Danny's P.O.V
The lights were all turned off. I walked toward the closed door of mom's room. She was yelling. Clutched in my hand was a stuffed animal; a panda.
"How could you? How could you do this, Freddie?" Mom yelled. What happened?
I walked in the room and gasped. "M-mommy?" I said. She looked down when she noticed me staring. Her hands were around Freddie's throat. "Mommy, you're hurting Fred." I said.
"Get back to your fucking room." She spat at me. "M-mommy, why are you saying bad words?" I asked, starting to cry.
"Get back to your room!" She yelled at me. I staggered back, "no, mommy! Stop!" I yelled at her. She stomped toward me. She grabbed my arm roughly, making me drop my stuffed panda. "Get out." She said. I started to cry.
"Freddie!" I yelled and ran toward my older brother, who was touching his throat and coughing. "Danny, hey. L-looks like you- you dropped Pandacakes." He told me, gasping for air. "You have an owie, Freddie." I told him.
"I'm okay, Danny. I'm okay." He breathed. "Like hell you are." Mom shoved me away and I fell. "Don't hurt him!" Freddie yelled. "Shut up." She said.
She pulled out a gun. She put it against Freddie's head. Freddie started crying. "No! Mommy, no! That's for bad guys." I said, standing up. I tried tugging her away from Freddie. She elbowed me to the face.
"D-Danny..." Freddie stuttered. "Go get dad, okay?" He told me. "Daddy's n-not home." I said, feeling scared. "G-get James." He breathed.
I ran out of the room. "Jam Jam! Jam Jam!" I screamed. James came out of his room. "What is it, Danny?" He asked. "Mommy has a gun! She hurt Freddie!" I cried, desperately clinging to James's leg. "Stay here. It's gonna be okay." He told me.
But I couldn't stay there. I followed him. He was on the phone. Talking to dad. He walked in mom's room. "Mom, why are you doing this?" He said.
"This son of a bitch, he made my Isaac leave me." Mom said. "What are you talking about, mom?"
"This piece of shit isn't your dad's son. He's a lovechild between me and my true love, Isaac. But Isaac left me, because of him."
"Drop the gun, mom. You don't wanna do this." James said. "Yes, I do." Mom said. Freddie whimpered. I didn't want mom to hurt him.
"Mommy! Leave him alone!" I said. "You little shit! I told you to go to your room!"
"Mommy, please stop!" I screamed. "God, you are so annoying." She put the gun against my head. I sobbed. "M-mommy." I whispered. "Don't you dare fucking hurt him!" James yelled, and jumped on top of mom. He held her to the ground and pried the gun out of her hand. He threw it and Freddie caught it. "Danny, I need you to go to Sammy, okay? You two need to stay away, okay, Dee?"
I shook my head. "Danny-" James said, but mom punched him in the stomach. He doubled over, clutching his stomach and groaning. "You." She grabbed my arm. "I'm taking you with me. Don't even try to find him, because I'll put a bullet in his skull if I'm even suspicious of you doing that. I'm changing his name on his papers. You'll never find him. That is, unless I don't kill him first." She laughed cruelly and dragged me outside.
She got in her car and shoved me inside. I tried to fight but it was hopeless. I felt a sharp pain in my head then saw nothing but blackness.
•••
I gasped. Starting to hyperventilate, I got out of my bed. My legs weren't strong enough and I collapsed. I couldn't breathe. I've never had a panic attack this intense. I tried to fix my breathing, but I couldn't. I cried out in pain. It felt like I was being stabbed repeatedly in the chest. I was shaking violently. I felt like I was going to die. My vision was blurry. I didn't know what to do.
"Hey, Danny, you okay?" Someone knocked on the door. Their voice sounded muffled, like I was underwater. I was drowning. I gasped and started coughing heavily. "Danny?! I'm coming in!" Someone had yelled.
I sobbed, tears pouring down my face. I couldn't control my breathing, couldn't control my thoughts. I was a sputtering mess. I faintly heard the door open. I was choking on air. I've never felt so helpless. I was going to die. This was how this ends.
•••
Sam's P.O.V
After dad sorted the situation with Danny, he wasn't suspended anymore. Mr. Johnson was finally fired. What can I say? Dad's a hell of a lawyer. Danny, however, was more distant now. He acted as he did when he first came here. 2 steps back.
I was solving homework and was bored out of my mind. I had forgotten to do it and woke up in the middle of the night feeling uneasy because of that. I heard a soft thud from Danny's room. Curious, I listened in. Then I heard a loud scream of pain and I got up immediately. I ran to the door and knocked. I didn't want to invade his privacy, considering how secretive he is. But when he didn't answer, I opened the door. There lay Danny, on the floor. He was having a panic attack. I've never seen one this intense.
"Shit." I muttered. "Danny?!" I called for him, but he didn't seem to have heard me. I ran to James's room. I woke him up hurriedly. "What's wrong?" He groaned and rolled over. "It's- it's Danny. He's having a panic attack. This one's worse." I said frantically. This made him get up immediately. He and I ran to Danny's bedroom, where he was panting and crying on the floor. He curled into himself.
"Shit, I haven't seen one this intense since Freddie was 11." James said. "How did you deal with it then?" I asked. "I didn't. He just made himself pass out." James whispered. "I can't watch that." I said and closed my eyes in pain. "Hey, maybe there's a way to calm him down." James told me quietly.
He approached Danny, and spoke softly. Danny didn't even notice James standing there. James sighed and rubbed his face. "I don't know what to do." He muttered, panic washing over him. "Should I wake Freddie up? Would he be able to help?" I asked. James shook his head. "We can't risk it. Freddie's better now, but he's still prone to have one if he remembers his previous panic attacks."
"So what? We just sit and watch as Danny freaks the fuck out?" I said angrily. "Hey, don't you dare get mad at me. There isn't anything we can do. Danny's unresponsive." James snapped, a warning in his tone. He scowled at me, his eyes darkening and his expression thunderous. James can be scary when he wants to be.
"I still think Freddie can help." I commented. "And I told you. I don't think he can handle it. Freddie's strong but he broke down the last time he witnessed Danny's panic attack. And that one was way less intense than this one." James replied frustratedly. He was always protective of Freddie. I guess whatever happened the night mom and Danny left might have impacted Freddie more than it did James.
"What happened that night, James?" I ventured. "Sam, we don't speak of that-" James started, but I interrupted him, "I deserve to know. I-I deserve to know what happened to my mother. To Danny and Freddie. That's my family, too, y'know."
"Mom was bipolar." James sighed. He glanced at Danny's weak form, and shivered. "She- she had a manic episode that night. She pulled a g-gun on Freddie and Danny. She then took Danny away. Forged his papers. In the foster care system, Daniel Clark was under the name Aidan Smith." James scoffed. "I couldn't stop her." He said shakily. I stared at Danny's shaking form. "That doesn't make sense. Didn't everyone call him Daniel?" I asked.
"Yeah, that was his identity. He was still Daniel Clark, but his papers didn't match his name. It wasn't until a few months ago that Danny's social worker, Kimberly Reyes, found the falsified papers. She made a few calls and fixed the mistake. Apparently, mother had a few friends who were able to forge his records without any problems or speculation." James said bitterly. "That was when Kim contacted dad, told him about the mixup. They sorted it out, and Danny was in dad's custody again."
At that point, Danny had tired himself out. "I'll carry him to his bed." I sighed, and held Danny between my arms. I laid him gently on his bed, his shirt riding up a little. As I was about to adjust his clothes, I froze. His torso was littered with scars. I backed away, shaking. I felt nauseous, all of a sudden. "Sam, what's wrong?" James asked.
I clenched my fists in rage, my nails cutting into my palms. "H-his s-stomach. It's co-covered in cuts." I mumbled. James tensed, then breathed heavily. He covered Danny with his blankets and then left the room. He walked upstairs, and I knew he was going to the gym to blow off some steam. It's what he always does.
I walked shakily to my bedroom. There was a lot of information for me to process. A lot of shit for me to feel. At the thought of Danny and what he's been through, I felt nauseated again.
I couldn't wrap my head around what had happened 10 years ago. How Danny was struggling so much and it was all mother's fault. How Freddie had struggled so much. I felt pure, unadulterated rage course through my veins. She was cruel.
I knew that she couldn't have helped it. Her mental health wasn't alright. But that can't be used as an excuse. I felt my hands start to shake as I thought about an 11 year old Freddie and a 5 year old Danny being held at gunpoint by their own mother. I know it was terrible, but at that moment, I was glad to not have been there.
I was mad at myself for giving my family a hard time after that. I lashed out at dad a lot. How could someone do such a thing? We were all in so much pain. They were probably hurting more than I was, but they never acted out the way I did. How naive and insensitive I had been.
I tried falling back asleep, but every time I close my eyes, I see Danny's scars. He was so young. He was a child. In the depths of my soul, to the core of my heart, I ached for the pain my family had been through. They've been through so much. I can't forgive my mother. Never would I be able to erase from my mind the remnants of our destroyed family that she had left when she took my baby brother away from us. I've felt anger before, but never have I felt it this profoundly. I hoped Danny would be able to heal. I wanted my family to be whole again.
I got an idea to call Jules again. I wanted to see if she was ready to apologise. I rang, then as I was about to hang up, realising she wouldn't answer in the middle of the night, she picked up.
"Sammy?" She asked. I missed her voice. "Jules. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have froze you out like that. You're family. I don't know what I would do if- if I lost you." I said worriedly. "Sammy. Calm down. What happened?" She said.
"Jules, I love you. You're part of my family, I-"
"Sam, it's okay. I-I'm also sorry for what I said about Danny. I shouldn't have judged him so quickly. It wasn't my place to say that. I love you, too."
"It's okay, Jules. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if-"
"Why are you talking like that? Sammy, what happened?"
And I explained everything to her. My heart felt lighter. I left out the part about what happened to my mom; after all, what's a family without a secret?