The Devil's Cage

The three people that entered the restaurant were of different heights and different sizes.

The leader was a tall, thin man, his eyes looking sinister on his rigid face. Behind him was another short, thin man and a tall, fat man.

These two men were quite excited when they saw the middle-aged man, especially the fatty, he almost threw himself over, but the leader stopped him.

It seemed like the leader had quite the prestige in this little group.

All the leader did was glare at the fatty and the fatty shrunk back behind him.

The three of them then walked to the counter.

"What's on the menu?"

The tall, thin man asked Kieran in a clear voice, his tone cold, probably even frightening.

Kieran wasn't moved though, replying in his own cold tone.

"What's 'on' the menu outside."

The tall thin man frowned.

He was quite surprised by Kieran's calm, making the order nonetheless.

"Three Salted Pepper Shrimp Set, three fried rice, three chicken soup," the man said.

"Please pay first, cash only," Kieran said without standing up.

The two men behind the leader were quite irritated by Kieran's attitude, but without their leader's order, neither of them would do anything. All they did was glare at Kieran.

"How much?" the tall thin man asked patiently.

"The set meal is 50 each, fried rice 15 and chicken soup 10. The total will be 225," Kieran said.

"Pay up," the tall thin man told the short man behind him.

The short man quickly slammed the money on the counter.

"Your food better be worth this price, or else…" the short man threatened Kieran. Together with his rather triangular eyes, it looked very frightening.

However, such threats were useless against Kieran.

Kieran didn't move a muscle and looked at the short man.

1 second.

2 seconds.

3 seconds.

…

'Did I forget to zip my pants? Or is there something on my face?'

Around five to six seconds later, the short man twisted his body uncomfortably and started to check what was wrong with his body.

After he made sure there wasn't anything on his face, he gave Kieran a pissed off look.

"Playing tricks eh?"

"Enough, sit down."

Just as the short man raised his arm, the tall thin man spoke again, stopping the unnecessary commotion.

"Consider yourself lucky!"

The short man grunted and walked to the corner of the restaurant with the other two.

Kieran took the money on the counter and counted it before putting it into the money box.

He then served the food prepared by Starbeck to the table in the corner.

The three men who were whispering stopped when the food was served, all of them placing their attention on the visually appealing meal.

The fat man grabbed his serving and gobbled down eagerly.

"Tasty!"

A big bite later, the fat man buried himself into the food.

The short man waited for 10 minutes though, after he saw the fat man was okay, he too eagerly ate his serving.

Only the tall thin man did not dig in. He looked at the food while his mouth salivated, his Adam's apple moving up and down, but he did not touch his chopsticks.

Sometimes, a lesson would be forgotten after a while but some particular lessons were branded for life. The tall thin man was the latter.

Despite having been running for the whole day and being troubled by starvation, the tall thin man held himself together. He turned to the middle-aged man further away, in hopes of distracting himself.

Under the tall thin man's gaze, the rather blank middle-aged man started to show discomfort. His body twisted uneasily and shifted his gaze to Kieran, hoping for help.

Kieran turned a blind eye, reading his newspaper and listening to the tv.

In the end, the middle-aged man had enough of the unease and stood up, wanting to leave, but once he thought about the encounter with the supernatural earlier, he slumped on the floor.

The tall thin man laughed coldly at the middle-aged man's reaction.

He stood up from the corner and walked to the counter, sitting down beside the middle-aged man.

"It's uneasy, right? Deodre," the tall thin man asked.

"You know me?" the middle-aged man was surprised.

"Of course I know you! We were partners in crime until very recently! We were in charge of the operation, while you were in charge of support and driving. Everything went smoothly until you drugged us with sleeping pills!" the tall thin man laughed.

The sharp and irritating laughter was like the hooting of a night owl, numbing people's scalp.

"What are you talking about? What partners in crime? I don't even know you!" the middle-aged man leaned on the counter in panic amid the laughter.

"You know what I'm talking about, otherwise why would we be here? Do you really think we weren't aware of it? Your car is loaded with a tracker. Even though you tried to avoid us with a car accident and return to your old nest, did you really think you could escape us?"

The tall thin man turned his eyes to Kieran as he said.

"Am I right? The person behind Deodre? Or should I say… the mastermind!"

The malice in his eyes grew thicker, the two men in the corner even grabbing their guns from their backpack.

The short man held his gun at Kieran and the fat man held his at the middle-aged man, forming an intersected cross.

They worked together very well and seemed to be very familiar in positioning.

Kieran?

He did not move a muscle and watched the scene in his stool.

"As expected of the mastermind! I have to give it to you based on your calmness alone, but… out of all things, you really shouldn't choose to double cross us!" the tall thin man said and pulled out his gun, not at Kieran, but at the man named Deodre.

"Deodre, you have a daughter, right? Do you love her? Don't worry, I'll go after her once I kill you. Father and daughter can reunite in hell!" the tall thin man said slowly.

He wanted the traitor to regret the betrayal!

He wanted the traitor to feel scared, to feel frightened!

He uttered those words very slowly and at the same time glued his eyes on Kieran.

The tall thin man wasn't really concerned about the pawn Deodre, he was going to kill him off after this job anyway, but Deodre trying to get the money from him?

Impossible!

Never did he expect the quiet Deodre to dare to drug their food and water and then call the cops.

He even suspected Deodre's performance was an act to numb their senses, but when he saw Kieran, he knew what happened.

Deodre was just a little pawn, a pawn carefully chosen by this young man in front of his eyes, and it was just to double cross them!

Just look at the young man's calmness and blank gaze!

Even when he pulled out his gun, nothing changed on the youthful face.

That faint aura around the young man, he had only seen such aura from some notorious killers and executioners. In addition to Deodre's arrival, everything made sense!

However, this young man was too careless! He came alone in order to maintain the cover?

Was he confident in his skills?

But what could confidence do in front of two automatic guns?

"You are really…"

The tall thin man thought he had grasped the truth, looking at Kieran and trying to say something, but before his sentence could form, he felt cold.

The coldness was unlike the winter, the coldness would chill his soul even with the slightest touch, and what frightened him the most was the coldness coming from Deodre!

The shock in his heart didn't slow him down, he pulled the trigger at Deodre without a second thought but… his hand was caught and his fingers were frozen!

Deodre grabbed the man's hand with a twisted expression.

"You shall not harm Airi! I will not allow you to harm her!"

Deodre spoke like he was sleep-talking, squeezing the tall, thin man's hand hard and producing cracking noises, the cold aura even spreading throughout his body.

"Boss!"

The other two cried in shock. The guns were pointed at Deodre but a formless chain was quicker.

The chain whipped their arms from the void and broke it.

Crack!

Two cracks later, their guns fell on the floor and they were slammed into each other, knocking each other out.

Thud!

The repeated thuds woke Deodre.

He looked at the dying man in his hand and finally woke up from his trance. He bitterly smiled and threw the man on the floor.

"Am I really dead? I guess so. I thought of dying anyway. More so, how could I not die in that situation?"

Deodre looked up at the ceiling, muttering to himself but also sounding like he was talking to Kieran.

Deodre then turned to Kieran and bowed.

"I'm sorry to cause all this trouble. Please forgive my rudeness. I've tried to be careful but it seems like I failed… I'm really sorry," Deodre said.

He then dragged the three men outside.

Kieran was still reading his newspaper, not even batting an eye. He didn't even ask where Deodre was taking the bodies and what to do with them.

Some people, in Kieran's eyes, deserved to be punished and any kind of punishment would do.

Deodre returned to the restaurant a little while later.

He sat on the spot where he sat before and waited patiently.

Half an hour later, a familiar figure walked in.

"Mr. Deodre?"

It was Amy that walked in and she asked the middle-aged man sitting at the counter.

"Yes," Deodre nodded.

"It's nice to finally meet you, I'm Amy. Like you requested, this place is secluded and inconspicuous, what do you think? Now can you tell me about this big scoop that you mentioned?" Amy pointed around.

Kieran, who had not been reacting to the situation, raised a brow.

He finally knew why Deodre came to the restaurant: it was because of the cumbersome drunkard!

Deodre saw Kieran's raised brow, quickly showing an apologetic face.

He then told Amy, "Ms. Amy, do you know about the jewellry shop robbery today?"

"Yes! You are saying that this big scoop is about that robbery?" Amy's eyes shined.

She received a call in the afternoon saying that there was a big scoop waiting for her. If the person who made the call hadn't guaranteed the news would be big and allowed her to choose the time and venue, Amy would not have entertained the call, but it seemed like she bet on the right place.

"Yes, it's about the robbery. In fact, I am one of the participants of the robbery—don't worry, I mean you no harm, I am just seeking help," Deodre saw Amy get nervous after the revelation, quickly explaining his stand.

"You should seek the police's help, not mine!" Amy was shocked and angry, wanting to draw distance from Deodre.

"The police did help me before, but they can't help my daughter. She needs the help of a doctor and a hospital! And it requires a large sum of money!" Dedore smiled bitterly.

"Even so, you shouldn't rob!" Amy said in determination.

"I never really wanted to rob, I hid the robbed jewelry in a secret place and what I want... is the eyes of the public."

"You want to raise a fund?" Amy quickly reacted to the situation.

"Yes. I'm just an average taxi driver, I can't bear my daughter's expensive medical fees and I don't have the ability to garner enough attention from society. Therefore, I created some scenes to garner attention, to care about Airi," Deodre nodded.

"I'd say you did it, pretty successfully too. But did you ever think about the consequences? What Airi has to face?" Amy frowned.

"I deserve to be punished… Airi...as long as she's alive…there is hope."

Deodre went quiet for a moment.

Kieran didn't listen to the rest of the talk, glancing over Amy, who wasn't drunk this time, in her working state. He went into the kitchen with his newspaper.

He wasn't interested about the following story.

Rather than sitting there listening to stories he wasn't interested, he might as well spend time helping Starbeck with his cooking.

The talk between Amy and Deodre went on for another hour.

Deodre left first while Amy sat back and listened to the recordings, writing in her notebook.

She wanted an exclusive scoop! She could already picture the new heights her career would rise to after she published this exclusive news. Of course, it would need some addition, not altering, but addition, to the story.

Otherwise, it was rather mundane.

While Amy was grinding her gears in thinking what details to add, a stack of money appeared in front her.

"What do you want?" Amy looked at Kieran cautiously.

She swear she would throw the pen into Kieran's face if he said something disrespectful.

"Donation. For Airi, for that father who's willing to risk his life for his daughter," Kieran said.

Kieran then went back to his newspaper after saying, not caring about Amy's reaction.

Amy looked at Kieran and then the stack of money in front of her, frowning.

"Don't try to alter my thoughts with your action!" Amy coldly grunted.

"Your delusional thoughts?" Kieran tuned up the volume of the tv.

"A van crashed into a car which was involved in an accident earlier. All three passengers in the van died on the spot. The car, which was involved in another car accident earlier, was completely destroyed and we've just got confirmation that the driver, Mr. Deodre, passed away at the hospital."

Deodre!?

Amy was completely stunned, especially when she saw Deodre's picture on the screen, her face turning pale.

"He, he, he, he…I...I…"

Not a single complete sentence came out of her mouth.

"He's a good father, you are a reporter. What I saw just now is a father asking a favour from a reporter."

Kieran stopped talking after that, leaving a pale, horrified, panicked Amy sitting there blankly.

Meanwhile, outside the door, Deodre in the dark bowed at Kieran again before disintegrating into light particles, flying away to the sky.

He wished he had more time, but he didn't.

This was as far as he could go, any longer… would cause some big problems.

Nevertheless, he didn't want anything to happen to his daughter, he wanted to protect his daughter from harm, that's why he left.

He hoped for him, not it.

…

On the second day, when the day turned bright, the early newspaper of the city arrived at the restaurant.

Kieran took the newspaper, stretched, yawned, and brought the sleepy Starbeck to bed.

"Let's go, time to sleep," Kieran said.

"Em."

Starbeck nodded, his eyes glanced over the topic for the day.

"Father who gave his life for his daughter."

Reported by Amy.