Chapter 3 : The Revenge Plan

*Beth’s POV*

When I woke up, I found I was in a basement. This basement was large and had no windows and no lights. I was thrown on the cold, hard ground. I felt pain all over my body. But luckily, this time, I was not tied.

I quickly stood up. I was weak and had no strength. My stomach was twitching from hunger.

I felt it rumble, low and deep. I covered my stomach and sighed. I needed to find something to eat.

I rummaged through all my pockets and found nothing. My phone and wallet were missing. Even though my phone wasn't worth much, I still didn't have much money in my wallet either. I groaned. No phone meant that I couldn't contact the outside world. I had to rely on myself.

My stolen waiter's uniform was completely tattered. But fortunately, it still covered the main parts of my body. I tore the hem of my skirt into strips and tied it to the bleeding wound on my hand, wincing as it tightened.

Then, I explored the basement. On one wall, I found a refrigerator. I thought I could find something to eat, but when I opened the door, I was intimidated.

It was full of blood, packed in small test tubes, labeled. They densely filled the entire refrigerator. The blood was well-preserved and looked very fresh. It's like it was pulled out of a person and stored directly inside. What surprised me, even more, was that the labels were all the names of different people.

“Jax Kidmani, Mark Reed, Sam Hart...”

I read the name on each of the labels and frowned.

Who were these people? Why was their blood in here?

My gaze moved in confusion. And when my eyes met the two blank tubes on the top floor of the refrigerator, I was frozen.

“Roger Russell and Elisa Russell.” I couldn’t help but read the names with a trembling voice.

I covered my mouth with my hands to avoid screaming. I never thought I'd see the names of my father and sister. The two test tubes that belonged to them were empty.

Apparently, they were waiting to be filled. But the way to fill them, I dared not imagine. It was Elisa who they planned to kidnap in the first place. As far as I could tell, after that, they planned to kill her and use her blood to fill this test tube.

But they caught me instead. And I was alive now. I breathed a sigh of relief. The lights in the refrigerator shone on my face, and I looked at the two empty test tubes, relieved that my family was still safe.

My only remaining family, although they might not recognize me.

My mother's pale and sickly face before her death appeared before my eyes. She grabbed my hand and told me not to find my father and sister.

But how could I not? They were my family. We were all part of the Russell family.

Elisa and I were both daughters of the famous medical scientist, the founder of the Russell Group, Roger Russell. Elisa was three years older than me. We hadn't seen each other in a long time. Since my parents divorced when I was 5 years old, I was taken away to live with my mother in her hometown.

My mother died of illness a year ago. At that time, I couldn't contact my father and Elisa. I couldn't pay my mother's medical bills, even though I had sold her house. Even after my mother died, I still faced large financial debt.

I dropped out of school for a year to take care of my mother. After all of my hard work, I received an acceptance letter from the New York University School of Medicine. That was my dream, to become a doctor who heals and saves lives. But I couldn't pay my tuition, not to mention, I had debts that I couldn't afford.

I decided to come to Cisse City and ask my father and sister for help. But they lived in a wealthy area with good security and were protected by bodyguards when they traveled. Therefore, it was difficult for me to approach them.

My mother never let anyone know that she was Russell's ex-wife. My father never announced he had two daughters. In fact, he didn't recognize me as his daughter. I knew that, but it's a long story.

Today marked Elisa's inauguration as CEO of Russell Group. I had been working as a waitress at the Siston Hotel for three months since I saw the news on TV. I was just a temp at the Siston Hotel, so I stole my colleagues' clothes to blend in.

The inauguration took place three months later because my sister graduated from a prestigious business school today. My sister was much smarter than me. Although her illness delayed her for many years, she graduated with honors. Her talent for business was amazing. This led our father to announce that he would concentrate on researching new drugs and leave the management of the company to Elisa.

I got all this information from TV, not from my family. I didn't have their contact details. My father refused to pay my alimony. He hadn't contacted us since my mom and I left. Although every year my mom and I would send him postcards, we never received a response.

When I was little, my mother would buy gifts at Christmas and say that my father and sister had sent them to me. I was happy at first but then I realized it was just a lie from my mother. She wanted me to feel loved, and I did. Later, I cooperated with my mother to fulfill this lie. I also imitated my father and sister in writing letters to my mother. We both knew it was fake. But it still made us happy.

Until my mom got lung cancer. I had contacted my father in various ways but had not heard back.

I eventually lost her. But when I came to Cisse City and learned on TV that Elisa had recovered, I was ecstatic. At least my father cured my sister.

For as long as I could remember, Elisa was always in a wheelchair. Her body bled from time to time and she was always pale and covered with infusion tubes. She was treated as fragile as if one cut would drain the blood in her body and die at any moment. I couldn't imagine that she would ever recover.

My desire to heal her was my motivation to study medicine. When I rushed to the podium and found that Elisa was not there, I was convinced that she had really recovered. Thank God. If Mom could know, she would be so happy.

The corners of my eyes moistened. I blinked, then closed the refrigerator door. Just as I was about to explore somewhere else, I tripped over a wire connected to a chair.

That chair was different from ordinary chairs in appearance. I walked over and touched it. When I touched the electrodes on the chair, I realized it was a shock chair. An instrument of torture. The straps on the chair were somewhat worn; apparently, it had been used many times.

Who was tortured here?

My brows furrowed tightly. In the basement, I found more torture instruments. Thinking of the blood in the refrigerator that belongs to different people, I couldn't help but feel a chill down my spine.

Did I enter a murderers' house?

***

*Rylan’s POV*

Beth Russell's appearance was something I didn't expect. In all the information I found, it was not revealed that Russell had a younger daughter. Perhaps because after leaving with her mother, she took her mother's surname. I also didn't expect that when I called her Beth Russell, she would answer me.

But the way she looked at me was funny. She's probably one of my avid fans. The daughter of the enemy was my fan, what could be more interesting?

“Rylan, what do you think of it?” Zed asked me as he put on his police uniform jacket. He needs to return to the police station and call an emergency meeting to make a plan to catch the terrorists who attacked the Siston Hotel. He didn't have much time for us.

If it weren't for the little minute mistake, we would have found Elisa by now and tasted the sweetness of revenge. But since we didn't, the people pressed the police to catch the attacker as soon as possible.

I thought of Beth Russell's face again. She was an interesting person. I couldn't imagine that such a person would be Roger's daughter and Elisa's sister.

“I said to kill her. That stupid woman caused us to fail in our plan. She deserves to pay the price. What's more, she is Roger's daughter, and we don't have to be kind to her.”

Daniel's gray eyes turned red, and he seemed excited to kill the enemy's daughter.

I couldn't deny that I was excited too. Revenge was something that was engraved in us since the moment we were "born". Although to me, humans were much uglier and more disgusting than I was now. I didn't have any obsession with being human.

But thanks to Roger, I now needed to drink disgusting human blood to survive. Every time blood flowed through my esophagus, my body burned, and I wanted to vomit all my internal organs. Although I knew that my skin, along with the insides, were long rotten.

I heard the girl walking around in the basement and smelled the scent of blood flowing through her. I knew that if we killed her now, there would be no difficulty. We could wring her neck, peel off her skin and suck her blood dry. Let her die in extreme pain. As her reward for quelling the flames of our hatred, I could play special music for her. Let her die in happy fantasies.

Wasn't she a fan of mine? I think she'd love my tunes.

I smiled until Daniel's snapping fingers in front of my face brought me back to reality.

“What are you two hesitating about? Have you forgotten who made us like this?” Daniel had clearly lost his patience. His sharp teeth were exposed, and his red eyes brightened from the flames of vengeance.

He had always hated Roger the most among us. It also made Zed and I decide to hide things about the poor old man from him. We were afraid that he would lose his mind and go rogue for revenge.

Roger was very cunning. He hid and was not easy to find, and I was afraid Daniel would reveal his identity. That would turn the entire human world against us. Although there was nothing to linger on in the human world, at least until I succeeded in revenge, I didn't want to take that risk.

“Daniel, keep calm,” Zed said, stepping forward. His eyes turned red too.

Under Zed's coercion, Daniel gave up. From the day we escaped from the lab together, he took care of us like an older brother. For Daniel and me, disobeying him was never a thought.

“Shit!” Daniel cursed in anger, his eyes turning gray again. He sat on the couch cushion and turned his head like a gambling child. The couch bounced a few times under his weight.

Zed just stood there and cleared his throat. His eyes also returned to the normal, pure black iris. He wasn't wearing sunglasses, and the girl's blood still made him feel a little uncomfortable.

“I don't object to killing her, but killing her is not a success in revenge, because our real enemies are Roger and his eldest daughter. It was Russell who turned us into monsters and we have to live bloodthirstily.” Zed stopped and turned to me. “Rylan, have you found Roger's hiding place?”

“No. He wasn't at home or at the Russell Group," I sighed. “It was my fault that I didn’t find out Roger had two daughters. But I have a plan.” I smiled and lifted my eyelids as usual when I decided to take advantage of or take revenge on someone.

Both Zed and Daniel were familiar to me, so they looked at me carefully and waited.

I heard a fall in the basement. Maybe the girl finally figured out she couldn't get out and gave up.

Poor prey.

The smile on my face deepened. I leaned back on the arm of the couch.

“Why don't we use Roger's daughter as bait for our revenge?” I started "I mean, Beth, of course. We have her, don't we?”

“But that stupid woman is not Elisa. Who knows how much Russell actually cares about her?“ Daniel grunted. He hated Elisa and gritted his teeth every time he talked about her.

“Daniel,” I looked at him disapprovingly, “It is rude to call a lady a stupid woman. What's more, according to the information I have obtained, Beth is only 19 years old, only one year older than you.“

”She is still a young girl," Daniel concluded.

“Okay, Rylan. So, what’s your plan?” Zed asked at the last minute before heading out, his expression very serious.

I looked into his eyes and replied. “Help Beth return to Roger so that we have the opportunity to get close to him. He's been living in seclusion and has had full security. She'll lead us right to him." My voice was clear and calm. I was serious.

My plan wasn't complicated, but that girl was key.

“I agree with the plan,” Zed nodded without hesitation. He knew who I was. We were the best allies on the road to revenge. He turned to me with his trusting eyes. “I need to go to the police station for an emergency meeting. You guys take care of this girl. We can have a good talk with her later.”

Zed left, the door closing crisply behind him. Daniel and I looked at each other. He tilted his head, still feeling angry at not being able to kill the girl.

“I don't like that stupid...that girl. I was afraid that I would kill her if I went to her.”

He wanted to rub his red hair in exasperation, only to remember that he was wearing a hat and his hand was reluctantly lowered.

“Daniel, go upstairs to have a shower. I will handle the girl," I ordered. Daniel didn't fight back. Rather, he nodded and left.

Finally, in the living room, it was just me. I tugged at the clothes on my chest. I was still not used to wearing tights, which made me tense. Maybe I should go change my clothes.

I heard the gentle breathing in the basement. Maybe the girl fainted. Just now I noticed that she was pale as if she was very hungry. But what would I do? There was no human food in this villa because no one needed it.

I took a quick shower and went to the basement in my usual house clothes.

When I opened the door, I found the girl lying on the ground. Her tattered clothes slipped off her shoulders, revealing the skin underneath, and a small piece of her back. It was covered with old scars. They weren't caused by the rope tied to a chair. Those were injuries from many years ago, and they clearly healed. It's just that they were still shallow scars on her body.

My eyes narrowed. I felt that this girl was even more interesting than I thought. I didn't anticipate the impact she would have on us. Many years later, when I thought back to the beginning of it all, I just found it incredible.