Raquelle, Natalia, and Helene do not suspect that Terrence, Edward, and Peter started a dangerous game. The girls are still at Raquelle’s home, talking about everything with a drink in their hands and having the pleasure of watching Sammy, who amuses them at times and asks for caresses. Also, a few minutes ago, the servants, Blair, Violetta, and Christiana, joined them.
“Gosh, Sammy’s so cute,” Blair says with a slight smile, holding a small toy that Sammy locks his teeth in. “I like him so much.”
“And how well-mannered he is!” Christiana exclaims, holding a glass of sparkling water in her hands. “Not every dog would be so educated. For example, I know one lady, who has an ill-mannered dog that does as it wants. If it wants, it jumps on a sofa with dirty paws. If it wants, it can easily steal food from a table or jump on a clean bed.”
“Why doesn’t she educate him?” Violetta wonders, twisting a strand of hair around her finger. “Does she like it?”
“Somehow, I hinted that she would better start to educate her dog, but she didn’t listen to my words.”
“Sammy was also ill-mannered when I took him as a puppy,” Helene confesses with a slight smile. “Stealing food from a table, jumping on a bed, and peeing on everything he wanted… Honestly, it just got a little easier. But somewhere three or four months ago, I couldn’t control him. Sammy started to listen to me only after I started to educate him. Well… He was trained by special people, and I watched and helped them sometimes. When I was asked.”
“Maybe, he was ill-mannered, but his eyes are very smart,” Blair notices and pets Sammy’s head, while he is wagging his tail. “It’s clear that the dog is not stupid.”
“He literally understands everything,” Natalia says confidently. “Sometimes the girls and I talk about something, and Sammy agrees, protests, or tries to tell us his opinion.”
“And it’s amazing that we all understand him,” Raquelle notices.
Sammy barks two times, as he enjoys Violetta’s scratching after coming to her.
“Yeah, I saw such smart dogs only in movies…” Violetta says thoughtfully. “But this doggy stole my heart. I’m in love with him.”
“It’s impossible to steal Sammy’s talent to conquer people’s hearts immediately,” Helene says with a slight smile.
“My brother would like Sammy so much,” Blair assumes with a shy smile. “Harry loves dogs like crazy and sometimes asks Mother to let him get a dog. But sadly, we aren’t able to do it because a pet requires too much money. And we count every single cent…”
“Why don’t you come here with him?” Raquelle suggests amicably. “Helene would bring Sammy here if your brother wanted to play with him.”
Sammy barks happily, jumping slightly, and starts to wag his tail energetically.
“And I think the doggy doesn’t mind playing with that boy,” Natalia says thoughtfully.
“Indeed, Blair,” Violetta agrees. “Come here with your brother someday. We could at least see how he’s grown up! And he would have a chance to play with the doggy.”
“Actually, he’s gonna come back to school soon,” Blair replies thoughtfully. “But now he is on holiday… So, I can take him with me someday. If I tell Harold about Sammy, he will come here with pleasure.”
“When you want to go here with him, let me know, so Peter or I can drive Sammy here,” Helene says with a slight smile.
“Okay, I will do it.”
“Don’t worry, Sammy is harmless and wouldn’t harm the boy.”
“I know, Helene.”
Sammy barks confidently, making everybody smile shyly. Silence settles in the air for a few seconds, during which the girls eat some food or drink their drinks of different colors and tastes.
“Hey, Blair, what about you and Benjamin Parker?” Natalia asks with a mysterious smile.
“Oh, yeah, Stewart…” Violetta smiles mysteriously. “Your charming Mr. Parker hasn’t been here for ages.”
“One day, Terrence said Ben forgot about him and didn’t want to come here for two minutes,” Raquelle adds confidently.
“No, no, Ben didn’t forget about Terrence, and he remembers about him and the men,” Blair shakes her head with a slight smile. “He just left somewhere with his mother and came back here literally a couple of days ago.”
“That’s how!” Christiana exclaims. “Have you seen him?”
“Yup, yesterday. I left when Terrence and Raquelle weren’t at home. Ben called me and suggested we meet, and I agreed with pleasure.”
“By the way, the men also mentioned him once,” Natalia says thoughtfully. “I think they have all been too busy with their businesses. Not only Ben… Christopher and Kevin haven’t also let us know about them for ages…”
“Ben said he’d surely invite the men somewhere,” Blair says with a slight smile. “Be sure, he forgot nobody. He was just very busy and couldn’t even send a short SMS.”
“You say he left with his mother?” Raquelle frowns slightly.
“Yes, they went to a relative of his mother. They had a problem… But I didn’t ask what it was, to be honest…”
“By the way, haven’t you met his mother yet?” Violetta asks and takes a sip from her glass. “He knows your mom, but what about you?”
“I met her a couple of months ago.”
“And what do ya think?” Natalia asks.
“Very good woman. As kind and nice as my mom. I think they would get on well.”
“Terrence knows her very well, ‘cause he’s been Ben’s friend since childhood,” Raquelle confesses. “He says she is really very good.”
“But Ben doesn’t speak to his father. He and his mother are divorced, and he is living his life with another woman.”
“That’s true. But he takes it quietly.”
“I know.”
Sammy gets attention again by doing something funny to make the girls laugh.
“Oh, Sammy, you love showing off too much,” Natalia shakes her head with a slight smile and pets Sammy’s head. “It’s impossible to feel bored with you.”
“That’s right,” Violetta agrees. “This is the first time I've met such a friendly dog.”
“He just loves attention,” Helene says with a slight smile. “And he’s happy when he’s surrounded by many people. He doesn’t like being alone. This is my Samuel.”
Sammy reacts to his full name not very well and makes a sound that shows his protest, touching his nose with his paw.
“Samuel?” Blair frowns slightly.
“It’s his full name,” Raquelle explains. “But he doesn’t like it…”
“Right,” Helene nods. “So, everybody calls him Sammy. But when he doesn’t listen to me, I call him by his full name.”
“But why did you name him Samuel?” Christiana asks.
“In honor of my grandfather Roger, whom I loved so much. Samuel is his middle name. I couldn’t decide how to name my dog when I took it home. I was choosing between Samuel and Roger. But I eventually chose Samuel. Sammy.”
“You talk about him in the past,” Blair notices. “He died?”
“Yup, a little less than three years ago… Some time later after my friend Jessica introduced Peter to me. He knew my grandfather, Roger, and got along well with him. Actually, the blond quickly found a common language with my grandparents, who liked him immediately. My grandmother says she loves him very much and literally considers him her son.”
“I think that guy can easily find a common language with anyone,” Violetta notices confidently.
“Agree, he does it very well. And it’s very easy to talk to him. I quickly got along well with him when we first met. And after Grandpa’s death, Pete got much closer to me.”
“Was your grandmother happy when she found out that you were not only Peter’s friend, but began to date him?” Blair asks.
“I’m gonna say more, Blair, she was dreaming of it,” Helene says with a shy smile. “Grandma always thought Peter would be a great partner for me. She advised me to take a closer look at him. And somehow, she even hinted at his sympathy for me. She kind of saw him looking at me as something more than a friend. But I ignored all of that because I didn’t think that Peter could be something more than just a friend to me.”
“But thank God, you saw it,” Raquelle says confidently.
“Yes, Marshall, your grandmother knows everything about good guys,” Natalia smiles slightly. “Because Peter is really a great man and a perfect partner for you. With him, you will always be loved and surrounded by care.”
“I know,” Helene gets blushed.
Sammy barks, letting everybody know that he fully approves of his owner's relationship with Peter.
“Oh, jealous boy, I see you managed to get a love for Peter,” Helene says with a slight smile, scratching Sammy’s hair. “Though, you had found him your opponent.”
“Is he jealous of you and Peter?” Violetta laughs shyly.
“Yup, Sammy always bothers Pete and I want to stay alone. When we start to kiss, he either sits between us and starts to lick our faces or finds another way to get our attention. But later, he starts to prove that he’s very sorry and allows us to spend some time together.”
“My gosh…” Christiana chuckles kindly.
“You know, maybe, Sammy was a little jealous of you and Pete, but now they kinda became good friends and get along well,” Raquelle says confidently.
“Actually, Sammy and Peter get on well anyway. My beloved doggy just might think of something at times, and he literally pulls me away from Peter and doesn’t let me come to him. Or he starts to bite his ass.”
“Oh, my gosh…” Violetta laughs shyly.
“Maybe, he’s just afraid that you’d give him less attention,” Blair assumes. “It’s like a baby’s jealousy of their parents and siblings. A baby thinks that they will be the only child of their parents, but later, one more child is born and gets all the attention. So, the older baby believes that a mother and a father love him less.”
“Have you ever been jealous of your mother and younger brother?” Raquelle asks.
“Yup, when I was a little younger. I was terribly jealous of him and my parents for the first two or three years, and was afraid that they would’ve forgotten about me. I didn’t like Harry too much. I did my best for them not to make me watch him. But somehow everything changed when he grew up a little, and Dad died… I got a love for my brother and started to help Mother take care of him.”
“Oh, these brothers and sisters…” Violetta shakes her head with a slight smile. “Someone fights like cats and dogs, but some people don’t want to be separated…”
“If I had brothers or sisters, I wouldn’t be jealous of them and my parents,” Natalia confesses. “But it happened that I’m the only child of my parents. There is no reason to be jealous. I don’t even have cousins.”
“I wouldn’t do it, either,” Raquelle says confidently.
“Me too,” Helene pronounces.
Silence settles in the air for two seconds, during which everybody just smiles at each other, and Sammy gets sadness in his eyes while looking at the plates of delicious vegetable food that are placed on the table, and licks himself sometimes.
“Hey, Natalia, how’s your grandmother doing?” Christiana asks. “I heard that your parents wanted to bring her here.”
“Grandma Adriana is fine,” Natalia smiles slightly, holding a glass of drink in her hands. “She keeps getting therapy but feels much better, thank God. And my parents wanna go to Mexico soon, take her stuff, and bring her to our free apartment, where nobody lives. It’s small, but it’s very comfortable. Grandma is gonna feel good.”
“Hey, how did it turn out that she lived in Mexico for ages?” Blair asks. “She’s an American… Or I’m wrong?”
“Right, she’s an American,” Natalia smiles slightly. “She just lived in Mexico. My grandmother was young when she met Enrique, a Mexican man, who she fell in love with. She got married to him and agreed to move to the strange country, stay to live there, and learn Spanish from start to end.”
“Wow, are you of Mexican descent?” Violetta asks. “And is your mother a half-Mexican?”
“No, Violetta. Enrique was the second husband of Grandma Adriana. She got divorced from my grandfather when my mother was a kid. That Mexican was her stepfather. And she’s an American on her father and mother.”
“Did you get on well with the second husband of your grandmother?” Blair asks.
“Yes, I had a great relationship with Enrique, and Mother loved him. He literally called him a father. She didn’t get on well with my grandfather, and she still wants to hear nothing about him.”
“As far as I understand, did that Mexican man die?” Christiana frowns slightly.
“No, sadly, Enrique died a few years ago. He lately had heart issues and didn’t take it… He experienced two heart attacks, the last of which became fateful to him.”
“My gosh…”
“My grandma couldn’t accept this loss… And Mother and I felt sad because we were attracted to that man. We suggested she come back to the USA, but she got so used to Mexico that she decided to stay there after his death.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry…” Blair pronounces with sadness in her eyes.
“And what about your grandfather?” Christiana asks. “Do you get along well with him?”
“I’ve seen him a couple of times in my life and don’t almost remember him, but my Grandma and Mother don’t like to talk about him,” Natalia replies with sadness in her eyes. “As I said, Mother always called the Mexican her father. But Grandma and Grandpa broke up without scandals. At least, she said so.”
“Wow, I didn’t know it,” Violetta wonders. “I briefly thought that you really have Mexican descent. Even if you are not similar to a Spaniard.”
“But I speak Spanish very well. Enrique, who, by the way, knew English pretty well, helped my mother and me. We wanted to understand him and decided to learn from him. And we spoke a mix of English and Spanish.”
“Good… If you want to learn a foreign language, you better find a native speaker. To have a speaking skill and great knowledge of grammar.”
“Agree, learning it from a native speaker is easier.”
Sammy barks in approval and licks his face when watching the girls drink their drinks with pleasure.
“Listen, girls, don’t you know where the men go?” Natalia asks hesitantly.
“Erm, somewhere in the country, I think…” Helene shrugs. “They’d probably buy lots of food and drinks and sit down somewhere. Or maybe, they’ll decide to go somewhere later… Who knows…”
“But why are you asking?” Blair wonders. “I thought Edward would tell you about his plans!”
“Oh, I haven’t spoken to him for a few days…” Natalia replies with sadness in her eyes.
“Why?” Violetta rounds her eyes. “You fought again?”
“Yes, we’re arguing about the wedding… We can’t agree… The last time, we ended the talk with a suggestion to cancel the wedding.”
“Is it not too early to talk about it?” Christiana frowns slightly. “Edward, Terrence, Raquelle, and you haven’t even picked up a wedding day, as far as we know! Why do you rush?”
“We haven’t decided anything because our opinions are too different. I want one thing, but he wants another… I’m afraid that we won’t be able to agree. Or nobody will agree with Edward.”
“As one mutual person of mine said, getting ready for a wedding is the first test that would show if a couple can overcome misunderstandings and find compromises when living in a marriage,” Violetta says confidently. “If a couple did it successfully, it would be easier for them to avoid problems and solve conflicts.”
“If only we didn’t really cancel everything… What if we don’t actually get married because we can’t agree. What if you have to watch only Raquelle and Terrence get married.”
“I think now is not the best time for this talk,” Christiana says thoughtfully. “Talk about it later, when you calm down and solve your problems. This is the only way to find a compromise or give in to each other in something.”
“I would be glad, but it’s impossible to reach someone not to wish to hear me.”
“I guess one of you crossed the line slightly and refuses to give in,” Violetta assumes. “In this case, solving something is almost impossible.”
“I don’t know… Maybe, I really crossed the line when I wanted to make Edward do what he didn’t want…” Natalia shakes her head and drinks some drink from her glass. “But he must understand me, too. I want everything to be perfect, gorgeous, and memorable. I’m getting married for the first time and want to remember this moment for a long time.”
“Well, my darling, all girls want a perfect wedding,” Christiana notices confidently. “You think Raquelle doesn’t want it? Of course, she does! And I’m sure that Terrence and she will agree on everything and won’t bring this case to a serious scandal.
“Of course, they’re our couple with some fire,” Blair adds with a slight smile. “But a life together helped them solve their problems together.”
“They will agree on everything,” Natalia smiles slightly.
“Don’t worry, friend, our wedding’s gonna be incredible,” Raquelle promises confidently. “We will make it the best memory of our lives.”
“You can always ask your friends and relatives for help,” Christiana adds.
“Thanks a lot,” Natalia smiles slightly. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”
The girls fall into silence again and smile shyly when Sammy barks quietly. And then Helene looking for something on the phone and being a little nervous breaks the pause with anxiety in her soul:
“Girls, I wanted to call Peter and ask him something quickly, but he didn’t answer.”
“Well…” Raquelle frowns slightly. “He probably turned off his phone…”
“No, I hear beeps but get no answer. I’ve tried to call him two times.”
“Maybe, he just got busy talking to the men or turned off any sounds, so anyone didn’t bother him?” Christiana assumes. “The guys wanted to spend time without distraction.”
“No, usually, Peter answers immediately. It’s so weird…”
“Maybe, we try to call Edward or Terrence, so they ask Peter to call you if you need him so much?” Natalia suggests.
“We can. But first, I will try to call again.”
Helene types Peter’s number again and waits for his answer for a few seconds, but nobody answers her, even if she hears the beeps.
“It’s weird, he doesn’t answer again,” Helene frowns slightly and starts to check something on her phone. “I don’t get it…”
“Wait, I’ll try to call Edward and say you wanna talk to Peter,” Natalia says quietly.
While Natalia takes her phone and types Edward’s number, Raquelle thinks of her nightmare, in which Terrence tragically died because of Simon. The girl gets nervous enough and feels something bad, thinking the fact that Peter does not answer Helene’s calls is the first alarm. And a few seconds later, Natalia gives another reason to think about what’s happening because she types Edward’s number, waits for some time, and hears beeps, but nobody answers her.
“It’s weird, Edward doesn’t answer, either,” Natalia frowns slightly. “But I hear the beeps.”
“They really turned the sound off?” Helene wonders.
“Girls…” Raquelle shakes her head. “I’m not quiet… I have a bad feeling…”
“Why?” Blair wonders.
“I don’t know… But I’m scared… The fact that Peter and Edward don’t answer scares me…”
“No, Raquelle, don’t panic,” Christiana says quietly. “Maybe, the men don’t just want to talk to anyone on the phone. Or they are where they can’t hear a call.”
“Yeah, but Edward also doesn’t ignore a call for too long,” Natalia notices a little excitedly. “Erm… I dunno… I could assume that he doesn’t wanna talk to me because of our argument, but…”
“Leave the men, girls,” Violetta says softly. “Let them stay alone. They’ve got enough problems. May they forget about them, at least for a while.”
“Still, it’s all very suspicious… And… I’m not also quiet, to be honest…”
“Didn’t anything happen to them?” Helene asks with anxiety, closing her mouth with a hand.
“Alright, girls!” Raquelle pronounces excitedly. “If Terrence doesn’t answer me now, it means something ain’t right with them.”
Raquelle takes her phone with shaking hands, types Terrence’s number, and waits for the answer impatiently.
“C’mon, Terence, c’mon, answer me…” Raquelle pronounces in a shaking, quiet voice, as she is shaking her leg nervously.
But a few seconds later, nobody answers Raquelle, and she turns off the call slowly and puts the phone to her mouth.
“Terrence doesn’t answer, either,” Raquelle barely moves her lips. “But there are the beeps…”
“Okay, I’ll try to call later,” Helene exhales sharply. “Maybe, they don’t really hear…”
“No, no… Something happened to the lads… I’m absolutely sure about it…”
“But what could happen to them?” Violetta throws her hands up.
“I don’t know, Violetta…” Raquelle shakes her head. “But I have a terrible presentiment. It hasn’t left me since I saw that nightmare.”
“About Terrence’s death?” Natalia specifies hesitantly.
“Yup… I knew it meant something… That was a sign… I tried to warn Terrence, but he didn’t believe me and said it was my fantasy.”
“C’mon, it’s just a dream,” Christiana says confidently. “Even if it was about your fiancé’s death, you shouldn’t take it seriously.”
“No, Christiana, I can’t.” Raquelle exhales sharply, starting to rub her hands nervously. “I exactly know that it’s a sign. The sign of the fact that something is gonna happen.”
“But, Raquelle, why do you think Terrence is supposed to suffer?” Blair asks hesitantly. “He can defend himself in a dangerous situation! And Edward and Peter wouldn’t let anyone hurt them if they got attacked.”
“I’m never wrong when I feel some danger, Blair,” Raquelle replies excitedly. “Just like my mother was. Every time I felt something bad, Terrence suffered to some extent! Because he didn’t listen to me and considered my words a dream.”
“Stop, Raquelle, don’t make yourself nervous and make your friends excited,” Violetta says softly. “It’s gonna be okay. Just wait for a while and call them again.”
“I’m scared… Scared by the thought that something might happen to Terrence…”
“No, Raquelle, don’t think about it,” Helene replies quietly, hugs Raquelle around the shoulders, and tries to comfort her, even if she gets nervous. “I shall wait for some time and call Peter again.”
“Exactly,” Blair pronounces confidently. “The men just don’t hear the call and don’t answer.”
“Oh, I must confess that I feel something bad, too,” Natalia replies with anxiety, grabbing her throat with a hand. “Nothing is kind of suspicious, but I ain’t quiet… I don’t know why…”
“Gosh, do you want to say that all the three got some problems?” Christiana wonders.
“Anything might happen… I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“Girls, please, calm down,” Violetta says quietly. “We see no reason to panic. You all said that the phones of the three were turned on! So, they could turn off the sound. The guys are too worried because of Daniel’s case… They can go crazy if they keep thinking about it.”
“What if they really got into something?” Helene expresses anxiety and runs her hands over her face. “Having Daniel and Anna’s problems is enough, but if those three get into trouble, we will go insane.”
“God, what could they get into?” Blair wonders. “You say it as if someone’s gonna attack them or hit them with a car.”
“What if it’s gonna happen?” Raquelle asks excitedly. “What if someone attacks the men?”
“Stop, Raquelle, it’s gonna be okay,” Christiana says softly, confidently. “You will see it.”
Sammy gets too anxious because of the girls’ influence or some of his feelings and starts to bark loudly and whine quietly.
“Quiet, my boy, quiet,” Helene says softly and quietly, petting Sammy’s head tenderly. “It’s okay.”
But Sammy keeps being restless, running from one side to another and literally wishing to run somewhere and do something.
“Sammy, don’t be so worried,” Blair says softly. “It’s gonna be okay. The men just walk somewhere and hear no call.”
“Listen, what if Sammy feels danger, too?” Natalia asks. “What if he feels that something could happen, at least to Peter?”
“Most likely,” Helene pronounces excitedly. “If Sammy is so nervous, something is surely happening to Peter.”
“But what?” Christiana wonders. “What could that guy get into?”
Helene silently looks into the distance for two seconds and moves her eyes to Sammy looking at her with pity in his eyes.
“Sammy, baby, what do you think…” Helene says excitedly. “What’s happening to Peter? Could he get into something?”
Sammy barks excitedly two times.
“Could?” Helene specifies.
Sammy barks again, jumping slightly.
“Okay, what about Edward and Terrence?” Helene asks. “Are they in trouble, too?”
Again, Sammy barks two times.
“Everything’s right,” Helene says with anxiety, moving her eyes to Natalia and Raquelle. “Something happened to the lads. Sammy wouldn’t get nervous for nothing. Something is either happening to Peter, Edward, and Terrence, or they might get into trouble very soon.”
“But what do we do if they’re really in danger?” Natalia throws her hands up. “If it’s so, we must do something!”
“But what? We don’t even know where to find them!”
“Gosh…” Raquelle makes a quiet sob, looks into the distance for two seconds with her mouth closed with a hand, and looks at everybody by one. “I knew… I knew my nightmare meant something… It predicted some trouble… A great problem…”
“No, no, friend, don’t say it!” Natalia begs with pity in her eyes, embraces Raquelle tightly, and tries to comfort her, even if she barely holds the tears down. “It’s gonna be okay. Helene and I are also worried. But let’s not panic so early.”
“I shall lose Terrence… Lose…”
“It doesn’t mean that something bad is supposed to happen to Terrence. Anyone might suffer: Terrence, Edward, and even Peter. If they’re together, a danger might threaten all of them.”
“Something terrible is gonna happen to Terrence. I know it! Know!” Raquelle closes her face with both hands and doubles over, not even trying to hold the bitter tears down. “Gosh… No… No… I don’t want…”
“Raquelle, darling…” Natalia pronounces in a shaking voice.
“Why did I get this stupid feeling right now? Why? If I’d known it before, I would’ve made Terrence sure to stay home. I would’ve lied not to let him go! Now, something is happening to him, but I can’t help him.”
“Raquelle, don’t say it,” Helene says with sadness in her eyes, sits closer to Raquelle, and caresses her shoulder or back. “You are not Nostradamus to predict something.”
“He will get in trouble, I know it… And I won’t be able to help him…”
“What if Terrence avoids some trouble? What if your nightmare is just a dream or a sign that trouble is close, but anyone might suffer?”
“No, that’s not true. Since Terrence died in my nightmare, a danger is threatening him.”
“Gosh, dreams mean nothing!” Christiana adds confidently. “Nothing from what I read about the meaning of dreams comes true. It’s all nonsense! Nonsense for naive people!”
“I don’t want to lose Terrence and stay alone,” Raquelle says in a shaking voice with tears in her eyes. “I don’t want… I wouldn’t have a reason to live if I didn’t have him by my side…”
Raquelle doubles over much more, runs her hands through her hair, and pulls it out slightly, feeling how every single muscle of her body is tense and crying bitterly at the thought that she might lose Terrence.
“Calm, Raquelle, calm down,” Helene says softly. “Terrence won’t suffer. He's gonna be okay.”
“Blair, can you please give us a glass of water?” Natalia asks gently and glances at the empty glasses. “We drank our drinks…”
“Yeah, sure,” Blair nods. “I will give the water to everybody. Just in case.”
Blair gets up from the sofa and goes to the kitchen to take some water. And Sammy whines quietly, comes to Raquelle, and touches her knee with a paw, looking at her with pity and showing true anxiety. The girl gets a little straighter, looks at the dog with wet eyes, and pets his head, not feeling better, though.
“Sammy…” Raquelle pronounces with a shake in her voice. “Sammy, I don’t want to lose Terrence… He’s my life… I can’t do without him… If he dies, I’ll lose a part of me. My other half. You see… I love him… And I suffer because I can’t help him if he gets into something.”
Sammy whines with pity again with super sad eyes, puts his front paws on Raquelle’s knees, raises himself on his hind paws, and licks her cheek with the hope that he can somehow comfort the crying girl.
“Gosh, what if something really happened to the lads?” Natalia starts to get nervous, barely holding down tears. “What if Edward suffers? I don’t want to lose him! He’s what I’m living for. I love him…”
“And I don't wanna lose Peter,” Helene says with pity in her eyes and sobs quietly. “I don’t want anything to happen to him. Once, I almost lost him… I don’t want to survive it again… I won’t take it…”
Some time later, Blair returns to the living room with three glasses of water on a plate that she puts on the coffee table. Although Raquelle takes a glass and drinks some water, she does not get better. A shake gets through every single cell of her body, her skin gets sharply pale, and her heart starts beating like crazy. Sammy tries to calm Raquelle, Helene, and Natalia down somehow, coming to them by one and putting his face on their knees, so they pet him. The dog is tearing himself between them and does not know who to comfort but does everything, so all the girls get his attention.
“Raquelle, Natalia, Helene, please, don’t worry,” Violetta says confidently. “Let’s wait at least for one and a half hours, and then you will try to call the men again. If they don’t answer you again or actually turn off their phones, it will be a sign of trouble.”
“Yeah, let’s try to wait for one or two hours…” Natalia suggests. “Anyway, we can call Mr. Johnson… He won’t refuse to help us and will quickly organize the search for the men.”
“If the lads disappear and end up nobody knows where, he can hardly do something,” Raquelle replies with tears and despair. “And if someone dies, we’ll be especially powerless.”
Raquelle doubles over again and closes her face with both hands, crying much more bitterly and not even trying to hold herself down. Helene and Natalia try to calm the girl and each other down, even if they also feel anxiety and are afraid of the worst things. Sammy supports them in all ways, and Violetta, Blair, and Christiana watch them with pity in their eyes, feeling truly sorry for them but trying to keep calm and hoping that the men will eventually be fine.
***
Anna gets a reason to get a little happy. Julian and his father, Norman, left the city this morning. She is madly happy that she can forget about his insults and hits for a while and will not have to tolerate the way he kisses her in front of her parents. Even if the girl understands that the man will come back soon, and everything will start over again.
Every single day, Anna realizes more and more that she misses her friends and needs them so badly. The girl knows that she can completely trust them and tell them about her feelings or find the courage to ask for help and protection from the man, who turned her life into an endless hell. She wants to be closer to someone she knows well. She wants to know that she is not alone in this world. That she would get protection if she asked someone about it. That Julian's words about nobody needing her would be a lie… But on the other hand, Anna is so worried about her parents’ lives that she is ready to keep silent and tolerate anything to save them. She literally stopped feeling pain after Julian’s hits. To be clear, the girl just made herself think so. Though, she would be madly happy to feel the love and caress and remember that her feelings are important to someone.
Nobody knows how much time Anna would need to get peace and happiness back with the support of her friends and parents. Maybe, she would get through the pain caused by Daniel’s betrayal, at least somehow. Maybe, she would find the courage to help him remember everything someday. Despite everything, the girl completely understands that she did a bad thing by leaving the man in trouble. And she even realizes that the man would have hardly wanted it. However, Anna feels triple pain not because of Daniel but because of Julian. He needed a few days to turn her life into a hellish hell and put her on the tests, for which she was not ready. Nobody treated her as horribly as her offender did. And he will definitely not stop doing this until the girl dies of torture…
Anna is thinking about it while walking slowly in the empty apartment and thinking about her friends. When Lillian and Maximilian asked her about the girls and the men, she realized what she wanted more than anything. Their words made her think about finding any chance to meet them. Of course, she is not sure that she will find the courage to talk about the violence, but she would like to talk about the pain caused by the breakup with Daniel. But a wish to hug her beloved friends, who are like her sisters and brothers, is stronger and takes victory over any fears and doubts.
“Oh, gosh, how much I wanna hug the girls and the men and talk to them,” Anna thinks, sighing heavily and embracing herself with both arms. “I miss them so badly and want to tell them everything. They’re the only people, who I completely trust, and who I could ask for support and protection. I’m sure they’d think up something and help my parents and me. I think my mom and dad have nothing against them now. I guess Mother told me the truth when she said many things changed…”
Still walking in the apartment, Anna moves her sad eyes to a small picture of an unknown author, which is hanging on the wall in the living room above the sofa.
“But I’m also afraid of Julian and what he might do to Mom or Dad. I don’t even care about his hits… I’m used to this pain so much that I stopped screaming and crying. I just want to save my parents. Even if I have to sacrifice my health and life. Yes, I’m ready to take this pain and any humiliation, so my parents stay alive… I’d better suffer myself than let one of them do it.”
Anna moves her eyes to the exit from the living room, sighs heavily, and crosses her arms over her chest.
“I would sacrifice anything for my friends… And… I was so happy to meet Peter and talk to him… Even if I magically stayed alive after what Potter did to me. But I don’t care… I’d rather suffer myself than let someone else be instead of me. God stopped Peter from meddling and trying to deal with Julian… He would’ve killed the blond… Pete has suffered enough and deserves a happy and quiet life literally much more than us… And my friends shouldn’t suffer because of me. I don’t want to lose them… They’re as important to me, as my parents…”
Anna slowly comes to the window with both arms crossed over her chest and watches what’s happening behind the apartment.
“At least, I’m happy that Julian and his father left the city. I can forget about him for a while… May my bruises go away, and my body stop feeling pain… But if I knew I wouldn’t have to see him anymore, I’d probably be as glad as I’ve never been. I don't want so much… Just getting off Julian, knowing that my parents wouldn’t be killed, and seeing my friends. Maybe, the first and second things seem impossible, but the third one…”
Anna closes her hand with her hand and frowns slightly.
“The third one would be possible… But if I do it, and Julian finds it out or suspects something, I will have to tolerate his hits again. Or he will actually kill me in anger. Though, Potter can beat me for nothing, even if I’m too quiet. He likes nothing! He literally gets irritated when I just breathe. He literally loves mocking me! Even if Julian doesn’t know about my visit, that man might beat me because of something else or for nothing…”
Anna calls the memories of Julian beating her cruelly and sighs heavily, feeling how she starts to shake.
“So…” Anna shrugs. “A cruel beating and endless insults would be waiting for me anyway. But… Gosh… How much I want to talk, at least to the girls! I miss them so much… I haven’t seen them since we came to visit Perkins in the hospital…”
Anna sighs heavily again and slowly steps back from the window, where she sees nothing but the gray sky, high buildings far away, and some people being busy with their thoughts, problems, and business and looking around with depressed eyes. Someone talks on the phone… Someone drives their cars… Someone walks with little children or adult people… And someone just walks alone, inclining their heads and thinking about something that might not always be nice. At some moment, Anna goes to her room, where she spends most of her time. The girl comes to the writing table, where there are many things that may be necessary and unnecessary, may have a meaning, or may end up here nobody knows how. Her hands reach one of the drawers that she slowly opens. Anna goes through some papers for some time and takes a well-hidden envelope. The girl wraps and looks at this thing from all sides for two seconds, treating it as if it has a special meaning to her. The corners of her mouth rise slightly, and she thinks of nice things that make her mood a little better.
A little later, Anna opens the envelope and takes what’s inside it. As it turns out, there are many polaroids of different sizes. The girl slowly comes to the bed, sits on it, and starts to look at every polaroid in her hands. It’s possible to see Anna, Raquelle, Natalia, Helene, Edward, Terrence, and Peter. She took these pictures with a polaroid camera that she has used for many years. The girl left some photos for herself and gave something to her friends. Every single polaroid is a memory of a certain day, on which they were taken.
“How happy we all are in these photos…” Anna thinks with sadness in her eyes and sighs heavily. “I wish I could bring those beautiful times back… When I didn’t even think that everything would be as terrible as it is now. When I thought there would be nothing worse than the control of my parents…”
Alongside photos with her friends, Anna has polaroids with Daniel, in which they look truly happy, not suspecting that a breakup would be waiting for them in the future… On the one hand, these photos make the girl smile with the corners of her mouth with a nice feeling of nostalgia. But on the contrary, the thoughts about that man kissing another girl make her barely hold the tears down.
“I don’t hide that I still love you, Daniel… Even if you kissed another girl before my eyes… I can’t pretend that I’m indifferent to you because that’s not the truth… At the bottom of my heart, I even feel ashamed of leaving you at such a hard moment. But… I’m sorry… My offense is much stronger… I can’t forgive the one, who betrayed me. I could forgive you for anything and close my eyes to any of your shortcomings, but I shall never forgive the betrayer.”
Anna views one of the polaroids with Daniel for a few seconds, puts it aside, and quickly checks out the other photos of the man and her friends with tears in her eyes.
“I really want to see you, guys. I want… I want. I don’t care about what Julian will do to me – he can kill me, beat me, or rape me! I don’t care! Potter would find any reason to beat me and say a couple of bad words. I have a hopeless situation and would suffer because of him anyway. So, I’ve got nothing to lose…”
Anna moves her eyes off many polaroids and looks into the distance, thinking about something for a few seconds.
“Yes, I want to tell the guys about everything that happened to me. While Julian is not here, I have a chance to help myself feel a little better and meet the people, who will always care about me. I’m too sick of loneliness… I need to talk to someone. Just a little.”
Anna raises her head up and sniffs.
“I will go. I’ll go right now… And first, I shall go to the home of Raquelle. I hope my friend will agree to give me at least five minutes… If I have time, I will probably visit Natalia and Helene. Maybe, Mom and Dad are right that I should start to speak to them again to feel a little better… And I shall do it…”
Anna views all the photos and puts them in the envelope. Then, she gets up from the bed and leaves it where she took it a few minutes ago. The girl decides to cover up some bruises and hits on her face with cosmetics and change her clothes, not even suspecting what the men decided to get into.
***
Meanwhile, Edward, Terrence, Peter, and Daniel are following Eugene Wainwright to find out where he is hiding. The MacClife brothers and Rose try to stay together and ignore Perkins, who does not even look at them, even if he does not leave them behind from a fear of getting lost. Their way runs through unpopular desert places that are far away from city life. The gloomy weather and the gray sky make them much more depressed and cause a feeling of anxiety and a wish to give up on their wishes. There are many trees of different heights and widths and roads that might lead to nobody knows where. And there is an automobile straight road far away, which is hidden with thick greenery.
Eugene barely walks and stands on his feet, thinking about how to reach his hideaway as soon as possible and take a dose of drugs. On the way, Wainwright often stops, looks around like a paranoid, and fights off some non-existing “demons”, at which he looks with widely open, dead eyes. Even a small insect flying or craving near him can make the criminal sure that this is something big and dangerous that wants to kill him.
“A-A-A!” Eugene shakes like crazy after a little fly flies by him and sharply starts to fight it off with both hands. “LEAVE ME! I WILL NOT DEAL WITH YOU! YOU ARE TOO BIG! A-A-A!”
Meanwhile, Edward, Peter, Terrence, and Daniel are hiding behind any trees, walls, plantings, and anything they see not to get caught by Eugene. And when Wainwright thought that a small blackly was something giant that wanted and tried to kill him, the young men hid behind a thick trunk of a high tree that was placed at some distance from the criminal.
“This is the first time when I see a drug addict,” Edward says quietly, leaning on the trunk with both hands and peeping out of it carefully to watch Eugene. “I’ve heard enough of them, but I’ve never dealt with the one, who sniffs and injects some shit into themselves.”
“But I’ve had to deal with those sick ones,” Peter whispers.
“Really?”
“Yup. When I lived with my mother, there was a neighbor. A young man at the age of twenty, who was taking drugs for too long and later died from an overdose. He had been a good enough guy, but drugs totally changed him, and he could easily kill or rob someone.”
“Didn’t anyone try to help him and stop making him take that shit?” Terrence wonders, sitting on his knees.
“Helping a drug addict is worthless. Especially when they don’t wanna get therapy. That guy always said that he would stop doing it, but everything started again and again. He could hold on for some time, but then he found a big dose and lied on the ground, looking up at the sky with a stupid smile. At first, he categorically denied that he started to take that shit and got mad when he was asked about drugs. But when he became dependent on drugs, that guy started to get the last money outta his family and steal something from his neighbors. Then he sold it to someone for big money. He stole some stuff and money from my mother and me. He did it many times.”
“Did you get at least some things back?”
“Alas, no. None of our neighbors got their stuff back. Everybody went to the police and reported, but it didn’t help.”
“Now I understand why Wainwright wanted to steal Natalia’s earrings and engagement ring from her,” Edward says confidently. “To sell them and get money for drugs. Her jewelry costs much enough.”
“Trust me, he definitely robs someone,” Peter replies confidently. “Since that man doesn’t work, he doesn’t have money for that shit. So, he has to attack and rob someone.”
“What if someone recognized him and reported him to the police?” Terrence frowns slightly.
“I guess they don’t care about it. Wainwright scares them so much that they give everything they have.”
“Logically…”
“And I suddenly got curious, since when has Wainwright been taking drugs?” Edward asks. “Could he be a drug addict when he was an accomplice of Uncle Michael?”
“Maybe, he was,” Terrence replies thoughtfully. “But, for example, he could hold on for a while… Maybe, Uncle paid for his therapy, and Wainwright rid himself of the addiction for some time. And then something got stuck in his head, and he wanted to sniff something again.”
“Even if a drug addict gets therapy, it doesn’t mean they will never take drugs again,” Peter says confidently. “Not many people can recover after poisoning themselves with this shit for ages. Former drug addicts don’t exist. If someone sniffs something once, they will be a potential client of the detoxification clinic all their life.”
Some time later, Edward, Peter, and Terrence see that Eugene keeps moving and continue to follow him, trying not to lose him and to go without noise. But it’s not so easy to do it because the grass, dead leaves, and something else rustle from their walk. Daniel also follows Wainwright, making sure that he is not just suspicious, but also very familiar to him.
“I’m starting to make sure that I know this man,” Daniel frowns slightly. “He seems too familiar… Looking at him, I feel anxiety and a wish to keep far away from him… I would love to leave this company of bastards and get outta here. But I wanna find out more about that man and try to find out something.”
Daniel strokes his chin thoughtfully, not moving his eyes off Eugene and slowing his step much more.
“He’s too suspicious… And something tells me that this man could tell me or show me something… It’s like he could help me remember something very important… That would definitely make everything clear. But I’m madly afraid to come to him because some of the shit that he took made him so wild… Oh… Fuck… Anyway, I’ll follow that man and try to find out something. I don’t know why the fuck these jackasses followed him, but I do know why I go. Maybe, I will find something that I lost…”
At some moment, Edward, Terrence, and Peter throw a short look at Daniel, as they are going forward and carefully following Wainwright, who is only thinking about how to take a dose soon.
“Listen, guys, why do you think Perkins went with us?” Terrence asks quietly.
“He has his own demons,” Edward replies gloomily. “That we will never understand.”
“And he makes me wish to beat his face,” Peter throws quietly. “Now I wanna see that moron much less. It’s disgusting that he slung much more dirt on us, blamed us for threatening him and the foreigner, and wanted to beat our faces, and now he’s stumbling with us and playing a proud, hard-to-get lady.”
“Let’s not just pay attention to him. Let Perkins do what he wants. I will not move a finger for him.”
“But he gave us a reason to reflect,” Terrence notices. “The one, who sent him a message with threats, might have to do with what happened. Now we know that he definitely got some problems. Someone would hardly send him those things for nothing or for a joke.”
“Maybe, that’s true,” Peter nods. “But let him solve everything alone. As he wanted.”
“Huh, if we had met him outside, and he hadn’t seen us, we would’ve come to him,” Edward replies confidently. “I think Perkins can’t leave us alone.”
“It’s okay, I shall watch him when he remembers everything and realizes what he has done,” Terrence replies confidently.
“Oh, I’d watch him trying to find excuses for us, our girls, and Anna, on whom he cheated with the Spaniard,” Peter scoffs quietly.
“Let’s better watch this hero solve his problems without anyone’s help,” Edward laughs shyly.
“That’s right. Knowing that he can’t fight at all.”
“Yeah, the guy’s hits are weak,” Terrence scoffs quietly. “He didn’t leave bruises when he attacked us.”
Edward, Peter, and Terrence laugh quietly and keep going, not letting their talk be heard by Daniel, who goes after them and thinks about his goals. Eugene continues to go to his highway with a quick, wide step and sees hallucinations in the form of great beasties that want to kill him. At some moment, he gets so busy waving hands and fighting off his “enemies” that he runs into a tree with his back that shakes slightly, and winces strongly when something falls on his head from it.
“A-A-A!” Eugene shouts, moves something off his head sharply, moves his wide eyes to the innocent tree, and threatens it with a finger. “DO YOU WANT TO KILL ME? HUH? YOU WILL NOT DO IT!”
Eugene finds a stone on the ground, grabs it, and throws it at the tree, into which he ran, as strongly as he could.
“YAY, BITCH!” Eugene screams at the top of his lungs and throws another rock at the tree. “NOBODY DARES TO HURT ME! NOBODY! ANYONE WILL BE DEAD! THE ONE TO GET CLOSER TO ME WILL BE DYING IN THE GROUND!”
Eugene spits on the tree and keeps moving on with a sharp and fast walk, limping slightly at times. While Edward, Terrence, and Peter look at each other with horror in their eyes and shake their heads.
“He’s gonna kill someone if someone comes to him…” Peter says thoughtfully.
“Yeah…” Edward exhales sharply. “That man is starting to scare me more and more.”
“You decided to start this game,” Terrence recalls. “It was your idea.”
“I didn’t make anyone go with me. Peter and you could go home quietly and give some attention to the girls.”
“Someday, you’ll ask for trouble, kid…” Terrence hums quietly. “When that bastard hits you on the head and injects some shit into you. That would make you just blink your eyes.”
“Oh, dude, sometimes you’ve got such a rich imagination. Did you and Raquelle start to watch some emotional movies in the evenings? Are you secretly crying over the deaths of Jack from Titanic or Mufasa from The Lion King?”
“Keep laughing… I’ll watch you joke when that bastard catches you. Drug you with something, kill you, and give your corpse to dogs!”
“Do you think Wainwright won’t do the same to you?”
“He will hurt no one if you don’t think up something stupid and dangerous now.”
“Relax, bro, nothing will happen to your precious ass because you’re with me. While I watch everything, you have a chance to reunite with Cameron.”
“If only we didn’t have to save your ass! Of course, you will do stupid things anyway. But since Rose and I went with you, there is a chance that there will be much fewer problems. And we will take you under your arms and bring you home in time.”
“Oh, you are so generous, brother…” Edward rolls his eyes. “And fearless! What I would do without you…”
“Hear, pretty boys, move your asses!” Peter throws gloomily. “You are not the fuck walking! Faster, faster!”
Edward and Terrence quicken their steps, keeping pace along with Peter. Well, Daniel stumbling behind hears this part of the talk and hums quietly.
“Oh, it seems like MacClife loves looking for trouble,” Daniel thinks. “However, it’s easy to guess, knowing that the kid was on trial for the murder but was found not guilty. But I wouldn’t be surprised if he did much more.”
By this moment, all the young men and Eugene have passed a long enough distance from the start location. At first, their way was on asphalt roads or literally endless rugs of grease and leaves, but now they have to go through green brushwood and bushes, climb over fallen trees, and dirty their jeans and shoes with something, from which they sometimes can get out only with someone’s help. However, Eugene does not care about it and thinks only about how to feel such a desired feeling of pleasure again.
“Fuck, I need a dose, I really need a dose…” Eugene repeats under his nose with a heavy breath. “I am about to have a withdrawal… I need a dose… Dose… Now… Big dose… Very big… It’s not enough…”
“Oh, how long do we have to go?” Terrence moans tiredly. “I am tired… And I dirtied my jeans…”
“Yeah, he couldn’t hide somewhere closer,” Peter says under his breath. “My shoes are all in the dirt.”
“Oh, this motherfucker…” Edward pronounces a little irritably with a little heavy breath. “But it’s okay… He’s gonna get what he deserves and pay for what he’s done… The thought that this scumbag will go to prison again gives me strength.”
“Listen, where are we actually now?” Terrence wonders, looking around. “We’re nobody the fuck knows where! And I can’t remember how we came here… Could we leave this place when we wanna get out? Or will we wait for the police to find us?”
“At least, we have phones,” Peter shrugs. “We can look at the map and get our current location.”
“Are you sure we can use them here?” Edward frowns slightly. “Maybe, it is actually impossible to get a signal here?”
“I don’t know, but we can try. Sadly, there is no sun now, and we can’t orientate thanks to that.”
At this moment, Daniel steps on a dry stick that crushes with a loud sound under his weight. The man gets frozen for a moment with his widely open eyes, and Terrence, Peter, and Edward turn back sharply. Two moments later, the three look at Eugene, who turns on the sound less than one second before the four run on different sides and hide behind trees.
“Who is here?” Eugene asks.
But silence settled in this place and could only be broken by the deafening singing of birds.
“WHO IS HERE?” Eugene roars at the top of his lungs. “WHO, THE FUCK? GO! GO TO DIE! I SHALL KILL YOU!”
Eugene takes two steps forward, while Terrence, Edward, Daniel, and Peter press their backs tighter to the trucks of the trees and start to breathe much heavier from fear that they are about to be caught. While Wainwright looks at everything that surrounds him with wild eyes, Terrence glances at Peter and Edward standing against him and silently tells them not to move, and they nod slightly, not literally breathing.
“I AM NOT AFRAID OF YOU!” Eugene says loudly. “FIGHT WITH ME! FIGHT AND DIE! HUH? WHERE ARE YOU?”
Eugene looks around with his wide eyes for a few seconds, tightly clenching his hands into fists and breathing like a furious wild animal.
“Ah, fuck you all!” Eugene waves his hand sharply. “I have no time to fight with you! I want cocaine… Now…”
A few seconds later, Eugene sharply turns around with a heavy enough breath and continues to go to the hideaway. While Edward, Terrence, and Peter raise their heads up slightly and exhale slowly, being happy not to get caught by the criminal. And then the men move their cold looks full of evil to Daniel, who was hiding not far from them.
“Why did you the fuck do it?” Terrence whispers rudely, putting his hands on his hips. “We almost got caught because of you, jackass! You walk like an elephant!”
“Am I the one to blame?” Daniel throws his hands up. “I did not see this fucking stick!”
“I swear, if we had gotten caught, I would have killed you,” Edward says in a low, rude voice, coming closer to Daniel. “Strangled you with my own hands.”
“I know killing a person is nothing to you. Because your brother would cover your ass and wouldn’t let anyone put you in prison.”
“Listen, Perkins, go home and let us do our business,” Peter says coldly after coming to the trio. “You are like the fucking fifth paw of a dog!”
“I think I said I would be on my own and did not care about your businesses,” Daniel throws rudely. “If you die because of that man, I will be happy. You will stop chasing me and poisoning my life!”
“Huh, we won’t cry over you, either!” Terrence hums contemptuously. “But remember, asshole, if Wainwright catches us because of you, we will kill you. Kill you sooner than that bastard.”
“We will see who will be killed! Do not even hope that I will save you!”
“Then go to the fuck, bastard!” Peter throws rudely. “I wish you got caught by him and died!”
“I wish you the same, freaks!”
“You are a freak!” Edward throws irritably. “Brainless, hysterical freak!”
“C’mon, men, let’s go,” Terrence says quietly. “Or we will kill him and bury his body here.”
“I wish he killed all of you, bastards,” Daniel hisses through his teeth. “I wish you all died!”
Terrence, Edward, and Peter say nothing and quickly catch Eugene, who is at a long distance. Daniel rolls his eyes with both arms crossed over his chest, shakes his head sharply, and also goes after Wainwright, trying not to notice the people that irritate him to death. Some time later, the young men come to a dirty river and a small bridge, on which Eugene walks. They understand that they need to do it very carefully without making any sounds because the soles of their shoes might knock on the wooden boards strongly. Keeping a distance between themselves and the criminal, the four men go on the bridge on tiptoe, trying not to make noises and not to get caught by Wainwright right now, when they have no place to hide.
Later, they go on another bridge that rises above a huge space. And while Eugene goes on it, he always looks down with his widely open eyes, feeling a strong fear of highness and understanding that he feels a little dizzy.
“Oh, I’m af-fraid-d-d…” Eugene says under his nose in a shaking voice. “I’m going to fall! A-A-A-A! Fuck! I need to cross this bridge faster…”
When Eugene successfully crosses the bridge above the space, he shouts happily and raises his hands to the sky.
“YES!” Eugene screams at the top of his lungs. “I’M ALIVE! I DIDN’T FALL FROM THE BRIDGE! A-A-A!”
Eugene looks around quickly, almost catching the men at some moment, while they hide behind everything they see when they feel that they might get caught.
“That’s good I don’t have to go for too long,” Eugene says confidently. “I will finally take a dose and feel much better! OH, YEAH, BABE! And then do more interesting things…”
Eugene quickens a step and continues his way, while Peter, Terrence, and Edward get more surprised by his behavior.
“Oh, I can’t wait to come to the place where he hides and get out,” Edward says tiredly. “Then, we’ll immediately go to the police or call Mr. Johnson and tell them where to find that bastard.”
“The important thing is not to get caught,” Peter replies confidently. “If we don’t hide, we will die.”
“Although I’ve always been afraid of him, I’m scared of him much more now, because he takes some shit and gets wild. Who knows what he might do when being on a high.”
“I’m sure that he did most of his tricks when being on drugs,” Terrence assumes. “Maybe, he held on for some time but then broke down.”
“Who knows…” Peter exhales sharply. “Anyway, when we find out where that sick man is hiding, we must get outta here. Or we wouldn’t avoid trouble.”
“Yeah… I wouldn’t like to be drugged with some shit… Or get a hit on the head with a baton, pass out, wake up, and see that I’m tied up.”
“I hope we’ll get out earlier than he gets us caught.”
“If my brother didn’t think up something else.”
Edward says nothing and just shakes his head, swallowing up nervously and understanding that he is shaking slightly. And Daniel starts to get tired of this long way and moans silently, regretting deciding to watch Eugene.
“Oh, shit, how long do we go?” Daniel asks. “I’m tired… My legs hurt… I’m dirty… I’m cold… And I don’t know where to go or where I am… There is no end to this hell…”
Daniel rolls his eyes and runs his hands over his face.
“Oh, why did the fuck I go with these three idiots? I should’ve gone home after I told them everything I wanted… But I didn’t! I, idiot, went nobody knows where and nobody knows with whom…”
Daniel stops slowly, while Edward, Terrence, and Peter keep going forward and do not think of paying attention to him.
“Maybe, this blond freak, Rose, said the right thing about going home this time?” Daniel frowns slightly. “Why do I the fuck need it? Okay, I give up! I will go home! May those idiots deal with that sick man. I don’t have to do with it!”
Daniel looks around quickly, trying to understand where to go.
“Hey, where do I go? Where am I? Fuck, I think I can’t get out of here… I’d make it much worse… Get lost here and come back home only if someone found me and showed me the way. Oh, fuck…”
Daniel moves his eyes to Edward, Peter, and Terrence going far away from him.
“It seems like I have no choice… I don’t think those idiots know how to get out of here, but the best thing I can do now is be next to them. Yes, I want to get rid of their pretense with pleasure… But I better follow them… Maybe, they’ll bring me back when they want to get out.”
After exhaling sharply and moving strands of hair off his eyes, Daniel catches Terrence, Edward, and Peter quickly and continues to follow them, keeping himself as far as possible. They all have to fight their way through the dense vegetation and dirty their shoes with much more dirt. Moreover, the men getting tired enough run into a lot of webs, through which they barely go. It is getting colder outside, but the men are glad they do not feel so cold because they are wearing not only T-shirts.
Silence settles around… Birds sometimes fly above the head… Small squirrels climb trees quickly… And the air is kind of special and very nice. Maybe, if the men did not have to step on dirt and go through the web and green vegetation to the goal, they would get better impressions of this place, which could be a paradise for any introvert. But now Edward, Terrence, and Peter care about how to find Eugene Wainwright and then tell the police about it. And Daniel… Telling the truth, he does not have a goal. He is here just because a feeling calls him to follow Wainwright. And because he is afraid of getting lost and not finding a way to get out of here.
And after a long and hard way, Eugene reaches the place he needs. At least, he smiles slyly when he comes to a high stoned fence.
“Yeah, f-f-final-l-lly I’m h-h-here!” Eugene exclaims with a sly smile and sharply pulls the rusted door on himself with his shaking hands. “YES-YES-YES-YE-E-E-E-E-ES! DOSE! WHERE IS MY DOSE? I NEED A DOSE! WHERE ARE MY DOSES? WHERE?”
Eugene quickly runs into the opened, rusty door that opens with a disgusting squeak and closes it as tightly as possible with a rotten board. Then he runs to the wooden, middle-sized house, barely unlocks the hall door closed with a few boards, and hides inside. Later, Edward runs to the stoned fence and looks around, while Terrence and Peter follow him, and Daniel shows up slowly a few moments later.
“I guess it’s the end of our way,” Edward says with disappointment and pushes the stone fence that he looks at with both hands. “He hid behind this fence.”
“It’s high…” Peter notices, steps a few steps back, and looks at the fence. “Very high…”
“Yeah, we can’t see what’s behind it…” Terrence says thoughtfully.
“I guess, a house where that bastard is hiding.”
“Yeah… How did that deadbeat find this place? It’s located nobody the fuck knows where! And you can barely reach it!”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d been here for ages. Maybe, at the times when he served Michael.”
“It happened that Uncle lied when saying he bought houses for his accomplices?” Edward frowns slightly.
“Maybe, he didn’t lie. Maybe, Wainwright really had a house. But he’s hiding here from the police and doing his things.”
“He’s a drug addict, but he didn’t lose his brain,” Terrence notices. “He understands that he might be dead.”
Meanwhile, Daniel is checking and touching the stone fence and thinking whether he can climb over it to find out if there is something interesting behind it.
“I wonder if I can climb over this fence,” Daniel thinks, raising his head up. “There’s something to hold… I wanna look at what’s behind the walls… Maybe, I can find something interesting and find out more about that man…”
“Okay, guys, we can get out now,” Peter says confidently. “We wanted to find out where Wainwright hid and did it.”
“You’re right,” Terrence agrees. “We must go to the police immediately. And remember the way here.”
“Don’t worry, I will find out our location on the maps on the phone and tell them the exact address.”
“But I wonder to know what’s behind,” Edward replies confidently, goes back, and looks at the stone fence.
“Ar-r-r, Edward…” Terrence groans irritably. “The more time I spend with you, the more you irritate me.”
“What if I try to climb up? It’s not very high! I can do this!”
“Yeah? Do you want Wainwright to see you and come here? He almost got us caught on the way, but now you want to give up to him at your wish?”
“I just wanna know what’s behind the fence.”
“Oh, you’re really a brainless idiot…”
“Guys, let’s get out of here before we get caught,” Peter suggests hesitantly, being a little excited and embracing himself with both arms. “And while it’s daylight… We’ll let the police know that this bastard is here, and they’ll decide how to get him arrested.”
“Exactly!” Terrence exclaims. “We must contact Mr. Johnson immediately! And get out of here. Before we get caught!”
“Quite real…” Edward pronounces thoughtfully, looking at the high fence closely. “I could climb up… But I need the support… Or I can try to climb up without it?”
“Listen, bonehead, stop looking for much more problems,” Terrence says gloomily. “We just wanted to follow Wainwright! Not to climb over this fucking fence.”
“I’m not gonna climb over it. I just want to know what there is here and what to tell Mr. Johnson.”
“Do you understand that Wainwright might come to the fence, open it, and catch us?” Peter asks. “That scumbag wouldn’t let us go if he saw at least one!”
“Leave this place and contact Mr. Johnson if you and Terrence want it. But I will look around and find out what is what.”
“Yeah, but how are you gonna leave it alone?” Terrence wonders. “Wainwright brought us nobody the fuck knows where, and I don’t actually know how to get out of here!”
“I’ll surprise you, Terrence: I don’t also know how we can get outta here.”
“Alright, kid, stop playing a spy, and let’s go!”
“If you’re scared, you can go. I called nobody with me.”
“Don’t irritate me, brother. Or I shall take you away by force. And tell Mother and Father everything, so they hit your ass with a belt. Or I shall do it if you don’t listen the fuck to me!”
Edward rolls his eyes silently and looks at the stone fence again, thinking about how to climb up.
“Okay, I’ve gotta try…” Edward says under his nose. “I think I can do it…”
“Hey, where are you going?” Terrence resents. “Hey! Don’t dare! Don’t dare, I said! Hear me, you, brainless puppy!”
Ignoring his brother, Edward comes closer to the stoned fence and shakes one of the stones. Then he grabs it with his hand, shakes another, grabs it, and raises himself a little. The man also checks stones with his legs and makes sure that he does not fall, climbing up successfully enough.
“Ar-r-r-r, how much he irritates me at times,” Terrence says under his nose. “Raquelle doesn’t play on my nerves as well as this kid does!”
“Yeah, I’ve always known your brother is a lover of asking for trouble,” Peter says with both arms crossed over his chest. “No matter how much his ass was kicked, he didn’t learn anything.”
“Natalia was right when saying he was a stubborn ass… If something gets stuck in this kid’s mind, trying to change his mind doesn’t make sense.”
“Maybe, he will calm down later? For example, if he got married or started to think of fatherhood!”
“I doubt it. Edward can’t stay in the same place. And he always gets attracted to problems. Some people can’t live without drinks and cigarettes, but this one just needs a chance to play a hero or a fighter for justice. Remember how hard he tried to get out of bed one or two hours later after he woke up from narcosis.”
“Hard case…”
Terrence exhales sharply, glances aside, and sees Daniel trying to climb up but standing where he could not do it.
“Oh, look, that one wants to climb up, too,” Terrence hums quietly with both arms crossed over his chest, pushing Peter on the hip slightly.
“Fucking idiot…” Peter shakes his head, putting his hands on his hips. “There’s nothing to grab!”
“It’s okay, buddy, he is our independent one! Let him deal with it himself! But we’ll watch and laugh at this stupid sheep.”
“That’s right!” Peter chuckles quietly, watching Daniel try unsuccessfully to find a way to climb up and push the fence with his hands. “But watching his ‘heroic’ actions is so funny.”
“I can’t deny it,” Terrence laughs shyly.
Meanwhile, Edward climbs up on top of the stone fence by far not without problems. Leaning on the fence with both arms not to fall down, he starts to look around from a height. He quickly notices the gray, wooden, middle-sized house placed among the greens with small windows and rotted frames. Eugene is standing near the hall door, being too obsessed with something that he is holding in his hands – a needle syringe, which he gets into the vein on his arm and smiles peacefully. Trying to hold onto the top of the fence, Edward watches Wainwright for a few seconds not to get caught by him and moves his eyes to Peter and Terrence.
“You were right, Peter!” Edward exclaims. “There is really a small, wood house behind the fence. Wainwright is standing near the hall door and getting something in his hand with a needle syringe. A drug, I guess… He’s standing and getting high!”
“Does it mean he has a stock of this shit?” Peter asks.
“He wanted to go here for a reason!”
“Yeah… I guess he’s sold enough to get so many drugs.”
“Who knows, Pete… But now we know exactly where Wainwright is hiding here. And I really doubt that he’ll get out somewhere.”
“Okay, good!” Terrence puts his hands on his hips. “You found out everything you wanted! Now, be nice to climb down from there. And let’s get out before Wainwright injects this shit into us.”
But Edward keeps having an interest in watching Eugene, who gets a dose of drugs and feels the euphoria that he has been craving for so long.
“YEAH!” Eugene screams at the top of his lungs, raising his hands up and smiling widely. “HERE’S EUPHORIA! HIGH! A-A-A-A! THAT’S WHAT I NEED!”
Eugene starts walking around near the hall door with a silly smile on his face.
“Ah, I would like to go to a party and dance!” Eugene exclaims. “I want to dance until I fall! EH! But fuck, I can’t! People would call the cops, who would put me in prison again. And I would be deprived of a chance to get a regular dose… I would die without it… Die…”
Eugene shakes his head, glances at the packet with the rest of the powder in his hands, and sniffs it with pleasure.
“AH…” Eugene smiles peacefully. “No… I can’t lose this chance… I was deprived of this happiness for too long! They wouldn’t give me a dose in prison…”
Edward frowns slightly, watching Eugene carefully and reflecting on his words.
“That man definitely was dependent on drugs much earlier than the times when he was pleasing Uncle,” Edward assumes. “Maybe, when he was trying to mock Natalia, he was on something. That old bastard, Michael, said Wainwright was with his pals. So, they could take drugs together. Or he was holding on for some time but broke down after running away from prison… Who knows… Though, I’m surprised that nobody saw that he took drugs when he got arrested. If the doctors announced that he was mentally sick, why did nobody see that he was a drug addict? I don’t get it…”
Edward frowns slightly, while Eugene is still getting high from a strong drug and laughing loudly.
“But it’s amazing how Uncle and his pals could actually talk to that bastard every time he was stoned. It’s impossible to talk to drug addicts quietly. Wainwright could sniff some shit and kill someone easily. Even Eric or Michael himself. Did someone actually know about his dependence? Or didn’t Wainwright really take this shit? Or wasn’t he so dependent on it? Damn! I don’t understand!”
“Hey, MacClife, how long are you gonna make us nervous?” Peter asks excitedly in a little shaking voice. “Get down now! Stop making us the fuck nervous!”
“Guys, I don’t make you stay here,” Edward replies quietly. “You can get out of here.”
“A-r-r, here’s one more lonely hero!” Terrence throws irritably. “Do I take you down by force? Do I start to educate you seriously?”
“Don’t act like a harsh daddy, Terrence.”
“I swear, Edward Robert MacClife, I shall kill you if you don’t get your ass down now! Hear me, brainless rutrag?”
“Just don’t say Terrence MacClife himself peed his pants from fear,” Edward chuckles kindly.
“Don’t make me mad, idiot!” Terrence groans irritably, clenching his hands into fists tightly. “Get down immediately! Stop playing on my fucking nerves!”
“Stop it, morons,” Daniel throws coldly, coming to Terrence and Peter. “I am sick of hearing your bullshit. MacClife clearly told you to get out.”
“Don’t meddle, Perkins!” Terrence throws rudely. “I am talking to my brother!”
“Actually, he did not make you go with him. But you decided to go because you did not want to seem like cowardly bunnies.”
“Listen, Perkins, go where you want,” Peter moans tiredly. “Let us solve everything.”
“It’s so hilarious to watch some terrible cowards, who are afraid to confess it.” Daniel laughs evilly, putting his hands on his hips. “The way you are trying to hide it so hard…”
“You know, we also laugh at you, while you try to climb up the fence. Nobody knows why you do, but it looks really stupid.”
“None of your fucking business!”
“Get out, Perkins, get out,” Terrence crosses his arms over his chest. “Do not bother us. Nobody asked you to go with us.”
“You do not decide if I should leave!” Daniel throws rudely.
“Listen, maybe, you are scared? Afraid to get lost? Are your pants already wet?”
“Ha, do you mean yourself, Edward?” Daniel sneers evilly. “Don’t you wanna confess that you peed yourself?”
“I am Terrence!”
“How much Rose and you want to get out! Put your tails between your legs, peed your pants… Faces are pale, eyes are scared…”
“Alas, Perkins, your beloved Blanca is far and would not save you from the sick, drugged man,” Peter says with mockery.
“Ar-r-r, fuck, how much your faces irritate me! How much your voices irritate me!”
“Then get the fuck out of here! Nobody needs you here!”
“Terrence hardly needs your help. Or maybe, he had a deal with that man. For example… They killed the man, for the murder of whom he must have been put in prison.”
“You better close your mouth and get out of here before we hit your face for the second time,” Terrence demands rudely, clenching his hands into fists tightly. “Before we fuck it all and send you to the hospital with tons of fractures!”
“Ha, you get out!” Daniel sneers evilly. “If you are such cowards, run home. Run to your mommies and daddies, who will warm you under their wings. Of course, if you have them. Maybe, you’re poor orphans, whom your parents pissed off a long time ago.”
“Close your mouth, stupid donkey,” Peter hisses through his teeth. “If you give a fuck about everyone except the foreigner, we do care about Edward. And we will not let him deal with that man alone.”
“If MacClife has to do with that man, let him deal with him by himself. I doubt that he needs your help. And if he dies, nobody will be sad. I will be glad. Just like in case you die, too.”
“If you say something like this about my brother again, I swear I shall break your neck,” Terrence threatens Daniel with a finger. “YOU GOT IT, ASSHOLE? If you do not want to die in torture, better close your mouth and not open it. Never!”
“I will say what I want! Not only about your little brother but also you, egoistic, hysterical girl that must be put in a mental hospital.”
When Terrence breathing heavily wants to slap Daniel in the face, Peter takes MacClife, Sr., under his arm and takes him aside.
“Quiet, Terrence, quiet!” Peter exclaims. “Don’t do! This idiot will understand nothing!”
“Pedro finally said at least one smart thought!” Daniel throws rudely.
“Get the fuck out while you are alive!” Terrence demands irritably. “Or you will get in trouble, bastard!”
“I shall leave when I find out everything I need. When I want. Not when I get orders. I cannot take it.”
“Ar-r-r, fuck, how good it was when you were silent!” Peter groans irritably. “These were the best minutes! What if you shut up forever and stop irritating us?”
“Do not tell me what to do, Pedro!”
“Sometimes I think you call us by different names on purpose. As if you know who is who, but you want to play on our nerves.”
“Because of you, I am not even sure that my name is Daniel. You washed my brain so hard that I got confused!”
“Oh, shit…” Terrence moans tiredly, running his hands over his face. “Maybe, you were unbearable sometimes, but now you have become much worse. It’s easier to tolerate a girl’s hysteria than your demons.”
“I would be normal if you three did not bother me! Did not chase me! Did not try to kill me! Did not send me messages with threats!”
“You would be normal if you remembered everything and realized what the fuck you are doing,” Peter says irritably.
“I give a fuck about a barking dog like you!”
“You are pretending to be cool but shaking like a bunny,” Terrence notices coldly. “At the thought that nobody will save you.”
“I am not afraid!” Daniel says loudly.
“Oh, yeah!” Peter sneers contemptuously. “Don’t pee your pants, otherwise, people will laugh at you.”
When the irritated Daniel wants to say something, Edward sharply jumps down from the stone fence and runs to the men, saying:
“Guys, hide! Wainwright is coming here!”
Edward takes Terrence and Peter under their arms and pulls them after himself. They run until the end of the fence, turn to the left, and lean on it with their backs. Daniel succumbs to the herd instinct and follows the men shortly, reacting to it a little later due to the fear that paralyzes him. A few seconds later, Eugene opens the fence and leaves the house, locking the rusty door with a board.
“Everything is doing well…” Eugene raises his head and hands up with a wide smile. “And if I make one wish of mine come true, I will be very happy. And I shall get it early or late.”
Eugene glances at the locked fence.
“A little later, I shall deal with that girl and give her the strongest drug that I have. So, I’m able to do anything for her. So, she doesn’t think of resisting… Oh, yeah, baby… I can’t wait to caress her young body… Naked body… M-m-m… The thought of it drives me crazy… I want sex not less than cocaine…”
Eugene laughs evilly for a few seconds and goes somewhere with a quick step, going to walk in the closest places and enjoy the feeling of euphoria.
“Fuck, that bastard still wants to mock Natalia and give her drugs,” Edward says under his nose in a slightly shaking voice. “He wants to dress her, fuck her, and inject some shit into her.”
“No, he won’t dare!” Terrence exclaims. “He won’t reach our girls! Never! I won’t let it happen!”
“The girls understood that the case was serious and wouldn’t dare to go where he might find them,” Peter adds confidently.
“Wainwright left…” Edward pronounces thoughtfully. “So, we have some time…”
“Hey, Edward, close your mouth,” Terrence says coldly. “Shut up… Don’t even think…”
“If there is much shit like that, we must get rid of it immediately.”
“The police will do it when they catch him.”
“No, I won’t wait. I will deal with it personally and destroy everything he has.”
“What?” Peter rounds his eyes and knocks at his temple with a finger. “You went nuts, idiot? Wainwright will come back at any time!”
“If he’s back, I shall beat his face!” Edward throws coldly in a low voice. “I haven’t dealt with him! That asshole will pay a high cost for what he did to my fiancée.”
“You’re crazy, man!” Terrence shakes his head. “Do you understand what’s gonna happen to you if that bastard catches you? He will just give you such a great dose of drugs that you will die immediately!”
“I’m doing this for justice. I want to defend Natalia against what that man can do to her.”
“You don’t have to give yourself to the sick man. You found out where he’s hiding – alright! Now it’s time to go to the police.”
“While the police are coming, it will probably be too late.”
“Fuck, don’t you have brains?” Terrence resents a little louder, knocking at his temple with a finger. “You’re an adult, level-headed man, but you sometimes do what makes people surprised!”
“You would also be wild if a certain bastard threatened Raquelle. You’d go anywhere and do anything to defeat her offender.”
“Stop, Edward! Stop doing much more stupid things! Think of Natalia and Father and Mother! About their suffering! Because you, stubborn ass, haven’t calmed down and still ask for trouble!”
“I’ll calm down only when that bastard is dying in prison!”
“No, kid, you will never calm down! You will be attracted to some shit until you die!”
“It’s my business!”
“Stop proving something to someone,” Terrence demands confidently. “Everybody knows you are not what Uncle Michael and his gang of idiots called you.”
“I’m not trying to prove anything and just want to end this story once and forever.”
“You must go to the police to do that. The po-li-ce! Instead of looking for trouble!”
“Stop controlling me like a child!”
“No, Edward, you stop! It’s time to grow up and get smarter! It would be better if you played toys at the age of thirty than run into hellfire with a naked ass!”
“You will not change my mind, Terrence,” Edward says quietly. “Do not even try.”
“Damn, Edward, you’re really sick!” Peter exclaims. “I completely understand that you’re protecting Natalia and wanna revenge on her offender. But the only thing you must do is call Mr. Johnson and give him Wainwright’s current location.”
“Of course, I shall call him. I’ll just look at what there is in the house, get rid of any drugs, and get out.”
“Ar-r-r, why do you love to ask for trouble so much? Why do you like making everybody nervous? Do you understand that you’re putting Terrence and me in danger? If you get caught, we will do it, too! I’m not sure that we will deal with that bastard all together.”
“Guys, I don’t make anyone be with me,” Edward replies quietly. “I can defend myself. That bastard is wrong if he thinks he'll get me caught so easily. I will not let him do it!”
“Edward, you will go nowhere,” Terrence pronounces every single word slowly. “No matter if you like it or not, you will not do much more stupid things, while Peter and I are here.”
“Get out of here. If you wanna help, come back with Mr. Johnson and the police.”
“Do you hear what I’m saying?” Terrence tightly takes Edward under an elbow and looks at him confidently, shaking him slightly at some moment. “Don’t do stupid things, because of which you and all of us might suffer!”
“I’m giving you a chance to save yourself. I don’t want any of you to suffer, and everybody to blame me for having to do with it.”
“Yeah, but everybody is going to blame me if you suffer!” Terrence breaks into a cry. “Because I can’t watch my brother and stop him! If Father and Mother are not near, I must wash your brains when you want to do another stupid thing.”
“I don’t have to ask for anyone’s permission!” Edward goes two steps back and turns sharply on Terrence. “And I know what I’m doing!”
“No, Edward, you turn off your brains when they must the fuck work!”
“Dealing with Wainwright is my duty. I must deal with him and let Natalia live without a fear that the scumbag might meet her somewhere, take her with him, and mock her until she dies.”
“Natalia won’t be happy if you’re going to get into another fight. You won’t save her this way! If that bastard Wainwright kills you, she’ll have nobody to be protected by. Then, he will be able to reach her and do anything to her. If you want to save someone, your duty is to save yourself, first of all. This is the first thing that you should think about.”
“Wainwright will not touch her!”
“He will do it! If you are dead!”
“I will not die!” Edward exclaims loudly.
“Fuck, how did you become so stubborn?” Terrence wonders. “Father and Mother aren’t like this and can think soberly even in a stressful situation. And they don’t get attracted to problems… They always wanted a quiet and peaceful life. And you literally have a pain in your ass! You can’t sit in the same place!”
“I am just protecting what means a lot to me!”
“Dude, you’re like Raquelle: if something gets into her head, it will be impossible to strike it out. Until she does what she wants, that girl won’t calm down. You’re the same! You start to think only when you get a hit on your head!”
“If you’re talking about Raquelle, think about her and come back home. Don’t make her nervous. Moreover, she might think of the nightmare with you and start to be worried about you.”
“Oh, no! I won’t let you do another stupid thing! One day, you already got big problems when you decided to destroy Uncle Michael on your own. And all that time, you looked like a stupid moron!”
“I’m not a baby, Terrence! I’m twenty-seven. Nobody has to watch me.”
“In your case, someone has to! And I will be doing it because I do have brains, unlike you. And I can think soberly.”
“You do think so. When you get enraged, you don’t care who’s standing in front of you: a weak, unprotected girl or a six-foot-tall man on steroids.”
“Don’t change the subject.”
“And yeah, no matter how much your ass got kicked, you haven’t stopped being a mentally ill psycho.”
“Ar-r-r…” Terrence groans irritably. “How much you irritate me, unbearable boy! If not for the responsibility for our parents and your fiancée, I would piss you off. Because I am sick of taking care of you!”
“Excellent! So, I will bring this case to an end and won’t have to hear your lectures.”
“I said you would go nowhere! AND IT’S OUT OF THE DISCUSSION!”
“Leave me alone, Terrence. You’re irritating me, honestly.”
“I said everything, kid! We are leaving right now!”
“You better take Peter and go home. And show the way to Perkins. He is afraid to get lost and got stuck to us from fear of not coming back home.”
“I am afraid of nothing!” Daniel throws coldly.
“Indeed, Edward, don’t do many more stupid things,” Peter says confidently. “Terrence is absolutely right: if you stay here, Wainwright will turn you to dust.”
“I am not afraid of that bastard,” Edward raises his head proudly. “And I will not let him defeat me so easily.”
“You really fell and hit your head strongly as a kid. You still can’t the hell come to yourself.”
“Listen, idiots, I am sick of hearing your lectures,” Daniel sneers evilly, crossing his arms over his chest. “Stop taking care of this kid. If Terrence wants, let him go!”
“Shut up, Perkins!” Terrence and Edward throw sharply at the same time.
“Nobody asks you about a thing!” Peter adds coldly.
“Let him find what he wants, and I will do my business,” Daniel says confidently.
“Fuck, another self-killer…” Terrence moans irritably, rolling his eyes.
“Where are you going, jackass?” Peter resents. “You have gotten into great trouble! If that man catches you and Edward, you are going to have great problems. As well as we will do if we go with you.”
“I do not care about you!” Daniel throws rudely. “If you get caught or not, it’s your problem!”
“It’s okay that my brother is a stubborn ass,” Terrence adds. “But why are you the fuck doing it?”
“I do not have to tell you about my goals.”
“You cannot even fight! You wave your hands like a chicken! And if that man injects some shit into you, you will surely be doomed to time in a mental hospital.”
“Leave your opinion with you.”
“Do what you want, but if I get caught by Wainwright because of you, you will have to regret it,” Edward threatens with a finger.
“Hey, you will go nowhere!” Terrence exclaims and, taking Edward under an arm, pulls him sharply. “We are going home! Now!”
“Let me go!” Edward sharply gets his arm out of Terrence’s grip. “I shall go there anyway, no matter if you and Peter like it.”
Edward turns around and goes confidently to the stone fence to climb over it.
“Edward!” Terrence exclaims. “Idiot, where are you going? Stop! Edward! Hey, so-called hero!”
“Edward, come back!” Peter says loudly. “Edward!”
Terrence groans irritably, putting his hand on his forehead and looking at Peter, who shakes his head.
“Sorry, Raquelle, sorry, dad, sorry, mom…” Terrence pronounces quietly. “But I can’t leave Edward… I must follow him. Yes, I understand all the risks… But if something happens to my brother, I will not forgive myself. Because I am responsible for him to some extent… If we risk, we risk together.”
Terrence exhales sharply and follows Edward confidently. Peter watches his friend walk away for two seconds with sadness in his eyes and understands that he cannot leave his friends.
“I’m very sorry, Helene…” Peter whispers. “But I can’t leave them, either… I owe them… They’re my friends. My closest people… Almost like brothers… I must help them. One for all, all for one…”
Peter relaxes his shoulders and follows Terrence and Edward, understanding that his hands are shaking slightly. Daniel is surprised that he feels sympathy for these people, whom he looks at with sadness in his eyes. But the next second, he bans himself from thinking about pity and wants to keep being on his own.
“A feeling is calling me…” Daniel says quietly. “And I can’t resist it… Something tells me that there is something important to me… What if I find something that I lost? Or what could help me make some things clear and answer many questions.”
Daniel exhales slowly and follows the others, trying not to think about the doubts that get obsessed with him. Meanwhile, Edward has already climbed up, and he, sitting on the top, helps Terrence, who is just climbing on the stone fence, and Peter, who tries not to fall down from a great height.
“Are you sure you wanna go?” Edward asks hesitantly when the three are on top.
“We are,” Peter and Terrence pronounce confidently.
“Maybe, you better go home? Or bring the police here?”
“We will leave when we take your holey ass away from here,” Terrence replies.
“Yeah!” Peter exclaims. “You won’t get off us!”
Edward says nothing and just shakes his head. And Daniel cannot climb up after the first attempt because he chose not very good areas to grab.
“Hey, boneheads!” Daniel calls loudly after falling to the ground. “Maybe, you help me? I cannot climb up!”
Peter, Terrence, and Edward look at each other, move their eyes to Daniel and smirk loudly.
“Why should we?” Terrence, Peter, and Edward wonder at the same time.
“As far as I remember, you are a hero, who does everything on his own,” Peter recalls with mockery. “Who fears nothing and would beat the face of any enemy.”
“Or is your unprecedented bravery gone?” Edward asks with a sneer. “Do you confess that you put your tail between your legs from fear?”
“Ar-r-r, help me the fuck!” Daniel demands rudely. “Silently! Do I ask so much?”
“We can’t!” Edward sneers loudly. “We’re following the agreement – you’re on your own, and the men and I stay together.”
“And even if you find your brain and memory, we will think well before accepting you into our company again,” Peter adds confidently.
“I wish all of you fell off the fence with your heads down!” Daniel throws irritably.
“Don’t worry, Perkins, if your arms are weak, and your pants are wet, you can stay here,” Terrence says thoughtfully with a grin. “Then we will take your hand and show you a way to your home. Give you to your imitable Blanca. So, she warms you up on her chest.”
“But if you manage to climb up and over, be as quiet as a mouse and do not crush everything,” Peter adds. “Do not beat your ass and do not break your arms and legs! Or your foreigner will have to get married to a helpless, disabled man. Not a young, handsome guy with a lot of money, who could fuck her every single day.”
Edward, Terrence, and Peter laugh with mockery, making Daniel more enraged.
“C’mon, guys, let’s go,” Edward says confidently.
Two seconds later, Edward jumps down from the high stone fence, trying to stand on his feet, and then Terrence and Peter do the same. While the three look around, Daniel growls irritably, raising his head slightly, and takes one more attempt to climb up the stoned fence. And he manages to do this. Being afraid of failure, he tries to do everything carefully, checking every single stone, on which he stands with his legs or which he grabs with both hands. And a few seconds later, while Edward, Terrence, and Peter look at the house and everything around it, Perkins climbs up and jumps from the fence.
“It’s a creepy place, huh…” Peter says thoughtfully.
“As I understand, nobody has lived here for ages,” Terrence assumes.
“I think I heard autos’ sounds from afar,” Peter confesses. “I believe there’s a road somewhere here…”
“Even if it’s so, we spent a lot of time on the way to this place,” Terrence notices and glances at his dark blue jeans, and shoes dirtied with mud. “Oh, shit! My jeans and shoes are dirty! And my ass… I fell in the fucking pool of mud…”
“You better look at me!” Edward chuckles quietly and looks at himself. “I actually ‘got lucky’ to step on some shit and smear my shoes.”
“But I do hate the web,” Peter confesses irritably, shakes some dirt off himself, and fixes his hair slightly. “It’s something nasty and disgusting… But I had to go through it.”
Peter, Terrence, and Edward slowly go to different sides and start to look around carefully, even if there is only a house in this dark place.
“I hope coming here for nobody the fuck knows how much time was worth it,” Daniel thinks, walking slowly for a long time and looking at everything he sees. “I do want to find something good… I am sorry about the time that I wasted on those idiots. And if I came here for nothing, I would be very mad…”
Some time later, Edward realizes that he has no reason to walk in the empty area in cold and gloomy weather and decides to try to get into the house, coming to the hall door slowly but confidently to look at it closely.
“Wainwright didn’t lock the door after he got out of here,” Edward frowns slightly. “So, I have a chance to get into the house without problems. And find out what kind of shit he has at this place… Maybe, I can also find something interesting…”
After hesitating a little, Edward slowly moves his eyes to the shabby door handle, presses on it slightly, and pushes the rusty door off himself. But he does not open it after the first attempt because it opens as badly as the door of the fence. But after the man pushes the door off himself several times, he manages to open it. Then, MacClife, Jr., can see that it’s not very nice and light inside, everything is made with the same boards inside as outside, and there is a small window, through which the light gets into the room.
“Not the best place…” Edward notes silently. “It’s so dark and cold… And dirty… Though, what I should expect from the one, who doesn’t definitely know what a shower, a bath, a brush tool, and clean clothes are. Shit could live only in shit, and any good places would turn into a home of dirt and dust shortly.”
Two seconds later, Edward, taking his breath away unconsciously, enters the house slowly but confidently and looks around carefully. Only a few small windows light up the house, and the charred lamps do not definitely work. It’s much colder than outside, and the boards, from which the house is made, are very old and rotten and covered with some spots and fractures. It’s possible to see a few small rooms: some of them are locked, while the doors to others are half-closed. Every time Edward takes a step on the floor, he hears sounds under his feet. They make him feel uncomfortable in the beginning. And after going a little further, he sees shabby stairs that lead to the second floor and looks like the one, on which people climb up to, for example, reach something that is too high.
MacClife, Jr., gets interested in what there is on the second floor. The man comes to the stairs, climbs up, and barely raises the door on the ceiling, which is kind of blocked by something. Edward sees some dusty things lying here, and the board walls are much more rusted and dustier. There is not too much light here: it gets through the room thanks to small windows, and a charred lamp is hanging on a thin cable.
“Ugh…” Edward winces. “I wonder, how long haven’t people been here? Has Wainwright been here? There is so much dust and shit! Electric doesn’t work here, and all the lamps are charred…”
Meanwhile, Peter and Terrence enter the house slowly but confidently and start to look around, examining everything they see and not feeling pleasure from this dark and cold place.
“Hey, Edward, whatcha doing there?” Terrence asks when he sees Edward standing on the stairs that lead to the second floor.
“Nothing…” Edward replies thoughtfully, moving his eyes to Terrence. “Just looking…”
“There’s something?”
“No, it’s just a loft.” Edward gets down the stairs. “There’s nothing special, but a thick layer of dust and lots of dirt.”
“Ugh, how disgusting is it to be here,” Peter winces strongly. “So much dust and dirt… It smells so badly…”
“Because the one, who could hardly be called just a dirty man, is living here,” Edward starts to look around. “Who would turn any place into a pigsty.”
“Damn, I said something about my apartment… That place is just a mansion, unlike this junk heap! Where it’s cold and smells bad! And where is no electricity!”
“C’mon, your apartment is fine. Moreover, you always keep it clean and in order. You aren’t just lucky with your neighbors.”
“When I was looking for a place to live, I didn’t have a very rich choice ‘cause my finances didn’t allow me to get something better. So, I had to tolerate Marta and Hillary. But we started to have misunderstandings much later.”
“But now you have a chance to get out of your junk heap and find something better,” Terrence notices confidently.
“I don’t deny it. But now I’d prefer looking around here quickly and getting out before Wainwright comes here with a dose of his shit.”
“I hope we’ll get out…”
While Edward, Terrence, and Peter walk on the first floor and try to get used to the uncomfortable atmosphere, Daniel just expresses a wish to enter and look around.
“Ugh, what kind of shit!” Daniel winces strongly and closes his nose with a hand. “Is it nice for that man to be here? He could at least have a clean-up… Open the windows… Think about the lighting… It’s too dark here… And cold… Ugh…”
Daniel starts to rub his hands with the hope of getting warm a little, still looking around.
“I hate coldness… I can’t take it… Damn, damn… If I’d known it, I would’ve dressed up warmer… Oh… And I have to see those three freaks… Yeah… What a day… Why did I actually leave home? Blanca is right – I’ve gotta stay home and have a rest… I don’t kinda wanna ask for trouble…”
“Listen, I guess we came here for nothing,” Terrence says confidently. “There’s nothing but shabby walls and dust on them.”
“I also see nothing special,” Peter agrees. “I just made sure that Wainwright is a dirty man.”
“Absolutely agree.”
“And actually, we’ve gotta get out of here. I doubt that we’d find something here.”
“Yeah, but we need to wash the brains of my little, stubborn brother. And another fucking hero, who is stuck with us from fear of getting lost and not seeing the Spaniard that has him wrapped around her finger.”
“Well, as for your brother, he will never grow up and calm down. But Perkins… He’s got his own demons…”
Meanwhile, Daniel comes to one of the rooms, the door of which is half-opened. He opens it and enters slowly, looking around very carefully as if he is afraid of something suspicious. This is just a small room with a shabby, yellowish ceiling, in which there are some boxes, shelves, and a table with drawers and lockers. It’s possible to see small and middle bottles, packs of patches, cotton, and many other things, and the small window barely lights up the room that seems as dirty and dusty as the whole house. Daniel stands on the doorstep and just looks at everything he sees for two seconds. But then he comes to the table hesitantly, takes every single bottle from the table slowly, and looks at them. Some time later, the man opens one of the lockers and sees many more bottles. And when Perkins opens another locker, he finds a few packs of unused needle syringes that can be big, thick, or thin.
“Hm, I think MacClife, Jr., said that the man was injecting something into himself with a needle syringe…” Daniel frowns slightly, takes one of the packs, and looks at all the needle syringes. “There are so many ones… So, he didn’t do that for the first time… Regularly… There would hardly be so many packs…”
Daniel puts the pack of needle syringes on the table, opens one of the drawers, and sees many packets of white or gray powder. The man frowns slightly and takes one of the small packets of unknown powder to look at it closely.
“If I’m right, that man sniffed this shit… And those three thought it was cocaine… I don’t know what that is, but I don’t like it… And there is so much of it…”
Daniel wraps the packet in his hands for a few seconds and thinks of opening it and trying the powder to taste. Just for curiosity. But at the last moment, Edward and Peter enter the room and see Daniel wishing to open the packet and taste it. Although they promised themselves not to help him, none of them would like him to be a drug addict. And they still remember that this man was their friend…
“Hey, hey, don’t dare to taste this shit!” Peter jabs, runs to Daniel, takes the packet with powder from him so quickly that the brunet does not understand anything, and knocks at his temple with a finger. “Do you have brains, idiot?”
“Didn’t you see how Wainwright was going wild after he had sniffed this shit?” Edward gets horrified loudly. “If you taste it once, you will always want this shit! More and more every time!”
“I did not try to take it,” Daniel lies confidently. “And even if I tried, it’s MY fucking business. You have no right to tell me what to do.”
“We don’t need problems because of you, Perkins,” Peter says coldly. “So, don’t even dare to sniff, taste, and swallow this shit.”
“I did the fuck say that it is MY BUSINESS!”
“I see you want to lie somewhere next to that sick bastard and feel high,” Edward notices. “And when the euphoria is gone, you will go to rob people to sell something and buy much more of this shit.”
“Do not read me lectures, Terrence!”
“I am Edward!”
At this moment, Terrence enters the room where Peter, Edward, and Daniel are after he heard the loud shouts when being not far from here.
“Hey, hey, what’s going on?” Terrence asks.
“Nothing,” Edward throws gloomily in a low voice with both arms crossed over his chest. “Perkins just decided to become a drug addict. A drug addict with amnesia and a lack of brain.”
“I did say I DID NOT TRY to taste this shit!” Daniel protests loudly and irritably.
“Yeah?” Peter wonders and swings the packet in his hand. “Who was holding this packet and wanted to open it?”
“Fuck, Perkins, are you a moron?” Terrence gets horrified, putting his hands on his hips. “Do you understand that if you take this shit, you will want it more and more? You will be stoning and sniffing some shit along with Wainwright!”
“Listen, freaks, get off me!” Daniel throws irritably. “I am sick of your lectures!”
“Nobody invited you to go with us!” Edward recalls. “You did follow us, and you cannot squeak and complain!”
“Enough, I do not want to talk to you! Get off me! And do not follow me!”
Daniel turns around sharply and leaves the room, while Edward, Terrence, and Peter watch him with a contemptuous look.
“Ar-r-r, brainless psycho,” Terrence says irritably. “He irritates me…”
“Not just you, Terrence,” Peter replies. “I can’t also wait to get off him.”
“But we must not let him into this room,” Edward says confidently. “Or Perkins will become the same drug addict as Wainwright.”
“I give a fuck about him. He can do what he wants! If we lose him, it will be bad only for the band.”
“So, we will replace him,” Terrence replies confidently. “I refuse to work with the stinker that has showered us with tons of mud.”
“It will happen,” Edward replies thoughtfully.
Silence settles in the air for two seconds, after which Terrence looks at the small packet in Peter’s hand.
“Hey, where did Perkins get this shit?” Terrence frowns slightly.
“I think he found it in the drawer,” Edward replies thoughtfully, comes to the table with the opened lockers, and sees many packs of needle syringes and Zip-Lock packets of unknown powder. “Look, there’s much powder here! Wainwright was sniffing the same one.”
Terrence and Peter come to the drawer and shake their heads with widely open eyes.
“Oh, shit…” Peter gets horrified. “It would be enough for a whole army!”
“It seems like he’s a long-time drug addict,” Terrence assumes. “Only powder! There is nothing like marijuana! He probably started to smoke it at times. But when he got used to it, he started to try something stronger.”
“That stinker said something about cocaine and heroin,” Edward frowns slightly. “I guess that’s what's in these packets.”
“He literally buys in bulk from someone,” Peter says thoughtfully.
“And puts it in all the holes,” Terrence adds.
“But even if it’s so, I’m surprised that Wainwright was in prison for so many months, being deprived of drugs,” Edward replies, leaning on the table with both hands. “Didn’t he suffer from withdrawal?”
“I guess he was just getting used to such strong drugs and smoking grass.”
“A dark story, honestly… He either tried to live without drugs and suffered from withdrawal… Or he found a way to take them…”
“Anyway, it doesn’t matter now.”
Meanwhile, Peter pays attention to something sparkling lying in the corner of the room. He puts the packet with powder on the table, comes to what he is interested in, squats down, and takes something from the floor. The blond wipes off the dust and looks at what turns out to be a woman’s gilt necklace. Rose needs literally a few seconds to realize that he always saw a similar necklace on Natalia’s neck. And he does not doubt that’s the girl’s necklace, and the sparkling pendant in the form of the letter “N” makes him much more sure about it.
“Hey, Edward, come here for a sec,” Peter says quietly, still looking at the necklace.
Terrence and Edward look at each other and come to Peter at the different time.
“What’s wrong?” Edward asks.
“Listen, I think you said Wainwright stole the necklace from Natalia,” Peter replies thoughtfully and shows the necklace in his hands to Edward. “And this one looks like hers… There is a pedant in the form of the letter ‘N’.”
Edward takes the necklace from Peter and looks at it, immediately understanding that this is really the necklace that Eugene stole from Natalia.
“Yes, that’s Natalia’s necklace,” Edward says confidently, nodding slightly. “That’s it!”
“Are you sure?” Terrence specifies.
“Sure!”
“I think the necklace doesn’t have a zipper,” Peter notices thoughtfully, as he gets up on his feet.
“Yeah, I see,” Edward pronounces. “It probably came off…”
“I’m surprised that Wainwright actually took it with him,” Terrence confesses.
“Me too… He said he couldn’t sell the necklace ‘cause it’s a cheap thing.” Edward says nothing for two seconds and exhales sharply. “Oh… Okay, I will think about the zipper later. And give it to Natalia.”
With these words, Edward puts the necklace in the inside pocket of his denim jacket.
“Well, okay, let’s think that coming here was worth it,” Terrence says thoughtfully, putting his hands on his hips. “At least because we found Natalia’s necklace.”
“Yeah, but I thought we wasted our time for nothing,” Peter agrees, running his hand through his tousled hair.
“Yup, it’s just something…”
Edward looks around the whole room, leaves it, and goes to the cold hall. Peter and Terrence look at each other, shrug, and also leave the room, closing the door very tightly.
“Listen, guys, let’s get out of here,” Terrence says tiredly. “Wainwright might be back here at any moment, but I don’t want to be caught by that smelly freak.”
“I would’ve done it when we saw Wainwright,” Peter replies gloomily. “I don’t want to be drugged with some shit and lying nobody the fuck knows where.”
“Yeah…” Edward pronounces quietly, looks around again, exhales sharply, and puts his hand on his forehead. “I think we can get out now… I don’t see anything interesting here…”
“Oh, yeah, brother!” Terrence exclaims happily, applauds quietly, and raises his hands. “Finally, you said what I wanted to hear so badly!”
“So, coward, haven’t you peed your pants yet?” Edward chuckles kindly. “Or are you still holding on?”
“Very funny!” Terrence throws gloomily.
“As you can see, nothing happened to me,” Edward throws his hands aside. “I am safe and sound. But you panicked as if someone must’ve been killed. You screamed like a hysterical psycho.”
“I did it for you! To save your ass!”
“It’s nice to know I’ve got such a kind and caring brother, but I would’ve done it by myself.”
“Okay, kid, I got ya. Now, get ready and get out of here. C’mon, c’mon, kid, leave!” Terrence pushes Edward to the exit of the house, making him go to the exit of the house. “This time, you will do what I say. And then I shall drive you home and tell Mom and Dad how disgustingly you behaved. So, Father slaps you with a belt.”
“Oh, Terrence…” Edward moans tiredly, rolling his eyes.
But when Edward, Terrence, and Peter are close to the hall door, Daniel suddenly shows up from nowhere, looking really scared as if he saw something terrible.
“Guys, guys, here!” Daniel jabs excitedly. “Someone is locked there! Someone is in that room!”
Terrence, Edward, and Peter look at each other and frown slightly.
“So, Perkins, did you sniff some shit?” Edward asks gloomily, crossing his arms over his chest. “Congratulations, you’ve officially joined the list of potential clients of the mental hospital.”
“I sniffed nothing!” Daniel throws loudly and irritably. “That’s your fantasy!”
“Listen, Perkins, stop making us nervous!” Terrence raises his hand with the palm of it turned on Daniel. “Do not make us enraged if you want us to help you get out of here. And if you do not need our help, stay here alone.”
“I do not lie, I swear! That man locked someone in that room. I heard someone crying quietly!”
“Then go and save someone!” Peter throws loudly, throwing his hands up. “You’ve got a chance to prove that you are a great hero!”
“Aha, save your hallucinations,” Edward smirks evilly.
“Listen, idiots, stop laughing!” Daniel resents. “Go to watch yourself! And make sure that someone is locked in that room!”
“We checked out all the rooms, and there is only dust and some things in there,” Terrence says coldly.
“Not all! If you turn left down this hall, there is a door locked with boards. And it was closed with an empty bookshelf. Someone is crying in there.”
“You are really going crazy, Perkins,” Peter shakes his head. “Now it seems to you that someone is crying. That’s bad, man! Maybe, we should look for a clinic, so you spend there two weeks?”
“IT DOES NOT SEEM TO ME!” Daniel screams at the top of his lungs. “How many fucking times I have to say it, you, deaf dummies! Look at it first, and then we will see who is going crazy.”
“Hey, don’t scream here like a sick, hysterical girl,” Edward says coldly, showing the palm of his hand to Daniel. “I do have a headache from your hysterical shouts.”
“Alright, if you do not believe, get out of here! I shall do it alone.”
“Alright! Show that room quickly, and then we will get out.”
“No, Edward, don’t listen to him!” Terrence jabs excitedly. “There is nothing here! He is playing time, so we get caught by Wainwright.”
Edward says nothing and lets Daniel know that he can lead him with both arms crossed over his chest. Perkins understands the hint and brings him to where he was a few seconds ago. Later, the two come to a much darker place where there is really one more locked room, and some rotted boards and a small, very old bookshelf are lying near it.
“Here’s it!” Daniel says. “It’s here!”
Edward looks at the door, bookshelf, and boards with mistrust, while Terrence and Peter show up with their arms crossed over their chests.
“Alright, let’s pretend that I did not see this room,” Edward says coldly. “But where is someone crying?”
“In his head,” Terrence replies with sarcasm. “Amnesia led to much more serious consequences. Not what we expected.”
“Hear, MacClife, you better sew your mouth and listen to the sounds from the room,” Daniel says coldly. “And then we will see where someone is crying!”
Terrence growls irritably and rolls his eyes, and Edward presses his ear to the door and tries to hear what is behind it. A few seconds later, he really hears some quiet sounds that seem to be sobs and some weird grinding.
“Perkins didn’t lie, guys, there is really someone in there,” Edward says quietly, looking at Peter and Terrence. “I hear someone’s cry and some sounds.”
Peter silently comes to the door and listens to the sounds that he hears immediately.
“Yeah, someone’s there,” Peter nods.
Terrence comes to the door and tries to hear something.
“I hear some sounds, too…” Terrence says confidently. “Someone’s in there… Crying…”
“It’s weird that we didn’t see this room before,” Edward frowns slightly.
“Ha!” Daniel scoffs quietly and crosses his arms over his chest, shaking his head. “What did I tell you?”
Daniel starts speaking in a squeaky voice:
“He is going crazy! He is going crazy! He sniffed something. Let’s put him in a clinic! He is sick! He’s got voices in his head!”
Nobody gives attention to Daniel, and everybody is more obsessed with a wish to find out who is locked in the room, understanding that they must save the one to be taken hostage by Eugene.
“Hey, someone is there?” Peter asks loudly.
The men can hear only a cry that gets much louder.
“Something tells me that a girl is locked there,” Terrence assumes thoughtfully.
“Did that bastard meet another young girl and hide her here?” Peter gets horrified. “He didn’t take Natalia away but decided to take another!”
“Listen, we’ve gotta open this door somehow,” Edward says confidently. “If there is really a girl in the room, she must not be left here. We’ve gotta save her before that bastard decides to kill her.”
“Don’t try,” Daniel pronounces with his arms crossed over his chest, glancing aside. “I tried to open the door, but it’s locked.”
“Maybe, it's closed too tightly?” Terrence assumes. “All the doors barely open here.”
Edward tries to open the door by pushing on it and pushing away, but it’s really locked.
“Locked,” Edward pronounces. “Nothing works.”
“Try to break it?” Peter suggests.
“Lemme try,” Terrence says quietly and tries to open the door by shifting his weight on it, but it does not work. “Doesn’t work.”
“No, no, we can do it. If we push the door several times, it’ll be open.”
“Let’s try to do it several times,” Edward says confidently. “If we don’t do it, we’ll find something heavy and crack the lock.”
Edward, Terrence, and Peter shift their weight on the locked door by one, so none of them hurt their arms. They feel more and more that they're getting something, and the door is about to break. And at some moment, the blond grabs the door handle and pulls it on himself. The door opens, the lock breaks, and Rose holds the door handle for two seconds and lets it fall down on the floor later. Not losing time, Terrence enters the room first and sees a very young girl at the age of twenty, who is wearing dirty clothes, with dark, dry, and tousled hair that is carelessly cut so that it covers her neck, dead, red, and tear-stained brown eyes, and bruises under them. Her skin is not in the best condition, it’s possible to see the tracks of needles on her arms, and there are some abrasions and bruises on her pale face. The captive is sitting in the corner of the room on the floor, putting her head on the old, hard bed and making sobs at times, looking very weak, skinny, pale, and exhausted, as if she had been tortured for a long time or scared to death.
“Oh, my God…” Terrence pronounces with sadness in his eyes, closing his mouth with a hand.
Peter and Edward enter the room later, see the girl, and, rounding their eyes, realize that Eugene is probably holding her here and doing something terrible to her. And when the girl sees them, she immediately falls into silence and opens her eyes widely. She creeps further and presses herself to the cold wall as tightly as possible, bending her legs at the knees and starting to shake strongly with a feeling of a fast heartbeat.
“N-n-no…” the girl pronounces quietly in a shaking voice. “N-n-n-no, please… Don’t do it… No, no, no…”
Being a little discouraged Terrence, Peter, and Edward look at each other questioningly and move their eyes to the girl, who gets much whiter from fear.
“It’s okay, girl,” Terrence says quietly and softly. “Don’t be afraid of us.”
“P-p-please, p-p-pity me, I’m b-b-begging you…” the girl begs with tears and despair. “D-d-don’t d-d-do this to me… I d-don’t w-w-want it!”
“Quiet, quiet, calm down,” Edward pronounces softly. “We won’t hurt you.”
“We wanna help you,” Peter adds.
“P-p-please…” the girl pronounces with pity in her eyes and moves to the corner of the room, pressing her knees to herself and looking at Terrence, Edward, and Peter with dumbfounded eyes. “Please, don’t do this to me… I don’t want to take this shit anymore… I don’t want! If you inject something into me again, I will die. Please, don’t do it to me! No… Please…”
“Quiet, girl,” Peter says softly, slowly comes to the scared, pale girl, and gets down on his knees in front of her, looking into her eyes. “We will not do anything bad to you.”
“Don’t come to me!” the girl shouts. “Don’t come! No!”
“Don’t be afraid, we will not hurt you. We came here to help you.”
“P-p-please, I’m begging you…” the girl begs with tears, putting her hands together and bringing them to her mouth. “Don’t give me drugs… I don’t want it… I want to be cured! I want to live! I beg you, don’t give me drugs! I’m trying to wean myself away from it… I don’t wanna die…”
“Gosh…” Peter shakes his head with dumbfounded eyes. “Poor girl… What you’re brought to…”
“Don’t do it… Please… Don’t do Eugene’s order… Pity me…”
“Listen, girl.” Peter softly takes the girl’s shoulders, looking into her eyes confidently, while she tries to resist and hide. “Listen. We want to do nothing for you. None of us even thinks of injecting drugs into you.”
“So, are you… Not Eugene’s friends?”
“No, we are not his accomplices.”
“B-b-but how did you end up here?” the girl asks in a shaking voice.
“It’s a long story. Anyway, you may not be afraid of us. Nobody will hurt you.”
Terrence and Edward come to the girl at the different time and get down on their knees or squat down, trying to do everything very carefully not to scare her much more.
“It’s the truth, girl,” Terrence says softly. “You can trust us.”
“Can I?” the girl opens her red, wet eyes widely.
“Yes, don’t fear us.”
“How did you end up here?” Edward asks carefully. “How did you get locked in this room?”
“Eugene…” the girl pronounces in a shaking voice and sniffs quietly. “That’s him… He’s holding me here…”
“Wainwright…”
“Yup…”
“But for how long?”
“Very long…”
“Gosh, and what’s he doing to you?”
“He injects drugs into me…” the girl replies with tears in her eyes. “He gives me big doses of cocaine, from which I might die… Or sometimes he just gives me a great dose of sedative, and I sleep.”
“I don’t even wanna know what he does when you’re drugged.”
“I dunno… I can’t remember… I remember nothing…”
“I’m shocked…” Peter shakes his head. “Bloody hell…”
“I don’t wanna be a drug addict anymore. I want to stop! I want to get cured! I want to live a normal life! I’m only nineteen! I don’t wanna die! If Wainwright injects something into me, I shall not survive. I do feel bad… I can’t… I’m about to die…”
“Don’t be afraid, girl, we will help you,” Edward promises softly. “I promise, that man will no longer do anything bad to you. The guys and I will take you out, drive you to the hospital, and find your family.”
“Please, take me out…” the girl begs with pity in her eyes. “I don’t wanna stay here anymore… Eugene is a sick man… He’s obsessed with me! That man constantly accosts me. He wants me to… Please him… But I don’t want it! He’s disgusting to me!”
“Wait, you said he’s obsessed with you?”
“Yup. Wainwright often feels me up against my wish.” The girl makes a quiet sob. “He kisses me… Licks me… Undresses me… I… I am always naked for him, and he… He mocks me… And when that man gives me drugs, he fucks me without shame. Though, my body does hurt so much… I always come to myself with strong pain… Eugene is… Always cruel… I… I’m bleeding…”
Edward, Terrence, and Peter shake their heads with horror in their eyes after the girl’s words about Eugene mocking her while she is drugged. MacClife, Jr., is especially shocked because he is terribly afraid to imagine Natalia instead of this exhausted girl, who needs the help of doctors and psychologists.
“Sick asshole…” Terrence pronounces quietly.
“What kind of obsession with women!” Peter resents. “He’s ready to fuck any young and beautiful girl standing in his way.”
“You’re right…” the girl pronounces in a shaking voice. “Eugene is really sick… He is not shy about telling me about his sexual fantasies. He does it in such a terrible way that I have hysteria.”
“Don’t worry, girl,” Edward pronounces softly and puts his hand on the girl’s shoulder. “We will help you. That sick man will not dare to hurt you even with a finger. And we will dare to treat you like that. We do respect girls and would never make them do something like that.”
“He might easily go wild when he is stoned. That man is crazy when he’s sober! But when he sniffs cocaine, he gets much wilder. I’m terribly afraid of his eyes! They are really horrifying! I… I wanna be with Mom and Dad…”
“This is the last day of your suffering,” Terrence replies confidently. “We will take you with us.”
“You will be under our protection,” Edward adds softly. “Wainwright will not touch you.”
“Yes, I’m begging you…” the girl begs with despair. “Save me… I don’t wanna suffer anymore… Don’t wanna die. My time of dying has not come yet… It has not come…”
The girl shakes her head and starts crying much more bitterly, while Edward, Terrence, and Peter look at each other tensely.
“I’m shocked…” Edward whispers with horror in his eyes.
“Me too…” Terrence shakes his head. “But I’m not surprised, knowing Wainwright.”
“I’ve always suspected that Natalia is not the only victim of him.”
“Thank God, that bastard didn’t rape her.”
“I know, but he made her lose many nerves. He touched her whole body, kissed her, and licked her… And he undressed ‘till her underwear… Ugh! It’s disgusting to even think about it!”
Peter looks at Edward and Terrence with sadness in his eyes, glances at the girl, moves the hair off her face, and softly takes her by the shoulders, while she looks at him with wet eyes.
“What’s your name?” Peter asks softly.
The girl hesitates for a few seconds with tears in her eyes before saying something in a shaking voice:
“C-c-cassidy… My name is Cassidy…”
“Nice to meet you,” Peter pronounces with a slight smile. “And I’m Peter.”
“I’m Edward,” Edward introduces himself.
“And I’m Terrence,” Terrence says amicably.
“It’s gonna be okay, Cassidy,” Peter says softly. “My friends and I will take you from here.”
“And Wainwright will not dare to hurt you,” Edward promises.
“He’s too dangerous,” Cassidy warns. “Eugene might kill all of you…”
“Don’t worry about it. We can all stand up for ourselves. Moreover, we’ve had to deal with him somehow.”
“Really?” Cassidy rounds her eyes. “But what happened?”
“It’s a long story. But it…”
Edward does not speak his mind because Daniel enters the room. He left somewhere after the men opened the door and entered the room. After seeing the man, Cassidy gets immediately frozen and looks at him like he reminds her of someone. But the next second, the girl creeps into the corner of the room again, presses her knees to her chest, and sets her widely open eyes on Perkins.
“No, no, no,” Cassidy shakes her head sharply and sniffs quietly. “Don’t do it… Don’t do it… I don’t want to die… P-p-please, don’t hurt me… Don’t come to me… No…”
The confused Daniel opens his eyes widely and looks at Cassidy surprisingly. And the next second, he looks at the girl better and notices that she reminds him of himself to some extent. For example, her brown eyes, her dark chocolate hair, some facial features, and the fact that the two have long necks. But while the man’s hair is soft and glossy, the girl’s is too dry and hard…
“She’s similar to me to some extent…” Daniel thinks. “At least, her hair color is the same as mine… And some facial features are similar… If I were a girl, I would definitely look like her…”
Seeing that Daniel staring at Cassidy amazingly, while she is hiding in the corner and shaking from fear, Edward, Peter, and Terrence get up quickly, and the letter claps him on the shoulder strongly.
“Hey, bonehead, stop staring at her!” Terrence says coldly.
“If you keep doing this, she will believe that you are the same maniac as Wainwright and want to mock her,” Edward adds gloomily.
“Erm, what?” Daniel frowns slightly, shaking his head.
“Stop staring, idiot!” Peter throws a little gloomily. “Don’t you see that the girl is scared? But you are looking at her like a maniac!”
“What? You are lying!”
“Look!” Edward exclaims, pointing at Cassidy.
Daniel moves his eyes to Cassidy and comes to her a little hesitantly, making the girl push herself to the corner of the room and press her knees against herself.
“No, leave me!” Cassidy says in a shaking voice. “Go! No! Don’t get close!”
“C’mon, girl, don’t be afraid of me,” Daniel says softly. “I’m not going to do anything bad to you.”
“I don’t want to take drugs! No! I don’t want to die!”
“What are you talking about? I’m going to give you nothing!”
“Someone, take him away from me!” Cassidy begs with pity in her eyes. “I’m afraid! He is Wainwright’s accomplice! He wants to drug me!”
While Peter, Edward, and Terrence look at each other, frowning slightly, Daniel gets down on his knees in front of Cassidy and softly takes the hands of the terribly white, scared-to-death girl.
“Girl, please, calm down,” Daniel says softly. “I swear, I shall do nothing bad to you. I’m not so terrible to be afraid of me.”
“Wainwright is gonna mock me again! He will drug me and mock me again! I’m sick of this! I beg you, save me!”
“Leave!” Cassidy exclaims. “Leave! Don’t get closer!”
“Gosh, what did someone do to you that you’re shaking like this and pushing yourself into the corner?”
“Please, don’t kill me… I don’t want to die! Another big dose of cocaine will kill me. I do feel so bad… I feel I’m about to die soon…”
“No, no, don’t say that.”
“Don’t kill me… Please…”
“Sh-h-h, quiet, quiet, girl, it’s okay,” Daniel says softly, caressing Cassidy’s shoulders. “I won’t hurt you, I promise. Otherwise, I want to help you.”
“Please…”
“I found you when I was going by. After I heard someone was crying, I decided to check it out.”
“Really?” Cassidy rounds her eyes and sniffs quietly. “So, did you try to come here and break the door and ask who was here?”
“Yup, me,” Daniel glances at Edward, Peter, and Terrence. “Them, too.”
“Right,” Peter nods. “He told us that you were here.”
“Did you come here by yourself or get locked here by Wainwright?” Cassidy asks.
“We came,” Edward replies quietly. “We decided to track Eugene and find out where he hid.”
“No…” Cassidy shakes her head with tears in her eyes. “You better go… Wainwright is insane… Sick… If he catches you, he can do anything to you. Even kill. It’s a super easy thing for him.”
“We know, Cassidy.”
“You better leave before that man is back. I don’t want you to suffer because of me.”
“Of course, we will,” Peter replies confidently. “But with you. Since we found you, we must bring you to the hospital and contact your family.”
“Don’t risk it, guys. Wainwright is gonna kill you. Or drug you with something strong. He constantly rapes me, forces me to have sex, and will torture you with no shame.”
“We are not afraid of him,” Edward raises his head. “If he touches us with a finger, we will smash him against the wall.”
“Don’t do it… You don’t know what he can do.”
“Don’t worry, Cassidy,” Terrence says softly. “It’s gonna be okay. While you’re with us, nothing will happen to you.”
“I can’t be sure about it.”
“If they say it’s gonna be okay, it will be okay,” Daniel says quietly.
Cassidy says nothing and just sniffs quietly, looking at her hands. But then she hesitantly moves her glance to Daniel and looks at him better, noticing that he is similar to her to some extent but seems older. And the girl looks at him for two seconds, moving her eyes aside at times with a feeling of terrible awkwardness.
“Hey, you’re similar to my brother,” Cassidy says hesitantly.
“Me?” Daniel wonders with a slight smile. “Your brother?”
“Yup… Older…”
“You have a brother?” Peter asks.
“I do, but I haven’t seen him for ages. Though, I miss him so badly.”
“But why did it happen?” Terrence wonders.
“That was my fault… I didn’t stay with him when I should have. I left home and never came back.”
“Your parents?” Daniel specifies. “You have a mother and a father?”
“Nope, they died many years ago. One after another…”
“So, are you and your brother orphans?”
“Sort of.”
“Interesting…” Daniel moves his eyes aside for a second, looks at Cassidy again, and caresses her shoulders softly. “Hey, what’s your name?”
“Cassidy…”
“Nice to meet you, Cassidy,” Daniel smiles slightly. “My name is Daniel.”
“Daniel?” Cassidy rounds her eyes and sets them on Daniel, getting tense enough. “Your name is Daniel?”
“Yeah,” Daniel shrugs. “But why? Something is wrong?”
“Erm…”
Cassidy shakes her head, shaking strongly and not moving her eyes off Daniel, who gets a little confused because she looks at him so closely. However, the more time is gone, the more the man starts to be sure that he… Knows this young girl…
“I know her…” Daniel thinks, looking at Cassidy closely. “It’s like I’ve seen this girl before! But how? Is she my friend? Or just a familiar one? I dunno… But the fact that Cassidy is similar to me makes me suspicious? What if… We’re connected somehow?”
Edward, Peter, and Terrence also get suspicious that Cassidy got so nervous after Daniel called his name. They look at each other questioningly, and then the blond comes to the young girl carefully and puts his hand on her shoulder softly.
“Cassidy, what’s wrong?” Peter asks anxiously. “Why did you get so nervous?”
“You changed after Daniel introduced himself,” Edward frowns slightly.
“Huh…” Cassidy stutters. “I… I…”
Silence settles in the air because Cassidy cannot say a word and just sobs loudly.
“Cassidy, don’t be so nervous,” Terrence says softly and quietly. “Calm down, please.”
“I…” Cassidy pronounces in a shaking voice.
“The problem is about him?” Peter frowns slightly, pointing at Daniel being a little confused.
“I…” Cassidy throws a scared look at Terrence, Peter, and Edward. “I… Daniel… He…”
“Do you know him?” Terrence specifies. “Daniel is connected with you somehow?”
“Erm… No… I… Just…” Cassidy glances at Daniel for a moment. “My older brother’s name was also Daniel… I… I thought of him…”
“Your brother’s name is Daniel?” Peter asks hesitantly.
“Yup…”
“You say he’s your older brother. What’s his current age?”
“Twenty-six… My brother is gonna turn twenty-seven soon…” Cassidy moves her wet eyes to Peter. “On August, 20th…”
These words make Terrence, Edward, and Peter a little confused, and they look at each other questioningly. Daniel glances at the men tensely and hesitantly, but later he bans himself from thinking that he could be Cassidy’s brother.
“And…” Terrence pronounces, pointing at Daniel. “This Daniel… Reminds you of your brother?”
“Yup, to some extent,” Cassidy replies hesitantly.
“Maybe…” Edward nods, comparing Cassidy and Daniel closely. “You really have something similar… For example, a hair color… Some features…”
“No…” Daniel shakes his head sharply. “It cannot be the truth! It’s just a coincidence! I’m not the only one with the name Daniel, who is going to turn twenty-seven soon. Though, I am not sure if it’s actually my name.”
“But you are similar, and you cannot deny it!” Peter exclaims.
“Just because of a hair color!”
“Not only! You have many common features!”
“No, guys, no,” Cassidy pronounces hesitantly, looking at all the men with sadness in her eyes. “I think Daniel is right. We… We can be just alike…”
“Are you sure that I’m similar to your brother?” Daniel frowns slightly.
“I just said you remind me of my brother. But I didn’t say you were my brother.”
“Cassidy…” Terrence frowns slightly, stroking his chin. “Tell me, please, what’s your last name? Or better call us your full name.”
Cassidy hesitates for two seconds before exhaling sharply and saying a little hesitantly:
“Perkins… My name is Cassidy Perkins. And my full name is Cassidy Nicole Perkins.”
Silence settles in the air, during which everybody surprisingly looks at Daniel, who gets shocked by what he heard and swallows up nervously, starting to breathe heavily from the excitement.
“Perkins?” Edward asks hesitantly. “You are Cassidy Perkins?”
“Yes…” Cassidy nods and glances at Daniel hesitantly. “He is Perkins, too?”
“Too…” Daniel nods. “I’m Daniel Perkins…”
“Oh, my gosh…”
“Wow…” Edward shakes his head.
“It seems like we didn’t know much about this man…” Terrence whispers, addressing Edward and Peter.
“Does…” Peter pronounces hesitantly. “Does he have a sister?”
“You didn’t know it?”
“No! I was sure that he was the only child.”
“No, no…” Daniel pronounces in a little shaking voice. “It can’t be true…”
“What if it’s true?” Terrence assumes hesitantly. “What if this girl is your younger sister?”
“No!” Daniel gets up on his feet sharply. “It cannot be true! This is a coincidence! Perkins is not the rarest last name.”
“Why do you think this man could be my brother?” Cassidy asks hesitantly in a little shaking voice. “I didn’t say it openly! This Daniel just has something that reminds me of my brother…”
“You see it!” Daniel exclaims. “This girl does confess it.”
While Cassidy looks at Daniel with sadness in her eyes, and he understands that she is familiar to him but does not want to believe that he might be connected with her, Edward comes to the girl, squats down, and softly takes her by the shoulders.
“What happened to your brother, Cassidy?” Edward asks softly. “Where’s he now?”
“I don’t know…” Cassidy makes a quiet sob. “I don’t know… If he’s alive or… Dead…”
“Dead? Why do you think he is dead? He’s young! You said he was almost twenty-seven!”
“It’s been too many years… Many things could happen.”
“Did you try to find him?”
“How?” Cassidy throws her hands up. “I don’t know where he’s living…”
“But why did you leave home? Didn’t you get on with your brother? Is that why you decided to run away?”
“Nope…” Cassidy pronounces hesitantly. “The case is…”
However, Cassidy does not say anything because Edward, Peter, Terrence, Daniel, and she hear the man’s horrifying voice behind them:
“Hey, hey… Who I see…”
Edward, who gets up immediately, Terrence, Peter, and Daniel turn on the voice sharply and see Eugene Wainwright, the one they were afraid to get caught by. The girl gets sharply white, opens her eyes full of horror widely when seeing the man, who makes everybody horrified with his wide, crazy smile, and creeps to the corner of the room again, crying bitterly again and starting to shake strongly from fear. She looks at those, who promised to rescue her, while the four men look at each other with a heavy breath, understanding that they have to forget about their fights and unite to leave this place safe and sound.
ns 15.158.61.23da2
