ESCAPE PLAN GONE WRONG!

Midnight in the city and a brave young lady was hopelessly trying to find a way to escape from a maze-like mansion. She knew it wasn’t going to be easy but the determination was there.

Yes! Rayleigh Yu had helped her out by bringing her to his home when she fainted in the office, but now she was fine, so why wasn’t he letting her go?

He had come back later that day but had shewed her away when she tried bringing up the topic, with the excuse that he was too exhausted to entertain her.

Entertain her? He was keeping her hostage, and it was some form of entertainment to him? And to mention that every member of his household was also ignoring her and avoiding the subject like it was some kind of plague, and she could not find her phone anywhere in the house….Layla must be worried sick. Everything was just so frustrating.

Circe had heard a lot of rumours about Rayleigh Yu and the Yu Dynasty, of how he ran an underground drug dealing company, and how the Feds could not go after him cause he was super influential, and how they were kinda in on it.

She had also heard of how he was the leader of some sort of underground occult gang that drank human blood and regularly performed blood sacrifices. What if she was to be the next sacrificial lamb, and they were just fattening her up so their god could have one heck of a meal.

She thought they were all rumours orchestrated by his enemies with the intention of usurping his throne, but now she couldn’t ignore the nagging feeling that there were atoms of truth in those rumours. Well…she wasn’t about to stay to find out.

She tried scurrying through the mansion, barely seeing the direction she was headed, but she could not afford drawing attention to herself by putting on the lights.

Earlier she had learnt that the members of the house all had a special key card for going in and out of the mansion. All the servants and helpers shared one though, and it was in the possession of Rayleigh Yu. Tyla had also explained that that particular card key only had access to the main door and the door leading to the balvony. They still needed permission from the others before accessing other places in the mansion. The Card Keys of the members of the Dynasty also had some restrictions.

Only Rayleigh and Lonza possessed the Master Card Keys that had complete access to anywhere in the mansion and the office. Rayleigh, Circe could understand, but why Lonza? Was there not the risk of something going wrong or the key getting lost, considering he had such childish tendencies.

Anyways, Circe didn’t need a master card to escape the house, just the one with access to the main door was enough, and she had succeeded in getting Tyla’s, with no stress at all.

As she made her way towards the main room, she suddenly heard the sound of the main door’s knob turning and without thinking twice, she bolted to hide behind the closest pillar to her. Thank goodness the pillars were big enough to shield her.

She studied the infiltrator as he made his way into the house, acting super suspicious. Was the almighty Rayleigh Yu about to get robbed? Mr Infiltrator had a black bag with him, which Circe guessed was for packing the things he was about to steal. She felt her heartbeat as her mind went through the possible outcomes, and even though she totally despised Demon Yu, she wasn’t about to let him get robbed.

She grabbed the vase on the pillar stand in front of her, and made her way to the infiltrator, and just as he was about to change his direction, she flung the case as hard as she could and it collided directly with his head.

He gave a loud yelp before slumping to the floor and Circe watched as the vase crumbled in her hands….Why was such an expensive vase so fragile.

She walked closer to where he laid and gave a small nudge. She sighed relieved when he didn’t even flinch. Couldn’t risk him regaining his composure and attacking her, there was no more vase nearby.

But how did an intruder get into the house? Circe could clearly remember Tyla telling her that the mansion was heavily guarded, and as problematic as it was leaving, it was even worse getting into the house; almost impossible at that, unless they possessed a card key, so how did the intruder get his hands on a card key? Something felt amiss and Circe was starting to think she should have exercised more patience before attacking him. She just hoped he wasn’t dead.

She reached for the black bag beside the intruder, but it suddenly leaped out from her hands, and before she could give any reaction, the light suddenly came on.

NOT GOOD!

A yawn…..”Is that you Circe? What’re you doing down here by this time?” That was Lounge.

She had met Lounge just few hours after Rayleigh and the others left for the office, and he had immediately treated her like they were close friends and she was already a part of the family. So if there was anyone she wanted to see her in such a situation, then it was definitely Lounge.

“Just trying to stop a robber”.

”What robber?” Dominic was behind him. Why were they all coming down?

His eyes trailed down to the unconscious robber sprawled on the floor as his brows went up in confusion “Who’s that?”.

”The Robber” DUH!

Lounge cocked his head “Not possible. No one can have access into the house unless someone deliberately let them in”.

He proceeded to come down the stairs when his leg suddenly collided with the black bag. How did that get there?

“What’s this?” He tried picking it up, when something small, and flurry jumped out of it, into his hands. IT WAS A DOG…..A WHITE POMERANIAN.

But what was a dog doing in the bag? Circe thought the bag was empty so

how come she didn’t notice a dog inside, or did the intruder also steal the dog before coming inside the house. The dots were not connecting.

”Honey!” Lounge chuckled as the Pomeranian licked his face “What are you doing here, girl”.

Lounge knew the dog? How?…… Circe felt like she was finally connecting the dots but she did not like where they were leading.

“Your dog?”

He shook his head ”No! Lonza’s dog, his baby actually, and he never goes anywhere without her. I wonder why she’s here and he isn’t, it’s really strange”.

” OH GOD!” Circe gasped and stumbled back, her hands clasped to her mouth in horror as the realisation of the identity of the intruder hit her.

Lounge stared up at her, confused at her sudden change in countenance “What’s up with you?”.

THIS WASN’T HAPPENING.

”I thought it was a robber, he was acting suspicious and I…..I Just….I wanted to help” Her legs gave out as she slumped to the floor, biting at her fingernails as the tears came pouring out.

”Circe?” Lounge dropped Honey as he rushed down the stairs, Dominic following closely behind, but just before he got to her, his eyes wandered to the unconscious figure on the floor in his pool of blood. He stared intensely, before his eyes widened in horror “LONZA?”.

He rushed to his side, turning him over to reveal Lonza’s lifeless body. His face was bloodied and pale. Lounge slumped to the floor and pulled him into his arms.

”What’s wrong Lonza, what happened to you?”. He wiped some of the blood that trickled down his face with his hands “Talk to me Lonz”.

“No Way!” Dominic swirled his hands through his hair and bit hard on his fingers before glancing at Circe who now had her kneels together, rocking gently as she bit hard on her lips “What happened?”.

”I just…I didn’t…I thought….” She pulled at her hair “What have i done”.

”Calm down” He placed his hands on her shoulder but that wasn’t helping.

“……..Crying or feeling regret won’t do any good, we just have to figure something out. Rayleigh can’t come down to see this, he would loose it” He took out his phone from his pocket, and walked over to the corner of the room to make a call.

Circe watched as Lounge removed his jacket and place it around Lonza’s head which was still bleeding. His hands trembled as he tried applying pressure, and the guilt killed Circe.

”I’m sorry” She muttered but he obviously did not hear her. Why did she always act without thinking? Now she was going to loose Lounge’s friendship and probably spend the rest of her life in jail.

”What’s with all the fuss going on down here?”

OH NO! NOT NOW!

Rayleigh stood on the stair, staring down at them. His eyes studied the scene and wandered around before they came to rest on Lounge with the still unconscious Lonza in his hands, and his face fell.

As he walked down, he stepped on something solid and when he picked it up….it happened to be Tyla’s Card Key.

IT JUST KEPT GETTING WORSE.

He stared intensely at it before glancing at Circe and then at the shattered vase on the floor, and his gaze darkened “What have you done”. Circe could hear the fury and rage seeping from his words.

He bit his lips before going to pick Lonza from Lounge laps “Call Dr Steinfield, i’m taking him upstairs”.

Dominic nodded “Just did that! He’s on his way”.

Rayleigh nodded and Circe watched as he headed upstairs. Dominic helped Lounge up who kept staring at his blood stained hands and they followed Rayleigh upstairs.

Circe knew she couldn’t go with them cause she feared she might only incur the full wrath of Demon Yu. Leaving the mansion was also not an option, Rayleigh had left with Tyla’s Key Card, and she could never forgive herself if she left without ensuring Lonza was fine.

She felt so frustrated and annoyed with herself. Why was life always so unfair to her.