The Devil’s Cage

“I am a professional clown.”

The tired man sat on the sofa and started to tell his story like Kieran told him to do.

“I’ve brought joy to many people before but now, I can’t smile anymore. They say I’m suffering from depression. Isn’t it funny, a clown with depression?” the tired man then looked at Kieran.

Kieran’s face was blank and without the slightest intention to laugh, which made the tired man heave a breath of relief. He was quite worried that Kieran would be the same as the previous psychologists he had: chuckling or giggling when they heard his story.

It was easy for the man to notice the sneers and mocks since he was a professional clown. All he needed was a single glance.

Fortunately, there wasn’t any in Kieran.

“My wife did many things to make me happy. She told stories, jokes, and even pretended to be a clown herself to put a smile on my face, but it’s useless. So, she decided to bring me on a vacation. I was so caught up with my work before, I almost forgot about my marriage but the day we decided to go on vacation, I felt a little bit of happiness! I can still feel the smile on my face, but that was before… a speeding truck rammed into our car. I survived, but not my wife.”

The tired man’s eyes grew teary, covering his face and sobbing painfully.

Kieran didn’t interrupt him, looking behind the man quietly, as if he was letting the man vent his feelings out.

More than 10 seconds later, the man seemed to have recovered slightly.

“After the accident, I lost my smile again and my sleep. My wife is all over my mind. I feel like I could see her if I closed my eyes, I can even hear what she is saying to me!” the tired man said and closed his eyes, as if he could really see his dead wife around him.

As a matter of fact, the wife was indeed around him.

In Kieran’s eyes, a woman whose body was crushed, including the brain, was standing behind the man. From the moment the man walked into the room, this woman was already around him. Her face showed nothing but grudge and anger, moving her hand to the man’s neck, trying to strangle him, but her hands would pass through his body without fail each time.

The endless attempts infuriated the woman, shrieking endlessly but the man couldn’t hear it.

The woman then noticed Kieran’s gaze.

‘You can see me?

How? How can you see me?

Why not him!

Why did I have to die, and not him!

WHY?!

WHY DIDN’T YOU DIE!?’

Doubt flashed over her eyes before it was replaced by a heavier grudge.

The temperature in the room started to drop as her grudge intensified. The tired man continued talking as though he couldn’t feel the change of temperature but his breath slowly turned white.

The grudgeful woman then threw herself towards Kieran, shrieking ceaselessly.

“Die!”

“Die!”

“Die!”

It was almost instinct for the dead to hate the living, more so this particular dead wasn’t just some wandering soul anymore.

Although not yet the level of an evil spirit, it was able to change temperature, probably nearing the level of a poltergeist and it was a matter of time before it truly became a true poltergeist that could kill.

Therefore, it died a second time.

Just when it was a palm away from Kieran, a giant mouth appeared from thin air and swallowed it, removing its traces completely.

The temperature in the room returned to normal.

The man, who closed his eyes, was still talking by himself.

“I can still feel her beside me. She is still so beautiful and kind. She’d caress my neck cheeks, telling stories about how we met and fell in love for the first time.”

The man’s voice grew softer, his eyes slowly opening up and when he had a better view of the room, his face was covered with doubt. His hands touched his surroundings in panic, as if he was looking for something.

“W-What? Where is she? She was still here a moment ago! WHERE IS SHE! Did you hide her?!”

“Impossible! I hid her, not you people! Only I know where she is! Not you! Not you people!”

The man seemed to have lost his sanity, hugging his head and shrinking his body on the sofa, screaming in panic.

Hahahahahaha!

He laughed loudly.

“Stop laughing! Stop! Why are you all laughing?! I’m not funny! I’m never funny!”

The man fell into further panic when he heard the laughter. He almost embedded himself into the sofa and yet he kept pushing his legs, trying to be one with the sofa.

Helpless and pitiful.

Anyone who saw his condition would feel sad and pitiful, but Kieran, who was the opposite, watched him coldly.

The condition lasted for a minute before the man stopped.

He then stretched his body and sat up properly. His feet back on the ground, hands on his knees, and head down, most of his face concealed behind his hair. His eyes then shined in an unusual glint.

The frenzied and strange gaze landed on Kieran.

Kieran wasn’t moved at all when the gaze hit him.

“Why didn’t you laugh?” he asked.

“Why should I?” Kieran asked back.

“Because of my performance! Is my performance so hard to laugh at? A clown whose career failed and got set up by his greedy wife! She tried to cause an accident in exchange for a great sum of money from the insurance company yet it didn’t go as planned and she died. Isn’t that funny?!” the man’s voice heightened when he questioned Kieran.

“Not funny,” Kieran shook his head.

“You pity the wife? I thought you were different, but it seems like you are as low as the others!” the man looked at Kieran in shock, shaking his head.

“Wife? You mean pawn right? Besides, didn’t you get yourself a new target? Your eyes on my nurse, it’s the eyes of landing a prey,” Kieran said.

“Yes! The wife is in the past now! I have a new target now, a great one too! She’s pure, passionate, and kind, I like it! She will fall into my hands! I’ll crush her bones bit by bit. I want to hear the painful moans, it’s like a melody in my ears. You, you shall not hear it! I’d like to share but in order to let my hunt happen smoothly, I’d like you to die now!”

The man’s face was still covered by his hair but his voice turned frenzied and fanatical.

“Before you die, I’d like to say thank you. You are much more qualified than any other psychologist I’ve met. I’ve decided, you will be the next me! My new identity! A psychologist , isn’t that nice?”

A dagger appeared in his hand and he was ready to stand up.

However, he suddenly couldn’t feel his legs.

His legs were still attached to his body but… the bones were all crushed.

The bones in his legs were all crushed silently and quickly, unbeknownst to him!

He only reacted to the condition when he tried to stand.

“Aaaaaarh!”

Amid his painful scream, he fell to the floor, the dagger in his hand flying off into some corner.

“Oh I’ve heard your painful screams alright, but it’s not what I like,” Kieran said plainly and slowly, walking towards the man.

“Don’t come over!”

The man screamed in panic and fear as he watched Kieran get closer.

He had no idea how a pleasant hunt turned out like this.

Shouldn’t Kieran be a psychologist who was physically weak?

In his original plan, he’d get Kieran with the flip of his hand, but what happened now had deviated from his plan completely.

What went wrong?

His legs were crippled, so he pushed himself up with his hands, crawling to the window in the room. His strong hands made it possible for him to reach the window quickly.

He turned back around to Kieran when he was under the window, as if he was trying to get a last good look at Kieran so that he could brand him in his mind.

“You think you’ve won? I will be back…”

BANG!

A gunshot interrupted his words, the man’s head exploded like a watermelon and his brains scattered.

Less than 10 seconds later, Gredith, with a gun in her hand, kicked the office door open.

Gredith scanned the room with her gun quickly before she ran towards the man who she shot.

When she saw the broken legs, she was stunned. She instinctively turned to Kieran.

“You did this?” she asked.

“Yes,” Kieran nodded. He was alone with the man in the room, so there were no grounds for him to cover or lie.

“Nicely done! Perfect self-defense!” Gredith gave him a thumbs up.

It was Kieran’s turn to get stunned.

He thought Gredith would question him, trouble him, and criticize him for doing so. Never did he expect such an answer from her.

“There are always people who like to use loopholes in the law to escape sanction, he is one of them. He has a paper that proved he is ‘mentally impaired’, so the jury believed him when he said he killed that girl under influence. He was then sent into the mental institution for 6 months and when he got out, he started searching for new prey. I’ve suggested keeping an eye on him, but some bastards think it’s a waste of police resources,” explained Gredith.

Two of Gredith’s men also came into the office.

They saw the body on the floor before they looked at their superior.

“Call it in,” she said.

Her men quickly carried out her order.

Kieran was left alone with the inspector again and the inspector sized up Kieran again with her judgmental gaze.

“You learned how to fight before?” she asked.

“Can’t a psychologist learn how to defend himself?” Kieran asked.

“Yes, but not many can do what you did,” she emphasized.

“But not totally impossible, right?” Kieran then headed outside, having no interest in continuing the conversation.

Gredith would never mix up matters, compartmentalizing everything in her life. It was true that Kieran helped her catch the killer, so she’d thank Kieran for that but it would not remove her doubt for Kieran.

In fact, Kieran had met stubborn people like her more than once.

Some became his friend; some ended up as just someone.

Gredtih? She would obviously end up as the latter.

Kieran was unable to accept a female being so stubborn and hysteric. In his point of view, the two words were synonyms for trouble.

Compared to Gredith’s questions, he was more concerned about his nurse.

Although the nurse was employed by his identity, her performance in work was quite decent. After she came to work this morning, she took the initiative to clean the messy room.

The hardest worker would win fondness, Kieran’s too, especially when there wasn’t any hostility.

Kieran would still help her along the way, more so when whole mess happened because of him.

Frightened, Amy, the nurse, waited patiently on the first floor. She heard the gunshot just now and did not know what caused it, worrying about her boss.

Her boss had terrible luck recently.

Yesterday, someone broke into his house and stole something; today, a crazy person knocked on his door.

Amy already knew who the crazy person was after she heard the whispers from the two officers.

This crazy person made quite the headlines a while ago, and the whole of Moon City knew about him.

Some thought the crazy person really had lost his mind, otherwise he wouldn’t have committed such an atrocity; others thought the person was just pretending to be crazy, in order to escape the sanction of law.

Amy believed in both the saying because of her uncertainty and after what happened just now, Amy sided with the latter. She strongly believed that person was pretending to be crazy.

“Hope Dr. 2567 is fine,” she prayed softly.

Suddenly, she felt a little chilly. She instinctively turned to the air-con.

She thought the temperature on the air-con was a little too low but the moment she turned around, a figure slowly emerged from the intersection between her shadow and the wall’s.

The figure was wearing a colorful outfit, had colorful makeup, an afro wig, and a red nose.

A spirit of a clown appeared behind Amy, but unlike how a clown looked normally, this clown showed no expression, even with the colorful makeup.

It raised its hand, overflowing with killer intentions. It ought to complete the final wish before it died.

This nurse was its first target and there were two more upstairs, waiting for him.

After that, it would head to the streets where countless more targets were waiting.

Amy checked the temperature but it was normal. She twisted her head in discomfort, as if something was behind her. While she was at lost in her thoughts, footsteps came from upstairs.

Kieran came down.

“Doctor, are you okay?” Amy asked out of concern when she saw Kieran, the discomfort discarded away.

“I’m fine. Can you buy me some takeaway?” Kieran smiled.

“Takeaway is not healthy for you,” said Amy but she did not disobey the orders.

She headed to the counter to make a phone call and that dead looking clown followed right behind her, trying to complete its final wish but Kieran stepped in in a flash.

‘He can see me? Great! This will be fun!’

The serious looking clown raised its hand, overflowing with killer intents, changing its target to Kieran, trying to take him out first.

When the palm got closer, Kieran raised his right index finger, drawing a smile on his face from the left to right, and whispered, “Why so serious?”

The serious looking clown halted its palm in mid-air before it vanished, leaving behind a series of soft munching and many faint prying gazes.