"What are you doing here?" said Qian Ling, who happened to catch Ariana's shadow when she turned the corner.
"Who are you?" Ariana grunted as she continued to struggle, trying to free her wrist from Qian Ling's grasp. When her right hand couldn't break free from Qian Ling's grip, she violently aimed for her legs.
Predicting her next moves, Qian Ling skillfully dodged all incoming attacks and ended up holding Ariana in a headlock. "Answer me first. How did you get in here? You don't look like you were any of the subjects for the experiment." Qian Ling's eyes narrowed as she questioned with an interrogative tone.
"Argh!! You are with the dirty assholes!! What? If you could commit those sinful kidnaps and murders, then you should know that there will be a day when people would figure out ways to get in here!" Ariana angrily gnashed her teeth in dismay as she failed to escape.
"So, you came here to investigate the labs." Qian Ling's voice softened slightly as she noticed Ariana's wrist already showed signs of bruising from her twisting motions to free herself.
"And? What? You want to kill me? Then go ahead! It's either you would torture me with however disgusting methods you could list to make me talk or make me a subject anyways! Do it! Make your move!" Ariana shouted as her fingers folded into a rock shaped fist. Her white colored knuckles and popping veins showed how much strength she was wasting.
"Relax, I won't hurt you. Although I am a nobody in this place, I do know the way out. So, follow me before you get caught by anyone." Qian Ling released her and sanitized her hands from touching the dust on her clothes.
"Tsss...Who are you? Why should I trust you? If you were a nobody, then how come you know so much about this place? How-" Ariana glared at the woman who was cracking her knuckles and twisting her wrists carefreely.
Qian Ling covered her Ariana's mouth almost immediately and whispered, "If you want to live, then be quiet. Or else even if the heaven's lord comes down to help, you would be minced meat for their dinner. I'm going to let your mouth go right now and unlock the door behind us. If you make a single sound, then I can only hand you over to them. Understand?"
Ariana couldn't completely put her trust in this weird lady who had literally just beaten her, but she did hear some footsteps coming to this direction. She decided to obediently play along and nod in agreement. Slowly, Qian Ling's hand left her mouth, and she took out a key to unlock the wooden door.
Once it opened, she let Ariana go in first and followed after her steps. Before Ariana could open her mouth in the pitch-dark room that smelled like rotten, molded fish, Qian Ling reached out to tug her wrist. "Shh.." Her low, warning voice made Ariana close her mouth.
Within minutes later, heavy footsteps charged past the door. From the inside of the room, Ariana tensed up and subconsciously held onto Qian Ling's sleeves as she saw shadows appear from the small gap beneath the door. Sensing her anxiety, Qian Ling rubbed the back of Ariana's hand to reassure her that everything would be alright.
A while later, nothing seemed to be out of place, so the shadows and footsteps went the opposite way. Only when Qian Ling had whispered, "They're gone, but let's stay here for a little bit just in case."
Ariana nodded and let go of her hands, "Thanks. Who were they?"
"Guards." Qian Ling answered as she squatted down on the floor, looking for something that she had dropped earlier.
"With your skills, you could have easily beaten them to pulps and escape from here. Why did you choose to save me and hide in this stinky room?" She curiously asked.
"Personal reason. Another reason is that if they caught you, they will not spare your life. Those guards were specially chosen. They were all criminals who once committed ruthless crimes. If they find any intruders, then will literally torture you until they could boil your bones and use it to play fetch with dogs." Qian Ling smiled when she found the match that she had dropped.
Lighting the match, she brought out a hand held candle. When the candle was lit, Ariana realized where the vulgar scent was coming from. There was a grinder behind them where dried up blood and left-over human skin could be found. It looked as if someone had slaughtered a person's body and shred it here.
Just imagining the graphic content in her mind made her shiver. "See this? This is where they drag victims to and skin them alive. If that didn't make them, talk, then they would slowly grind their limbs until they spoke. Even then, those victims would never make it out alive. That's why I had to hide you from them."
"But wouldn't you also be at risk?" Ariana gulped and covered her nose to reduce the amount of filthy air that she was inhaling into her body.
"Yes and no. In other words, you could also say that they need me, so I'm still useful to them. At the same time, I am replaceable once they figure out that another person could do what I am capable of doing. If that time comes, then they can easily destroy me and use the replacement. Either way, it should be safe to leave now. Let's go."
Qian Ling acted calm upon seeing the sliced organs and corpse in this room. It was incredible, but at the same time, it made Ariana think to herself, 'How much can a person suffer to reach this level? She ignored the smell and also this disgusting meat sauce...'
The door creaked open and Qian Ling signaled Ariana to stay where she was. After making sure that the coast was clear, she waved her fingers to have Ariana come out of that room. "Let's go. I'll show you the way out of here. It's very dangerous."
Ariana remained where she stood, "No, I'm not leaving this place until I find out the culprit leader behind the experiment!"
"You're playing with burning flames right now. Listen to me and leave. It's for your own good." Qian Ling checked her watch and started to lose her calm.
"No. Not until I get to the bottom of this." She squinted with hatred filled eyes.
Checking the watch once again, Qian Ling released a deep sigh, "You can say all whatever to me later. We need to go. For now, I'll allow you to stay, but you need to listen to my instructions. You hear me?"
Ariana had hesitated a bit before she decided to trust Qian Ling. Following closely behind her, Ariana noticed that Qian Ling was getting paler by each minute that passes. Still, Qian Ling continued walking until they reached her room and safely entered.
The moment she locked the door from the inside, Qian Ling's energy drained like a deflated balloon and her body slumped to the floor. Her breathing quickened and cold sweat soaked her body. The healthy colored lips from earlier changed from nude pink to purple.
Seeing her condition, Ariana quickly helped her to the bed and asked if she was on any type of medication. Qian Ling pointed at her drawer where Ariana discovered a container with white, circular pills in it. There were less than half left inside the bottle. Without a second thought, she fed the pill to Qian Ling's purple colored lips.