Rotten to the Core

     Seasky College, located in southern New York, was a traditional, promising college with an unique curriculum. With its revolutionary  teaching ideas, Seasky kept up a steady population of intrigued parents and students throughout the years that it had been operating.

     With two daughters, ages 15 and 12, Elizabeth Johnson was no different.

     Unlike any school before it, Seasky College had close to no actual schedule at all. Every day, different teachers would prepare their classrooms—not for certain activities and lectures for different classes, but an innovative and intriguing lab where students could come in, do the activity, and learn something new from it. Students were allowed to roam free in the halls, going to whatever class they wanted at whatever time, taking education into their own hands and deciding what they wanted to learn that day. Of course, there were annual tests to check up on a student’s progress, so if they lacked behind or lacked attendance in most classes, they would go through a re-evaluation process to see if they truly belonged at Seasky College.

     At first, parents were skeptical if this method would truly allow the students to learn anything. But once the first year passed and sky-breaking results were reported from the school, many parents were ecstatic to send their children to Seasky.

     Since 1889, the year when the college first opened, many families had opted for a tradition of sending at least one of their children off to Seasky. Many wealthier families still clung to that tradition, having circulated throughout the family for several generations at that point, and even more were optimistic about their children getting into Seasky. Despite having such fierce competition, one out of three students were still able to enter. 

     Elizabeth believed in Seasky passionately, and hoped that at least one of her daughters would be able to get into the college. Despite having such a well-known name, Seasky operated its business behind closed doors, so the outside world actually knew very little about what actually went on in Seasky other than what they had been told when the institution first opened. But nobody cared about all the secrecy; to them, the important part was that Seasky had skyrocketing grade outcomes, and a high success rate for graduation. 

     It was when Elizabeth’s friend’s daughter, Willow, disappeared, that she began to doubt Seasky.

     Willow had been in her junior year at Seasky when she first began to act strangely. Being more distant from her family, having a shorter temper, and often coming down with illnesses. At first, Selina, Willow’s mother and Elizabeth’s friend, had put it off as moody teenagers(despite the fact that Willow was technically an adult), but when Willow left for her Senior year and never returned home, that was when Selina realized something was seriously wrong.

     Selina wrote to Willow, texted Willow, and contacted the school when her daughter didn’t reply. The school only responded with a short ‘Everything is under control, there is nothing to worry about.’ Selina then contacted the government, distressing the fact that her daughter was off at Seasky and not returning and the school refused to tell her anything about it. The government replied with a ‘We’re sorry, but Seasky operations are outside of our business.’

     When Elizabeth’s eldest, Celina, turned 18, Willow had still not been heard from or returned. So with Willow’s tragedy in mind, Elizabeth advised Celina against applying to Seasky and aim for Stanford instead.

     Not long after, Elizabeth discovered a tweet online from a concerned mother in Minnesota. The mother, Riley, was distressed over the fact that her son James had gone to Seasky and never returned after he left. That made Elizabeth think: What if Willow hadn’t been the only one? What if there were other cases? What if these weren’t coincidences and the school board was actually doing something terrible behind the cover-ups and closed doors?

     So Elizabeth went scouring the Internet for information. And after three months of investigation, Elizabeth had discovered at least 112 disappearances from Seasky in the last half century. 

     Shocking. Appalling. Uprooting. 

     So Elizabeth took the evidence to her lawyer. Wanted a case on the unnoticed disappearances from Seasky in the past years. Wanted justice for Willow, James, and all the other children that had vanished in the last few decades. With 59 furious parents at her back, Elizabeth took the disappearances and escalated all the way up to the Supreme Court.

     Word of the case spread like wildfire. Soon, it was all over the news; Johnson vs Seasky! Who would win the epic debate? 

     Spoilers: Elizabeth did.

     The Court deemed Seasky’s shady business and mysterious ‘coincidental’ disappearances worthy of a thorough investigation. They sent government agents to the college, and for the first time since the school opened, the veil of shadows cloaking the school’s operations was unveiled.

     Revealing the nasty, ugly truth.

     Human sacrifices.

     Human experiments.

     An appalling amount of bullying, miniature wars, and unhappiness amongst the students.

     Seasky was like an apple, red and shiny on the outside, but hiding a rotten, maggot-infested core. 

     And it shocked citizens globally.

     Students were bribed into keeping quiet about the situation. Those that didn’t were used for ridiculous rituals that involved human sacrifices. Seriously?! Who believed in summoning demons anymore?! 

     Others were used as human test subjects. There were plenty of innovative, intrigued doctors at the school, but they weren’t interested in ways to stop global warming or reduce plastic in the ocean. They were more interested in the limits and capabilities of the human body, and just how useful some of the parts would be for using in…certain situations.

     Disgusting. Repelling. Unclean.

     Being the person who first brought up the case, Elizabeth and a guest of her choice were allowed to witness the scene of the crime themselves. So Elizabeth brought along Selina, who was dreading the news about the fate of Willow.

     They found Willow’s body—well, what was left of her body, in the basement, rotting in a pile of corpses and bones that had most likely hadn’t been touched in years. The worst part was, they were only able to find Willow’s left arm. The rest was gone, nowhere to be found.

     Selina was absolutely devastated.

     Through a further investigation, Elizabeth noticed that the ‘ritual sacrifices’ rooms held an odd amount of blood on the floors and walls. More than there should have been with the sacrifices on the main table in the center of the very large room. Almost as if someone had slaughtered everyone present in the room…

     Could it be…?

     No, impossible. Demons and angels didn’t exist.

     Or did they?

     After the case of Seasky was wrapped up, the government passed a new law, stating that no institution could keep every aspect of their business a secret, especially the safety of their students. To prevent such a horrific tragedy as terrible as Seasky from ever occurring again.

     A few weeks later, Willow’s funeral was held. Selina was still in shock from the School of Horrors, as the world had taken to calling it, and Elizabeth grieved for all the losses. The skeletal remains of Willow’s arm, along with a portrait of the blue-haired, sapphire-eyed girl were buried in a local graveyard.

     One night, Elizabeth awoke to the sound of clanging pots in the kitchen. She went downstairs to check what it was, only to find nothing but a pot fallen from the counter.

     At first, Elizabeth assumed it was due to poor placement. But on closer inspection, she noticed that there was a strand of navy blue hair stuck on the handle.

     Green eyes widened.

     Could it be...?