COLLEGE

COLLEGE

“Bossier Parish Community College...I don’t even know anything about this damn college” Trudy quipped to Stephanie. “I have never even been to the city like this. I like my little quiet life here”. Trudy lived in a rural area right outside of Shreveport, Louisiana her whole entire life and was a little anxious about living in the city.

“Oh, you are so dramatic!” exclaimed Stephanie. “Change is good, and you’re so sheltered that this will be great for you”.

“Perhaps. Not so much sheltered, my dad is just always fucking drunk. He forgot my 18th birthday back in June. Remember? He wouldnt even realize if I were gone. I just stay in the house because of...you know..what happened with Tiffany 8 years ago.”

“Nobody is even talking about it anymore, Trudy. They think she’s just got eaten by a gator”. Stepanie glanced at Trudy, laughed and shook her head.

“It’s kinda scary how nonchalant you are about all of this, but you’re right. I just feel like someone will find out one day.”

“Classic overthinker. Come on, you have to get going to your first class and I have to get home to take care of some things. Walk with me to the end of the street”.

The girls gathered their bags and walked out the house to the end of the street.

“Alright Steph, I’m gonna go to the bus stop. I’ll see you later.”

“See ya!”.

Trudy made her way to the bus stop, purchased her ticket into Bossier to the community college and got comfortable in her seat. She arrived at college with 25 minutes to spare, but decided to go find her classroom and put her things down so she could explore a little bit before class started. She was taking psychology classes and also a criminal justice class.

After walking around for about 20 minutes, she walked back to her classroom.

“Is this the criminal justice class?” She asked who appeared to be her professor.

“No, thats in room 777. This is psychology in room 666”.

“Oh! I must have read my schedule wrong. I am in both classes...and that’s funny, 666 is the mark of the beast apparently and 777 are angel numbers. Duality”.

“Yea, that’s pretty funny. We all need a little balance”.

“Are you Dr. Hundley? You're the psychology professor?”

“Yes! That’s me! And you are?”

“Gertrude Tolliver, I’m one of your students and I’m so excited for this class”. Trudy smiled at all the students pouring in. She saw a tall, handsome guy walk in and blushed as she smiled at him. He just looked at her and quickly looked away at Dr Hundley.

“What’s up Dr. Hundley. It’s so great to see you for another year” said Colin, sarcastically.

“Yes. SO great” said Dr Hundley as she rolled her eyes.

Trudy laughed. In her mind, she was thinking ‘Colin. I won’t forget that name. He's so handsome. I can’t wait to tell Steph about him. She smiled to herself as she sat in her seat. Other students followed suit and sat down.

“Alright everybody. My name is Dr Hundley and I’m your psychology teacher. I put some textbooks on your desks. Open the green one, volume 1, to page 65. We will be talking about dark psychology and manipulation.”

Trudy couldn’t wait to start her classes. Coming from a verbally and emotionally abusive family, and dealing with abandonment issues, she had always wanted to learn more about why people do the things they do.

After class, Trudy rushed to her Criminal Justice classroom. She was running behind because she was hungry and decided to take a break to eat. As she burst through the door and apologized for being late, she couldn’t help but realize the classroom was almost empty except for 5 other students. One of them being Colin. She sat away from the other students, who had all chosen to sit together, and eavesdropped on their conversations throughout class. The professor didn't feel like doing too much on the first day, so told everyone to peruse the textbook on their desk and talk about crimes that interested them amongst themselves.

Trudy was reading about Jack The Ripper. Jack The Ripper was an enigma to so many. They never got found out and it was still, to this day, a huge mystery to the entire world. Trudy was always fascinated by serial killers and read about them often. As she was reading, she began to lose concentration as she listened to the group of students behind her discussing unsolved crimes.

“YEA!! I REMEMBER THAT. THAT WAS LIKE 10 YEARS AGO!” exclaimed one girl.

“What are you talking about?” inquired Colin.

“Me and... wait, what's your name? Was it Grace? I’m Myra”.

“Yes, it’s Grace and I do remember your name, Myra.”

“Oh haha, yea, well..” she turned back to Colin, “we were talking about the case of that girl who went missing all those years ago and supposedly got eaten by an alligator. I don’t know if I believe that, but I mean all the evidence points to it happening. No weapon or anything was found but there were rumors she was walking down to the creek with one of her friends that night. Someone saw them walking there, but an investigation wasn't ever really properly done”.

“I don’t know, Myra. I mean, there was no evidence of either happening. It’s just a mystery!” said Grace.

Colin looked at both girls and smiled “See, I don't know much about that case, either, because it was just kind of forgotten after the alligator theory. BUT I did hear about the witness seeing them walking to the river. Apparently he found a green jacket there, but never turned it in. That was just a rumor around school around that time, and you know the adults don’t pay attention to little kids like that”,

“What?! I never heard about the jacket. Thats insane.” Said Myra.

“Yea, but we don’t know if that’s true, either.” quipped Grace.

“Either way, it adds more sinister energy to the case” Said Colin. When he was younger, his church was obsessed with the case and believed she was kidnapped or killed and wanted to find the person responsible for this girls disappearance, bring them into their church and ‘heal them from evil’. Colin also believed this theory and wanted the same, even as an adult. He was 19 now and all he cared about was spreading the word of Jesus Christ, his church, LDS, and saving people.

Trudy jumped up from her seat “I think I’m gonna be sick!”. She ran to the bathroom and threw up. As she was washing her face in the sink, the bell rang. She quickly dried her face and began walking towards the bus stop. She only had two classes that day, so it was a short day for her. Trudy’s bus was approaching. She couldn’t wait to get home and hoped Stephanie would come by her house that evening because she really needed to speak to her.

Trudy got off the bus and walked down the street to her house, thinking about the conversations her classmates had with a knot in her stomach. She walked into her house, saw her dad laying on the couch with an empty bottle of scotch on the coffee table, sighed and went into her room, slamming the door. She laid on her bed and dozed off.

Trudy was suddenly awakened by stones being thrown at her window. She glanced over at her clock and groaned “1030pm already?” she said aloud. She walked over to her window, opened it and saw Stephanie. “Girl. Why don’t you just start coming through the front door. My dad is always passed out, he wouldn’t even know or care. Probably wouldn’t even know what was going on haha.”

“I like this whole window thing. It’s nostalgic for me haha.” Stephanie climbed through Trudy’s window and into her room. She looked at herself in the mirror and sat on Trudy’s bed. “So...tell me about your day”.

Trudy told her all about Colin, the cute, tall guy with dark hair and piercing eyes. Stephanie laughed and encouraged her to talk to him, a notion to which Trudy quickly shook her head. They laughed about it, and Trudy told Stephanie they had to talk about something really important. She told her about how her classmates were discussing Tiffany today and how a green jacket was found. “Remember, I was wearing a green jacket and you told me to take it off and get rid of it because there was blood on it”.

“OHHHHHH YEA! I do remember that. I don’t ever remember hearing about it being found though. Someone either just made it up or was following us”.

“Yea, but if they were following us, why not out us? If they weren’t following us and made the story up, why be so specific with the color of the jacket? Was it just a guess? Or do you think someone really saw us?”.

Stephanie looked worried. “I’m starting to think someone was following us”.

“YEA, BUT WHO? And why would they not turn us in?”

“I don’t know Tru. This is so weird.”

“Yea, I don’t know either. Who could it be?”