Mine Peaches

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.'

(THE PAST)

PIETRO GIACOMETTI

It's been five years since that framed drawing of the sun and rainbow hung in my bedroom. Five years since the thoughts of that girl started occupying my head daily.

Peaches was my first thought and my last thought every single day. She was still the go-happy girl she had been five years ago, she still wore that same bright smile that looked new every fucking time. And yes, she still wore perfume that had the scent of Peaches.

I might have been giving her bottles of those perfume though to ensure she never changed that scent.

I ran my fingers gently over the bracelet Peaches had made for my eighteenth birthday. A cute, pink bracelet that my father thought was childish. I didn't give a fuck about his opinions though. He could keep his opinions to himself.

If I had gotten the bracelet from anyone else, I would probably have thought the same as my father but it was from her and I sure as hell loved the bracelet.

"Pietro." My father's voice boomed behind me and I suppressed a groan before turning away from the plate of cookies I had been staring at.

My father's gaze darted to my wrist first and that look of displeasure flashed on his face but I couldn't care less about his displeasure or his pleasure.

"Get the information out of the guy in the basement. The other guys can't do a single thing properly."

"I will." I said simply. I picked the plate of cookies and made to leave.

"Off to see your little plaything again?" My father's voice stopped me and I clenched my jaws.

"Again, don't call her a plaything." This wasn't the first time I was telling him that.

He looked at the plate of cookies in my hands and sneered.

"You think she will be able to stand being with you in the future? You think she's going to stay the moment she finds out what type of demon you are? Nah, that little ray of sunshine won't be able to stand you. At the end of the day, when she's old enough, she's going to date some nice guy and get married to him."

It wasn't the first time he was telling me those words, namely fatherly advice. But if he knew how badly I had the urge to practice lip sewing on him everytime he said those words, he would keep quiet more around me.

Whether Peaches was willing to stay by my side or not, she was mine. She had sold herself out to me five years ago and she could only ever belong to me, in this lifetime and even in the next.

I walked out of the main mansion and walked towards the little house. While the children of the other workers stayed in apartments in one building, I had made sure Peaches and her father got a separate place to stay.

I didn't want those little bastards and bitches crawling up to her.

At this time, she would be having her bath. In five minutes, she would be done and in another five minutes, she would walk out of her room with her eyes brightening up at the sight of the cookies.

My Peaches was perfect but she had one single flaw. She couldn't say no to anyone and if I wasn't there, Peaches would do everything she was asked to do even if she was in a sickbed.

I pushed open the main door and walked into the house, stopping in the living room. I had only spent a few seconds in the living room when a scream came from her room.

"Journie? Journie! You were peeping on me bathing?!" Caily's scream and those words sent me racing into her room.

And there was the bastard. Panic flashed on his face the moment he set his eye on me.

"Fucking cunt!" I cursed, smashing the plate in my hand against the nearest wall and rushing towards him.

"Pietro!" Peaches called out to me and hell knew I would listen to her in almost every goddamn situation but not this one.

I shoved Journie against the wall and stabbed his right eye with the broken plate in my hand. Caily was mine and mine alone, this bastard setting his eyes on her body made my head ache with anger.

His scream of tortured pain filled my ears as he tried to push me off him but I stabbed into the eye again. He was never going to see again with the same eyes he had looked at the one who belonged to me.

"Pietro stop!!" Peaches sounded scared but the more I stabbed into that eye, the more the rage filled me up and I just couldn't stop.

"Pietro!" She screamed again, the fear in her voice more evident as I made to stab at the left eye.

"Pietro no." her sob made my hand still in the air for a few seconds before I slowly lowered my hand.

I let the bloodied broken plate drop to the floor with a clatter and watched as Journie held onto his bleeding face, trying to make his way out of the room.

A few seconds later, the bastard was out of the room but I knew I was still going to get him. I was going to ruin the other eye and make him permanently blind.

"Pietro." The sniffling from Caily made me feel immense guilt. I hated it every time I was unable to shield this me away from her. I hated the fear in her eyes whenever I lost control in front of her.

And as she looked at me across the room, her light blue eyes glassy with tears, I could see the fear in those pretty eyes of hers.

"Peaches." I took a step closer to her and she took a step back.

"Pietro, wh..."

I hurried my steps, getting to her just before her back would touch the wall.

I reached my hands up to cup her face but stopped, realising how bloodied my hands were.

Damn you Pietro.

"He deserved it." I breathed the words out.

"He is a pervert and he would hurt others in the future if I don't stop him." I justified my action.

"You... You stabbed him." her voice was shaky and the fear was still in her eyes.

"He hurt you." That was a very valid reason. Even if I killed him, that was a reason valid enough.

"Don't be like that, Pietro." her voice broke as tears streamed down her cheeks.

I hated it. Hated seeing tears roll down her rosy cheeks.

"I am sorry I made you see that. I am sorry." I whispered the words to her.

Of course I was only sorry that I made her see it, I wasn't sorry that I did it.

"You looked scary, Pietro" she sobbed and took a step closer to me.

"Don't ever do it again, please... Don't ever hurt anyone please. Promise me you won't" she begged and I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her in for a warm hug.

"I won't."

But I knew I would. Over and over again, I would maim, torture and kill for her.

(THE PRESENT)

CAILY GALILEO

"Two hundred thousand dollars." The words left my lips as I rested my head in my hands, my shoulders hunched.

"Two hundred thousand dollars." I muttered the words over and over again like I was going crazy and I indeed was going crazy.

With such debt, how would I not go crazy?

Picture having the kindest aunt ever, the type of aunt who would pull you close and accept you into her life the moment you lose your parent. That was my Aunt Mandy. She would do anything for me and she had done a lot but however in the world she had slipped into the worst depression and this kind of debt while I was away for my last year of college was baffling.

My Aunt was never the type to do drugs. She barely drank, even but she had met that bastard named Carlos.

"Yes, Carlos!" I shot up from my seat and all eyes immediately turned to me.

"Are you okay, Caily?" Trisha asked from her desk. She was my friend and coworker.

"I... I am fine. I am sorry." I whispered to the others and embarrassedly lowered myself back to my seat. I looked at my screen and only felt my head ache badly.

I had barely been able to work all day. Having my aunt call and tell me about such debt on a work morning was enough to destabilise me and ruin the image of the picture perfect life I thought I would ever have.

How in the world was I ever going to get such amount of money and save my aunt from being killed by the loan sharks?

And even after the repaying the lone, I would need a lot more money to take my Aunt away from Carlos and perhaps put her in rehab. How would I ever get the money for all that?

I sighed softly. Only a few seconds had passed before Trisha walked up to my desk.

"Caily." she called my name gently, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"Are you okay?" She sounded concerned.

"Yes, I am fine. Totally." I masked up with a smile but she didn't seem convinced. Her eyes were squinted at me for the next few seconds before she eased up, smoothening the frown from her face with a small smile.

"Alright then. Can I have your hair tie?" She requested.

"Sure." I reached for a yellow hair tie on my table and handed it to her but Trisha frowned a bit.

"I like the blue one you have on your hair right now, can you give me that one instead?" She asked and I pursed my lips for a second before agreeing.

"Fine."

A hair tie was the very least of my concern anyways. I reached my hand to my hair and pulled off the blue hair tie, letting my hair down.

"Thank you, you're such a darling." she took the hair tie with a smile.

I watched her leave to her seat and I picked the yellow hair tie she had refused. For a reason I had no idea about, Trisha was always interested in my hair ties. She took at least two hair ties from me every week and she never took a new one, she always took the one I was wearing at that moment or the one I had worn already.

Sometimes I felt uncomfortable about it but I couldn't say no to her request. It was just a hair tie anyways.

I tied my hair up with the yellow hair tie and returned my gaze to my screen. There was no way I was going to be able to work at all today.

I glanced at the time on my phone. It was just a few minutes before work would close for the day and I honestly couldn't wait for this terrible day to be over.

"Caily" A shrill voice came from behind me and I gritted my teeth, knowing exactly who that was.

"Caily" Black, shiny heels stopped beside me.

"Mind if I trouble you a little bit with entering the data to be submitted tomorrow? I really need to go see my man tomorrow, he called me and told me he's sick. It would be bad if I don't go over and take care of him, so please?" It was Annie. She always had something else to do outside work and ended up having to beg others to help her out with her work. Her favourite person to ask for help? Me.

"I am sorry but I have a lot to..." I tried to refuse.

"Caily, you never have a lot to do." she cut me off softly.

"You always finish your work on time and have a lot of free time."

"But not this time, I am... I haven't worked at all day." I pointed to the small pile of documents on my desk but she didn't look. Instead, she grabbed my hands, an anxious look in her eyes.

"Please Caily, the poor guy is sick and I need to help him. You aren't going to let his condition worsen, are you?" Her eyes searched mine for my answer.

'Tell her you can't. Tell her you can't' a voice said in my head. I had to learn how to say no.

"Alright, I will do it." were the words that left my lips instead.

"I knew it. You are such a darling." she kissed me on the cheek and hurried off to her desk, her heels clicking noisily with every step she took.

I sighed and palmed my face. On a normal day, this would not be an issue for me at all but today was nothing close to a normal day.

A few minutes later, everyone was leaving already but I stayed back. I had to do my work for the day before leaving as I wouldn't be able to handle doing it tomorrow since I had to enter the data for Annie.

I picked the first document on my desk, flipped it open and...

'I am in debt, Caily. I will be killed.' those words from Aunt Mandy haunted me.

"Caily, you are not fine." Trisha's voice was conclusive as she pulled a chair to my side and sat down.

She held my hands and made me turn to face her but I kept my head lowered, my gaze on the tiled floor.

"Caily, you don't have much friends and perhaps we are not very close yet but you know you can tell me what's hurting you. Who knows? I could be of help." her voice was gentle and almost soothing.

"My... My problem is too huge." I said, trying to put an end to the conversation. Trisha could not help me with this.

"You always help everyone here, you should be helped too. I don't know if the others are so blind not to see that you are in need of help but I am willing to help."

"No, this is too much. You don't understand, Trisha..."

"Just tell me what it is about." she coaxed, hands gently massaging mine.

"Fine. I am in debt. My aunt is in debt and she has loan sharks after her. Two hundred thousand! However in the world am I supposed to get that amount of money?" I pulled my hands out of hers and palmed my face again.

"Hey Caily, it's fine. It will be fine." A comforting hand to my shoulder. Small pats.

That was all she or anyone could offer to me. And as good as that was, it couldn't solve this problem of mine.

"I have a solution for you, Caily."

My hands dropped from my face, brows arching as I looked at her.

"What solution?" I asked, picking my words slowly. What solution could there be to getting two hundred thousand in three weeks?

"There's this site you can make money from." She started and my face immediately fell.

"Oh please, Trish. A dollar or two isn't what's going to help me pay that amount of money in three weeks."

"Let me land, Caily Galileo." She grumbled with a small pout of annoyance at my interception.

I pressed my lips into a thin line and let her continue speaking but I didn't have much interest anymore.

"This site is a private site but I can share you the link. You are not allowed to share it to others though. On this site, you can meet with elite men who..."

"I have a boyfriend, Trish. I am not going to cheat on him for money and even with those elite men, I am not going to make quarter that amount."

"Oh please, Caily. Can your boyfriend help you out in this situation? And also you don't even have to meet with these men so it's not really cheating. You can find a man on the site willing to pay you good bucks for just chatting with him. You will get more from just phone sex. No one touches you, you touch no one. Just speak to them and watch the money flow in and if you want to take it up a notch, you talk to them about it."

I sat motionless for the next few seconds, taking in Trisha's words. It really wasn't cheating, right? And I was doing this for Aunt Mandy, not for myself. I would never consider doing it if I wasn't in this dire situation.

"Your Aunt needs your help and I think this is the easiest way you can make money, Caily." Trisha pushed, a little too eagerly.

"How much can I make per session?" I whispered the words like they were illicit words.

"Five thousand? Ten thousand?" She shrugged her shoulders lightly and my eyes widened, a gasp leaving me.

"That much?"

"The men on this site are fucking wealthy. It's nothing to them. So, are you in or are you going to search for other ways to get two hundred thousand in three weeks?" She asked.

My eyes were definitely reflecting my fear, my hesitation and my doubt about all this. I shut my eyes, lips pressed thin.

Behind my closed eyes, I could see Aunt Mandy and her caring smile, the beads of sweats on her forehead as she worked hard for me. She deserved all the help I could ever give to her. She was the only family I had left and I had to help her the best I could.

"I am in." I opened my eyes and looked Trisha dead in the eyes.

"Send me the link."

"Good decision." A small smirk lifted her lips.