Till Death Do Us Part

Chapter 2 - Empathized Murder

Taylor looked back at Finley with a straight face, furrowing her eyebrows and rolling her eyes. She stopped for a minute before saying anything and went back to focusing on class.

"The remaining students and tutors will get extra marks if the project is scheduled adequately," she said with a high voice as she paced the room back & forth.

The class watched in focus, as she empathized on the important roles of each student in the groups.

Mrs.Rodriguez handed each group a green sticky note, with each one having a different project with the students' names that were going to be working on it. Finley inspected the paper and passed it to Taylor.

Finley found the other two names on the paper unfamiliar, "who the hell is Angelo Ross?" they questioned. Taylor shrugged both of her shoulders up, meaning that she had little to no idea. "Heard his name around, I think he's in the photojournalism major" she answered.

Finley's face lifted up like they had a light bulb right on top of their head, as did the many ideas of how they could find out who Angelo was. Aggressive typing on the keyboard could be heard. "What?" Taylor asked, wondering what the young fellow was thinking about. However, Finley did not answer and instead, googled the stranger's name they were going to be working with.

Angelo Ross was a photographer. He was a pretty basic person in style, he never went out of his comfort zone. He was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria where he had most of his education. At 7 years old, he and his aunt Aretta moved to the United States.

At the age of 19, Angelo moved into his apartment and worked as a library assistant at Carroll Gardens Library. It was an easy job -- he helped librarians do their work and organized books.

He was a pretty bubbly, social, loyal, and humorous person. In the pictures the thunderous duo saw, his skin tone was dark, he had brown eyes and he was about 5'10. Angelo was a pretty basic person, nothing really out of the ordinary.

"So where is this Angelo guy? Also, who is Jessica Page?" Finley, yet again, whispered another question.

Taylor sighed, "Finn, I literally only know of these people by their names" she paused, "I have no idea who Jessica is, but I hope she's nice."

By this point, the teacher had moved on to her lesson about homeostasis. The class was quite big, which meant she had space for two boards. One was used for projectors and presentations, the other was for writing with markers. She started by showing a presentation on the projector which was hung up on the roof, pointing to the board.

Everyone at Springfield Uni was pretty much hard workers. The acceptance rate was quite low — so if you were to get accepted, you would need to have a history of straight A's or hacking. There was no space in-between.

As soon as the loud bells rang, Taylor and Finley were the first to get up.

They both walked through the loud hall as their conversations ranged from British shorthair cats to vision with cracked glasses. It seemed like they were getting along.

Walking from class to class, and in no time, the classes were normal and over. Except for a few occurrences that were a tad bit embarrassing.

"No, I told you that your vanilla syrup was very watery." Taylor whisper-yelled, "that's why I had so many pumps of it.." She sighed. The conversation was in rage when they talked about her unhealthy order.

"It literally wasn't, don't know what you're talking about" Finn replied, resting their head on their palm. They both had business class, which wasn't that important for the future the folk was going for, but it was for the young woman.

Coincidentally, Finley was the one focusing instead of Tay.

The teacher's eyes scanned the classroom for who to pick for the next question. Many sat still, others talked like it was recess. "Remember when there was this lady; Cecilia?" Taylor chuckled while Finley was practically about to burst out of information. She continued talking, "she used to sit next to my table at Rosether. Always screaming on the phone about her...."

The pair looked at each other with excitement. "Pink macaroons!" they said at the same time. They both smiled at each other but then realizing they might have been a little too loud.

"Something you two want to share?" the professor asked. Fear washed over Taylor, thinking that she might have gotten a minus and the damage was done -- on the other hand, Finn laughed at the teacher and proceeded to nod their head. "No Mr.Nelson, we're private people."

The only thing left now was the project. And to maybe find the people that were going to present it.

The hallways were loud. Louder than fireworks. It always seemed to be that way, simply because many parties were going to be initiated around the time. Although, something seemed off.

There was too much clatter and loud whispers, which led to many people thinking that something
happened, or maybe is happening.

"You should go ask one of your study buddies what's going on," Finley recommended to Taylor, as both their eyes inspected the area carelessly. The young lady thought about it for a minute. "Alright, I'll go ask Amelia Lewis" she replied, "she's like, the head of the gossip talk!"

With a soft chuckle, Taylor wandered the hall as she tried to find Amelia. Lewis usually wore bright clothing, so it was pretty easy to find her.

As she walked closer to the end of the hallway, the chatter got louder. She was suspicious of what was going on, but she didn't give it a second thought without moving to the next one. Until a female scream was heard from the other room.

Everyone rushed to the same room where the loud, shrilling scream was heard.

The girl was nowhere to be seen just as she ran out of the building with tearing eyes while covering her face in shame. Her body was shaking and she seemed to be on the edge about everything, which was understandable. No one knew who she was.

Taylor stood in awe while being negatively dazed with what was happening. People walked past her and she felt uncomfortable with what was going on. She frantically looked around for Finn, but they were nowhere to be seen.

Lights in her eyes flickered as she saw police in black uniforms wheeling what seemed to be a body covered in a thin blanket from a classroom.

Everyone backed up, giving space while they examined the setting of the place. Police cars and an ambulance parked right in front of the academy as quick as possible. As the police wheeled the body out, the smell of rotting meat was sharp. Everyone covered their noses as the cops evacuated everyone away.

It was extremely chilling for everyone, and God knows what the person who found the body, or had known the deceased person felt.

Many questions danced in Taylor's head. Who was the person? What did they die from? How were they there and who found them?

Was it a murder?