A Home for Burnt Boys (*Currently writing*)

Chapter One - Blue Lies

The beautiful caramel man stands up slowly as though he's scared to provoke me. I curse myself again, of course, he's scared of provoking you, you just shouted at him. He takes one step back giving me room to get out of the car. I undo my seatbelt, take a deep breath and step out of the car slowly. I slam the car door which causes the man to jump; my eyes shoot to his. I instantly break eye contact and stare at my vans.

"I'm Danielo," an unfamiliar foreign voice says, I tilt my head up toward the now named caramel man. "My brother, Viktor, and I are in charge here, and we look after all the boys. We're from Italy." The sound of footsteps ceases Danielo's words. I look over at the house quickly.

Once again, my air is knocked out of my chest. A dark-haired man struts towards us, he's not beautiful like Danielo, no he's handsome. His hair is styled to the side, and his eyes are caramel just like Danielo. They must be related. The man looks entirely different to Danielo, well except for the eyes, but his eyes aren't soft like Danielo's they are hard and almost dominating.

I must have been staring for a while because by the time I composed myself he was standing in front of me, beside Danielo, staring at me with his hard eyes. "This is my brother Viktor," Danielo explained softly, for the first time since Viktor joined us his eyes left me and landed on Danielo, they softened slightly, and they seem to be having a conversation with each other.

I took this opportunity to look around for my father. I spotted him sitting in the car where he first was. I frowned when I saw that he was on the phone again. Isn't he even going to say goodbye? I scoffed, he never cared about me before why should he start now?

I looked back up towards the two men only to find that they were both staring at me. I blushed and turned my head back towards my feet. "Should we go inside?" Danielo asks gently. I looked towards to my father then quickly turned back and nodded. His lips tilted up into a smile. We head towards the house. My guitar pops into my head.

"What about my stuff?" I ask shyly looking towards my feet as we reached the steps.

"Viktor, can you get one of the boys to help carry in the bags. Maybe Rafen if he's feeling better." Danielo asks. Rafen, that's such an odd name.

"Rafen's still coming down from his outburst," Viktor whispers gruffly, "I was dealing with him when Alexander arrived. I'll get Magnus instead." I jumped when I heard my name. Viktor walks away. Magnus. Like the magnum ice cream, I laughed. Danielo's eyes shot towards mine; his lips tilt into a broad smile. I blush again. We start walking up the stairs.

The large door is already open and Danielo steps inside, I follow. The inside of the house remotely resembles the gothic style on the outside, but the primary colours are brown instead of grey. As soon as I step inside, I notice the large stairway on the left side which has a robust brown bannister. On the right side, there is a hallway which leads to an open room.

"There are eight rooms upstairs, some of the boys like to share, so there's a couple of spare rooms." Danielo clarifies while leading me to the furthest door, the one that was open. As we step in, I look around. The room is massive; there's a whole kitchen on one half which has a long-marbled counter on the back wall which ends at the door on the end of the right side. In the middle of the kitchen, there is a long brown table with ten chairs.

At the right side in the kitchen in the corner, there's a booth looking thing. It has a table in the middle with a round sofa surrounding it. On the other half of the kitchen, there's an archway which leads to a slightly smaller room with three large couches and a flat screen on the wall. My father paid for me to get sent away to a mansion?

Danielo takes a seat in the booth and ushers me to do the same. I take a seat and fiddle with my fingers. "So how are you feeling so far?" He asks.

"It-it-it's nice here, and the house is pleasant." I stuttered trying not to sound like an idiot.

"No." He uttered decisively, my head shot up, "I asked how you were feeling."

I huffed. "How do you think I'm feeling? My father has just abandoned me because of a mental illness that I can't control, and a mother that he blames me for killing. I'm scared, alone and angry. All I want to do is be with my dead mother." That's exactly what I want to say, but I can't let anyone see my weakness, I can't let myself get close to anyone. So, I reply, "I'm ok." Something flashes through his eyes, anger and maybe hurt. No, it must just be anger.

"We don't tolerate lying here," Danielo replies with slight frustration. His face pulls into a frown. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be impolite. It's just we don't accept lying here, even if you are feeling down or low Viktor and I still expect you to tell the truth. This will be your only pass. We want to help you, and we can only do that if you are truthful."

"I'm just adjusting." I stated desolately, "It's a lot different to my home in France." Danielo smiled regretfully.

He changed the subject swiftly, "So I think it's time to meet the other boys."

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Word Count - 1770