Chapter 10 Her Savior

"Ahhh..." Emily screamed as she heard the door slam shut behind her with a loud "bang"!

She was pushed to the ground, landing face-first in a rather undignified manner.

When she managed to get up and return to the door, she found it wouldn't budge no matter how hard she pulled.

She banged on the door several times and shouted "Help!" but all she heard was her own echo.

When she had followed that so-called staff member here, she already felt the place was too secluded. At first, she could still see people around, but soon, there was no one in sight.

It was clear now-she had been set up.

The person who had arranged this had planned it all out perfectly. They knew this was a place where no one would ever come, and that was precisely why they had brought her here.

Emily turned around to inspect the place. It was pitch dark, with only a faint light coming from what seemed like a ventilation grate.

She turned on her phone's flashlight function and realized she was in a conference room. But since there were no meetings scheduled, the room was naturally unused, meaning no one would have any reason to come here.

She walked around and discovered there were two doors: the main door she had entered through and a back door. But the back door was also sealed shut.

What should she do now?

It was only then that Emily noticed her phone had no signal!

Of course it doesn't, she realized with a groan. This is a basement level. Unless they've installed a signal booster, how could there possibly be any reception here?

"Darn it!" Emily couldn't help but curse.

She had always known that this industry was a complicated mess, but she never expected to be schemed against before even setting foot into it!

With no way out, she could only call for help. But her phone had no signal.

Holding her phone, she took a slow, careful lap around the room. Suddenly, she stopped. Right in this spot, a single, weak bar of signal had appeared.

Emily looked up and saw that it was near the ventilation grate.

Just as she was about to make a call, that faint bar disappeared!

It flickered, there one moment and gone the next.

Emily glanced up at the ventilation grate again. It seemed like she would have to climb up there to get a stronger signal.

She dragged a chair over, placed it underneath the vent, and climbed up. The space was so cramped that she had to keep her head low. If it weren't for her flexibility, she wouldn't have managed to balance up there.

But once she got up there, she realized, who should she call?

The police?

What say what?

That she was trapped in an underground conference room because someone set her up? They'd probably think she was crazy.

But scrolling through her contacts, she realized there was no one she could call to rescue her. She had a husband, but she had never even seen his face, let alone had his phone number.

Emily opened her call history. The most recent calls were from Oliver and-

That man from the other night.

Just the thought of him made her heart beat faster.

Should she call him?

Would he come?

Her finger hovered over the unsaved phone number. Suddenly, her hand slipped, her finger tapped the screen, and the call went through.

She ignored the phone for a second to change her position; staying in one posture for too long was exhausting.

It was in that exact moment that the call connected.

"Hello-" Even though they had only met twice, Emily was very familiar with his voice.

"Hi, I... I'm trapped. Can you come rescue me?"

"What? Where are you now? Your signal is terrible. Move somewhere else, there's too much static!"

"This is the best signal I can get here." Emily quickly told him her location, but just as she finished, the call dropped.

She didn't know if he had hung up or if the call had dropped due to the poor cell signal.

She also didn't know if he had heard her address clearly, or if he would come.

Emily couldn't hold the position any longer and finally climbed down. She decided she had to rely on herself after all. She needed to find a possible way out.

About an hour passed. She tried everything she could think of, even attempting to crawl through the ventilation grate, but it was utterly impossible.

The place was stuffy and hot, and all the effort had drained her energy. Emily sat down, drenched in sweat and panting heavily.

If no one found her trapped here, would she suffocate to death? She was already starting to feel short of breath.

"Emily Avery-" a voice called from the doorway.

Emily immediately propped herself up and moved toward the door. "I'm here..."

"Over here, open the door," the man's voice instructed.

The door was quickly opened, and a beam of flashlight light shone in, causing Emily to close her eyes and turn her head away. After being in the pitch-black space for so long, she wasn't used to such bright light.

"It's okay now," Kenneth said, waving off the staff who had opened the door. The staff left immediately.

He turned to look at Emily. "Hey, you can come out now! Didn't get enough of the place?"

Emilyshuffled out. The moment she stepped out, her knees buckled, and she started to fall. Royce was quick, though, and caught her before she hit the floor.

"What are you doing? Trying to pull a fast one on me?"

"Dizzy," Emily replied weakly, her eyes still closed.

Kenneth pulled Emily into his arms. "It's too stuffy in here. Let's get out of here."

Emily took a few deep breaths to steady herself and then wriggled out of Kenneth's embrace. She looked up at him. "Okay."

Kenneth led Emily through a labyrinth of twists and turns until they reached the ground floor. He found a place with chairs where they could rest for a bit.

Suddenly, Emily slapped her thigh. "Oh no!"

"What's with the freak-out?" Kenneth frowned.

"I'm here for an audition today! I need to get there now!" Julia shot to her feet and hurriedly ran towards the audition room she had been to earlier.

When she arrived, the waiting room was already empty, with staff cleaning up.

"Excuse me, is the audition for the third female lead over?"

"It's all over. Why are you just getting here?" one of the staff asked offhandedly. Everyone is breaking their necks to become a star these days, and yet here's someone who actually shows up late!

Emily quickly dashed to the next room, which was the actual audition room.

Inside, two assistant directors were sorting through stacks of papers while chatting.

"Directors, I haven't had my audition yet!"

Both assistant directors looked up at her, one of them clearly annoyed. "Kid, rule number one in this industry is you follow the rules. Punctuality is basic. If you can't get that right, you're not cut out for this. Maybe next time."

"Yeah, it's been over for half an hour," the other director chimed in.