Chapter 2 - SHUT IN WITH A MONSTER
Viral Title: The Doors Locked Automically. Then The Dead Wife Spoke Her Final Secret...
The heavy thud of steel security gates sealed the chapel in near-darkness, lit only by the flickering ambient lights of the altar and the blinding flashes of cell phone screens. Panic set in instantly. Women screamed, beating their fists against the reinforced glass doors.
"Arthur! What is the meaning of this?!" shouted Judge Thomas, a longtime family friend standing in the front row. "Let us out of here immediately!"
Arthur wiped a smear of blood from his cheek where Clara had scratched him. His grieving, weeping husband persona had vanished entirely, replaced by a cold, calculating predator. He stood beside two of his armed bodyguards who had drawn concealed handguns from their coats.
"Nobody leaves," Arthur said, his voice terrifyingly calm through the chapel microphone. "Not until this... misunderstanding is cleaned up."
"You're insane!" Maya yelled, cradling Clara’s weak, shivering body in her arms. She wrapped her orange maid jacket around Clara’s shoulders. Clara’s body was ice-cold, suffering from acute oxygen deprivation and severe chemical paralysis.
"I’m a businessman, Maya," Arthur replied, walking slowly toward the altar. "And my wife dying today was worth four hundred million dollars in trust distributions. Do you have any idea what happens to my empire if she walks out of this room?"
"You poisoned her with Tetrodotoxin," Clara whispered, her strength slowly returning as fresh air filled her lungs. "The blowfish toxin... you put it in my evening tea..."
The room gasped.
"You wanted to paralyze me... make the doctors think my heart stopped..." Clara coughed, blood speckling her pale lips. "I was conscious, Arthur. I was conscious when the coroner came. I was conscious when they placed me in this box. I WAS AWAKE WHEN THEY SCREWED THE LID DOWN!"
A shudder of horror ran through the crowd. The sheer brutality of her words hung in the air like a death sentence.
"And yet, you failed to die," Arthur sighed, shaking his head. "A tragic miscalculation in the dosage. But it doesn't matter. The narrative was written. The death certificate is signed. As far as the world outside these steel doors is concerned, Clara Sterling is dead."
Arthur nodded to his lead guard, a scarred man named Victor. "Kill the maid. Put Clara back in the box. We’ll finish the burial at the private estate as planned."
"Wait!" Maya yelled, standing up in front of Clara, holding the bloody axe with steady arms. "You think you can kill a hundred people in this room? Look around, Arthur! Half of them are live-streaming this on social media right now!"
Arthur chuckled, a chilling sound. "Check your phones, everyone."
Several guests looked down at their screens. "No service... the signal Jammer! He jammed the cell towers!"
"No streams. No calls. No rescue," Arthur sneered. "Just a unfortunate tragic fire at a memorial service. A gas leak, perhaps? Everyone inside suffocates. I emerge as the sole survivor, traumatized and broke, but miraculously alive."
May you like
Clara leaned over the edge of the shattered coffin, her eyes locking onto Maya's. "Maya... the red button... under the altar..." she whispered beneath the noise of the panicking crowd.
Maya’s eyes flicked to the heavy mahogany podium just three feet to her left.
