Chapter 1
The next day is gloomy and cold. Peter and Helene decided to go to the city and walk the golden retriever name Sammy, that stole the hearts of their friends. Holding each other’s hands, they are having a nice talk, while the pet obediently follows his owner, who keeps him on the leash and sometimes pulls him not to let him go anywhere.
At first, they walk quietly: the young people go, hugging each other, sharing tender gazes and shy kisses and talking, and the doggy, which gets unleashed later, smells and seeks something on the ground and grass. But some time later, he gives a start sharply with a loud bark and runs away faster than a shot.
“Sammy, hey?” Helene asks loudly. “Come to me!”
“Sammy, come back now!” Peter exclaims.
Helene and Peter have nothing but to exhale and go where Sammy ran away. The truth is that this way is not easy for the girl because her thin heels sink into the sand constantly. But the man holds his sweetheart and makes sure that she does not fall. And some time later, they successfully get through this road and end up where a person actually, rarely walks.
“Where’s this restless one?” Helene exhales sharply, looking around. “Samuel! Come to me!”
“He’s there!” Peter exclaims, pointing into the distance.
Sammy barks loudly, runs to the side very fast, and turns on Helene and Peter, as if he makes sure they follow him. The young people look at each other, shrug, and follow the dog. At first, they do not go too fast, but later, they have to start running not to lose Sammy’s tracks. A few moments later, he brings Peter and Helene to the straight road, on the edges of which there are many green trees and bushes of different heights. This place definitely makes them feel anxious. Especially, in the current gloomy, little cold weather when the sky is closed with dark gray clouds.
“Gosh, what does Sammy need here?” Helene moans tiredly, breathing a little heavily.
“I swear, if he wanna show us a birdie or a thing, I will kick his ass,” Peter says confidently.
By this moment, Helene and Peter have already mucked the edges of their jeans and shoes with dirt, on which they have to walk to come to the road and follow Sammy, the paws of which got dirty enough. But at some moment, they lose track of the dog and stop slowly, looking around and seeing nothing suspicious or interesting. The lovers look around for some time, and then Helene glances aside and rounds her eyes, holding her breath immediately. The girl takes Peter under his arm tightly and points at what she sees, saying with horror in her eyes:
“Peter, look! Someone’s lying there!”
“Where?” Peter frowns slightly.
“There! On that road! Sammy is there, too!”
Peter looks at what Helene got an interest in much better and really sees someone lying in the middle of the road placed far from here and not moving. A man, young enough, with dark hair… He is wearing gray jeans with a black belt and a gray sweater with half-rolled sleeves. The lovers cannot see his face because it’s turned on the other side, but they see that the terribly excited Sammy constantly snuggles his nose in it.
“It seems like it’s a man…” Helene pronounces quietly.
“But who’s that?” Peter wonders. “And why does Sammy have such a great interest in him?”
“Damn, I can’t see his face. His head turned on another side.”
“Oh, freaking myopia…” Peter squints his eyes strongly, trying to look at the guy lying on the road closely. “I can’t see…”
“Sammy!” Helene exclaims loudly. “Sammy, come here! What are you doing there?”
Sammy barks loudly, but he does not run to his owner. Instead, he claps the unconscious man on the face with his paw. And when the dog turns his head slightly, Peter manages to see familiar enough features of the face.
“No…” Peter pronounces quietly, shaking his head and looking at the unconscious man with horror in his eyes. “No, it can’t be the truth…”
“Oh, my God, Peter…” Helene pronounces with horror in her eyes. “That guy…”
“His face… Familiar features…”
“Don’t tell me that’s…” Helene wants to say, refusing to believe everything is real.
Two seconds of silence before Helene and Peter look at each other sharply with fear in their eyes.
“Daniel!” Peter and Helene say at the same time.
“Damn!” Peter exclaims with horror.
Peter and Helene sharply give a start at the same time, run to Sammy still running around the suffered fellow and clapping him on the face with a paw or licking it. The lovers quickly run to the unconscious guy and fall on their knees beside him. The blond touches the man’s shoulder and rolls him onto the back carefully. The two get horrified when they understand that this man is really Daniel, who has been lying on the road unconscious for nobody knows how long with tracks of blood on his face and his head in the small bloody pool. A red flow is getting out of his mouth, and the man looks very pale and, seems like, dead. Moreover, he also has a deep cut along the palm of his hand, from which blood is bleeding.
“Oh, damn!” Peter closes his mouth with both hands, looking at the unconscious Daniel with dumbfounded eyes. “Daniel!”
“Daniel!” Helene shouts with horror in her eyes and grabs her black short hair. “Oh, my God…”
“Hey, Daniel, can you hear me?” Peter jabs excitedly, clapping Daniel on his cheeks and shaking by the shoulders. “Daniel!”
“Daniel…” Helene pronounces in a strongly shaking voice, shaking Daniel by the shoulder slightly. “Daniel, wake up! Daniel! Daniel!”
“Dude, say something,” Peter starts to panic more and more, breathing heavily enough, as he unsuccessfully tries to wake Daniel up. “C’mon! C’mon!”
“Gosh, his hand is cut!” Helene gets horrified, taking Daniel’s cut hand carefully and looking at it with widely open eyes. “It’s bleeding!”
“Damn, what the hell! How did it happen?”
“Is he actually alive?” Helene asks in a strongly shaking voice. “I think he’s barely breathing. Don’t say Daniel is dead.”
Peter checks out Daniel’s pulse on his wrist and his neck and later feels some slight pushes.
“Thank God, he’s alive, but his pulse is very weak,” Peter exhales with relief and checks Daniel’s pupillary response. “The pupillary response is very bad. And he’s barely breathing.”
“He’s in a too bad condition,” Helene notices with horror in her eyes. “Terribly white…”
“And all in blood…” Peter looks at his hands, sees that they are in the blood, and looks at the unconscious Daniel literally drowning in his own blood. “Damn, Perkins… How did you do it?”
“But how did he end up here? And what was he doing?”
“Did someone beat him so strongly and leave him to die?” Peter asks himself and glances at Daniel’s cut hand. “And cut his hand…”
“What if he’s hit by a car?” Helene assumes. “Daniel is lying on the road! Someone hit him and ran away!”
“But who did that? And why?”
“I don’t know, Peter… I don’t…”
“Damn, who cares about it! He must be taken to a hospital while he’s alive.”
“What could happen? What?”
When Helene wants to turn Daniel’s head on her barely, Peter stops her.
“No, no, it would be better if we didn’t touch him,” Peter says quietly. “Otherwise, we might make it worse if he got some fractures… Or some head issues…”
“Yeah, I didn’t think about it…” Helene exhales sharply.
“No time to think! Helene, call an ambulance! Faster!”
“But I don’t know where we are!” Helene says a little louder, throwing her hands up. “How do I tell an operator where to go?”
“Ah, damn, damn…” Peter grabs his little disheveled wheat blond hair tightly, feeling that he is terribly excited and breathing heavily enough, but barely makes himself shake up with the thought that every second is important. “Try to see the current location in the maps.”
With these words, Peter takes his phone from the pocket of his denim jacket and gives it to Helene.
“But do it fast!” Peter exclaims. “We don’t know how much time we have. If we waste time, we will lose Daniel.”
“I’m trying…” Helene says in a little shaking voice, breathing heavily, typing the number of the ambulance, and trying to get the current location on Peter’s phone.
Meanwhile, the excited Sammy barks and whines constantly, running either around Helene and Peter or the unconscious Daniel, the face of whom the dog sometimes claps with his paw.
“Quiet, Sammy, calm down,” Peter says in a quiet, little shaking voice, breathing heavily and petting Sammy’s head. “An ambulance is about to come…”
Sammy whines quietly and snuggles his nose in Peter’s cheek, which he licks shyly.
“Good job, buddy, good,” Peter strokes Sammy’s hair. “Sorry for not understanding you immediately.”
Sammy keeps whining with pity in his eyes, looking at the unconscious Daniel.
“Damn, not this…” Peter pronounces quietly and moves his eyes into the distance for two seconds. “Getting new problems would be too much… Bringing the band close to the breakup would be too much… Because of Perkins now…”
Meanwhile, Helene is talking to the operator and trying to explain where she and Peter are. She barely overcomes the excitement, even if she sometimes confuses her words. Anyway, the operator says that doctors are on the way. The girl thanks them, turns the call off, and looks at Peter with a scare in her eyes.
Some time later, Helene, Peter, Edward, Natalia, Terrence, Anna, and Raquelle came together to the hospital where Daniel was brought. Marshall already drove Sammy home and went to the hospital, and Rose was talking to the doctors and was the first one to come here. They are now in the hall of the hospital and impatiently waiting for news about Perkins, whom they are worried about. Someone is sitting on uncomfortable chairs, someone is standing, and someone is pacing the floor.
Anna has not been able to hold down tears since she found out what happened to Daniel from Peter and Helene. The girl cannot calm down and is terribly afraid that she might lose her beloved man. This fear has always chased her, and now it might become real if something terrible happened to her boyfriend. Her friends do their best to support her and each other with words and hugs. Even if they also need support and good words.
“Why did it happen?” Anna asks in a shaking voice with tears in her eyes, sitting in the chair and looking at her hands. “Why? I don’t get it… Why?”
“We’re all shocked, sweetie,” Natalia says softly, sitting next to Anna and holding her hands. “We expected it less than anything…”
“If something happens to Daniel, I won’t bear it. I swear… My life will lose its meaning if my beloved man dies.”
“He’ll overcome it, Anna, you’ll see it,” Raquelle says with sadness in her eyes, hugging Anna around the shoulders. “We will all help him if he needs it.”
“Daniel is a strong man and can survive,” Edward says with a part of confidence, standing in front of Anna and fingering over nervously. “He has a reason to live.”
“I don’t wanna lose him, I don’t…” Anna makes a quiet sob. “God, why? Why was it Daniel? What did he do?”
“Yeah, he hasn’t been lucky lately,” Peter says thoughtfully. “But I didn’t think he’d be so unlucky… That he’d have to fight for his life…”
“But I don’t understand how he actually ended up there,” Terrence throws his hands up. “And what actually happened to him?”
“He could get hit by a car because he was lying on the road,” Helene says quietly, embracing herself with both arms. “However, we can’t exclude the version of a beating. Or everything could happen at the same time.”
“And it happened that the person, who did that to Daniel, hid?” Natalia concludes.
“Quite possible,” Peter says quietly. “That person didn’t kinda want to be blamed for hitting the man and decided to hide, using the fact that nobody was there. Though, I don’t know what Daniel could do to be attacked.”
“So, would someone be afraid of the responsibility if Daniel reported them to the police?” Raquelle asks.
“Exactly!”
“But will he do that?” Helene asks. “Would Perkins love to take some measures?”
“I hope it will happen,” Natalia expresses hope.
“What if someone just beat him?” Edward assumes. “Beat him but didn’t hit him by a car? It just could happen that he was lying on the road!”
“But who?” Terrence wonders. “Do you think he has enemies, who could threaten him because of some business?”
“He didn’t probably tell us much.”
“But he does have enemies,” Peter says thoughtfully. “Blake Connor, for example!”
“Do you think your assistant could do that to Daniel on purpose?” Raquelle gets horrified.
“I wouldn’t be surprised. But I would hit him strongly if it were the truth? What? This kid is jealous of us and laughed at Daniel because of his high notes issues!”
“No, no, Peter, it’s excluded,” Terrence shakes his head. “Maybe, Connor is a deadbeat that hates us, but I don’t think he’d beat someone or hit them with a car.”
“Nevertheless, we can expect anything from that short one,” Edward notices, crossing his arms over his chest. “I wouldn’t also be surprised if it was him.”
“But why do you think Daniel has some enemies, who did that?” Anna asks quietly and hesitantly, sniffing quietly. “What if that’s just a terrible accident? He could just not be careful and look around!”
“You know, friend, I wouldn’t deny that if a person has been hit by a car or beaten where one car per hour drives and one or two people go per day, it can’t be just a coincidence,” Natalia says thoughtfully.
“I don’t exclude that someone could catch Daniel in that place and do what has happened to him…” Raquelle adds.
“So, was this attack planned?” Anna wonders.
“Who knows…”
Silence settles in the air for two seconds, during which everybody looks around and at people passing by them: visitors or doctors in white robes.
“Hey, guys!” Peter breaks the silence. “We forgot to tell you that after Helene and I found Daniel unconscious, she found something, and then Sammy did.”
“And what’s that?” Natalia frowns slightly.
“Now…” Peter tries to find something in the pocket of his denim jacket.
“I have it!” Helene exclaims. “Second.”
Helene opens her purse and quickly finds the black ring found by her and the jackknife found by Sammy.
“We found these things,” Helene pronounces quietly.
“Helene didn’t wanna take these things, but I thought they could belong to the one to blame for what happened,” Peter adds. “They were lying near Daniel…”
“Let me look at that thing,” Anna says quietly, takes the black ring from Helene’s hands, and looks at this, frowning slightly. “The ring is male… But it doesn’t belong to Daniel… The size is too small… And he’s never worn rings…”
“Hey, what’s this?” Edward asks, takes the jackknife from Helene, looks at it and unfolds it, and folds it two times. “Blood on the knife… Fresh…”
“Peter and I think someone could cut Daniel’s hand with this one,” Helene confesses. “When we found him, his palm of the hand was cut strongly.”
“Oh, God…” Anna pronounces with horror in her eyes.
“Anyway, we’re gonna keep these things,” Peter replies confidently. “Sammy found the knife and insisted that we take that one and the ring. He wouldn’t have done it for nothing.”
“And if the ring doesn’t belong to Daniel, it was lost by someone to blame for what happened,” Raquelle assumes. “As well as the knife.”
“I wonder, how many people did attack Daniel?” Natalia frowns slightly. “Was there a company? Or was someone doing it alone?”
“Hard to say,” Terrence shrugs.
“If Daniel had been attacked by fewer people, he would’ve been beaten black and blue,” Edward assumes. “It’s impossible to deal with fewer people alone.”
“Maybe, we go to the police, explain everything, and show these things that Helene and Pete found?” Anna suggests hesitantly.
“Let Daniel decide if he wanna report the ones to blame,” Terrence replies, crossing his arms over his chest. “Though, it would be good to hear what happened from him.”
“Of course, we’ll ask him about everything when he wakes up and can accept visitors,” Peter replies confidently.
“Why?” Anna makes a quiet sob, closing her mouth with a hand. “Why was it him?”
“He’s gonna be okay, darling,” Helene says softly, coming closer to Anna and taking her hands. “Thank God, Daniel is alive. Be glad Pete and I found him and called an ambulance just in time.”
“No, no, I don’t wanna even think about it… If he died, my life would be deprived of meaning. There is no me without Daniel.”
“Don’t say it, friend,” Natalia says quietly, hugging Anna around the shoulders tightly and pressing her to herself. “You’ll see, your boyfriend is gonna be fine.”
“Hey, Anna, haven’t you noticed anything suspicious about Daniel’s behavior?” Raquelle asks. “Maybe, he has been afraid of something? What if there’s something we don’t know yet?”
“Nope, nothing,” Anna shrugs and sniffs. “He’s just been too upset by the bad performances. He said if Terrence, Edward, and Peter hadn’t helped him pretend that everything was okay, everyone would’ve begun to criticize or blame him for using autotune. Daniel has been super stressed because of these problems.”
“There was a reason,” Peter notices thoughtfully. “He’s lately screwed it all up constantly. Sometimes even too openly. It could happen that Perkins could forget the lyrics, play wrongly, and didn’t take notes…”
“I think it explains a lot,” Helene frowns slightly. “But Daniel tried to treat his work with responsibility.”
“And you all know that none of us uses autotune,” Terrence says confidently. “We personally watched each other recording the vocals in the studio. And Daniel did take the high notes in the part of the song, with which he got problems.”
“Listen, guys, it doesn’t matter now!” Natalia exclaims. “The most important thing is that Daniel is okay. And that he tells us what happened, and how he ended up where Peter and Helene found him.”
“You know, I think it’s just the beginning of our problems,” Edward says thoughtfully, crossing his arms over his chest. “The situation of Daniel not taking those high notes was a sign… And I must confess that I’ve lately had dark thoughts on my mind… Everything is kind of fine, but something couldn’t let me calm down.”
“I’d love to close your mouth, so you don’t evoke problems, but I’m afraid I have to admit it’s true,” Peter replies thoughtfully.
“Or Connor did it. He wished us to screw everything up much more and wanted our band to be broken up.”
“Yeah… That freaking devil really gave us great problems. What happened to Daniel is proof of it.”
“Let’s just hope for the best,” Raquelle says with hope. “Maybe, Daniel would get well soon, and we’d live like before. But we started to panic and thought up God knows how much…”
“I’m only praying that everything is okay…” Anna replies with sadness in her eyes, sighing heavily and doubling over, and gets up from the chair slowly. “That Daniel leaves the hospital and stays alive.”
Helene, Natalia, and Raquelle come to Anna and try to comfort her somehow with hugs and good words. While Edward, Peter, and Terrence come together and look at the girls being truly worried about Daniel, with sad faces.
“Hey, was everything so serious?” Terrence asks with anxiety.
“Very serious,” Peter crosses his arms over his chest. “His head was lying in the pool of blood, a little red flow was getting out of his mouth, and he was very white… He was barely breathing and had a very weak pulse… It was horrible to be next to him, honestly… And it hurts to watch Dan being like this… With an oxygen mask, with a neck brace…”
“What did the doctors say when taking him here?” Edward asks.
“Nothing special. Blood loss, a high temperature of the body, blood pressure issues…”
“And about hits, fractures…”
“They didn’t exclude that it could happen. But it was just an assumption.”
“I wanna hope you and Helene came just in time,” Terrence says with anxiety.
“Let’s hope. But Helene and I don’t know how long Daniel had been lying there before we found him. I mean, before Sammy led us to him.”
“Who knows…” Edward says thoughtfully. “But the most important thing is that he is okay.”
Edward glances at Anna, who is tried to be comforted by her friends, while she is crying quietly, shaking slightly, and constantly saying that something very bad should happen.
“She won’t bear it if he gets worse…” Edward adds with sadness in his eyes.
“None of us wants it…” Terrence replies thoughtfully. “Lose our friend… Our brother…”
“I’m starting to understand what you all felt when I was taken to the hospital after the suicide attempt,” Peter exhales sharply.
Edward claps Peter on the shoulder with sadness in his eyes. And then the two look at Terrence, and the men look around with fear and anxiety, wishing to stop worrying and knowing nothing and to find out what happened to Daniel. But at some moment, the long waiting is over because a man doctor of forty years holding a piece of paper in his hands and looking a little tired comes to them.
“Excuse me, young people, who is waiting for news about Daniel Perkins?” the doctor asks and stops his eyes on Peter. “You? I was talking to you!”
“Yes, yes…” Peter jabs a little excitedly.
Anna, Helene, Edward, Terrence, Natalia, and Raquelle come to the doctor shortly, wishing to hear something good and encouraging.
“We’re waiting, too,” Terrence says confidently.
“Yes, we are his close friends,” Natalia adds.
“Please, doctor, tell us, how Daniel is,” Anna begs with pity in her eyes. “What happened to my boyfriend?”
“Can you make us happy with something?” Peter asks anxiously. “Is Daniel fine or not?”
“I can make you happy and sad at the same time,” the doctor replies thoughtfully, fixing his glasses slightly.
“What do you mean, make us happy and sad?” Terrence wonders, opening his eyes wide.
“Well… I can make you happy with the news that Mr. Perkins’ condition is stable enough, and he does not have broken bones after the supposed car accident. He is very lucky in this case.”
“Is he awake now?” Natalia asks.
“Yes, yes, your friend woke up.”
“And what about the bad news?” Helene asks with anxiety.
“Oh… The bad news is that the man got a very strong hit on the head. Probably, against the front of a car. And… It led to the brain concussion… Which also led to some consequences.”
“Which consequences?” Raquelle asks with horror in her eyes.
The word “concussion” is already making everybody feel anxiety and panic, and Anna makes a much louder sob.
“As it often happens after a concussion and any head traumas, Mr. Perkins has got signs of partial amnesia,” the doctor says with sympathy. “I mean, we suspect that he has partial amnesia.”
“Amnesia?” Anna asks in a shaking voice.
“We cannot say how serious it is. But I believe he does not remember some things from his life… That man probably forgot some people and moments related to them.”
“We cannot say how serious it is, but it seems like he does not remember some things from his life.”
Absolute silence settles, during which everybody tries to realize that the doctor’s words about Daniel’s amnesia are not a joke. Anna was trying to hold on somehow and not to fall into hysteria, but now she, getting sharply white from horror, starts crying much more bitterly and makes herself think that amnesia is literally the end of all good things. Peter standing next to the girl hugs her tightly and caresses her head, while she presses herself close to him, shaking strongly and barely standing on her feet from the weakness that she instantly got obsessed with. However, just like his friends do, the man does understand it would be worthless, does not associate the word “amnesia” with anything good, and feels anxiety, fear, and the presentiment of something bad.
“Doesn’t he remember anything?” Natalia asks in slow motion.
“He orientates in time and space badly,” the doctor replies. “He looks absolutely lost and does not always understand what he is told. That man reminds me of a little child, who’s just starting to examine this world.”
“So, doesn’t Daniel even know his name?” Raquelle gets horrified.
“No, he does remember his name. When he woke up, the doctors asked him what his name was. Somewhere two or three minutes later, Mr. Perkins managed to call his full name – Daniel Christopher Perkins. He also knows his birthdate – August, 20th, 1990 and his birthplace – New York City, New York. It fully fitted the data of the documents that this young man gave us.” The doctor points at Peter.
“Does he remember us?” Anna asks very hesitantly. “Did Daniel ask something about his friends?”
“Unfortunately, no,” the doctor shakes his head with sadness in his eyes. “It might turn out that he forgot many people and the memories related to them. But it often happens that the memory knows how to, for example, drive a car or play soccer. I mean, Mr. Perkins will not become helpless and will be able to do anything he did before.”
Anna shakes her head with tears in her eyes, closing her mouth with both hands and getting horrified when she images the way Daniel tells her he does not remember and does not love her.
“So, what do we do if Daniel does not really remember us?” Edward asks hesitantly.
“I think we need to find out if it’s true, at first,” the doctor replies thoughtfully. “There is a little chance that he might remember one of you. For example, you, miss.”
The doctor glances at Anna, who moves her wet, red eyes to him and sniffs.
“Me?” Anna wonders with hope in her eyes.
“Yes,” the doctor nods.
“So, did Daniel ask about me? Does he remember that I’m his girlfriend?”
“Are you his girlfriend?”
“Yes, Daniel is her boyfriend,” Peter replies confidently.
“Alright. Well, if it’s so, he might definitely remember you. As… His close person.”
“You’re giving me hope…” Anna makes a quiet sob.
“I am sorry that your friend has nobody from his family, as this man with blond hair said. Maybe, he could remember them, too.”
“No, sadly, he has nobody. His parents died a long time ago.”
“Sorry… Very sorry…”
“Excuse me, doctor, can we see Daniel right now?” Terrence asks. “And talk to him a little.”
“I will allow you to visit him just to find out if Mr. Perkins remembers you,” the doctor replies. “And then, you will have to leave his room.”
“We cannot stay?” Anna asks in a shaking voice.
“I’m sorry, but no. As Mr. Perkins got head trauma, he needs full rest now. Any loud sounds, excitement, or short movements are banned. He is going to stay in the hospital under our watch for at least one week.”
“Alright, we agree,” Helene nods. “See him and leave.”
“Then take a breath away and follow me. And try not to make loud sounds.”
After looking at each other with horror in their widely open eyes, Anna, Terrence, Helene, Edward, Raquelle, Peter, and Natalia nod slightly and follow the doctor hesitantly, praying that Daniel recognizes everybody or at least one of them.
“I’m terrified, guys,” Anna whispers and makes a quiet sob. “I’m really afraid that he won’t recognize me.”
“I think he might remember you,” Terrence replies with hope. “You’re with him much longer than all of us.”
“I don’t know what I’ll do if Daniel says he can’t remember me. I swear I won’t bear it.”
“And yeah, what will we do if he doesn’t recognize anybody?” Natalia asks anxiously.
“I don’t know…” Edward shakes his head. “But first, let’s find out whom he remembers. And then decide it…”
“If only everything was fine…” Peter pronounces quietly. “If only he recognized at least one of us…”
A few seconds later, the doctor leads the friends to one of the many doors to rooms on the third floor. The man looks at everybody quickly and nods, letting them know that they have come.
“Wait here,” the doctor says quietly. “I’m going to call you in a few seconds.”
The doctor knocks at the door very quickly and enters the room, in which there are two hospital beds. And Daniel is lying on one of them. He looks terribly white, exhausted, and absolutely lost, looking around questioningly, frowning slightly sometimes due to the strong pain in the head, and squinting his eyes because it’s hard for him to take the bright light. There are multiple blood wounds on his face, bruises of different sizes on his arms, and small pieces of a patch in some areas. Hearing a quiet squeak of the door, he winces strongly but moves his empty, confused look to the doctor.
“Hello again,” the doctor says softly. “How are you feeling?”
“Not very good…” Daniel replies tiredly with a quiet moan, touching his forehead. “My head hurts strongly… I feel nausea… And… Terrible weakness… Hard to move…”
“I do tell you to move as less as possible. You are now banned from doing short movements.”
“You said it?”
“Sure.”
“Yeah… I probably forgot it…”
“It’s alright, it happens when you have a concussion.” the doctor takes a flashlight from the small pocket of his white robe and checks out Daniel’s pupil’s response, which does not make him happy. “The reaction is bad yet… But it’s alright.”
“My head…” Daniel winces slightly. “It’s tearing… I feel too bad…”
“I will give you some drugs. But the most important thing is to lie and move less.” The doctor puts the flashlight in his pocket and examines Daniel’s blood wound and bruises.
“Doctor…” Daniel pronounces quietly. “I kind of have a hole… I… I can’t remember anything… Why?”
“Don’t worry, young man, your amnesia is a temporary thing,” the doctor calms down quietly. “Early or late, you will get your memory back. This is the consequence of your head trauma. You hit it strongly and forgot everything.”
“But… I can’t remember that… I can’t remember what happened to me. And… I can’t remember what I hear now… I don’t remember… Honestly, I… I’m not even sure that… My name is Daniel.”
“Judging from the documents that we got, your name is really Daniel Perkins.”
“I don’t know… I… I don’t feel like me.”
“Say, do you remember something else except your name? Maybe, you recalled something when I was out?”
“Well… I do exactly know that someone threatened me… I mean… I think someone threatened me… Someone wanted to kill me…”
“Jesus Christ…” the doctor gets horrified. “And who?”
“I can’t remember… But I can’t get rid of this feeling…”
“Alright… And do you remember your family, friends, and girlfriend?”
“Erm…” Daniel pronounces hesitantly, while his widely open eyes often run from one side to the other.
“Alright, let’s do something: I will bring some people to you, so you say if one of them is familiar to you,” the doctor says quietly.
“Alright…” Daniel replies hesitantly as he shrugs. “But I’m not sure if I recognize someone…”
The doctor nods, comes to the exit, and makes a gesture, asking Terrence, Raquelle, Edward, Natalia, Anna, Peter, and Helene to come to him. The men let the girls go ahead and slowly enter the room. Every of them notices how pale Daniel looks, while he sets his eyes on these people, who do not seem familiar to him. After seeing the man like this, Anna starts crying much more bitterly and closes her mouth with a hand, as if she is trying not to scream from the pain that she is feeling, while her friends comfort her, and Peter hugs her around the shoulders.
“Mr. Perkins, can you say, please, if you remember someone from these people?” the doctor asks quietly. “Look at them closely and point at the one that seems familiar to you.”
Daniel, frowning slightly, looks at everybody, who came into his room, from head to feet for a pretty long time. At some moment, he gets the feeling that he has seen these people before, but he cannot remember where. He doubts if he knows those, whom he called his close people yesterday. The man does not remember anyone of them or anything that has to do with them. And a few seconds later, Daniel breaks the silence that might also be broken by Anna and moves his dead eyes to the doctor.
“No…” Daniel pronounces quietly and hesitantly, shaking his head. “I don’t remember any one of these people…”
“No…” Anna whispers with tears in her eyes. “Please, God, no… Not this…”
“Look closely, young man,” the doctor advises. “Maybe, someone seems familiar to you? But you are not sure if you know them. Maybe, you have this feeling?”
“I… No… I remember nobody… And… I don’t know… If I should…” Daniel slowly moves his questionable gaze to the others, deciding not to say that these people seem familiar to him because of his great doubts. “Who are you? Why are you doing here? I don’t know you…”
The men and the girls do not think Daniel would not remember any one of them and understand that their worst expectations have been confirmed. They hoped he would remember at least Anna or Peter, whom he has known for much longer, but he does not remember these especially close people to him. The pain that the girl felt after finding out what happened to Daniel and hearing about his amnesia is too weak, unlike the one that she felt when she heard that the man did not remember his friends and his girlfriend. She stops holding her emotions down and lets them go out because she thinks her life is now over. And at some moment, Anna snuggles her face into the shoulder of Natalia, who is standing next to her, hugging her tightly and caressing her head.
“Damn…” Peter grabs his head with widely open eyes. “Our worst expectations have been confirmed. Daniel doesn’t remember us.”
“What we were afraid happened…” Edward shakes his head with his mouth closed with a hand.
“You literally saw through,” Terrence says quietly. “It was really the beginning of new problems. Connected with Daniel.”
A little later, Anna steps back from the girls, who try to comfort her, comes to the bed, on which Daniel is lying, and sits on it with tears in her eyes.
“Don’t you actually remember me?” Anna asks in a shaking voice with tears and despair, taking Daniel’s hands tenderly. “Please, think a little bit longer… Please… It’s me, Anna, your girlfriend…”
No matter how much Daniel wants to remember Anna or one of his friends, he cannot remember anyone.
“No…” Daniel shakes his head with sadness in his eyes. “I don’t know you… I can’t remember…”
“Please, Daniel, please…” Anna begs much louder and sniffs. “Just say I seem familiar to you. That you believe we’ve met before.”
“Should I remember you?”
“You’re my boyfriend. And I’m your girlfriend. Can’t you even remember this?”
“Girlfriend? I have a girlfriend?”
“Yes, sweetie, you do. It’s me. Me, Anna Seymour.”
“Sorry, but it means nothing to me…” Daniel falls into silence for a second and looks at Anna closer, cracking a slight smile unconsciously. “Though, you’re beautiful… Very beautiful… And being next to you is nice…”
What’s happening is like a terrible nightmare that would be over after opening your eyes. But unfortunately, everything is real. After a tragic accident, Daniel lost his memory partially and does not remember anyone, with whom he felt happy and loved before. And when she realizes that the man will not remember her, Anna gets up from the bed with tears in her eyes and runs away from the room, feeling the unbelievable pain that is like the worst torture.
“Where are you going?” Daniel asks hesitantly. “Wait! Why are you crying? What did I do? Explain it!”
Anna’s friends do not realize what happened immediately, but they do it two seconds later after the door is closed by the girl.
“Anna!” Raquelle exclaims loudly, anxiously. “Anna, wait!”
“Anna, friend, where are you going?” Peter asks with widely open eyes.
“I’ll try to talk to her.”
Raquelle leaves the room quickly, and Natalia and Helene do the same, leaving the men, who look at each other hesitantly.
“What a twist…” Terrence shakes his head.
“Why is that girl crying?” Daniel wonders, looking at the man scarily. “Did I hurt her? Did I say something wrong?”
“She’s your girlfriend, Daniel,” Peter replies with sadness in his eyes. “Anna’s worried that you can’t remember her.”
“My girlfriend?”
“Yes, you love her very much and can’t imagine your life with a different girl,” Edward says softly.
“You said you loved her more and more every day,” Terrence adds with a slight smile on his face but with sad eyes. “You were afraid to lose her…”
“But why can’t I remember her?” Daniel wonders. “Why can’t I remember any one of you? I can remember nothing! I’ve got a hole!”
“Don’t worry, buddy, it’s temporary,” Peter says confidently. “You’ll remember everything, but a little later. It’s not amazing that you forgot everything after the head trauma.”
“But will I remember everything? How much time will be gone?”
“I’m sure you will remember her, your friends, your family, and everything soon,” the doctor replies softly and confidently. “You will not be like this all your life.”
“I’m trying to remember something, but I can’t. Really. I want to do it. I can’t.”
“You may get your memory back at any time. It will happen slowly: first, you will remember one thing, and then another. You remember only your name now and the skills that you had before the memory loss. You will not become helpless. But your hands and legs might obey you badly due to the brain damage.”
“When will it happen? When will I finally remember everything? I want to know everything! Who I am… Who these people are… What happened to me…”
“Don’t worry, young man, it will be gone. You just need some time. And actually, I do not advise you to think about it too much. You need full rest and peace and as much deep sleep as possible. This is how you can get well.”
“Alright…” Daniel pronounces quietly. “I got it…”
“Alright. I’m sorry, but I will have to lead your friends away because I promised to let them in for a few minutes. And you try to sleep. I will come back to you again a little later.”
The doctor turns around and moves his eyes to Edward, Terrence, and Peter looking at each other with sadness in their eyes or watching Daniel, who is behaving like they are strangers to him.
“Come with me, young men,” the doctor says quietly. “You will talk to him later. When he gets better.”
Terrence, Edward, and Peter do not argue with the doctor and leave the room quietly. And in the hall, they immediately see Raquelle, Helene, and Helene unsuccessfully trying to calm Anna, who refuses to believe what’s happening is real. The young men come to the shaking and crying girl and hug her tightly or caress her head or shoulder.
“I can’t believe it…” Anna pronounces with despair in a strongly shaking voice. “He recognized nobody. Even me. Daniel behaves like I’m a stranger to him.”
“He recognized nobody, darling,” Edward says softly, caressing Anna’s back. “Daniel behaves like this with all of us.”
“It must be a nightmare… My worst nightmare… I’m about to wake up, and Daniel is gonna be fine.”
“We all want it, sweetie,” Helene says with sadness in her eyes. “We’re all saddened.”
“I lost him… Lost, guys… I stayed alone… Alone…”
“No, Anna, don’t say it,” Terrence shakes his head, hugging Anna around the shoulders and caressing her head. “You didn’t lose Daniel. Thank God, he’s alive. But our friend is gonna get well very soon, and everything will become the same.”
“No, it won’t be… Won’t be…”
“Friend…” Natalia pronounces with pity in her eyes.
Daniel’s doctor feels that something clicks inside him while watching Anna crying so bitterly and comes closer to her.
“Miss, please, do not worry so much,” the doctor says softly, caressing Anna’s shoulder. “Amnesia is a temporary thing. Your boyfriend will remember everything, early or late.”
“But how long do we have to wait, doctor?” Anna asks in a shaking voice with tears. “We may wait for a week, a month, or a year…”
“It’s true, but this type of amnesia would not last forever. The memory will be back, but slowly. Having a good rest, a quiet day regimen, and a good sleep, Mr. Perkins will quickly recover from the concussion and all the traumas he got. Less excitement and movements for some time before everything is fine.”
“And what do we do to help him remember us?” Peter asks. “Or doesn’t it depend on us?”
“Why doesn’t it depend? It does! Try to tell him about yourself and everything that connected him with all of you. If you’re his friends, tell Mr. Perkins about your friendship. Maybe, it can help him remember you, or at least think better and believe he knows you.”
“You think it will help?” Edward frowns slightly.
“I do not guarantee the recovery of the memory. But this is the only thing you can do. And when he gets much better, you can take him to the places you have visited before or considered important and memorable. It would also help him remember something.”
“It seems like we’re going to have a hard time…” Natalia sighs with sadness in her eyes.
“Better be happy your friend is alive. And this case is a good reason to prove how important your friendship with that man is to you. If Mr. Perkins means a lot to you, you should do your best to take care of him as long as it needs.”
“Yes, doctor, we get it,” Peter nods, sighing quietly. “Of course, we will not leave Daniel and will do our best to help him.”
“I’m sure he will be grateful to you when he remembers everything. The most important thing is not to leave him. Even if you’re hurt that someone looks at you like you’re strangers. That guy needs you like never ever.”
“Even if he doesn’t, it’s alright,” Terrence replies confidently. “It doesn’t matter to us.”
“Unfortunately, doctors cannot get rid of amnesia. They have already done their job. Next, everything depends on Mr. Perkins. And you. But remember that he will be a little distracted and slow, and you might explain something several times.”
“Anyway, thank you, doctor,” Helene replies with thankfulness. “Thank you so much for what you have done for Daniel.”
“It’s my job. Alright… Now excuse me, I must leave you. I have other patients that I should check.”
“Sure,” Anna pronounces quietly.
“You do not better bother Mr. Perkins and go home. And we will see tomorrow. If he gets a little better, I will give you a few minutes to talk to him.”
The doctor turns around and goes away quietly, leaving Terrence, Helene, Natalia, Peter, Raquelle, Edward, and Anna being sad and shocked alone. Every one of them is trying to accept what they found out a few minutes ago somehow and is seriously worried about the band, the existence of which is under threat again.
