A Special Spot
Maria Madalena Silva (2025).
Her name was Francesca, inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy. Why her parents gave her the name of a lustful adulterer who was doomed to suffer for all eternity in the second circle of hell, she will never understand. Everybody knows she would actually belong in the seventh. And, although she did not grow up to be as lustful as her namesake, she was still quite attractive. She had a boyish beauty, emphasised by her extreme height, for a girl, and broad shoulders, thick dark eyebrows and hair, and even darker, piercing, unforgiving eyes. Her face frozen in a perpetual expression between analysis, judgement, nonchalance and pure arrogance. She also had the sharp mind to match the snobby look. Daughter of two very well-respected scholars, it was only natural that her path led her into the stone halls of an Ivy League university. Just like them.
All her life, she knew exactly what she wanted to pursue. Ancient History. She taught herself Ancient Greek and Latin when she was merely thirteen years old. A prodigy. Poor thing spent so much time studying about ancient civilisations in even more ancient books, she didn't even know that AI was a thing. All she knew was that the academic world would know her greatness. Any other didn't require much of her attention. Fuelled by coffee, three packs of cigarettes a day and a dream, she graduated top of her class in her first two years of her Bachelor's. And now, the time to apply for her Master's was fast approaching. But there was a problem. Her Master's was extremely exclusive, with a very particular Professor. It only admitted seven students. And six had already been chosen before the actual application schedule. Since it wasn't a very popular degree, given the Professor's unique reputation, despite still working truly hard, she didn't think too much of it. Until Nancy showed up. Nancy. Poor little excuse of a charity project for a farm girl in need of a scholarship, Nancy. Nancy from a different Bachelor's, who was already in meetings with the Professor from the Master's. Her parents probably didn't even know how to do basic math. And sure, maybe she got there on her hard work, but that still isn't enough. She wouldn't be properly prepared for the degree. She would be a disgrace to the university. In fact, she would be a disgrace to the entire academic community. She wasn't designed for such a place; she wasn't educated and raised precisely for it. And Francesca would have to remedy that. She would have to spare the poor girl from the embarrassment and the whole of academia from the tragedy of accepting such a primitive mind. Francesca would have to eliminate her.
In her free time, Francesca spent many hours browsing through ancient texts, finding recipes for poisons or torture techniques to dispose of her opponent with. So many options, but which should she choose? She had to consider which was safest for her ambitions. Even though her parents had the means to smother the whole affair, should she get caught, which she wouldn't - and get her out of prison - or, at least, reduce her sentence -, she didn't want to miss her spot in the Master's. There was a lake on the campus, but who would believe that a farm girl couldn't swim? She probably spent most of her time swimming with pigs in the mud, anyway. No, it couldn't be that. It had to be something infallible, something efficient, something genius. Something so obvious, so well-hidden, it would slip right under everybody's nose. To her luck, a few weeks later, there was a blackout in the entire school, some extremely tall stairs, and Nancy walking right on top of them.
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