The Devil’s Cage

Humans were subjective.

If this world was really related to Mordin, having it controlled by a majority of women wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.

Of course, before any deciding evidence showed up, everything was merely theories.

Kieran stood in front of 2-1-6’s entrance, watching the officers search up and down in his identity’s house. Gredith’s eyes were on him.

“You don’t seem bothered at all.” Gredith asked.

“Other than some books, there’s nothing inside. Those books aren’t rare or unique copies either, anyone can buy them off the markets,” Kieran answered.

“Is that so? Please follow me, I need your help to I.D. what went missing in your house.”

Gredith continued her suspicious gaze at Kieran before she told him to follow her.

Kieran nodded and walked in with Gredith.

He glanced over the messy first floor.

“Nothing.”

Although the place was messy and things were in disorder, according to his memory before he left, nothing was missing, same went for the second floor.

All the rooms were messed up, the book cabinet in his office was opened and the contents were scattered all over the desk.

“The youngest winner of the Fervon Psychology Prize?”

Gredith picked up a photo on the floor and looked at Kieran with a shocked gaze.

It seemed like this Fervon had a substantial position in the psychology field, even half an outsider was familiar with the name.

Gredith then related more.

“No wonder you aren’t bothered by money compensation. With this in your hand, it’s like holding the key to the gold vault,” said Gredith.

“I did not steal or rob, I relied on my own capabilities to achieve it. There’s nothing shameful about it, right?” Kieran asked back before he strode to the third floor.

Compared to the first and second floor, the third floor, Kieran’s private quarters, was a disaster. The computer was broken on the floor, the casing was pried open, all the books were removed from the rack and even his bed was cut open with sharp object.

Kieran examined the room before he walked to the book containing that half a photo.

The book was on the ground, facing down and the photo inside was gone.

“Lost anything?”

Gredith who had her eyes on Kieran noticed his little action, walking over and asking what happened.

The intruder was searching for something without a doubt.

As for what, Gredith didn’t know, but she did know one thing: the intruder was related to the dismemberment case!

The previous crime scene and this intruded house was strikingly similar!

Other than the dismembered body, the level of messiness was almost identical.

The whole place was messy, or even chaotic, yet not a single trace was left behind. Fingerprints, footprints, nothing, even the surveillance cameras looked like mere decorations.

Gredith had no idea how the intruder did it but she knew since this intruder showed up again and intruded the victim’s ex-husband house, then… keeping her eyes on this victim’s ex-husband may give results, even some unexpected ones.

The keypoint of all this mess was the thing the intruder was looking for.

“A photo,” Kieran replied honestly but spared the details.

“What photo?” Gredith asked.

“A photo of me,” Kieran replied.

“You are saying that intruder came into your house, turned the whole place upside down just for a photo of you? Are you having a fanatic stalker problem?” Gredith was obviously not happy with the answer, her sharp eyes staring at Kieran.

“Who knows,” Kieran smiled.

Hmph!

Gredith’s breath hurried.

If it wasn’t illegal to beat up someone, she would have thrown this bloody bastard over her shoulder with his face down to slam away the smile.

“You have my number. Call me if you think of anything or anything happens.”

Agitated, Gredith headed downstairs.

Kieran didn’t send her off. He watched her arrange her subordinates to keep an eye on him before she left. Kieran then started to pick up the scattered books and placed them back on the rack.

He also reassembled the casing of the computer before putting it back on the desk.

After some tidying up, Kieran sat on his chair, seemingly tired from the work.

At the window curtain where Kieran’s back was, a palm came in.

The palm with black leather gloves under the light was very unsettling to look at, and when this palm jumped away from the curtain, the unsettling feeling was elevated to horrifying because the palm was attached to an arm, only an arm!

There was no accompanying torso, legs, or head!

The arm was sliding down the curtain quietly, as if it was a big household lizard, closing on Kieran resting on the chair.

It climbed up the chair’s leg and on to the back. It was very careful in the process and did not touch Kieran at all.

As it latched its fingers on the back of the chair, the fingers pushed the entire arm into the air and flew towards the back of Kieran’s neck for a grab.

It… missed.

A split second before the hand grabbed Kieran’s neck, Kieran tilted his head aside and the entire hand grazed his neck.

Before the hand crashed onto the computer, Kieran counter-grabbed it.

The hand behaved like a fish out of water, struggling violently and trying to go for Kieran’s eyes by defying common joint limitations.

A spark of flame flashed over Kieran’s palm, causing the hand to twitch furiously. It then started to wither rapidly, as if its energy was drained, starting to rot and becoming a rotten arm.

It reeked of a vile stench and disgusting goo dripped over the desk as the entire arm, together with the glove, melted.

A cloud of energy came out from the hand and floated in the air. It was similar to the energy from the insomnia patient, just a little bit more.

Gluttony automatically appeared and consumed the energy.

Kieran, who was standing beside, squinted his eyes.

Although the arm became a pile of disgusting goo, based on the quick contact with the arm just now, Kieran was sure it was a woman’s arm.

The skin was smooth and did not have excessive muscle.

His identity’s ex-wife was just dismembered by some killer, only the head and torso remaining in the morgue and the arms and legs were missing. Now, a woman’s arm came out of nowhere and ambushed him in his room.

Kieran didn’t take it as a coincidence, or rather, he’d never believe in coincidence.

After Gluttony consumed the energy and divided it to the 5 Origin Forces, Kieran walked down to the second floor balcony, jumped out, and merged into the evening darkness.

The two police officers who had their eyes on Kieran’s room did not even notice their target slipping away.

McRose was humming a popular melody.

The day’s work was coming to an end.

As the partner and the executive of this forensic lab, she had to invest a great amount of time into her work. It wasn’t just because she invested everything she got into this forensic lab, but also because she borrowed a huge loan from the bank.

Her head would hurt everytime she thought of the installment she had to pay every month, her humming getting out of tune.

“I still have 10 years of debt to clear. Hope I won’t die from overworking.”

Muttering, McRose started her patrol of the lab before she truly calls it a day.

Although most people wouldn’t target a forensic lab, some peculiar bastards with weird fetishes would. As the independent forensic lab partnering with the police station, McRose Forensic Lab had no 24 hours security or the ability to hire one, making it an easy target for some intentional party.

Therefore, McRose’s patrol wasn’t standard procedure. She’d carry it out seriously, soon realizing something wasn’t right: someone had been into the morgue and opened the body cabinets!

“Bloody bastards! You better not touch my clients, or I’ll show you hell!”

McRose saw a particular cabinet wasn’t closed properly and a little seam was left open, cursing softly and reaching out to the taser gun in her backpack—she specially applied for the taser gun after she became a contracted pathologist for the police station.

Step by step, McRose walked closer to the said cabinet.

When she was two steps away and within range to pull the cabinet open..

BANG!

The door behind McRose was slammed shut.

The sudden bang frightened her, she turned around to have a look and the moment she did, the lights above her head started to flicker.

Tzzz Tzzzz!

Electric current buzzed repeatedly.

“I have to fix the circuit when I get money… Aaaaaarh!”

McRose looked up at the flickering lights, ranting, but before she finished, a palm grabbed her by the collar and pulled her backwards.

Behind McRose, that body cabinet which wasn’t closed properly was quietly opened.

An arm came out from the body bag, grabbing McRose’s collar and dragging her into the cabinet.

Bang!

After the quick and horrifying action, McRose was trapped inside and the cabinet door shut tight. Her screams ceased when the lights returned to normal and the door to the morgue opened up.

Everything returned to normal.

The taser gun on the floor was swept to the corner by an unknown force, no proof of McRose coming down to the morgue. The surveillance camera was blurred out, no footage was recorded.

Even the best inspector would never find any clues in the morgue, only doubts, but not Kieran.

Kieran came back to McRose’s lab and activated [Tracking], following McRose’s footprints into the morgue. He then ran towards the cabinet which McRose was trapped inside but before he got close enough, the cabinet, labeled Mary, opened up and blocked his way.

The zipper on the body bag was opened up. The body, without arms and legs, sat up slowly without any expression. Its eyes were morbid as it looked at Kieran beside the cabinet—its stiff face forced a smile.

“2567, are you here to see me?” the body asked.

“No. Get down, go back inside,” Kieran said.

“You are not here for me?” the body looked disappointed.

Kieran kept quiet.

The body wanted to show a smile again but when it noticed the blank gaze from Kieran, an unknowing fear rose from its core, feeling the suppression from another, higher life form. The words that it wanted to say became an instinctive reply when they escaped its mouth.

“Okay, right away. Good bye.”

The body laid back down into the body back, zipped itself up and went back into the closing cabinet.

Kieran then walked over to the cabinet trapping McRose.

He didn’t pull the cabinet opened though, standing there and releasing some chaotic and wicked aura, filling the air with a sulphuric smell, the cabinet opening up automatically.

McRose was spat out like vomit. She was filled with sticky goo, or rather, liquid from decomposing both.

Her eyes were filled with fear.

“G-Get away!” McRose shouted repeatedly.

She slowly realized she was already out of the scary place. Around her was a lit up environment, not that dark, blood-filled slaughterhouse.

“Y-You, are 2567?”

Horrified, McRose took a couple of deep breaths and looked at Kieran beside her.

She then crawled over to Kieran, trying to hug his leg like a drowning person clutching on a life-saving straw, but before she could, Kieran kicked her away.

Kieran was not a clean freak, but that didn’t mean he would let a woman filled with dead water hug his leg.

McRose was stunned, looking at the man in confusion. She didn’t know what caused the man to shake her off.

‘Aren’t you here to save me?’

McRose was troubled by her thoughts.

Then..

Bang!

The door to the morgue slammed shut again, the lights at the ceiling flickering once more.

A pungent bloody stench assaulted their noses.

“Aaaaaah!”

The similar scene invoked the horrifying memory in McRose, screaming and crawling back to Kieran without a second thought, but it ended up the same as the first time: she was kicked away.

This time, Kieran exerted a suitable amount of strength, pushing her to the wall beside and knocking her out. Her eyes flipped and passed out.

The whole wall of body cabinet doors started to shake violently.

Bang Bang Bang Bang!

The metallic clatter filled the entire morgue, but not all of them.

The cabinet labeled Mary was exceptionally quiet while the others were as rampant as a horse let loose, as if the bodies would fly out any moment.

Guuuu Guuuu! Gulp!

A starving noise and saliva swallowing noise sounded, overpowering the metallic clatters.

The whole morgue fell into silence.

The body cabinet that shook violently went quiet one after another, the doors shut tight without leaving a seam.