Finally, Ariana reached the square looking exit at the end of the stairs. Holding onto the handle to the exit, she paused and listened for any movements from the other side. After making sure that there weren't any sounds, she pushed the square shaped door outwards.
She didn't think about anything, but her own safety as a priority. Being cautious by nature, she didn't step out immediately in case of sudden attacks from above. Slowly, she tested the waters to make sure nobody was there to ambush her. Once she had gotten out safely, a heavy rotten iron stench filled her nose that made her gag.
Covering her mouth with her palm, she tried her best not to vomit. At the same time, she felt suffocated by the putrid scent that would make anyone's stomach turn upside down and right side up. Still, she focused her attention on details around the room.
Her eyes wandered around the dimmed, blood splattered room. The walls had fairly new half dried red fluids and old brown stains of blood in an explosive, messy manner. She traced the blood stains to an old and rusty looking shower curtain with unevenly ripped edges.
"This is where the blood stains are blocked off. So, these random ovals or slashes of red marks must have been from whatever was killed here..." Since the curtains were layered unevenly, it exposed the legs of a bathtub behind it.
The dimmed lights flickered, heightening the tension in the room. She gulped and pulled the curtains to the side to discover a bathtub full of blood and layers of stitched patches of human skin soaked in the liquid.
Jars and containers that held body organs in transparent fluid could be seen arranged in the order from smallest to largest on a table behind the tub.
A pair of slender, neatly chopped, skinned body thighs and knees were hanging separated in a row from the ceiling using a hook. The teeth marks on the thighs matched the small amount of flesh that was floating in the tub. It looked like someone had teared out the victim's flesh to drain their blood out slowly in the most brutal way possible.
From the looks of it, the dangling half body in front of her had already been boiled or cooked by oil after the blood was completely drained. A huge freezer with a transparent door was located next to the bloody dissected parts.
She gulped silently and took a deep breath before gathering enough courage to see what was in that freezer. At this point, the pungent smell was not the main point anymore, and she had loosened her palms from her face.
Her body froze on the spot as she felt the chilliness from the icy insides of the functioning freezer. Through the transparent door, she saw bags of ice with some kind of bloody parts that belonged to animals and humans.
Some bags held smaller sized parts which seemed to look like it belonged to infants, children and wild animals. Other parts were too far from her vision as it was stacked between other bags. She was ready to find human heads from the fridge, but had not expect to see more parts preserved in there.
This was incredibly bad news and she had to get out of here as quick as she could. If she stayed any longer, she might join the tub of victim's blood and containers of organs. She definitely needed to escape from here and calm her thoughts before continuing this mission.
Turning towards her right, she saw a white colored door with a golden knob. Right when she reached for the knob, she paused and looked for a piece of tissue to avoid leaving her fingerprints behind.
She thought that she was already smart to use tissue, but somebody was even sneakier than she was. When she pulled the door opened, a string of bells started chiming nonstop from the other side of the door.
Apparently, she had triggered an automatic alarm that would go off once the knob was turned by an unknown identity. By turning that knob without leaving fingerprints, the alarm was set to ring in alert mode once the door pushes open. This was a warning of an intrusion.
"Fuck!" She decided that if she was going to die here anyways, she might as well take her chances and run around the halls. Perhaps she could figure out a way to hide from whoever the heck would be after her.
She risked her chances and closed the door shut. Hearing heavy footsteps approaching from the left, so she ran towards the right direction as fast as she could. As she ran, she rubbed the ring on her finger and hoped that she wouldn't need to use this weapon to delay her enemies this early in the mission.
When she realized something was wrong, her feet had stopped running to let her ears listen carefully. 'There's someone coming from this side too?! What the hell is wrong with my luck? Shit! Shit! No, calm down. I won't die here. Not until I find the culprit. I'll have to fight whoever it is in front of me.' She determined her final decision and went into a fighting position.
Since there was only one corner in front of her that allowed her to continue running further forward in this maze looking tunnel, she only had this chance. With her fists tightened and spike brass knucklers in place, she bit down on her lip.
The footsteps grew closer towards her direction and faster as if the person had detected her presence. Once she saw the shadow of the person turning, she closed her eyes shut to focus on her senses and raised her foot against her opponent. Unfortunately, the person had seen through her move and captured her right ankle in place.
"You missed." The deep voice sent chills down her spine as she heard hastened footsteps approaching from behind. A strong killing urge could be sensed from the other end getting closer, and she has no way of retaliating on this opponent.
She didn't dare take a look at her enemy as she threw random punches, hoping to aim at the person's fatal spot. That person seemed to be familiar to her moves as he managed to dodge her attacks a second before it landed on him.
It was then that she felt that something didn't add up and looked up to meet his gaze.