Mistakenly Eaten

125. Deep Into The Woods

“The contestant that will leave us and the island this weekend will be…” Martha held the placard in her hands, as she announced the name.

“Garry!”

All the contestants, fell in to a state of complete remorse as the name was announced.

Althea knew that Garry was a hard working contestant and she had seen his skills as well. If anything, he was better than Fiona, who despite of being her friend, lacked some skills cooking wise.

But again who was she kidding, having witnessed the atrocious dishes that the judges and the organizers of the contest had prepared.

She doubted if they actually had a knack for tasty food but at the same time, she and Andrew who were the two best contestants on the competition had made it so far, so she believed that indeed, the judges at least could tell a good dish apart from a bad one.

As Garry picked up his luggage and came down in the main foyer, to finally leave, everyone lined up and hugged him, bidding their final goodbyes to him.

“I am really sorry for everything unconventional that happened between us but at the same time, I am glad that we ever met. Because you are a good person, Garry. I will surely miss you.” Althea told him as she hugged him and handed him a bouquet of fresh flowers that she had hand picked out of the garden.

Garry smiled, as he grabbed the flowers from her and moved on to Fiona, who also passed her the bouquet that Althea had prepared for her to give it to Garry and she leaned forward pulling him in for a hug.

“Thank you for volunteering to be eliminated, so that I can spend another week with Andrew.” She whispered in to his ear and Garry only nodded at her, as she then moved on to Andrew, who also hugged him and thanked him for the same thing.

Garry had actually deliberately volunteered. For one, he would get rid of the torture of having to see Fiona and Andrew always cozied up to each other and for two, he could actually use a break from the monotonous life that he spent and needed a moment of self reflection.

He had put in a special request by Gigi and asked him to be kept in a different safe house, that was located on the south of the island, rather than the west, where the first safe house was. He requested to be left alone and Gigi followed in to his brother’s requirements as well.

Soon as Gigi and Garry left, Althea told Nicholas that she wanted to get some fresh air, so he took her to the garden, where the two sat on a swing in one of the wooden gazebos.

“It feels nice to be here, with you. Can you believe it? just two weeks left and then there would the final cook off?” she told Nicholas, grabbing his arm in hers and placed her head on his shoulder.

“Yeah! These three months really flew by.” He commented.

“Well, it will be only two weeks, in case, I survive next week’s elimination and…”

“You don’t have to worry about that.”

“Huh?” Althea immediately snapped her head at Nicholas, who realized that he may have spoken in a bit much confidence, his statement conferring to the fact that he was pulling all the strings in that competition.

Nick immediately masked his previous statement, “I mean, you have been exceptional throughout the entire competition. You will win this for sure.”

“Nick! I don’t want you to play any tricks, under the table and…”

“What? No way, I would want to sabotage the competition but pulling any favors for you. And I trust you and you have to win this for me, okay?”

He pulled Althea close to him and placed her head over his chest. She also gently hugged him, only slightly satisfied by his statement, while her heart was still filled with a lot of doubts, ever since she learned about the fact that Nicholas didn’t know how to cook.

She wanted to be straightforward with him but she feared that his answer could be repulsive or he could assume that she doubted her. wanting to remain ambiguous and not embarrass him, she decided to ask Nick, with quite the trickery, so that he could confess to her the truth.

“By the way, can you believe that I have reached so far in the competition, all on my own? Like I never actually went to a proper culinary school or anything.”

“Yeah, that is absolutely amazing and I am incredibly proud of you. Is that a dream of yours to go to a culinary school?”

“Yeah! It always was but I couldn’t due to my circumstances.” She told Nick, who immediately marked it in his brain that as soon as possible, he was going to search for the best chef school and help Althea get admitted in that.

“By the way, you never told me which culinary school did you go to?”

She turned towards Nick and straightened up, expecting him to tell her right off the bat, that he had never even cooked a single day in his life but his words only put Althea in to a spiral of self doubt.

“Oh, I went to one in New York.” He shrugged blatantly and right straight to Althea’s face.

He couldn’t have even cooked for a single day in his life, let alone have gone to a chef school.

She pondered to her own self and Nick got up from the swing, grabbing Althea’s hand and walked her along with him back towards the mansion.

She remained silent throughout the whole time and as the two laid in each other’s arm and Nicholas slept peacefully, Althea remained wide awake, her heart full of anxiety and her mind full of worries.

Something churned in his guts and told her that something about the whole place was not right. There was something conspicuous happening around the place and Althea needed to find out the reason for Nick’s lie or else, her heart was never going to be at peace.

---------------------------------

As another week passed by and Fiona finally got eliminated, both Andrew and her had already planned, having known about the whole eviction process pre-hand. The planned that she would be staying in the same safe house as Garry and that he would visit her at late hours, when Althea would have gone to the bedroom with Nicholas.

They knew that once she was with Nick, she never came out of the bedroom.

Althea was extremely emotional when she had to say goodbye to Fiona and she only hugged and wept for hours, before Fiona finally went out of the mansion.

Nick stayed back and consoled his girlfriend, feeling guilt ridden that he could had stopped Althea’s cries by telling her the truth but every body on the island agreed with his plan that they would carry out the finale, like the normal coemption and since they now owned the real Secret Chef Hunters’ Society, they would announced Althea as the true winner, because in terms of the lawful jurisdictions, the competition held by everyone on the island, had become the real one and the winner of the competition, would also be the real winner. So, they were going to let Althea win and then since she would be happy and excited, they had thought that it would be the best for everyone that only then she would be told the truth.

“I feel extremely bad.” Fiona told Andrew, who walked her down towards the safe house.

“About?”

“About Althea. She really cried so hard, thinking that I was eliminated from the real competition and that I would not be with her ever again or even if I did, we would meet on occasions or something like that. I just didn’t like the fact that probably the last time according to Althea, is not a last time of our meeting.”

“It’s fine! Nick will eventually tell her the truth and half of our lies would be turned in to a truth anyways, because Nick now owns the Society and he could do whatever he likes with it. so, you don’t have to feel guilty.” He pecked the top of her head and bid her a goodbye, as he walked her down the safe house and Garry opened up the door, receiving Fiona.

“Take care of her.” Abdrew notified Garry, who saluted back at the man and noticed the hesitation in the man’s body language, who was obviously slight unwilling to leave Fiona alone with Garry and wished to stay back with her.

Sipping on his cold beer, Garry only rolled his eyes as he soothed Andrew’s wrecked soul.

“Don’t worry! I am f*****g one of the girls who are staying in the other safe house. They usually visit me during the day and stay till late…”

Just as Garry broke the news to Andrew, Lilia and Geneveve showed up at his door.” Andrew sighed in relief and gave two thumbs up to Garry before kissing Fiona a goodbye and went back to the mansion.

“It must be so hard for poor Andrew, he would be alone now without Fiona.” Althea informed Nick, as she laid her head on his chest in his bedroom.

He bobbed his head at her and gently patted his fingers through her hair.

“Yes, but look at you, you made it to the final!”

Althea immediately jerked her head up and chimed in sheer excitement.

“Oh my God! I did not even realize that.” she squeaked in excitement and hugged Nicholas, who hugged her back.

“I can’t believe it, I am in the final. Wow! This is huge.”

She clapped her hands in excitement and Nicholas felt delighted to see her being so joyous.

“Well, this calls for a celebration.”

The two went towards the balcony where they used to meet everyday during the sunset hours and talked for hours. Nicholas got the most expensive champagne from his office and popped it off in celebration to Althea’s success.

“Here’s to one of many marks you will achieve in your life.” He toasted to her and the two drank and emptied their glasses.

Althea sighed, looking behind her at the surreal view of the orange pink skies, that had the broken clouds scattered all around it.

“Can you believe, we used to be here every evening together, talking about random stuff, just so we could spend some time together?”

She asked Nick, who nodded looking at her ethereal face.

“I am glad, I took the risk of standing next to you and talking to you. I meant the most amazing woman on earth and falling in love with you was the greatest thing that could ever happen to me.” He told her, planting a soft kiss on her shoulder, as he hugged her from behind.

“I am really anxious about the finale.” She shared her concerns with him and he only patted her head gently.

“You will definitely win this. So, what did you usually do whenever you would get nervous?”

He asked, turning her around and pushed her against the railing of the terrace.

“Well, my worries were never about such things but whenever I would feel low or disheartened by anything, I would always hug my mom and lie next to her. did you know, my mom and I share the same room? She calls me her fluff pillow and she loves hugging me at night and honestly, hugging her just elevated all of my stress and my worries. I really miss her.”

Althea’s eyes welled up at the mention of her mother and Nichoals also felt burdened, for having moved a daughter away from her mother. But he was satisfied with at least one thing that Monique was not suffering alone. He was helping in any way that he can and soon, Althea would be reunited with her mother.

“Well, why don’t I take you to your hometown after you win this competition?” Nick offered and Althea chimed with excitement.

“Oh, that would be so amazing. Mom would be so happy to see you.” The hints of sorrow immediately vanished away from Althea’s face.

“Really? Would you say that I would be the best man, you will ever take to meet your mother?”

Althea snorted a slight laughter.

“More like the only man.” she mumbled under her breath and Nick immediately heard her words.

“Wait! Seriously? You never took your lousy ex boyfriend to meet your mother?”

Althea shrugged a bit carelessly.

“Yeah, well I was stupid enough to be with him but I knew that my Mama would hate him and his guts. A boy with no ambition, who shows no commitment to her daughter, yeah! That would be a perfect boy to take home to your mom.” Althea stifled a laughter, shaking her head and remembering how insolent she used to be when she accepted Angelo’s love and ran after him.

“So, I am the perfect boy to take home to your Mama?” Nick c****d with a confident smirk and Althea knew that he was being obviously quite haughty about himself. She simply shook her head and walked away from him, refusing to give any reply to his statement and it only made Nicholas anxious.

“Come on! Now, I deserve to know at least the truth.” Nicholas complained to Althea, who only laughed at him and walked away.

-----------------------------

Althea looked at the large clock that hung on the wall and read the time on it.

It was eleven in the evening and even though, Nicholas lied next to her, snoring loudly, deep lost in his sleep, she couldn’t help and fall asleep.

Her mind and heart both were anxious, since it was the only and the last night before the final competition and the morning was going to be a tough one.

It could also mean that it was her last night on the island and the last one with Nicholas, after which there could be a possibly gap between the two.

She turned look at Nicholas and the way he slept like a baby, only made her groan gently in agitation.

She couldn’t make up, how the man was sleeping in such a peaceful manner, all the while she was full of anxiety and tossing and turning like a restless soul.

She gently reached out for Nicholas and patted his back.

“Nick! Hey Nick…” she tried to shake him up and wake him but the man only grunted, as he woke up from his sleep but refused to open his eyes.

“Yes!” he spoke with a hoarse voice and Althea leaned closer to his ear.

“It can be my last night on the island. I am really anxious. Why don’t we spend the night together? Let’s say we go the beach and go skinny dipping?”

She offered the man, who only groaned and turned his face away, refusing to open up his eyes even at the enticing offer made by Althea.

“Just sleep.”

He told her off and Althea couldn’t help but feel disappointed.

Moving back to her side of the bed, she decided to take care of her anxiety on her own and got up and out of the bed.

Throwing on Nicholas’s shirt, over her tight shorts that she wore, she made her way out of his room and snuck through the back door of the mansion and reached out towards the south coast of the beach.

She took in a deep breath, as the cool sea breeze hit her face and she felt slightly refreshed.

Things had been quite awry around the island lately and she only wanted to focus on the competition for the time being and believed that when the right time will come and if she won the competition, the next day, many of the truths of the Chef Society would be revealed to her on their own.

Or at least that was what she expected,

Feeling slightly better, she turned around to leave for the mansion but paused when her eyes caught the sight of a lean figure, entering in to the bushes of the jungle behind her.

The surface of the island was quite dark and the only light for illumination was that of the moon and its reflection on the waving surface of the ocean. At first Althea felt that she was seeing things on her own but when she squinted her eyes and saw the figure move further in to the forest, she realized that it was Andrew, her competitor for the finale, who was entering the forest.

And what amazed her was the fact that he wasn’t just entering the forest on his own but in fact, held a teddy bear in his hands. The pink and fluffy stuff on that stuffed toy was enough to remind Althea that it belonged to Fiona.

She felt staggered with curiosity as she saw Andrew carrying that stuffed toy with him inside the forest.

What could he possibly be doing at this late hour and that also with Fiona’s stuffed toy?

She wondered, as she followed him in to the forest.

She kept her distance from him but also kept a soft pace behind him.

She continued walked behind him, trailing carefully but soon Andrew took a sharp turn somewhere in the tall bushes, completely vanishing in the forest.

Althea felt confused, as she stood in the middle of a clearing, all the while surrounded by long leafy trees, that made it near to impossible for her to see anything around her. she felt astounded, as Andrew had completely gone vanishing.

She had clearly seen him coming inside the forest and she also kept apace of him but his sudden vanishing only made her feel not only confused but slightly horrified as well.

Was I imaging things? Am I going crazy?

She wondered to her own self, as she decided to make her way back towards the mansion but a sudden giggling sound, followed by the sound of a twig breaking and leaves rustling made her pause with horror.

The sound of the female laughter got louder and clearer, and she could hear the source of the voice getting closer to her, as the whooshing sound of the tall palmy leaves being pushing aside and against each other became clearer to Althea with every second.

She rotated around her, standing in the middle of the clearing and looked all around her, trying to figure out where exactly the sound was coming from but before she knew it the tall palm leaves behind her got pushed aside and she immediately snapped her neck, turning back and felt horror taking over her body and her mind, as the two girls, whom she instantly recognized stood right in front of her.

They were Lilia and Geneveve, the old contestants from the competition that had been fired previously and were not even supposed to be on the island, stood right in front of Althea.

------------------------------------------

Whoops! what do you think will happen now?

Thank you for always reading and supporting my work <3