Chapter 42 THE TUNNEL
“Attention, everyone, the boss’ woman is trying to make for an escape at this hour and losing her means death for us,” Marco started, his tone growing impatient as he spoke.
I forced myself to not buy his story or believe Santiano Rafael Devereaux could do something as bad as killing every single one of the in-house workers who are on duty— at my house of escape.
This wasn't the time for me to think about others, I just wanted to be free from the world I have been forced to live in.
Marco continued,
“All technical units, be on standby and switch off all live recordings on every camera in the mansion. All emergency lights and primary lights should be shut down!”
The moment he said this, as if already in position and ready to act based on orders, the whole mansion fell into darkness with no single stray light in sight.
I knew I had to keep moving and I had to be fast with it, but I still wasn't used to the walls of the house that I feared I would run into someone soon if I continued to stay where I was.
Marco's voice continued to give orders over the in-house broadcast panel.
“All female guards should head out for the search of Lady Vanessa. The first report was a sight on her on the first floor, heading towards the stairs. All male guards should secure the doors before she gets to them. There should be no excuses for not getting Lady Vanessa Hudgens because the boss doesn't accept excuses. I wish you all godspeed.”
They were coming, but just as predicted, the cameras and lights were out, making my escape a lot more flawless.
My escape route had never been the front door, which was also the main door that led to the inside of the mansion or any of the other doors, but a secret door behind a kitchen panel.
With no light in sight to lead me to the kitchen, Leah had said to watch out for something else that would guide me to the kitchen.
Then suddenly, I noticed the waft of a smell. The smell of burning cinnamon and I knew it at once as the smell crawled towards me.
I was quick to follow the smell, hoping none of the men were coming after me. My heart was racing on stop as I followed in the direction of the smell, my ears sharp to pick up the running feet of the guards looking for me.
I didn't stop looking back constantly until I finally made it to the kitchen which was like an empty husk— there was literally no kitchen worker in sight.
A small candle was lit by the in-built kitchenette which I quickly reached out to. I searched for a base cabinet as described in Leah's letter and I opened the compartment.
Inside the compartment was an already open manhole-like tunnel which I could fit in perfectly without any struggle.
I took a final look around just to make sure no one was watching, grabbed the lighted candle and I crawled into the hole, shutting the cabinet close behind me before I began my advent to liberation.
I crawled through the tunnel, escaping rats, evading the multiple spider webs that had nested their web castles about the tunnel walls and the dingy smell that waffed about in the enclosed space.
The tunnel was a lot more dirty and dingy than I had expected it to be. My mind quickly made a mental note of the valley I was crawling in like a lost child.
Apparently, it was a tunnel meant for passage and disposal of waste water from the Devereaux mansion which went down into the city's waste water reservoir.
More rats scurried out of nowhere, squeaking loudly as they ran towards me in fury in their large numbers as if they were escaping from a much larger predator than they could handle.
As they scurried past me, a few scratches my skin with their sharp nails that I flinched hard at the pain, the candle I had been holding to light my path slipped out of my hand and it landed in a little pond of murky water.
With a swift swoosh, the light of the candle was extinguished, plunging me into undefined darkness.
“Just great!” I groaned unbelievably, holding myself back from cursing the creatures who had let that happen.
I couldn't stop in the middle of nowhere in the tunnel that reeked so badly than a graveyard filled with corpses lying about— without a gravestone that I was beginning to feel sick in the stomach, so I kept moving, using my hands to crawl like I was an animal— perhaps, a cat.
I couldn't contain the awful smell in the tunnel any longer, but I knew it was just a crucifix I had to bear with as I was close to regaining my freedom.
I stopped for a moment, my weak stomach unable to beat it any longer, and I began to vomit whatever had been stored within my body for processing and digestion.
As soon as I had finished, I felt extremely weak and empty as I had spilled undoubtedly all the content in my stomach, in fact, a lot more weak that I began to sweat like I had a fever.
Despite this, I pressed on, crawling through the murky water. My eyes were growing tired and dim as I kept trying to adjust them to the darkness.
The glistening sweats on my forehead crawled down my face, hitting the water beneath me like hard balls while some never left my forehead, making my hair stick frail against my face.
I was growing extremely tired, hot, and wasted and soon, I suddenly began to forget how to breathe. Perhaps, I had reached a certain point of no return in the seemingly endless tunnel— the point where there was no oxygen.
Perhaps, this will be the point of my death. My eyes rolled back into their sockets, my weak arms and knees giving in to my already failed strength and I collapsed into the dirty water.