IN THE CAGE

39. SHACKLES HOPE

...FAWN...

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I was standing in a room that was very new and foreign to me. The dim purple wall paint and flickering room lights with neon pink made my head dizzy. If only this room did not have a large bed with black sheets at the end of the room, I would probably think this room was a disco floor.

Damn, why is Miss Margot's room so gloomy?

"Welcome to join us, Fawn." Vera appeared beside me and hung a thick blanket on my shoulder. "Margot boss used to be in a room in low temperatures, I hope you're used to this gloomy atmosphere."

Was he so obsessed with death that he treated his room like a coffin? I want to escape this gloom.

Someone..., Vera, please take me away!

"If you want, you can use my aromatherapy oil, it's good to prevent colds." Vera handed me a piece of wind oil. Now I'm not surprised anymore about the reason why Vera's body always smells like herbal foliage.

"No need, thank you." I stepped on a thick fur carpet whose softness tickled my feet. "Is Miss Margot's room always like this?"

"Huh, yeah. It's not much. If you look at the apartment, you'll probably choke on the fright." Vera and I sauntered towards the bed by the glass window. I sat on it while Vera leaned against the glass door. Vera looks masculine in a white shirt and black pants, her appearance at the time reminds me of how I used to look. I'm a little envious.

"Did your boss lose his sanity or was he just a double personality?" I asked, because to be honest, sometimes I see Miss Margot as an elegant and scary woman. She doesn't look like a crazy woman who decorates her room like a haunted house.

"Hahaha, right...? Sometimes I wonder the same thing." Vera laughed lightly.

"She became very foreign in our eyes, and it was sad in fact. Margot's previous boss was a graceful and kind woman, but after the death of her parents, she became what you see now. There's no turning back, I guess."

"The death of their parents, have you worked here since then, Ver?"

Vera nodded. "I'm one of the old bodyguards here, along with Carcel and David. Fabian came in a year after me and well, I arguably watched it all."

"Ah, then..., do you think..., is that really murder?" I don't know why, I'm curious about the case.

"I don't have a specific opinion on that as few bodyguards are aware of the information regarding the accident investigation. I-we and the other bodyguards were not allowed to get involved in order to prevent information from leaking. But..., come to think of it, if Margot's boss were to lose her sanity because of this case, wouldn't you feel like something was going on?"

"Well, that might be true..." As Ace said, he couldn't have been stuck in this place were it not for obvious reasons. The death of their parents, if it really was murder and the Rashid and Caspian families who became suspects, who among them was capable of such a heinous act?

"Forget the matter of boss Margot, do you want to eat something?" Vera opened the balcony door where she was leaning. The daylight blocked by the black colored glass sticker finally entered when the door opened. I was finally able to see Vera's face with a normal color other than pink.

"Oxygen." said Vera comforting me. "Bos Margot is rarely in the room. If you're not comfortable with room temperature and lighting, you can open the window."

"All right."

"So..., food?"

"Oh, I'll eat anything." I'm not in picky food mode because I was thinking about Ace's actions this morning.

The man almost killed me, but thanks to Miss Margot, I'm still alive today. I don't know if I should be sad or happy because I'm still breathing? Whether I should thank you or be angry, I don't know. All I know is, I just feel empty. I recall Ace's disappointed face when he heard Miss Margot's words. He looks sad.

What's that guy doing now? Would he be better off with me who wasn't around him anymore?

Is my mission in boring him really working? Now, what am I supposed to do? Make Miss Margot bored of me and kill me?

That's good but I don't know how to bore Miss Margot. She is also not the type of woman who cares about my whereabouts so far. Well, he probably rotated around me with his madness. Starting karoke, watching dramas even playing monopoly with him, but. Miss Margot, she doesn't really care about my whereabouts. I know because I'm not a fool!

Rather than make me uncomfortable, I think Miss Margot was just trying to show me she wasn't dangerous. He showed him crazy but that pair of black eyes similar to Ace's eyes was clearly showing his manipulative side. He's a master con man.

"Uh, this is exhausting..." Obscene at the burden of thoughts that began to accumulate, I also lay on the bed. The sharp aroma of parfume that was like spilling on the bed made me grimace in horror. I sneezed a few times before falling asleep again.

This place is a cursed place!

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Miss Margot's voice faintly filled the room. I, who was asleep in a thick blanket, opened my eyes and saw the woman pacing in the middle of her room. Put down one by one the clothes he was wearing and dropped them carelessly.

I threw an uncomfortable face.

"I'm the one who decides whether the information is useful or not, Dave. Anyway give me the detailed information regarding that bastard, it's been 2 weeks. If you don't want to follow Fabian to the funeral, make sure your mission goes right, damn it!"

Miss Margot was about to throw her cell phone into bed when she realized my whereabouts. The phone at the end of his hand fell to the floor. "You're here?"

"Yes?" Did he forget that he asked me to stay with him?

"Ah, right too. I forgot." Miss Margot shook her head and laughed. "How's my room? Do you like it?"

"Huh, yep, this is so unique." and terrible.

"I think it's better in a dark room, so I decorate it like this. You don't have to mince words and comfort me with lies. Vera's told me how many times I've changed my room paint, but I don't care about that chatty woman."

"Yeah, this does feel very uncomfortable and painful to the eye. You deserve to do what you want to do here. I.., as a stranger here, have no right to judge what is good and not for you."

After all, everyone has their own preferences. My room in the dorm was very messy and dirty but I was comfortable in it, I had no right to have him decorate his room to be as clean as Ace's room without any furniture.

"If you keep talking that smooth, how can you expect Ace to get bored of you?" Margot finished changing her clothes in shiny black satin pajamas under the pink neon glow. She then headed towards the dressing table and combed her thick black hair.

"Truely, I had a lot of thoughts and Ace with his mood swings was very unhelpful at all."

"You shouldn't have stopped Ace this morning" I said.

"And let you die? Are you sure you're ready to die?"

"I think.., I'm quite ready."

"Didn't you want revenge on Ace? Behead him and make him burn in hell?"

Hearing Margot's question, of course there was a time when I thought about Ace's death. When alone and bored in Ace's room, I sometimes imagined Ace's death. Thinking what kind of torture he must be before such a death. But as time went on, my grudge faded into despair. Now, I just want to get out of here. Life or death.

"I.., I don't know." I answered listlessly. Maybe because I just woke up.

"Heeeh, you look a lot like Ace. He deserves to like you."

"What does that mean?"

"You have no ambition at all." Margot's reply left me speechless. "When our parents died, Ace shed no tears at all. He was not sad and did not grieve, I think he was fine on that fact. He didn't feel a grudge at my parents' deaths."

"..."

"I even had to kneel at his feet for him to help me. Put my life on the table when it means anything to him. I did whatever it took just so she could do what she's doing right now."

"Don't you pity him?"

Being great and outstanding was not Ace's fault at all, but because of that advantage he was taken advantage of by his own brother. Thinking that the man should be confined in this place solely for the sake of fulfilling his brother's ambition, I was a little pity. He might have a life he wants as well.

"If I pity Ace, then I'll lose." Margot looked at me in the mirror. His eyes were cold with no expression. 

"I have to find whoever killed my parents, Fawn. I lived up to now just for that."

Even if it meant stripping his sister of her freedom, Margaret Hunter would not feel sinful.

This family is crazy.

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