peach flavoured ✔

𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑒

She decided to wear blue jeans and a random graphic tee shirt, with her feet covered with ugg boots.

She chewed her lip as she left the wardrobe. She wanted her clothes back right now, but they were in the maid's building.

"Bambi, let's go," Marcello wore a hoodie and slacks, a lazy grin on his face as he gazed at her in admiration.

Marcello held her waist, pulling her close to him as they walked all the way down to the dining room, many people were already there, talking and laughing amongst themselves.

Each person sitting at the table had a hostile glint in their eyes, and at least one gun hidden on their body.

The head chair was empty, but to its right sat the blonde woman, all dressed up in a tiny dress.

"Cosette, get out of that chair," Marcello glared at her.

"What do you mean baby?" she looked up and her eyes flickered to Bambina for a moment, eyes scrutinizing her as they flashed with a look of disgust.

"I mean, get out of that fucking chair." He glared daggers at her, losing his patience.

Cowering away from his glare, she scurried out of that seat and into another, closer to the middle of the table. Marcello placed Bambina in the seat, across from Amadeo, who was grinning at the small girl.

"You didn't have to do that," Bambina muttered quietly.

"I did, she was infecting your seat with her STI's." He glared at anyone who was looking Bambina's way.

"That's not nice!" Bambina gasped, trying to conceal her want to laugh.

"It's true though," Amadeo murmured before digging into his meal of spaghetti, sauce going all over his face, and hair flopping to cover his eyes.

(0o0)

"Elise," Marcello called out to the woman as she dusted paintings in the hall.

"Don Marcello! How may I help you?" She curtseyed, eyes widening in surprise.

"Tell me about Bambina from a familia, personal view." Marcello approached her.

Elise smiled at the memories that she knew and what she was told, "Bambina was a happy baby, always finding reasons to smile and laugh. She made everyone she met happy. Then, Dominic took Eloise and her away, I never saw Estelle again. But Eloise wrote me monthly, describing in much detail, Estelle's life.

"Once she had turned 5, she already knew how to handle a gun, and how to protect herself in hand to hand combat.

"Once she turned 7, her padre began training her seriously, to kill, but that part, Eloise said was buried in a dormant part of her brain, only to be woken when a series of actions or words were said. I don't quite remember them, but they are written somewhere amongst her many letters.

"By 10 years old, she was a trained assassin, but you wouldn't have been able to tell just by looking, Eloise had written to me. She said, that out of training time, Estelle was a different person, happy, positive and innocent, always looking for the good in people and never wanting to harm a single soul. She had started a petition that spiders should be protected, even the house spiders - a crazy girl she was.

"Once she was 14, she began to be bullied, Eloise didn't find this out until about half a year after it began happening. Eloise described it that Estelle came home with a frown, and after a few months, she started coming back home with a smile, a smile she said looked so real, and she would've believed it if she hadn't heard Estelle crying herself to sleep every night.

"Soon, Estelle had begun to wear sweat pants and leggings, even in summer, I remember this time, Eloise was worried Estelle would faint, it was the middle of the summer and everyone else wore shorts and singlets, but Essy wore leggings. she continued to wear them for ages. Until one day, she had..." Elise sniffled, tears gathering in her eyes.

"She had jumped out of her balcony onto the stone driveway, she barely survived. She was admitted to the hospital and they found..." Elise took a deep breath and Marcello clenched his fists in anticipation of what was next, "They found many cuts, some deep some shallow, on her thighs, some old, but many fresh. A year later, Eloise's letters stopped coming, and I got an invite... to her and Dominic's funeral. I couldn't bring myself to go, and I regret that decision every day. She was submitted into the orphanage, but I didn't know that. I had no idea what happened to her after her parents died until the Child Service people got ahold of me" tears were streaming down Elise's face.

"She was fucking bullied?" Marcello clenched his jaw, a dangerous look flashing in his eyes.

"I believe so." Elise cowered, "If you want, all the letters are in a box under my bed"

He abruptly turned and headed to the maid's house. Maids looked perplexed as he passed them, bowing their heads in fear.

Approaching one of the maids, he asked her where Elise's room was, and she showed him the room, two single, neatly made beds were in the room.

Looking under both beds, he found a large box under the bed on the right. In it were a bunch of pieces of paper, all folded up, ink seeping into some of the pages from age. There were 12 mini sections, paper sorted into each one. Picking a letter up from the top left section, he read through it quickly;

"16/1/2005

"Dear Ely,

"It's Bambina's 3rd birthday today. Dom teaching her about the gun, I argued with him about it, but he convinced me that it was important for her to know how to protect herself. I guess he's right though, you know? We've decided she isn't going to go to la Famiglia Privato Scuola, so it would be good if she knows how to defend herself.

"I've got to go now, love you always,

"Eloise"

He put it back and got a letter from the top right section;

"5/6/2012

"Hey Els,

"Bambina has finished all her training, it frightens me how normal she seems when not 'activated'. She seems innocent and so naive to the cruelties of the world. When you just look at her, no one would know that this, small girl, knows how to end someone's life. And the word's that you say to 'activate' her isn't that complicated either, it's "house, automobile, sunset, daisy, trophy, coaster, window, volcano", that or she is provoked. She can have a bad temper too, and I had to try and find a way to get her to calm herself down quickly before she gets 'activated'.

"Besides that, she petitioned for the protection of all spiders everywhere, she only has 4 signatures though, mine, Dom's, her own, and her best friend's. She and Melissa are always together, like two peas in a pod, they made me try cupcakes they made yesterday - I was afraid for my life, but luckily, Dom took the fall, he tried it, it was comical, it was basically baked flour stuck together with milk, he smiled and gave them a thumbs up, I'm so thankful for him.

"Oh, how I wish you were here Els, I would love for Bambina to get to know her Zia.

"I will forever love you,

"Eloise"

He memorised the words, for reasons he didn't know and placed the letter back, shoving the box back underneath her bed.

"Marcy?" He looked up to see Bambina watching him with big eyes.

"Bambi, what are you doing here?" Marcello stood, wanting to smile giddily like a pubescent boy because she gave him a nickname.

"I came to get some of my things," she smiled brightly at him and he wondered for a second about whether or not what he was told and read was true.