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Anika was a rather bizarre roommate. She hailed from some Middle Eastern country, but Kelly wasn’t really sure which one, and was confident that it didn’t really matter anyway. They had been living together for two weeks now, both college freshmen at State University, and Kelly knew precious little about Anika, mostly because she usually kept to herself. Kelly wasn’t even sure how fluent she was in English since Anika rarely spoke to her, or even acknowledged her presence for that matter. And whenever she was in the room, she spent her time huddled around her desk, furtively toying with some weird foreign trinkets.

Kelly herself was your all-American girl next door…if you lived in well-to-do suburbia. Her family wasn’t abundantly wealthy per se, but Kelly certainly lived comfortably, with most of her things paid for by Daddy, and she was more than a little spoiled. She had been quite a catch in high school, a good 5’3” tall, fairly slim, with shoulder length light brown hair curled into a lovely, bouncy bob. Although she was not terribly well endowed, the boys simply swooned at her smile, when her two perfect and plump lips would slightly part to reveal straight, pearly whites. She never had needed braces, despite the fact that Daddy could more than afford them for her. She even went without lipstick, even on special occasions, because it would cover up her natural beauty and radiant smile.

As Kelly sat characteristically lost in thought about this—it was rare for her to think, but typical for her to be lost while trying—Anika stood up and put on her coat.

“Ya got big plans for tonight?” Kelly inquired perkily, swishing her tootsie roll pop around in her mouth with her tongue and hoping to get some gossip on what her roommate did for fun, if she had fun at all. In response, Anika glared at Kelly, not so much out of malice, but more out of annoyance. As idiosyncratic as Anika was, this was definitely a reaction to Kelly that most people shared. She walked out of the room and shut the door firmly behind her.

Kelly sat at her desk earnestly for a few seconds, tapping her fingers nervously as she heard Anika traipse down the hall and off the floor. She bit her lip in anticipation, and when she was sure the coast was clear, she sprang into action. The curiosity was killing her: she simply had to snoop around Anika’s desk.

She began poking around the desktop, not sure what she was looking for, but knowing she would know it when she found it. There were two odd porcelain figurines on the desk, and a necklace with a turquoise pendant, and some notes from Chem 101, but nothing that gave Kelly any satisfaction. She resorted to opening the desk drawers, hoping to find something, anything, to satiate her curiosity.

She found it in a small, perfectly unassuming black box, about a foot long, six inches wide, and three inches deep. “An ideal box to hide a secret in,” she mused, as she pulled it carefully from the drawer and set it on the desk. With a gleam of excitement in her eyes, she tremblingly pulled the lid off the box and found…..