Without success and for more than half an hour, Victor Dautt searched for Marcel Witsel in every corner of the busy night streets he could. He asked the passerby he saw in his path if they had run into a young red-haired man. Some ignored him, others encouraged him to go to the wrong places, in one of those alleys, he was about to be robbed. Two boys approached him threateningly. Victor tried to mediate with them.

“Take what you want but don't do anything to me, guys.”

They weren't carrying weapons but he realized that they were inexperienced, so he decided to confront them, since learning self-defense helped him take control of the situation.

After having temporarily paralyzed them by hitting them in certain sensitive areas, he fled towards an avenue.  Victor used a phone booth that he saw nearby and contacted the police to help him find Marcel's whereabouts.  His hands were shaking but he was able to give clues as to what had happened.  After several minutes, he decided to go to Benxamin and Lester's workplace. Once there, his brother told him that Lester had left early because of something related to his mother.

Then, he asked Victor if he knew where Marcel's parents lived, but,

“I don't have the slightest idea,” said him.

“I see,” Benxamin responded as he walked in circles.

So, they went to the Haydar family apartment, thinking that, since Lester was once his friend, he possibly had an idea where the tormented young man might be.

A few hours earlier and unknown to the twins, Lester went back to the music room to see if Marcel was still there, but couldn't find him. He went through all the corridors and classrooms of the school, and in that, it occurred to him to call the Witsel family home, obtaining said information from an old friend of his bully, an unsympathetic 16-year-old girl.

“I have to talk to Marcel,” Lester manifested. 

“Just leave him alone. He's okay, loser,” said her

“That... is not TRUE!”

“How do you know? Heelloo?”  she asked. 

“I only know that it's not so.” After seeing his reaction, the girl gave him said the phone number, but he also did not achieve anything useful. There was nobody at home.

He was late for work being strongly scolded by his boss in front of all the employees, including Benxamin, but he didn't care in the slightest. Lester had a bad feeling, he couldn't concentrate on what he was doing and he insisted on at least seeing Marcel one more time.

He tried to leave early to resume his search, but received a phone call from James, asking him to take care of his mother because she was very sick. The man sometimes had to work nights at August's request - or rather by order of Camille, the lady who tried to seduce him in the past and whose intent to annoy him became apparent as time went by, although it wasn't like that at first.  According to her, James was a mere employee.

The restaurant was only 20 minutes from the apartment. Mira felt dizzy but it wasn't necessary to go to a hospital. At times, she was an active woman who liked to walk or go to her old job to visit her co-workers; other times she just wanted to close her eyes and never open them again. However, her son and her husband were enough motivation to stay awake.

The Dautt brothers knocked on the door with an obvious feeling of anguish, Lester was surprised to see them pale and agitated.

“What's going on?” he asked them.

After the twins told Lester what had happened, he quickly went to his bedroom to write Marcel's home address in one of his notebooks. He was so nervous that he could barely tear the page out to give it to his friends. The Dautt brothers went to where a small one-story house built in the 1920s was located, with obvious deterioration due to humidity.

Eleanor received them very distressed, her son was behaving strangely but she thought he was having a tantrum. She looked for her husband, Lucas, who was asleep in the bedroom after having several drinks. 

“Wake up! WAKE UP, YOU BASTARD!” she yelled.

 

She slapped him screaming and cursing; for the first time in many years she faced him, so that together they would find their son.

Then, Lucas communicated with his three eldest daughters Sara, Clara and Elsa, the latter being the closest to Marcel. She didn't hesitate to quickly leave her work and tried to find out the whereabouts of the young man in several places where she suspected he would be, including the old abandoned factory, but to no avail. The Witsel family and the others involved feared the worst; they went to various hospitals as well as the morgue. 

Fortunately, after a few hours and thanks to the calls made to the police, they were able to locate Marcel who was sitting on the ground next to the school gate. Eleanor was the first to approach him, knelt beside him and hugged him with all her might.  Elsa was more direct and she pulled his shirt demanding explanations: 

“Where the hell were you?  You had us all worried.”  

Lucas was scared as if he was going to have a heart attack, he touched his chest to try to calm down, he couldn't even look his son in the eye. Marcel didn't say anything, it was his custom not to explain. He pretended to be the same as years ago, arrogant and self-confident, thinking that feeling vulnerable and talking about his problems was for weak people.

***

Several weeks later, during English class, some youngsters planned to mock Marcel through the teacher's reckless actions. The man had a habit of saying in front of his students and without hesitation, any mistakes he could see in the guys' exams to the point of making them feel like fools; it was the young Witsel's turn.

“A 5 out of 10, Marcel. This is very poorly written. If you don't work on your grades, you'll repeat the school year whether you like it or not.”

Receiving his grade in silence, he sat back in his chair amidst the laughter of the students. Lester was located to his left, Victor, two seats behind Marcel. Something was wrong, the tension grew. A girl called him a disgusting actor, a boy much younger than him, piece of shit, another classmate with a robust complexion, subtly hit his desk several times, as a sign of trying to attack him.

Lester raised his hand to ask the teacher to help Marcel. The man in his 70s, he was hard of hearing so it was easier to generate teasing. Then one last student did something that triggered his madness: he threw an eraser in his ear.

The young adult got up from his chair, walked over to his classmate, and knocked over his desk, causing everything to fall to the floor. The students surrounded him, some calling him a bully and others derogatoryly, a murderer. The teacher asked him to stop. Marcel tried to hit the boy, but Victor stopped him and grabbed him around the waist and neck to immobilize him - not intending to suffocate him. Lester walked over to Marcel and put his hands on his face to calm him down.

“Please, enough! It's not worth it, Marcel.”

Then Marcel stepped on Victor to get free, pushed Lester roughly, and ran through the corridors of the school, toward the parking lot. The teacher tried to reach him but a few meters away and due to his physical condition, he agitated easily.

Young Dautt ran towards the library, which he used as a shortcut, and managed to stop him when their eyes met in a corner. Marcel had an enormous desire to hit him, but in his failed attempt to destroy his face, Victor just hugged him making him cry.

“Let go of me, piece of... ” but he couldn't continue speaking. Tears welled up and he bit his lip hard to the point of bleeding.

“Say all you want,” Victor declared.

Unbeknownst to Victor, Marcel was confused as to how he felt about him. He wanted to get away from him but he couldn't, he wanted to hug him anyway but,... did he hate him?  

Did he begin to understand it because Victor was an invisible being to his family? Or maybe respect for him?

The Dautt twins - especially Victor through a single fight - robbed him of his sole purpose of being able to be in control of his life through bullying from nice people like Lester. This remained in Marcel's thoughts for a long time. Unlike them, he never found another meaning to his existence, much less sought to forge personal goals for his future as the twins were doing. He was a coward with himself. Marcel thought that the brothers were free to decide, whatever the cost, completely ignoring the vicissitudes they had to go through for having a selfish and sometimes violent aunt. He didn't think he could talk about his fears or simply say that he didn't like something, after his humiliation, so he followed the safe path of his mother's dreams.

Marcel considered Victor his rival, but unlike Benxamin, he was a flawed rival, someone struggling to survive - not a weakling. Lester saw them in the distance, approached as fast as he could and came up with one of his sweet but amazing ideas.

“Would you like to come with me to have lunch with my parents, Marcel? Victor, you and your brother are also invited.”