“What?” I smiled and closed my eyes.

I gasped for air as I woke up, staring at the ceiling now with a light bulb shining in my eyes. I started to cough, my body wouldn’t move not even an inch, I was paralyzed from the neck down.

“Awake already.” The man said.

I rolled my eyes to the left corner trying to look at him, my eyesight was a blur, but it looked like he was sticking a needle in his arm. “Y-you… mon… mon-ster.” I coughed out.

“Yeah, yeah,” he took the needle out and rolled his wheelchair to my head, “Is that all you found out little detective.” The man smirked and slowly moved my hair away from my face.

I gulped out of disgust, the man moved his eyes down my body, like he was examining me.

“The surgery went well,” he whispered, “I had to use the rest of your son's remains because of those gun wounds, and the decay of your body getting shipped back to America. Luckily my skills came in just in time to repair you.” he looked at me again and smiled creepily, he was paler than usual, his bags were darker, and he looked tired.

“My son?” I swallowed my tears.

He grabbed my head and moved it to the right. My eyes widened; I saw a boy on a table right next to me. His chest was opened, his skin spread across the table, and his rib cage fully shown. I could have assumed that if I had a look at his chest from the above, it would be empty, with just the bones and blood. My eyes watered up as I stared at his face, the only thing untouched by the cruel monster. The boy had short red hair and freckles just as mine, his eyes were closed, and his mouth was open slightly.

“Don’t cry, he fulfilled his duty, just like the rest of us.” he chuckled.

“What’s wrong with you!!” I started cursing at him, every cruel word out there, including different languages. He just smiled and looked unfazed. “Who the hell are you!?”

“Shouldn’t you already know.” he came closer to me.

I cleared my throat and glared at him. “You are Jason Tree; you were the head doctor of your own Hospital with your wife. You were in the Mutatus Alumni Organization like your father before you and so on, until the rumors started that you were experimenting on your patients, the organization kicked you out, and you went bankrupt as your wife turned ill. She died and so did your hospital, too, leaving you in ruins. I read that you committed suicide in your own lab, but that was clearly false.”

He snickered, he looked pissed, “Wrong,” he sighed heavily, “If you want to know who I am you need to know who you are.”

I looked at the boy and then back at him, ‘what does that mean’.

“Remember back to the peach tree where you always hung out.” he brushed my hair.

My heart skipped the beat, it hurt, I wanted to grab my chest tight, so I couldn’t feel the pain. I closed my eyes and when I opened them, I was back at the tree I was laying down under, however I was swinging back and forth this time. I was laughing, flying through the wind when I went up and giggling when I went down.

“Having fun?” A man’s voice said behind me.

“Yes!” I said in a high-pitched voice.

“You really like this tree, don’t you?”

“It’s my favorite!”

The voice chuckled, “Do you want to hear the story of this tree?”

“Is it a fun story?”

The man came closer to me and pushed me in the swing gently. “Well, it all started with my great great grandpa’s great great grandpa’s father, he was an incredible scientist that worked on modifying plants. When his time came, he decided to plant this peach tree, but he wanted it to be bigger than an oak tree. However, he died before the tree could grow to its full potential, but his son and the son after him and so on cherished and cared for the tree through their lifetime, and I did the same. The old man's wish did come true, this peach tree is as large as an oak tree and pairs fruit. My whole family is made up of brilliant men, as I wish to someday have a girl and name her peach after this tree. I’m happy that it came true because I have you, Peach."

I turned back to the man and looked up at him, “Is that true, dad?”

“Every word, you are my perfected Peach.”

I smiled at him, and he smiled back. I could finally see his face, he was the man in the lab, but younger, with neat hair and clean clothes, and no white hair in sight. He leaned down next to me, he brushed my hair back and forth, as I dangled my feet from the swing.

I’m back at the lab with the man looking down at me, he was smiling, a soft and gentle smile, not like the grins and smirks he gave to me before. Now tears came out of my eyes, my chest tightened up, and my face heated up.

“I’m your daughter.” I cried; I rolled my hands up into a fist.

“Yes.” he looked away, rubbing his hand on his forehead.

“Why! Why are you doing this?”

He didn’t look at me, he kept his back towards me and his face looking at the floor. “Do you want to hear a story?” he sighed, “As a little girl your favorite place to go to be a peach tree in the backyard of my hospital. You would go there every day; you would swing for hours or climb the tree to the top even though I told you not to climb that high. You were also my perfect girl; your smile brought me joy every day. However, that joy didn’t last for long, the organization that my family has been in for generations kicked me because of my long years of failed experiments. I wasn’t giving them anything, so they found no use for me. My hospital was being defunded, and no more patients were walking through the doors. It was a storming evening, I was busy with work at the time, you were outside, you never minded the rain. You were playing on the tree, the branches were wet and slippery, and you climbed too high, too high you slipped, and hit your head on the ground. When I reached you, you were unconscious, barely breathing, the rain rinsed off the blood. I did everything I could to save you, everything I worked hard on with all my experiments I put in you to save your life. Your mother wasn’t pleased, she was unsure about all of it, so I used her.” he stopped for a moment to catch his breath, "I used her as the only chance to get you back, I turned you into…”

“A monster,” I whispered, depressed about my past.

“An Angel!” he turned to me, finally looking me in the eyes. “After a year of work, I finally achieved my life goal, no man has ever reached before, a soldier with a remote-control brain that can also die and be brought back over and over again. Your mother wouldn’t understand, but I turned you into perfection.”

I turned away from him, sobbing in despair. I couldn’t believe he was my father, or that everything he said was true. The person that made me, the person that made me do every terrible thing that my two hands have done, was all because of this man that was looking down at me on this melt tray in this dark, gloomy lab. I felt hopeless, wanting to die, I looked over at the boy, my child, that I couldn’t even watch grow up. I looked to the side of me, there was a tray full of tools to carve open a body. I finally had feelings in the top half of my body, I reached out my hand to grab a knife near me. I glanced at him to make sure he wasn’t watching me; he was leaning in his chair staring in the distance. I grabbed it quietly without making any sound, hiding the knife under my leg.

“I want you to know that I love you, Peach.” He sighed and got up from the chair and leaned down close to me, “I always loved, and I will never stop loving you.”

He smiled one last time, I raised the knife towards his neck and plunged it deep into him. He pulled away, blood pouring out of his neck, he put his hand on the wound trying to stop the blood flow, tumbling over the deck, pushing the computers on the floor. He was gasping for air, he looked at me in betrayal, I got up able to move my whole body, he reached out his hand towards me. I was dizzy, I got up too fast, that led me to hit my head on the floor. As I opened my eyes, he was on top of me holding me down on the floor, his blood dripped down to my face. I used all my strength to pull him off. I got myself up from the floor and made my way to the door.

“Y-you…are … mine,” he muttered.

I opened the door, I couldn’t look at him, I could hear him trying to say something, but he was choking by his own blood, until I couldn’t hear a sound from him. I made my way through the halls, it was dirty, the floor titles were cracked, the walls ripped out and full of holes. I stopped suddenly at a room, the door was wide open, in it, I saw a large tube full of water, and a woman floating in it. She was beautiful, wearing a white gown. There were freckles all over her body, with her red hair flowing up in the water. She seemed to be asleep, resting peacefully, but I could tell she was dead. ‘What kind of man does this to their own wife’ I thought and started to walk away. I finally made it outside, I turned to the building that I was in, and I realized it was a hospital. It was in ruins, vines growing up the walls, all the windows broken, and the doors ripped off from the entryway. I head down to the back of the hospital, I gasped seeing the real peach tree after all these years completely dead, the bark was black, and no leaves from the branches. I started to tear up as I walked closer towards it, I fell open the tree, however no warmth came from it, just the feeling of the cold ratchet of the bark. I stopped crying, I just sat there cuddled beside the tree, my eyelids became heavy, slowly I closed my eyes. I dreamt of dad standing there smiling at me, already proud of me for being there, and my mother walking towards us with drinks in her hands to give to us. So happy those days were, at least I can finally remember it and have my rest.