CHAPTER 28
Well, shit.
The two most accurate words that could ever describe Alice Kirkland's twenty something years on the planet that was oh so cleverly named 'Earth'. Really, billions of billions of people that lived over the centuries of human kind and the best they could come up was Earth? They literally named themselves the inhabitants of a ball of dirt. Could've at least called it Terra, or something.
It was stupidity of humanity that led her to this point, she mused, sitting under the council members' stern glares. They were finally firing her.
Seriously, humans were stupid. Why hadn't they been wiped off the planet by now? Couldn't the universe or a random deity just come up with a flood or meteor?
Alice wasn't saying that she wasn't stupid. Oh, she knew that she was stupid. She just wasn't as stupid as the rest of the lot she had to deal with every day.
Alice made the mistake of calling the police to her apartment. Her conversation with Alfred must've rattled her enough to make her feel like she was going to die that night.
They came over, and with the landlord's permission, broke down the door or the next door apartment. And what did they find? A moldy, completely empty, no signs of entry or exiting studio apartment nearly identical to Alice's.
Some morons on Alfred's squad even had the nerve to report to the council about her supposed "insanity". And now she was here, all because of some stupidity. Funny thing, about being a moron: you'll never even realize you're one.
Being wise enough to see that is a curse.
You're surrounded by the idiots of the world, all alone. The worst is when you're young. Your peers will shun you and bully you until you become one of them, your seniors will simply laugh and pat your head. No one will listen to you. The street smart ones, the ones that survive the madness they're surrounded in, they'll dumb themselves down to the average, only showing a spark of their true selves every once in a pink moon.
Others are driven to madness, into a darker whole than even the averages are in.
Alice could remember what it was like to be one of those kids. She was the weird one. The one that was pegged with stupid nicknames and bullied. She spent most of her early years surrounded by adults, more specifically, doctors. It took her a long time before she was finally exposed to the real world of kids her age.
Despite never going to school, she was at least three grades ahead in all her subjects. She had nothing else to do in the hospital, anyways. So, mentally, she was superior to the children around her, and sometimes even the teachers. It's not as great as it sounds, Alice would say when someone asked how it felt to be ahead.
She remembered distinctly this one principal at her elementary school.
He was a fat man. So much so that the children used to call him 'Mr. Hippo'. For once her and her peers could agree on that.
He wasn't just a fat, ugly man. He was unfair and filthy. He used to bully the teachers and the kids alike. He particularly didn't like Alice. He didn't think girls should be educated in anything but childbirth and cooking. Alice hated him more than anyone else, too. He would constantly tell her father that Alice was failing in her grades, even though she was bringing home A's every day.
But her father was stern about that school. Alice had already been expelled from three other schools before. He didn't need a fourth. So, she put up with the principal hippo. But then he did something that she absolutely drew a line at.
One day, her father was too busy to pick her up from school, so Wilma came, instead. Neither of the girls were very happy about that. Wilma wanted to do her own thing, whatever that was. Alice was in her twenties and she still didn't know what teenage girls did.
Anyways, Wilma came to school and picked her up on time, amazingly. The principal had stood by Alice the whole time, probably waiting for her father to show up so that he could complain about Alice to him.
His jaw hit the floor when he saw Wilma.
She was going through a phase. She wore her hair differently, put on more makeup than should be allowed on a teenager's face, and strutted around in heels and revealing clothing. Alistair used to tease her about looking like a stripper before she clubbed him over.
Around this time of their lives, Wilma and Alice didn't really get along. Even more than usual. Wilma thought of Alice as a little daddy's girl, a know-it-all twerp. Alice quite honestly hardly ever got along with her siblings. But she still loved them, and her principal's actions didn't go unnoticed by her.
He was drooling over at the sight of Wilma's bum, his hand twitching in little squeezing motions. Little Alice was just at the perfect height to see the tent growing in his pants, as well.
She had more fury in her body than its tiny self could take.
She promptly kicked him right in his growing boner and dragged her sister away from him. Alice got grounded by her father, though he didn't allow her a chance to explain. So, she sent a letter to the principal's wife, anonymously of course, telling him about how her husband had cheated on her (It wasn't a lie, he was sleeping with three of the teachers at the school, all the kids knew about it.), what he did to her sister, and the address of the local newspaper man who loved to write about scandals.
The school ended up closing down.
When her father read in the newspaper about how an anonymous letter tipped off the wife and what was written in it, he went still for a very long time. Then, he looked over at Alice and ruffled her hair softly. "Good job, bunny." He said, and then took all the kids out to eat ice cream.
She was on her own, right now. This serial killer that was running around…he'd better prepare, because now, Alice had even less reason to work under the law.