Mistakenly Eaten

63. Martha's Little Tricks

“And this week, the contestant that would be leaving us is, Hershel.”

Martha announced the name of the male contestant that had already been chosen and decided at the start of the week.

As the guy, who was one of the gardeners of the mansion, was beyond excited that his name came in the lucky draw and that he would be the one to spend the rest of his days at the island in nothing but sheer leisure and relaxation.

As the guy left the kitchen and began packing up, everyone else began leaving the kitchen, with Althea in particular feeling totally at relief that she wasn’t the one to get eliminated and that most of her dishes received positive reviews from the judges.

The contestants were about to exit the kitchen when Martha clapped her hands and stopped them from leaving the kitchen, making everyone stop and look up at her.

“What happened?” Fiona inquired, wondering why they were held back so abruptly.

“Well, since five contestants have already been eliminated, and the sudden weekly eliminations must be scaring all of you guys, putting a lot of mental pressure on you…”

“So, we will be given a week off?” Garry joked, impressing most people with his joke and making them laugh except for three people.

Fiona – of course, because she was still bitter about what Garry did to her.

Althea – because she was still bitter about what Garry did to Fiona.

And Andrew – because he never liked Garry, since he was an ass who always tried to shove him down in every aspect, was a sassy man, who liked to flaunt around women in particular and also because Garry had Fiona’s attention and poor Andrew didn’t.

That’s why ever since, Althea and Fiona ganged up on Garry and also Andrew saw Fiona confess her feelings to Garry and the way he irrationally acted out, Andrew felt that he had received a green light for him to act out against Garry as well and Althea liked and enjoyed the way, Andrew always stood next to them.

She just assumed that he, like everybody else at the house was simply irritated by Garry and his mannerism but little did she know that Andrew had his own ulterior motives.

“No! we are giving you a better offer and I would advise for you to be careful before demanding too much from us.” Martha shut Garry off, this time making Fiona, Althea and Andrew snicker, that Garry did hear and felt tumulted and belittled by their condescending behavior.

“So, as I was saying, the little something that we have for you guys, is not a vacation but instead a free pass to the next week. Which means, that there will be no eliminations in the upcoming week and all of you would get to prepare whatever you guys like and create menus of your own desire and then after the second week, we will resume back to eliminations. So, enjoy the upcoming week. And remember, this week is given to you in order to fill in the gap in between your lacking skills and enhance and better your cooking. So, be sure that your skills are enhances to perfection by the end of the upcoming week, so that we would resume back to our normal competition and eliminations. Or else, you neve know, we might be able to make you work harder and even forget that you guys are here as part of a competition. We want each one of you, who is left behind, to perfect your skills and prove that you worthy of staying in the competition.”

Everyone’s face fell down, as their chances to escape the competition and get a paid vacation in the safe house of the island, thinned and extended ahead, making them frown in depression but Althea clapped and chimed out loud, extremely happy that there would no risks and fears of being eliminated, all the while realizing that she was the only one clapping, which made her stop and look at everyone else in the room.

Martha grunted in anger and began clapping, making everyone join in as well and Althea resumed back to rejoicing the little news that she received.

Fiona, Garry and Andrew were definitely confused, over why Martha had announced that news, whilst the rest of the contestants, who pooled their name in the draw to be selected for elimination, were definitely saddened that they had two more weeks now before they would get to be freed of the stupid competition.

Martha walked out of the kitchen, with Salva and Anthony following her out.

“What was that?” Salva inquired, rendered surprised by Martha’s announcement, that even he wasn’t aware of.

“A little something for the lazy contestants to chew on, who make the worst possible dishes and want to be simply eliminated.” She told him, making her own husband roll his eyes in disappointment.

“Really? You think now they wouldn’t make even bad ones, so that you would revert back on your decision and eliminate them even more quickly?” Anthony inquired and Martha smirked.

“Oh, I have the perfect plan for that as well.” With that she walked towards her bedroom, leaving Salva and Anthony together.

“She’s starting to enjoy all of this a bit too much.” Anthony informed Salva, who snorted a small laughter.

“Aren’t we all?” he shook his head and walked away, leaving Anthony in sheer confusion.

As Althea and Fiona walked out of the kitchen, Andrew followed the two out and called out for them.

“Hey! What are you guys going to do now?”

Althea pouted as she looked at Andrew, “Well nothing much. Fiona told me that she had some cards, so we were going to just play them by the pool and have some drinks.”

Andrew scratched the back of his head for a moment, looking a bit awkward and Fiona groaned, rolling her eyes at him.

“What do you want, Andrew? We don’t have the entire night.”

Andrew felt a bit pushed back and discouraged by Fiona’s tone and the fact that her heart was occupied by Garry, also acted as a factor to shove him down and away from ever actually confessing his feelings to Fiona.

“Do you want to join Amdrew?” Althea asked, noticing the boy’s hesitant tone.

“Can I?” he asked with enthusiasm filled in his eyes and Althea nodded sheepishly.

“You wouldn’t mind, would you, Fiona?” He asked the girl that he was actually hoping to spend some time with and the girl shrugged.

“We’ll be playing cards. The more the marrier.”

With that Fiona went to her room to get the deck of cards and Althea and Andrew made their way towards the pool area.

The two arranged the pool chairs in a circle and sat in front of each other.

Andrew fiddled with his fingers, as the two waited for Fiona and Althea noticed that Andrew was acting quite awkwardly anxious.

“Andrew, are you alright?” she asked, noticing that the boy was acting quite lost and anxious that night.

“Yeah!” he shrugged, straightening up his posture and Althea hummed and nodded.

“Okay!” Althea also went silent but Andrew decided that it was the perfect moment for him to hit his question and extract the information that he wanted out of Althea.

“So, how is Fiona’s heart break going on? She got over Garry, yet?”

Althea pressed her lips tightly, actually having no answer to that question.

“Well, by this point, I actually hoped and wished that she would realize that he is an asshole, not worth her feelings but she is still struggling to get over him and honestly, by this point even if Garry wants to be with her, I wouldn’t want her to be with him. he is a narcissist and all narcissists do, is hurt you. So, even if Garry wants to be with her, first it would only be for him to feign his own ego and second, he would leave her once he has what he wants.”

Andrew’s lips stretched out in a wide smile.

“Really? You think so? So, even you don’t like Garry, right?” he asked and Althea felt a bit puzzled by his extremely happy expressions, that seemed a bit suspicious to her.

“Why are you so happy about that?”

“Because, even I never liked him.” he extended his hand forward and Althea chuckled, throwing in a high five.

“Yeah but us hating him wouldn’t make any difference. It’s Fiona’s hate that actually counts. Or even if no hate, there shouldn’t be any love or even hurt. She shouldn’t have any feelings for him at all. She is an amazing girl and I would wish that she would recognize her potential and her radiant energy and how much of a sweet person she is. I really hope she realizes that she is actually very pretty and deserves the world and someone obviously better than Garry.”

“Gosh! Why do I feel like you are the only sensible person around this place? Your words just sound like music to my ears.”

His words made Althea laugh out a little and Fiona at the same time entered the pool area, carrying the cards and drinks in her hands.

The trio laid down the cards and began playing a regular game of poker, laughing and rejoicing the moment.

Cold wind began blowing, making the three feel chilly but at the same time, they kept on chugging more alcohol, so that they felt warm on the inside.

The three continued playing, until a loud thunder clashed within the clouds, hitting the ocean at a distance far away but the flash appeared right in front of Althea’s eyes, who sat facing the beach.

As soon as her eyes saw the flash appear right in front of her eyes, followed by a momentarily pause and then the loud thunder echoed through her ears, her breath hitched inside her throat and the color of her face disappeared at the same time.

She paused midway, holding the card that she was about to throw in her hands.

Her eyes stuck at the dark void of the ocean where the flash had just appeared for a split second but her eyes was still glued at the darkness.

For her that flash was painted in the sky and that thunder was repeating and resonating in her eardrums over and over again.

“Althea…”

“Althea…”

Both Fiona and Andrew called the girl out but she named stuck and frozen, as her eyes looked in to a void of darkness and her brain, it was simply stuck in a loop reminded of a night of her life that was full of fears and terrors.

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What do you think happened to Althea?

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