[Fiction] The Life Ruiner

[Bea]

Introduction
"The Day Ariel Was Found"

There were just over five hundred people on the course, yet every single one of them knew Ariel Hamlet, even before the incident. A group of people of that size, who saw each other every day, sort of created it's own micro-society and in this ant colony, Miss Hamlet was a celebrity. Unfortunately, she wasn't a "Tom Hanks" kind of celebrity, known for her kind heart and charm. While there were those kind of people on the course, Ariel was not one of them.

Hence, why when the first lecture of the day opened with a curtain falling to reveal her naked and tied to a chair: many found it very hard to feel sorrow for the young woman. Her face was terrified, a ghastly shade of horror and eyes which looked like they wanted to close, but couldn't bring themselves to. She watched, in pain, as some of the class raised their phones just barely, but obvious enough to make it clear to anyone paying attention. She knew that this wasn't going away any time soon.

While no pictures ever made it to Facebook, the whole university was in discussion about the event. While many just pointed and laughed at the poor, exposed bitch - some of the more sympathetic sparks had more thoughts on the area. How had this happened? This wasn't some casual prank which happened every day. This was a big league play, unprecedented... and what a precedent it had set.

Chapter One
"Not Long Later"

The second we made it out of the lecture theatre and were back in the safety of the common room, we couldn't hold the laughter together. The whole room erupted: the majority in laughter and gleeful chatter, while a good portion took the situation far more maturely and discussed the quite serious implications of what they had just witnessed.

"How does that even happen?" were the first words to leave my best friend, Kyla's lips.

They weren't said with the sincerity that one might expect. My friend, Kayla, seemed almost too happy to have seen Ariel Hamlet ruined in front of the entire course and I can't say I didn't blame her. The two of us had thrown ourselves on to the sofas in the furthest corner of the room - undoubtedly the best spot, in the large social area. There was no chance of getting a seat there unless you managed to wriggle out of a lecture early: say, if one of your course-mates was found naked at the front.

"How does it happen, though?" was my response, much more serious and rhetorical than Kayla's had been. "We all heard her, she had no idea how she got there."

"Do you think she was drugged?" Kayla said.

We made eye contact, both thinking the exact same thing. How naive we were, even at that moment. The two of us did not think that Kayla had been drugged at all, nor did we believe that she had been put in that chair against her will.

"Wouldn't put it past her," I shrugged, staring around the room as the noise levels slowly rose and more and more heads slowly started to chirp their way in to the room. I thought about it for a few more seconds and doubled down on my argument, "Nobody is perverted enough to just tie a random girl to a chair, but I can definitely see her doing it for attention."

Kayla nodded her agreement, but she didn't say a word as she was already halfway through her lunch. I shot her an annoyed glance and flashed her the time, on my phone, as I broke down in to a laugh. She shrugged the '9' off, her face lighting up in to a fairly cheeky grin.

"Who do you reckon it was?" came the jolly, recognisable voice of Ian, to our right.

We turned to look at the gentle giant who was approaching us, his signature white teeth lighting up half of his face and his bright blue eyes just adding to the radiance that his body gave off. I threw a glance at Kayla, who was still committed to the sandwich and decided to speak on her behalf.

"Oh, come on. It was obviously an attention grab," I said, half mockingly. I didn't say it too nastily, not wanting to put Ian down. "Do you really think somebody tied her to that chair naked? There's CCTV everywhere!"

Ian shrugged, reaching in to his pocket at the same time. "Did you not see this post on Facebook, yesterday?" He thrust the phone in to my hands. My pet sandwich eater stood up to try to get a look, but gave up when she realised that she would have to move more to read the text on the screen.

Dear course-mates,

I'm sorry that I have to be the one to say this but I want you all to know that you are the most stuck-up, arrogant people that I have ever come across. Expect to be knocked down a peg or two. One. By. One.

Life Ruiner.

I almost found it hard to keep a straight face as I read through the post. It just read like some neckbeard bullshit from the depths of Reddit.

"Life Ruiner, seriously?" I shook my head, full out laughing to myself, "You honestly think this was some vigilante who did this?"

Ian shrugged, a little disheartened but the smile still stood on his face. Teeth ratio about 40%. "I dunno, she seemed quite humiliated for someone who did it to herself."

There was an odd moment of silence, where all of the conversations in the room blended together in to a master mix of white noise.

"I just don't believe anyone else can be that twisted," I replied, finally coming up with a response.

"Guess we'll have to wait and see," said Kayla, finally free of the sandwich's grasp.

[alli55]

Nice start! Keep up the good work! I look forward to seeing where this story goes!

[Greatcornbow]

Promising start. Awaiting Episode 2!

[Bea]

Chapter Two
"Twice is a Pattern"

Nobody doubted the existence of the Life Ruiner for too long. It was almost as if he, himself, anticipated the doubt and wanted to make it very clear that Ariel Hamlet was not going to be the only victim. Hence why the Life Ruiner chose the very next day for their next assault.

After lectures had been cancelled early the day before, the theatre was a bit restless as the first one began but soon settled down as the day starting to swing forward and the crowds of people who were hoping for some drama soon slumped down in to the usual bored status. After the first break, a good portion of the room cleared out - clearly disappointed that there was no naked girl to greet them. Ariel had not been present, from the start.

For those that stayed, their patience was rewarded as the third lecture of the day saw the second victim of the Life Ruiner have their life... well, ruined. The lecture was being headed by the head of the course, the most important woman in the building and she made this very clear with her introduction speech.

"You should all, already, know about the crime that took place here, yesterday," she said, her voice ice cold, "I want the culprit to know that just because the cameras were down, it doesn't mean you got away with it. The police are on the situation and you will be caught."

That was the most exciting part of the lecture, for a while. Until the halfway point, when the screen behind her went black. It took her a moment to realise this, carrying on her line of thought before coming to a stop.

"Hm, that's odd," she grumbled to herself, already starting to poke at some wires. "There we go!" she made a little joke to the theatre, as the screen came back on.

It wasn't on her slideshow.

A young man was on the screen, staring straight out towards the people in the lecture theatre. He was topless and only had a pair of boxer shorts covering his genital area, but it wasn't too effective - as his penis was slipped out of the top and currently in the grasp of his hand, vigorously shaking. The guy was no stranger, it was another class-mate: Maxwell Yaughts. Not many knew him, but the majority had seen him around. None had seen him in this state.

The class just stared in horror as we watched him jerk himself off, clearly unaware that we were all watching. The lecturer took a moment to react, astounded by what she was witnessing, she went to pull out a cable: but the image remained on screen. She ran out of the room, clearly to find someone to help.

She didn't need to, however, as soon as she left the room: Max finished and so did the video feed - the presentation returning to the screen.

I cast a look over to Kayla, she cast the same one back. The Life Ruiner was real and he clearly wasn't just targetting the whores of the class: he was doing exactly what he said - everyone.

-

It was hard to think of assignments once I arrived back at my flat, but it was a necessary evil. I had hoped they would take my mind off of the Life Ruiner, but all they did was make me worry about two things. The crate below my bed seemed to be cackling at me, whenever I got distracted. It was difficult writing as my hands kept shaking. What if I was next?

After hours of hard work, I opened the crate under my bed and made a decision. I couldn't make myself a victim to whoever this criminal was. I glanced at the packages in my crate. Especially if they ever found out about what's in here.

No, I was going to make sure Max was his last victim. I was going to catch him.

With this thought on my mind and ideas of suspects already starting to form in my mind, I reached in to the crate and pulled out a pull-up, ready for bed.

[Sydney_sub]

Awesome story, thank you for the update.

[Greatcornbow]

Brilliant!

[Argeaden]

Wow brilliant story waiting for part 3

[LilMonki]

Keep up the great work, this is fantastic!