“I don’t understand, Mr. Ulime.” Young Silvano’s face was distorted with a frown, eyes filled with anger.

“Do you not understand or do you not  want to understand? I think you’re smart enough for me not to explain every small detail to you.” Bernard Ulime’s outwardly gentle smile seemed to freeze Silvano’s insides. He shifted his gaze behind Silvano and the expression on his face turned sincerely warm when looking at his son. “Right now I can only thank you,  Silvano. I am finally able to see my son standing on his feet again.” 

Silvano tilted his head with confusion when suddenly felt a hand sliding around his waist from behind. He jumped away and turned around startled by the unpleasant touch, then finally realising the seriousness of the situation, he attacked Jerome. First punched his stomach and face, then kicked him away. Then with swift steps slipped past Bernard through the door leaving both men stunned. Jerome stared angrily at his father grunting. 

“Damn, that hurt!”

“You’re not badly hurt, are you?” Bernard first looked worryingly at Jerome, then smirked happily and spoke into his forearm communicator. “Bring the brat back to his room.”

Chased from different directions, Silvano ran nonstop through unfamiliar hallways and backyards for 15-20 minutes until he was surrounded by a group of bulky guards. He was still aggressively fighting back until he got shot by a paralysing bullet on the back. 

When he was brought back to the secluded basement room again, his whole body was limp, only his facial expressions still more or less controllable. He was panting and cursing, blood on his lips and nostrils. The guards threw him on the floor and moved to stand by the door. 

“Have you gone nuts?! Let me out! Damn it! Just let me the fuck out of here!”

“Father, you let him grow up too wildly! Male+ are not supposed to be this dirty mouthed and violent. I’ll have to re-educate him properly.”

“You have no right to keep me here!”

“Look on the bright side, Jerome.”  Bernard Ulime bent down beside Silvano disregarding all his grunting and cursing, and touched the arm where the device left blue-purple stripes on the skin. 

“Set me free Mr. Ulime! Why are you doing this to me?”

“It’s hard to believe how energetic this brat is even after 3 hours of drainage. With him I think even full recovery is possible for you, son. It was worth waiting all these years; the harvest is amazingly good.”

“What the hell are you talking about? Bastards, let me out of here! Let me go!” 

“That’s the spirit, keep it up kid.” Bernard chuckled with mockery. 

“Dad…”

Jerome sounded very determined and didn’t move his eyes away from Silvano even as he called out to his father. 

“Um… Jerome. Maybe you should wait until you recover more?” To his question Jerome shook his head with possessive eyes glued to Silvano. “Well, then don’t overdo it, he’s still a shy little virgin.” Bernard straightened his posture and walked to the door while Jerome walked over, nudged Silvano’s limp legs apart on the floor with his leather shoes and stood between his knees towering above the motionless and devastated teenager. Silvano was taking deep violent breaths filled with anger and helplessness still trying to think of a way out of this trap he had foolishly walked into unknowingly or rather had lived his whole life leading to this trap.

“Don’t worry dad, I’ll take good care of him. And educate this country bumpkin with foul mouth some proper manners.” 

Silvano felt chilly all over when the door closed with the electric sound as Bernard Ulime left without even looking at him, and the lunatic hovering over him leaned closer. He could clearly see the lust filled eyes staring at him with uncontrolled desire. He started to fully realise the dire situation he had ended up in… 

With the baby’s kicks bringing him back to reality, Silvano realised that he had been spacing out for quite some time. Because of falling asleep very early last night he had woken up before sunrise today and did not want to disturb Melam, who was sleeping on the other side of the room, so he kept quiet and just sat up in his bed staring aimlessly at the slightly moving curtains, thoughts and memories drifting around in his mind. 

When he first woke up from the coma in this mansion he was almost sure it was yet another trap, yet another group of people wanting to gain something from him or once again some twisted people who enjoy watching over the other’s suffering for fun. But after this less than two weeks time he had started to actually believe that the people here wished him no harm and cared for him sincerely. At times he would scold himself for being too easy to deceive, but then he would get reassured remembering that he’s in the Admiral’s mansion. If there was anyone who stands for human rights and justice in this world the first person would be Admiral Carnage. 

Silvano, once again rescued from the endless trails of thoughts, by the small human nudging him from inside, looked around to realise that the sun was already up in the sky and Melam was busy arranging the curtains and furniture. She had apparently let him be, as reminiscing at times is part of overcoming difficult times. Appreciating her thoughtfulness he greeted her first. 

“Good morning, Miss Melam.” 

“Oh! Good morning, Mr. Silvano! How are you? Do your knees still hurt?” She was pleasantly surprised and came closer. 

“I’m fine, my knees seem to be ok, they don’t hurt. How are you?” 

“I’m doing great, thank you for asking! I’ve slept really well today. Would you like something? A nutritious drink maybe, dear?” 

“Yes, thank you. But I’d like to wash my hands and face first. Let’s see if I can do that today.” Silvano spoke as he manipulated the transition from bed to the wheelchair, and controlled it to drive toward the bathroom. 

During the last several days Silvano had multiplied the tasks he could perform himself. Everyone around him would get ecstatic every time he did something new, so much that Silvano himself found it funny to see their reactions. They would patiently wait 5-10 minutes until he’d do a task that would take them several seconds to accomplish with great excitement. Not caring if he spilled things or broke cups in the process. They didn’t care as for them Silvano seemed like the loveliest person. They would get anxious only in situations that were even a little bit dangerous for him. 

She watched with a tender smile while Silvano reached out to the tap, washed his slightly shaking hands, then carefully washed his face. Even if it could appear silly Silvano himself found joy in accomplishing these small actions.

“What do you say if we make plans for the day, dear?” While handing him a fresh towel to wipe his face Melam made a suggestion and brought out a small notepad from the pocket of her nurse uniform. 

“A plan?” 

“Yes, a plan, like a schedule. Let’s see. So: 

Wake up - check

Wash the face and hands - check

Get dressed -

Have a healthy smoothie - 

Hm… what else?”

Melam’s excitement was passed to Silvano a little so he got engaged in the planning.

“Exercising?”

“Yep, let’s add that, anything else?”

“The 2-3 cups of that funky mineral drink?”

“Aha… that’s 6 points, let’s think of some more. A stroll, right?” Silvano nodded with a smile. “Should we do some shopping on the network? I know you don’t really like shopping but your lovely belly is growing and you’ll need looser clothes soon, so let’s spend half an hour on that, ok? Then, you might also have a nap in the afternoon. And a shower before going to bed. That’s 9 points. Do you have more ideas?”

“Watching the baby’s screenings of different times?” 

“Sweetheart, you know them by heart already! But of course, let’s add that too. Now we have a full agenda!” Melam announced with a serious-busy secretary look on her face, which really amused Silvano. “So, next on our list is getting dressed, are you sure you don’t want to try anything from the ‘fancy’ drawers? Ah… Why are you always so cross on this matter? It wouldn’t hurt to try different styles, you might end up liking some.”

At that moment there was a knock on the door. 

“Good morning, may I come in?” It was Lieutenant Colonel Gillian’s voice behind the door to the bedroom. Melam looked at Silvano for confirmation and only after the latter nodded she answered. 

“You may come in, we are in the dressing room choosing an attire.”

Gillian entered the bedroom and then knocked again on the door leading into the dressing room. 

“It’s fine Colonel Gi… I’m sorry…” Silvano bit his tongue after calling the previous rank of Gillian feeling tremendously guilty. 

“I’ve been telling you, Mr. Silvano, you really don’t need to worry or feel guilty. Actually, my rank before was much higher than it should have been. Because of my ‘special’ talent I had jumped through ranks a little too fast, even my friends from military academy hated me for that. Now it’s closer to what it should have been, but still higher than most of my peers. I’ll tell you something funny, you know, several of my friends, who had stopped keeping contact with me out of jealousy years ago, took the initiative to meet up when they heard of the demotion. Hahaa! I laughed my ass… ouch” Lieutenant Colonel Gillian was rambling merrily when Melam hit him with a cloth hanger for using profanity. “I’m sorry, I got carried away.”

To this hilarious situation Silvano couldn’t help but let out a ‘pft!’ and laugh at their silly attitudes. 

“I feel like I’ve come at the right time to save Mr. Silvano from Miss Melam’s fancy outfit attack today?” 

“What attack? I’m just suggesting that pretty people should be adorned with beautiful things. Mr. Silvano is one of the prettiest people I’ve ever seen so it’s natural that I want to dress him up.” Melam said quite resolutely in her defence. 

“Well, I …” Silvano found it hard to find words to oppose her determination. 

“Miss Melam you might be right, but the situations are not always the same, some people just might not like the fancy stuff.” Silvano was readily nodding in agreement to his words. “Some people have such an undeniable charm that they don’t need even a single accessory to shine brighter than anyone.” Silvano stopped in the middle of nodding and looked weirdly at Gillian. 

“Both of you are strange…” After these words Silvano averted his eyes from both of them and turned the wheelchair toward the drawer with plain clothes, which didn’t have all those ornaments and decorations that the clothes in the rest of the drawers had. His arm strength was not enough to rearrange and pick out clothes so Melam and Gillian stepped in to help. 

“What about these overalls? You seemed to have found it comfortable the other day?”

“That one is too crude, Lieutenant Colonel! The design is rough and plain. You might as well bring out a miners' uniform. We should choose something that has at least some elegance or cuteness.”

Silvano looked at Gillian with pleading eyes to save him. 

“There are different colours, which do you prefer?”

“Yes, please, at least let’s choose a nice colour!” Melam seemed to have found a tiny ray of hope moving her hands towards peach coloured soft overalls.

“Em… the grey one?” Silvano almost whispered and Gillian closed his eyes in anticipation. 

“Grey!? Dear, I love you wholeheartedly but you seriously have issues with your sense of style.”

“Then maybe white or blue…” Silvano’s voice was getting quieter as he spoke.