"Professor Baker!"
Liam glanced over his shoulder before turning to fully face the approaching woman, "Liam is fine, Miss," he smiled and offered his hand once she'd crossed over.
She was a plump woman, short with a head of hair whose color rivaled the rosy tint of her cheeks. She spoke as she shook Liam's hand, "Yes, right, Liam then. I'm Mary Stormbury, the dean of students, but you're welcome to just call me Mary. Have you been shown to staff housing? Or have you got accessible off-campus living?"
"I'm 'fraid there weren't any flats on such short notice, ma'am. Which way to staff housing?"
She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it with a thin frown, "Are you comfortable with shared living arrangements? If not, we can set up an independent housing unit, but it would take about a day to get everything ready. With shared living, the only times you'd see your housemate are the mornings and evenings, so you only have to share a kitchen. Each side of the housing unit has its own bedroom, full bathroom, and a small living area. The only full kitchen is between the two, as well as a larger living room should you decide to use it."
Liam flashes a charming smile and shakes his head, "For the majority of graduate school, I shared a flat that only had one bathroom with two other men. I'd be more than fine with that arrangement."
Mary laughs lightly and pulls her flip-phone out of her pocket, "Sounds like life was never boring, at the very least."
"Yes, well, that's certainly one way to view it," he takes the chance to glance around and fully appreciate the exterior of the small university. "It really is just a darling school, isn't it? The architecture is beautiful, mid-1800's, yes?"
"Yes, 1841, to be exact, the northern wing used to be a cathedral. There was a fire in the early 1800s, so the church relocated, and our school's founders bought the land. They kept the same structure of the cathedral and simply added onto it, in all of our renovations we've tried to do the same to keep the integrity of the original framework."
Liam nodded, looking over to the portion of the school in question. There was a distinct difference between it and the rest of the school if you were looking for it. It worked well together, he thought.
"And... done!" Mary smiled brightly up at Liam, "I've texted your work phone the address of your building, along with the names of your fellow resident and surrounding neighbors. I hope you don't mind, but you're in one of the housing units a bit farther from others. It is closer to the wing you'll be teaching in, though. If you'll come inside with me, I'll get you a set of keys and the code to the security system." She pocketed her phone and turned on her heel, clicking up the sidewalk toward the school's entrance.
With one final deep breath, Liam locked his car door and trailed behind Mary. Through his peripheral vision, he could see people on either side of him, farther away on the grounds, staring at him. One specific man seemed especially shameless with his staring. Liam frowned but shook his head and stepped into the building with Mary, dismissing the odd stares.
Mary led him into her office, shutting the door behind them and crossing over behind her desk. "We're all anxious to have you on our staff this year, Mr. Baker. Our last physics professor..." she trailed off, her expression twisting into something a bit less than sincere, "Well. I suppose it was his time, he'd been employed here for many many years. He will be missed, though I'm sure he's in a better place now."
Liam gave a slow nod, frowning as they slipped into a thick, uncomfortable silence. He jumped when Mary suddenly broke it with her usual cheerful chide, "Well! Anyways, the past is passed, and the future has just begun. Welcome to the Sweetwine family, Liam. Hopefully, you're just as excited for the beginning of the fall semester as we are. Here's your key and," she writes a series of numbers on a sticky note, "Here is the security code for the house. I'll email you the code to get into the university after hours. The directions to the house are in your messages. It's the house at the very end of Grace Road. I'll also get you a calendar with staff meeting dates and any other documents I find you may need by the end of the week."
"Right, yes, ma'am. I look forward to it, thank you," he smiles and takes the key and code, "You wouldn't happen to know of any good places to eat around here, would you? I've only just arrived today, so I haven't had the time to explore."
Mary gave a low hum and thought for a moment, "There's an excellent diner downtown. You can ask Jared about it, the other resident of your housing unit. Or he may have some other place to get a good meal, but either way, you can ask him. He may seem a bit..." she winces as she tries to think of the right word, "Gruff? But I promise he's absolutely harmless. The rough on the outside type, you know?"
Liam nods and waves at Mary, "Alright, I'll keep that in mind. Thank you once again, and I'll see you soon enough, then. Have a good evening, Miss."
"One more thing," the joy had drained from Mary's tone, her face matching her shift in mood. "Be careful of walking alone after dark, Dr. Baker. There've been some disappearances in the past, and while I don't think it's anything to worry about, I'd much rather be safe than sorry."
"Right... yes. I'll keep that in mind as well, thank you," Liam frowns and walks out of Mary's office, pocketing the key and code. With a final glance around him, he walks out of the building and jogs to his car. The people still outside returned their gazes to him, in fact, some looked as though they hadn't moved the entire time. The bigger man was gone, though. Liam wasn't sure whether that was good or bad.
He shook his head of such thoughts, figuring he shouldn't allow what Mary had said to spark such paranoia in him. She had said it was nothing to worry over, after all.
Once he was fully situated, Liam pulled out of the main parking lot and started on the road away from the school building and toward campus housing. The car radio phased in and out of static, Patsy Cline's voice crackling through every now and then, other times a man's voice broke through, advertising some service or another. He glanced around, watching as the dormitories became further apart from one another and more trees dotted the roadside. The university was still in view, much closer than he would have expected, actually. The scenery suggested he'd driven miles out of town, but when Liam looked to his right, there it stood. Proud and tall, and much much closer than it had any right to be.
The static of the radio got louder, more prominent. Patsy Cline sang about walking after midnight, a man advertised good American family fun, and a third voice cut in and out discussing recent disappearances in Sweetwine. Finally, Liam reached over and turned one of the knobs, the man advertising whatever American family fun entailed now the only voice. Liam sighed and shook his head, giving the knob another turn. "Good American fun, utter hock-shit I say," he mumbled, sitting back as a different man discussed recent disappearances.
"Most recently, seventeen-year-old Thomas Newman has been reported missing after not returning home from an after school meeting of the student union. His parents called several families in the area, none of which have seen Thomas since he left the meeting that day. We advise against any person walking alone after dark; it seems as though the buddy system is no longer just for school children's trips to the zoo. In related news, a body has been recovered from Sweetwine Lake. The identity is currently unconfirmed until an autopsy can be performed. We can, however, disclose that the size of the body, along with the clothing, matches the description of young Samantha Erwin, an eleven-year-old reported missing two months ago. Although the location of her older sister is still unknown, the body recovered was clutching a piece of clothing that appears to have belonged to Sara Erwin. We hold hope that it is a coincidence, though the situation looks grim. Stay together, people. Go home, hug your spouse and children. And if you live alone, find a roommate. Now, let's take a look at this week's forecast. Breaking record he-"
Liam turned off the car after having pulled into the driveway of the house Mary'd described. He doesn't get out for a few moments, just thinks about what was just said on the radio. The missing people were children. Or at least, the two whose ages were disclosed are children. Liam sighs and runs a hand through his hair, leaning back and staring up at the ceiling of his car.
"If there's a god up there, now'd be a great time for him to work one of those fancy miracles. Christ-" he sits up and opens his door with a groan, "What've I gotten myself into?"
After locking up his car, Liam headed toward the front door of the house. He punched in the security code then used his key to unlock the door, taking a deep breath before he stepped inside.
"Hello?" he called, "I'm Liam Baker, Miss Stormbury said this was the house, anyone home?"
The same man from earlier stuck his head out from the kitchen, eyeing Liam up and down, "Yeah, I'm right here. Name's Jared."
Jared was taller than Liam, though only by a few inches. He had long brown hair, the curls piled on his head in a messy excuse for an updo. He wore an uninterested frown, frustrating Liam with its indecipherability.
"Ah, yes. Well, it's great to meet you, Jared. I'm going to go grab my bags, then," Liam smiled nervously and cleared his throat before turning on his heel and walking back outside.
Once he was outside, Liam let out a shuddering sigh. "Right. So my housemate could hypothetically snap me in half. Good to know, I suppose," he pulled the first suitcase from the back of his car, mumbling something about Americans and what the hell they put in the water here.
Liam got the last of his bags out of the car and closed the back, turning around and jumping back when he saw Jared standing right there, "Christ- you scared me. How long were you standing there?"
Jared only offered a single shrug before pointing at Liam's bigger bags, "Just got out here. Thought you might need a hand."
"Oh, well if you're offering then yes, a bit of help would be wonderful. Thank you, Jared," Liam smiled appreciatively up at Jared, receiving only a grunt in return as Jared picked up Liam's duffle bag. He slung it over his shoulder before taking the handle of Liam's larger suitcase as well.
"Wonderful conversationalist, truly," Liam grumbled, gripping the handles of his smaller carry-ons and trailing behind Jared. "Take the job in America' they said.... 'It's a small town' they said. 'Nothing ever happens there' they said. Yeah, Chancey, this is real bloody uneventful."
Jared glances back at Liam, lips twitching up in a small smirk, "I take it you've heard about the... everything," he chuckles and shakes his head, picking the suitcase up to get up the porch-steps.
"Yes, Jared. I heard about the everything. That's a lovely way to put it," Liam huffs and tugs his bags up the steps and into the house, "Should've stayed on my side of the pond."
With a grunt, Jared closes the door behind Liam and himself before carrying Liam's bags the rest of the way to a door off to the right, "Your room and everything is in here."
"Thank you, Jared," Liam opens the door and walks into the room, the first area being a small living room. A television-set with a media player sits in the corner of the room, a small loveseat facing it with a coffee table in between. Next to a set of french doors sits a desk, equipped with a lamp. A bookshelf hung on the wall behind the desk, and over to the right stood a filing cabinet. Liam wanders further inside and finds the door leading into the bedroom, flicking the light-switch-but it doesn't work. He sighs and shakes his head, pulling his bags over to a corner.
"I'll set these on the bed and go get a lightbulb from the attic," Jared mumbles, putting down the duffle bag first before hoisting the larger suitcase up onto the bed.
The room was blanketed in complete darkness and silence once Jared walked out, and Liam hated it. After only a few seconds, he was walking out to follow Jared, climbing the stairs up to the attic.
"I would've just brought you the lightbulb, you know," Jared says without looking away from the box he was sifting through.
"Right, yes, of course. I just didn't want you to get lonely, that's all."
"I lived here alone for eight months of the year for three years before you came along." Jared finally looks over his shoulder at Liam, that same smirk from earlier making an appearance, "Thanks for the concern though, Hercules."
Liam decided he did not like that smirk.
"No problem, really. Just doing my part," Liam looked around the attic, wandering off to a far corner. "Hey there, buddy," he mumbles, grinning when he finds a large spider on a shelf. It crawls toward Liam's hand when he reaches out to look through a box. Liam let the spider crawl onto his hand, watching it as it scurries in between his fingers, attaching webbing here and there. "Nice," he comments as he watched the spider work.
"Get that thing off your hand and come on, I got the light bulbs," Jared called from a safe distance away, scrunching up his nose in obvious distaste for the arachnid.
"She has a name, Jared, though we know not what it is," Liam sighs and sets his hand down on the shelf the spider had come from, nudging her off his hand.
"She?" Jared questions, eyebrow quirked.
Liam grins and nods, striding past Jared and starting down the stairs, "Yes, Jared. She's a mother, pregnant it looked like. And there were little babies on her web, webbing on it for likely their first times. A wonderful thing, really, she seemed a delightful mother."
Jared's face contorted in disgust, "Ah, babies. Wonderful. You don't-you don't have like, pet spiders or anything do you?"
"No, not anymore. I used to have a tarantula, but the move would've stressed Rosy out, so I left her with my sister back in Liverpool." Liam leaned against the wall by the stairs once he got to the bottom. "Thank you again, Jared. For helping me get my bags in and getting the lightbulb for me," he takes the bulb as Jared held it out, "I'm gonna go change it and get out of your hair, then."
Jared grunts in acknowledgment and walks off toward the kitchen, waving over his shoulder.
Liam frowns and shakes his head with a sigh before turning on his heel and walking back to his living area. He takes the desk chair into the bedroom and steps up onto it to change out the light bulb, smiling contentedly once he successfully turns on the light. "Much better..."
Pleased with himself, Liam goes on to start unpacking.
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