Mistakenly Eaten

126. Hallucination or Reality?

Althea’s mind was definitely in a state of frenzy, as two contestants, who weren’t even supposed to be on the island, stood right in front of her, holding bottles of beers in their hands, wearing skimpy swimsuits and looking drenched in sweat and probably beach water, with traces of sand smitten on their bodies.

The two girl were also rendered frozen, as they found Althea standing right in front of them. They had been sneaking in and out of their safe house and going to visit Garry over the last two weeks and despite of Garry continuous guidance regarding to being careful, the two never seemed to be bother to actually care because Althea never showed up, in the middle of the forest but that night seemed like quite an exception.

The two girls looked at each other and then towards Althea, who was staring with complete bewilderment back and forth between the two girls.

“You two…” she finally mustered up the strength to speak up but before she couldn’t even touched them to see whether the two were real or not, a voice startled Althea calling her out from behind.

“Althea? What are you doing?”

She jumped up with fear and turned around to find Andrew standing right behind her.

“Andrew…” she spoke in relief, feeling a slight sense of respite in her veins, as she finally saw a familiar figure and someone who was supposed to be on the island.

“I…”

Althea pointed behind her and turned around but was rendered completely puzzled as there was no one who stood in front of her.

Andrew walked ahead and stood in front of Althea.

“What happened? You look quite distorted.” He asked, blocking Althea’s view of the spot where she had just seen Geneveve and Lilia.

Althea pushed Andrew aside and craned her neck, looking out to find the spot empty and the two girls gone.

She couldn’t have hallucinated their presence in front of her. the two girls were not even on her mind, when she saw the two. Their presence was completely random and flabbergasting for Althea.

“What happened? You look like you just saw a ghost. Are you alright?” Andrew asked, yet against attaining Althea’s attention and distracting her.

“I did.” She told him, finally pushing him aside and stepped ahead, walking towards the spot where she had spotted the two girls but much to her dismay she could not find anybody.

“Althea, what is going on with you?” Andrew asked, feeling quite worried about the girl’s dismantled situation.

“I think, I just saw two old contestants.” She told Andrew, who snorted at her words.

“Old contestants? Who?”

“You remember those two skinny blondes? Geneveve and Lilia?”

Andrew nodded as Althea looked back at her.

“Yeah!”

“I saw those two right here! wearing bikinis, covered in sand and they looked like they just came off from the beach.”

Andrew laughed out loud at Althea’s revelations.

“Okay! Althea, you are definitely stressed out because of the final competition.”

“No! why would I then imagine the two of the least persons that I didn’t even think about and…”

“You are definitely stressing about the cook off for tomorrow and even I am stressed. That’s why, I went out around for a hop with Fiona’s teddy bear that she left behind for me.” Andrew pointed out at the stuffed toy in his hand and Althea nodded looking down at the toy that he held.

“Your mind is busy thinking about the cook off and then there’s a part of you subconsciously, wondering about all the old contestants that we have defeated to reach to this point. Even I am quite stressed and worked up but you just need to relax your mind and go to sleep. Let’s just get back to the mansion, shall we?”

Andrew gestured towards a path, offering Althea to walk ahead and she simply perched her head low and walked ahead of Andrew, who followed her behind and made sure that he delivered her back to the mansion.

As he passed through the tall and shrouding thick bushes, he looked around the place, making sure that there was no one in sight.

Althea turned around to glance at him and he simply smiled at her and gestured at her to keep looking forward, until they were finally out in a clearing, and the two finally entered the mansion.

Andrew stood back in the main foyer, until Althea walked up the stairway and he heard the door of the room that she entered inside close right behind her.

Behind in the forest were Garry and Fiona, both of whom held back and down Geneveve and Lilia, respectively, placing their hands over their mouths, as they hid with them in the bushes.

Once they noticed that there wasn’t any sound and Andrew had taken Althea away with him, Garry gestured at Fiona and the rest of the two girl to stay back and gently and only slightly lifted his neck out of the bushes and sighed, when he saw that Althea was finally gone.

He was swimming late at night in the beach with Geneveve and Lilia, having left the safe house empty for Fiona, who told her that Andrew would be visiting her soon. It had become their routine for the past six days and he only felt relieved that he did not have to go through the torture of sitting with the couple.

As he continued roaming on the beach, Geneveve and Lilia joined him as well as per the usual but the two ladies ran out of alcohol and went back to their safe house to get more beer.

At the very same time Salva, who was still swimming in the ocean, noticed Althea coming out towards the coast late at night, which was a possibility none of them ever saw happening.

She was always with Nick at time and he also had promised everyone that he would keep Althea with him all the times when he could. He must’ve been asleep and she skipped out and hence ended up at the beach.

Salva swam towards the other side of the island and got back on the land, rushing in to the forest, when he saw Althea following after Andrew.

He immediately got a hold of Fiona and notified her that Althea was following Andrew and before Andrew could reach her. so, Garry and Fiona rushed towards her boyfriend and pulled him aside, that was when he had gone missing to Althea at the first place.

Garry, Fiona and Andrew still stood in sheer horror, hiding behind a tree when they heard Geneveve and Lilia laughing and stepped out in the clearing in the middle, where Althea was.

Fiona immediately pushed Andrew ahead and gestured him to distract Althea, making him the bait and at the same time, she went ahead with Garry, encircling through the bushes and cornered the two insolent girls, from behind.

Just as Andrew called out Althea, Garry and Fiona pulled Geneveve and Lilia back in to the bushes and hid them.

Andrew was able to move Althea back to the mansion but Garry still remained awry of her and stayed back in the forest, refusing to make any move or any sound, until the coast wasn’t entirely clear.

He ordered everyone to get back to their respective safe houses and called it a night.

“That was a close call.” Fiona told Garry, as the two entered their safe house and ho nodded at her.

“We should only hope that she bought Andrew’s psychological shit.” Garry told her.

“How would we know if she didn’t?” Fiona asked, slightly panicked at that thought.

“Oh, we would! Don’t you think had she doubted the presence of old eliminated contestants on the island, to be real, she would’ve gone feral at that moment and by this point the whole island would be on fire? Because Gigi, Nick and Salva would have been holding knives against our throats by this point. She is silent for now and most probably sleepy. And also, maybe she is just waiting till tomorrow to finish up the finale and wait for the results.”

“Well, in that case, we are totally safe because she will win and then Nick would take her to Gragnano and things would be settled for once and for all.”

Fiona announced, retiring to her room and Garry also decided to call it a night, since a lot of wild things had already happened.

He just wished that tomorrow would be better and that Althea when once off the island, things would become better and much more comprehensible for everyone.

Althea on the other hand, lied on the bed next to Nicholas. She had gone out to tame her anxious heart and it did work only until she didn’t find the occult and the conspicuous thing in the island.

She couldn’t have hallucinated the thought of the two girls. If she did, than it only meant that she was going insane.

First, Nick’s lie about the chef school thing and secondly, seeing Geneveve and Lilia in the bushes of the island. There was something definitely peculiarly suspicious going off in the place because Althea could feel it in her heart and her gut feelings were never wrong about something.

She felt restless as she tossed and turned on the bed, not even getting a single second of sleep because her anxiety kept her up and disturbed.

She was awake when Nicholas got up and left but she didn’t bother going after him or informing him that she was up.

She didn’t know why but a part of her heart could tell that even if she told Nicholas that she was up the entire night and for the reasons that she was anxious, he would give her the same reason that Andrew would.

It was around ten, when she finally got up, with heavy bags under her eyes and got fresh, finally leaving the room.

For the final cook off, only one three hour competition was going to be held in the evening and Althea decided to check with the ingredients in the pantry.

She realized that she was short on many ingredients for the dishes that she planned on cooking.

Walking out of the pantry, she ran in to Martha, who looked quite ready for that early hour of the day when no cook off was going to take place at that hour.

“You look quite fresh!” she told Martha, who noticed the glum on Althea’s face.

“And you look quite restless. Are you fine?”

“Yeah! Just a little nervous about the final cook off.” She lied straight through her teeth and Martha, only bobbed her head walking ahead but Althea called her out.

“Wait! I am short on some ingredients that I need for my dishes for the final cook off.” She told Martha, who looked at Althea for a moment.

“Okay, give me the list. I was going to hit the town with Selena anyways. I will get it for you.”

Althea felt slightly anxious as she fidgeted her fingers and Martha noticed her anxious behavior.

At the same time, Selena entered the kitchen and caught the sight of her mother and Althea.

“Oh! There you guys are. Let’s go.” She told Martha, who nodded at her and then turned back at Althea.

“Give me the list! I will get the ingredients for you.”

“Can I come with you guys?” she asked the two and, both the mother daughter duo shared a skeptical look.

“We were going for a regular spree hop. I don’t think that you would be interested in coming with us.” Martha tried to dodge the request but Althea seemed to be in the mood of an escape from the island.

She knew that after the night’s competition, she would be leaving the island anyways but she was in desperate need of an early escape.

“I just want to take my mind off from the cook off and also, some ingredients are such, that I believe would be the best if I could hand pick them.” She told Martha, who looked at her daughter, who seemed ridiculously unbothered.

“Sure! You can come along.”

Althea smiled softly at her, “Great! I’ll just get my jacket then.”

She rushed towards her room and Selena walked towards the exit of the house but Martha caught up with her.

“Selena! Why are we taking her to the town?”

“Mom! Relax, she is not running away! Besides, didn’t you see her? she looked very anxious and worried. She is really worked up about the competition. Let’s just take her with us, help her relax her mind off a little bit and let the girls get the ingredients and once she has them, she will come back. She is definitely getting the ingredients to come back, right?”

Martha went tacit, to Selena’s argument, “We will still would have to keep a keen eye on her.”

“It’s fine!”

Soon the three women got on a boat that Peter powered and sailed the three women on the speed boat, towards the nearest town.

As they got off and Martha took the two at the local market, Selena and Martha got busy as they shopped accessories, while Althea shopped organic food products.

She did find many good picks and as she continued further exploring in the market, she reached near a local shop that was opened within a small building, placed at the very corner of an alley.

She looked ahead at the small two by two shop and her eyes darted directly at the phone that was placed right outside the local shop.

Althea looked behind her and saw that Martha and Selena were nowhere in sight, so she took gentle steps towards the shop and gestured at the phone.

The man spoke a language that Althea had no understanding off and he only glanced her from top till bottom and then rubbed his fingers together, gesturing Althea that she needed to pay in order to make a phone call.

“Oh!” as the realization hit her, she immediately took out some money that Martha had given her to shop and passed it to the man, who accepted the amount she gave her, taking advantage of her lack of understanding, he didn’t bother to pay her the change back and overcharged her shamelessly.

Althea picked up the phone and lingered her fingers over the buttons of the phone, wondering what number she should punch in.

She knew that no one would pick up her home landline, because no one would be available at her house at that time and she also knew that Seb and Lur would be asleep after performing at bars till late. It only left her with one option and hoping that her call would go through, she punched in one of the only four numbers she ever remembered by heart.

Once dialed the number, the call was picked up after the second ring.

“Hello!”

Althea cooed gently and the person on the other side of the line felt shocked at first, getting to listen to Althea’s voice.

“Hi! Who is this?”

“Irene? It’s me Althea!”

A soft gasp escaped Irene’s lips, who sat on her desk inside her office and looking around the place, she realized that she couldn’t react much in her office, so she immediately got up and walked out of the office, through the fire exit, where she stood in the narrow stairways.

“Althea? Is it really you?”

“Yeah! Irene, it is me. Why are you so shocked, as if you thought I was dead or something?” Althea snorted lightly and Irene took a breath of relief, placing her palms on her forehead that sweated with apprehension.

“Because we did believe that you were dead.” Irene grunted, as she felt slight anger surging in her veins.

“What? Why? Didn’t you guy get my note that I left behind?”

“Yeah! You thought it was a great idea to leave behind a note when you were going to go away like that? Bravo.” Irene began reprimanding her sister, still angered at her for the careless behavior that she showed when she left.

“It was once in a lifetime kind of opportunity and I wasn’t going to miss so…”

“Where are you right now Althea?” Irene asked, questioning how her sister got her hands on a phone and why she was calling after three months.

“Oh! I am still at the Secret Chef Hunters’ Society, I was calling to tell you that I made it to the finals and tonight is the final cook off.”

“You made it to the finals? Wait! You actually are at the Secret Chef Hunter’s Society?” Irene wondered, who still had a hard time accepting reality that Althea was actually at the said society.

“Of course Irene, where else would I be? I left a note behind and…”

“Well, we all had our doubts and for a good amount of time we all believed that either you ran away or someone abducted you. The former being a lame accusation but we were quite serious with the latter because Seb had received your previous rejection letter and then we thought that you were kidnapped so we had things investigated but then we received your videos of cooking, then we suspected the guy, who was kind of suspicious but then we continued receiving your videos and…”

“Wait!” Althea cut her sister off as she heard her narration. “Rejection letter? What are you talking about?”

“Yeah! Didn’t the society tell you? They rejected you previously when they came to get you. They had to send their men to explain to you how one of the contestants couldn’t make it so they got you on board. That was what happened, right?”

Althea remained completely quiet as she heard Irene’s words.

When Salva and Gigi did come to her, they told her that there was an immediately vacancy created but they never mentioned anything about a previous rejection letter.

“Hello! Althea? Are you still there? By the way how did you get your hands on a phone? They told us that this year, there was no phone policy and…”

“Can you tell me the name of the people that you were in contact with from the Society?” Althea inquired from Irene and she remained even more confused at her sister’s question.

“I don’t know, Jacob was the one in contact with them. I can ask him and let you know. It will only take me five minutes.”

“Five minutes? To ask Jacob? Our town commissioner? Irene, where are you?”

“I am in Gragnano.”

“Gragnano? What are you doing there? Weren’t you supposed to be in Rome? Aren’t you married?” even more confusing to Althea was her sister’s situation at that moment.

“Just come back home and I will explain you everything. If you really are at the said society and tonight, really is your final, then Best of Luck! You have done a lot for me and Mama and we would be rooting and praying for you. Good luck.”

“Yeah! I guess I would need that.”

With that Althea placed the phone back to where it belonged and made her way back towards the market, all the while remaining lost over the conversation that she had with her sister.

A rejection letter…

She kept thinking about it, even on the ride back home.

She took a shower, freshened up and wore a raw silk red and black floral dress, which ended up right over her thighs and was entirely sleeveless.

She sat inside her room, fidgeting with her thoughts and fighting against her better self.

She looked at the clock on the wall and noticed that it was almost six, her time to get in to the kitchen and start preparing for the cook off that was going to begin at seven.

Getting out of the room, she walked down the staircase and stood in the main foyer, looking outside the mansion, through the back doors.

She noticed that it was quite dark for a usual night and grey cloud had accumulated in the sky, entangling together, thickening and crowding, ready to bring down rain and storms down from the sky.

Althea’s heart felt stricken with fear, as she fretted that storms and thunders would flash and she would have to go through the torture of having to hear the loud thunders again.

She turned towards the kitchen but stopped, realizing that what she might be going after may not even be real.

She could cook and maybe win but it still wasn’t going to be the ultimate truth of life.

So, she turned on her heels and instead of walking to her left towards the kitchen, she turned right, going down the hallway and walked straight up till the very end, where she reached the last door and pushed it open.

She sighed, with a heavy feeling on her heart, as she looked at Nicholas’s office in front of her.

She knew that if she were to ever find the ultimate truth that was going to tame her anxious heart.

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

What do you think Althea would find in Nicholas's office?

Thank you for always reading and supporting my work <3