Chapter 82

CHAPTER 82 The cops received an anonymous call and arrived at the underground tunnel as fast as they could, but what awaited them was beyond what they had expected or imagined. “You’ve gotta be kidding me,” they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. The whole underground tunnel had collapsed. “What in the world happened here?” Now, they had no idea if anyone was even trapped inside or not.

Later that night.

A clean red Porsche arrived at the Sterling villa. After seeing Benjamin, the guard said, “Did you get the Porsche serviced? It looks fresh.” Benjamin gave a thumbs-up before driving through the gate. After he parked the car, he was walking into the villa, but his ears caught the distant noise of the birds in distress. What bothered him was that the noises didn’t come from the trees but from the dorms. He had a bad feeling about it. He rushed straight to the dorms and kicked the door open, waking up the butlers and cleaners. He went to the storage room, and it was locked. He looked at the butlers. “Where’s the key?” he demanded.

“What the fuck? You not only barged into the dorms and disturbed our sleep, but now you ask for the storage room key so arrogantly!” one of the butlers raised his voice angrily. “Did you forget your place, Unpaid Maid?” “I won’t ask again,” Benjamin’s stare tightened, Johnny glanced at one of the cleaners who stepped forward. “I have it, but I won’t give you shit,” he came closer to Benjamin with his chin lifted high. “You think we’re gonna treat you differently just because you managed to get on the good side of Madam Rebecca? If you thought so, you are wrong. So what are you gonna do now?” He was slightly taller than Benjamin and had a construction worker’s physique. “You are gonna go and complain to your wife now, aren’t yo-bwugh,” he suddenly coughed blood as something struck his belly. His eyes turned white as he collapsed forward and his chin rested on Benjamin’s shoulder. Benjamin pushed his face aside, and he collapsed on the floor, almost lifelessly.

The butlers and the cleaners were astonished.

“Where’s the key?” Benjamin asked.

One of the butlers took the keys out from under his pillow and quickly came over to Benjamin. He snatched the keys and opened the door. Inside the room, the parrots were locked in a cage, with their wings plucked, beaks broken, and nails crushed. They were shivering in pain and made weak noises.

Benjamin’s gut twisted. As he clenched his fist, a vein bulged in his arm, and the bulge traveled up his arm and all the way up to the neck. The sliding sweat drop touched the bulging vein and hissed and turned into vapor.

A minute later.

As the butlers and the cleaners wondered what Benjamin was doing inside, he walked out with the two un recognizable birds in his arms. Most of them were shocked, and they couldn’t even recognize the birds. Benjamin glared at all them as he left the dorms. This wasn’t the time to talk with any of them. The birds were of higher priority.

“What the hell are those?” some butlers still looked shocked. “Are they defeathered birds?”

“Who knows,” Johnny shrugged his shoulders. (How the hell did he know that the parrots were locked in there? We sedated them, so they shouldn’t even have the strength to scream. Just how did he...)

Soon, Benjamin brought the birds to his room. Rebecca was sleeping, but when the light was switched on, she woke up. Her sight was still blurry. “Benjamin,” she could tell it was him, even though she couldn’t clearly see him yet. “You were gone in the morning. Where were you ...” as her sight was restored, he sat in his bed, with the defeathered, badly wounded birds in his arms.

Her heart ballooned at once. “W-What are those things?” they looked ugly at first sight, but then she sort of recognized them.

“Wait... are they?” her eyes widened slowly but surely. “Are those the parrots from the garden?” her voice hit the ceiling. She immediately rolled to the side and sat down, completely ignoring her ankle injury. “What happened to them?” she tried to get a closer look. “This...” she couldn’t look at them from up close. With broken beaks, crushed feet, they looked miserable, to say the least. Their eyes were mostly closed as well. It looked like they were both a step away from death. The extremely weak noise they made stirred her gut. “H-How did this happen?”

“Someone put them in the cage,” he replied while taking out the first-aid kit that was next to her bed. “Cage?” her expression warped. “What are you talking about?” ” “We’ll talk about that later. First, let me tend to these birds.” “You want to treat them?”

she yelled. “Are you serious?” she tried to pluck them from him, but he didn’t let her.

“Aren’t you allergic to fur?”

“Yeah, to dogs and cats, sure, but birds? I don’t think so?” she quickly dialed her doctor and asked for a veterinarian’s number, then made a call and explained the situation. “The veterinarian says he’ll come here in thirty minutes.”

Benjamin didn’t say anything. He cleaned the wounds and wrapped them up neatly in bandages. Before she knew it, she kept watching. In a matter of minutes, he completely took care of the bandaging, including their feathers. “You... Did you learn this somewhere?” she asked curiously. “You didn’t waste any cotton or cloth. You looked like you had so much experience.” Benjamin didn’t say anything. He put the birds on his bed. It was cold, so he covered part of them with the blanket and went to the couch.

She didn’t like the fact that he didn’t answer. The taste of her own medicine was bad, but she was able to endure it well. She went to his bed and began tending to the birds by gently rubbing her finger over them, telling them they’re going to be alright. The birds weakly responded as though they were expressing their pain to her.

Seeing her care for the birds in her own fashion, Benjamin’s heart cooled down. He didn’t smile, but his gaze definitely softened.

He wondered, if he had a mother, would she have taken care of him the same way when he was hurt? He only heard that a mother’s love couldn’t be matched, but he had never seen or experienced it himself.

A minute later, she went back to her bed and looked at Benjamin and hesitantly said, “Y-You can sleep in my bed if you want.

There’s enough space.”

Benjamin, however, didn’t respond.

She knew he was awake, but she didn’t know why he wasn’t jumping at the offer. Maybe because the birds were hurt badly, he wasn’t in the mood? Either way, she didn’t persuade him anymore. “Don’t sleep. The veterinarian will be here any second.” “I’m awake,” he replied. “I’ll go and greet the doctor, so you should sleep.”

“Mm,” she laid back on the bed and closed her eyes. She didn’t like to sleep when the lights were turned on, but tonight, she had to bear it.

Meanwhile, in Fracis’ house.

Francis and his assistant were sleeping in the same bed, buttnaked, both of them. The phone rang. He woke up and lazily answered. “Hello?”

An extremely tense and scared female voice spoke from the other end. “H-H-Hello, is it Francis? Edward’s father?”

“Yeah, that’s me. Who are you? Why is your voice like that? Did Edward do something to you?” “Listen to me,” she was crying, “your son is dead.”

“What?”

“I was waiting outside the tunnel, but... your son and all those who went inside are dead. They are dead for sure!”

“What nonsense are you talking about?” Francis grew angry. “If this is some sort of a prank he’s pulling, I swear-” “Forget about your son. He’s gone! I’m telling this for your own good,” she continued to speak in a rushed and scared tone. “Don’t go after that son-in-law! If you want to live, then stay away from him! No matter how many lives you have, you can’t touch a hair on him.

He’s... He’s... Kyaaa!”

A scream came from the other side. The noise of the mobile falling on the ground, and the sound of her footsteps fading away was all Francis heard. “Hey, are you alright?” he asked, but there was no response, even though the line was still on. Before he knew it, all the hair on his body was standing. Did his son really die? His eyes grew wide awake just at the thought of that possibility being real.

At the same time, in the outskirts of the city.

A woman had been running on the desolate road as though she had been running from a ghost. She looked terrified and kept looking back repeatedly. However, she suddenly stopped after noticing a man completely dressed in black, standing in the middle of the road at about a hundred meters ahead. His face was covered with a black cloth from the top of his head to the bottom of his nose. He had a dagger in each hand. He looked like the manifestation of darkness itself.

Her bladder leaked out as terror took over her countenance. “N-No, please...” she couldn’t even speak as tears overflowed. “I won’t tell anyone. I swear.”

“You think you managed to escape from him?” a voice echoed in her head, shocking her. He was more than a hundred feet away, yet his voice clearly reached her, even though he didn’t speak out loud. The sheer terror petrified her body in place. “You escaped because he let you go.” He began to walk. His mouth was shut, but his voice still echoed in her mind. “And we’re here to cover our king. We can’t risk getting his identity leaked.” “Don’t. Please...” she begged. “Fret not. I’ll make it quick,” he turned into a flash, and the next second, her head flew and rolled down the road while his presence was already gone, with not even a trace of his footsteps or his scent left.