**** chapter two: gourmet ****
The following morning, Lydia left her bed earlier than usual. The halls were cold and empty, a soft wind whispered through the few open windows. She could listen to the leaves rustling outside, and a sudden shudder went through her spine. She remembered the jaw she saw the day before, and the dean's suspicious dismissal. *Something is amiss*, she thought.
She raced through the hallways, tryingto keep her mind off the matter, and sent to the kitchen. The common area was still deserted, and the cooks laughed in a loud, crude manner. She took a plate, and they lowered their voices as they saw her approach.
"An early bird, aren't you?" One of them told her, smiling.
"Only today", she tried to smile back.
"Well, better today than never, or whatever they say", he laughed.
"Who on earth says that?" His colleague looked at him, perplexed.
"Eh, doesn't matter", he said.
Lydia stood there waiting for her coffee and whatever they diced to serve that day, and dared to ask, attempting to sound casual: "what's the deal with that cottage?"
"Beats me", one of them said.
"Some say it was a... pardon my French, a whorehouse at some point. Others say, and you didn't hear this from me, a hideout for the principle's mistress. God knows. Well, what do you have to do with it anyway?"
"Nothing in particular", she answered, disgusted, and took her plate.
Lydia's urging curiosity was undoubtedly followed by quick research on that cottage on the internet, to find nothing but the article about "Maria",
She gagged once she read the titles, and one of her colleagues brought her a glass of water, asking if she's okay...
Lydia took a second then asked about the disappearance of "Maria", but the girls unanimously agreed that she is a cunt and she must have ran away with some guy she knew. The subject still brings shiver to Lydia and though she was simply answered she still pondered, discreetly, "what if?", "What if that jaw belongs to Maria?".
Lucky she had a sample of that saw inside a small specimen bag she took earlier from the lab. She sent anonymously to the police station in a parcel with a print of the jaw photo she took earlier, she was frightened by the repercussions she might encountered, but thrilled by figuring out the truth.
The parcel that was sent was sent from a different place she had to take a train to so nobody can track her...
And here we go,
First headlines on the newspapers and channels swiftly and shortly afterwards,
"Confirmed death of a 19 year old medical student, Maria S."
"Rotten jaw leads to a crime or a normal saddening accident?"
"Dead or killed? Maria s."
Lydia started panicking and she even thought about withdrawing from now on and leave it all to the cops.
However, she could not merely forget about a similar thing. She went to her room, promising herself to remain as distant from the drama as she could, no matter how intriguing the gossip might have been. She lied on her bed, her body restless and her eyes wide open, hoping for the best.
She was once again in the hallway early in the morning. The wind was stronger, and the sound of distant doors clapped reached her ears like an ominous warning. She ran to the kitchen, hoping for the coffee to warm her chest and stop the shivering. A pure quietness met her when she finally reached the common area; even the sound of wind seemed to miss it, and only the kitchen's light was lit. She carefully approached the counter, and the principle's sming face suddenly materialized before her. He held a rodoculously long baguette in his right hand, and a bright red jar in his left.
"Care for some strawberry jam?" He asked, a mocking smile frozen on his face.
She screamed, a loud shrill that broke the unnatural quietness, and ran as fast as she could. A swarm of green cats suddenly running into her feet, and she fell on her face. A cold throb went through her forehead, and she wailed, louder and louder.
She rose, screaming and covered in sweat, the memory of the painful fall still lingering in her forehad. Lydia tried to regulate her breathing to no avail. She drank some water, her hands almost slipped the glass. Then went out. *Cottage it is*, she thought, determined.
The college group was stormed by gossips, and chats discussing the death of Maria, the girl who stayed where Lydia stayed, eventually the latter couldn't stand still, she had to read everyone's comments, between those who loved her and those who didn't.
She commented with her real account this time, "Could the principal be complicit in this? He was the first who wanted the subject to remain undiscovered!" Forgetting that she wasn't using her anonymous account...
A wave of panic went through her body, and she could feel her chest almost exploding. *What on earth was that?* she rushed to delete it, but the replies were already swarming.
"Huh?"
"What the fuck does he even have to do with it?"
"ALWAYS WITH THE DRAMA!!!"
"🤨🤨🤨"
"You know what, that mf would do it"
She regretted being careless, and hated her constant desire to be the voice of justice. *Couldn't I just shut my mouth and let the cops do their own thing?* After all, they can't be that useless. More replied to her before she could even awake from her frozen panic; she saw the different reactions to her words, the gosspiers, the conspiracy theories lovers, and those who cursed her. A glimpse was enough to realize there was no going back. She went back to her room, put the phone down, and awaited her fate. She was in no mood to be a part of the gossip. At least for a few hours.
Though her message was viewed only by few but it was enough to erupt the college community, as some of them already suspected that for a while and needed a minor confirmation.
She shortly received an anonymous message, citing, "the deeper you dig, the bigger is your grave."
And a sense of fear and agitation took over Lydia driving her crazy, she started breaking her stuff one by one, as if she was destructing herself slowly while doing that, but not yet courageous to do it. A roommate went to check on her, and once she entered she got her toes injured by the glass shards on the floor, she ran towards Lydia and asked if she is okay despite she was hurt.
Lydia told her everything about what happened and that she is in need of rescuing, a savior to pick her up from the mud that started on swallowing her aiming not to leave a piece behind.
Her roommate hesitated for a second, then told her: "hey, I know you feel crazy right now, what do you say we go for a walk, away from everything? We'll go to the lake by the long route, avoiding any peeking eyes or the sight of the cottage."
Lydia looked at her for a few seonds, and replied: "I believe that would be nice".
They walked through the deserted dirt road, a bunch of yellow and orange leaved cranked under their feet, and the giant trees' branches danced around, occasionally letting a few rays penetrate. Lydia wanted to say something to break the awkward silence, but the strange quietness unsettled her. The campus noises fading away the more they advanced felt like a bad omen, even though she wanted nothing more than to get as far away as possible. She peeked at her roommate, and she found her walking with her head down, deep in thought. She turned her gaze forward, waiting for the lake to finally appear, then there was darkness.
The pain was sudden and crushing; the hand on her eyes was huge and powerful, and the arm around her neck paralyzed her. She felt her body giving up against the terror, thinking about nothing but the rotten jaw she found and the message she received. Soon there was nothing.
On the other hand, Sarah the one who was accompanying Lydia in her distress was thinking about her sick mother and the costs of her surgery, she decided to record Lydia while she is confessing against herself, and at the same time be a shoulder to lean on, an imperfect one just like the rest of us, failing here and there but pretending it never happened, pretending we're all okay and unbreakable. But a poster, a damn poster luring a snitcher for money, could break someone's moral compass and demonstrate the real selfish version of themselves. The predator they try to tame.
While she trapped Lydia with another student, the old man who inhabits the cottage saw them, he kept looking for a while and no doubt, he felt the accountability to tell the truth but who would believe a creepy old man living with a mute woman that could possibly be abused by him!
*****
A fancy plate comes in sight,
Carried by a waiter to a man in a suit, asking another, "Are you sure you can silence this one? We can't handle another Maria."
The other was nodding while his eyes were all on the plate,
And his mouth drooling,
"Speaking of the latter, she had a real tender skin, you will taste her yourselves. Start eating everyone."
Lydia woke up, her mouth was gagged, her eyes were too and she only could hear these two sentences and then utensils clattering afterwards, questioning her future from now on...
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