Mistakenly Eaten

14. The Ghost and The p********e

Salva held a file in his hands, feeling a bit anxious, as he kept a firm hold over it.

He took in a deep breath, as he looked between the file in his hands and the wooden mahogany double door in front of him.

He then looked down the wide corridor on his both sides.

All the doors were shut and everybody was inside their rooms, already calling it a night. Every single person in the house, was given an early off from their regular duties, and everyone took the same file in their hands and rushed in to their rooms, in the name of studying the files.

But both Salva and Serena knew that they weren’t going to study a single word and simply sleep the entire time.

Salva looked around him one last time, contemplating his choices.

If he handed over the file to the person in that room, he was done for sure. There wouldn’t be any turning back. He would be confirming it to the person that they were indeed what the logo on the fake file that he prepared said.

Secret Chef Hunter’s Society.

But they obviously weren’t some cult or secret cooking ring.

He had gone online and driven all the information out that he could find on the Secret Chef Hunter’s Society. He dug up all that there was and could be.

He found out how they operated and how they hired people in their circle and how they selected people for their so called competition. They had a YouTube channel on which they uploaded an entire series, where by they film and document the entire ‘Next Top Chef’, competition. The best part about the entire thing was the fact that the people behind the ring were entirely confidential and they kept their identity hidden, which was something that Salva took complete and full advantage of.

The fact that nobody knew who was operating that ring, was how Salva took advantage of Althea and ended up making her believe his story. He joined the f******k group that Althea told him about and in that group, he even found her profile. He saved that to stalk her for later and in case they would need to dig up anything on her life.

But for the time being, he went through the posts of the previous participants and how they had explained everything about the competition, which acted as Salva’s guide to how Althea would firmly believe in their little set up.

He then piled up everything he knew about the competition and passed it to the housemates but he also formed a special file, which was a supposed itinerary. Something that he had read that was given to the participants on what time they were supposed to wake up, get ready and report to the kitchen, alongside with the hours of the cooking and other activities, such as breakfast, lunch and dinner. Salva had made sure to even add certain leisure activities in the list just like they did in the real competition.

He made sure to not give Althea even the slightest space that things were a total and complete set up.

He held the fake file in his hands and stood outside of Althea’s room.

He wondered if it still wasn’t too late and if he could find the window to escape and help Nicholas in some other way or better yet, just leave him on his own and move on with his own self. Well, nobody was watching him. so, which meant that he wouldn’t

He sighed, realizing that he was being a coward, which he had every right to be. He simply knocked on the door and it immediately split open, revealing an excited Althea.

“Hi!” she chimed with excitement and Salva tried his best to fake a smile at her.

“Hey! Here! This your…”

“Itinerary.” Althea completed his words for him and grabbed the red file out of his hands.

Salva c****d, realizing the girl was indeed quite passionate about that whole competition.

He only wished that once she would find out that they were faking everything up, she wouldn’t end up losing her mental stability.

“Well, then see you in the morning.”

He told her and left to go to his bedroom and call it a night but Althea called him, making him stop and turn back towards her.

“Wait! I just realized that I don’t even know your name.”

“Umm, it’s Salvador but you can call me Salva.”

With that he left, leaving Althea alone, who went back inside her room. She read the itinerary for a while but then got bored, having nothing in specific to do.

She looked at the time and it was just ten of their local time. She hadn’t gotten her phone back as well or even a new one and she was not accustomed to sleeping early at all.

She would always get free at around seven or eight at the restaurant and then run to the bar with Seb and Lur and drink till midnight and help them write new songs. Just like she believed that her dreams one day would come true, she trusted and believed in her friends as well. She knew that one day, they would make it big as well.

But calling it a night at ten was just over the top depressing for her.

Her days were filled with nothing but stressful anxiety. Hiding her talent and serving at the restaurant as a waitress, getting tormented by her uncle and cousin every single day. It was hard for her to survive during the day, that’s why she spent her nights daydreaming about getting out of that place and living where she was.

But she still didn’t want to sleep.

Getting out of the room, she looked around the corridor and noticed that the entire hallway was empty.

She remembered, one of the old participants, once revealed that they used to sneak out of tehir rooms at night and explore the gardens of the mansion and even some caves around the island.

Althea was in no mood to call it a night.

She felt giddied up, at the thought of doing some exploration.

She loved visiting small coastal places and discovering small caves and new river banks around her own town.

So, there was no way she was going to give up on the chance of exploring a place like that island, which seemed to exotic and pleasing.

But first she needed a companion that would make her fearless.

She passed through the closed doors and only wondered, why no other participant was out of their rooms and why she was the only one roaming around the mansion.

It seemed a bit off to her, that neither the participants nor the management team was to be spotted anywhere.

She felt a bit bored off, wondering why was everyone on that island an early sleeper.

She climbed down the stairways and went in directly towards the kitchen.

Only a few lights, by the end of the each hallway was left on, with the rest of the lights around the house, turned off. It was quite difficult for Althea to make any sense of the way, since the last time she was out of her room, it was broad day light and she also didn’t clearly remember the directions around the house.

That’s why, when she stepped down the stairways, she assumed that the kitchen was on her right and that’s the direction she ended up taking.

What she was approaching, thinking that it might be the kitchen was actually the living room and inside the living room, was a wing chair by the floor to ceiling window, right in front of which was the wing chair, turned towards the window, to get a glimpse of the dimly lit garden set up right in front of that window and right outside the mansion.

Past the mansion’s garden, one could get the night view of the dark mountains, haunted by the gloom of the clouds that covered the night sky, giving it a sad shade of grey, even covering the moon right behind it.

The lampposts of the garden filtered small amount of light in the living room, but only allowed to see the furniture of the room and enough for one to make out the fact that it was indeed a living room and not a kitchen, which was also the first thing that Althea caught, when she opened up the door.

She bit her tongue, realizing that she had entered the wrong room but she didn’t turn back on her feet.

The wing chair was entirely turned towards the window and she couldn’t see if someone else was present inside the room or not.

Nicholas on the other hand, kept his gaze intact, right outside the living room, his wireless noise canceling headphones were embedded deep within his ears.

Sounds of whale cries and moans filled his ears. He tried to follow the path of the therapy that was recommended to him. He didn’t know why, but somehow his mind was clouded.

There were a lot of thoughts running through his brain.

He couldn’t pin down, what was disturbing him so much.

Usually, it would be the fact that he got left at the altar and all Cheryl left him was a puny apology in the name of acting as a good person.

The note that she left behind still haunted him but whenever he was reminded of that letter, he was reminded of what led to him being left at the altar and it was the fact that he took the risk to get married and all of that happened because he proposed to Cheryl.

He shouldn’t have done it after just a year of dating. Maybe he rushed things but Cheryl could’ve done something better as well. She had an entire month to share her feelings with him. If she felt unsure about anything at all, she could’ve just been honest with him and it only annoyed Nicholas to think that she was never honest with him.

He remembered taking her to his favorite eatery in Barcelona, which was a small café on the main street in down town. It wasn’t a lavish restaurant, a small local place to enjoy the coffee and croissant and even though Cheryl acted all happy and impressed by that place, he later on saw in her chat group with her friends that she told everyone that the place was tacky and was actually surprised that someone like Nicholas, would take her to such a place. Ever since then, he never even dared to take her to Sicily and enjoy the local small food points with her, that he loved personally.

There were a lot of things that he compromised in that relationship but never saw Cheryl bringing any serious change about in her behavior and it only made him wonder if he was the only one in the relationship.

There were times when he wished that Cheryl would come back and at least give him an explanation to what she did but he only worried that maybe, her apology or explanation might not as well work.

There was this void inside his heart and it just didn’t seem to ever fill.

He sighed, trying to search for peace and suddenly, his stomach growled. He placed a hand over his belly. His abs more sharpened and contoured than ever, since he was not feeding himself much anyways.

But it was after a very long, that his stomach was having a feeling of emptiness. In fact, instead of his heart, nothing felt empty anymore but it was after weeks, he had felt this urge to eat something.

He had the entire plate of pasta in the afternoon and had munched on it, as if his existence depended on finishing up that whole plate. He couldn’t tell how Serena or any of her chefs were able to do so, but that pasta was the perfect replica in every form, from appearance to taste, of the one that he had in Gragnano. The aroma and the appeal of the pasta was magical that had made him proposed to Cheryl in the first place.

He actually craved a little bit more of that pasta and contemplated, whether he should go to the kitchen to look for more of the pasta or not.

On the other hand, oblivious to Nicholas, Althea walked inside the living room, rubbing the back of her neck, wondering if that was the tasting room or not.

She remembered being told that there was a separate tasting room, where the judges tested and judged the dishes and even though only three judges appeared in front of the participants, it was said that there were more than three people who decided the fate of the participants. She accessed the room and cooed gently, impressed by the modern English interior of the room.

White sofas were decorated right in the middle of the room, with a small round coffee table placed in the middle of the sofa set.

Flowers, ceramic pieces and extravagant paintings, decorated the entire room.

Usually such old mansions, on such deserted lands are certified to be haunted and the eerie feelings she got from the darkened mansion at that late hour of the night, with no ones presence around, she was not surely hoping but certainly assuming that she might encounter a ghost or two.

A large shelf filled with picture frames, books and expensive pot plants was placed at one wall of the room but Althea couldn’t see anything in the frame since it was too dark at the moment.

She wondered if she would find any booze in the room, which could help her feel a little less lonely and bit more brave, as she planned on exploring the island at night.

She searched around the room and her eyes fell on the small round metallic stand table, that had a ceramic top, over which a half bottle of scotch was placed. The table was placed right next to the wing chair, over which Nicholas was sulking with his eyes closed and ears covered with weird whale noises.

Nicholas was entirely submerged down in the chair, almost invisible to anyone, standing behind him as well.

Thinking that there was no one in the room and the bottle was for hers to take, Althea smiled, as she walked up to grab the bottle.

At the same time, Nicholas felt the same discomfort in his stomach, and an urge to eat up, made his groan in agitation. He opened up his eyes and took his headphones off.

The first thing he saw was a shadow growing over his body, which made him c**k in surprise.

He knew that people around the house, never entered the living room, once they knew that he was inside. He liked to be left alone.

He craned his neck, as he noticed the shadow on his east and saw a feminine hand extending to grab the bottle on the table next to him.

He immediately grabbed the wrist, making Althea’s eyes widened, as his heart beat rapidly inside her chest.

Nicholas knew that no one dared to disturb him when he was having an alone time at any part of the house. He had made it stern clear to everyone to not to go anywhere near him or ask him to move out of his quiet time, so he only wondered who it could be, as he got up and stepped out of the chair.

Althea on the other hand thought she had seen a ghost in the dark, as a tall and broad man, whose face she couldn’t make up due to the absence of light and his back turned towards the only source of illumination, which scared Althea to death.

She couldn’t help but yelp and scream out loud.

Her loud screams and yells, made Nicholas shudder, who immediately let go off her wrist, assuming that the woman might be offended by his touch.

He stood square, facing her right from the front and his tall height blocked light from outside the room falling over her face, making it difficult for him to figure out her face.

Once Althea realized that the ghost who had caught her, had let go off her hand, she immediately rushed and stormed out of the room, not caring to look back and see if the ghost was following her or not.

As she dashed out, the first thing she hit was the glass coffee table, which made the top of the table rattle, throwing down the small ceramic decoration pieces on the ground, but that didn’t stop Althea, who instantly had some sort of athletic skills in her kick in and she jumped up and over the sofas, rushing out of the living room, continuing to scream.

“Ghost! Ghost!”

As she screamed and dashed out from the living room and in to the hall way, making her way through the foyer, she finally found the main door and immediately rushed out of it, not having the courage in her to stay in the haunted mansion.

Nicholas stood flabbergasted, having no idea whatsoever, about what had just happened.

Salva and Serena, sat inside the kitchen, finishing up the remaining pasta that Althea had cooked.

“This is so good!” Serena spoke with her mouthful of a bite, making Salva chuckle.

“Slow down! No one is going to take it away…”

He paused midway, as he heard loud yells, coming from the outside.

“Ghost! Ghost!”

He heard, what he assumed to be, Althea’s shrieking voice.

He immediately stepped out of the room and saw Althea running out of the house.

He c****d, turning back to look at Serena, who was just as confused but more stuffed with pasta than him.

Salva turned back towards the hallway and shrieked, the moment he saw Nicholas walking out of the living room.

“Who the f**k was that?”

He asked and Salva immediately picked up on the entire situation, without giving things a second though, he immediately rushed out of the house, through the open door, running after Althea before things would get too late.

Serena was left behind, with a mouth full of pasta and a flabbergasted Nicholas, who was even more absolutely taken aback by Salva’s actions as well.

“What the f**k was that?” he enunciated on his words and Serena immediately gulped her food down and rushed towards Nicholas.

“What happened?”

“Who was that girl? I don’t think, I have seen her around the house before and was she really even a girl?” he asked complaining, as he also went towards the open door but Serena immediately pulled Nicholas’s arm and pulled her back inside the house, stopping him from going after Salva or Althea, since she could only imagine what explanation Salva would have to give to Althea about Nicholas.

“She is most probably a p********e, brought from town by one of the house keepers.” She told Nicholas, who grunted in agitation.

It was a regular for the housemates to bring a girl or two from the town, just because it could seemingly get a bit lonely around the place and also it was prohibited amongst the house staff to mingle with one another or sleep around.

“Seriously? She was fine with playing around all of the male staff but she has a problem when she saw just a single, fully clothed guy?” Nicholas’s tone made it quite obvious that he was certainly upset and offended.

“Oh, just come on, forget about it! Salva will take care of it.”

With that she began walking Nicholas back inside the living room, wishing that it would be just as easy for Salva to calm Althea down, as it was for her to calm Nicholas.

As she worried about the poor guy, he ran and sprinted after Althea, who huffed in aggression and ran blindly somewhere in to the garden, not even having a proper sense of direction. She didn’t even know if she was running out of the mansion or just running away from whatever it was, that had grabbed her wrist but soon something once again grabbed her wrist, making her scream out loud but it a swift motion, she felt pulled and jerked back, with a hand covering up her mouth, preventing her from screaming.

Her eyes bulged out of her sockets, as the first thought that crossed her mind was that the ghost had gotten her but as soon as Salva’s face appeared in front of her eyes, she felt a bit calmed down.

“Relax, okay?” he gently whispered, before he finally let go off her and Althea took a step back, creating some space between their bodies.

Her action was simple, yet felt slightly challenging. Somehow Salva had never had a girl being so assertively reserved around her and seeing how simple yet implying her actions were.

Salva wondered if Althea was one of those girls, who were either conservative or acted too high and mighty in front of other boys.

He shook off his thoughts and looked at her with concern.

“What happened?” he asked, wanting to know about her interaction with Nicholas.

“Ghost!” she pointed towards the house, signifying the fact that the house was haunted.

Salva sighed, “That wasn’t a ghost.”

“Then? Didn’t look like a human either.” She spoke back, making Salva chuckle up a bit.

“What were you doing at this time of the night? There is a curfew after ten. Didn’t I just give you the rule book?” he c****d, making Althea bit her tongue inside her mouth, “I am not used to of sleeping early. I sleep a bit late and besides, I am not used to of sleeping without my mom. So, it is a bit difficult for me to adjust to things here. I was just having some trouble sleeping, so I decided to hop around the island and wanted to get a drink. I took a wrong turn, ended up in the sitting room and saw the ghost…”

“He is the director.” Salva came up with an instant lie.

“Who?”

“The director of the society! He is a very esteemed person around this place. No one, interacts with him directly, only Serena and I are allowed to talk to him. So, stir clear of him.”

Althea scratched the back of her neck and bit her tongue, “Shall I apologize to him? I mean, he would know that it is a contestant who…”

“No!”

Salva cut her off, in quite an abrupt manner, making it sternly clear that he wanted Althea to stay as far away from Nick, as possible.

“Okay…”

Salva’s abrupt and alerted tone, did set Althea off but she decided to not to read much in to the situation and was quite worried that she might have offended the director of the competition.

Salva also realized that his tone might be suggestive, so he immediately tried to mask things off.

“He is a short tempered strict person. He probably didn’t see you right now and if you go to him to give any explanation or to apologize, he might save your picture inside his head and either eliminate you for breaking the house rules or simply for calling him a ghost. So, just stay away from him. okay?”

Althea nodded and Salva finally brought her back inside the house and made sure that she was finally rested inside her room.

Finally, once he was sure that Althea was gone to sleep and would not dare to come out of the room, until the sun was up, he sped inside the living room and peaked his head inside, after opening up the door slightly.

Nicholas was pacing back and forth, pumped with anger.

“Do I look like a ghost?” he asked Serena, who stood, shaking her head and rolling her eyes.

“With a beard like that and your hair grown all over your sides, anyone could say that you are a ghost.”

Salva stated, walking right inside the room, making Nicholas’s eyebrows go up.

“What did you do with the girl? Did you throw her off the island, yet?” he demanded the whereabouts of the girl, who had just offended him.

“Why’d you ask?” Salva c****d back at Nicholas, making Serena snicker.

“I told him, she’s a prostitute.”

“Oh! So you are willing to give your willie a chance?” Salva further teased. “Hmm, no wonder why the girl screamed and ran out of your room.”

Nicholas was flabbergasted by Salva’s allegations. His face burned red as Serena burst out in a loud laughter and she and Salva both exited the room, smacking their hands together, leaving behind an offended and shocked Nicholas, who just couldn’t understand where he went wrong in the entire situation.

He made his way towards his room. The master bedroom, that was once owned by his father.

The large floor to ceiling window, covered with dark blue curtains drawn over it, had a wing chair placed right in front it, facing diagonally towards the window, with a large double seaters royal sofa chair placed at a few feet away from the chair made a perfect place for Nicholas, to take his sweat shirt and throw on top of it.

He directly jumped on top of his king sized roman themed wooden structured bed and sighed, submerging his face deep in to the soft duvet sheets.

Suddenly a thought crossed his mind, making him jump up and sit up straight.

He immediately rushed out of his bed and towards the other side of the bedroom, getting in to a small corridor and immediately jumped to his right, opening up the sliding doors of his large walk in closet.

He rushed to stand in front of the large wall mirror and looked at his entire physique.

He had definitely grown leaner, than the last he remembered seeing himself in the mirror.

It was obviously six months ago, on his wedding day. When he wore his wedding suit. The grey three piece hand stitched by a famous designer, who died right after finishing his piece, making that suit a national treasure for the entire country of Italy, which Nicholas ended up burning after Cheryl left him.

Ever since that day, he hadn’t even looked at himself properly in the mirror. But looking at the mirror, he realized that Salva was right, there was something different about the way he looked.

He didn’t look the same anymore.

The buffed up, broad shouldered dude was lost somewhere behind all that depression. The lack of food and diet that he had in the past six months made him go leaner. His cheeks were more sharply contoured, now that he was showing clear signs of malnourishment. He hadn’t hit the gym in the past six months as well, which could be the reason why his arms, chest and shoulders weren’t that buffed anymore. He had not had enough and sufficient sleep as well, which made his eyes go in and dark circles appear around his eyes.

He noticed his rough beard and his thick hair puffed over his head, fallen on the side of his head.

He sighed, running a hand through his face, taking it all the way up in to his hair. He rested his palms in his head, gently tugging on to his hair and realizing that he indeed needed to get a haircut and a shave as well.

Breathing in exhaustion, he walked back towards his bed and slumped low in his sheets, closing his eyes to call it a night but his eyes jolted open, suddenly remembering the petite physique and the loud screams of the woman calling him ghost.

He grunted in annoyance, as he sat up straight and on the other hand, in the room, right across the entire house, Althea also shot up straight from her lying position on her bed, still horrified from the touch of the ghost.

She refused to believe that it could be a human being and only wondered how rude the director was, hoping and praying that she never interacted with him ever again.

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Well, how did you find the first encounter to be? :P

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