Amnesia

Chapter 2

But on the day of the escape, something went wrong, and Daniel still couldn't figure out what mistake he made in his plan. It went so wrong that he didn't even have time to pick up his documents and money, he only took some cash from home. They caught up him out in the suburbs of Los Angeles, forced him to pull to the curb and dragged him out, and then all hell had broken loose. Vincent listened to him with icy fury, boiling over with every word he shouted in his rage, and growled fiercely:

"You betrayed me! You!" and struck with the back of his hand for the first time since they'd known each other, causing Daniel to fall back onto the cold asphalt, stunned, not even feeling the pain in his numb cheek, but stunned by the very fact of the blow.

They grabbed him and threw into the car, his head painfully collided with the car door. He was driven back to Vincent's house to continue there. Vincent, his favorite Vincent, rolled up the sleeves of his expensive shirt and beat him hard, fracturing ribs and fingers with loud crunch. Horrifying Daniel with his fury. Fierce, ferocious, frightening to no end. He raped him, then beat him, and then repeated. He finally drew a knife and made a thin cut across Daniel's cheek. It burnt Daniel, bleeding and barely breathing in agony, another sharp pain seared through his body.

"You won't be so handsome to be lured away by lovers now, Danny," Vincent whispered, cooling down. Daniel wanted to say that he Adrian and him weren't lovers, but he only mumbled faintly, finally drifting off into a faint.

Vincent left him crawling on the floor that night, jumped into his vintage Ferrari 400 Superamerica in a frenzy, and drove off, tires screeching, to blow off steam as he often did. Only this time, blinded by bloodlust, he lost control while taking a turn, oversteering, and crushed headfirst into a tree. Steaming heap of debris instead of what once was his cherished possession. Unlike Daniel, apart from a broken rib, cuts on his face, Vincent suffered a severe blow to the head that left him with amnesia. That amnesia was what kept Daniel alive - once Vincent regained consciousness in the hospital, he asked about Daniel and was horrified at what he'd done to him.

He ordered to heal Daniel, arrange for plastic surgery to remove the scars, restore his toy, his pocket artist, his fiancé. Daniel was transported from the cold basement to the luxury of a private clinic, where they were accustomed not to ask questions, where his physical pain was alleviated with anesthetics, while his moral anguish was subdued with tranquilizers. He underwent patching, stitching, and external healing, then was presented in a pristine package to the formidable psychopath.

Daniel didn't see Adrian after that day, couldn't see him, couldn't see him at all as he was kept alone in the house, deprived of his phone and tablet. Attending conscientiously to his psychological trauma, mending both the toy and the inner workings to ensure the living human mechanism functioned as seamlessly as a mechanical one, all with the aim of making Vincent happy again. Vincent, now harboring an internal flaw in his head, was a ticking bomb set to detonate the moment he recalled Daniel's attempt to escape and him collaborating with the FBI.

"What's on your mind, baby?" Vincent yanked Daniel out of his reverie, prompting an involuntary flinch. Daniel tensely hoped didn't give himself away in any manner.

"About a future painting. Thinking about Pierrot in our garden," Daniel turned slowly away from the window toward Vincent, obeying the hand that pulled him affectionately.

"Pierrot, how unusual. A rather sad character, don't you think?" Vincent kissed his cheek and descended to the mark, licking it reverently.

"I can't help it, these are the only characters I can think of," Daniel twitched, unable to help himself. "You don't let me out of the house, so where am I supposed to find joy?"