California, USA.

I arrive home after a night out. My body is heavy from the night's excitement and drinks. I go up to my room, light a cigarette, and sit down to think about how perfect my life is. The wind blowing from the half-open window cools my face.

Thinking about it, I get up and look for the whiskey I left in my room, but I can't find it. I think my mother must have taken it from here and put it back in the pantry; she hates it when I bring drinks into the room.

I put the cigarette on the dresser, the embers facing out, and go downstairs to get it back, because I still want to drink until I fall asleep. I go down the first three steps of the stairs, but on the fourth, I trip, fall, and end up losing consciousness.

I wake up to a strong smell of smoke and the sound of sirens outside. I raise my body and see that the top floor is on fire. I jump up and run in despair, because my parents are sleeping. The heat from the fire burns my skin, but I need to make sure they are not here.

My room is on fire, theirs is right next door. I kick the door down, because the handle is red hot. And when it gives way, I see their burning bodies on the bed. My whole body goes numb; the feeling is that everything is over, that nothing else exists.

I hear a crack above my head, and when I look up, a piece of wood falls on my face. I scream in pain and hear noises coming from downstairs. I kneel, coughing from the smoke and the pain in my face. But the pain of seeing my parents on fire in bed hurts much more.

The firefighters drag me outside and I try to call out to my parents, but the smoke that has entered my lungs prevents me from speaking a word. I roll my eyes and black out again.

I wake up in the hospital, not even knowing how long I've been here. My crush, Alissa, is sitting in the chair next to me, smiling as she types on her cell phone. I raise my hand and put it to my face, feeling the rough cloth of the bandage.

"James, you're awake. I'll call the doctor." She gets up and goes out the door, returning in less than a minute with the doctor.

"How are you feeling, Mr. Forth?"

"What happened to my face?"

"You had third-degree burns on your right side of the face. We are taking care of it and you will be able to have plastic surgery soon. A skin graft can leave you good as new. It's time to change the dressing; I'll call the nurse to take care of that. Are you having trouble breathing?"

I shake my head no. It hurts a little, but nothing I can't handle. At that moment, the image of my parents burning in bed comes to mind, and my chest tightens with pain. I don't know what happened, how could the house catch fire like that?

"The police want to talk to you; it seems the fire was arson, not accidental," Alissa tells me.

"What do you mean?" I lift my body forward.

"The police will talk to you," replies the doctor and opens the door for two policemen to enter. One of them stands with a clipboard in his hand, while the other starts asking me questions.

"Do you know if your mother was devoted to any saint and left candles burning in her room?" I shake my head no, for my parents believed in God, but were never Christians. "Did you or your father smoke and have a habit of leaving your cigarette out of the ashtray?"

At that moment, I am struck by a shock, for I left my cigarette on the dresser, and since the window was open, it must have... Oh my God, was it me?

"My father smoked." I close my eyes to contain the lie I just told, for I know I will get life in prison if I confess to the crime.

"So that was it. Well, we'll let you rest, sir. If anything comes up, we'll be back to ask you some more questions." I nod in agreement, and they leave.

I break down in tears, consumed by the guilt of having killed my parents because of my carelessness. Alissa comes up to me and rubs my back, but I push her away from me. I'm not worthy of anyone's pity, I killed them and even blamed my father. I'm really miserable, I should have died instead of them.

She walks away, but stands watching me from afar. A few minutes later, a nurse comes in to change the dressing on my face. He slowly unwraps the bandage, but when he gets to the one that's stuck to my skin, it burns like hell.

He takes a small tube with water and starts pouring it on top, slowly pulling it until it comes off completely. I look at Alissa, who is startled by my image and starts taking steps backwards. I must look like a monster, but that's what I am: a monster.

He washes it, applies an ointment and then wraps another new bandage. Alissa comes closer and tries once more to put her hand on me. But I pull away again and say:

"Go away, you don't have to stay here."

"James, I'm going to stay with you. I know we never really assumed a relationship, but I like you a lot and I want to stay here."

"You're going to stay with a deformed person?" She makes a pitiful face, and it annoys me a lot.

"You're not going to stay like this. Didn't you hear what the doctor said? You're going to have surgery soon to reconstruct your face and..."

"I'm not having this surgery. This will be my karma for the rest of my life. Go away and never come back."

"James..."

"I SAID GET OUT!" I scream, and she takes a few steps back. I always knew she liked me, but I just liked her company because she was pretty, but I never really wanted to date her, so much so that I went out with other women besides her.

She just nods and walks away. This is my life now. In order not to scare anyone, I will simply disappear from the world, as if I too had died in that damn fire.

Ten years go by and I take over my father's company from home. Everyone knows that I burned my face, so everyone understands that I can't go to the company. For this, I have a lawyer who I hired to be my right-hand man, my person, my second self. He does everything I need and brings me all the documents I need to sign.

I always watch company meetings from my office. I wear a mask to cover my burnt side and even dim the lights throughout my house. But at 35, I need to find myself a woman, I'm going crazy not having sex for ten years. After a while, when I went to look for Alissa, she was no longer available, so I let it go.

But now I'm getting depressed about spending all day with the house staff. I won't be able to go out and conquer women, so I'll have to buy one, even if it's a prostitute. I'll make her my wife, and then I won't have any more problems with anything. It'll be a sex marriage, that's all.

I send Edson a message asking him to look for an illegal auction of women. He finds my request strange, but says he'll look and sends me his contact details. About an hour later, he tells me that he has found a man who sells prostitutes. He contacts the owner himself and explains that I'll buy one over the phone.

I call the guy, he takes out his cell phone and starts showing me all the women he has, and just by looking at the image on my cell phone, I start to get excited. The woman who marries me will have everything in her life except love.

I don't even know if that exists, I've never fallen in love with anyone, I've only felt and feel desires for them, but nothing emotional, nothing carnal. I've always been a very sexually active man, I've felt and given pleasure to all of them, but in the state I'm in, I know that none of them will want me just because I'm handsome, because beauty is no longer in me.

I choose number two because she seems to have a more robust body, a brunette with shoulder-length wavy hair. She was the one who caught my eye the most. I tell him that my lawyer is going there to pay and bring the woman to me. But he says he'll bring her to my door and get the money right here. I agree and hang up the video call.

An hour later, Edson brings his wife... Not a woman, a girl, totally different from the one I chose in the video. This makes me angry, because I feel cheated.

"What the fuck, Edson?"

"It was the woman he had his security guard bring, James. She took the bag with the money and left. I thought it was strange too, but since I didn't see who you bought it from, I didn't have a say."

"Take her back, I bought a woman, not a brat." She comes and kneels at my feet, begging.

"Please don't send me back, he'll sell me to a madman who will abuse me and kill me. Please let me stay here."

"And who's to say I won't do the same? I bought a woman to fuck her for the rest of my life, you know that?" She looks at me with confused eyes, as if she doesn't understand me. "Damn. Stand up."

"Please, I'll do whatever you want, but don't send me back to him, please, please?"

"I'm a 35-year-old man and I'm not going to stay with a teenager of... How old are you?"

"I'm 18." I look at her, doubting it, because she looks 15. "It's true, I'm 18, only I'm small, my father says I'm just like my mother. I haven't developed much."

"Even so, I'm twice his age." I asked him for women aged between 30 and 35, experienced women, if you know what I mean.

"I know how to do many things, sir."

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

She looks back at Edson and I tell him to get out and leave us alone. She then bends down, kneels at my feet, and starts crying, begging me to stay. She doesn't seem to know how to please me, or even how to try.

"Get up, you don't know what I need. And I'm not a teacher."

"Please don't! Can you imagine the weight on your conscience when you find out I'm dead? How will you live with that remorse?"

"Girl, from what I can see you're a virgin, and that's not what I want or need. You'd better go back to where you came from and accept your fate. Your fiance or whatever will teach you better than me."

"Hire me as your maid, then, but don't let me go back there, please. I... I don't know anything about life, I was kept in a room where only women could enter. I'd never even seen daylight outside, only through the bedroom window. And the only man I knew was my father and the security guard who brought me here."

"Were you in a princess tower? Look... Okay, you stay." Damn, this girl has ruined all my plans. I was getting ready to fuck the brunette all night, what am I going to do with her?

Besides being a virgin, she seems innocent. I don't know how to do it gently, and she looks like a little crystal doll. If I enter her, I'm sure she'll feel a lot of pain and break in half, because I'm well endowed. Women who are already experienced suffer when I invade them, imagine her who has never been penetrated before?

"Please, Mr. James, I'll do whatever you want. Just don't let me go back there, I know you have a good heart, so please help me."

Good heart, she says that to the man who blamed her father just to avoid going to jail, she doesn't know me. But maybe I should marry her, her naive way could help me with the talk of people who think I'd never get married because I'm a monster. Damn, I'm going to join the statistics of married men who don't have sex, it's fucked up!

She's so cute, she just needs to be looked after. Her red hair could be better moisturized and her clothes could be better too. It looks like I'm going to become a Pygmalion for her.

"Okay, I'm not sending you back. I'm going to marry you. We'll be husband and wife, but only on paper. I can't take you to my bed. And you won't complain if I bring another woman home, because I don't want to hurt you, but I'm a man and I need to relieve myself." She sits down on the floor, as if relieved by this.

I'm bothered by her attitude. Does she really want me to take her virginity? She hasn't really seen me yet. The lights in my room are dimmer, apart from the mask I wear. But the fact is that she hasn't seen my real face. She hasn't seen my deformed face, she hasn't seen the monster I really am. Would she change her behavior if she saw me?

"Come here, girl, I'm going to show you something that's sure to change your mind." I take her hand, make her stand up and lead her into the kitchen, where the light is brighter. I walk in front of her and, as soon as we arrive, I slowly take off my mask so that she can see my real face. "I'm deformed, girl, and I don't think you'd want a husband like that, would you?"

She approaches me and runs her hand over my scar. Looking closely into her eyes, I don't see pity in them, I don't see her pitying me, but a look... I can't decipher what she's thinking, but the soft touch of her hand makes me feel strange.

"That's nothing to be ashamed of. It's those who steal, kill and harm people who should be ashamed. You're hurt, but that's nothing to be ashamed of."

I hold her hand tightly, pulling it away from my face, not understanding why she's being so nice. She doesn't even know me to talk about me, as if I'm not to blame for anything. She doesn't know my story and has no idea what kind of monster I am, not just on the outside, but on the inside too.

But she gives me a simple smile, and I'm even more lost. Is she really that naive, or did she already know I was a deformed person and is just making sure she stays in this house?

"Have you heard about me?" She nods, and I search her eyes for any hint of a lie. "Well, what's your name?"

"Amelia Slink."

"Nice name." I look back and call my housekeeper, and she approaches. "Lira will take you to one of the guest rooms, you'll stay there as my guest until the wedding. But, as I said, stay out of my personal life. In here, we'll only be husband and wife on paper. No entering my room without my permission, understand?"

"Yes, sir, I promise I'll do whatever you say. As long as you keep me safe in your house, you'll have nothing to complain about, I swear."

"Okay, now go. Edson..." I'll call you back. "Find me another woman for the night, this girl is too young for me. And she doesn't have the structure to put up with me."

"If you want, I'll take her back, James. You don't have to keep her if you don't want to, let alone get married."

"Leave her there. If she bothers me, I'll send her away. Now go and do as I say." He goes outside and I look at the stairs, wondering what it will be like to have a teenager in my house.

But she's very pretty, I can't deny that. Her red hair is a rarity for me. I've had sex with all kinds of women, but never an original redhead. I shake my head at these thoughts, she'll be like a cousin or friend in this house, maybe I'll even treat her like a daughter, since I'm almost twice her age.

As soon as Edson returns, he says there's a huge mix-up as to where he bought the woman. From what he says, Amelia has run away and the house is closed.

"Did you say she was here?"

"No, sir. I haven't found the security guard who brought her here either. But I saw the woman you bought," she said that without money, the pimp won't let her come.

"Go back there and take the money so she can spend the night with me... No, forget it, it can't be any woman from there." Amelia said her father was going to sell her to another man, if one of the women sees her here, she'll give her up, which will be much worse. Tell you what, research everything you can on Amalia Slink. I want everything first thing tomorrow.

I'm going to have to spend another night alone. It's been ten years, what's one more night? I go up to my room and, before entering, I look at the door where she is standing. This house has always been as lonely as I am, always silent, because even the maids don't make a sound. I hope she'll be well-behaved too, and that she won't turn my house or my life upside down.

I enter my room and go straight to the bathroom. I relax, letting the water run over my body, but the fucker is that the girl never leaves my head. Her touch, so soft on my burnt skin, made my body react strangely. I thought she was going to run away, but no, it seemed to be something normal for her.

I turn off the shower and wrap the towel around my waist. When I open the bathroom door, I hear a noise in the closet. I go to it and find her wrapped in a towel going through my shirts.

"What are you doing here?" I say with a raised voice and she turns around. The fright makes her drop the towel, which falls to the floor, giving me a view of her perfect body. Oh, shit!