Mistakenly Eaten

11. A New Idea

“Huh?”

Althea asked, as Salva repeated his words again.

“Congratulations you passed the test!”

“What test?”

Both Serena and Althea asked but Salva didn’t bother to answer to Serena at that moment.

He knew that he could handle Serena later on but for the moment, he needed to take care of Althea who was his key to cure Nicholas’s depression.

Right in front of him laid the decision that he had to make.

He had seen with his own eyes, the way Nicholas feasted on that pasta.

He had seen that only Althea could make that very particular pasta that made Nicholas propose Cheryl and only the food or pasta that she prepared could cure the guy’s depression.

And curing Nicholas’s depression meant that Salva could have his one way ticket out of that island and go back to his normal life, where he and Nicholas would become one gang again and swim in a pool naked girls.

And for that to happen, Salva was willing to do everything and anything.

And he did just that.

It was like drinking poison out of the Holy Grail but he was willing for that.

He knew that what he just did was going to cost him a lot but he was willing to do so.

All that, just for the sake of his friend.

Salva gulped hard and patted Althea’s shoulders, taking a step away from her and clapping out loud for her.

Both Serena and Althea were confused by his actions but Althea was surely mesmerized wondering what new information they would throw her way that would make her regret her decision of coming to that island.

“You passed the test!”

Salva chimed again.

“What test?”

Once again Serena and Althea both asked in agitation.

“The test that we just put you through.”

“Huh?” Althea was in a state of complete distress and her head had begun hurting from all the sudden rushed statements that were thrown her away.

“We offered you money to see what was more important for you, the title to become the next top self made chef or if money mattered to you more.”

Serena immediately grunted lowly under her breath, rolling his eyes and turned her face away from Althea and Salva immediately, realizing what Salva had done.

They were trying their best to make Althea understand that she wasn’t selected for some cooking competition but instead he had ended up doing just that.

They had barely gotten out of one pile and Salva had pushed them another one.

Serena held back her urge to scream from aggression that she felt bursting out of her. she didn’t know how they were going to follow up with the lie but she also noticed that listening to those words had definitely calmed Althea down.

Tears sprung down her cheeks, as she started seeing herself getting closer to her dreams once more.

Her heart suddenly felt a little less in pain and her mind became a little less hazy.

“What do you mean? I got selected for top twelve at… Secret Chef…”

Althea hiccupped as she tried to form her sentence. Her breath was still quivering and her body was still shaking from all the crying.

Salva nodded at her, “Yes! We put you through a test just like we do with all the contestants and we offered you money. If you had selected the money, we would’ve eliminated you but you proved to us that you are truly here for the title and that’s why you passed the test. Anyone who is here for the prize money is not welcomed. We select those who are looking for a chance at becoming a chef in a true spirit and you just proved to us why you deserve this place and the position to be in the top twelve. Congratulations, you just made it to the first round!”

Salva finally revealed the nakedly shamelessly articulated false truth, making Althea jump up in excitement and pure bliss and joy.

She had almost suffered from a stroke due to the sudden rush in the news that she had received back to back but the moment Salva gave her the slightest hope she wanted to cling on to it and pine for the title.

The title that could give her life a new and certain direction. A title that could give her the courage to face the world with much more confidence.

The title, hopes of which allowed her to dream despite of her grave circumstances, where she was fighting to even survive and live a life.

She didn’t have much to love for when she had started working at that restaurant and every morning she woke up, with the wish that her life would come to an end soon but it was the Secret Chef Hunters’ Society that allowed her to dream and gave her something to live for.

“When I heard you guys tell me that all of that was a lie and that you guys aren’t the Secret Chef Hunters’ Society, I was really broken. Because this Society is what I had hoped and wished for in the past three years. I had nothing to live for but the hopes and dreams that one day I would get to compete here, is what made me fight against all odds. Of course, I was angry and mad when I thought that you guys are lying, but now I understood why you guys needed to lie to me. It is only because the true spirit of Secret Chef Hunters’ Society lies within the fact that one needs to be true to the art of cooking and not here for the money. It only deems fit to a place like this to demand and perform such an excessive test to see if someone is truly a chef or not.”

“Or a hooker…”

Serena mumbled under her breath, making Althea look at her in confusion.

“Huh?”

She couldn’t hear her words and Serena also took advantage of that and simply shrugged at Althea.

“Congratulations!”

She told her and Althea nodded.

“Why don’t you rest up? Since you have passed your last test of the day and you must be quite exhausted, both mentally and physically. You should rest up and we shall began the process by tomorrow?”

Althea nodded back at him, “Yes! I would also like to rest for now.”

Serena simply called out for a maid and asked her to lead Althea to one of the guest bedrooms.

Once Althea was gone and Serena and Salva were the only ones left behind, Salva stole his glance away from Serena, who squinted her gaze at him.

“A chef in true spirit? Seriously? What kind of bullshit was that?”

She yelled at him and Salva grunted back at her.

“What the hell was I supposed to do?”

“Where the f**k did you even come up with such a lame line?”

“I don’t know! Fiona was watching some stupid master chef Canada last week or something. But that is not the problem right now!”

“Oh, really? You do realize that you have created a huge problem?”

“Of course, I do! But what else were we supposed to do? She clearly refused to stay back and you heard her your own self. This competition meant a lot more than we thought.”

“Oh, I can tell you clearly didn’t think anything when you brought her on the island. What are we even supposed to do now? Just pretend along that we are that stupid chef hunting society and that we are who we think she is. Like I am some sort of judge and you are some sort of organizer of the event. We don’t even know the stupid rules or s**t! How the hell are we even supposed to know of the rules? Should we like google it? What the hell should we do and…”

As Serena continued ranting about everything Salva’s mind immediately connected all the dots in his mind.

Serena had given the answer to her own queries.

A bulb lit up over Salva’s head and he grabbed Serena’s shoulders, shaking her up and making her look at him with confusion.

“Serena! You are a genius.”

He leaned down and pecked her cheeks tightly, immediately taking a sprint out of the kitchen and dashed out of the main foyer, rushing up towards his room, determined to keep Althea on the island, despite of no matter how much of hard work it was going to cost him.

His biggest target was to get Nicholas off the island and he was going to do exactly just that.

Althea on the other hand was beyond happy with the room that she had gotten.

It was large, spacious, had a wooden framed bed that was centered right adjacent to the window and the sunrays fell directly over and on to the bed. She remembered reading the old participants’ experiences about the bunk bedrooms that they were given. It was nothing like that. The room that she had received was larger than life. In fact, her entire house could fit in that room.

Back home, she shared a queen sized bed with her mother and in that room, she had a huge king sized bed, that had a roman touch to it, with its mahogany wooden head board that was carved so intricately and delicately with sheer expertise of the craftsmen that had worked to make that specific piece in the hidden small coastal towns of Italy.

But to Althea, she had zero sense of the bed’s value, as she jumped up on it and rejoiced her selection in the top twelve of the Emerging Chef competition.

She knew that she was going to be the winner of the Top Chef title and there was nothing that could ever go wrong.

She got down from the bed, her delicate feet coming in contact with the Irani woven carpet that laid on the wooden floor. She then walked towards the further section of the room and found herself standing in front of doors. One to her right and another to her left.

Both white in structure with crystal knobs attached to them.

A large mirror was placed right in the very middle of the two doors, where Althea looked at her reflection and she couldn’t help but smile and giggle, unable to believe that she was able to look at a mirror that was so clear and shiny, compared to rusted old ones that she had at her home.

She opened up the door to her right and gasped out loud, finding that it was a large walk in closet that was even bigger than her and her sister’s bedrooms combined.

Lavish, expensive and branded clothes of all kinds hung in the different sections of the closet.

Althea’s mouth hung open as she looked at the entire closet and the wondered what it could be behind the other door.

She immediately opened it up and found herself standing in front of a large crystal Italian themed bathroom.

Althea was in a state of complete awe, as she rushed towards the beautiful white crystal hammock shaped tub that was placed in the very center of the bathroom. A closet shower was present right behind it as well but Althea had spent an entire life time showering while standing. It was about time that she bore the fruit of her talents and hard work.

She opened up the taps of the tub and began filling it up, ready to take a shower but she closed the taps, shortly afterwards.

A sudden wave of home sickness clouded her mind, where she missed her mother and her friends the most.

She knew that if they were with her in that moment, not only they would be happy for her but also she would be beyond excited to share her achievements with them.

It was a shame for her that she had to leave home without even seeing them and saying a final goodbye to them.

She got out of the bathroom and slumped down on her bed, hanging her feet and legs down on the floor.

She was obviously pissed that she didn’t get to say goodbye to her family but what even annoyed her more was the fact that she didn’t even have her phone with her anymore.

Had she had her phone, she would’ve clicked the pictures of everything to later on share with her family.

The thought of her away from her home made her slightly sorrowful and even in a time when she was feeling on top of the world, she still felt remorseful and saddened over the remembrance of her family.

Even though she was away from her home for the first time and she was out there to achieve her dreams, yet she still couldn’t help but wonder what everyone at her home must be busy doing.

She looked at the time on her watch, which was an old square dial silver chain Tissot that belonged to her father.

It was only one in the noon so she assumed that her mother must had been busy at the local market selling their farm’s freshly produced strawberry’s and her sister must be busy with her in-laws to be, planning her wedding, whilst her friends Seb and Lur were most definitely busy sleeping their afternoons away, since the time in which they got up was around three or four in the evening.

But none of Althea’s assumptions were true.

Neither her mother was at the local market selling their produce.

Nor was her sister with her in-laws planning her wedding.

And her friends weren’t most definitely sleeping away.

Well, they were but not after Monique had called them over the phone, crying out loud and announcing the fact that Althea had ran away.

Seb and Lur sat in Althea’s living room, scratching their heads together, holding their mugs of coffee in their hands as they looked at the note that laid in front of them on the small round coffee table.

The kept their heads adjoined, as a system and way to support each other from falling.

They had barely slept at seven in the morning, watching the sunrise, after partying at their local bar the entire night, when Monique called them at nine, screaming and crying about Althea’s sudden disappearance.

Both Seb and Lur were confused when Monique told them that Althea had left the house to join some sort of cult and when they arrived, Monique informed them that Althea hadn’t come home the entire night and she assumed that she was with Seb and Lur, which was quite the usual thing her daughter did but when she received a note from one of the worker’s of the restaurant, La Pastalia, Monique became distorted.

To her, Althea had left a small note that stated,

“I got selected for the Secret Chef Hunter’s Society! I don’t have much time to explain everything but I know you and everyone else, especially Seb and Lur will understand everything. This is my dream and for the first time, I am getting a once in a life time opportunity and I don’t want to waste it. I promise, I will come back by winning the competition and the title of the ‘Top Chef’. I love you guys so much! Take care of yourself and Mom, you know my credentials for the bank right? Take care of everything and until I don’t come back, trust Seb and Lur with the catering business and try to have confidence with them in your decisions. I know you get very indecisive at times. Because after Dad, it was me that helped you make decisions in life but in my absence, you should trust Irene. She is a smart and sensible girl. She will always help you make the right decision.”

Irene scoffed, as she read the note left by her sister and threw it back on the coffee table in front of Seb and Lur, both of whom, snapped their necks down and up at the same time, as they had yet another attack of sleep paralyzing their minds and systems.

“How f*****g stupid of her! what the f**k does this even mean?”

Irene asked, looking up at her mother Monique, who shook her head in sheer disappointment and delusion.

Seb took a sip of his coffee, that was quite strong and the moment the bitter taste hit his mouth, suddenly he started gaining back his senses.

“How would I know what it means, I am just as confuse as you.” Monique argued back with her daughter.

“Althea would never do something so stupid, reckless and irresponsible. Even if she got selected for the competition. Why wouldn’t she at least bother to see me at least once before leaving and just leave a letter so brief and abruptly like this?” Monique rose the question.

“Why would anybody kidnap her?” Irene counter questioned her mother, “Like people get kidnapped for money and duh…”

She pointed towards their house, which was enough of a statement to prove the fact that Althea getting kidnapped for money was a stupid theory.

“Okay! I get it but then again, I don’t think Althea would ever do something so reckless. It just doesn’t make sense.” Monique stated.

Finally, Seb grabbed the letter and got up from the couch, making Lur drop down on the sofa behind him.

He read the letter thoroughly and realized that it was indeed Althea’s writing.

He continued reading it as he paced back and forth and rubbed his eyes vigorously, in order to see the words that were written on the letter.

Irene sighed in aggression.

“I know why she did it!” she finally concluded making Monique look at her daughter with hope.

“Really? Why?”

“Don’t you get it? She was against the idea of me getting married to Peter, she obviously got jealous and did everything just so I wouldn’t get married to Peter! I would get busy in looking for her but you know what? I am not going to let her win! No! I am marrying Peter no matter what happens.” Irene postulated and Monique rolled her eyes.

“Oh, please! Althea would not mind you getting married to Peter! Besides, she had already taken a loan out for your wedding. If she wanted to disappear, she would’ve done that four years ago, when you went to university. Don’t you think, that makes more sense?”

Irene went quiet, understanding that Monique had more sense to her words and theory.

“Then, she actually got selected for some stupid cooking competition and just got so delusionally selfish that she actually just ran away?” Irene suggested.

Monique nodded her head.

“Although, I don’t want to believe that but I think it is the only possible explanation. The boy who handed me the note this morning, told me that Althea gave that to him, I don’t see the point of him lying. He is a nice boy, Althea’s nice friend and I have seen him around town quite a lot. Besides, Althea always knows how to handle herself. So, maybe she did leave for a competition.”

“Well, so it is decided! We will not waste our time thinking about that stupid girl who just ran away without thinking about the consequences of her actions and we will just go about our businesses. Now, if you will excuse me, I have a wedding to plan. Peter’s mother is going to introduce me to their family tailor who stitches all of their wedding gowns and…”

“There is only one problem.” Seb stated, making both Monique and Irene look at him, as he stood in the middle of the house, holding Althea’s note in his hands and rubbing the back of his neck.

“What is it?” Monique asked anxiously.

“This Secret Chef Hunters’ Society that Althea said she got selected for. She actually didn’t! she got rejected and both Lur and I, destroyed her letter of rejection with our own hands.”

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Well... What do you think will happen now? :D

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