**** TEN YEARS LATER****
Inside an old building, alarms were blaring, accompanied by the frantic shouts. Red emergency lights cast everything in an eerie, pulsing glow. Blood was splattered across the walls, and bodies lay crumpled on the floor.
Men were running through the corridors while holding weapons, their eyes looking for the intruder. But before most of them could get more than a few steps, a shadow would blur past them, and they'd drop to the ground, blood pouring from their throats.
Deep in the building, in a room lined wall-to-wall with metal cages, a man hid behind a concrete pillar. His hands pressed against his bleeding thigh, but they were shaking so badly that he could barely apply pressure to the wound. He kept looking back at the closed metal door, praying it would stay shut. Around him, dogs snarled and yapped from their cages, the sound echoing off the walls.
After a long time and nothing happened. The sounds from the hallways had stopped. Maybe it was over. Maybe whoever it was had left, or been killed, or...
The door groaned as it swung open.
The man's heart stopped.
The sound of heels clicking against the concrete floor echoed through the room. The man pressed himself harder against the pillar, biting down on his lip so hard he tasted blood. Red light from the hallway spilled through the doorway, and a long shadow stretched across the floor.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are," a playful voice called out, almost singing. "I just want to talk."
The man trembled. Her voice was like a siren's call from the old legends, beautiful yet deadly.
Click
Click
The footsteps moved deeper into the room, weaving between the cages.
"I'm not that scary, you know," the young woman muttered, sounding almost offended by the thought. "Everyone keeps running away from me. It's starting to hurt my feelings."
The footsteps stopped suddenly. The shadow showed a figure standing directly in front of one of the larger cages.
"Oh! It's my old acquaintances!" Her voice turned excited.
The dogs immediately stopped barking. Low, pathetic whining sounds came from them instead.
"You kids have grown so much bigger than I remember. Your owner must be feeding you well."
A low whimper came from the cage.
"Yes, yes, I know! I'm excited to see you too! I even prepared fresh meal for you all on my way here."
Then came the metallic scrape of a cage door being opened.
The man almost laughed despite his terror. This woman was insane. Completely insane. Those dogs were trained killers. They only listened to one person, and it definitely wasn't her. She'd just signed her own death warrant.
He risked a peek around the pillar but was completely dumbfounded. What was this situation?
The massive dogs that had torn men apart with their bare teeth were actually pressing into the far corner of the cage, shaking.
"Come on, don't be shy. You can leave now and feast as much as you want." The woman's voice was gentle now, coaxing. She crouched down.
She had her back towards him, making it impossible to see her face. Her long black coat was pooled on the floor around her feet, the hood pulled up. From his perspective, she looked no less than a grim reaper.
The man's eyes darted to the open door, and his eyes lit up. She was on the opposite side of the room with her back turned and was completely focused on the dogs. If he moved quietly and didn't draw her attention, maybe he could escape. He pulled himself away from the pillar and started dragging his body toward the door.
"Oh, why aren't you leaving? Don't you like the meal I prepared? That's not good. You can't be picky with your food, you know."
The man shuddered at her scolding tone and moved faster, pulling himself across the concrete. Relief started flooding through him as he got closer and closer to the door. Freedom was just a few feet away. Just a few more seconds and-
Black boots appeared directly in front of him.
He froze. Slowly, he raised his head.
She wore a black shirt and pants under that coat. A hood was pulled low over her face, and a black mask covered everything from her nose down. Only her dark gray eyes were visible, staring down at him with curiosity.
"Where are you going?" Shen Yelan asked, tilting her head slightly.
The man immediately scrambled backward, staring at her with pure horror. "Y-you... what do you want from me?"
A small frown creased the visible part of her face. "I already told you. I want to talk."
"But I've got nothing to talk to you about!" he spat, still dragging himself away from her. "Who the hell do you think you are? Do you have any idea what you've done? Do you know who our boss is? You're going to regret this!"
"I don't actually," Shen Yelan said, taking a step closer. He took one back. She took another step forward. "That's why I wanted to talk to you. It took me a really long time to find this place. You can imagine my disappointment when I got here and found out your boss wasn't even around. So I figured maybe you could tell me where to find him?"
"Do you think I'm stupid?" The man let out a harsh laugh. "What makes you think I'd ever tell you that?"
Under the mask, Shen Yelan pouted.
"Don't refuse me so quickly," she said, continuing to close the distance between them. "I'm actually an old acquaintance of your boss, you know. We met a couple of years ago. Right here in this very place."
Well, technically, it was the original Shen Yelan who'd met him, but they shared the same body now, so she wasn't really lying.
The man's back hit one of the cages. There was nowhere left to go. The door of that cage was hanging open, but the dog inside was cowering in the corner, making no attempt to leave.
"You-" The man's eyes widened in absolute horror. He'd been wondering who this devil was and why she was causing all this chaos. Now he had the answer. But how was this possible? The only way anyone left this place was through death.
"Oh! You recognize me!" Shen Yelan's eyes lit up.
"Wh-who are you?" he stuttered.
"Or maybe not," Shen Yelan muttered.
She crouched down in front of him. A dagger had appeared in her hand, seemingly out of nowhere. She tapped the cold blade gently against his chin, tilting his head up.
"Alright, let's not waste any more of my time. I need a flight to catch. Where is your boss?"
"I don't know," The man shook his head frantically. "I swear to God, I don't know."
"Don't know? Or won't tell me?" The blade pressed a little harder against his skin.
"I really don't know! I swear! No one knows where the boss is. We don't even know who he is or what he really looks like. Only his two most trusted people have seen his actual appearance. I just manage this place for him. That's all. That's all I do."
Shen Yelan was reminded of the masked face from her sister's memories.
"That's too bad," Shen Yelan said, and she genuinely sounded disappointed. "I was really looking forward to meeting him face to face.
Then she shrugged, and her voice brightened right back up. "Oh well! If not today, then maybe tomorrow. I'm a very patient person anyway." She tilted her head, considering him. "But what should I do with you now?"
"Please!" The man's voice cracked. "Please, just let me go. I won't tell anyone. I swear on my life. I won't say a word about today. I'll disappear. You'll never see me again. Please... I have a daughter. She just turned three. Her birthday was last week, and she-"
His eyes went wide with shock. A thin red line appeared across his throat. Then his head tilted to the side at an unnatural angle before separating completely and falling to the ground with a thud. Blood sprayed across, but somehow, not a single drop touched Shen Yelan.
The dark eyes that had been bright and almost cheerful moments before had turned cold and deadly. The dogs whimpered and pressed themselves against the backs of their cages, tucking their heads between their paws like they were trying to disappear.
"She was a little girl too, but you people didn't seem to care about her."
She stood up, the dagger disappearing as smoothly as it had appeared. Then she turned and walked out of the room.