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.