The Devil’s Cage

The muzzle flashed.

The heavy smell of firepowder entered Amy’s nose.

It was the first time she realized how pungent firepowder was.

She widened her eyes at Carrie Mayden’s bursting head, like a watermelon being squashed by a truck.

Blood and brains flew everywhere but no one in the hall seemed to be frightened.

Quite the contrary, everyone laughed out loud, dancing around Carrie Mayden’s body like it was some kind of festival.

Even the female butler’s body was pulled over by two men. One of them held her hands and one of them held her legs, making her dance like a puppet. The dead female butler’s head wobbled left and right along with the dancing.

Then, under Amy’s horrified gaze, the female butler’s body was tossed up high in the ceiling.

It didn’t fall back down though, she was impaled into the chandelier on the ceiling.

Amy didn’t know chandeliers nowadays were so sharp.

Drip, Drip, Drip.

Blood dripped off the body and as the wound got bigger, blood starting to shower the hall.

The party had begun!

Everyone cheered and screamed loudly, taking off their coats and dancing in the bloody shower, including Richard Mayden. The millionaire in a proper suit ripped the buttons off his shirt and strode over to Amy.

Amy stepped back, instinctively scared, even more so when Richard Mayden extended his blood-stained hand, turning around and running for her life without a second thought.

However, the moment she turned around, she missed her step.

“Arh!”

The falling sensation made her scream but she realized something wasn’t right.

She didn’t fall on the cold hard floor, but the sofa.

The sofa?!

Amy was astonished, sizing up her surroundings.

The big, specious room, the sofa, the ceiling full of diamond spotlights, and the big screen on the wall.

The recording room?

Before Amy could react to what actually happened, the door to the recording room was pushed open.

“You said it’s just an experiment! Why the hell did it kill?!”

“It was an accident! Accidents happen!”

…

The familiar conversation that happened before happened again right before her eyes.

Dumbfounded, Amy hid herself in front of the sofa, waiting for the two of them to leave.

After they left, she didn’t go on anymore, instead returning to where she came from.

Through the long corridor, Amy reached the side door leading outside but when she pushed it open, she was dumbfounded again.

She returned to the recording room!

Unwilling to believe it, Amy went back where she came from again but she ended up in the recording room again.

She tried a third time but she got the same result.

After the third try, Amy was exhausted, running with all her strength for the last two times.

She widened her eyes at the surroundings, her gaze was full of fear of the unknown.

“Calm down! Calm down! That guy told me to calm down!”

Amy muttered to herself while breathing heavily.

She didn’t know what she was facing.

She looked at the door leading to the villa’s hall, hesitating, wondering if she should open the door?

Would the security guard appear behind the door?

Would she end up in the villa’s hall once again?!

The worst thing was… her mobile phone had no signal!

It became impossible for her to contact that guy!

“Damn it! Men are always so unreliable!”

Amy cursed softly, clenching her teeth as she walked to the door with light steps and then carefully opened the door.

Similar to the last time, she saw the security guard and the security guard saw her, but this time, before the security guard pulled out his gun, Amy launched a kick at his crotch.

“OUCH!”

The security guard covered his crotch with both his hands, falling to the floor with his mouth opened wide, as if he was experiencing the most painful sensation that a man could possibly feel.

Amy didn’t hold back at all, poking the security guard’s eyes with her right index and middle fingers.

“Aarh!”

The security guard covered his eyes with one of his hands while the other remained on his crotch, curled up like a cooked shrimp on the ground.

The painful moans from the security guard soon stopped because Amy smashed her handbag on his neck heavily.

The accurate blow plus the precise strength knocked the security guard out.

After making sure the security guard was out cold, Amy strapped her bag across her shoulder and stuffed her heels into her handbag.

She also took the gun from the security guard.

Clumsily, but not a stranger, Amy unloaded the magazine for a check.

For the sake of her own safety, Amy always practised mixed martial arts in the gym. She was also a regular at the shooting range, it was just that the assault rifles in the range were a little different from the handgun in her hand.

Still, the training from the shooting range allowed her to quickly get her hands around the handgun, then she carefully moved deeper into the villa.

With the freaky experience earlier, Amy managed to sneak herself to the other side of the hall.

She saw a body on the floor covered in white cloth and Richard Mayden, looking peaceful as ever.

The guests in the hall were also the same from before, but this time she saw the female butler!

‘The butler isn’t dead?!

Then who the hell died…’

Amy shifted her gaze to the body covered with white cloth.

Could it be Carrie Mayden?

Amy wondered and soon, she got her answer.

Richard Mayden walked to the body covered in white cloth, lifted a side of the cloth and revealed a beautiful yet pale face.

Richard Mayde carefully examined the face, he had no expression on his face, his gaze dull, like the body under the cloth wasn’t his own daughter but someone irrelevant.

He lifted the cloth further, examined the body from top to bottom carefully.

The cloth was then tossed on top of the body and Richard Mayde turned to his butler.

“What happened?”

His voice was just like how Amy remembered, flat yet pressuring.

“I don’t know. Miss Carrie was drinking earlier, but all of a sudden, she fell down.”

The female butler explained nervously.

“What about the glass?” Richard Mayden asked.

“It’s safely kept,” She answered.

“Em. Have it checked and I don’t want anything that happened today to get out of this house. Tell the outside world Carrie died of a sudden heart attack, no accident, no killer, understand?” said Richard Mayden solemnly.

His words weren’t just for the female butler, it was meant for everyone else in the hall.

All the guests nodded in agreement, no one dared to reject him. They did not want to offend someone as big as Richard Mayden because of this kind of trivial matter.

All agreed except… Amy!

Amy was always good at reading the situations and judging the bad and good, but when she saw this scene, anger got the best of her.

As though she was showered by gasoline, her anger burned hot.

“HOLD ON!” She shouted and rushed out from the corner.

All the guests were shocked and horrified when they saw Amy come out with a gun in her hand.

The security guards quickly stepped in and placed Richard Mayden behind them, pointed their guns at Amy.

Amy had transformed into a fearless warrior at this moment.

“She is your daughter! Is this how you should treat her?!” She questioned Richard Mayde behind the wall of guards.

“I do not need some woman to teach me what I should do with my daughter!” Richard Mayden waved his hand.

Many more security guards appeared in the hall and jumped on her.

Amy resisted but all she knew was some common martial art practises, she was no match for these professional guards. She didn’t even have the chance to fire her gun and she was pressed down to the floor.

“Ridiculous.”

Richard Mayden walked to Amy, grabbed the gun from her and pointed it at her head.

Without a second thought, Richard Mayden pulled the trigger.

BANG!

Amy ‘saw’ her brains splattered. She saw herself in an evening gown, lying on top of her own blood puddle, the people around her laughing and cheering, watching ‘her’ run away.

Then..

She ‘saw’ herself in another elegant dress, sitting in a luxury car she dare not even dream of with her salary while attending all sorts of high end places.

She ‘saw’ the people around her kneel on her arrival, everyone looking at her with utmost flattery and care. She then realized behind her was her father, Richard Mayden!

She preferred to call the man Richard Mayden, not father.

The man who shrouded her life like a giant shadow in the sky wasn’t her father, it was Richard Mayden.

She hoped to be like normal people, but countless shackles, chains, and constrictions bound her down.

Threads from the heavens came down and tied all four of her limbs, her torso and her head up, and on the other end of the threads was Richard Mayden’s hand.

She was like a puppet on strings, allowing Richard Mayden to do whatever he pleased to her.

He played her, teased her, put her in arrangements against her will.

She tried to scream but her vocal cord was cut off.

She tried to write but her arms were broken.

She tried to flee, but her legs were also broken.

She was Carrie Mayden only when she stayed quietly under his grasp.

The slightest resistance would turn her into something less than a criminal, even a criminal has a death option.

And her?

She couldn’t even choose to die!

Death in this world wasn’t the end.

Amy laid down, she couldn’t move at all.

Time felt like it was prolonged unlimitedly.

After a very, very long time, she came back to her senses and she found herself on the sofa of the recording room. Beside her was Carrie Mayden, whose head was smashed beyond recognition.

“Is this what you are trying to tell me?” Amy asked softly at the body beside her.

She wasn’t scared, she wasn’t afraid, all she felt was sadness and pity for the dead girl.

For a moment back there, she ‘was’ Carrie Mayden, she had been through Carrie Mayden’s life in a flash, including her death!

Nothing in the world could get a hold of someone else’s secret completely, not even the parents, or the wife or the husband, yet Amy got to know everything about Carrie Mayden.

The secrets that Carrie Mayden wanted to keep, wanted to bury, everything was made known to Amy.

Amy wanted to adjust Carrie Mayden’s posture, so that she could sit properly and probably feel better, but the moment she touched Carrie Mayden’s hand, tears rolled down her eyes.

Carrie Mayden also fell on to the sofa, black blood flowed out from her head and the tears from Amy converged with the river of blood.

“You placed your hopes in me because you don’t trust anyone in this villa, even the person closest to you. Instead you chose to trust an outsider like me.”

Amy wiped her tears, taking off her coat and covering Carrie’s black blood, even though it was less than helpful to the dead Carrie. Nevertheless, Amy thought it was necessary out of respect, just like how she thought it was necessary to tell the world about what happened to Carrie.

Some men must be punished.

Amy stood up, and after another glance at Carrie’s body, she went back through the side door.

Tom and Jerry were still on guard in the garden and when they saw Amy, they ran over to her with wagging tails.

“Sit.”

Amy caressed their heads after telling them to sit, then left with a heavy heart. Throughout Carrie Mayden’s life, she too trusted these two guard dogs but no matter how good they were, they failed to protect Carrie.

They still could protect Amy though.

Grrrr!

Just when Amy was about to go out from the door, the two guard dogs growled alarmingly in another direction.

Footsteps came from inside the villa and it didn’t stop coming closer. The two guard dogs jumped and threw themselves at the footsteps.

Amy ran even faster, she really wanted to help Tom and Jerry but she knew she would be no help at all.

All she could do was to dial the number in her phone.

“Help!”

When the call got through, Amy screamed.

She felt danger was closing in on her and her female instinct proved her right.

Right after she screamed for help, a palm reached out and grabbed the back of her neck, dragging her back. Another hand easily grabbed the phone from Amy.

When the person saw the name on the screen, laughter sounded.

“Leaf Dining? Are you out of your mind? You are calling a restaurant at this kind of time?”

The person laughed at Amy and then answered the phone since the call had gone through.

“Wrong number. You heard nothing, understand?” the person said.

“Yeap. I know nothing,” Kieran’s voice clearly entered the person’s ear through the phone.

“Ho? I saw a lot of idiots overestimate themselves in the past but in the end, I snapped their necks. I don’t think you want to be the next, right? Dear owner of Leaf Dining?”

The person laughed in disdain before he crushed the phone into pieces, he then dragged Amy into the villa.

While Amy was being dragged through the garden, she saw Tom and Jerry on the ground.

The two guard dogs limped on the ground, whimpering weakly when they saw Amy being dragged back. They wanted to struggle but all they did was twitch before they lost their lives.

Amy’s tears burst.

With Carrie’s experience in her, Amy’s feelings for Tom and Jerry had surpassed her previous feelings, turning to the person who dragged her back and starting to beat him.

It was useless though.

The person didn’t care about Amy’s struggle, he kicked the two dying dogs with the tip of his leg.

“Stupid dogs,” the person then looked into Amy’s eyes.

“You are as stupid as these dogs! Or do you really think that Leaf Dining owner will come and save you? Outrageous! Stop dreaming, if he really comes, I’ll feed myself to these stupid dogs!”

The perons laughed out loud in a sinister way.

Amid the laughs, growls like hunting hounds, yet stronger, came from behind the man.

Grrrrr!