Chapter 3 Trapped Little Mouse

Kia's POV

The door slammed behind me with a finality that made my blood run cold. I spun around, my fingers already clawing at the handle, locked, of course it was. I slammed my palm against the wood, frustration bubbling up like acid in my throat.

"Hades!", I screamed.

"You can't keep me in here!", I shouted as I banged my fists loudly at the door.

No answer.

"Hades!", I yelled but still there was no reply.

I gave up and stepped away from the door. I looked around the room. The room was... excessive. Lavish didn't even begin to cover it. The bed alone looked like something ripped out of Versailles palace, massive and canopied in deep velvet curtains, the fabric a shade of blood red that matched the raging fury boiling inside me. The gold lined furniture gleamed under warm chandelier lights. A glass coffee table sat untouched and the walls were paneled with dark wood and subtle patterns I didn't care to examine. It was a room built for royalty, prestigious guests or in my case, prisoners paraded to be queens.

I looked around the room and realized something, the thing that had been nibbling away at the back of my head since I stepped into the room, the reason that I felt so claustrophobic, there were no windows, not a single one. I walked to one of the walls, dragging my fingers across the cold marble. The lack of air movement, the quiet hum of the artificial light of the chandeliers, it all sank in like weights tied to my ribs. Just this sterile, beautiful box, a cage draped in velvet, a beautifully decorated prison. The thought alone fueled my fury ten times, I turned and kicked the side of the dresser.

"Fuck!", I yelled angrily.

My legs trembled as the adrenaline wore off. I could still hear the gunshot, still see Gio falling, blood pouring from the side of his head like someone had turned on a faucet. His eyes, damn his eyes, were the worst part, shock, then emptiness, all in a second. I dropped onto the floor, burying my head in my arms. I didn't want to cry, not for him, not for Hades, not for any of them but my body didn't care what I wanted. My shoulders shook, Gio was dead and I was next. No, not exactly, not dead, worse. I was trapped. Minutes or hours, I couldn't really tell, passed. Time blurred in this place. I wiped my face and stood again, pacing the room. I examined every wall, every surface. I wandered into the bathroom, it was ridiculously large, with white marble and gold taps, fitted with a tub big enough to drown in but still there was no way out.

It was while I was inspecting the mirror, running my fingers around the edges to check for screws or loose panels, that I saw it. A small glint above the closet, too high for anyone to casually notice. I squinted at it for a while before going back into the room. I dragged a chair from inside the room to the bathroom, placed the chair beneath the small glint and climbed on it, squinting.

A camera, tiny, blinking red.

Son of a bitch! I stepped down, heart pounding. Then I checked the corners of the ceiling in the entire room. There were two more, one near the bed, another over the door. I spun, suddenly hyper aware of every move I'd made in the last hour. They'd seen everything, whoever it was sitting behind the cameras, they'd seen it all, my breakdown, my screaming, my tears.

"Fuck you!", I shouted to the ceiling.

"Is this what you wanted to see? You sick bastard!", I yelled.

No response.

I ran to the bed and yanked the comforter off, throwing it over one camera. I grabbed a towel from the bathroom and covered another. My room, my rules, if I was going to be trapped like an animal, I wasn't going to be on display like one. But even then... even with the cameras hidden, I didn't feel safe, not really. I curled up on the bed, wrapping my arms around my knees, trying to steady my breathing.

Was this how it would be? A war of silence and control? Because if Hades thought I would roll over and submit like some obedient pet, he was in for a rude awakening. I thought of Gio again. His voice whispering assurances, telling me he would always be there to protect me, all lies now, his smile, always a little too smooth. He hadn't been perfect but he hadn't deserved to die like that, not like an animal.

Or had he?

I squeezed my eyes shut, replaying the moment over and over again. He was talking, pleading, begging desperately but Hades didn't flinch. One second Gio was alive, the next he wasn't. That was power, that was Hades. I didn't know which part scared me more, that he'd done it so casually... or that a part of me had almost expected it.

"You're not getting in my head", I whispered into the dark.

As if on cue, a soft click echoed from the corner of the room.

I sat up fast. The intercom embedded in the wall crackled to life and then, a voice I didn't recognize.

"Sleep well, little mouse. You'll need your strength", it said.

My blood turned to ice. I jumped to my feet. "Who the hell are you?", I asked.

No response.

I ran to the intercom, pressing the button frantically.

"Answer me! Who the hell are you?!", I yelled.

Silence, then, a soft buzz signaling the line disconnected. I backed away, heart hammering in my chest.

'Little mouse'

The term rang louder than the threat. I had walked into a world I barely understood and now I was trapped in it, with hidden watchers, twisted games and cryptic threats. But I wasn't going to break, not yet. Let them watch, let them threaten. They had no idea who they were messing with.