The Black Heart: A Dark Disturbing Cannibalistic Murder Thriller

Chapter One

Nepolai's body ached. He slumped over onto his desk and found the perfect position to rest. His head sunk into his right hand as he stroked the keys on his laptop slowly. Taking notes wasn't something he needed to do anyways as he already knew human anatomy fairly well. The notes he did take were often random bits of information that he later pieced together to make some sort of sense. His eyelids grew hefty, and he struggled to fight off his body's desires to shut his eyes, if only just for a moment.

His professor paced back and forth across the dry-erase board at the front of the lecture hall, almost soothing him to sleep. He narrowed his eyes and his blinking became drawn out. With each blink his professor was in a different area of the room and his voice faded in and out of existence. He looked at the notepad covering half of his screen. How long can one ramble on about ligaments?

His eyes hovered over to look at the clock. His hopes for the shorthand to be on four quickly were crushed. Fuck! Nepolai's eyes fell shut and would not open even if he wanted them to. It felt great.

"Mr. Caesar!" Professor Rollins barked. Nepolai's head sprung out of his hand. His eyes widened, trying to focus on his glaring professor at the front of the lecture hall.

"Yeah?" Nepolai scanned the room to see his classmates watching him. Many chuckled with grins on their faces. Professor Rollins crossed his arms and stood there stiff with a stale face, not saying a word for what seemed like minutes.

"Mr. Caesar, please tell me what the landmarks for the left intersegmental fissure are?" He placed both hands into his beige khakis. Nepolai rubbed his nose and wiped the sleep out of his eyes.

"The falciform ligament and the left hepatic vein?" He was unsure of his answer. Professor Rollins stared at him.

"That's it?" he raised an eyebrow. Nepolai was silent. Professor Rollins removed his hand from his pocket and popped a cap of his dry-erase marker off and on. "Maybe we should learn when the proper time is to dream about dragons and when to pay attention." Professor Rollins waved his hand with each word that ran from his mouth. "Do it again, and I'll have to ask you to remove yourself from my class, understand?" He dropped his hand to his side.

"Yeah," Nepolai cleared his throat, "understood."

Irritation set in. I can't make any promises though, I mean can you actually blame me for falling asleep in your class? That should be an indicator to move on from your rambling. The only reason I took this class was to fill in my credits for med school. From the looks of it, it doesn't seem like you want to be here either. I mean come on, you've been wearing the same disturbing plaid button-down shirt for two days now. If the old mustard stain under your collar isn't enough, your aftershave couldn't be anymore horrid. Nepolai's nose twitched. He could not avoid the sweet sickening smell of Professor Rollins abhorrent aftershave and his second dreaded tuna sandwich this week from violating his nose. His cat probably unwillingly slapped it together. Nepolai's stomach balled up into a knot. It could not have agreed more with him. Disgusting, did that actually make me hungry? "Ugh." He held his stomach.

✽✽✽

The old wooden doors of the lecture hall squeaked opened. A young woman walked in and handed Professor Rollins a folded sheet of paper. The professor unfolded his glasses he took from his pocket and placed them on his face but let them lean down the bridge of his nose. He glazed over the transfer papers and glared at her from the corner of his eye.

"Miss Rylan Gates, better late than never I suppose." He snatched his glasses off. "We only have ten minutes left, I don't see much of a reason for you to stay, but that's entirely up to you."

He's right, I would have stayed home.

Professor Rollins pointed to the seat in the back of the room.

"There's an open chair next to Mr. Caesar." He handed the papers back to her. "You can make sure he doesn't fall asleep in my class." He glared at Nepolai.

Rylan glanced at the back of the lecture hall before she walked up the stairs and placed her papers into her black shoulder bag. Nepolai glimpsed at her soft cheekbones and watched her honey brown eyes analyze the seat next to him. She sat next to him and placed her bag on the desk. She adjusted her hair and Nepolai's nose filled with the pleasant aroma of orange blossom. Nepolai noticed his heartbeat change in rhythm. It began beating faster and his temperature had risen causing a warmth to spread through his body. He leaned in closer to her and closed his eyes while taking a slow deep breath. His nose absorbed every last bit of her scent into his lung and exhaled. Rylan glared at him in the corner of her eye. Her head jolted toward him.

"Did you just sniff me? What the hell!" She curled her lip in disgust. Nepolai's stomach growled at him. It could not have been any louder. He opened his eyes and leaned back in his chair. His heart slowed down, but every beat slammed against his sternum.

"What? No! Of course not." Nepolai clicked his mouse pad and his screen lit up. Rylan squinted her eyes and turned away, using her bag a shield to avoid him.

"That's all we'll be covering for today." Professor Rollins recapped his marker. "Midterms start next week, so Friday we will review the material you can expect to see on it." The students shut their computers, notebooks, and packed their bags. "Make it a priority to read over chapters eleven through seventeen of Clinically Oriented Anatomy. I will not be doing the work for you." Rylan exited the room with Nepolai not far behind her. She entered into a large crowd of people. He joined the crowd but kept enough distance without losing sight of her.

"Rylan!" a student screeched out and hugged Rylan. She looked just like Rylan, in fact, from a distance it was hard to tell them apart. He lingered in the hall to eavesdrop on their conversation. He stared at his phone and pretended to swipe through it.

"Madison! Are we still good for tonight? I'm not feeling so confident about the biology midterms."

"Yeah, Absolutely, don't worry about it. We have until next week to get you ready!" Madison took out her phone.

"Let's meet at Mouton's bar in an hour. I need to drop something off at home first. We'll grab a drink before we head to the library."

"Okay, Just text me when you're on your way." She waved a goodbye.

I guess I'm grabbing a drink before dinner. Should be fun.