Irises of Apricot

Tuesday, September 10th, 12:15 pm

"Did you hear what happened yesterday morning?"

"Sure did, but why was she found dead outside of town?"

"I hate to say this, but I don't feel that bad..."

Those were the typical conversations I heard echoing the unusually somber campus hallways on the first day back. Generally, the hallways are nearly empty as everyone gathers at the cafeteria for fun. Today, hundreds of people gathered in small groups confiding about what they've heard on the news. As I passed by, I began to eavesdrop and heard everyone else's opinions about what had happened to her.

"I can't believe she was found dead by the outskirts of town" That part was true.

"I'm pretty sure that girl walking by with the red, full-frame glasses killed her out of jealousy" Not at all true.

"Why aren't the police on campus? Shouldn't they have asked that chick why she was there by her death site?" The police already questioned me yesterday.

"The girl that died probably took her own life..." A possibility but most likely made up for drama.

I knew most of the details that happened to the student that died yesterday. But even I had no recollection of one particular time.

As I walked into my first afternoon class of the day, I began to write down what I had remembered and what the hell happened that tempted her to bring me outside of town.

Monday, September 9th, 6 am

Hey, Lucy could you stop by my place?

I had forgotten to put my phone in sleep mode and was abruptly woken up by a loud bell sound. I immediately texted back: What do you want? It's 6 am. Don't text me like you're my best friend.

The girl and I were partners on a project. We had a falling out due to her doing absolutely nothing to help. She had bragged about "being able to pass because of my work", so I told the teacher that she did nothing to contribute despite seeing her in town all the time.

I know, I know. I'm still mad about that but, you need to stop by. You forgot something at my house.

What'd I leave? I'm not stopping by if you don't tell me. I replied.

You left a pretty necklace of yours and I just noticed. Come get it, k? She texted back.

I groaned and quickly got ready to get my necklace and leave. The early morning sunlight straining my eyes, I put on my black sunglasses and drove to my old classmate's house. I already had plans for today, like not being around Irene. I'm usually tolerant with classmates that refuse to work, but Irene was both incompetent and was hypocritical. Irene looked down on anyone that was not deemed "good enough" for her.

I was not looking forward to my day, and I had only woken up 10 minutes ago.

While driving on the quiet, less busy streets, I took in the morning sunshine. Waking up so early is the worst for me, being all cranky and running on snacks that energize me for a few hours. Being greeted by loud students was also isn't a fun routine for me.

Good on people having fun, but I get headaches from loud noises.

Speaking of headaches, as I parked on Irene's driveway, I was greeted with her waving at me from her porch. Her outfit was obnoxiously yellow, and her blonde hair was in pigtails.

"Lucy! You should come inside! It's the day before classes start, and I want some company!" Irene cheerily suggested, her apricot eyes twinkling in the morning light.

"I'm only here to get my necklace. If you want company, you should go ask someone that weren't tortured by your ramblings" I grumbled, glaring at Irene, who smiled like a child.

"...None of them were free right now."

"Now? It's 7 in the morning, and college students need at least 3 hours to stay somewhat alive." I sarcastically remarked as Irene rolled her eyes

"It's 10 hours of sleep for girls our age but whatever, just make yourself at home."

I walked into her cozy and white-themed house that had the appearance of a familiar film I had seen before. But before I could analyze further, Irene had offered me tea and cookies that I declined.

"Sorry, I lost my appetite. I'll eat some other time."

That was a half-lie. I never had an appetite early in the morning, and I had no interest in humoring a spoiled college girl.

"Are you sure? I picked out my favourite unicorn cup for you!"

"A selfless act" I said sarcastically "...but I'm good"

"Oh. So, about your necklace...I lost track of where it was. But I had it with me this morning, and it was a quartz coloured necklace that had a mango tree picture in it. I'm sorry, Lucy!" Irene began to sulk in her silk-brown couch, looking as if she was about to cry.

I sighed and took a seat on a soft, yellow couch. I knew Irene was exaggerating her feelings, so I kept my mouth shut. Despite our physical comfort, we were both unwilling to talk for a while, as Irene began to scroll on her phone while I just stared at the window pretending anything interesting had happened, like leaving Irene's house for good.

"So... I wanted you to come here for a reason." Irene slowly breathed out and looked up at me "I also wanted to say that I shouldn't have ignored you when we were working on that final report. I wouldn't have to retake that class, had I bothered to do anything-"

"I don't care about that anymore" I stretched my arms, semi-lying about the statement I just made. "We don't even have any classes together because I transferred to a different program. So who cares?"

"I care! I acted like a selfish brat the whole project, and you got an 87 on your own!"

I raised an eyebrow at the fact she brought up my grade.

"Wait. How'd you know I got an 87%? I stopped replying to you in mid-April about anything for the report."

Irene stared at the wall as if she didn't hear what I asked.

"... My whole point is, is that I'm sorry. I just want us to be friends and forget what happened"

Refusing to elaborate on my frustrations, I decided to leave Irene's house. I no longer wanted to hear her apologize or talk to me. She wanted to mess with me, and she knew that I knew her intentions.

"Alright, I'll be on my way home-"

Unfortunately, Irene had other plans and had smashed her phone at her wall and had booked it to her backyard. Outside the house laid small patches of flowers that were slowly wilting in the late summer's breeze with seemingly endless woods further down the road.

In a panic, I froze, unsure of whether I should have left or stayed. Looking back, perhaps it was better than I did run after Irene.

After a moment of hesitation, I gave chase. I had hoped to prevent any stupidity that Irene could have potentially planned. Keeping up with her was nearly impossible, and I had ended up lost in the woods at 7:30 in the morning. Less than ideal for a day before college started.

Panting halfway through the forest of endless white pine trees, I had pulled out my smartphone for any directions on where to go. At that moment, I wanted to call for help, considering Irene ran into the woods for no good reason.

Until I had looked up and spotted a Barn Owl at the corner of my eye, it should have been asleep by now, but perhaps something had kept it up this early. The owl glared back at me as if it had known me and knew I was doing something wrong.

I turned my head only to spot the rising sunlight to the east.

"Hey! You!" A woman cried out to me.

Without hesitation I had run toward the voice, in the distance three blurry figures had appeared before me. One woman lay down, and the other two standing around.

"What the hell?!" I shouted as I laid eyes on Irene, laying eerily still on the ground.

"We just saw her collapse... she has no heartbeat," One woman said in a panic as the other reached for her phone.

"Are you kidding? She just ran off after I was at her house. What is she doing dead on the floor?!" I yelled as one woman in a white fur coat was attempting to check for external injuries as the other in a leather jacket called for an ambulance.

I was in a state of absolute fear.

Not only did she collapse out of nowhere, which was strange enough. Her organs were turned into dust after the ambulance had taken her in. No sign of poison, no signs of a struggle, no external injuries, nothing seemed off. What was odd was her insides suddenly turning into dirt.

A large portion of my day took place at a police station in for questioning around 2 pm after medical professionals had determined something so odd. I had been anxiously waiting since they took me in around 7:40 am. What was worse was that my parents were worried sick, and Irene's father was in an understandably foul mood and insisted that "I killed Irene.".

"Were you two friends?" The officer asked sternly, his eyes locked on my every movement.

"No, she was my former classmate who invited me over to her house to give back a necklace of mine and wanted to apologize for her not helping me with school. If you want I can show all the texts her and I had" I suggested, hoping to convince the officer that I was not involved in Irene's death.

"I'll take your phone for a couple of minutes. Wait here." The officer instructed as he shut the door, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

I nodded, and stared at the wall for a good 10 minutes.

"Nothing of suspicion on your phone. We've have officers on sight for the past 4 hours at Irene's house searching for any sign of murder. We recovered your necklace on her nightstand and traces of cyanide in a purple cup filled with milk-"

"Cyanide?? I-I don't mean to interrupt but did that purple cup have a picture of a white unicorn on it?"

"Yes, it did, why do you ask?"

"She offered me milk in that cup...I declined because I was petty enough to decline her offer" I said with a shutter.

"This changes quite a lot. We assumed you had killed her considering you two were in the woods. But the two women witnessing Irene dying from a sudden collapse and her offering you cyanide turns the table." The officer starred at me no longer with a stern air, instead with slight pity.

"Perhaps she had intended to kill you. While the other officers searched her house, her internet history was worrying. She had looked up cyanide related questions and searched up a lot questions about "death" from the past year. We need to have an investigation team about Irene's organs turning to dust, but from what we have so far, she likely had intentions to harm you because of your strife from school."

After answering a lot of other tough questions, the officer had let me go around 7 pm after background checks and hours of puzzling questions about what had happened during the woods. They concluded that I was no longer a suspect.

Before I left the station informed would keep a close eye on my actions. Which is understandable, considering I was the only one around the time of Irene's death with the two passerby's having tight alibi's.

Friday, September 13th, 4 pm

For the final time, I went back to the forest to try and make sense of everything that happened with Irene. The fact she likely tried to kill me was already a disturbing thought. But the fact that her organs turned to dust was extremely questionable. The sun had began to set and I heard a buzzing on my phone

Hey Lucy, you wanna get some take-out? My treat today! A friend of mine had asked.

I'll gladly take up the offer, thanks! See you in a bit. I replied, with a small smile on my face

As I turned my back to the woods, I had heard an Barn Owl's call behind me. It was just standing behind me, glaring at my face as if it knew me. In its beak was a peculiar stone that it laid before me.

"Huh? What's this?"

As soon as the horror hit, the Barn Owl took off into the dark patches of the forest.

It was Irene's eye. I had no idea how I picked up on it so soon, but her apricot iris stared back at me, as if it were alive. I attempted to take a photo for proof, but the eye moved. Then it turned into dust before I could get a good photo.

Even in death, it would seem that Irene still managed to make me feel awful.