CHAPTER 4: Have I Caught Your Attention Now?
"Miss Myers, you had a question on the functionality reports on economic contraction?" Professor Roberts asked me at the end of Tuesday's lectures, today. I step down the steps with my laptop in one hand and my phone in the other as I look at the dark blue-eyed and brown-haired Professor of Economical Advancements.
I nod, "You noticed?"
He smiles gratefully, "Yes, of course. Unfortunately the class is far too large in numbers for me to properly answer any questions until after the lecture, I had noticed you query about that particular topic. Was it in regards to the main theories of economic contraction?" He offers.
I smile, "Some what. My question was more on deficit spending, the solution for the Keynesian theory, specifically?" I ask him, he raises both eyebrows, before smiling widely as he moves towards his desk.
"I'm glad you picked up on that. No other student was able to but to write and learn at the same time does take a series long processes. Your mind must like to see both the bigger and smaller picture. That's very handy during exam time." He compliments, I crinkle my eye with a tight smile as he opens the slides for me.
He points at the screen, "Right here when I had discussed the insufficiency of total spending, also known as..." He trails off, waiting for me to answer,
"Aggregate demand."
He nods profusely with a small clap in praise, "Yes, brilliant. Now, you spoke of deficit spending, what do you believe that entails?"
What I've learnt about professors nowadays, is when you ask them a question, they will play a mind game of 'can you answer your own question if I-the teacher, aid in breaking it apart and giving you pieces of the question that you had asked?' This may seem confusing, so to round it up, instead of giving me a straight answer, he'll ask me more questions.
It's more than just annoying. Even if it gets one to really think of the answer.
I shake my head, before murmuring, "It's when governments spend more than its revenue, spending more funds than getting money in. I'm confused as to how it is a solution, when it's disadvantage encourages unemployment for the lower levels; staff members, basic employees?" I wonder aloud, he slowly turns to me, looking deeply impressed.
"Do you recall me mentioning that in my lecture, Miss Myers?" He asks me, inquisitively.
"No, was it something you were going to discuss?" I ask him.
He nods slowly, "We'll be getting deeper into each theory over the next three lessons, you're quite far ahead, you won't be needing to know the full extent of the advantages and disadvantages of each theory and the solution of their theories until further into the course." He says to me, with a light chuckle as he collects his files.
I nod, "Thank you for your time." I murmur, he turns the monitors off.
"No need, Miss Myers. I'm happy to help. Unfortunately, I have a meeting with a few colleagues, just close the door on your way out, if it's not too much trouble." He points upstairs at the main door.
I nod, "Have a good evening." He nods and returns my words as he steps down the other side of the lecture room.
I glance down at my phone when I receive a message from Mom, after she called last night and spoke about how everything is at home and asked me questions about the academy and how I was going with everything here. I told her I just need to settle in but that everything was alright. I had ended the call after she wished me 'goodnight' along with Dad, who said to get an early night in and to be safe. I missed them, but I knew how much I want the degree first before returning home to take over the company. Mom started so young when she ran the business...I just didn't think I was ready.
I stared at the phone for a bit, before I glance over to the monitor.
I shake my head, I'm about to step away, when the screen flicks back on, in my confusion, I watch in shock as the mouse on the screen moves towards the file directories and opens them.
Someone's just hacked the monitor.
I watch closely, looking at the file names, I grab my phone and take pictures as the light sensors turn off in the room, I watch the mouse open local disk 'C', it scrolls down as I take pictures of it, happening, along with the desk top hard-drive, I may be able to find the hacker.
It opens a bunch of different files, strange print reports on the junior column, before it types in a name, and not just any name...it types in my name and only one file opens. Under 'Melanie Myers', the screen changes, glitching for a moment, and confusion wafts through my features, before it opens to an old newspaper, dated back ten years ago.
A blonde twenty-two year old, by the name of Charlize Northern. I take pictures of the report, furrowing my eyebrows when the newspaper is copied and pasted into a USB that's added to the other user, who's currently hacking this particular monitor.
I can't but think this was purposeful done in front of me, but most would prefer to hide this kind of information, rather risk someone seeing it if they happen to have stayed in class near the end. My heartbeat increases by the minute as more newspaper articles are opened, Charlize Northern, someone named Bella Cruise, and two other, Stella Blake and Corinne Delia. I furrow my eyebrows, taking pictures of the newspaper articles, Charlize died in the woods ten years ago, cut wounds on her wrists and a note of scribbled handwriting...a confession.
Bella Cruise drowned but no body was found and any witness who had last seen her held no comments...the case closed.
Stella Blake, raped then murdered...killer unknown. Neck broken after clear evidence of being strangled. This case was deemed different because the wounds were shown clearly that someone had attacked her. Her blonde hair was skewed along her facial features.
Corinne Delia passed in an asylum, drug overdose.
Each one of them...light blondes.
I snap the last before the screen goes blank and the lecture room is eerily dark.
CLICK!
I snap my eyes up when the screen behind me lights up, my heart smacks against my chest and I hold the urge to scream as I gasp at what I see. In crooked white letters along a black screen, a written sentence.
'Have I caught your attention now, Melanie?' I gulp stuttering my way up the stairs before the exit sign changes colour, from green to red above me. I pause o the steps, my eyes wide and my phone light on as I scan my surroundings as quickly as possible.
No one was in the room, I sprint up the steps, leaping towards the door, I yank it open with a rip in the air and I shove myself into the light with a crashing speed, the doors slam closed and lock. My breathing was loud and hard, everything felt blurry as I walk away, backwards from the classroom.
My lips trembling as I swallow and jog down the hall in my heels. I hold my laptop to my chest and my phone in my pocket as I run down each level towards the first level. All lights were still on, I sprint down the next hall, around the study rooms, I twirl behind me when a light flickered, having caught my attention before hearing,
"Lemon?"
I snap my curls around, swallowing as I look into one of the open study rooms. Edmund steps up to the doorframe with furrowed eyebrows, he glances down the hall, giving me a look of disbelief as he scoffs,
"You look like you just saw a dead man walking? Here, I'd thought you'd last until the end of the week before losing the plot. I just lost a bet." He says, opening his wallet from his pocket and handing the twenty pound note towards Lyndon, who smirks up at him, before turning over to me.
He looks down at me, his eyes trailing over me but not lustfully.
Edmund nudges his shoulder and gestures he move away, before he turns his silvery eyes back to me, "I'd offer you a shoulder to cry on but, you're so short you wouldn't be able to reach mine. You need to talk?" He asks me, mirthfully.
I scowl at him, "Back off of me." I growl at him, looking back down the hall before strutting away from him, only a hand wraps gently around my arm and I'm pulled closer to a musky scent. Strong and dizzying, but not in the way where sparks shook me to my very core, I didn't like the reaction, especially after whatever the fuck just happened to me.
I look up, his eyes penetrate mine, he tilts his head with a wolffish grin, "Anyone ever tell you that your eyes really exemplify the sour fire in you, lemon?"
I make a point to look down at the hand that holds my arm.
He furrows his eyebrows, letting go as if I burned him, he takes a step back. I look at him in disgust, ranging from his dark suit, from his pale neck, up to his sharp jawline, full lips, across his nose and towards those equally different coloured eyes. He gives me a stoic look, masking his thoughts but I could read him easily, he snapped away from me the second he saw the rippling disgust in my eyes, he purses his lips as he whispers to me,
"Don't give me that look."
"Don't give me reason to." I say, lowly. Turning away from his stilled and stiffened figure, he reared back into the wall of the doorframe, his eyes flare down at me but I turn away, not before I saw a familiar shadow around the corner in front of me, the kind I would normally recognise, because that particular Professor is known for lurking.
I just didn't see his face.
I had no proof.
I never seemed to have proof.
I strut down the hall, making a left before a right and straight ahead, I use my thumbprint scanner I had installed and the pin pad along with the door key as I step into the room. I slam the door closed behind me, taking a deep, lung-fully large breath as I glance over to my room, glad the door was still closed as I step towards it, only to glance over and outside. I place my bags directly next to my room door and lock the front door with just a mere button on my phone. Which also required fingerprint access.
Lorraine was sitting on the hammock, I furrow my eyebrows, stepping towards the back door, I open it to have a look, glancing over to her, I see she's merely reading a romance novel, with a cup of tea on the table.
She looks up at my entrance, "Hey. Where've you been? All classes ended like an hour ago?" She check's her watch, closing the book in her hand.
I feign a shrug of though in just losing track of time as I gesture to her watch, "I was speaking with Professor Roberts regarding a specific notation in his lecture." I mutter.
She huffs in defeat, "That one talks so bloody fast, you're busy writing his so-called important piece of information that's a paragraph long but the second you get half-way through the first sentence, he's on to the next bloody slide. How you deal with him, I honestly don't know? I can't wait to you met Professor Laura, she's honestly so sweet, she's English literature." She says to me, waving her hands in gestures as she explains her stresses to me already.
I raise an eyebrow, "You know the lectures are saved onto videos that are placed on the website under that class, right?" I ask her, she knew I was right but, she gives me a pain-stricken look.
"Do I look like the kind of girl that would re-watch the damn lectures over and over again, when they're at least two hours long?" She asks me, incredulously.
I roll my eyes, standing, "They give you the option to increase the speed of the video." I inform her, thinking she already knew that.
"All the teachers sound like chipmunks when I did that the first time. Never mind, are you ready for dinner, we missed out last night because I was so engrossed in that book." She mutters, I hold the door open for her.
"Did you hear what Professor Forthright was discussing with me?" I ask her, tilting my head in confusion and looking at her, watching her scratch the tip of her scalp in thought.
"It's honestly a blur. I don't even remember getting on the couch, isn't that bizarre?" She asks me, only she giggles afterwards, making me think she was joking.
"Do you remember him handing you the book?" I ask her, unlocking the keypad in my room and placing my bag, laptop and belongs in there. I hide the laptop under my pillow as she gets something from the kitchen.
"He shoved the book into my hands, Melanie but, honestly, he was so preoccupied in speaking to you about...um...what the hell were you two discussing anyway?" She asks me, as I close my door but leave the light on, given what just happened, but talking to her provided a well-thought-out distraction.
"We were discussing a bit on hypnosis, actually." I mutter, a crease in my forehead as I close our main door and using another code to lock it, she folds her arms in front of me, eyebrow raised.
"Weird, considering I was actually hypnotised. It was so strange, I was so caught up in the words of the novel, that I didn't even realise where I was until you snapped the book from me, I saw your eyes and then...BAM, everything came back to me, but your discussion is all a blur, even during the time he was speaking, I didn't even know it was him. That's actually pretty cool, getting yourself hypnotised." She says, walking next to me.
I clench my jaw, but keep my words neutral, "It really isn't, Lorraine. Being hypnotised is a serious thing, look, just when you have your sessions with him, don't read anything he gives you, seriously, don't take a single thing from him."
"You're acting paranoid, Melanie. He's harmless." She says as we step into the cafeteria for the first time.
I blink, pinching the bridge of my nose, "Just, when he asks you personal questions, try to be as vague as possible. Like an English essay, stretch the truth to the point where you would even believe it...he's still a complete strange, Lorraine." I tell her, she gives me a confused look, before glancing over my shoulder.
She ignores my previous words and asks, "Did something happen between you and Edmund?" She asks, I don't bother turning around.
"No, not really." I mutter, glancing back at the line in front of the food, that I assumed came with the package of paying to attend the Academy, considering I didn't see anyone paying.
"He's looking at you, weirdly." She whispers to me, facing the impenetrable stare behind me that I continue to ignore.
"I'm not worried about him right now," I roll my eyes, grabbing one of the green salads specifically, for dinner, as I ask her, "Do you know of the history of this place? When you were researching it for me, did anything strange pop up?"
She looks at me, furrowed eyebrows, "Define strange? But, there hasn't been any reports of something dodgy here, this place has only ever been praised and trophied on just about every website related to them. Seriously, you're not even going to look at him...he looks really strange."
"Define strange?" I use her own words, waiting for her to pick her food, she grabs the lamb salad, while mine was just the Greek one with extra olives.
"Like he's ready to speak to you like he did in the library," She sighs in content, "He's one hell of a man." Her words were pathetically breathless.
"He attempted to dominate me."
"I did not."
His voice is low and deep, held tone of anger and snarling annoyance yet he kept it all within a stiffened manner. Stoic to the bone. I narrow my eyes down at Lorraine who hides a grin as she glides past me and continues walking, to-I assume-where an unoccupied table is. I move my jaw, clicking it in the process as I turn my dark eyes to him, and look up due to his bouldering height.
"You did, but only a liar or someone too dense to recognise it, would deny it." I tell him, tilting my head as I move to step aside, he steps in front of me.
I huff, "What do you want?"
"Why did you look at me like that before? If you thought I was going to hurt you or even be rough with you, you're dead wrong." He mutters lowly, glancing to the side momentarily, both sides. I lean away from him when he leaned down and a scowl reaches his features.
"What are you doing?" He complains, gesturing over to me.
I move my hair over my shoulder, glancing around and glad to see no one was watching, I turn back towards him, as he narrows his eyes at me, "Wow. Is that it? You don't want to be seen even talking to me? You were rude to me too, the first day we met, I'm not looking for anything but to be polite acquaintances." He says.
I glance over, only to make eye contact with Professor Forthright, the only one watching, he had a tablet in his hand and a half eaten burger on his place-setting, but he was watching, and he didn't even try to hide it when he made eye contact with me.
Edmund folds his arms in front of me, "Lemon." He snaps.
My nostrils flare as I turn to him, "Back off of me."
"I am only trying to make amends, you're the one getting angry with me." He gestures my way with an annoyed flick of his hand, I narrow my eyes at him.
"Fine. We're good." I say to him, attempting to move around him, but he takes another step to the side, only he knocks into a girl who's holding a stack of books and his attention is easily diverted when he apologises and helps pick them up for her, she nervously allows him to do so as I am already walking around him and hurriedly towards Lorraine, who gives me a questionable look.
"What is going on with you? A man with that kind of sculpture of a body wants to speak with you and you looked like you wanted to be anywhere else. Do you not like him? Like, at all?" She asks me, I drop into the bench seat across from her and place my salad down.
I run my hands down my face, "No, but I'm not worried about him. I guess I just need an early night or something." I mutter, staring into my salad before opening it.
She shakes her head, "Seriously, you look freaked out. What the hell did he say to you?" She asks me, pushing for more, she glances behind me with her own look of disgust.
I sigh, I didn't want to get angry with her, "He just wanted to make amends, I said 'that's fine' but I made it obvious I didn't want to speak with him because there's no use, we're not friends." I wave her off, stabbing into my salad and staring off into the edge of the table.
"Is anything else going on? Why were you asking about the history of the school?" She asks me, slowly. I look to the bottom of the salad when I see something stuck on the outside and to the back. Curious, I turn it over, considering I was finished and I remove the piece of paper.
"Melanie?" She asks again.
I look up, shaking my head, "No, I was just curious. The place does have a more traditional interior over modern, don't you think?" I ask, easily distracting her when she shrugs and turns back to her meat.
I swallow and look back down, while she pulls her phone out and says, "Oh, Hi, Mom?" I ignore the rest as I open the sleeve.
Written in the exact same handwriting, it says, 'How much more must I steal of your attention, Melanie?'
I snap the page closed as Lorraine laughs, "-No, Mom. I'm only focusing on my studies. You know I don't like alcohol, besides this is business school, no one is partying because we're all so busy. Melanie's fine, finally arrived, only yesterday but she's here." She says, turning towards me, she holds out the phone,
"Mom wants to say 'Hello'."
I slide the phone in my hand, "Hello, Aunt Diana." I answer, folding the note in my pocket as I hear her laughing.
"Lord, you sound just like your mother did when we were still in high school. You two are so alike, how are you, dear? Not working too hard I hope?" She says to me.
I rub my neck, "You know me? I like all the work piling through. How is everything with you?" I ask her, she sighs.
"Work is busy, just wanted to check in with you too, make sure everything is alright. Honestly, Lorraine never answers my calls, it's why I used Trevor's phone. She calls him the civilised parent, can you believe that? I can be civilised." She says, as if huffing, I look at Lorraine, to see she's rolling her eyes, obviously hearing this.
"Of course...but, did you give her four cans of pepper spray, before she got here?" I ask, hesitantly, while Lorraine chokes on her drink but waves me off when I stand to help.
"Are you talking back to me, young lady?" Aunt Diana says through the phone.
My eyes close, "No, Aunt Diana."
"The pepper spray was a means of protection and you can borrow one from Lorraine but, what am I saying? Poppy was bound to have taught you everything she knows, it runs in your bloodline, I believe." She says to me, I hand her a napkin.
"Damnit Diana, you're not terrorising the girls, are you?" I hear Uncle Trevor on the other side, before Aunt Diana huffs and hands him the phone,
"Don't take your mother's word, she still requires a wine before bed." He says through the phone, before I hear a whacking noise and he grunts in annoyance,
"It's me, Uncle Trevor." I say, a smile on my lips as he gasps.
"Whoa, you sound a lot like your mother on the phone, Melanie. How are you and my Lorraine liking the Academy?" He asks.
"Oh, we're still getting use to the area. Do you want me to put on Lorraine?" I ask, he chuckles and says 'yes' after he says we'll eventually learn our way around after a bit of time. I move the phone to Lorraine, who eagerly takes it from me.
"Hi, Dad. How's home alone with Mom and the girls?" She's referring to her younger sisters of eight and nine years...Celia and Cassie, both named after Aunt Diana's and Uncle Trevor's grandmothers.
I glance to my side, looking around. The students kept to themselves, as well as the teachers around the room. I move my amethyst eyes to travel to the food stand, only to meet silvery eyes, I dash my eyes away from his and back to the food stands, that were empty, no staff members.
I narrow my eyes, standing up. Edmund sits up straight when he thinks I'm moving towards him, but I don't give him my eyes as I move away from their specialised table and towards the food, I glance back down at the note in my hands. Moving around the bend, I look at the printed sheet of names, of the staff members and the quality of the food passing rates for health and safety.
I take out my phone and snap a picture of the names, I move a strand of my hair aside, stepping back into a chest, I sharply inhale when two hands touch my waist, helping me fix my footing, I snap my head over and widen my eyes.
Professor Forthright.