The cage had clearly been designed for one purpose: to make certain that whoever was placed inside remained there.
I was still studying the lock, desperately searching for some weakness I could exploit, when a faint sound came from beneath the bed.
I stopped breathing for a moment and slowly lowered my gaze toward the darkness underneath it, wondering if exhaustion had finally begun playing tricks on my mind.
Then the sound came again, a soft scraping against the floor, so faint that I almost convinced myself I had imagined it.
I took a cautious step backward without taking my eyes away from the space beneath the bed, my heart beginning to pound harder as something shifted in the darkness.
Then a hand slowly emerged from beneath the bed.
A gasp escaped me as I stumbled backward, nearly losing my balance.
Pale fingers curled against the carpet and remained there, completely motionless, as though whoever—or whatever—was hiding beneath the bed was deliberately waiting to see how I would react.
I couldn’t move.
I couldn’t even breathe properly as I stared at the hand, waiting for the rest of its owner to emerge, but instead, the fingers slowly disappeared beneath the bed again, leaving nothing but darkness behind.
I stood there trembling, desperately trying to convince myself that exhaustion had finally begun to affect my senses, when the lights above me suddenly flickered once, then twice, before going completely dark.
I remained frozen in place until the lights eventually came back on, and the moment they did, I looked beneath the bed again.
There was nothing there.
No hand, no figure, no movement—nothing at all.
I continued staring at the empty space for several seconds, my mind struggling to make sense of what I had just witnessed, when a low voice suddenly drifted through the room.
“You really should stop looking for things you don’t understand.” I spun around so quickly that my heart nearly stopped.
He was standing on the other side of the cage, and I hadn’t heard the door open, hadn’t heard footsteps approaching, and hadn’t even sensed him entering the room.
He was simply there, standing in the dim light and watching me through the bars as though he had been there the entire time.
His expression was calm, almost amused, but there was something about the faint smile forming on his lips that made the fear inside me deepen.
I slowly backed away from the cage bars, unable to tear my eyes away from him, and for the first time, I knew with absolute certainty that whatever was happening inside this place was far more terrifying than I had imagined.
“All right…
I give up.
I give up…” I whispered as I slowly sank onto my knees, my remaining strength finally giving out.
I couldn’t struggle anymore.
I had run until my legs could barely carry me, fought until my body had nothing left to give, and frightened myself enough to the point where I no longer knew what was real.
If he wanted me dead, perhaps it was time to stop frightening myself with the inevitable and simply accept whatever was going to happen.
“Ooh…
my dear sweet Paw Paw, I like you like this…” His voice echoed through the room as his presence shifted toward the back of the bars, and the amusement in his tone made my skin crawl.
I took a shaky breath before forcing myself to speak.
“How about we talk like two civilized people?
Like two grown-ups?” “Yeah, sure…” His voice came again, carrying that same unsettling amusement.
“How about you give me an heir?” I stared into the darkness, stunned by the demand.
“An heir?
How is that possible when I have only four months left to live?
And besides, you don’t want to make your bloodline impure.
The baby I would give birth to would be inferior…
defective.” There was a brief silence before his voice returned, colder than before.
“I can extend your life for a few more months until you give birth.
If the child is defective, you will be buried in the same hole.
I’ll make sure of that.” My fingers curled against the carpet as I tried to process his words.
“Don’t you think that would be unfair?
If I already know my current situation and still go ahead with something like that, knowing there is a possibility I won’t survive it?” For a moment, there was complete silence.
Then his voice came from the darkness again.
“Who said my genes can be defective?” I didn’t have an answer for that.
Before I could even gather my thoughts, the oppressive presence that had filled the room seemed to fade away, leaving behind a strange emptiness.
I remained on the floor, too exhausted to move, staring toward the door as I tried to understand where he had gone and what exactly he intended to do with me.
“Damn it!
I shouldn’t have tried to run away.” I pressed my back against the floor, completely exhausted from everything that had happened.
Whatever I had been thinking when I decided to escape that room, I was beginning to regret it.
The other bedroom might have been frightening, and I might have been locked inside with a woman who had been unconscious for days, but compared to this place, it had almost felt safe.
At least there, I had understood what I was dealing with.
Here, I didn’t even know where I was, who had brought me here, or what kind of creature was lurking in the darkness around me.
I no longer had the strength or the will to think about it.
My entire body felt heavy, and the exhaustion that had been building inside me was finally becoming impossible to fight.
I closed my eyes and decided that, for the moment, I would simply sleep right there on the floor.
Whatever happened next could wait.
I was too tired to run, too tired to fight, and far too exhausted to keep frightening myself with questions I had no way of answering.
********* In the other bedroom, the servant who had been knocked unconscious slowly regained consciousness.
Her head throbbed as she pushed herself upright, and for several seconds she remained disoriented, struggling to remember what had happened.
Then the memory returned all at once, and her expression changed.
She hurried toward the door, still unsteady on her feet, and began pounding against it with both hands.
“She has escaped!” she shouted frantically.
“You need to open this door!
The bride has escaped!” The guards stationed outside immediately reacted to her cries.
One of them pulled out a security card and used it on the electronic lock, causing the door to release.
The moment they entered, their eyes fell on the woman standing inside wearing the wedding dress, and confusion flashed across their faces before realization finally struck them.
The woman in the wedding dress wasn’t the bride.
“Damn it!
How could you be this careless and reckless?” one of the guards muttered angrily as he looked around the room.
The servant lowered her head, still trying to steady herself.
“I didn’t expect her to knock me down,” she admitted nervously, rubbing the back of her head where she had been struck.
The guards immediately communicated the situation to the rest of the security team.
Within moments, the estate’s security personnel were alerted, and the search began.
Guards spread through the corridors and surrounding sections of the estate, checking rooms, entrances, stairways, and every possible route the missing woman could have taken.
Patrols were increased throughout the property while the security system was placed on heightened alert.
“How could you be this careless?” a deep voice demanded as a powerful-looking man approached the room.
His presence alone was enough to make the servant straighten nervously.
“I… I really didn’t expect her to attack me,” she repeated quietly, unable to meet his eyes.
The man said nothing as he walked past her and entered the bedroom.
His attention immediately shifted toward the bed, and he stopped.
Something had changed.
The woman who had previously appeared deathly pale no longer looked as lifeless as she had before.
There was color returning to her skin, and the faint rise and fall of her chest was much stronger than before.
Then the sound became unmistakable.
Her heartbeat.
It was loud enough to be….