Chapter 5 - The Red Beams
The harsh white glare of the halogen spotlight burned against Emma’s retinas.
She held up a raw, bleeding hand to shield her eyes from the blinding light.
"Hold it right there, maid!" the lead security guard bellowed, his voice echoing off the tight wooden studs.
The sound of heavy leather boots thundered against the hollow floorboards as both guards sprinted toward her.
There was no space to turn around in the eighteen-inch gap behind the wall.
Emma pressed her back against the rough plasterboard and scrambled backward on her knees.
Her fingers frantically scraped against splinters, leaving streaks of fresh blood along the unpainted wood.
"She’s heading toward the ballroom sub-framing!" the second guard yelled into his shoulder radio.
"Lock down sector three! Don't let her reach the central shaft!" he barked into the transmitter.
Ahead of her, a heavy iron grate slammed down from the ceiling with a deafening metallic crash.
The heavy iron bars blocked the narrow wall pathway entirely, trapping her in a dead end.
Emma spun around on her knees to face her pursuers.
The lead guard was only ten feet away, unholstering a black, high-voltage stun baton.
The blue electric arc hissed and crackled loudly in the narrow, airless space.
"End of the line, crazy girl," the guard sneered, stepping over a thick bundle of electrical cables.
Emma looked down at the floorboards between them.
The young girl’s desperate warning echoed in her mind: Don't step on the red wooden beams.
Directly beneath the guard’s raised boot, the wooden support beam was painted with a faded red stripe.
The guard had no idea the floor beneath him was rigged with structural traps.
Emma lunged forward on her hands and knees, intentional panic painted across her face.
"Please! Don't shoot!" she screamed, throwing her arms out in fake desperation.
The guard smirked and slammed his boot down hard onto the red-painted beam to lung forward.
A loud, mechanical click echoed beneath the floorboards.
Before the guard could react, the wooden floor beneath his feet gave way entirely.
A hinged trapdoor swung open, dropping the guard through the structural framing with a sudden scream.
His heavy body crashed into the darkness below, followed by the clatter of his dropped stun baton.
"What the hell?!" the second guard shouted, stopping dead in his tracks just inches from the pit.
Emma didn't hesitate for a single fraction of a second.
She reached across the gaping hole in the floor and grabbed the fallen stun baton by its rubber grip.
She pulled herself up and shoved the crackling electrode directly into the remaining guard's thigh.
Thousands of volts of electricity surged through the man’s body with a terrifying buzzing sound.
The guard’s eyes rolled back, his body seizing violently as he hit the narrow wall frame.
He collapsed sideways, falling directly down the open trapdoor after his partner.
Their heavy bodies hit the concrete sub-basement far below with a dull, sickening thud.
Emma collapsed against the plaster wall, her chest heaving violently as adrenaline surged through her veins.
She held the crackling stun baton in her trembling, dirty hands.
She now had a weapon, but time was slipping away rapidly.
She turned back to the iron grate blocking her path to the Central Core.
The bars were thick, heavy, and completely impassable.
She looked up into the dark gap above her head.
The hollow wall system didn't just extend horizontally; it rose vertically into the mansion's second floor.
Thick copper wires and black air ducts snaked upward through the narrow wall framing.
Emma shoved the heavy stun baton into her apron pocket and grabbed a sturdy wooden crossbeam above her.
She pulled her weight up, using the narrow studs like a vertical ladder inside the wall.
Her muscles burned with intense exhaustion, every rib aching from the cramped conditions.
She climbed higher and higher into the darkness, guided only by the faint hum of electrical wires.
As she reached the ceiling joists of the ground floor, the sound of music drifted through the plaster.
A classical string quartet was playing a slow, haunting melody upstairs.
She was climbing directly behind the grand staircase of the Sterling mansion.
Through a small gap in the lath and plaster, she caught a glimpse of the grand ballroom below.
Dozens of elite guests in evening gowns and suits were gathered around a raised glass platform.
In the center of the ballroom floor, a large circular section of the mahogany flooring had been lowered.
It revealed a sunken glass pit set directly into the middle of the ballroom.
Inside that soundproof glass pit sat a small wooden chair.
And tied to that wooden chair with thick rope was Ethan.
Emma’s breath caught in her throat, a sob tearing through her chest.
Ethan’s head was hanging low, his little body trembling with sheer terror and fatigue.
A bright spotlight from the ceiling illuminated him like a prize exhibit in a twisted museum.
Above the glass pit, Mr. Sterling stood holding a silver microphone, smiling smoothly at the crowd.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the final showcase of the evening," Mr. Sterling announced into the microphone.
The wealthy crowd applauded softly, sipping their expensive champagne as they looked down into the pit.
"As our distinguished private guests know, true value lies in absolute, unfiltered emotion," Mr. Sterling continued smoothly.
"Tonight's subject is exceptionally vocal," he added with a chillingly polite smile.
Emma gripped the wooden framing so hard her knuckles turned ghostly white.
They were auctioning off the right to torment her little brother to the highest bidder in the room.
She squeezed through a narrow horizontal gap in the ceiling framing, moving directly above the ballroom chandelier.
The massive crystal chandelier hung from a heavy steel chain anchored to the ceiling joists right beside her.
If she could cut the power to the ballroom, she could drop down into the chaos and reach the glass pit.
She pulled the crackling stun baton from her pocket and looked at the main electrical junction box mounted on the wall beam.
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A thick bundle of high-voltage cables ran into the heavy metal box, humming with power.
Emma took a deep breath, raised the stun baton, and jammed the electric tip directly into the exposed junction wires.
