radicalducati Chapter 37 Entering the Painting
Chapter 37 Entering the Painting
The surroundings were eerily quiet, and the will to survive prompted Tian Tian to try to get up from the ground.
After standing up completely, a piercing pain shot from her ankle straight to her brain, causing Tian Tian's face to change drastically.
She gritted her teeth, trying her best to control herself and not make a sound, as any slight mistake could lead to terrible consequences.
Tian Tian didn't know how long she had been unconscious, but judging from the current situation, she wouldn't be able to go back for the time being.
She didn't know how her teammates outside should deal with the prison guards, or whether they thought she was dead.
These thoughts only flashed through her mind for a moment, and Tian Tian couldn't care less about that now. Her primary task was to survive, and her secondary task was to find clues about Jenny.
Tian Tian gritted her teeth, then limped slowly to her left and soon touched a wall.
She leaned against the wall to support her weight, then reached into her pockets and began rummaging through them.
She breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that the candle and lighter were still there.
After careful consideration, Tian Tian felt that being in the dark would put her at a significant disadvantage, so she decided to light a candle.
The candle in her pocket broke in two when Tian Tian fell to the ground, but it should be enough.
With a "snap," a warm, orange-yellow light tore through the long darkness, and the halo slowly spread in the small cell, illuminating the mottled walls and the dusty tatami mats.
"Jenny's cell," Tian Tian thought to herself, then looked around.
After observing for a while and finding it temporarily safe, Tian Tian struggled to leave the wall and began to wander around the room.
What caught her attention was the easel that appeared in front of her, the same easel she had seen when she was lost in the maze.
The easel was hidden in the dim light. Tian Tian cautiously approached, and by the flickering candlelight, she finally saw the painting clearly.
In the exquisite painting, the girl has a gentle expression and lowered eyes, holding a white night owl in her arms.
Tian Tian grinned and squatted down as low as possible, getting even closer.
As she looked at it for a while, she gradually noticed something incongruous about the painting.
For example, there is a concave area of flesh near the lower part of the girl's left index finger, and Tian Tian thinks that she may have worn a ring there before.
The background of the painting is also strange; it seems to be a home, a pastoral-style home.
It looked warm and bright, but one corner of the living room was very dark, with many scattered doll limbs painted there.
The background outside the window is a dark night, with only one tall building standing out.
What caught Tian Tian's attention the most was the girl's eyes in the painting, which seemed somewhat inconsistent with the gentleness on her face.
When Tian Tian brought the candle closer to the girl's eyes, she discovered that the girl's eyes revealed resentment and ferocity, and it seemed that... her own corpse was reflected in the girl's pupils.
For some reason, Tian Tian dared not look any closer and her gaze began to wander downwards.
When Tian Tian saw the snow-white night owl, she couldn't help but be stunned for a moment.
Because she clearly remembered that when she first saw the night owl, it had its back to her.
At this moment, the night owl's body was still turned away from him, but its head had already turned halfway around.
What she saw was the profile of the night owl, a discovery that made Tian Tian's heart skip a beat.
Suddenly, a dark shadow swept across the wall behind the portrait, moving slowly and resembling a reptile.
Tian Tian suddenly straightened up and stared at the wall in front of her. A dark shadow began to descend from the top of the wall, and its size was gradually increasing.
The ghostly thing behind me started making a "clucking" sound. The frequency of the sound was neither fast nor slow, but the noise became more and more obvious, making my teeth ache.
"It's getting bigger?" Tian Tian's breathing became rapid. "No! It's getting closer!"
In the nick of time, her will to survive was ignited, and Tian Tian no longer cared about the pain in her body.
She used both hands to lift the easel high, turned around, and was about to smash it down on something behind her.
But just as she turned around, a suction force came from above.
Her vision and consciousness began to blur. In the end, Tian Tian could only see a woman with her limbs bent backwards, hanging upside down from the ceiling and crawling toward her, as well as the face of the night owl that had turned completely around.
When her consciousness returned, the cold, white light made Tian Tian feel very uncomfortable.
After struggling to open her eyes and looking around, Tian Tian found herself still in the cell.
only......
As if realizing something, Tian Tian looked down at herself.
"Hey, what are you daydreaming about? Get to work!"
The speaker was a man who looked somewhat familiar to her. The man was wiping his palms, which were covered in sticky blood, with a white handkerchief.
Tian Tian subconsciously looked at the man's name tag, which had the number "057" embroidered on it.
When her gaze returned to the man's face, Tian Tian's pupils suddenly tightened.
The man's face is exactly the same as the one who stuck his head into the ventilation duct.
However, Tian Tian did not show anything on the surface, and simply replied calmly, "Yes, sir."
After dealing with her superior, Tian Tian's gaze was quickly drawn to the pool of blood at her feet.
Tian Tian's gaze followed the pools of blood, moving continuously until it finally settled on a woman lying on the ground.
The woman was already lifeless; her eyes had been pierced by sharp wooden sticks, and her neck had been severed in half.
Blood was still flowing from the wound, indicating that it had just happened recently.
The easel next to the body was missing a piece, and the white canvas was covered with spurting blood, which was conspicuous and glaring.
"You all know why what happened today is because she attacked me first, and I had to do it in self-defense."
If anyone asks, you know how to handle it.
The man stared fiercely at the faces of each prison guard, slowly uttering each word.
No one agreed immediately; everyone lowered their heads, taking it as tacit consent.
Tian Tian lowered the brim of her hat and remained silent.
She didn't know how to dispose of the body, so she just watched what others did and imitated them.
After wrapping up the body and cleaning up the bloodstains, the prison guards carried the body out, but Tian Tian suddenly turned back to look into the cell.
She saw a woman in tattered clothes sitting with her knees drawn up in a corner of the cell.
Her head was lowered, and her resentful gaze shone through her disheveled hair, making Tian Tian shudder.
"What are you looking at?"
A prison guard walking in front of Tian Tian nudged her with his elbow and asked curiously, then followed Tian Tian and peered inside.
"It's nothing, let's go."
Tian Tian nudged the prison guard, and then the two left the cell together.
Subsequently, the prison guards brought the body to the basement level. The moment the elevator doors opened, a pungent smell of blood wafted out.
Because the smell came so suddenly, Tian Tian couldn't help but gag a few times, a reaction that immediately drew the attention of the other prison guards.
Upon noticing the sudden attention she was receiving, Tian Tian quickly waved her hand, "It's nothing, my stomach isn't feeling well today."
This little incident didn't attract much attention from others. After exiting the elevator, everyone put on simple protective suits and prepared to begin dissecting the body.
After Tian Tian helped lift the body onto the dissection bed, she took the scalpel from her companion.
Just as Tian Tian was wondering whether to make a move and where to start, the incandescent light above her head began to flicker.
"What's going on?" A prison guard looked up at the ceiling in alarm.
With a crisp "snap",
A lamp above the prison guard suddenly exploded, and sparks and shards of glass fell on his head, causing him to cry out in pain.
The light dimmed again, and then, with another "snap," the second light bulb went out.
The scene began to descend into chaos, and an atmosphere of unease began to spread.
"Get out of here! Go report to Kurt first!" a prison guard shouted. "Put the knife down! You stabbed me!"
But as he was talking, the prison guard started screaming in pain.
Amidst the flickering light and shadow, everyone witnessed a horrifying scene.
A woman with dandruff and covered in blood gradually embraced the man from behind.
Two large, bloody holes were exposed to everyone's eyes.
Meanwhile, Jenny, who had been lying on the dissection table, was nowhere to be found.
At this moment, the woman's hands were tightly gripping the man's face, her fingers digging deep into his eye sockets.
Then, he forcefully pulled the man's head up, and the man's neck began to crack due to the enormous pulling force, spraying blood onto the faces of those around him.
Then, with a sharp "crack," the woman ripped the man's head, along with half of his spine, out of the house.
"Snap!" The third light bulb went out.
The sharp sound was like a starting gun before a race. In a panic, all the prison guards stumbled and ran towards the elevator, following the route they remembered.
Screams rose and fell, and the air was thick with blood mist.
Death began to accelerate when the first prison guard was killed, and within just a few breaths, only about five people remained clinging to life.
As Tian Tian looked at the hellish scene before her, her breathing became increasingly rapid.
Death was imminent, but she did not join the crowd running towards the elevator.
"There's always a way out, stay calm, Tiantian." Her clenched hands were turning white at the knuckles.
Using the last lamp as a guide, Tian Tian began to search her surroundings.
She quickly kicked over the buckets filled with severed limbs and entrails piled on the ground, and seeing that she had found nothing, she focused her attention on the human skin on the wall.
Large beads of sweat slid down her temples, and Tian Tian could feel a chilling aura coming from behind her; it seemed her turn was coming soon.
Suppressing her fear, Tian Tian carefully searched the human skin.
After the final scream, the surroundings suddenly fell silent.
Immediately afterwards, Tian Tian could feel something wrapping around her from behind.
Just as the woman's hands were already gripping Tian Tian's face, her eyes lit up, and she quickly pulled out the thing hidden in the human skin that felt like drawing paper.
"Snap."
The last incandescent bulb could no longer hold on, and darkness instantly descended.