When I was ten years old, I was kidnapped by some human traffickers, where I was sold to an old widow as her slave.

She locked me up in a pig sty and had me solve all of my basic needs there, be it eating, drinking, or defecating. My life there was less than that of livestock.

My parents never gave up on looking for me. They managed to save me when I was 17 years old.

On the day I get reunited with them, my mom's eyes redden when she notices how skinny I've become.

"Oh dear, just how much have you suffered, my child?"

My dad just keeps slapping himself the whole time. "We're so sorry, Silas…"

Even my younger brother reaches out, hoping to take me home.

That's when I finally realize that I have a home now. In order to repay my family for their benevolence, I've laced their food with the most potent poison. That way, their deaths will be painless.

After blowing out the candles on my eighteenth birthday cake, I picked up my phone and called the police. "Officer, my parents and brother are dead. I killed them."

The police arrived quickly. Guns drawn, they kicked the door open.

The moment they saw the scene, the lead officer's eyes filled with shock.

My parents lay lifeless on the floor, their faces tinged purple. Meanwhile, my younger brother was slumped over the table. A slice of cake I'd given him sat in front of him.

I looked at the officers and gave a faint smile. "You're finally here."

They snapped out of their shock and aimed their guns at me.

"Hands on your head. Get down!"

I did exactly as told. I watched as several forensic examiners stepped forward to check the bodies.

A family of three. All dead.

"What were they to you?" another officer demanded.

I smiled. "My parents and my younger brother."

His eyes turned red instantly. He glared at me like he wanted to tear me apart. "You animal! Do you even understand what you've done? That's three lives!"

"Yeah. It's my eighteenth birthday today. This is the gift I prepared for them," I said innocently, blinking. "And I didn't want them suffering from the poison, so I made sure to use enough to kill an elephant."

Everyone in the room gasped. They stared at me like I was the devil.

Even the worst killers in history didn't usually turn on their own families like this. Yet I stood there as if nothing had happened.

An older officer finally lost it. "You'll pay for this! The law wouldn't let you get away with it. Just wait. You're getting the death penalty."

I wiped the smile from my face and nodded seriously. "Good. The sooner, the better."

Just then, a tall woman with a stern expression walked into the scene. The moment she stepped inside, the temperature in the room seemed to drop.

The other officers greeted her. "Captain Larson."

She gave a small nod, scanned the crime scene, then fixed her sharp gaze on me.

"Are you the killer?"

I nodded eagerly. "That's right. It's me. Isn't it obvious? I've got the receipt for the poison in my backpack. My fingerprints are on the bowl. I locked all the doors and windows, so there shouldn't be signs of anyone else coming in.

"All the evidence points to me. There's no doubt about it," I added, holding out my wrists toward them with bright eyes. "Go ahead and arrest me!"

The way I acted only made one of the officers think I had a complete disregard for the law. His eyes were red as he pointed at me and shouted, "Don't think your age is going to save you! You're getting the death penalty for this!"

Captain Larson frowned and snapped, "That's enough. Step back. Is that how I trained you? Take him back to the station. We'll interrogate him there."

An officer stepped forward. Barely holding back his anger, he cuffed my hands.

I just followed them downstairs.

The neighbors had already heard what had happened. People crowded the hallways. The moment they saw me, they pointed and whispered.

"That kid's a monster. His parents worked so hard to bring him out of the mountains, and this is how he repays them? He poisoned the whole family!"

"They should've just left him there to die."

I listened to their murmurs and smiled, neither confirming nor denying them.

Soon, I was taken into an interrogation room. Captain Larson sat in front of me, while two younger detectives sat beside her. All three of them looked at me.

I casually leaned back into my chair. It was as if I'd just finished dinner. "Can you hurry up and send me to prison already? I haven't slept in days trying to get that poison. Can't I just go to a cell and get some rest first?"

I yawned after I was done.

The female officer slammed her hand on the table. "Take a good look around. This is an interrogation room, not a bedroom. Sit up straight."

I shrugged and muttered, "Do we really have to do this?"

Even the male officer taking notes looked like he wanted to jump across the table and slap me. "What's your name?"

I raised my eyes lazily. "Which one?"

"You've got more than one name?" he asked with a frown.

A faint smile curled on my lips, but it didn't reach my eyes. "When I was trafficked to the mountains, the old woman there called me Sticks. After I was rescued, my parents told me my name is Silas Cadwell."

"Age?"

"I turned 18 today."

Every officer in the room looked up at that. Killing your own parents the day you become an adult was unbelievable.

After they finished the basic question, the door opened.

My aunt, Naomi Walker, rushed in. Her face was full of disbelief. She still couldn't accept what had happened.

"You animal! Why did you kill your parents and your brother? What did they ever do to you?"

I smiled lightly. "Nothing. I was just curious how much poison it takes to kill someone, so I used them as test subjects."

She looked like she wanted to tear me apart.

"I should've never kept searching for you all these years!" she snapped. "You should've been left to rot in that pigsty!"

Several officers held her back as she struggled. Her breathing was ragged, and her eyes burned red with rage.

Captain Larson said nothing the whole time. She just stared at me.

After a moment, she finally spoke. "Let me introduce myself. My name is Kylie Larson. I'm the captain of the criminal investigation unit. Now, tell me, why did you kill your family? Did you hate them?"

I clicked my tongue.

"Captain Larson, didn't I already tell you?" I replied, annoyed. "I was just running an experiment. I didn't expect them to actually die."

Kylie frowned. She exuded an air of authority without even speaking. "There's more to this. If you tell me the truth, I might be able to help you. I could even reduce your sentence."

I let out a cold laugh, completely unfazed by her offer. "My brother was only eight. I killed him. How could that possibly reduce my sentence? Captain Larson, do I look like a kid to you? I already told you that there's nothing else to it. I was just running an experiment."

The room fell into a tense silence. Everyone stared at me with open hostility.

Kylie was the only one who remained expressionless.

"Is that so?" she began. "I heard you were found and brought back last year. Did your parents treat you well?"

A smile crept onto my face before I even realized it. "Of course. They kept finding new ways to cook me good food ever since I came back. If I had nightmares at night, they'd sit by my bed and comfort me while holding my hand the whole time."

I started laughing as I spoke.

"Oh, right. My dad even transferred all his assets to my name. He said I'd suffered too much, and that he wanted to make sure I'd be taken care of."

The moment I finished, several people in the room looked even angrier. I had easily gotten the kind of life others could only dream of.

"Sounds like they treat you very well," she said, frowning.

I nodded. "Exactly. That's why I made sure to use the highest dose of poison. I didn't want them to feel even a bit of pain."

As soon as I said that, Naomi let out a strangled cry. She dropped to her knees and screamed hoarsely as she pointed at me, "You animal!"

"Animal," I echoed lightly, smiling.

Kylie's gaze sharpened. It was as if she were trying to see straight through me. "What made you decide to poison them? The substance you used isn't easy to get. It's restricted. An ordinary person wouldn't be able to buy it so easily. You're still hiding something."

"If you really need a reason, then maybe it was because I was jealous," I said, pouting slightly. "They had another kid after I went missing. That just proves they didn't really want to find me. They gave up and chose to start over instead."

Naomi couldn't hold it back anymore. "What do you even know? Your brother was conceived before you went missing

"Your parents were devastated when you disappeared. They even wanted to terminate the pregnancy. I was the one who convinced them to keep the baby so they'd have something to hold onto!"

I shrugged indifferently. "So?"

That one word set the room off. Several officers shot to their feet and stared at me like I was insane.

"Captain Larson, there's no point interrogating him anymore! He's clearly antisocial. Someone like him deserves the death penalty. We shouldn't give him another chance to twist things!"

Almost everyone had already decided that I was a monster who poisoned my family.

Kylie glanced at them calmly.

"Sit down. Did I ask for your input?" she ordered before turning back to me. "Silas, we found your diary. What's written in it doesn't match what you're saying."

She pulled a notebook out of an evidence bag.

"It says here that when you first came home, you were happy. You thought you finally had a home. Your parents were gentle and caring. Your brother was sweet and well-behaved."

I silently listened with a blank face.

When she finished, I chuckled. "I wrote that diary for my parents. If I'd written what I really thought, they'd kick me out."