2
1267 Words
"ANOTHER BODY!!?!" The raspy voice echoed off the glass walls of the office — the four head of departments stood serially before the desk.
With the golden name plate on the desk surface etched with the word 'Dean', the HODs stood with their heads dropped to the woman before them.
Her frown deepen as her blonde curls fell over half of her face, her smokey make-up amplified by the threatening glare in her eyes as she did a headcount of the people standing before her.
They were only four; two men and two women.
A vein popped on her forehead, clenching her jaws to the fresh anger brewing in her. "We have seven departments in this college... Yet there are only FOUR OF YOU!"
They gulped.
The two men finally raised their heads. With one being Professor Sylvester of Fantasy genre department, the next was Professor Axelrod of Historical genre department.
The women standing of the left were Professor Vivian of Sci-fi genre and Professor Klandes of Mystery genre.
The Head of Departments slowly raised their heads.
Professor Sylvester cleared his throat softly, finding his courage earlier than the others. "Ms May... The HODs of Romance and Action called at the last minute that they would not be able to make it due to some preparation for their field trips..."
"And Horror??" The Dean, Ms May, asked with a crooked brow.
It was in her known habit to refer to them as the mere name of their department genre than to waste time learning their names.
Professor Vivian then spoke up, "His line wasn't going through..."
Ms May let out an amused chuckle, shaking her head as her fists whitened to her clutch.
"I feel like you all still think this is some fictional s**t happening her in our campus..." She took in a deep breath, regaining her stamina of anger.
"This is the third body this new semester!!... THIRD!" Her palm met with the surface of her desk. "Do you all even understand what this means?!?"
They lowered their gazes.
"Just two weeks into a new semester and we have found three gory remains of our students! All on this campus!!! Do you know what number of strings I had to pull to convince the parents and sponsors to let us run this semester? Now this?!?"
"Ms May..." The timid void of Prof. Klandes echoed as she paused for a moment. "I think we should close the school during the investigation—"
"WE CAN'T CLOSE THE SCHOOL, DAMNIT!"
Klandes clenched.
"We can't close the school because one! The lump of debt we inquired, which we need to pay off by the end of this semester, by means of selling our top students books which they'll submit for exams! Two! Because if we shut the school, how the f**k will we find who is responsible for this when all the students are gone!?"
Prof. Axelrod finally looked up. "You think a student is responsible for this?"
"Well I sure as hell know it isn't any of us! Expect we could the three absent as suspects too!!!"
They remained silent.
Ms May let out an exasperated sigh as she pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Sylvester!"
"Yes, Ms May!?"
"Remind me where all the bodies were found again..."
"Um... Well... The first body, which was male, was found at night in the cafeteria dumpster, butchered. The second, a female, was found in the campus dressed room, stuffed into a locker after chopped into chunks. Then lastly, today, a pile of parts were found in the campus enchanted forest".
"And what was most common with all of them?"
"Aside the fact they were all butchered body parts, they had a rod stabbed into the skull of each victim and..."
May then raised a brow, noticing a pause in Sylvester's words. "What?" She glared.
He cleared his throat, "E- Each body was found by the same student... Evara Moore".
May's expression scrunched into a scowl.
"One of our sponsors' daughter..." Sylvester completed.
• • •
Meanwhile within Class 7.
The students sat silently at their various named seats.
With each white wooden seat spaced between each student, an unusual space was created at the far right side of the classroom where a particular seat at the back was left isolated.
Seated with her head hung down, Evara hand her palms, wet and hot, squeeze on her table as she stared at the tablet and keypad before her. Her shoes tapped repeatedly on the tiled surface as her brown bounced lightly to each tap, shrouding the sides of her face.
Her heavy sacked eyes bore longer on the blank screen before her.
"Why am I not surprised it's her again", a faint whisper from her classmates around, reached her ear.
Another erupted, "This is the third time..."
"Still gonna call it a coincidence?"
"At this point, I don't think they need to investigate any longer..."
"It's either she has the worst luck... Or she's just the bad luck itself".
"Professor said it was a girl's body..."
"Guess she's generous with her victims..."
"Why haven't they even arrested yet?"
"That's the advantage of daddy's money..."
"Over privileged brats and her psychotic hobby..."
Evara's fingernails dug deeper into the skin of her palms, clenching her tightened jaws to the roaming voices that seemed to be getting louder by each second.
Her breath came out strained and shallow.
Why her?... Why?
The question bounced in her disoriented mind over and over again, doubting her luck and even entire existence.
Why did it have to be her... For the third time... Her feet tapped faster.
Why was it only her that found them... Why? Why was she the one associated to the discovery to each body since the beginning of the semester?...
She wet her dried lips.
In an esteem private college
... The biggest creative college in the country, with more than 300 students in each 3 levels, and up to 50 in each levels' class... Why did it have to all be her?
Her school life was already hard enough before all these...
In order to enter such an esteem college, aside academic excellence, each applicant was to submit a draft of their art.
The school's students were of two types. Writers and artists. She was a writer...
And for entrance, their draft of work was submitted for consideration of final acceptance... But as Evara's luck would have it, after she submitted her's, she was summoned by the disciplinary board and accused of plagiarism.
The absolute abomination of this college.
Despite trying to prove her Innocence, she was still accused of stealing the submitted work of one of the top students in their class; but her saving grace from instant expulsion was her father's name and financial stand in the school.
Her father's belief in her was his rock to force the school to still take her... And that was the beginning of her misery as a student...
And as if her horror of her new student life wasn't bad enough, one of the first bodies that were found happened to have been the girl she was accused from stealing her work from.
The cruel lips of gossips and conspiracies showed her no mercy.
From her background, entry exams and curse of finding bodies, Evara's name became the most spoken in all the levels of this college.
Evara trapped her lips between her teeth, unable to bring herself to look up as she felt the skin crawling gazes thrown at her alongside the harsh words.
Her expression fell deeper.
Worst luck, indeed...
- Writer
