after that?” Peter chuckles quietly. “Not at all! Since I madly loved the feeling when you dominate someone to be weak, I started to look for a new victim the next day. And luck was by my side when I met another bitch, who was walking in a short skirt at a perfect place where I fucked her quietly.”       “My God, Peter…” Raquelle shakes her head with horror in her eyes.       “Not gonna hide, many girls became victims of mine. I caught and raped any bitch that stood in my way. And I got pleasure from it. The pleasure from not being the one to beg for mercy but hearing someone ask me about it. It was the main reason why I kept ruining girls’ lives, not regretting it at all.”       “And weren’t you afraid that someone would catch you?” Anna horrifies. “Weren’t you afraid that one of those girls could report you to the police?”       “To my luck, the first didn’t do anything. Even if it was evening time, she could see my face, and I could see hers. But I got ready for the second time and made sure nobody would recognize me when I bought a mask that covered my whole face. I didn’t almost show up in popular places and chose those who walked in desert ones. I sometimes knocked my victims out to carry them quietly to a much better place. Oh…” Peter exhales sharply. “In short, I was a certain young criminal. Who hasn’t been caught by anyone.”       “Oh, fuck, Rose…” Daniel shakes his head with widely open eyes. “I don’t… I don’t know what to say!”       “At these moments, I felt happy. Not like a piece of shit. Because I controlled the situation. They begged me to pity them. Begged me to let them go. All these girls… And boys, no need to hide… They all inclined their heads for me. They were all lying at my feet. Dirty, humiliated, broken… I wanted to see them like this. They all wanted to see me like this. Boys were actually beaten cruelly. I beat them until they fell powerlessly to the ground. And then I left them there. So, it happened that… I was a punching bag during the daytime, but my time came at night. As they say, ready or not, I’m coming for you.”       “You’re starting to scare me a lot, man…”       “Theodore always encouraged me at these moments. We sat together and spent much time talking about how those people inclined their heads for me, stood on their knees in front of me, and sucked on me. Or about me bending them over and fucking them as cruelly as possible. How furiously I dirtied my hands in blood, beating the faces of some pathetic bastards, who tried to snap but were powerless for my power.”       “You did step on your father’s path, after all!” Edward exhales loudly. “You became a criminal, too. The criminal who gave people pain.”       “I wasn’t ashamed at all. I needed it. Because I was sick of handling all those attacks and feeling like a piece of shit. A whore who was fucked by everyone. My body shook at just one thought that something terrible would happen at any time. It kept telling me that these feelings were familiar to me. But I still didn’t understand what was happening to me. Why I had hysteria at just one thought about sex. Why I screamed like a victim. Why I choked. Why I had a severe pain in the bottom of my stomach permanently.”       “On the one hand, we can understand you,” Terrence says thoughtfully. “But on the other hand, I cannot accept it at all.”       “I warned that you wouldn’t like this.”       “My gosh, and how many people’s lives did you ruin like this?” Helene asks tensely.       “There were many of them. Too many. Not as much as Marcus killed, of course. But I raped many enough people. I didn’t memorize them a lot – I only remember the first ones briefly. But they were dressed too provocatively and spoke in a very disgusting voice or mocked someone to be weak. Someone who could not answer them back as well as I could not answer those who chose me as their victim.”       “And how long did you keep doing all of this?” Daniel specifies.       “Long. Very long. I kept doing this even when you and I met.”       “What? When you and I met?”       “I recently told you and the men that I somehow slept with Marty. So, it didn’t actually happen by mutual consent.”       “Did you… Rape her too?”       “Uh-huh,” Peter nods hesitantly. “At some moment, I was fucking sick of her mocking me constantly, laughing, and making me her punching bag. In short, I lost my patience, locked the door of the room in my apartment where she came on that day to give me a message from Albert, and attacked that girl. I closed her mouth with my hand, put something sharp against her throat I found near me, and threatened to kill her if she made a squeak. I didn't mean to rape her, I just wanted to scare her. But since she wasn’t gonna calm down and kept showering me with mud, I… I undressed her, lay over her and… I did my business. With no foreplay. Immediately. After this, she realized she got in trouble and started to shout, cry, and beg me to let her go. But it was too late. I wasn’t gonna let her go so easily. I was so sick of her that I was dying of the wish to bring that case to an end. And… I kicked her out like a kitten in tears, half-naked, with ruffled hair after everything ended. And I threw her clothes out of my apartment too.”       “You were doing the same things to everyone that some people were doing to you,” Raquelle concludes.       “Yes… And I kept doing this because I felt better. I felt better from torturing all those people. Yes, I started to understand that I was behaving terribly at some moment. But alas, I couldn’t help myself at all. I couldn’t stop. At least, because people kept threatening me like some piece of shit.”       “I remember Marty got off you for some time,” Daniel recalls. “And she kept herself far from you. And even if she had to stand next to you, she always shook.”       “I still don’t know if she told her parents everything. But since they didn’t kill me, it means that the girl was scared. She was afraid that I would kill her if she opened her mouth. Just like I promised.”       “It seems like you fucked any girl that stood in your way,” Natalia replies.       “Not any girl. Only some insolent and selfish bitches, who reminded me of Kristina and her friends by their behavior. I never hurt gray mice. And I didn’t fight normal men. My goals were only freaking bitches and heartless bastards. I took it out on them as fuck. They were the only ones I hurt fucking much so that they remembered that all their lives.”       “Didn’t you rape Rachel by chance?” Daniel gets suspicious.       “Nope, I didn’t hurt Rachel. Though I had a wish to, I can’t deny it. Just to lie her on something, strip my pants down, and do my business. For nothing. But I managed to stop for two reasons. First, she always treated me well and was very sweet and nice to me. She even protected me at times if, for example, Marty went too far. It discouraged me and made me realize that I didn’t wanna harm her. And second, I feared her father. I was afraid that he’d hang me by the balls or cut them personally. You know that Albert was ready to tear anyone apart for his daughter. Remember how hard he kicked Terrence when he rejected her. Yes, she lied to all of us, but you can’t deny that Rachel was under her father’s protection. But I didn’t want much more problems than I had.”       “Wait, didn’t Marty ever drop any hints at being raped by Peter?” Anna wonders. “Someone was supposed to notice something! They were supposed to see some hints!”       “Yeah, I noticed weird things, but I thought it was just because they fought constantly over her egoism and insolence like a cat and dog,” Daniel explains. “I never thought Peter could do that to her. Vice versa… I thought he liked her, but he didn’t wanna confess it.”       “No!” Peter protests. “I never liked that bitch! She only irritated me. And Marty got what she asked for.”       “It was really cruel of you,” Anna notices. “Yes, she was a bitch, but it didn’t give you the right to do that to her.”       “I know, Anna, I crossed the line. And I just recently started to regret all of this. Regret ruining the lives of so many people. It’s… It’s a miracle that nobody has reported me to the police. That I haven’t been arrested and sentenced. It’s a miracle that nobody believed Marty when she stated that I raped her at the top of her lungs. I didn’t expect it, but people started to protect me. Even if I pushed off almost everyone when they tried to befriend me with my behavior. I dunno… I guess the reason is that I put myself together at some moment, came to all of them, apologized to them for being rude, and tried to make amends somehow. Tried to get along with someone. Maybe I didn’t befriend them, but I kept a working relationship with most of them.”       “You know, I’m surprised, too!” Daniel exclaims. “You fought almost with all the guys from the studio for nothing. But even after that, everyone suddenly stood by your side when Marty blamed you for raping her, but didn’t prove it. Even Albert himself was shocked by that statement, though he never had any tender feelings for you.”       “I guess Peter seemed an innocent angel next to Marty,” Terrence assumes. It’s clear that the girl annoyed everyone so much that nobody thought of protecting her. They saw she’d gone too far with her goal of praising herself to the skies and proving to people that she was perfection.”       “And I wasn’t ashamed of being protected by people,” Peter confesses. “I was happy. I was happy that they helped get away from problems, without knowing it, when they made Marty a liar and made her apologize to me. Stand on her knees and ask me for forgiveness for slandering me. Just like I was somehow forced to apologize to Garret. I think… I think it was the moment I was waiting somewhere at the unconscious level all my life. I wanted my victim to lie at my feet like this and ask me for forgiveness. I wanted to see someone instead of me.”       “But it never happened before?” Natalia asks.       “Nope, none of my victims stood on their knees for me and apologized before. Marty was the first one to do it. And at that moment, I literally felt satisfied. I felt… My wish of raping people began to weaken. By itself. Like… I got what I wanted. And I… Took revenge for me. For the pain I went through. Yes, I still didn’t remember what Garret did to me, but Marty’s case was the reason why I had a flash in my head. I got a feeling that it’d happened before. It was like a deja vu… And I’m just starting to understand that I was kinda doing the same things as that man. As all those boys and girls. I… I was copying their behavior. Saying the same words. I was in their skin. And it was the only case when I felt good. I no longer wanted love and care. I wanted revenge and suffering. For others.”       “I hope you didn’t hurt children, at least?” Edward asks hesitantly. “You didn’t harm them?”       “Nope, I didn’t hurt children. I’ve always felt disgust for an adult person who can do these horrible things to an unprotected child. The child I was back then.”       “And did you continue this business after Marty stood on her knees for you?” Terrence asks.       “I started to do it rarer and rarer. Though after that day, I didn’t get pleasure from that anymore. Likely, it was a matter of habit. I was used to getting outside literally every night for a so-called hunt and looking for victims, who weren’t lucky enough to end up near me. I never did it during the daytime – only in the night, at the places where nobody could stop me.”       “Answer one question that I care about so much, please,” Helene says hesitantly in a low voice. “Did you rape at least one girl after you and I started to date? Did you take your pants down at least for one girl?”       “No, Helene…” Peter shakes his head confidently. “When you and I started to date, I didn’t even think about it. Never. Even once.”       “I want to hear an honest answer.”       “It’s an honest answer. I’m not lying to you.”       “Alright…” Helene glances tensely at her cup of tea, which she takes from the table at some moment. “And when did you do it the last time?”       “The last time it happened was three or four years ago. Can’t remember the specific day, but Daniel and I were already good friends back then. I mean… I decided to give him a chance… Decided to trust him… And you and I met. I would say… I wanted to stop for you. I didn’t wanna disappoint you. I didn’t want you to consider me a monster. Though I understood you’d know the truth early or late.”       “I hope you didn’t think about doing this to our girls,” Terrence expresses hope. “If you did, I swear I will strangle you.”       “No, no, guys, don’t worry. I’ve never thought of hurting Raquelle, Anna, or Natalia. The girls have treated me very well and been very nice and sweet to me from the very beginning. I’ve never had a reason to attack them.”       “And me?” Helene rounds her eyes. “Have you ever wanted to do it to me?”       “Never, by force. Only when I started to like you as a girl. Then, yes – it was hard for me not to think about wanting you.”       “And did you rape girls when you and I drank and slept? Or did you stop doing that?”       “I was close to ending it. I wanted to stop and get better.”       “What?” Daniel frowns strongly. “What do you mean, you drank and slept?”       “We did,” Helene shrugs. “I once had a strong fight with my grandfather and grandmother, left home, called Peter, and asked if I could go to his home. He agreed, but I bought a bottle of red wine on the way. And we drank it all together. That’s why we got drunk and… We woke up in the same bed, absolutely naked, with a hellish headache the next morning. And we quickly guessed what happened between us.”       Everyone in the room makes a disapproving rumble, while Sammy looks at everyone with a questioning glance.       “What a twist!” Terrence exclaims.       “What’s the hell happening!” Daniel surprises.       “Hey, you’ve never told us that!” Anna resents, pushing Helene slightly in the rib.       “We were friends back then,” Peter confesses shyly. “I think we met for the first time six months ago. But we overdrunk and slept together. I didn’t refuse to drink when Helene showed the bottle of wine. Vice versa, I thought it was a good way to get rid of stress since I had too much of it in my life.”       “Great!” Edward exclaims. “Why did we just find it out?”       “Honestly, we didn’t like to think about that case,” Helene confesses. “At least, I tried to forget it. When we were friends and thought there could be nothing between us. And when we woke up in the morning, we actually fought. So that we didn’t talk for several months. It was awkward, and Grandfather Roger got sick one week after that case. I just had no time. After his death, a little time passed by before Peter and I met. I mean… He came to me when I was sitting on the bench and crying.”       “That’s why…” Daniel guesses. “That’s why Rose didn’t wanna talk about you or talk to you for several months.”       “Uh-huh, she went to my home with a bottle of wine, definitely having nothing against drinking to the fuck, but I eventually turned out to be guilty of us having sex and got my ass kicked for that!” Peter resents.       “For a reason, my sweetie!” Helene adds. “You started to accost me and tried to kiss me. And you stared at my naked breasts when I was sleeping.”       “Couldn’t hold myself down when a beautiful naked girl was lying next to me.”       “Yeah, you didn’t even have to take the girl to an alley…” Edward pronounces thoughtfully. “She went to your home. And then you should’ve only drunk her, lied her on the bed, undressed her, and gotten out your pal that was gonna come back from the world erotic tour after seeing and trying so much.”       “So hilarious, Mr. Wag!” Peter shows quotes with his fingers.       “Oh, c’mon, dude, just confess that you finally fulfilled your dream of fucking your friend as hell,” Terrence exhales slowly. “And you gave a fuck about her being drunk!”       “Hey, I didn’t try to take her to bed by force!” Peter glances aside. “It just happened so… I don’t know how, but it happened. You know that alcohol always blows out your mind. Moreover, I already started to have a crush on her. I didn’t consider her just a friend and saw her as a woman. A beautiful, sexy woman.”       “And I spent one month praying that I didn’t get pregnant!” Helene states. “We slept when I was ovulating. And I took a pregnancy test every day and made sure my grandfather and grandmother didn’t find them. If they’d known it, they would’ve killed me! They tried so hard not to let me communicate with men so that I didn’t bring in the hem, just like my mother did, but they missed the moment. And luckily, nothing happened, no pregnancy happened.”       “If the child had been born, we would’ve raised them together. I wouldn’t have run away the way your father ran from your mother.”       “Yeah, but I wasn’t ready to give birth back then. I was only twenty-two. I just recently got a good job and started to earn money. I wanted to live an independent life, without my grandparents’ control. But a child would’ve ruined all my plans.”       “Well, knowing all the adventures of our night butterfly, I wouldn't be surprised if he made a lot of children with all those girls, who have to raise them alone,” Edward assumes.       “Yeah, we thought he was an innocent flower pollinated by nobody and should’ve learned everything,” Terrence adds. “But meanwhile, he fucked half of the neighborhood he lived in.”       “Actually, I fucked those who lived in the center of the city,” Peter specifies. “I didn’t know anyone there, but everyone knew literally every dog in my neighborhood. Yes, criminal, alcoholism, drug abuse, thieves, and violence dominated my neighborhood. But while some people got away from it easily, nobody pitied me. They almost killed me when I tried to rape Kristina herself in anger. And my attempt to run from them led to the moment when one of those deadbeats pushed me off the high cliff. They thought I had died and was carried away by the river that was under the cliff, and left happy. I magically managed not to crush myself and to climb up. I fell many times. Nobody came to help. I could’ve given up and died to stop it all. But I wanted to survive out of anger. I wanted to take revenge on those bastards for my pain. I wanted to come to them one beautiful day, take a gun, and shoot at all their heads. This wish helped me climb as hard as possible.”       “I think if we didn’t know what those cruel people did to you, you would hardly hear words of support from us,” Raquelle assumes. “Well, the reasons for all of this are clear to us.”       “I didn’t wanna harm everyone. Anyone to stand in my way. Only those who hurt weak people. Those who behaved provocatively and tried to rape or hurt someone somehow. Anyone who reminded me of my offenders somehow.”       “I hope you stopped after raping and didn’t commit mass murders, just like Marcus did,” Daniel expresses hope.       “Nope. I wasn’t gonna kill anyone. Though I always have a knife I tried to threaten and scare someone with at times. And when I was provoked to murder, my hands started to shake. I was dying of the wish to stab or shoot someone. But I couldn’t find the courage. Though they threatened me with murder many times. Adult people and people of my age.”       “By the way, what happened to the man who mocked you like that?” Terrence asks. “Is he still alive? Or he died already?”       “When I left the neighborhood, he was alive. Healthy enough, full of energy. As if no illness could bring him down.”       “As they say, shit doesn’t drown.”       “But some time ago, I went to the neighborhood and talked to one woman, who told me Garret died several years ago under some terrible circumstances. As far as I know, he was crushed by the train when he was crossing the rails was under kinda stoned: under alcohol, drugs, or both. He got a lot of traumas incomparable with life. His genitals suffered since they were just ripped into pieces. And his spine broke. Even if Garret had survived somehow, he would’ve been just a vegetable.”       “Come on?!” Edward opens his eyes widely.       “It was what his son said. He organized the funeral and revived a document that stated the cause of death and described everything.”       “That’s what that bastard deserves!” Daniel throws gloomily. “There couldn’t be a better punishment for a pedophile! He died and got his balls ripped to the fuck!”       “When I talked to my neighbor, I didn’t remember about Garret. But now, knowing about him and his death, I feel kind of better.”       “Hey, when did you go to the place where you lived?” Helene asks. “And why?”       “Before meeting the guys at the café! It was an absolutely spontaneous decision. I just got into the car and went there. I walked there, saw how bad everything was… I saw some alcoholics and drug addicts… There were some people at my age who didn’t recognize me, however. But who started to take drugs and drink as fuck. And I found my house that was drowning in dirt and webs. My mother came back there and stole a couple of things while I was absent. She told them to get a bottle of alcohol. And then she disappeared again. As I was told by that woman, who didn’t recognize me at first and thought I was a robber.”       “And who’s that woman?”       “My neighbor!” Brittany Lyons. She lived several doors away from me. I was sure she was dead already, ‘cause she was old enough. But she’s still alive, and she’s fifty-five now. She’s a good woman, I sometimes ran to her for a night when my mother had a delirium tremens. And I went to her to ask her to give a cure ‘cause I couldn’t buy it by myself, but it ended with her taking care of me until my full recovery. Of course, she could try to protect me shyly, but nobody listened to her. Though Brittany wanted to fight with nobody. She thought she would rather have been silent and done her business. And she has a daughter, who has tried to take her mother to the city several times, but that woman couldn’t get used to it. So, she wasn’t in that neighborhood regularly.”       “Maybe she told you something interesting?” Anna asks.       “Nope… She said everyone was dying slowly. There aren’t too many people now. Houses are getting rotten and empty, and the authorities haven't given a damn about that neighborhood for a long time. It’s like a stigma people try not to think about. And some people got out of that place and started a new life somewhere.”       “That’s all?”       “That’s all. I told her something about my life. What I was doing after I left that place. Discussed the situation with Marcus, found out that her daughter was Julia’s friend… Who kept the diary of that woman. I took it with me and decided to read it one day.”       “Your mother’s diary?” Natalia rounds her eyes.       “She wrote a lot about her life until the day of her death in all details. Julia wrote about her childhood and her life with Marcus. Who became extremely jealous at some moment and had hysterical fights with her because he thought she cheated on him. She even wanted to leave him, but things got better later. And then Julia found out that she was expecting a child, whom she wanted so badly. She knew she’d name him Theodore… She loved him so much… And she was ready to give birth even if she knew she could die of the aortic aneurysm. And Julia kinda felt that she wouldn’t survive childbirth and would leave her child and his father alone. That’s why she wrote a letter, in which she addressed her son. I mean, me. I read it and… It was really emotional. And I got emotional over everything she wrote in the diary. I can let you read it if you’re interested.”       “Do you think she was a good woman?” Raquelle asks.       “Judging by those notes, I think she was. An insecure, shy, unhappy, to some extent, woman. Who never smiled in photos when she posed with Marcus.”       “And how did she fall in love with a deadbeat like Marcus?” Daniel wonders.       “As she said, she was admired by the way he protected her from the attacks of boys who mocked her all the time. Like, it impressed her and made her look at him like a man, not a stepbrother.”       “Wait, does it turn out that your neighbor knew the truth?” Anna concludes. “She knew Julia was your real mother, not Cornelia? She knew Marcus was your father?”       “She did. All this time. But nobody told me anything about it. Though, as I’ve already said, when Cornelia drank too much, she could say some suspicious words. Like, she didn’t even give birth to me; why I took you away from that woman; my husband left me because of you; if I hadn’t brought you home, everything would’ve been alright… She even mentioned the name of Theodore Longbottom. Like, it was my real name, but she just changed it. But I didn’t take these words seriously back then. I thought she lost her brain because of drinking and said nobody the fuck knows what. Though I should have. I should’ve asked her about what it all means. And made her answer who my father was.”       “Did she make you think your father was her husband?” Edward asks.       “Nope, she never called him my father – only Jeffrey, only her husband. Whom she hated for leaving her and starting an affair with a young girl. However, I didn’t get into all these things. I only care about one thing – how to survive in this fucking world. How to keep living… Whether I should continue to let people shower me with dirt and cut myself with the thought that I deserved that pain. Take revenge on them and stand in the criminal way. Or give up in this battle and kill myself.”       “Say, Peter, have you tried to kill yourself before?” Terrence asks carefully. “Or did you do it for the first time on the day when Daniela and I found you in your apartment?”       “Nope, not the first one…” Peter shakes his head, looking at everyone briefly. “I tried to kill myself before. When I was a child. When Garret raped me. When my mother devalued my suffering and fucked me off. When people attacked me and forced me to get down to my knees and apologize to that man for my disgusting slander. When Garret did that to me two or three more times.”       “I ain’t surprised,” Daniel confesses.       “There was a long river in our neighborhood, and I ran to the one all in tears one day. I was sitting there for a long time and staring into the distance. And then something clicked in my mind – I could end all of this. And I… Jumped from the bridge… I got underwater and… I didn’t even resist… Water got into my ears, nose, throat… I couldn’t breathe… It didn’t last for too long. I lost consciousness at some moment… But… The next moment, I woke up on the land. Coughing up water. While I saw… Cornelia’s scared face over me… She saved me. She got me out and revived me.”       “Whoa, did her mother’s instinct wake up for a while?” Edward asks surprisingly.       “Maybe… Moreover, she was sober back then, she didn’t drink. She saw me drowning, left her drinking buddies, and rushed to save me.”       “Wow…” Helene pronounces thoughtfully.       “After that moment, we even got a little closer to each other. And… I believed I finally got a mother. We’d finally be a family. She even stopped drinking for some time! And it made me much happier. I… I finally felt beloved. I felt she needed me. And… That was a wonderful feeling. The feeling I dreamed about all my life. Even if it didn’t last for too long, it was probably the best moment in my life. Because I had a mom. I had a beloved person who did care about me.”       “Did she believe in the story with a rape this time?” Daniel asks.       “We didn’t talk about it. Because the memories of that event were erased from my mind. I… I told my mother that I really slandered Garret. I lied that I just wanted to get attention. I was really very sorry… I agreed that I did a disgusting thing. And she was happy I ‘honestly’ confessed it and no longer talked about it after that.”       “But you should’ve remembered why you decided to go to the river and drown yourself!”       “After I forgot everything, my memory changed some events. I didn’t remember what really happened. I remembered what it made me remember. For example, I didn’t remember Kristina adding a drug to my drink before my first sex. I thought everything happened by mutual consent, with a sober mind. But our sex was a failure. I was sure I didn’t lie when telling you about it. Well… Or… Let’s say… I didn’t remember that I jumped in the river to kill myself on purpose. I remembered that I fell into it accidentally. I thought I was playing with a ball while being near the edge of the bridge, and jumped into the water when it fell until the very end. But I couldn’t allegedly swim and… I started to drown, calling someone for help.”       “But you could do it actually?” Terrence specifies.       “Yup, a little. And along with a fake memory, I got a fear of water. I mean, the need to get underwater. I always swim with pleasure. I could quietly go waist-high in the water and swim. But I had a panic attack if I had to get underwater. My heart was beating like crazy… I could barely breathe… I felt dizzy… And I didn’t know why.”       “But as we can see, it didn’t stop you from jumping in the water when that asshole tried to drown Helene,” Edward notices.       “Did I have a choice?” Peter shrugs. “Nobody would’ve done it for me! Though I’m gonna be honest, I was really scared at first. I felt dizzy, my hands were sweaty, I wanted to run… But Sammy woke me up, and I found the strength to jump in. But I got a stronger panic attack underwater. And I had to get up to calm down and put myself together. But… I think… If not that doggy, I would’ve… I would’ve done nothing. And then blamed myself for her death.”       Sammy whines with pity and puts his paw around Peter’s arm as he keeps looking at him with sadness in his eyes, lying next to him on the bed.       “Nevertheless, you’re a fine fellow,” Helene flashes a slight smile. “You showed great courage. You were afraid, but you overcame yourself anyway.”       “No, I’m not, Sammy is,” Peter protests. “If he hadn’t made me follow him, I wouldn’t have even cared. I was freaking furious at the thought of your betrayal. And I was mad at this dog that didn’t wanna leave me alone, couldn’t stop barking and growling, and scratched my stomach painfully.”       “Gotta admit…” Daniel nods. “If not for the fluffy one, your girlfriend would've become food for the fish swimming in there.”       “That’s why I see no reason to praise myself. I did nothing decent. Nothing to protect her. Because of me, Helene almost became a victim of Marcus and his henchmen. I could not protect her. I could not do my best for her to avoid everything she had to get through.”       “You did everything you could do, buddy,” Edward replies. “You didn’t sit, and you tried to take measures instead of counting on a miracle.”       “No, you did everything you could. You fretted and fumed when Natalia got in trouble because of Michael and Eugene. Terrence didn’t leave Raquelle when Simon threatened her. And Daniel wasn’t afraid to fight Julian and Norman, who almost sent Anna to the afterlife after beating her constantly. You, guys, are really fine fellows! But I am a fool! The fool, who screwed it up as fuck. Who missed everything. Who kept nothing safe.”       “Yeah, but you didn’t refuse to leave Helene when Marcus told his people to kidnap her,” Raquelle notices. “You didn’t count on the men, the police, Mr. Johnson… You didn’t ride out the storm. You tried so hard to do something. You tried to find out where your girlfriend was to go there and take her out.”       “Yeah, you felt really bad – we all saw it,” Natalia adds. “The men felt bad, too, when the girls and I were in trouble. But none of you let your emotions make you give up. You all did something.”       “We all did something, but only three are heroes,” Peter replies with sadness in his eyes. “I did not become the one. I’ve never been the one. I’ve got as many sins as my father.”       “Nobody is perfect,” Helene notices, caressing Peter’s cheek. “We all are sinners to some extent. We have all done something terrible.”       “I’m not happy to know the truth now. Not happy to know who my father is. Not happy to know what he wanted to do to me. Not happy to get my memories back. I didn’t want it. I didn’t wanna remember what broke me completely. I would’ve rather kept living with anxiety, pain, and panic attacks, which I could never explain, than remembered what still makes me wanna shoot my head down.”       “I don’t like to remember many things, either. There are things I would be happy to erase from my memory. Which I would change if I got a chance to do it.”       “You know, stealing something from people is better than raping innocent people who did nothing bad to you, releasing your anger on them, and wishing to feel how you dominate weak people and hear them begging you to let them go and pity them.”       “You know everything now?” Anna rounds her eyes.       “What, everything?” Daniel frowns slightly.       “Did you tell him everything?” Natalia surprises.       “What do you mean, girls?” Terrence wonders.       “What you, guys, should know,” Helene replies quietly. “What I tried to tell you on the day I allegedly died, but… I did not.”       “Did you steal something from people?” Edward specifies.       “Yup… It’s a long story… And… Not the nicest one.”       “We don’t rush,” Daniel shrugs and glances at the window. “You all have to stay here at least until tomorrow. Because the hurricane ain’t gonna end. So, you can speak.”       “Alright…” Helene puts her cup on the table. “Let’s really end this now so that we don’t come back to that anymore.”       “So, were you a thief?” Terrence specifies.       “When I was a child, I suffered from kleptomania. It’s the thing when you wanna steal something all the time, even if you don’t need it at all. When you steal something just because it gives you pleasure.” Helene swallows nervously. “It all started with a toy that a random boy lost. I liked it so much, I took it from the ground and decided to keep it with me. But my grandmother took it from me, caught the mother of that boy, and gave the toy to her. And she swore at me cruelly after that. Like, taking what doesn’t belong to you is bad. And then I felt like a hurricane was growing inside me. I was freaking furious because it was taken from me. So furious that I took a bracelet lost by a random girl and put it in a pocket secretly from my grandma. And I loved that as hell. I liked what I felt when I stole it. And then I began to steal everything I saw in my way. I had a withdrawal if I didn’t steal something for a whole day. Even if it was a rubber band or a hairpin. And it sometimes happened unconsciously. I was kinda unconscious before waking up with a random thing in my hands. I didn’t bring it back. I put it in my pocket.”       “And as far as I understand, did the girls know it?” Daniel asks.       “They found it out at some moment. I mean, after one very unpleasant story happened.”       “And did your grandfather and grandmother know about your kleptomania?” Peter specifies.       “They did,” Helene nods. “And they swore at me because of that all the time. But I kept stealing things. I stole so many things from everywhere that there was no space in my room. Everything was filed with what I never used, eventually. These things were like a burden. But I didn’t rush to get rid of them. I was furious when my grandma or grandpa tried to throw something out.”       “You steal from them, too?” Edward asks.       “Constantly. I stole some jewelry from my grandma’s box, my grandma’s watch, or something else. They searched the whole home and even fought, but I said nothing and never confessed to taking them. Even when they eventually found these things in my room. I lied and pretended that they forgot them there.”       “And weren’t you ashamed for that?” Terrence surprises. “Weren’t you ashamed to take something without permission?”       “I regretted it later after I had already stolen it. A sense of guilt was eating me inside, but I never confessed that I stole it, and never brought back anything from what I stole. That’s why I suffered from extra anxiety and bad sleep. The situation got worse due to the pressure of my grandfather and grandmother, who, as you already know, kept me on the leash and controlled everything I did. It was one of the reasons for my kleptomania. And I didn’t even think of fighting it.”       “But as far as I know, you can be cured of kleptomania,” Terrence notices. “Didn’t they take you to a doctor? A psychiatrist? A psychologist? Someone else…”       “At first, they didn’t even wanna think it was some kind of dependence. That I was like a drug addict or an alcoholic, who wanted more and more. I started with stealing small things, but my appetite was growing rapidly. Because I didn’t recognize my problem, and my grandparents thought they could kick the crap outta me with a harsh education. Though their constant band and total control made me want to steal more and more. I felt some kind of wild, frenetic hunger. I couldn’t just live without theft!”       “Did you steal from your friends and familiar people?” Peter asks.       “No, everyone. Every time I visited my friends. Every time my grandparents took me to the home of their familiar people or colleagues. I spent much time walking in their apartments before noticing something and deciding to wait for a good moment to steal it quietly. Though I wasn’t able to steal something big by myself. I could only take something small or a little bigger that I could easily put in my hand or my bag. And even if someone suspected something, I pretended that I had no idea what they talked about.”       “And did you steal something from shops?”       “I did. Many times. I learned to do it well so that nobody suspected or caught me. There weren’t cameras at that time. That’s why nobody could track me, and workers couldn’t watch everything. I remember my grandmother and grandfather talking about shame and about how they, honest and decent working people, are afraid to come back there. And I didn’t actually care what they talked about. I didn’t feel shame and only thought about how to satisfy my thirst. Which got stronger after every lecture I heard from them.”       “Well, so…” Peter pronounces thoughtfully. “Did you bring it all home and leave it in your room?”       “Yup. And I didn’t even think of bringing it back. Not because I wanted to own it all. Because I was afraid to hear other people judge me. I pretended to be an angel to everyone and acted like I didn’t know what they talked about. I blamed someone else and hinted that other people could be guilty of stealing things.”       “Okay…” Edward pronounces thoughtfully. “But how do the girls know it? You told them?”       “Not quite…” Helene replies hesitantly, biting her lip slightly and locking her fingers tightly. “It wasn’t good at all… I wasn’t ashamed back then, but now I wanna be swallowed by the ground.”       “Did you charge them for stealing things to cover up your crimes?” Terrence opens his eyes widely.       “I would say so.” Helene exhales loudly. “Nobody from my school knew about my dependence for the time being because I hid it very well. Though I couldn’t miss a chance to get pleasure from stealing something from the guys. And one day, Ashley caught me trying to do this. Well… The one who bullied Natalia and Raquelle.”       “And what?” Peter asks.       “Everyone talked a lot about these thefts at school. And Ashley threatened to tell our teachers that it was my work. At first, I denied everything and pretended that I didn’t understand her. But then that girl shook my bag in front of my nose and took out everything I had stolen. Hairpins, notebooks, markers, pens, pedants, cosmetics… Watches, bracelets, rings, necklaces… Many things… Then I realized that I was pressed to the wall and begged Ashley not to tell anyone about it. I was ready for anything for her not to do it. I had to spend a lot of time persuading her. And Christensen agreed in the end. But with some conditions. Speaking shortly, she used my dependence and forced me to steal things for her and her friends.”       “And she was really silent?” Daniel surprises. “Or someone knew it?”       “Her friends. At some moment, she told them everything. And they began to force me to steal something for them. Not only small things. I had to steal something big. For example, Ashley and her team once blackmailed me, forcing me to steal some documents from the head teacher’s office. Questions of a test they weren’t ready for, answers to them, and something else. And when I stole something at their order, it didn’t give me pleasure. Vice versa, I was furious. But I couldn’t rebel ‘cause I was in a hopeless situation. So, I had to steal something for Ashley. Though I didn’t refuse to steal something for myself. And thank God, that girl and her friend kept their promise and didn’t expose me. They closed their eyes to my crimes.”       “And how long were you at their beck and call?” Edward asks.       “A long time. Everyone at school seriously discussed the theft that literally turned into a catastrophic situation. At some moment, teachers got sick of students and their parents’ endless complaints about something stolen and were determined to catch a thief. They promised some privileges to the one who reveals the criminal. The guys used it and came up with some stories they couldn’t prove. While I kept committing crimes, stealing things for me, stealing things for Ashley and her friends, and listening to lectures from my grandfather and grandmother, who told me to go to the teachers and confess everything. And I didn’t wanna stop. No matter how hard it was. I couldn’t control myself anymore. Though stealing something small was not enough for me – I wanted something solid and big. Alas, I didn’t get pleasure from it, and my anger was getting stronger inside me.”       Sammy barks quietly at this moment.       “And one day, Ashley came up with a crazy idea – to use the chaos and reveal the criminal. I was scared that she’d tell everyone about me at first. But she calmed me down and said she wanted to blame Raquelle and Natalia for that. Ashley wanted to make them thieves. So they’re kicked out of the school and sentenced. And I should’ve stolen the expensive things. The ring and the bracelet of our head teacher. With brilliants. Ashley knew that the set had a high price. And she knew the head teacher sometimes left these things in her office in the drawer of the table. So… I should’ve gotten in the one and… Stolen those things…”       “And you agreed to do it?” Terrence opens his eyes widely.       “I did. I stole the keys from the office from the school security, got into it quietly, and stole those things. I barely managed to take the bracelet and the ring, hide them, leave the office, and bring the keys back. Then I came to Ashley and showed those things to her. She smiled happily and said I should’ve put them in Natalia and Raquelle’s bags while nobody saw. But I only managed to put these things in Natalia’s bag. Raquelle was too late for a certain reason back then. That’s why I couldn’t put anything in her bag.”       “Is it true, Natalia?” Edward moves his eyes to Natalia.       “True,” Natalia nods with sadness in her eyes. “The bracelet and the ring were really found in my bag.”       “It all happened at the beginning of the day at school,” Helene confesses. “And closer to lunch, the head director called out everyone, saying someone stole her brilliant bracelet and ring she had left in the office. She told all the students and school workers to come together in the schoolyard and announced that everyone would be checked closely. Everyone must have shown everything they had in their bags. Most of people resented. But what could they do with the head teacher’s order?”       “And you showed everything?” Peter asks.       “Yes. Luckily, I didn’t steal anything. So, they found nothing in my bag. But when they checked Natalia’s stuff, they found the ring and the bracelet I put in her bag. That’s why it was announced that she turned out to be a thief. She was stealing personal things from everyone all this time.”       “I was shocked when they took these things from my bag,” Natalia confesses, fingering nervously. “And at first, I didn’t believe they found them in my bag. Like, someone had a similar one. But no… It was mine. And I was charged for stealing from the head teacher and the entire school.”       “Oh, shit…” Edward shakes his head with widely open eyes. “I dunno what to say…”       “I started to deny everything and swore I stole nothing. I said I didn’t know how those things ended up in my bag. I cried, shouted, begged them to believe me… But…” Natalia swallows nervously, wiping a tear under her eyes secretly. “Nobody believed. They pronounced me a thief. Adults and children attacked me with charges and insults. They told me to bring back what I stole from them. The head director was like, ‘How could you, Natalia? A good girl from a good family is behaving like this!’ I honestly said I was framed. It wasn’t me. But she only shouted at me and said she was gonna call the police immediately and tell my parents to go to school. And Ashley, who looked madly happy, insisted that I was locked somewhere. Like, she wouldn’t escape and steal much more from people. The head director agreed. Two boys from the high school took me under my arms at her order and pushed me into the office, where the head director locked me in. I cried, begged them to let me go and trust me, but… Nobody let me out before the police arrived.”       “I think it was the first time when I really regretted what I was doing,” Helene confesses hesitantly and exhales loudly. “It was really painful to watch Natalia excuse herself. I’m gonna be honest, there was a moment when I wanted to show outta the crowd and say it was me. But Ashley literally read my mind, took my hand tightly, and looked at me so that I was even afraid to think about it. Then she and her friends took me aside and told me not to dare to open my dirty mouth. They said I’d pay a high cost if I did it. So, I did what she wanted. And I was so tense that I was kinda insane when I saw a bag lying near the male restroom. I searched it while nobody was watching and put half of what I found in it. I would’ve put everything, but I heard someone’s steps getting closer and got out of there shortly.”       “I really came too late to school on that day,” Raquelle says. “I thought they would swear at me for that, but everyone was too busy with other things. Busy with another theft. I had to make a lot of effort to find out something. But when I was mordantly told that my beloved friend Natalia turned out to be a thief, I didn’t wanna believe it. Even when I found out that the bracelet and the ring of the head teacher were found in her bag. In despair, I rushed to her office, got into the one without a knife, and started to shout that my friend wasn’t guilty, someone had framed her, and she could steal nothing. But that woman refused to listen to me, saying the theft had been caught before everyone’s eyes, and she personally saw her jewelry was in Rochester’s bag. And she didn’t allow me to come to her, saying she would be locked in one of the offices before the arrival of the police and her father and mother.”       “I didn’t believe Natalia was a thief, either,” Anna states. “I was sure that she framed until the very end. I started to suspect Ashley immediately. I didn’t doubt that the girl framed Natalia, stealing the jewelry from the head teacher’s office and putting it in my friend’s bag. I didn’t suspect Helene ‘cause nobody knew about her kleptomania. Though she was really super nervous, shaking, looking around nervously, biting her lips and nails, and touching her face, neck, or something else all the time.”       “Did you originally think Ashley was stealing from the entire school to blame Raquelle and Natalia for that?” Terrence specifies.       “Yes, I had this thought. She was ready for anything to turn the girls’ lives into hell. Though I didn’t think that girl would go so far and blame the innocent person for a theft.”       “Did everyone really believe that Natalia was a thief?” Peter surprises. “Did nobody but Raquelle stand up for her?”       “I tried to say that even if the head teacher’s jewelry was found in Natalia’s bag, it didn’t mean anything. But nobody took my words seriously. Like, how you could say that when you saw everything. Yes, I did. But I wouldn’t have believed that my friend could do that even under the gun.”       “And they actually attacked me when I stood by her side determinedly,” Raquelle confesses. “They told me to shut up, not to meddle… I tried to change someone’s mind and say Natalia wasn’t guilty. But I could not. Everyone was by the side of Ashley and the head teacher. Everyone except Anna and me. Even more, many people started to lie that they saw Natalia taking something out of the pockets and bags of some people. They advised them to check me, too. Like, I could be her accomplice and help her. But nobody checked me ‘cause they were sure that the thief was finally caught.”       “It’s awful…” Daniel shakes his head with horror in his eyes. “I dunno what to say…”       “I didn’t spend too much time in a locked office,” Natalia says, barely holding down her tears. “At some moment, the same boys came back, took me under my arms again, and took me to the office of the head teacher, where there were the police members. They started to terrify me and tell me about the possibility of being arrested and sentenced, questioned me, tried to get my confession… I kept standing my ground and crying when saying I stole nothing. I swore on everything I could: my health, my parents’ health, my grandma’s health… But the head teacher insisted that I stole from her, shaking the bracelet and the ring in front of everyone. And it was said by several people, who were brought to the office as witnesses. They all said I was a thief. Like, they saw me taking the keys secretly from the security, opening the office, and taking the jewelry from there. And nobody wanted to hear my words about being framed. Like, since you can’t prove it, you'd better shut up and incline your head.”       “After the police arrived, I went to the office of the head teacher again and repeated my words about Natalia not being guilty,” Raquelle confesses. “But they didn’t listen to me and kicked me out rudely, threatening to suspend me from all activities or actually exclude me from school. They even said they could really check me closely, thinking I was allegedly an accomplice of my friend. I briefly managed to see her crying bitterly, shaking, and sitting scared and insecure, while all those people told her about a threat of an arrest and tried to get the full confession out of her.”       “Mom and Dad arrived at the school quickly enough. And to my greatest happiness, they didn’t believe the head teacher. They were all by my side. I’m gonna say more, my parents were furious that someone dared to blame me for stealing from them. They didn’t change their mind even if the bracelet and the ring were found in my bag – the head teacher repeated it several times. Just like other students, who were questioned too. I think it was the first time I saw my dad furious. He wasn’t shy of swearing at the head director and criticizing her so hard that she sank into the chair, sitting all pale and blinking her eyes scarily. He attacked the guys with criticism, too. Mom was outta her mind, too. She almost scratched her eyes and attacked her with fists. And the students heard a lot from them, too. The police staff members tried to calm them down and threatened to take my parents to the police station, impose a fine, or put them in jail. But they got much madder. They were determined to defend me until the very end, and let them know clearly that they wouldn’t let anyone hurt their daughter and wouldn’t believe that she could be a thief. That’s what I’ll be grateful to them for until the last day of my life.”       “So, were you arrested?” Terrence asks.       “I was taken to the police station for further proceedings. And the head teacher said she’d raise the question about excluding me from school, not just suspending me from all activities for a week or two. My parents swore they wouldn’t close their eyes to that and would turn the school upside down if they didn’t drop off the charges and find a real criminal. But… There was a small chance of it. You know how they treated me thanks to the effort of Ashley. Nobody was gonna protect me. And Anna and Raquelle’s attempt to say something was like a drop in the sea. With an attempt by a silent person to shout. Nobody heard them. Nobody heard me. I was under a real threat of being sentenced. And my parents wouldn’t save me.”       Sammy whines with great pity at this moment.       “They told me to bring back all the stolen things and make a full confession of the crime in case I wanted to make my life a little better.” Natalia makes a quiet sob. “But I could not! Because I wasn’t guilty! I didn’t have anything that was stolen from other people. Anyway, the police staff members said they wouldn’t arrest me due to my illegal age, but they pronounced me a suspect and sent me home under the responsibility of my parents. And said they’d proceed to trial. They would investigate everything closely. They said if they proved my fault, I would have to be on trial and get a sentence. Then I spent several days at home ‘cause I was suspended from school indefinitely. I was sitting in my room and crying, swearing to my parents that I was guilty of nothing. And they promised not to stop fighting for justice and not to let anyone blame me for anything.”       “Oh, damn, Natalia, poor girl…” Peter shows sympathy with a horror in his eyes.       “Those days became a real torture to me,” Raquelle confesses. “Not just because I was alone. But also because everyone started to treat me much worse. They called me Natalia’s accomplice and said I must’ve been checked too. They said I was the same thief who must’ve been suspended from school or actually excluded. So that ‘I didn’t hurt their eyes with my ugly face’, as they said.”       “Yeah, the situation in Kingston wasn’t better than in the neighborhood where Peter lived…” Terrence says thoughtfully. “The same heartless bastards and shameless bitches.”       “But we must notice that everyone started to say that Natalia could be non-guilty at some moment. Nope, not because they pitied her. Theft didn’t just stop. Everything was calm for two days, but then someone began to steal something from children and adults again. Then they began to conduct searches at school several times per day. And it made everyone resentful.”       “It was me,” Helene adds. “I continued to steal things to get rid of stress that struck me down. But all these checks were the reason why I no longer put them in my bag. I hid everything in different places where people found things later. In order not to be a suspect for them, I always pretended that something was stolen from me, too. And I found my things that were allegedly stolen in the place where I hid them by myself.”       “My stuff disappeared often, too,” Anna confesses. “At first, these were small things like hairpins, erasers, or hairbrushes. Then these were jewelry and hats. And when the cell phone that I got after spending a lot of time persuading my family to buy it, they almost killed me. Like, I was an idiot who must’ve watched her stuff closely. Who must not have had anything expensive. They knew about the theft at school, but they preferred to blame me when something was stolen. Of course, it was really hurt.”       “And several days after Natalia was suspended from school, a certain girl came to me and said the head teacher wanted to see me shortly. And my heart squeezed painfully. It was beating fast. I had a bad presentiment. It was getting stronger ‘cause Ashley couldn’t calm down. She was happy that she had almost gotten rid of Natalia. And then she wanted to deal with Raquelle. She also wanted to put something expensive in her bag with my hands. And Ashley knew what. A gorgeous necklace made of sapphires and silver. The deputy director wore it. It had a high price and was her favorite piece of jewelry that everyone saw on her literally every day.”       “I wonder how the head teacher and her deputy had such expensive jewelry?” Edward wonders. “A brilliant bracelet, a brilliant ring, a necklace with sapphires… It all costs a lot!”       “They weren’t rich, as you might think. These were gifts from the rich parents, who kind of bribed them. That’s why the children of these people were literally carried in the arms. Ashley was one of them. Her parents fed teachers with these expensive gifts constantly: buying her jewelry, giving her tickets abroad, gifting her fur coats, or something else… They even paid for an expensive surgery for her nephew, who was seriously ill.”       “Huh, I got it!” Daniel exclaims. “Those who made expensive gifts were kings and queens and could do anything they wanted. But those who weren’t lucky to be born silver-spooned, they could complain as much as they wanted, but everyone closed their eyes to all of them.”       “Nope, most of our teachers were good. Some of them treated Natalia and Raquelle very well and tried to protect them. But the head teacher and her deputy – yeah, they had a thing for expensive gifts. If someone complained about their favorite guys, they always closed their eyes to that. The girls complained to them about Ashley many times, but they pretended that there was nothing wrong with her actions. Like, learn to solve your problems on your own.”       “It’s true,” Raquelle nods. “Of course, there wasn’t any cruel bullying from them, thank God. But I couldn’t count on their patronage because my grandfather and I barely made ends meet. And even if Natalia’s parents weren’t poor, they thought it was disgusting to bribe teachers. Though they got tons of hints about thinking about some ‘contributions’ if they wanted their daughter to feel good and have scores not less than ‘good’.”       “And my grandfather and grandmother were respected ‘cause they worked as teachers,” Helene adds. “They never taught the girls and me. And at some moment, they decided to go to work at another school. Though they got along with everyone at my school thanks to their high-quality teaching and getting a lot of diplomas and awards for the years of their work.”       “And how did it all end?” Terrence asks.       “Oh…” Helene sighs heavily. “In short, Ashley and I almost agreed to frame Raquelle. I said I’d come back to her after talking to the head teacher. We decided that she’d distract the deputy director, but I should’ve found a way to take the necklace off her and remain invisible. I didn’t know how to do that and was really nervous because of that. But I couldn’t refuse because Ashley threatened to reveal me and say that Natalia wasn’t guilty.”       Helene falls into silence, looking at her hands.       “However, she didn’t have to… When I came to the office of the head director, there was a boy from a high school. As it turned out, he came to that woman and said Natalia was guilty of nothing, but the real thief was me. I don’t know what he told her, but she believed him. And she started to question me. I started to fight back and deny everything furiously. Like, why you think so, come on, I’m the same victim as everyone, how I could steal something. I said something like, look, something was stolen from me too… But the boy kept standing his ground. He said he saw me cleaning the bag I told you about before. And he took some pictures on his phone and showed them to the head director. It was clearly seen that it was me. He was close enough, but I didn’t even notice it. I thought nobody would notice anything in a rush. But no…”       “Do you mean you were caught?” Daniel concludes.       “They did. Though I denied everything to the very end. And the guy didn’t give up. He started to show photos of other crimes of mine. He said he found many witnesses, whom he magically persuaded to stop lying and tell the truth. By the order of the head teacher, he brought several boys and girls to the office. They were insecure, but they did confess that I was stealing, not Natalia. And one of the boys dared to blame Ashley for being my accomplice and insisted that she was checked too. Like, he heard her and me talking about all these thieves and the way Christensen mentioned my kleptomania. Oh… In short, they revealed me fully. Denying everything didn’t make sense. And I decided to admit my fault. Admit that I was the only one to do all of that.”       “And what made that boy prove Natalia’s innocence?” Edward asks.       “I don’t know, surely, but they said he kinda liked her. I would even say he was deeply in love. And… Maybe it’s true. That boy defended Natalia too hard. Raquelle is the one to defend much more furiously.       “But I didn’t know anything about that boy and his sympathy for me,” Natalia confesses. “And I didn’t even know him. Though when I found out who helped me, I found him at school and thanked him truly. And then I even spoke to him for some time. We became friends quickly, but after I began to study at home, our connection was lost: he lived his own life, but I lived mine.”       “In short, after my confession of fault, the head director called the police again and told my grandfather and grandmother to come to school shortly. She also called Mr. and Mrs. Rochester and told them to go to school with Natalia. I spent all that time in the office of the head director under her view. She read me lectures, shouted, insulted, humiliated, and wondered how I could go so far. But I was sitting on the chair quietly and listening to her silently, being horrified at the thought of what would happen to me. What my dependence on stealing would lead to.”       “My parents were determined to fight with that woman again and were going to take me from that school and transfer me to another, not caring that the way to that one would take a lot of time. And I said I wasn’t guilty of anything and stood my ground ‘til the very end. I spent all those days crying. I even stopped eating well. That’s why I lost a lot of weight. But when we arrived at school, the head director started to shower us with apologies and said it was all a misunderstanding. Like, they didn’t have claims for me anymore, but the real thief was Helene Marshall.”       “When we found it out, we were shocked, saying softly,” Raquelle confesses. “Ashley was the main suspect. We wouldn’t have thought that Helene would be guilty of it. Even though she did everything at the order of that girl.”       “You must’ve seen the faces of my grandpa and grandpa when they found out why they were told to come to school shortly and saw the police in the head teacher’s office,” Helene says thoughtfully. “That woman explained the situation, and the police staff members told them I’d have serious problems. My fault for stealing was proven. They wanted to bring my case to court. I couldn’t avoid the punishment anymore. And I did not. No matter how hard my grandmother and grandfather tried to solve everything and literally swore on God that they’d pay damages personally if I didn’t bring back what I stole or lost something. And after they pressed on me strongly, I started to cry and swore I’d bring what I stole back. To the last rubber. I threw off nothing. I had everything at home. I was happy to get rid of what was a dead weight and reminded me of my kleptomania.”       “And you brought everything back?” Peter asks.       “Yup. Under the close watch of the police, Grandfather, and Grandmother, I put everything in several big packets and drove them to school. The head director organized a special place. Anyone could come and take what was theirs with no problems. And in the end, I was suspended from school activities and put under home arrest. But later, I had to go on trial. Thank God, it didn’t last for too long. Due to mitigating circumstances, I was put through a lot of hours of community service, a behavior change program, and a payment of moral damage to those who suffered. Since there were many people, the amount turned out to be extremely large. That’s why my grandmother and her grandmother had to borrow money from their familiars and then spend one or two years giving it back from what they earned.”       “And they dropped all the charges off me,” Natalia says. “I no longer had a mark of the suspect. The head director apologized truly to my parents and me and allowed me to keep going to school and studying. But after that case, my mom and dad transferred me to homeschooling. As I’ve said before, they wanted to transfer me, but they changed their mind after the head director and the police apologized to us.”       “And I was also put through a required examination by a psychiatrist for mental issues due to my confession that I was stealing from people to get rid of stress. It didn’t take too much time to diagnose me with kleptomania. Then they sent me to get therapy. Which was happening under the strict control of law enforcement agencies. I could not refuse. Though I didn't recognize it as an illness and was sure I could get through it on my own. And my grandparents didn’t believe it until the very end. But I had to get therapy. I had a lot of psychotherapy sessions. I was even prescribed some cures to get rid of symptoms of anxiety. That’s why I always felt sleepy, felt like a vegetable, and cared about nothing. They made me have some diaries… I resisted it all at first, but later, I started to understand that it would be better for me. And if I hadn’t finished my therapy, I would’ve had much more serious problems.”       “And did you get rid of this illness?” Terrence concludes.       “Yeah, I did. And I was allowed to end my studies at school. Moreover, I needed just a little time. At first, everyone ignored me and looked at me badly all the time. But people started to forgive me little by little, understanding that I stole from them ‘cause I didn’t want it and was ill. Raquelle and Natalia were already studying at home, and more and more people started to go against Ashley. And yeah, she didn’t pay for encouraging me to steal stuff and coming up with an idea of framing Natalia and Raquelle. I guess her parents’ money was the reason for that. Though the guys were resentful because of that. They were mad that she didn’t pay for anything. And since the adult people didn’t wanna solve the problem with that girl, everyone united and did their best for her parents to take her from school and then move to a different city with her.”       “Now I understand why your grandfather and grandmother were always so harsh to you,” Peter says thoughtfully.       “They were standing, blushed from shame, while the head teacher explained what my fault was. Grandma was choking from tears and really fell to her knees for everyone, and Grandma looked at me frowningly. As if he said, ‘When we come home, I will kick you with a belt!’ And it really happened. They had never been so harsh to me before. They repeated that they were really ashamed one hundred times. They were afraid to imagine what everyone would think of them if they knew their granddaughter was a thief. I think I would’ve had much fewer problems if I’d said I started to date a boy or – oh, my God – kissed him.”       “Did they admit that you were ill?” Edward asks. “Or did they continue to think it was a stupid thing they thought they’d get outta your mind with a belt?”       “Grandma did admit it, but Grandma was sure it was a stupid thing until the very end, and the psychotherapy that I was put through was a waste of time. He was only happy that it was free. He believed he could educate me with a permanent pressing and total control. Though my psychologist said it was one of the reasons that pushed me to steal from people. And I felt terrible ‘cause they didn’t give me freedom. While others walked with their friends, having fun, and falling in love, I was busy with my studies all day long, was under a close view, and got hits with a belt in case I thought of something wrong. I was allowed to do nothing! Expect to obey my grandparents. I always felt like a black sheep. You know how ashamed I was when they drove me to school and took me out. Always. Every day. If I’d stayed there or talked to a girl or a boy for a little longer, oh, my God – it would’ve led to a scandal! That’s why everyone started to laugh at me… Like, you’re an adult girl, but my grandparents held my hand when going somewhere with me and knew my schedule by heart. And it kept happening when I was studying at the university. I never went home alone or with my friends. Whom I was freaking jealous. Their parents didn’t control them like that. And someone actually came from different cuties and lived in a hotel.”       Helene sighs heavily with sadness in her eyes.       “Well… Even when I got a job, my grandfather took my salary from me and hid it somewhere. And he never gave me even a cent when I asked him about it. Though I managed to keep something with me when I started to earn more. And at some moment, I decided to save money for a rental apartment. And I almost did it. When I had enough money, I found an advertisement, examined the apartment, and was ready to pay for several months in advance. But one day, my grandfather checked my bag and found the money I had hidden and the contract that I wanted to read to specify everything before signing it. And he started a big scandal. Which became the reason why I left home and went to Pete’s home on the day when we drank and slept.”       “People are right that even bad actions can be done for real reasons,” Terrence says confidently.       “By the way, I forgot to say that the school tried to catch the thief several times, but it was always the wrong person. I mean, Natalia wasn’t the first one. And I framed most of them at my will by putting stolen things in their bags. They excused themselves but couldn’t prove their fault. The case was pronounced closed several times after they got a harsh enough sentence. Those who were of legal age when they were studying were put in jail. Those who were not were suspended from school or actually excluded. And… They were put through community service. And they got a judgment mark.”       “Do you mean they got a sentence they didn’t deserve?” Peter specifies.       “Yup. I met some of those who served their sentence a couple of times, and they cursed me for having a ruined life because of me. And… As I understood… They somehow contacted Marcus and his friends. Who knew everything very well.”       “Marcus knew everything?”       “And he knew I was silent about it. So, that man hoped to turn you against me by telling you about how several people got a mark of a criminal for nothing because of me, and one girl avoided the same perspective magically.”       “And how many people did suffer?”       “Like ten people, for sure. Or fifteen…”       “Do you mean you literally ruined the lives of fifteen people, who got the title of former criminals?”       “I have it too. And when I started to look for a job, I had a great problem because of this. My personal case had to mark about my judgment. Even if I wasn’t of legal age. I got several rejections for that reason. But a little later, I found out that I could request the destruction of the record by getting documents that would confirm I successfully got therapy from a psychologist and a psychiatrist. And I was fighting for a long time. In the end, they removed the label. And some time later, I found a job in my profession. But I was denied the scholarship due to my judgment, even if I was one of the best students.”       “Anyway, I wouldn’t have thought anything like this about you,” Daniel scratches the back of his head. “Though I was really overwhelmed when you told us about bullying the girls. And now I don’t know what to say! Really… I have nothing to say.”       “I’m sorry about telling you all of this now,” Helene apologizes with sadness in her eyes. “I’m still ashamed to remember that case. And actually, my childhood and teenage years. But I would really like you to believe me. Because I’ve really changed. I am healed. I no longer steal. I no longer bully anyone. It’s all in the past now.”       “Speaking the truth, I am really surprised that the girls forgave you so easily after all these things,” Terrence confesses. “Especially Natalia. Because of you, she almost became a criminal, but this girl literally forgot it a long time ago.”       “I didn’t forget,” Natalia protests. “I just don’t wanna remember that. It’s freaking painful. And I was madly ashamed of my parents, who didn’t expect to hear I was charged for stealing something.”       “Be happy they were by your side,” Helene replies. “Grandmother and Grandfather literally were against me and told the head teacher the story of my kleptomania. And it seemed that they were worried about themselves and their reputation. Their granddaughter shamed them and made them blush. They… They were too dependent on people’s opinions. What they’d think, what they’d say, what they’d do…”       “You know, I’d be blushing too if my child stole from literally half of the school and stole things out of the one,” Terrence states.       “Anyway, I’m really sorry about what I did. I’m sorry about getting rid of stress like this.” Helene swallows nervously. “I think that’s why I’ve been doing some good things regularly for several years. Buying food for a homeless person, feeding a stray dog, donating money to a foundation, providing an orphan house with toys… I’m trying… To make amends…”       “Did you start to regret shortly after you finished your therapy?” Edward asks.       “Therapy helped me understand myself and learn to fight myself. But it didn’t heal me fully. I was obsessed with a wish to steal something for a long time. I saw something and wanted to put it in my pocket. But I held on so hard. I told myself I’d get through it. I calmed myself down with a breathing exercise my psychologist taught me. I felt better little by little. But I came to the final awakening after I met Peter. I kinda wanted… To be better… To be a good person in his eyes. I… I was a little hurt that he was originally very cold to me and didn’t aim to speak to me. As if he knew about my past and despised me.”       “But as you know, the explanation for that is simple – I was afraid of people and the pain they could give me,” Peter replies quietly.       “Anyway, I personally think Helene deserves to be forgiven,” Anna says confidently as she puts several empty cups on the table. “Please, guys, understand her. Give her a chance. We know it sounds wild and terrible. But the person does regret it truly.”       “I regretted and paid a high cost for my tricks,” Helene adds. “I think all the tortures Marcus and his friends put me under were my punishment. The punishment for the mistakes of my past. Karma found me, after all. And it made me get through what I would never forget.”       “It really looks like a punishment,” Daniel agrees. “Another punishment. Which should’ve been so cruel, though.”       “Besides, not only did I suffer from kleptomania. I also started to drink alcohol regularly at a young age. It started with the parties Ashley organized. There was always alcohol, which everyone drank. Sometimes I managed to lie to my grandparents under the pretext of studying with my friends. Yes, they drove me to the right place. But they didn’t know what was happening behind the closed doors. And… When I understood that I could get rid of stress by drinking, I started to do it too. A glass or two before I gave a damn about everything, I felt good, I felt easy, I wanted to fuck off my grandparents…”       “Wow, did you also suffer from alcohol dependence?” Peter surprises.       “I would say so.”       “Did someone at school know it? Did psychiatrists know it?”       “Nope, I said nothing about it. I lied when they asked me if I had tried drugs or alcohol. And I continued to drink my stress down with strong drinks.”       “My gosh…”       “And I drank for several years. But at some moment, I realized it couldn’t happen anymore. Like, I was still a young girl. My whole life lay ahead, but I was killing myself with that shit… And I was planning to have children in the future… So, I… I made some inhuman effort to wean myself away from it. I admitted my problem and started to reduce the quantity of alcohol in my life little by little. To get rid of stress by myself. Without stealing, drinking, taking valerian or a sedative… It was extremely hard, but I fully recovered for one year and stopped drinking alcohol when I was under stress. After this, my health got much better: my skin, my hair, my teeth, everything inside…” Helene sighs heavily. “But I broke down on the day when my grandfather and grandmother swore at me for hiding a part of my salary and my plan of renting an apartment. I went by an alcohol shop and… I couldn’t resist… I spent the whole part of the money I had with me on just one bottle. I briefly thought of stealing it, but I held myself down in the end.”       “You drank every day?”       “Nope, not every day. I worked, huh… And nobody would’ve praised me at home. Besides, I wouldn’t say I drank till passing out. No… I drank a glass or two to feel relief. No more. But without a break. In general, I love champagne and wine. And I sometimes didn’t even go to work and drank alcohol instead. Secretly from my grandparents. From whom I magically hid my alcohol dependence. Though I was sure I’d be caught at any time. Knowing which control I was under all my life.”       “And you drink now?”       “If I have a reason to. After my grandfather’s death, there are fewer reasons to be stressed. There’s nobody to control me now. I can decide what to do and how to live. And Grandma… Even if she judges… The only thing she does is just sigh heavily and say something like, ‘Oh, Granddaughter, how silly you are…’ She… She has always been much softer than Grandfather, with whom I lived like in an army, without the right to a voice.”       “To be honest, I don’t know how to react,” Edward confesses. “I don’t know what to say. Kleptomania, alcohol dependence… You tried to harm my fiancée. Twice. You bullied her and tried to frame her cruelly.”       “I know, Edward, I’m really very sorry. The girls and I somehow talked about it and decided to let the past go and move on. Yes, we originally did it for you, men. Because we didn’t wanna upset you. But after spending much time together, we understood that we loved being together. The girls turned out to be really cool, and I regret not befriending them before. I regret having Anna as the only one I talked with more or less well. Thank God, she wasn’t a part of that hell and didn’t become Ashley’s victim.”       “Of course, it’s all wonderful, but you disappoint us, friend,” Daniel says thoughtfully. “For the second time, huh.”       “Please, Daniel…”       “Sorry, but I’m personally not quite sure about whether we can trust you. What if we discover more secrets of yours some time later. What if you and the girls hide more awful secrets from the guys and me.”       “No! I swear we’re done with shocking details of my past now! I no longer have secrets from you. You know everything about my past now.”       “Who knows, Helene… Who knows… There are fewer guarantees now.”       “Please, buddy…”       “Daniel’s right, Helene,” Edward agrees. “We have many more questions for you now.”       “And again, we doubt that Peter made the right choice,” Terrence adds.       “Guys, please, trust me!” Helene begs with pity in her eyes. “I get it, but I swear everything is different now. I’m not the Helene I was before. And I really realized my mistakes. Because I grew up, I became wiser, I became smarter… And now, when I’m no longer under total control, I have finally relaxed. It’s bad to say it, I know, but after my grandfather’s death, I felt relief and started to live as I wanted. Grandmother does admit that my grandfather could sometimes cross the line, but as she confessed, she couldn’t disobey him. She didn’t wanna fight. Like… It was easier for her to agree than argue. And nobody usually went against a man’s word at that time. They were educated like this.”       “You see, the case is not about whether you stole something and got a sentence,” Daniel says quietly. “We don’t even talk about you being a girl and drinking alcohol. No. The case is about the fact that you hid this fact. You made us consider you an innocent angel.”       “Yes, I’m not an angel, I don’t deny it. And I’m kinda trying to make amends by doing something good for people.”       “We understand that it was unpleasant for you to remember that,” Terrence replies. “But you should’ve told us everything earlier. On the day you confessed that you bullied the girls.”       “I know, Terrence, but I was scared. I was afraid that you’d turn your back on me. I was afraid that Peter would leave me. He wasn’t happy with my statement about being a bully. I… I was really thinking of doing that, but… I didn’t wanna lose him.”       “And the girls?” Edward asks. “Why did they say nothing on that day? Why didn’t they reveal you?”       “It happened so,” Raquelle shrugs.       “We spent too much time forgetting everything,” Natalia adds. “To move on and not to think about the past. And we didn’t wanna come back to that anymore.”       “Maybe you agreed on something before?” Daniel frowns slightly. “Maybe you knew Helene was Peter’s girlfriend?”       “No, we didn’t really know who he started to date!” Anna protests. “And you were silent as stubborn donkeys! You wanted to make a surprise, huh!”       “Peter, why are you silent?” Terrence wonders. “Don’t you care about the situation? Say just something!”       “What can I say?” Peter shrugs. “How can I judge someone and teach them life when I’m not holy? When, unlike my girlfriend, I haven’t paid for any crimes nobody has known about yet! I haven’t paid for it by law!”       “Do you mean you don’t care?” Edward rounds his eyes.       “When Marcus ordered to kidnap Helene, I stopped caring about what she was hiding. I didn’t care about her past actions. I only wanted one thing – to see her alive. And I swore to myself that I’d forget everything and forgive her if I saw her safe and sound.”       “Does it mean you don’t care that Helene suffered from kleptomania and stole from literally the entire school and framed several people, including Natalia?” Anna surprises.       “I told her she’d rather take half of my apartment with her than betray me and put a knife in my back,” Peter smiles slightly for the first time in a while. “If I don’t find some important things, I will accept it with a higher chance.”       “Please, guys, trust me,” Helene begs. “I really stopped doing that. I swear on my grandfather’s grave! No more stealing, no more kleptomania, no more alcohol dependence. I am healthy!”       “Indeed, guys, don’t show off!” Raquelle exclaims. “The person regretted truly, healed, and asked everyone she could for forgiveness.”       “The girls and I talked about everything a long time ago,” Natalia confesses. “Helene admitted her fault and apologized to us several times. First of all, to me. And we understood her. We understood that she stole things and drank against her will, and Ashley used her illness insolently.”       “But we’ve gotta praise her ‘cause she kept her promise,” Anna notices. “She didn’t reveal Marshall's till the very end. She was a bitch, but she could keep secrets.”       “If not for her, I would’ve confessed everything much earlier,” Helene sighs heavily. “Because I felt remorse every time I stole something. That’s why I was nervous and wanted to steal something again. It was an endless circle, which I thought I couldn’t get out of.”       “Oh, alright, Marshall, let’s not make our relationship with you worse because of this,” Daniel rubs his forehead tiredly. “It’s clear you’re really sorry. And it’s been a long enough time.”       “And we don’t have to do with that,” Terrence adds. “You didn’t steal from us. So, we can’t have any claims for you.”       “I’m not gonna hide that I don’t like what you did to my fiancée,” Edward says confidently. “But since the girls and you solved this problem, that story ended well, and nobody’s mad at you, we’ll try to understand you too.”       “And as we can see, Peter ain’t gonna judge you, either. If he thinks he’s gonna feel good from this decision, we’ll support him.”       “I promise, guys, I’ll never steal anything from you,” Helene promises with a slight smile. “Stop, I’m done with it now!”       “Can't promise, but I’ll try to be quiet for my gorgeous collection of pearl-styled underwear,” Edward tries to joke.       “We’re not all perfect,” Raquelle notices. “I somehow had a great problem too when Camilla Pettigrew almost died after falling from the stairs and had to end her modeling career due to her serious traumas. I was taken to the police station, and I got a large fine… Yes, of course, I got away from it thanks to Serena, but still…”       “To be honest, I never liked Camilla,” Daniel confesses. “She showed off too much.”       “Agree,” Edward nods. “Maybe she was a beautiful girl, but she was too bitchy.”       “I’m sorry for her, though,” Helene says with sadness in her eyes. “She almost became disabled.”       “Yeah, I sometimes behaved terribly in the beginning of my career,” Raquelle says with shame. “That’s what I don’t like to remember. What I had to admit publicly. What I’ve apologized for many times. What impacted my work negatively.”       “I’m gonna share my sin too: one day, when I was a little child, I found a one-hundred-dollar banknote getting out of a random man’s pocket!” Terrence confesses. “I didn’t call him and give the money back to him, and bought a lot of sweet food and a couple of little bottles of unhealthy sparkling water. And I wasn’t ashamed ‘cause I’d never eaten more delicious than that.”       “Uh-huh, and what did you tell your mother?” Anna asks.       “I ate everything outside. I went to the park, sat down near the fountain, and enjoyed. And when I came back home, and my mom offered me food, I said I’d already eaten at my friend’s home. Of course, she blunted something, but she calmed down later.”       “And you got no trouble after that?” Raquelle surprises.       “Nope, no trouble! But I never did that again! Even if I loved it. I just wanted something more delicious than semolina, which my mom fed me every fucking day. I was so sick of it that I still feel nauseated every time someone mentions it. But then I got a good chance.”       “M-m-m, as it turned out, MacClife is not holy at all,” Natalia laughs.       “It happened just one time!”       “Huh, one hundred dollars!” Edward chuckles. “My friends and I somehow found a wallet with a lot of large banknotes. We weren’t gonna bring it back and leave it with the police. Instead, we spent money on sweet food and sparkling water along with slot machines at the shopping center, and much more – I can’t remember everything now. And it was the best day of my life!”       “By the way…” Daniel pronounces thoughtfully with a serious look. “Did someone see my phone charge? And my watch? And where’s the phone? Did someone steal it?”       “It’s not funny, Perkins!” Helene raises her voice, clapping Daniel on the head. “Not freaking funny!”       “Yay, folks, I advise you to check your pockets and bags often,” Terrence insists. “Since we’ve got a thief in our company.”       “C’mon, huh, we know who we should come to in case something disappears at home,” Edward laughs.       “Stop it!” Helene exclaims, feeling that her cheeks start burning from blush.       Sammy barks confidently two times.       “Okay, okay, Marshall, calm down!” Daniel pronounces cheerfully, clapping Helene on the shoulder. “We joked! Don’t be mad, please. Though I’m gonna check my pockets often from now on.”       “I suggest that we check our friend and leave some things here,” Natalia suggests, takes off the silver hairpin, and puts it on the table. “What do ya think? Will my hairpin disappear?”       “Let’s check!” Anna exclaims, takes a thin golden necklace off her neck, and puts it on the table too.       “These earrings with a brilliant had a high price,” Raquelle notices, putting her small earrings on the table after she takes them off her ears.       “Hey, did ya all decide to mock me now?” Helene moans with sadness in her eyes. “Girls, you too?”       “What?” Terrence smiles innocently. “If I don’t have all the money in my wallet, I don’t doubt that you’ll help me find it.”       “Uh-huh, we can also ask you to help us find our guitar mediators and drumsticks,” Edward laughs. “The guys and I lose them all the time and fight ‘cause we think someone stole them.”       “By the way, I need to check the whole house closely when everyone leaves,” Daniel decides. “What if someone’s missing.”       “Oh, my God…” Helene rolls her eyes with a tired sigh.       Sammy barks quietly, while everyone laughs shyly, not paying attention to the claps of thunder, flashes of lightning, and the heavy rain behind the window.       “Oh, jokes are jokes, but I’m really missing something…” Peter says thoughtfully, looking at his wrist. “I wore a bracelet on my hand, but it’s gone. And I have no idea where it can be!”       “A bracelet?” Anna asks thoughtfully and takes a silver piece found in the woods from a pocket of her hoodie. “Don’t you mean this one?”       “Oh, damn!” Peter oohing quietly takes the piece of a bracelet from Anna and looks at it with widely open eyes. “It’s broken… And where’s the other part of it?”       “The girls and I found this piece when we were looking for you in the woods,” Raquelle confesses. “I mean, Sammy found.”       “Are you sure you didn’t find the second piece? It was supposed to be near!”       “Yeah, but we found nothing more.”       “But the men and I did,” Terrence confesses, takes another silver piece from the pocket of his pants, and puts it on the bed.       “Bloody hell…” Peter rounds his eyes, looking at two pieces of the broken bracelet that are lying in his palms. “It’s broken… The bracelet is broken at all…”       “I guess it snagged on one of the sticks when you were running,” Helene shrugs.       “It hurts…” Peter upsets. “He was my favorite one… The most valuable one to me… Because it was a gift from all of you. Which I, yes, wore even when my mind lived its life.”       “Don’t be upset, buddy, you can fix it!” Edward calms down with a slight smile. “Take this bracelet to a jewelry workshop so that they can solder both parts.”       “They’d hardly do it.”       “They will!” Daniel assures. “But if they don’t, we’ll gift you another! Much better! With a different, much more interesting engraving.”       “Putting these two pieces together without cracks? It’s a dead point!” Peter puts the pieces on the bed. “You can throw them off. You can fix nothing now.”       “Don’t worry, sweetie,” Helene says softly, caressing Peter’s forearm. “You can fix the bracelet. Even in this case. Yes, maybe it’s gonna have cracks. But it may happen that you’re lucky.”       “I ain’t even gonna get busy with it.”       “Peter…”       “Hm, interesting…” Peter frowns slightly. “I turned everyone against me, and the bracelet broke. As if it reminded me that I stayed all alone due to my psychoses.”       “You’re not alone, Peter,” Edward says confidently. “We’re here. You didn’t lose any of us.”       “Damn…” Peter glances aside, clenching his hands into fists. “I… I’m so ashamed… So ashamed of all of you… Ashamed of behaving so disgustingly and releasing my anger on you.”       “We get it,” Terrence replies quietly. “Besides, we gave you a reason to. Even if we didn’t want it. Even if we didn’t understand what severe pain we gave you.”       “I did sense that the truth about my family and me wouldn’t give me anything good. I never aimed to find out who my father is. I never aimed to remember anything. I didn’t care about it.”       “But it would’ve happened early or late,” Daniel notices.       “I tried so hard not to let it happen. I delayed the moment as long as possible. And now I know everything. Everything that didn’t make me happy.”       “The truth is not always nice,” Helene shrugs. “The truth can hurt, the truth can strike.”       “And… Even if I know Cornelia is not my mother… I continue to consider her the one. After Marcus’s confession, she didn’t become a stranger to me. Maybe Julia was a good woman, but I can hardly consider her my mother.”       “Not surprising ‘cause you lived all your life with that woman,” Raquelle replies. “And you don’t remember Julia because she died shortly after giving birth.”       “But I think she watches me. Sometimes I spend time in my room and… I feel that someone’s watching me. With some kind of… Warmth… Maybe… That’s really Julia… Maybe… She keeps me safe as hard as she can.”       “Speaking the truth, I sometimes think my parents watch me too,” Daniel confesses with a slight smile. “They’re near when I need them. Maybe I don’t see it… But I feel their pretense. So warm… So nice… So desired… I even saw them in my dreams several times. For example, on the night before the arrest of Julian and Norman Potter. At first, they swore at me for my mistakes, but then promised to be near and help me if I needed it. And… I’m still sure that my mom and dad really helped me. They always do when I ask them about it.”       “And I still don’t know if Cornelia is alive now. She went missing. As Brittany said, that woman showed up at our home just once. And nobody has seen her anymore since then.”       “I don’t exclude that she’s dead already,” Terrence throws his hands up.       “I could try to find out where she’s buried. But I don’t know if I can do this. I have no idea where to find her.”       “But the idea is good,” Helene notices. “You can at least take care of her grave and… Bury her in another cemetery.”       “Anyway, I can’t say she was a real evil incarnate,” Peter says thoughtfully and puts the pieces of the bracelet on the table. “I’ve lately been recalling more and more moments connected with her. And I understand that… She didn’t always treat me like shit. There were moments when we were really like a mother and a son who loved each other. When my mother took care of me, told me something, tried to give me some advice… It happened when she stopped to drink for a while. When she wanted to wean herself away from it, truly. At these moments, I felt like probably the happiest child in the world. Because I got what I dreamed about.”       “I think she loved you deep inside,” Natalia assumes. “Otherwise, that woman wouldn’t have let you live at her home. She would’ve left you somewhere or given you to an orphan house. But Cornelia didn’t do it. It means she wasn’t indifferent to you. Maybe she showed it in her own way. Besides, when a person is dependent, they… They hardly love someone. Their feelings are blunted. Maybe Cornelia wouldn’t remember half of the cases when she treated you terribly because she was drunk as hell.”       “This belief stopped me from making her my enemy. From killing her when I was obsessed with a wish to take revenge on all my offenders. She was one of those I was ready to pity. And no matter what, I am grateful to that woman for raising me and not leaving me. Not refusing to take me when I was a baby. Not letting them sell me to an asshole. Who could’ve done anything to me.”       “My father was madly unfair to me and only noticed me when I made mistakes for a long time,” Edward recalls. “But I do remember the moments when we were also a father and a son who loved each other. When he came to my room, hugged me tightly, told me something… He said even if he sometimes kicked me out, it didn’t mean that he didn’t have any warm feelings for me.”       “I can’t even believe… I am a criminal’s son… My father is one of the most bloodthirsty and awful killers in human history, who scared everyone so much that nobody even tried to prevent him from committing crimes. Everyone just watched him send another victim to the afterlife.”       “Even if it’s so, it will not change our relationship with you,” Helene assures. “These are not your sins, these are Marcus’s ones.”       “I’ve got a lot of mine. I raped and harmed many girls and men, was mean to everyone, kicked them out, acted like an egoist… I almost killed my close friends with my own hands. I almost got their blood on my hands. I… I’m still horrified… I’m shaking… Can’t believe it was really me… I wanna make myself think it was my twin. My evil twin, who pretended to be me. But alas, it’s not the truth. It wasn’t Theodore or someone else. It was me, Peter. Peter Rose.”       Peter swallows nervously.       “I think… Since I didn’t pay with the full weight of the law, I paid for my actions differently. I told you nothing, but there were many cases when someone tried to get rid of me. They tried to spit acid on me, pit a fighting dog on me, and explode my car… This shit happened to me all the time, but I thought I just ran into hooligans. Though… It started to happen so frequently that I started to doubt at some moment. Started to doubt it was a coincidence. And it didn’t start during the tour with ‘The Loser Syndrome’, it started much earlier. Though something happened to me several times during the one. And… They tried to kill me when I was in a hospital after my attempt to kill myself. I remember a doctor transferring blood to me and then giving me an injection. Which made me feel super bad and then pass out. And he often blushed under his nose that he regretted the trouble he had gotten himself into, risking losing his job. I thought it was a part of my delirium, but no. It wasn’t a delirium.”       “We know,” Anna nods. “Mr. Johnson told us something, and we learned something from Kevin and Chris. And the story of the infection had me confused for a long time. I was sure that something was wrong. And… As we can see, I was right.”       “I know I should’ve told you everything, but I didn’t, ‘cause I didn’t take those things seriously and thought I just ended up in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Or maybe someone shut me up on purpose. Like, it’s… A punishment for my actions. Like, I wouldn’t live a sweet life forever after ruining the lives of many people. And being a bastard, who must’ve actually been buried in the ground.”       “You didn’t do it because you were bad, mean, or egoistic,” Daniel replies. “You just got sick. You got sick of the unfair attitude toward you. We all have our limits. There is a limit to how much we can get through. Until the moment they can insult and shower us with mud. How many times we can run into injustice. But early or late, there will always be the moment when you get up shortly, raise your head, and say, ‘Stop, I’m done with it!’”       “It was my way to protect myself somehow. When I was lonely and weak. Even if it costed me a lot. Even if rejected good and bad people.”       “If I didn’t have anyone who could distract me and talk to someone about something, I’d 100% become the same,” Edward assumes.       “That’s the difference! You had someone, but I had nobody. You couldn’t complain to your father, but you could come to your friends. Yes, of course, it’s different, but… You did have an opportunity to do it. I did not have the one. No one cared about my feelings. They wouldn’t have shed a tear if I’d died.”       “But now it’s different,” Anna replies with a slight smile, caressing Peter’s forearm. “You have us now. You can always count on us. No matter what.”       “Wouldn’t you turn your back on me because of who my father is? Wouldn’t you turn your back on me because of what he did?”       “Let him pay for what he did!” Helene exclaims. “But you will not be the one. If we all surround you with care. If you don’t reject it.”       “I will not,” Peter promises in a little shaking, shaking his head. “I will not. I will not do it now. I can’t do it all without you. I do need help. Help of all of you. I need you all.”       “We know, Pete,” Daniel smiles shyly, clapping Peter on the shoulder. “And we will not leave you. Never.”       “I won’t mind you judging me for my actions and ignoring me. But I’d do my best to prove to you that you can trust me. That I wanna change. I wanna be different. And I’m ready to pay for my evil tricks if I have to.”       “Be ready for having all those photos and videos you talked about showing up somewhere,” Terrence warns. “And I don’t exclude that some of your victims may wanna speak. Since your first victim saw your face, she can blame you for raping her. And Marty herself can harm you and tell everyone what you did. And there’s a high chance that everyone may believe her this time.”       “And knowing the number of your victims, I wouldn’t be surprised if you became a multi-child dad and managed to make a whole soccer team,” Daniel adds. “There are probably some girls who got pregnant and decided to give birth to a child. Who didn’t get an abortion at their will or their family’s will.”       “I will recognize all my children in this case,” Peter replies quietly. “I will pay them alimony until they’re of legal age. If… I’m obligated to pay.”       “Sorry for my indiscreet question, but did you use some kind of protection back then?” Natalia asks hesitantly.       “Nope, I didn’t… I didn’t even know what that was. I didn’t know many things. I discovered a lot by myself, by getting through all of it.”       “I see. Expect a surprise, then!”       “Just in case, I’m absolutely healthy. After I stopped doing that, I decided to go to the hospital and pass tests for venereal disease. They said I was alright.”       “You’re madly lucky. Promiscuity has never done anything bad to anyone.”       “Since I screwed it up, I must pay for it. And if I meet at least one of my victims someday, I will surely apologize and offer my help. Yes, maybe it’s too late now, but… I can at least let them know I do care. I am ready to be criticized.”       “You will be, don’t doubt,” Edward nods. “And maybe, it will be the reason why a part of the band’s fans will turn their backs on you.”       “I understand. And I’m ready.”       “Anyway, we all will be by your side,” Terrence promises. “We will help you fight any kind of criticism and will not let them spread any false rumors.”       “I guess I need to talk to George so that he’s ready to do something if it happens someday.”       “I think it’s a good idea,” Helene nods in approval. “He’ll understand you and help you in case some rumors are spread.”       “I’ll manage it. If you’re all with me.”       “We will, we promise,” Raquelle smiles shyly.       Sammy barks confidently as if he agrees.       “I’m really very sorry, guys,” Peter says with sadness in his eyes. “Please, forgive me for what happened. I’m sorry about being rude to all of you and treating you terribly. I didn’t wanna harm and hurt anyone. And… I understand you’re not guilty of my problems. The only one who should deal with all of this is me.”       “It’s okay, Pete, no need to worry,” Natalia smiles shyly. “We completely understand you.”       “I’m madly happy I didn’t harm you, girls. If you’d suffered somehow because of me, I wouldn’t have forgiven myself. And your sweethearts would’ve made me a big cutlet outta me. Making Sammy happy.”       “Of course, you made a lot of mistakes, but we can explain the reason for this hell in this case,” Anna says confidently.       “That’s right!” Edward agrees. “It’s the case when you can excuse any bad actions.”       “I am madly ashamed of you, men,” Peter says hesitantly, looking at Daniel, Terrence, and Edward with sad eyes. “I’m ashamed of treating so terribly.”       “Forget it, buddy, it’s alright!” Daniel exclaims. “Don’t even worry!”       “Forgive me for being freaking unfair to you. For being so rude, beating you strongly, and harming you… Not believing you when you said Helene was alive… And luring you into the woods to kill you there quickly.”       “Actually, we guessed everything, but we went there at our will,” Terrence confesses. “We swore to try to persuade you to go with us and help Helene meet you for the last time.”       “I got it. I’m really sorry about making everything happen like this.”       “Nah, c’mon, we didn’t behave in the best way,” Edward replies guiltily. “We crossed the line, trying to get what we wanted.”       “Yeah, Peter, you forgive us, idiots,” Daniel apologizes a little tensely, putting his hand on Peter’s shoulder. “We’re sorry about going so far and making you freak out with our tricks.”       “We wouldn’t have thought our words about raping would make you feel like this,” Terrence adds.       “It’s okay, you couldn’t know it,” Peter replies quietly. “And I understand you had no choice. You had to use the dirty methods.”       “We’re really sorry about making you remember about how that man raped you and how people of your age fucked you,” Edward says with sadness in his eyes.       “It wasn’t you. I got the memories back after I almost drowned in the pool.”       “What do you mean?” Helene frowns slightly.       “I don’t know what it was, but I… Ended up… In a dream… Or… The afterlife… I was in my neighborhood… And talking to myself. The teenage version of mine. My copy… That guided me through something like a hall… Where there were all the memories of my life. Starting with the most recent ones and ending with the earliest ones. The ones I tried to make myself forget. And… While you were reviving me… I… I was recalling that horror… My peers, Garret… And… I refused to come back. I was afraid… I wouldn’t live with that.”       “And what made you come back?” Natalia asks.       Peter falls into silence for a while before he puts his hands on the shoulders of Daniel and Helene, saying:       “You two. You came for me. Saying my time hasn’t come.”       “Really?” Helene opens her eyes surprisingly.       “I said I’d come for you and bring you back here by the collar if you didn’t start to breathe and groan,” Daniel raises his head with a sly smile.       “Then I saw Cornelia,” Peter says. “She said she died, apologized to me, and… Confessed she always loved me. Even if it all was my fantasy… I feel much better at the thought that… My mother loved me. She cared about me, worried… I meant something to her. And then you showed up. You all came for me. You wanted to help me get out of there. Cornelia and I talked during… During the battle… The dark and the light… The dark versions of all of you vs the light versions of you… The dark side wanted to possess me, but the light one didn’t give up… It was… Like an epic scene from a fantasy movie. Magic, rods, fighting tricks… A cool song…”       “Whoa!” Helene pronounces surprisingly.       “And… I even saw Julia. The one I memorized thanks to the photos I saw at Marcus’s house in every corner.”       Peter glances at everyone briefly and smiles shyly, seeing them look at him a little surprisingly.       “However, you won’t believe me anyway. Judging by the fact that you all look at me like I’m crazy. Though I also feel like I just watched a movie and didn’t get through all of that by myself.”       “Well, you know…” Edward pronounces thoughtfully. “When I drank the poisoned water and passed out, I also ended up in a parallel world and even talked to my grandma a little. And then I just turned around and went on the same path I came on. As if I just visited Grandma and shared the latest news with her. But… I had to spend some time running. Because I couldn’t find the way out. Some voices called me, but… I didn’t know where to go. There were many paths, but they all led to the dead point. Though… There was only one that led me to the right place.”       “And…” A slight smile shows up on Peter’s face. “It was so… Sweet… I… Was… Happy… Really. You were so kind and caring… You wanted to take me outta there so badly… And you weren’t gonna leave without me. The light versions of yours fought for me so furiously… That was cool!”       “Thanks a lot to the girls, who revived you,” Terrence says with a slight smile. “Set you free from the blockage, lifted you up, and gave you CPR.”       “Who else if not for us?” Anna exclaims proudly.       “Uh-huh, our cuties didn’t get confused!” Daniel notices with pride that he cannot hide. “They fought ‘til the very end! Even though the wind tried to strike them down.”       “Yeah, they didn’t let me die quietly and end my suffering again,” Peter throws gloomily.       “Uh-huh, keep dreaming! You, asshole, you will not even dare to think about it until I want it!” Daniel chuckles loudly. “See what you dared to do! You decided to leave me, mangy dog!”       “Shut up, idiot!” Peter laughs.       “Indeed, Rose, do not do anything like this anymore!” Terrence threatens with a finger. “You almost made all of us get a heart attack!”       “Uh-huh, especially, the men and you!”       “We were really worried! We just didn’t show it. And we were much madder at the girls ‘cause they put themselves under that risk.”       “And actually, why did you the fuck go outside when the hurricane was starting?” Edward wonders. “Why did you stand under that thing, which almost fell over your head and pressed you to the bottom of the pool? You must’ve stayed in the house and mustn’t have gotten out!”       “I thought the hurricane was just my imagination at some moment,” Peter confesses. “It was a hallucination. Everything was actually alright.”       “Uh-huh, you better look at the window and see what’s happening on the back of the house!” Daniel exclaims. “I’m gonna have to spend half of the day to get rid of the consequences! And install a new canopy. Since there are only remains.”       “I think… It’s a miracle that… That canopy didn’t kill me… The pieces… They fell over my head. They threw me in the pool and pressed me to the bottom. I didn’t have the strength to remove it immediately. And when I got out of it magically… I started to fall into the dark…” Peter coughs quietly. “With the feeling that my lungs were about to explode from water.”       “Alright, we’re guilty of it, too,” Terrence runs his hands over his hair. “We left you and the girls alone and went to the room. We only left it when we saw these crazy ladies in the water to get you out.”       “We, girls, aren’t as weak and helpless as you think,” Raquelle adds proudly.       “Hey, was it hard to call us, huh?” Edward wonders.       “Would you have gone?” Anna surprises. “You were pretending to be hurt! And you would’ve been happy if Peter had drowned and died!”       “Not true!” Edward, Daniel, and Terrence protest.       “We’ve never wished him death!” Daniel exclaims. “No matter what bastard he is!”       “Uh-huh, but you ran on the back of the house for us, not for him,” Natalia notices. “Because we were outside.”       “In short, you should’ve told us instead of showing off!” Edward says harshly. “We would’ve solved it all!”       “Oh, oh, we did it brilliantly without you, heroes!” Helene states with her head proudly raised. “We pulled Peter out of the water and revived him. While you were sitting near and blinking your eyes.”       “Yeah, girl power rules!” Anna adds funnily. “If girls unite, they can be way stronger than any man. Together, they can hold the power that no one can ignore.”       “Of course, it’s wonderful, but you, cuties, could’ve died in this weather,” Daniel notices. “The wind could’ve struck you down, something could’ve fallen over your head, thunder could’ve hit you…”       “But if we’d kept being in the house and looking through the window, the human’s corpse would’ve been swimming in the pool! And Peter wouldn’t have been sitting with us in the room!”       “In short, do not do anything like this anymore!” Terrence orders. “If you disobey us, you will ask for great trouble.”       “Oh, oh, we’re so scared, you scare us!” Raquelle rolls her eyes, raising her hands. “You’re all so threatening!”       “I will talk to you at home, Cameron! I will give you more lessons. So that you finally remember whom you must obey.”       “Could you fuck yourself, MacClife? Thanks!”       “Why are you laughing, Rochester?” Edward surprises. “I will talk to you later, too! Don’t think I’m gonna be soft and tender to you after what happened.”       “It has to do with you, too, Seymour!” Daniel points at Anna with his finger. “I have to explain something to you.”       “Fuck yourself, you all!” Natalia, Anna, and Raquelle cut off sharply.       “Excellent!” Edward chuckles. “Men, it seems like we’re having a ladies’ riot! We must take measures!”       “Take, take!” Natalia smiles shyly. “But the girls and I are awesome anyway. We completed our mission brilliantly. It’s time to go for an award!”       “You’re really awesome!” Peter exclaims, hugs Anna and Helene around the shoulders, and kisses the latter on the cheek sweetly. “You’re beautiful, you’re brave, you’re determined! You didn’t leave your friend in trouble!”       “I wouldn’t have forgiven myself if I’d done nothing,” Helene says and answers Peter with the same kiss, putting her hand on his chest.       “If counting on our boys doesn’t make sense, you can always come to us,” Raquelle adds confidently.       “Hey, I am asking you not to count us out!” Daniel adds. “And pretend that we did not care!”       “Actually, you did not care,” Helene replies.       “Not true!”       “C’mon, girls, don’t be mad!” Peter exclaims. “The men behaved like this for a reason. I completely understand and don’t judge them. They had a right to stay in the house and do nothing.”       “Oh, no, if we’d seen you were drowning earlier than the girls, we would’ve run to save you,” Edward protests.       “Uh-huh, we would’ve forgotten all the offences immediately!” Terrence agrees. “Just like we did when the girls’ effort in CPR didn’t lead to any good results.”       “It’s okay, I understand you completely,” Peter replies quietly. “And I’ll understand you if you decide not to forgive me now and to talk to me for the band’s business only. If my friendship with you is gonna end.”       “We repeat, nobody will turn their back on you,” Daniel recalls. “Nobody will stop talking to you. Nobody’s gonna end our friendship with you.”       “After Marcus made me believe in Helene’s death, I really wanted to spend some time alone. I didn’t wanna see anyone. I wanted to be alone. I didn’t have a wish to talk to anyone. Sympathy and pity wouldn’t have helped me, either. It wouldn’t have brought my girlfriend back. It would’ve made me as furious as those who would’ve wanted to gloat and enjoy my grief.”       “The men and I would’ve behaved in the same way if we’d been made to believe in the death of our girls,” Terrence assures.       “And we would’ve gone crazy from grief if these fools had died,” Anna adds.       “But now that’s all,” Peter pronounces quietly. “I don’t wanna be alone anymore. I don’t wanna fight my demons alone. I need friends. I need those who replaced my family.”       “We’re here, brother,” Daniel assures. “And you’re also like a member of our family, the loss of whom we wouldn’t handle.”       “Please, guys, don’t leave me… I have nobody but you. I have nobody else to count on in this world. You’re my closest people… Next to whom I’m not afraid to be weak. Not afraid to be open. Nobody knows as much as you, guys. And… I don’t wanna regret it. I don’t want you to use it all against me someday.”       “C’mon, blond, relax!” Terrence exclaims. “C’mon, we all forgive you, and you forgive us. We all made mistakes, we all harmed each other, and nobody is perfect. But we do recognize our mistakes and are ready to work it out.”       “If you’re still mad at me for one or another reason, I’m ready to talk about it.”       “And we’ll listen to you closely if you have some claims for us,” Helene promises. “Feel free to let us know if you don’t like something.”       “Okay… And you let me know if I hurt you. Let’s really be honest with each other this time. Because… Honesty is a key to any strong relationship. You can’t go too far if you lie all the time. You'll understand that you’re in a hopeless situation, which you won’t get away with without consequences.”       “In this case…” Raquelle flashes a slight smile. “May we live in peace from this minute on. In real peace. Not a parody of it.”       “I’m ready. And you?”       With these words, Peter reaches out his hand with his palm up. Sammy puts his paw on it, barks confidently, and snuggles his nose in the man’s face. And then the guy smiling slightly caresses the dog’s head and presses him to himself for a moment, scratching the retriever’s little scratched hair that is still soft, though.       “You’re the best thing I’ve ever had in my life,” Helene says confidently and kisses Peter sweetly on the cheek, taking him in a tight hug.       “You won’t get off me so easily!” Daniel exclaims, shares a homie handshake with Peter, hugs him, and claps him on the back. “We’ll be connected until death do us part. When we’re like one hundred years old.”       “We’ve got too many plans for the future,” Terrence notices, doing the same things. “Which we can’t make real without you.”       “I don’t wanna mock these pensioners all alone,” Edward states, not differing from the men. “Doing this is gonna be boring for me without ya.”       “We won’t do without your wise pieces of advice,” Natalia says, deciding to hug Peter as well as the other girls.       “Cruel people will no longer be a problem to you because we will deal with all of them,” Raquelle promises.       “We love you, Peter!” Anna exclaims. “You’re the best, no matter what!”       Peter exhales with relief as he smiles shyly.       “Thanks, guys,” Peter thanks. “Thank you so much. I promise I won’t miss my chance this time.”       “Hope you’re gonna trust us much more and won’t be so withdrawn anymore,” Helene expresses hope.       “And I hope you won’t have a bad opinion about me because of who my father turned out to be.”       “You were told: may Marcus pay for his sins!” Edward exclaims. “You aren’t responsible for them. Pay for yours only. Just like Terrence and I don’t pay for the sins of Uncle Michael, who wanted to kill us, Dad, Mom, and our girls… All he's done is his responsibility, not ours. Sins of your relatives don’t make you worse. It’s not what you should care about.”       “Wouldn’t you think I’m really the same bastard as he is? Wouldn’t you ignore me after I didn’t behave better or behaved much worse?”       “You had reasons to behave like that,” Raquelle replies quietly. “Your words about the world trying to get rid of you have some part of the truth.”       “I was all alone for many, many years. But one beautiful day, I met wonderful people in all of this obscurantism. And now I’m afraid to lose them to death. Fear of loneliness has been strong since my childhood. And now, when I have all of you, I don’t wanna be alone. I may not have a home. I may not have money. I may wear holed underwear and eat one week of bread and water from a faucet. I’d handle anything! Except loneliness. Except for life without my family. Without my brothers and sisters.”       “Dude, we’ve already said nothing would change!” Terrence exclaims. “Relax, calm down, and exhale! The most important thing is not to do these things anymore. Because if you try to kill us again, we will not forgive you for sure.”       “You can kill me personally if I just think about it. Grab me by the throat and strangle. With no hesitation.”       “Okay, we’ll remember,” Edward smiles slyly. “Don’t make mistakes and don’t upset us.”       “I will not. I swear.”       “Alright, Peter, we’ll believe you,” Daniel promises and smiles slyly. “Or would the guys and I rather call you Theodore, huh?”       “Oh, yeah!” Terrence exclaims. “If you wanna use the name you were given at birth, don’t forget to warn us.”       “No, guys, no Theodore!” Peter shakes his head confidently. “I’m not gonna give up my name and take a different one. Even if I was bullied and showered with mud under this name, I will remain the one I’ve been for twenty-seven years of my life. Well… Or a little fewer…”       “Hey, c’mon!” Natalia shrugs. “A new name, a new life!”       “No! Life doesn’t change after you change your name. Your memories can’t be erased. I can’t start anything over again. No matter who I am: Peter or Theodore.”       “If you change your mind, we will try to get used to it,” Anna assures.       “You won’t have to.” Peter raises his head. “My name is Peter. Peter Rose. And I chose my life. I am going to be the only one to be able to control it fully.”       “Alright, as you wish!” Edward smiles shyly.       “Yeah, and to be honest, I don’t like the name Theodore,” Helene confesses. “And I didn’t get a love for Theodore. I have a love for Peter. My beloved and dearest Peter.”       “May it associate with my imaginary friend, without whom I would’ve hardly survived in this fucking world. Even though he wasn’t always my friend and acted like my enemy at times.”       “Hey, man, stop with all these imaginary friends and remember about real ones!” Daniel jabs cheerfully. “If you don’t, we’re gonna start to be jealous!”       “As I understand, he’s gone,” Peter shrugs and looks around the whole room. “I don’t see or hear him anymore. As if he had completed his mission of making me remember the past. And… He’ll no longer try to make me go on the wrong path, whispering dirty things about people and telling me to harm them.”       Sammy whines with pity at this moment.       “By the way, didn’t you run away from home because of your friend?” Terrence frowns slightly.       “Because of him,” Peter confesses. “When I stayed alone in the living room and realized what had happened, I started to call Theodore. I needed him. Without him, I couldn’t handle what I didn’t wanna remember. I called him, but he didn’t answer. I didn’t see him. But… At some moment, I saw him through the window. I called him, and he left. And then I saw Garret. He… He looked at me with the same eyes as he did back then. He called me. It was really creepy… And I… I ran after Theodore. Shouting out his name again and again. I was running to where my eyes looked, not knowing where I was. And when I woke up, I… I was much more scared… Because I didn’t know where to go. I was in the woods, I heard thunder, I saw lightning, and the rain wasn’t gonna end. I didn’t know what to do… I was really scared… Very lonely… The memories of that horrible day came into my mind again. Again and again, I thought about what those people did to me. And… I silently let the disaster take me. Do anything to me. I… I had nothing to lose.”       “You were really out of your mind when we found you,” Raquelle notices. “You didn’t react to anything and were just staring into the distance.”       “I know I look like a psycho as I tell you about certain imaginary friends. But it’s the truth. No matter how stupid it all sounds.”       “Yeah, imaginary friends can’t lead to anything good,” Edward exhales sharply. “I imagine how you were running wild in the woods under the heavy rain, hitting your head against the trees, stumbling over every single stone, and kissing the wet ground as fuck.”       “Indeed, buddy, no more imaginary friends, please!” Natalia exclaims. “Yes, maybe Theodore really completed his mission when you were a lonely child. But now you’re an adult man, who has the best friends and a wonderful girlfriend.”       Sammy barks shyly.       “And a wonderful doggy, too.”       “Forgive me for all the evil things I did to you again,” Peter begs with sadness in his eyes. “I didn’t really wanna hurt anyone.”       “Enough, bro, stop worrying!” Daniel exclaims, clapping Peter on the shoulders. “C’mon, exhale with relief and get this shit outta your mind. We decided on it, we discussed it, we forgot it, and we forgave. Fine! Let’s not come back to this anymore. Let’s move on.”       “Gonna learn to trust you all completely.”       “Hey, you better tell us how you’re feeling!” Terrence exclaims. “After all this hell…”       “Much better,” Peter flashes a slight smile. “At least, I’ve finally warmed up.”       “Prefer to believe since your cheeks are pink now,” Helene says confidently, running the back of her hand over Peter’s cheek. “You were pale and icy before.”       “And it would be great if you went to the hospital and checked your lungs,” Raquelle advises. “So that you don’t have problems after you almost drowned. And you ran wet outside.”       “Just for you, guys!” Peter exclaims.       “Alright, folks, stop talking about bad things!” Edward suggests cheerfully. “Let’s finally relax and have a cool time together.”       “Oh, yay, this day was fucking full!” Daniel agrees, running his hands over his face and massaging his neck a little. “And I do really regret going to a gym class for an intense workout. Because all of me hurts after running for so long: from my head to my toes. I’ve never run and jumped as much in my whole life as today! I’d probably have to lie in the bed or creep on the floor, cleaning the floor with my torso so that it glosses.”       “And I’m freaking hungry now!” Terrence exclaims, running his hand over his stomach. “A cup of coffee and a cup of tea were good, of course, but it’s too little. It’s nothing!”       “But I don’t wanna eat at all,” Peter pronounces thoughtfully. “I barely drank this tea. I dream of food less than anything now. I even feel nauseous when I think about it.”       “But you have to eat just something,” Edward replies confidently. “To get some strength.”       “It’s okay, our girls are gonna make us happy with their culinary masterpieces!” Daniel rubs his hands happily and hugs Anna around the shoulders. “Feed their beloved men to the up. Yeah, beauties?”       “What culinary masterpieces?” Anna smiles innocently.       “C’mon!” Terrence exclaims, pressing Raquelle to himself and kissing her on the temple. “You wanted to cook something tasty!”       “We’ve got no idea what you’re talking about,” Raquelle blinks her eyes surprisingly and caresses Terrence’s cheek with the back of her hand. “The girls and I cooked nothing.”       “C’mon, cuties, stop showing off,” Edward insists, hugging Natalia and kissing her on the cheek. “Where’s our hot, delicious food? What are ya gonna make us happy with?”       “Nothing,” Natalia smiles sweetly and slaps Edward on the nose. “But if you wanna eat, order something. Though nobody’s gonna get out in this weather.”       “Hey, I’m kinda confused!” Daniel frowns strongly. “Is this a protest? Is nobody gonna feed us tonight?”       “Let me ask you which merits we should cook food for you?” Helene asks surprisingly.       “Seriously?” Terrence opens his eyes widely. “We did survive such terrible things you couldn’t ever see in your dreams! So, you must feed us with something tasty!”       “Sorry, boys, but we can’t help you,” Anna shakes her head and kisses Daniel on the cheek. “The dining room is closed for now, and all the cooks went home.”       “Hey, we want to eat!” Edward exclaims. “We want a big piece of fresh meat! With spices! With sauce!”       “The kitchen is at your service. Go. Cook whatever you want. But don’t forget to clean everything after yourself.”       “Hey, I am the owner of the house, and I order that you, ladies, feed my friends and me right now!” Daniel orders harshly.       “We ain’t cookers to you,” Natalia states with a proud look, looking at her manicure that is perfect, as always. “If you wanna eat, cook yourself. You won’t die. And take a note, the rain is heavy now outside. It would extinguish the fire in case your house is in trouble, after all.”       “C’mon, girls, give these dorks something to eat,” Peter laughs shyly, putting his hand on Helene’s knee. “I can already hear the grumbling in their stomachs.”       “The boys are punished today,” Helene states confidently. “They are strictly punished.’       “For what?” Edward, Daniel, and Terrence resent.       “For your disgusting behavior,” Raquelle exclaims and pushes Terrence softly off her. “For your terrible attitude toward your friend, who nearly died. For your open hints at your indifference to his fate.”       “Okay, okay, we do admit we crossed the line a little,” Edward exhales sharply. “But we just didn’t know what to do: we were kinda mad, but we were kinda sorry.”       “Not ‘a little’, Edward, but you went ‘too far’,” Helene replies.       “Girls…” Terrence shows puppy eyes. “Our sweeties… Don’t be mad… We didn’t really want it… We’re very sorry… Forgive us…”       “Think about your behavior until tomorrow,” Natalia advises and turns Edward’s face aside. “We’ll see it then. If you’re good boys, alright, we’ll feed you. But now do it on your own.”       “Does it happen nobody’s gonna feed us like kings tonight?” Daniel rounds his eyes. “We won’t be caressed and won’t hear a good word?”       “You can just dream about it now,” Anna smiles innocently and kisses Daniel on the cheek. “We can't ban you from that.”       “Please, cuties… Our sweethearts… Girls… Don’t be mad at us…”       “Show puppy eyes to each other.” Anna slaps Daniel on the nose with her finger. “It ain’t gonna work on us.”       “After everything that happened today, you must take care of us!” Edward states.       “Take care of each other then. You’ve got a real chance to rehabilitate yourself in our eyes by giving some attention to your friend. Who wouldn’t be sitting here with us if the girls and I hadn’t reacted on time.”       “Uh-huh,” Natalia laughs. “And tomorrow morning, the boys will go outside and clean the territory of everything that has been destroyed by the hurricane.”       “But we did go to help him anyway!” Terrence notices. “When you went to the back of the house, and when you went to find him outside.”       “You got out for us,” Raquelle replies.       “Not true! We drank coffee, caught a breath, calmed down, talked, understood that we crossed the line, and decided to go to look for Peter, too.”       “Blah, blah, blah, blah!” Natalia rolls her eyes. “Excusing yourself doesn’t make sense. It ain’t gonna help you.”       “Please, girls!” Edward, Daniel, and Terrence start jabbing excitedly. “Please! Please! Please! We’re so sorry! Forgive us! Please! We’re guilty! Please!”       “Hey, stop whining now!” Helene exclaims, clenching her raised hand into a weak fist.       “Listen, girls, help me take the cups to the kitchen and wash them,” Anna says thoughtfully, glancing at several empty cups placed on the table. “I guess everyone has drunk tea.”       “No problem! We’ll wash everything quickly and decide on what to do.”       “Uh-huh, but you stay here and think about your behavior!” Natalia orders harshly. “And watch Pete.”       “Your head will be staked!” Raquelle adds. “As well as your genitals. Which we will wrap around your necks if you show off again.”       “Hey, Sammy, you’re in charge!” Helene exclaims. “May the boys be under your close view.”       Sammy barks confidently two times, while the girls get up from the bed, take all the empty cups, and leave the room, while Terrence, Daniel, and Edward being confused and a little resentful look at each other.       “What’s the matrix failure?” Edward frowns strongly. “When did the system start glitching?”       “Yo, dorks, did ya lose all your power at your pride, huh?” Peter laughs, crossing his arms over his chest.       “They did like to be heroines!” Terrence exclaims. “They’re sick of doing nothing and counting on others!”       “It’s okay, we’ll wait for a while,” Daniel says confidently. “And then we’ll restore order in the harem and take what’s ours and show who the head is.”       “Okay, try,” Peyer smiles slyly. “I'm gonna watch you stop the resistance. The girls aren’t as innocent as they may seem.”       “We haven’t recently just had enough time to keep them on the leash,” Terrence replies and runs his hand over his hair. “So, they got loose a little.”       “At least, today you’re one hundred percent gonna have to serve yourself.”       “It’s okay, we’ll wait for one day,” Daniel raises his head proudly. “Even less. It’s too late now, and it means a new day is getting closer.”       “I bet one hundred dollars that nothing changes. And they take much stricter measures toward you for your behavior that is really far from good.”       “Don’t ya believe we were worried about you, either?” Edward rounds his eyes.       “With a bi-i-i-ig stretch.”       “It hurts, dude, it does!”       “Hurts or not, but a rooster pecked you in your ass too late.”       “We were just fighting with ourselves,” Daniel excuses. “We were kinda mad and didn’t wanna get our asses off the couch, but we were fucking scared that you’d really die.”       “Uh-huh, even if you were a fucking pain in the ass, we didn’t really wish you to die,” Terrence adds.       “Nah, it’s okay,” Peter sighs tiredly, moving his eyes to his hands. “I understand why you wanted to do nothing ‘til the very end.”       “Anyway, we’re really grateful to the girls for being so determined. Of course, we were freaking furious that they hardly thought of the consequences. But if not for their determination and courage, we would’ve really lost you.”       “Our girls are awesome. When their close people are in trouble, they put themselves together and do the craziest things.”       “And if they come together, it’s gonna be the explosive mixture,” Daniel laughs. “They kicked Blanca’s ass so hard under Anna’s control. The scene everyone must’ve seen!”       “Of course, it’s all cool and funny, but what do we do now?” Edward wonders. “Are they really gonna show off until tomorrow?”       “The girls look very serious. So, guys, they won’t feed us anything delicious today. We’ll have to feed ourselves with what we can find in the refrigerator.”       “I sense that you, Dan, are gonna have to spend a wonderful night on the couch,” Peter assumes. “Because your sweetheart may not let you in the room tonight.”       “Why would she? That’s my room, too!”       “If only we all didn’t have to go to sleep on the couch!” Terrence exclaims. “The girls may go further and kick us out if we go to the room.”       “Okay, we’ll go to another in this case!” Daniel shrugs. “There are many of them! And there’s Cassidy’s room. While she’s not here, we can go there.”       “Uh-huh, if only they didn’t take all the rooms!” Edward replies. “How many rooms are there here? Three? Four? They’re gonna take all of them and won’t let us in! And we’ll have to spend a night on the couch or the floor!”       “C’mon, stop panicking! They won’t do this! They’ll just show up a little and give up! A couple of kisses and tight hugs before they’re at our mercy!”       “I’d laugh if they deprived you of sex as a punishment,” Peter smiles innocently. “For a week or two!”       “No, they won't touch the holy thing!” Terrence raises his index finger. “These cuties won’t dare to do that to us.”       “Yeah? I think they’re very determined!”       “Oh, as if it’s the first time when we tame these cuties!” Edward chuckles with his head proudly raised. “Some effort before these wild tigers become sweet home cats again.”       “The important thing is to take the room before they wanna go there and don’t let us in,” Daniel notices.       “While they wash the cups, we’ve got time to take the best room in this house first,” Terrence hints with a sly smile.       “Right! And then they can try to kick us out!”       Sammy barks confidently two times.       “Look, Sammy settled himself in so well!” Edward notices, yanking Sammy by the ears. “Look at him lying on the sofa bed! Under the blond’s arm.”       “I’m surprised that the girls haven’t said anything about it yet,” Peter confesses. “Marshall kicks him out of all the couches and beds at home. But now she’s said nothing…”       “But soon she will!” Daniele exclaims. “And she’ll kick his ass harder than we all kick the ass of the youngest one of us.”       “Did you mean, harder than I kick the asses of all of you?” Edward crosses his arms over his chest with a sly smile.       “The kids have lately been freaking wild!” Terrence exclaims. “We’re fucking tired of educating the kids. One freaks out, another does shit…”       “Oh, man, you’re so right!” Daniele exclaims and puts his hand on his forehead theatrically. “I am so tired… So tired! I have no strength. I need much patience to play the role of the daddy.”       “Yeah, we don’t have our own children yet!”       “And I also need to watch my sister so that she doesn’t do any stupid things!”       “And I need to watch a whole soccer team! Three younger brothers!”       “The fate of the eldest people is unenviable.”       “You’re right! Dealing with kids requires a lot of nerves.”       “Nobody makes you, pensioners, do this,” Peter replies. “Relax and live carefreely and funnily! Warm up your bellies under the sun and suck in juice with a straw.”       “Hey, who did you call pensioners, huh?” Daniel resents, giving Peter a slight clap on the back of the head.       “As far as I remember, the second kid called us like this too,” Terrence recalls, ruffling Edward’s hair.       “And actually, we don’t have such a great age difference! I’m fucking far from old age! I am young, handsome, and hot! On the peck of my handsomeness, as they say!”       “Just like I am!” Terrence adds.       “Shut up, pensioners!” Peter and Edward exclaim.       “Asking for trouble!” Terrence and Daniel reply, clenching a hand into a fist.       Sammy barks shyly and yawls contagiously.       “And actually, stop growing your asses here!” Daniel orders. “We’ve gotta go to the best room before the girls really take it.”       “And then decide on what to do!” Terrence exclaims. “We’re stuck here at least until tomorrow due to the weather.”       “It’s okay, there’s enough space here! We’ll find something to eat since these cuties decided to rebel.”       “We’ll now stop all the riots and show them who the boss is here,” Edward adds proudly.       “Well, we’re pretty good at this!” Terrence exclaims.       Sammy barks two times again, while Edward, Daniel, and Terrence want to get up from the bed. Meanwhile, Peter thinks about something as he glances at the window.       “Guys…” Peter glances at his friends.       “What?” Edward reacts. “Any problems?”       “I… I want to ask you a couple of questions. Can I?”       “Sure, ask,” Terrence shrugs.       “First, I haven’t understood… How did you know I went to Marcus’s home on the day we thought Helene died? I told nobody about it!”       “Right,” Daniel nods. “We didn’t know. But we learned about your meeting with Marcus from Ryan,”       “Ryan?” Peter frowns slightly. “Is that Anna’s friend?”       “He is! The guys and I were all here on that day. Sitting on the back of the house and talking. We wanted to invite you, but you didn’t answer our calls. And it made us suspicious.”       “And then Anna left us and went to the house to take something,” Edward says. “And then the phone rang, but Seymour responded. That was Ryan.”       “He said he left the house of his friend from the university and saw some assholes take you somewhere under your arms,” Terrence confesses. “Anna learned everything she could from him and asked him to send photos, the coordinates, and everything like this. He recorded a voice message so that the guys and I knew the details too.”       “And after all of this, we understood that you were about to get in trouble. We started to think about what to do. And when Terrence recalled that there was the house he had examined when he wanted to buy a new house, Dan, he, and I didn’t waste time and went to that place.”       “Uh-huh, we asked the girls to contact Mr. Johnson if we didn’t show up soon,” Daniel adds. “We told them to sit here and wait. But it seems that they called the police shortly after we left.”       “Now everything is clear…” Peter pronounces thoughtfully.       “Listen, man, did you really think you’d deal with your father all by yourself?” Terrence wonders. “You did know that he invited you there to kill you!”       “I did, but I hoped for a miracle,” Peter replies. “And I did it for Helene only. I must have. If not for her, I wouldn’t have even crossed the doorstep of his house.”       “We see, but we couldn’t have known what he did to you,” Edward notices. “Moreover, that bastard wasn’t alone. He was with his henchmen.”       “I know, Edward! But… I didn’t wanna get anyone involved in this case. I didn’t want you to suffer because of me. It had to do with Marcus and me. And Helene. I must’ve ended all of that by myself.”       “Thanks to Ryan for seeing you there and contacting us on time!” Daniel exclaims. “If not for him, you would’ve died because of your father back then.”       “Marcus didn’t say I should’ve come alone. I decided it. I decided to be silent. And… He said if you showed up, you would be dead. But I could not risk it like this. And he didn’t lie, as you could notice it on your skin.”       “Great, huh!” Terrence exclaims. “You almost let that bastard shake things up and commit the biggest and most horrible murder in his life.”       “Sorry, guys… I really did to keep you safe and not to put you in danger.” Peter cracks a slight smile. “But still, I’m kinda glad you showed up there. Even though I was fucking scared when Marcus brought me to the basement, where you three were lying unconscious.”       “They didn’t have to do it, we would’ve gone there at our will and kicked the ass of that bastard motherfucker and his henchmen,” Daniel replies. “Whom you scared so that they all pushed themselves into the corner and pressed themselves to each other like scared kittens and squeaked something.”       “No wonder…” Peter pronounces hesitantly. “I was scared of myself… Because I turned evil. And I was ready to destroy anyone who stood in my way.”       “We get it.”       “And yeah, Terrence… Didn’t anything happen to you at that moment? I think you felt some kind of… Pain?! Or it seemed to me?”       “Oh, your father almost made me disabled when he pushed me off the stairs,” Terrence confesses. “My back hurt so much that I was fucking scared, I thought I’d be confined to a wheelchair and have to end my career. But that’s good it was just a bruise.”       “And how’s it doing now?”       “It’s okay now. A full rest and a therapy massage did their business. Yes, I’ll have several more sessions, but I feel much better now.”       “I’m glad it ended well.”       “Yeah, many things happened after you were knocked out,” Daniel notices. “But it all ended with Marcus almost burning all of us down by setting the basement on fire and locking us there.”       “But Edward saved us!” Terrence adds, not hiding his pride. “He knocked off the door that led upstairs. First, Marcus’s accomplices ran out after betraying their lord, being terrified by all your tricks, and then we got out.”       “Uh-huh, Perkins and I lifted up two half-disabled folks and ended up on freedom,” Edward says.       “I was wondering why the fuck you smelled with fumes,” Peter replies thoughtfully. “Why the fuck I smelled with fumes.”       “After your tricks, we could’ve left you there and let you die, of course,” Daniel says. “But our conscience didn’t let us do it.”       “Oh, fuck, I’m so ashamed to remember all of that…” Peter runs his hands over his face. “Ashamed to remember how I stopped seeing good and bad people and wanted to rip everyone in my way. I wanted to see a pool of blood there…”       “Let’s not remember that,” Terrence suggests quietly. “What’s done is done. The important thing is that you understood your mistake and showed regret.”       “I’m really very sorry about not being able to put myself together.”       “It’s hard to put yourself together when you lose a close person,” Edward notices. “People are right when they say you must have someone next to you at these moments. And knowing about your mental issues, it was supposed to happen early or late. You couldn’t keep all of this inside forever.”       “Right. But I pushed everyone off me with all my actions.”       “Alright, Pete, relax and don’t think about it!” Edward claps Peter on the shoulder. “We promise that the guys and I won’t recall this case and reproach you for anything. We made a lot of mistakes too and crossed the line, but we hope you ain’t gonna be mad at us.”       “Thanks, guys.”       Sammy barks quietly at this moment, and Peter caresses his head with a slight smile.       “Okay, what’s your second question?” Terrence asks. “You said you had a couple of them!”       “Second question…” Peter pronounces hesitantly and thinks for two seconds, pursing his lips and looking into the distance with sadness. “It’s, erm…”       “C’mon, speak out!” Daniel exclaims. “Why are ya shy?”       “I just… I wanna know…”       Peter hesitates for two more seconds before he looks at the men with a little scared and tense glance, asking hesitantly:       “Did you really want to rape me there, in the woods?”       Being a little discouraged, Edward, Terrence, and Daniel look at each other hesitantly, not getting pleasure from having to remember that.       “Would you really have taken your pants off to… Do that to me?”       “Erm, no, of course…” Daniel replies in a little shaking, tense voice. “Nobody was gonna rape you. It was an act! Just an act.”       “But you…”       “We just wanted to scare you!” Edward exclaims. “It was the only one that cooled you down.”       “Uh-huh, when Dan started to talk about it, but you shook and tensed, we understood that it was what we needed,” Terrence confesses. “So, we decided to join the game.”       “I was fucking horrified at the thought that you’d really do that,” Peter says hesitantly and swallows nervously. “You… You looked so… So… True… And your eyes… They… They were so real… I almost believed you.”       “Listen, Pete, don’t be mad at us for scaring you like that and making you freak out,” Edward apologizes. “We didn’t really know you’d gotten through something like that before. We didn’t know we touched your most painful wound.”       “How wouldn’t you have freaked out when everything was so similar?” Terrence adds. “We tied you up to the tree and started to accost you allegedly, and those teenagers did it…”       “It’s okay, you couldn’t know it,” Peter replies quietly.       “That’s bad the girls know it,” Daniel says. “The guys and I wanted to hide it, but Helene revealed us as fuck. We had to blush.”       “I told her about it on the way here.”       “And actually, they still don’t know many things,” Terrence confesses. “We didn’t tell them all the horrible things that happened to us. We didn't tell them all the details.”       “Don’t do. The less they know, the tighter they sleep.”       “Anyway, we didn’t deny everything Marshall said,” Edward replies. “We told them the truth. We said it all was just an act. But… They were so mad at us that they hardly believed it. They thought we were waiting for you to die.”       “Honestly… Some of your words were literally the same as those the guys said, and… Garret said… I know it may be a coincidence, but… I’m telling you the truth.”       “I must confess that Edward and I got the feeling that Perkins knew all of this,” Terrence confesses. “As if he’s been so obsessed with this thing all this time for the reason.”       “I didn’t know, but I suspected something,” Daniel confesses. “And Pete blunted these phrases in sleep.”       “In sleep?” Peter frowns strongly. “When did it happen?”       “When you lived with me after your apartment was treated for cockroaches. I woke up at night ‘cause I wanted to go to the toilet. I went by your room, and you blunted something. At first, I thought you were awake and decided to find out what was wrong. But then I saw you were sleeping and heard some moans, pleas, and something like this. I wanted to come and find out if you were alright. But in the end, I just decided to stand a little, listen and… I heard all these words… All the words that made you have an uncontrolled hysteria today. And I saw you moaning and twirling at that moment. And it happened many times, not just once. So, I perforce memorized almost everything.”       “Interesting…” Terrence pronounces thoughtfully.       “I really often had nightmares about me being raped,” Peter confesses. “Since my early age. And I even saw Garret himself, whom I forgot at all. That man seemed familiar to me, but I couldn’t remember if I knew him. And I didn’t understand why I actually saw those nightmares, which were the reason why I barely slept at night or actually suffered from insomnia. Really! There were moments when I couldn’t sleep for days. Just because I was afraid to fall asleep. I was afraid to see his face and that icy glance. To feel how he… Touched me…”       “I noticed it too,” Daniel nods. “Sometimes you were sitting in the living room or the kitchen as if nothing had happened when it was nighttime. Or you weren’t gonna go to sleep when I was gonna go to my room.”       “And when I thought Helene was dead, I started to see other nightmares. In which she hates me and despises me. In which you try to kill me… Or actually die.”       “Come on?” Edward rounds his eyes widely.       “In these nightmares, you hate me wildly and could put a knife deeply in me and shoot me with a gun. You didn’t hear any of my prayers of pitying me. My attempts to escape didn’t save me either. As well as my prayers for waking me up and getting me out of that hell. I… I was kinda stuck in that hell with no way out. In hell where I was a monster… A monster with a criminal soul… Where… You all… Were like… Demons… And I can’t get the song you sang out of my mind. I mean… I forgot the lyrics, but the melody is stuck in my head. It was creepy, but clingy.”       Sammy whines with great pity, looking at Peter with sad eyes and pressing himself to him as closely as possible.       “Oh, shit…” Edward pronounces thoughtfully.       “And since you suspected something, did you decide to check this version?” Terrence surprises, moving his eyes to Daniel.       “I thought there was another way since verbal threats and the sight of a knife didn’t scare Rose,” Daniel shrugs. “Which worked, as we can see. Though I didn’t count on anything at that moment. I decided to try just in case. And… I didn’t stop when I noticed something moved off.”       “It was really cruel of us, even though your crazy idea helped us to some extent,” Edward replies thoughtfully.       “Trust me, I ain’t proud of what I did, either. I said these things and felt fucking disgusting deep inside. I was like, ‘Fuck, shit, what am I actually doing?’”       “Don’t worry, guys, it’s alright,” Peter replies quietly, putting his hand on Daniel’s shoulder. “You just tried to bring this case to an end. And I… I was a bastard.”       “It turns out, we were bastards. Since we opened your old wounds and didn’t stop even when we saw clearly that you felt bad.”       “I understand you. Though I’m still horrified at the thought that I could be raped by my best friends. Those I trusted much more than myself. Those whose betrayal would’ve hurt me much more than a cruel betrayal of someone I barely knew.”       “Calm down, Peter, we will never do this to you,” Edward assures. “We will never do such disgusting things that make me personally have a lump in my throat.”       “Didn’t you really wanna rape me? Never ever?”       “Dude, we were, we are, and we will have a thing for girls only,” Terrence states confidently. “And men can only be our friends in the best case. Someone may be close, someone may not be. And we ain’t rapers. If a girl doesn’t want, we don’t touch her with a finger.”       “Sounds hopeful. But I thought you were a little crazy.”       “Don’t worry, buddy, your area, your dignity, and your honor are gonna be safe and sound,” Daniel assures, hitting his fist slightly against Peter’s forearm. “We ain’t even gonna put an eye on it.”       “I’ve got my area, but I hardly kept my honor and dignity after what they did to me many times.”       “Anyway, don’t expect anything like this from us,” Edward says, putting his arm around Peter’s neck. “We are friends. And we will always be just friends, without these demons on our minds.”       “Okay, I’ll believe ya.”       “Again, forgive us for doing such a cruel thing to you,” Terrence apologizes, putting his hand on Peter’s shoulder. “We’re really very sorry. We didn’t wanna bring the situation to what happened. And actually… We didn’t wanna fight with you at all.”       “It’s okay, forget it. You forgive me. For everything. For all my insults and charges you didn’t deserve… For wishing you death in anger… And… My attempts to kill you. If it had really happened, I would’ve never forgiven myself for that. Never.”       “It’s okay, don’t worry.”       “And yeah, don’t call me Theodore, please. I am Peter. I will always be the one.”       “Okay, as you wish.”       “And… If you got some trauma because of me, let me know. So that I can cover the cost of your treatment. Of course, I’ve got money issues now ‘cause I spent almost everything on buying the house and paying a fine for a recent fight at the bar. But I’ll come up with something.”       “These we have are going away slowly,” Edward waves his hands. “Of course, we still have some burns and bruises, but nothing will be left of them soon.”       “And I restored my broken tooth, too,” Daniel adds, pointing at the tooth that looks like new now. “They put the seal without problems.”       “Forgive me, please…” Peter pronounces guiltily. “I’m really very sorry. But I’m glad I broke just one tooth, not all of them.”       “I considered it a chance to check my teeth. I was gonna do it a long time ago, but I couldn’t find time.”       “How much did you pay? I’ll cover the cost.”       “Forget, dude, no need to pay anything!”       “Just call the amount so that I can transfer it to your card.”       “Stop, Peter! I said, no need to pay anything. It’s okay. They put the seal for two visits only. Very good one. It looks super natural.”       “I’m surprised that my teeth are alright. Even if you all beat me fucking hard. Anyway, you all have a heavy hand.”       “I must confess that you’re a very worthy competitor,” Edward notices. “Fighting with you was actually super interesting.”       “Ha, you give a fuck about whose face you beat – it can be anyone!” Terrence chuckles. “You get an orgasm anyway!”       “Honestly, I spent several days coming to myself after your tricks,” Peter says as he laughs. “And now everything I have hurts now.”       “Anyway, just know doing that was disgusting to us,” Daniel replies. “We didn’t wanna fight and confront you. The guys and I didn’t feel comfortable as we were beating you. We felt dirty as we said some filthy phrases and literally shook our genitals in front of you.”       “I believe you, guys,” Peter smiles shyly. “I do.”       “Erm…” Daniel stutters and clenches his hand into a fist for a second as he bites his lip. “Hey… Is it okay that we touch you? DO you feel comfortable with it?”       “It’s okay. You can touch me as much as you want. I do even feel kinda better when you do this.”       “Right? Isn’t it unpleasant to you?”       Peter says nothing and just takes Daniel silently in a strong hug with a much wider smile and presses Edward to himself too at some moment. Then Terrence chuckling kindly joins them too. And Sammy barking shyly presses himself to everyone and brings his face to all of them so that they scratch and caress it a little.       “Alright, done with mushy stuff!” Terrence raises his head proudly. “We’ve gotta solve the problem with the girls and ruin all their plans.”       “Uh-huh, what if these crazy ladies wanna run under the rain and wait for them to be struck by lightning again,” Daniel agrees, reaches the heater standing near, and turns it off.       “You’d better lock all the doors and hide the keys,” Edward advises.       “If we have to, we will really lock them somewhere.”       “First, we’ve gotta find out what they’re doing and where they’re sitting,” Peter notices.       “Huh, Sammy will find them quickly now! Right, buddy? Will ya help us?”       Sammy barks confidently two times, jumps from the bed quickly, comes to the door, turns around, and barks again as if he calls the men to follow him.       “Holy shit, how fast he picked up a trail!” Edward surprises.       “C’mon, guys, let’s go!” Terrence makes a calling gesture. “C’mon, get up! Quick! Quick!”       Edward, Terrence, and Daniel get up from the bed and leave the room at the same time, while Peter does not rush to follow them and watches them with sad eyes before he moves them to the pieces of the bracelet lying on the table. When he takes them, he sighs heavily as he looks at every one of them with the thought that it cannot be fixed at all. He tries to paste them together and gets much more upset at the sight of the cracks that cannot be hidden, to his sadness. Just like he cannot erase the memories of what nearly ruined his friendship with the closest people he has in his life. Again and again, Rose silently prays that the men and the girls do not really deceive him and do not say that he means a lot to them under the influence of strong emotions. The influence of fear. The influence of horror they all had to get through.       Looking at every single crack on the pieces of the bracelet, Peter recalls unconsciously his nightmares, in which he lost his friends and girlfriend again and again and heard them blaming him for betraying and even expressing a wish to get rid of him. At some moment, he starts to sing quietly the song he has not been able to get out of his mind since he heard it. Even if he does not remember most of the lyrics, some of them are stuck in his head and repeat like a broken record.       “You are a monster…” Peter sings under his nose, beating the rhythm with his foot. “With a criminal soul… We are monsters… With trapped souls…”       After he repeats these words several times, Peter sighs heavily with sadness in his eyes. Then, leaning on the pillow with his back and bending his legs at his knees, he keeps looking at every single crack and every single chip on the pieces of the bracelet, which he is still holding in his hands. However, he does not stay alone for too long because Edward enters the room at some moment and looks at him questioningly.       “Hey, Pete, are you coming?” Edward asks.       “Erm, yes…” Peter pronounces hesitantly, clears his throat quickly, puts all the pieces of the bracelet on the table, and runs his hands over his pale face. “I’m coming…”       “Are you okay, buddy?” Terrence asks, entering the room along with Daniel.       “It’s okay, guys, I’m fine.”       Peter gets out of the blanket with great reluctance and shakes slightly due to the weakness he is still obsessed with after he gets up on his feet.       “Hey, hey, are you really okay?” Daniel expresses anxiety.       “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” Peter replies. “Just got up too sharply…”       “Don’t worry, buddy, we’ll solve the problem with the bracelet later,” Edward promises. “It’s gonna be like new soon!”       “It just feels hurt when you lose something that means a lot to you,” Peter explains.       “Hey, don’t think something is gonna change between us after the bracelet broke into pieces,” Terrence insists. “We’ve already said that everything is okay.”       “I believe, guys.” Peter smiles tiredly. “I really do.”       “Nah, c’mon, blond, stop feeling bored!” Daniel insists cheerfully. “We’ll quickly put down the ladies’ riot, and then they’ll feed us with something tasty, caress us a little, and put us in a warm bed.”       “Hopefully, I won’t wake up after this with the thought it’s all just a dream,” Peter replies thoughtfully, trying to detangle his ruffled hair with his fingers. “That my girlfriend is dead, Theodore fucks my brain… And I can’t get rid of the thought that my close friends are evil incarnates who are guilty of all my problems.”       At this moment, a deafening clap of thunder is heard behind the window after a long silence. It makes the men shake sharply, while Sammy whines with pity and, putting his tail between his paws, hides behind Peter. But when they relax a little and exhale, they jump back sharply when the glass in a window frame crushes with a crack into thousands of pieces that fall on the floor, and another window that is not broken yet opens sharply under the pressure of the hurricane wind and hits the wall sharply.       “Oh, shit!” Edward swears. “Bloody hell!”       Resisting the wind that gets into the window through the broken frame, Peter comes to the window and tries to open it by force. But since it turns out to be hard to do, Edward rushes to help him, and then Daniel and Terrence join. Thanks to the joint effort, they manage to close the window and turn the handle, even though nobody is sure that it will remain safe in this hurricane that is not going to end.       “If this shit breaks all the windows in my house, I say goodbye to my money,” Daniel exhales sharply. “I’m gonna go bankrupt as I change everything and restore it.”       “Not just yours, bro,” Terrence notices. “I’m even afraid to imagine what’s happening at my house. And how much I have to spend.”       “It’s okay, we’ll manage it,” Peter says quietly. “We did it somehow. Which means we will do this now.”       “Oh, we’ll solve it later!” Edward exclaims. “Let’s look for the girls before they really come up with something else! Sammy, let’s go!”       Edward moves off and leaves the room first after Sammy waiting for everyone in the hall and already feeling the familiar smells in the air. Then Terrence and Peter join him. And before leaving, Daniel takes the pieces of the bracelet, looks at them for two seconds, and puts them determinedly in a pocket of his hoodie as if he comes with a plan and takes everything the girls left here: the hairpin, the necklace, and the earrings. Then he looks around the whole room with a broken window, leaves the room, and catches up with his friends after this. It does not take too much time to come to the closed door of the room of the owner of the house and his sweetheart, and see that the dog starts scratching it with his paw and barking quietly but confidently.       “Oh, are they there already?” Edward wonders.       “Oh, oh, I hear them whispering…” Terrence says. “Laughing, talking…”       “M-m-m, I sense that you won’t deal with them so easily,” Peter assumes.       “Huh, watch and learn, bro!” Daniel chuckles with a proud look. “Now we will show them who the boss is here.”       But when Daniel wants to press the door handle and push the door open himself, he finds out that it does not work.       “What?! What the fuck! Hey!” Daniel tries to pull and push the door on himself several times. “What the? Hey! Hello!”       “Hey, did they lock themselves there?” Edward wonders.       “Girls! Open the door now! Girls! Hello!” Daniel hits his fist against the door. “Hey! Let us in right now!”       “Last one’s a fool!” Raquelle’s funny voice is heard behind the door.       “Hey, cuties, open the gate right now!” Terrence demands. “Stop showing off!”       “It’s taken!” Helene adds. “Look for a different place to spend a night!”       “You don’t have the right not to let us in!” Edward states. “It’s not honest!”       “We do!” Anna exclaims. “Nobody will let you in! So, get out of here!”       “At least, let me in!” Peter begs with pity. “Don’t punish me, huh…”       “Sorry, sweetie, but this is the ladies’ zone,” Helene replies funnily.       “Hey, it’s actually my room!” Daniel states. “And you have no right not to let me in! So, stop showing off and open the door right now!”       “We know nothing!” Natalia jabs. “Get out of here!”       “But, girls…” Edward moans with pity, starting to scratch the door with his nails like a cat. “Our sweethearts… Let us in under our wind to warm…”       “If you feel cold, embrace each other or the heater!” Raquelle exclaims. “But we will be there!”       “Plea-a-a-a-a-a-ase, sweeties…” Terrence pronounces in a high voice. “Let us in…”       “We’ll talk when you think about your behavior!”       “We won’t do that anymo-o-o-o-o-ore…” Daniel replies with pity. “We’re very, very ashamed… We’re so-o-o-o-o-o-o so-o-o-o-o-sorry…”       “Hey, you, mangy cats, get out of here now!” Natalia jabs. “Nobody’s waiting for you here! And we don’t give sausages here!”       “C’mon, cuties, don’t show off,” Peter says. “The guys have realized everything and regretted it.”       “You were told, no places here!” Anna adds.       “Plea-a-a-a-a-ase…” Daniel, Edward, Terrence, and Peter whine with pity and scratch the door.       “Enough, boys, get out!” Helene exclaims. “You are punished today! You must think about your behavior at least until tomorrow.”       “Don’t do this, plea-a-a-a-a-ase…” Edward pronounces in a high, sweet voice. “Gi-i-i-i-i-irls…”       “It’s weird, the time of mating games is over, but we’ve got March cats at this house,” Natalia says thoughtfully. “Shouting, marking the territory, scratching…”       “These cats want the girls’ attention…” Terrence whines. “They wanna put their heads on their warm brea-a-a-a-asts… And hug the girls very tight.”       “It’s okay, you’ll handle it!” Raquelle exclaims. “You won’t die if you don’t get attention for one day!”       “We will!” Edward squeaks loudly. “We’ll die if you don’t caress and warm us up now!”       “We can’t help you!” Anna, Natalia, Raquelle, and Helene say at the same time.       “Oh, baby, I am lo-o-o-o-ovesick…” Peter starts singing a song. “You rule over me… Like a wi-i-i-itch … When you’re near… I’m a cat with no swi-i-i-itch…       “I’m a dog with no sandwi-i-i-itch…” Daniel joins.       “I’m burning with no control…” Terrence catches the wave. “You dragged me into the black ho-o-o-o-ole…”       “Oh, you’ve got my soul…” Edward continues. “You keep me under your control…”       “Stop playing the foo-o-o-o-o-ol…” Anna sings loudly. “Stop whining and acting like poo-o-o-o-o-or…”       “No, I don’t wanna live on my o-o-o-o-o-own…” Edward, Terrence, Daniel, and Peter reply. “Please, baby, don’t leave me also-o-o-o-o-one…”       “Freaking songwriters!” Helene chuckles.       “Hey, you, singing sandwiches, your tricks ain’t gonna work on us!” Raquelle states.       Sammy whines quietly along with the men singing with pity.       “Sammy, don’t play along with them!” Anna exclaims. “Your tricks won't work, either!”       “Plea-a-a-a-a-a-ase…” Terrence whines with pity. “We want yo-o-o-o-o-ou… In you’re a-a-a-a-arms…”       “If you keep standing in front of the door and playing the fool, we’ll take stricter measures,” Natalia threatens. “Though we’re too soft to you after your disgusting behavior.”       “What can you do to us, huh?” Edward chuckles. “How are ya gonna resist the strong men?”       “We can do a lot!”       “We should really punish you harshly for your behavior,” Anna says confidently. “For example, deprive you of sex for one month.”       “What?” Daniel, Edward, and Terrence open their eyes widely open, while Peter laughs shyly with his arms crossed over his chest. “What do ya mean?”       “What do ya mean, one month with no sex?” Daniel resents. “ONE MONTH? Are you fucking crazy?”       “That’s it!” Raquelle exclaims. “And to make it much harder, we can actually ban you all from kissing and hugging you.”       “You are heartless!” Edward states in a high voice. “How do you care? It’s… It’s insane!”       “It’s resentful!” Terrence exclaims. “One month without sex! You’re really fucking crazy! We are protecting determinedly!”       “You, MacClifes, will have no sex some time before the wedding,” Natalia replies. “But we can start now so that you’re super hungry.”       “Yeah, it’s a cool idea!” Raquelle exclaims. “Let’s really deprive them all of sex?”       “No, girls, don’t do this!” Daniel begs with pity. “Don’t take one of the reasons that makes us happy.”       “Please, please, don’t do this!” Edward jabs.       “Don’t take the source of freaking pleasure from us!” Terrence begs.       “Nobody bans you from pleasing yourself with your hands in the bathroom,” Anna hints. “Getting rid of pressure ain’t gonna be worse.”       “Ar-r-r-r, you jinxed us, idiot!” Daniel throws gloomily, ruffing the hair of the laughing Peter.       “I warned you,” Peter smiles innocently.       “Don’t worry, sweetie, it won’t have to do with you,” Helene assures. “This ban is only for these three who have been too wild today and gone too far with their disgusting behavior.”       “No, please, don’t do this!” Edward, Daniel, and Terrence jab at the same time. “Please, girls, please! Pity us!”       While his friends beg the girls to forgive them, Peter puts his hand in the pocket of the hoodie he is wearing, frowns slightly when he feels something, and takes a bobby pin. Looking at which he comes up with an idea of trying to unlock the door with it. The guy shows this thing to his friends, putting his finger on his lips, squats down with their permission, and puts the edge of the pin carefully in the locker.       “Hey, our charming girls, stop showing off and open the door now,” Daniel demands determinedly. “This is an order! The order of the owner of the house!”       “Maybe you go to fuck yourself, owner?” Anna asks funnily.       “Hey, you actually must obey me! I am a man! And I am the head!”       “Ha, marry me first and then can pretend to be my lord! If you’re allowed, of course!”       All the men burst into uncontrollable laughter.       “Trust me, friend, we’ve been waiting for this for one hundred years!” Peter states confidently. “But I sense that it won’t happen!”       “Hey, buddy, it seems like someone’s starting to hint you openly at being unmarried for too long,” Terrence smiles mysteriously, clapping Daniel on the shoulder.       “Hey, I almost forgot to say that I got a call from the atelier this morning and was told our wedding suits were ready,” Edward recalls. “So, we can call the men and go to try them on.”       “Wow, the grooms’ suits and the groomsmen’s suits?” Daniel specifies.       “Uh-huh! I said I’d come probably tomorrow, but I didn’t give them any guarantees.”       “The important thing is that they’re made!” Terrence exclaims. “Finally!”       “Alright, we’ll talk about it a little later,” Peter says confidently. “Now we’ve got a more important business.”       “And yeah, Perkins, take a note: the wedding rings on our fingers won’t give you the right to rule over me,” Anna states.       “And me!” Natalia and Raquelle add.       “Alright, beauties, open the door,” Edward insists. “Let’s live in peace! You’re all good girls, not bad ones? Right?”       “Get out, boys, get out!” Raquelle exclaims. “Stop standing in front of the door for nothing and counting on something!”       “You want us to die here from grief and loneliness?” Terrence plays on pity. “You do know that we can’t live without you!”       “You used to live without us somehow,” Helene replies. “And it’s okay, you’re still alive and healthy!”       “We lived very ba-a-a-ad without you!” Daniel whines with pity. “Very bad! Ve-e-e-ery…”       “Listen, don’t you have anything to do?” Natalia wonders. “At this large house! Go and get busy with something! Find something to do!”       “Hey, I got it!” Anna exclaims. “You’re afraid of thunder! You shake like bunnies, have already peed your pants, and want us to pity you!”       “Aren’t you scared there?” Peter surprises, understanding that his attempt to unlock the door is successful. “You’re alone there, without strong and trustworthy men! But it’s so sca-a-a-a-arying outside!”       “Hey, look at the thunder and lightning outside!” Terrence adds in an intimidating voice. “U-u-u-u-u-uh! Sca-a-a-a-ry! Really scary!”       “Don’t worry about us!” Helene exclaims. “The girls and I are together, and we feel very good. While we’re together, we’re afraid of nothing! Because we’ve got the girl power!’       “Being a girl feels so good!” Natalia says funnily.       “Girls are the power!” Anna, Raquelle, Helene, and Natalia pronounce happily.       Sammy barks several times in a row and puts his tail between his paws when a deafening clap of thunder is heard behind the window. Meanwhile, Peter successfully unlocks the door, gets up on his feet, and looks at the men as if to let them know that they can go. Not wasting time, Daniel opens the door and runs into the room along with the others, catching the surprised glances of Anna, Raquelle, Helene, and Natalia.       “Ta-a-a-a-ada-a-a-a-a-am!” Daniel sings funnily.       “What?” Helene opens her eyes widely.       “What the heck?” Anna wonders. “We did lock the door with a key!”       “Nice try, girls, but you’ve lost,” Peter says thoughtfully, showing the booby pin inadvertently. “Wow… Such a small thing, but it does so many good things.”       “So what, cuties, we’re gonna have a truly wonderful time with excellent people!” Terrence says cheerfully, stretching himself slightly. “And you won’t get away from us!”       “Actually, nobody invited you here,” Raquelle notices. “And nobody was waiting for you.”       “Well, you didn’t wait, but we’ve come!” Daniel exclaims, falls on the bed in a jump, and puts his arms aside. “Oh, sweet bed, we’ve finally gotten back together! I missed you so much!”       Sammy barking quietly jumps on the bed, lies comfortably on it, and yawns sweetly.       “Sammy, jump off the bed now!” Anna demands harshly. “Get off, I said! I changed the bedclothes two days ago! Sammy! Samuel!”       “Yo, endless bans everywhere!” Edward moans with pity and caresses Sammy’s head when he bends to him. “Nobody lets you the hell relax. Yeah, buddy?”       “So what, cuties, how are ya gonna entertain us tonight?” Terrence smiles mysteriously, putting his hands on his hips. “No need to rush, we’ve got a lot of time – excellent!”       “Why should we entertain you?” Helene crosses her arms over her chest. “Are we clowns at the circus? Can’t you get busy with something?”       “Because you’re our sunshine,” Peter replies confidently, comes to Helene, takes her in a strong hug, and kisses her sweetly on the top of her head. “You, sweetheart, are my guiding light.”       “Uh-huh, here’s my soul’s savior,” Edward smiles sweetly, putting his arms around Natalia’s waist from behind and rubbing his nose against her cheek.       “And my reason to live…” Terrence adds, presses Raquelle to himself, and kisses her on the forehead, putting his hands on her back.       “The princess of my heart…” Daniel smiles widely, sits up, and seats Anna on his laps. “Don’t be shy, sunshine, come to me.”       “And what are you hoping for, gentlemen?” Natalia throws gloomily. “So, do you think you can get what you want with your attempts to kiss and hug us a lot?”       “It’s our checked weapon,” Terrence replies and kisses Raquelle on the cheek a couple of times. “Which has never let us down.”       “Ha, you can kiss us one hundred times, but you won’t avoid the punishment!” Anna chuckles.       “Don’t give up, girls, hold on till the very end!” Helene encourages.       “Don’t give up, men, you need a little!” Peter exclaims. “They’re just pretending that they don’t care!”       “Huh, if we liked it, we wouldn’t be here, we would be in a different place and doing very interesting things,” Natalia raises her head proudly, steps away from Edward softly, and slaps him on the buttocks.       “So, we can do this tonight when we go to our rooms,” Daniel smiles mysteriously.       “Who said we’d sleep with you?” Anna rounds her eyes and gets off Daniel’s laps. “Who said this night is gonna be hot?”       “Yes, yes, as they say, boys to the left, girls to the right,” Raquelle smiles innocently.       “Uh-huh, keep dreaming!” Edward chuckles.       “You think we’re joking now?” Helene surprises. “Not at all! We will not let you in the bed tonight!”       “What?” Peter resents. “You won’t let me in, either?”       “It’s gonna be fair!”       “It’s not fucking fair!” Terrence protests. “We wanna sleep with our girls!”       “Enough, boys, it’s outta discussion!” Anna cuts off sharply. “Tonight, you’re gonna sleep on the couch or somewhere else!”       “We are protesting!” Daniel states. “This is a violation of human rights! We will complain!”       “Uh-huh, the question is who,” Raquelle laughs, crossing her arms over her chest.       “Oh, the light of our eyes, be merciful to us!” Edward exclaims, bends with his hands raised, and gets down to his knees. “Forgive your slaves blinded by terrible anger and untold offences!”       “Our life doesn’t make sense without you!” Terrence catches the wave and grabs his heart theatrically. “Our life is not sweet! We can’t see the light!”       “Oh, ladies of our hearts, if you don’t forgive us, we will not just pass out, we will die!” Daniel states and falls to the bed with a theatrical moan, putting his hand on his forehead. “And our graves are gonna have the signature that says, ‘They gave their lives because… Because their women were too cruel to them!’       Seeing the scene the men are playing for them, the girls cannot help but hold down their loud laughter.       “Guys, are you okay?” Helene chuckles.       “Were you hit by thunder when we were in the woods and looking for us?” Natalia wonders.       “We were hit by the feeling named Love!” Edward states. “And if you keep kicking us out and being too cold, you’re gonna break our hearts.”       “Uh-huh, we’ve got very tender ones,” Peter plays along, putting his hand on his heart. “But you’re breaking them so heartlessly with your reluctance to forgive us.”       At this moment, Sammy jumps from the bed, barks with pity, and starts showing off, shaking slightly on his hind paws and falling dramatically on the floor.       “Sammy, why are you playing along with these idiots?” Anna wonders. “We will feed you anyway, don’t even worry. The punishment doesn’t have to do with you.”       “What do ya mean?” Terrence wonders. “The dog doesn’t, but we do?”       “Ah, my heart is breaking into a million pieces!” Edward winces dramatically, putting his hand on his heart. “It hurts a lot… I can’t see the light…”       “Hold on, men, hold on!” Peter encourages. “You must survive until you’re kissed!’       “Oh, no, I think I won’t survive… The women’s cruelty is about to kill me!” Edward winces for two seconds and then looks at all the men with one eye. “Hey, is it good? Or should I do something else?”       “Oh, my God…” Raquelle puts her hands on her hips. “These individuals are gonna turn thirty soon…”       “Oh, fine, men, I can’t take this anymore!” Daniel shakes his head. “I can’t! Either I’ll die now, or I’ll leave this house. The place where my soul is broken into pieces!”       “If you decide to leave, don’t forget to take the trash,” Anna snaps with a sweet smile.       “Oh, g-guys…” Terrence winces falsely, putting his hand on his forehead, falls dramatically on the floor, and coughs quietly. “If something happens to me… Ugh, ugh… Tell Raquelle that… Oh… I loved her… Ugh, ugh… Loved… So much…”       “This kind of cruelty from the girls hurts my soul!” Peter states and leans on the wall with his back, with his hand on his forehead. “Damn, girls, whatcha doing to my friends? Whatcha doing to me?”       “Hey, pretty boy, since when did you decide to become an actor?” Helene wonders, pushing Peter slightly on the hip.       “It just hurts… It hurts that you’re for the girls… You don’t wanna persuade them to forgive my brothers.”       “Your brothers must work their brains next time instead of using what they’ve got between their legs. So that they don’t have to show off like forever hungry cats or dogs that don’t get a full bowl of food.”       “Please, girls, forgive us!” Daniel rolls his eyes dramatically. “Plea-a-a-a-a-a-ase… Pity us… Gi-i-i-i-i-i-i-irls…”       “Meo-o-o-o-o-o-ow…” Edward pronounces with pity. “Meo-o-o-ow… Meo-o-o-o-ow…”       “Meo-o-o-o-o-o-o-ow…” Terrence and Daniel join. “Meo-o-o-o-o-ow…”       Raquelle, Natalia, Anna, and Helene make a shy chuckle, close their mouth with their hands, and cannot help but hold down a wish to thrill with much louder laughter.       “My God…” Anna pronounces surprisingly. “The boys are going crazy… From the hurricane…”       “They should perform in a circus, not sing songs,” Natalia crosses his arms over her chest. “Kids would surely love it.”       “Damn, I can’t…” Raquelle thrills with laughter, turning aside with her mouth closed with a hand. “My God…”       “C’mon, c’mon, roll on the floor, meow, whine…” Helene puts her hands on her hips. “Don’t forget to rub yourself against all the corners in the room and our feet…”       “It’s not a house, it’s a zoo!” Anna exclaims. “When they come together, they start doing something that I don’t even know how to call.”       “Our hearts are almost broken!” Terrence pronounces theatrically. “Our souls almost left our bodies! We’re about to meet our late relatives!”       “I think I can see something already…” Edward gets excited, gesticulating actively. “Gosh… What’s that? What do I see from afar? The light or something else? Oh, no… Is that… Do I really see my grandma and grandpa? Is that you, Grandma? Yeah?”       “My body is getting colder, my ears are ringing…” Daniel lies on the bed in a star pose. “I sense that I’m close to death… Someone’s about to take me out… If a magical miracle doesn’t happen now… If my red-haired beauty doesn’t forgive her slave…”       “No, guys, don’t dare to leave me!” Peter opens his eyes widely. “Don’t care! I need you! I don’t wanna be alone! Hold on! You must hold on!”       “Oh, do something, Pete… Help us… We won’t survive without the girl’s forgiveness… We will die!”       “Girls, my sweet girls, my dearest friends…” Peter takes Anna by the shoulders and caresses them softly, and then hugs Natalia and Raquelle at the same time. “Give these fools a chance. Please… For me… Don’t be mad at them…”       “Sorry, Pete, but no,” Anna smiles innocently.       “Please…”       “The guys will think about their behavior until tomorrow, and then we’ll see,” Natalia replies.       “What if we agree? I’m ready to become a mediator in these negotiations.”       “We get it, we get it, male solidarity,” Raquelle smiles slyly. “You can’t do without it!”       “Just like you can’t do without female solidarity! Marshall doesn’t wanna help me at all! She’s for you!”       “Enough, Rose, get out!” Helene makes a gesture to chase away. “You can do nothing.”       “No, girls, don’t hurt the guys…” Peter takes Helene in a strong hug. “They’re so good! Very nice!”       “Uh-huh, we saw how good they were!”       “Plea-a-a-a-a-ase…”       “Hey, pretty boy…” Helene steps away from Peter softly. “If you keep defending them, I will think about depriving you of sex, hugs, and kisses for one month.”       “No, no, no, don’t do this, please!” Peter jabs excitedly, taking Helene by the shoulders. “Don’t deprive me of your love. I’m gonna die without the one!”       “Since male solidarity dominates here, may female solidarity glory too.”       “No-o-o-o-o-o…”       “Oh, no, bros, it’s all much worse than we thought!” Edward horrifies theatrically. “Nobody will help us!”       “They won’t forgive us, guys! We all will die!” Peter falls to the floor with a dramatic sigh. “We’ll die unforgiven and unnecessary!”       “Oh, we’ve lost another…” Helene sighs resignedly, crossing her arms over her chest. “Who has probably come to himself.”       But no matter how hard the girls try to keep a serious face at the sight of the men playing a dramatic scene for them, they cannot hold down their loud chuckles that get out of their mouths. However, their beloved men also hold on to keep playing the role and not to laugh at each other, and Sammy definitely appreciates this game, which he considers really funny, judging by how happy he is to participate in it.       “If the neighbors or the band’s fans saw this picture, I’d prefer to be swallowed by the ground from shame,” Anna confesses.       “Meo-o-o-ow…” Edward, Peter, Terrence, and Daniel keep moaning with pity together or by one, lying on the bed or the floor. “Meo-o-o-ow… Meo-o-o-ow…”       “These cats don’t even need to sniff valerian to go crazy,” Natalia says. “The younger ones show off much louder and much more.”       “Hey, idiots, calm down already!” Raquelle demands.       “Forgi-i-i-ive us…” Daniel moans with pity. “We won’t do-o-o-o-o this anymore… Plea-a-a-a-ase… U-u-u-u-u-uh…”       “Don’t deprive us of your love,” Edward says. “Our hearts will not ha-a-a-a-andle it…”       “We’re gu-u-u-u-ulty, meo-o-o-ow…” Terrence whines. “We’re so-o-o-o-o so-o-o-o-orry…”       “We’re su-u-u-u-u-ufering…” Peter agrees. “We can’t brea-a-a-a-athe… We’re dy-y-y-ying… Without our gi-i-i-irls…”       Sammy whines with pity and barks quietly, rolling on the floor from one side to another.       “Oh, maybe we should feed them?” Helene suggests. “What if they get their brain back if they have a full stomach?”       “Yeah, anyone would meow and whine from hunger…” Anna puts her hands on her hips.       “Oh, food!” Daniel sits up in the bed sharply and stretches himself. “Yea-a-ah! What are we gonna have for dinner?”       “Finally, will we be fed with something tasty?” Terrence squeaks funnily, spreading his hands and legs aside.       “Wow, someone’s hearing increases when they’re hungry,” Natalia chuckles, crossing her arms over her chest. “They can hear even a whisper and read lips.”       Sammy starts barking happily, running to the girls at some moment and starting to rub his tail against them or butting his head against their legs.       “Plea-a-a-ase, princess, feed me…” Daniel shows puppy eyes, running to Anna and starting to rub his nose against her cheek. “I’m so hungry… Very, very…”       “Feed me, feed me, beautiful, feed me!” Edward jabs, doing the same to Natalia, and kisses the area behind her ear. “Your tiger is already hungry…”       “And feed me!” Terrence adds, not differing from his friends, and trying to appease Raquelle. “And don’t forget to caress your kitten. And kiss him a lot…”       “Don’t hurt my friends, girls,” Peter whines with pity and kisses Helene on the cheek several times. “Forgive these assholes. They won’t do this anymore. My word!”       “Oh, gosh…” Helene sighs tiredly, rolling her eyes.       “Oh, alright, alright, okay…” Anna gives up, trying to turn Daniel’s face off by herself. “Okay, okay! You won! We will feed you!”       “Hey, hey, guys, it’s time to shut the circus down!” Raquelle exclaims, getting out of Terrence’s hug. “You played a little, and it’s enough!”       “Forgi-i-i-i-i-ive us, forgi-i-i-ive…” Terrence shows puppy eyes. “Plea-a-a-a-a-a-ase…”       “Enough, calm the heck down now…” Natalia sighs tiredly, trying to push Edward off herself softly. “Stop licking us like dogs!”       “Pu-u-u-u-ur…” Edward rolls his eyes and rubs his cheek against Natalia’s temple with a happy smile. “Puu-u-u-ur, meo-o-o-ow…”       “Of course, I ain’t a cat, but pu-u-u-ur, meo-o-o-ow…” Daniel smiles widely, snuggling his nose in Anna’s face and leaving a couple of short kisses on her cheek. “R-r-r-r-r…”       “My God, okay, okay, stop acting like hungry cats…” Helene laughs. “Enough, calm down… Calm down, I said…”       Since the men keep nuzzling them like cats, the girls turn on them and hug them tightly and caress their backs or heads, or leave a couple of short kisses on their lips to calm them down. And they do not forget Sammy coming to one or another girl in the hope of getting a little bit of caress.       “So what, cuties, live in peace now?” Terrence asks, still rubbing his nose against Raquelle’s cheek.       “Alright, alright, we forgive you!” Helene replies with a slight smile. “How could we not forgive such insolent and stubborn donkeys?”       “But tonight, you’ll sleep on the couch anyway,” Anna says with a sly smile. “Nobody will let you in the room.”       “Maybe you will?” Daniel shows puppy eyes. “I wanna sleep in my bed next to my little girl.”       “It’s gonna be a preventive measure,” Raquelle smiles innocently. “You’ll sleep one night alone and probably understand something.”       “You’re cruel anyway!” Edward purses his lips.       “C’mon, we’ve achieved a great success!” Terrence notices cheerfully. “At least we’re gonna be well-fed now!”       “That’s right…” Peter smiles slyly.       “Again, the victory is ours!” Daniel exclaims happily. “We’ve proved that we’re unbeatable when we’re together, with our most powerful weapon.”       “Oh, yeah, you entertained us with your meow and whine,” Helene chuckles. “We can thank you for that.”       “We didn’t actually mean it, meo-ow…” Terrence smiles mysteriously and kisses the area behind Raquelle’s ear, hugging her tightly from behind and starting to purr quietly. “Kisses and hugs are our everything. Pu-u-u-u-ur…”       “This thing always works like magic!” Edward notices with his head proudly raised and snuggles his nose in Natalia’s hair brushed in a tail.       “Girls love kisses and hugs,” Peter replies with a wide smile and kisses Helene on the cheek, while he hugs her tightly from behind. “But we’re happy to give them.”       “Alright, beauties, we’re waiting for the most delicious dinner from you in the nearest time,” Terrence says confidently. “So, go to the kitchen and make magic! We believe in you!”       “C’mon, c’mon, girls, go!” Daniel exclaims and claps Anna slightly on the buttocks. “The guys do wanna eat! But as you know, I can’t cook. So, you’re our only hope. I mean, my dearest princess Anna and her best friends.”       “Okay…” Natalia pronounces thoughtfully, putting her hands on her hips. “Alright, we will feed you.”       “Hurry up!” Edward says and claps his hand on his stomach. “My stomach is starting to eat itself from hunger.”       “But I wouldn’t personally end all of this so easily,” Raquelle says with a sly smile, coming to the bed slowly but confidently.       “What do you mean?” Peter frowns slightly.       “You say hugs and kisses are your trouble-free gun?” Anna asks surprisingly, taking the key from the pocket of her hoodie and locking the door. “You think you’re winners?”       “Erm, you…” Edward stutters, watching the girls with suspicion. “What do you wanna do?”       “Nothing special,” Helene smiles innocently. “Nothing at all. Not saying feathers are gonna fly in all directions now. Yours.”       “Girls, quiet…” Daniel says quietly. “Girls, don’t be nervous. It’s okay…”       “So what, cuties, let’s have fun to the fullest?” Natalia asks funnily. “Kick the ass of these assholes?”       “Girls, girls, relax,” Terrence jabs. “Breathe deeply. It’s okay. Girls… Girls!”       “Atta-a-a-a-a-a-a-ack!” Anna announces loudly.       Taking all the pillows from the bed, the girls walk on them with their feet, jump down, and attack the men, whom they start beating heartlessly with them. Their sweethearts start squeaking, resisting, covering themselves with their hands, and running as they look around the entire room in search of something they can protect themselves with.       “It’s a frame, guys!” Edward pronounces, running wild from Natalia. “They framed us cruelly!”       “Calm down, girls, calm down!” Daniel jabs and jumps aside with a squeak, trying so hard to hide from Anna’s attacks. “No! Calm down!”       “We’ll kiss you a lot now!” Terrence threatens, trying to hide somewhere from Raquelle. “Hug you! Give you much love! Tickle you! You’re gonna ask for trouble!”       “You’re heartless!” Peter squeaks, running to the door to unlock it again with the boobie pin, but moves off sharply when he sees Helene getting closer to him with a pillow in her hands. “How can you treat us like this?”       “Hide in the dressing room!” Daniel orders. “They won’t catch us there! I will take the keys from Seymour!”       “Let’s go, ladies!” Anna, Natalia, Helene, and Raquelle whoop at the same time. “Let’s go-o-o-o-o!”       The girls throw the pillows at the men, who barely manage to dodge the attack and lock themselves in the dressing room for some time before the ladies get them out quickly by the collar. And they do not manage to take the pillows since the men take everything and start running after the ladies in the whole room, while Sammy participates in their game and jumps and runs on the bed, remaining unpunished.       “Let’s stand for ourselves and each other!” Peter whoops, waving the pillow above his head, and shakes when he gets a slap on his buttocks from Helene.       “Oh, damn, you came to yourself quickly!” Anna notices surprisingly, running on the bed to try to hide from Daniel. “Though you were recently lying and literally dying!”       “When you have your best friends by your side, you can instantly heal from any illness,” Edward states, catching Natalia without problems and hitting her on the buttocks with the pillow.       “Hold on, girls!” Raquelle demands loudly. “Don’t let them strike you down!”       “Let’s go, men!” Terrence encourages and shakes sharply when Raquelle slaps him on the buttocks. “Don’t close your eyes to all of this!”       “Ugh, who said girls are tender and innocent creatures?” Daniel winces when he falls on the floor because of Helene’s footplate.       “Thanks, friend!” Anna throws funnily, sending an air kiss to Helene, falls over Daniel still lying on the floor, gives him several strong hits on his buttocks, and fights him hand in hand. “Love ya!”       “A-a-a-a! Boys, help me! Don’t give me to her! Bro-o-o-o-os!’       “Hold on, brother, I’m coming!” Peter exclaims, hitting Helene on the back with a pillow and starting to run with a squeak when she takes it from him and rushes after him. “Oh, no, sorry, dude, deal yourself… Holy balls, someone, get her outta me now! A-a-a-a-a!”       “Ugh!” Terrence resents when Raquelle jumps on his back, ruffles his hair, and tries to bite him on the neck. “Guys, she’s biting! This bitch sank her teeth into me! A-a-a-a! Run! I’m gonna cover you!”       “You can’t bring us down!” Edward states, pretending that he gives up on Natalia, but then squeezes her tightly in his hug so that her arms are pressed to his body. “We are strong! We are champions! We are unbeatable!”       “Holy shit, Sammy!” Peter winces, shaking slightly when Sammy jumps on his back with a happy bark at some moment.       The room turns rapidly to the area for an epic battle, during which the real chaos is happening: someone protects themselves, someone falls, someone runs, someone dodges. Trying to protect themselves, some of them start to use the blanket that ends in these or those hands or ends up on someone’s head. Everyone starts choking from a lack of air after a run and feels a sore throat due to the loud, contagious laughter, and nothing is left of the perfectly made bed.       “Why are ya laughing, idiots?” Terrence resents when he falls with his face on the blanket when trying to jump over the bed, and Sammy falls over him. “You can’t the fuck deal with them, too!”       “Hey, one against two is never an honest battle!” Edward resents when Raquelle and Natalia attack him with pillows at the same time. “It’s a wrong battle!”       “They’re everywhere!” Daniel squeaks, pressing his back against Peter’s back when they are surrounded by all the girls. “No way to escape!”       “Don’t give up!” Peter orders determinedly. “We are men! We must show them who the boss is here!”       “You don’t have it written on your foreheads!” Natalia snaps.       “Fi-i-i-i-i-ire!” Helene whoops. “Shoot!”       Peter and Daniel have nothing but cover their heads with their arms and twirl in balls when the girls throw the pillows at them at the same time.       “No, don’t do this!” Daniel squeaks. “Don’t do this! Pity us! We understood everything!”       “Hey, hello, is your rooster battle more important than your friends who are in trouble?” Peter resents, seeing Edward and Terrence jumping on the bed and having a hand-in-hand fight.       “A-a-a-a-a, no way out!” Daniel shouts scarily. “What do we do? What do we do?”       “Girls, be merciful! Be-a-a-a-a-a!”       “Let’s go, ladies!” Raquelle gives an order.       One strong push before Daniel and Peter are struck down and pressed by Anna and Helene, who start fighting them hand in hand, while Natalia and Raquelle give them hits with two pillows. Meanwhile, one wrong step becomes the reason why Terrence and Edward fall from the bed to the floor accidentally, and keep beating each other with the pillow the girls let go of at some moment. And they have to fight against their beloved girls, who decide to get busy with them, while their friends are busy with their men. The unstoppable squeaks, a contagious laugh, feathers from pillows flying in the air, the blanket that sometimes ends up on their heads, attempts to run and hide behind the bed, in the dressing room, or the bathroom… The friends use all methods to protect themselves and each other in this funny but still serious battle, not worrying about the time, since they have a lot of it.       Maybe the wind behind the window gets weaker after destroying almost all the signs, striking many trees down, and damaging every single house in this neighborhood. But the heavy rain is still not going to end and keeps hitting the glass and the roof, and flashes of lightning sometimes light up the sky covered with gray clouds. It lets the friends know that they are going to spend this evening together and may not rush and may let themselves relax a little with the thought that everyone is alive, healthy, and has finally reconciled.