Chapter 1 Prologue

• PIETRO GIACOMETTI
• I hated the noise. No matter how quiet they tried to be, they could not be quiet enough for me. I didn't just hate the noise, I hated the smiles on their faces and I hated how free they were, running around.
• If there was anything I wanted to do right now, I wanted to tie them all to a tree and drench them in fuel and watch them shake in fright while I played with a lighter. The children of the workers in our home. My mother was the reason they were here, she was the only one who thought it was a good idea to have a home built for all our workers, where they could live with their family.
• I shaded the drawing I was making. A drawing of a dying man with his toes chopped off. The inspiration for the drawing? Watching my dad chop toes off a pathetic man last night.
• "Who are you?" I heard the children ask in one loud voice. I raised my gaze and saw them gathered around a tree. A little girl was sitting under the tree, a drawing book in her hands too. I had never noticed her around before.
• "I am Caily, daughter of the gardener. Nice to meet you." She got up on her feet, a smile parting her lips. I hated seeing the other kids smile and I should have hated the smile on her face too but strangely, her smile wasn't annoying.
• Weird.
• "Well, Caily. It's not so nice meeting you." the son of the cook, Journie said to her and the smile on her face vanished while the other kids laughed, seemingly finding that funny.
• "What are you drawing?" Journie guffawed and optimism lit up the face of the girl.
• "Oh, it's a drawing of a..."
• "Who cares?" She was cut off and a girl pushed her.
• "Don't be mean."
• "She says we are mean." Journie's voice was loud.
• I looked away from them and returned my focus to my drawing. I couldn't care less what childish things they engaged in but it only took a few seconds before running steps approached me.
• My fists clenched around the edges of the page I was drawing on and I groaned before raising my gaze, ready to teach whoever it was their place.
• "Can you help me please?" A soft voice called as my eyes met with hers. The scowl on my face smoothened away as our gaze fixed.
• Her eyes were of a bluish colour, a colour so light that it seemed so easy to get lost in them. She was close to me and I could breathe in her scent, a cheap perfume that smelt like peaches.
• "They are being mean to me for no reason." her voice brought me out of the world of her eyes.
• I have always had the urge to ruin, to hurt but for the first time, I felt the urge to protect.
• Weird. Again.
• "And what would you give me in return for helping you?" I asked and saw confusion in her pretty eyes.
• "Please get back my drawing for me, I... I will give you anything I have." she said the words thoughtlessly.
• "Anything?" I questioned and she nodded repeatedly, very willingly.
• "I will give you anything I have."
• I have had many ideas in my thirteen years of existence, ideas my mum says I shouldn't have but I had never had the idea of owning a human until right now. I wanted to own her, I wanted her to be mine.
• I got up from where I was seated and took her by the wrist. Soft. Her skin was so soft.
• I looked at the kids at the other side who had already known better than to come as close to me as this girl had done.
• "Hand it over." I ordered and Journie walked towards me slowly, obviously fidgeting
• A scar on his arm was how I had taught him not to mess with me.
• His shaky hands stretched the drawing book out and the girl beside me stretched her hands out and took the drawing book from him.
• Journie turned on his heels, scurrying away and the girl turned to me with a big smile on her face.
• "Thank you!" She squealed happily and before I could say a word or react, she had thrown herself on me in a hug, a hug that filled my nostrils with this cheap scent of hers.
• That smell of peaches. It was... Quite good. I wanted to breathe this scent in a bit more.
• She pulled away and smoothened her dress.
• "I am sorry I was too happy and jumped on you. I am the gardener's daughter, Caily." she stretched her hand out to me for a handshake which I didn't take.
• "Peaches." was the first word that left my lips.
• "Ugh? Is that your name?" She asked, that smile crossing her lips again.
• "No. It's yours."
• "No, my name is..."
• "I will call you Peaches from now on." I cut her off and a small frown appeared on her face before she shook it off with the smile.
• "Since you helped me, you can call me whatever you want. What do you want from me in exchange for your help?"
• You. I want to own you, Peaches.
• But I didn't tell her those words. The words sounded a bit crazy, even to me. It was always the urge to hurt and watch others cry in pain, never this new urge.
• "You are the quiet type?" She asked and reached to my drawing book, picking it off my stool.
• For the first time ever, I wanted to hide that gory image away from someone but she had seen it already before I could stop her.
• Shock filled her face as she stared at the drawing but the shock vanished in a few seconds as she looked up at me.
• "You drew this from an horror movie? My dad enjoys horror movies too." she said and I tilted my head lightly. What was the optimism coming from her?
• "It's scary but I like it, can I have it? You can take my drawing too." she thrusted her drawing book in my hands and held mine close to her chest.
• I looked at her drawing. A shoddy drawing of the sun and rainbows. A bright drawing, a direct opposite of mine.
• "Do you like my drawing?" She asked.
• "I do." my words were short and I grabbed my pencil, scribbling two words on the drawing of the sun and rainbows.
• 'Mine, Peaches.'