Reborn in the Enemy's Embrace

At that moment, the only ones alive were me, Juliet, Eason, Damien, Zion, Violette, Quinn, Joel, and Howard. There was also another man. He had been hiding underneath the roller coaster from beginning to end. His name was Taylor Barlowe.

The unconscious masked man dragged over by Zion was the last one. The other masked men died in the trap set by the mastermind.

"Oh no! I went too far by accident," the eerie voice chimed in, perfectly complementing the whimsical music of the amusement park with its unsettling laugh.

"He can track us through surveillance and send people after us. He must have a special shortcut. We need to find him, or else we’ll always be at his mercy." I frowned and glanced at the surveillance camera or the ceiling.

Manipulating the game through surveillance was truly a crazy act...

Suddenly, the masked man jolted awake, whimpering and wriggling. He was desperately attempting to speak. However, his mouth had been tightly stitched shut, causing blood to seep out whenever he made the slightest movement.

Quinn and Violette averted their gaze in fear, and Juliet instinctively avoided making eye contact as well. This was extremely vicious. I firmly restrained the masked man and freed his mouth by cutting the thread with a knife.

The masked man shouted in horror, pointing his finger at the place where they had been sent. "He’s on this level... The lunatic... There, in the control room, he’s in it..."

Dexter and Zion managed to pry open the floor. There was indeed a passage that led directly to the 14th floor.

"Be careful..." Zion grasped Dexter’s arm and warned him against acting impulsively.

I glanced at Dexter, quickly removed the tie from the masked man’s clothing, and pulled my hair up into a high ponytail. "You two head downstairs first. I’ll confront that lunatic." If we did not eliminate him, the path that lay ahead would become even more challenging.

"I’ll go with you!" Damien stopped me nervously. It was too dangerous.

I glanced at Dexter without even realizing it. He seemed anxious as he returned my gaze. It was evident that he desired to be by my side too.

"Two people are too conspicuous," I declared as I brushed off Damien’s hand and retrieved the knife from the ground. I then glanced at the surveillance camera in the northwest corner. "You can’t go alone." Zion also stopped me.

"I assume that the person in the control room has no physical combat skills," I remarked, glancing at Dexter.

The two of us didn’t seem to need much language to communicate as he understood that my intuition would always be right.

"Go downstairs and make it seem like we’ve gone. Let’s cover for her." Dexter grabbed Joel, who was still confused.

He glanced at me once more. "I’ve destroyed the surveillance camera in the northwest corner just now."

I couldn’t help but raise the corners of my mouth, a smile forming. This was my man... He appeared to have foreseen my actions and prepared the path ahead for me. Damien looked at me with a perplexed expression and appeared to struggle to find the right words. However, ultimately, his disappointment left him speechless. Juliet chuckled sarcastically. "Ha... No matter how much you try to be like her, you’ll never be Sophia..."

"Stop being so sarcastic! You’re too vicious! Why don’t you just die? If it weren’t for you, Carol would still be alive!" Violette glared at Juliet, her anger burning fiercely. Quinn glared at Juliet with pure hatred. "You should just die..."

Juliet glanced at me, and it was as if she no longer wanted to pretend. She laughed at herself.

"You won. This is what you want to see, isn’t it? You want me to be the target of public criticism, the object of everyone’s suspicion. You want me to experience the pain that Sophia went through before when she wasn’t trusted and was standered..."

I frowned. Did she not do it?

"Let’s get going! We can’t afford to waste any time." Dexter frowned.

Zion reassured me, "Stay safe. We’ll be waiting for you downstairs."

When they went downstairs, I quickly hid in the blind spot of the surveillance camera. I was eager to discover the identity of the person lurking behind the surveillance.

I carefully felt my way along the wall,

then used a knife to disable the electric valve that closed the door. I

slipped inside as soon as the wall

opened. There was a not-so-long

passage ahead.

The moment I entered, all the lights turned on. It was as if the man knew I was coming.

I kicked open the control room and cautiously glanced at the person sitting in front of the monitor. He didn’t appear to be capable of fighting back. There was only one person.

He was confined to a wheelchair, having lost both of his legs. He should be Benjamin, the young boy who was tragically pushed off from the roller coaster at the orphanage.

He turned his wheelchair and flashed a smile at me. "It’s been a while, Sophia."

I quickly became alert and looked cautiously at him.

"When you asked me where to place the emergency exit, I didn’t have an immediate answer at that moment. Do you know the reason behind my decision to locate the emergency exit under the roller coaster? Benjamin inquired, flashing a smile.

My heart suddenly raced, and my grip on the knife tightened. What did he mean? Did I design this so-called amusement park of massacre?

Benjamin pivoted his wheelchair to face me directly. "I remember vividly the time I confided in you about my plan for revenge. You told me that as a human being, leaving a way out for others is also leaving a way out for yourself."

"It made me think of the time I was pushed off the roller coaster and how I had hoped someone would come and save me."

But no one could save him. What awaited him was only fear, pain, and... a lifetime of disability.

"On a selfish note, why should I leave a way out for these people? Did they ever leave one for me in the first place?" Benjamin smirked, a strange smile on his face.

Suddenly, a chill ran down my spine. I wanted to leave here to warn them. That was not the way to the 14th floor! It was Benjamin’s final trap!

The door to the control room suddenly closed, trapping me inside.

My heart was beating a little faster, and I glared at Benjamin. "Let them out!"

Benjamin laughed gleefully. "Haha... Sophia, you can’t save them."

I gazed at the surveillance monitor in panic. Once Dexter and the others descended the stairs, the exit would close automatically, leaving them all trapped in that confined space.

"What are you going to do to them?" I felt like I was suffocating, like there was a weight pressing down on my chest. I seemed to lose control at that moment.

I turned to face Benjamin and forcefully pulled him down. I swiftly plunged the dagger into his palm. "Release them..."

When I regained consciousness, I found Benjamin on the brink of death. A haunting smile lingered on his lips amid the blood stains.

"When I was three years old, I was diagnosed with congenital heart disease. My parents tirelessly worked from dawn to dusk, saving up for five years to cover my surgery expenses. I truly believed they would never give up on me as they were my biological parents.

"However, what transpired shattered my world. On my eighth birthday, they abandoned me at the market, and I’ve not heard from them since."

Benjamin smirked sarcastically. "Later, I was sent to the orphanage. I naively believed that my companions there were all abandoned children as well. I hoped that by sticking together and providing comfort, we could create a new family for ourselves...

"I believed that we could be like siblings even though we weren’t related by blood. But why did they push me into the abyss over just an egg, a piece of bread, a glass of milk, and a spot on a roller coaster?

"I’ve struggled and worked hard, longing to break free. I understand that the human heart holds no pure good or evil. Our thoughts shape everything. A single thought has the power to transform into a devil or an act of kindness."

Benjamin’s laughter echoed crazily through the room. Blood still trickled from the corner of his mouth. He forcefully pushed my hand aside, fought to reach the wall with his impaired legs, and finally leaned against it.

"There’s someone in the dark little

room. He used to be the principal of the special needs school. I told him that in order to survive, he should kill anyone who entered." Benjamin pointed to the monitor and asked me to look at it.

I stood up in despair and observed the small, din room. I was also searching for a device to make a call. I wanted to remind Dexter that there was someone inside. However, I couldn’t see clearly what was happening. I could only hear the sounds coming from inside.

Someone was screaming.

"Let them go! Open the door!" I couldn’t locate the control switch, so I couldn’t kill Benjamin yet.

I grabbed his collar, my eyes blazing with fury. "Dexter is still inside! There are so many innocent people. You’re out of your mind!"

Benjamin glanced in my direction and suddenly smiled. The smile was no longer wild but rather filled with a sense of relief.

With trembling hands that were stained with blood, he gently wiped the tears from my face. "Sophia... you’re crying. You’ve learned to be afraid, haven’t you?"

I felt my body stiffen. All of a sudden, I released my grip on Benjamin. His gaze pierced right through me as if he could see into my soul.

I was suddenly overwhelmed by fear and panic. What kind of connection did I have with him? And how did it relate to this dead end?

"Please, let them out." I was unable to locate the switch to open the secret room, and I realized that Benjamin’s design of this supposed "escape exit" was a dead end. There was no way out and no mechanism to release them.

Benjamin stared at the monitor, his voice raspy. "Sophia, this is a dead end. Every ten minutes, the light in the secret room flickers for three seconds. Their chances of survival are based on pure luck."

I kicked him out of anger, then quickly turned around and looked at

the monitor with fear. As he had mentioned, ten minutes later, the light in the secret room turned on. In just three seconds, I saw blood covering the floor and dead bodies.

The masked man was dead, and Howard appeared to be wounded, having been stabbed in the thigh. The darkness left them unable to even recall the killer’s whereabouts.