Chapter 130: HOPE

Time to Hunt[7]

Chapter 130: HOPE

I started following Marven.

There were no windows or open doors on either side of the white corridor. Light from the ceiling reflected off the polished floor, and our footsteps sounded far too loud in the empty space.

Marven walked as though he knew exactly where he was going. Dorian stayed right behind me.

When we reached the wide door at the end of the corridor, Marven placed his right hand on the scanner beside it.

A pale light passed beneath his palm.

Then a red line lit up.

"Access denied."

Marven stared at the screen for a few seconds. He lifted his hand and placed it back down.

"Access denied."

"Damn it. Again?!"

The sound of his kick against the door echoed down the corridor.

I flinched, drawing my shoulders in. The door hadn’t even budged.

"It seems your mother has revoked your access again," Dorian said.

Marven turned toward him.

"I can see that. You don’t need to tell me."

The easygoing expression he always wore had vanished. His brows were furrowed, his jaw tense.

"Go get one of those damn doctors. Make them open the door."

"But..."

Dorian’s gaze shifted toward me.

I stood still and looked back at him. Instead of immediately following Marven’s instructions, he continued studying me.

He still didn’t trust me.

I hadn’t done anything in the car. Since arriving, all I’d done was follow Marven around. Yet he still didn’t want to leave the man he was protecting alone with me.

He certainly took his job seriously.

If only the person he was protecting deserved it. Though I wasn’t sure how different someone who’d agreed to work here could be from Marven.

"It’s fine," Marven said, waving impatiently. "Just go. Hurry up a little. I’m getting bored."

Dorian watched me for another few seconds. Then he lowered his head and walked back the way we’d come.

As his footsteps faded, I realized we were alone.

My gaze shifted toward Marven.

This was the opportunity I’d been waiting for. His bodyguard was leaving, and Marven was still busy complaining about the door.

My fingers twitched.

Then I looked down the corridor behind me. I wasn’t sure I could reach the elevator and get out before Dorian returned. Besides, I still didn’t know what the necklace around Marven’s neck could do.

I reached for the strap of my bag.

Marven turned his head as though he’d just remembered I was there. His irritation gave way to a small smile.

"Sorry about this."

"It’s okay..."

"My mother isn’t too keen on letting me come here because I’m a bit of a naughty boy."

He didn’t even pretend to be embarrassed. With a sigh, he looked at the door again.

"A few broken toys mean nothing to her. Yet she still has to be so stingy."

Toys.

That was the second time he’d used that word.

I wanted to ask what kind of toys he meant, but after seeing his expression, I decided the answer could wait.

We stood in front of the door for a few minutes. Marven checked his phone, then began shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

I tried not to look toward the far end of the corridor.

I didn’t want to make it obvious that I was wondering where Dorian was.

"What’s taking him so long?" Marven grumbled. "All this trouble over a simple task..."

A shadow appeared at the other end of the corridor.

Dorian was coming back.

Marven looked up and straightened, visibly relieved. My attention, however, caught on what the bodyguard was holding.

At first, I couldn’t understand what I was seeing.

Then I made out the fingers.

Wait...

A red drop fell from what Dorian was carrying and landed on the white floor.

My eyes widened.

That’s a hand.

He was carrying a human hand.

"What took you so long?" Marven asked coldly.

Dorian stopped in front of us. His expression was no different from when he’d left.

"My apologies, sir. They insisted that you weren’t allowed inside. I had to find my own solution."

His own solution?

I couldn’t help looking at the bloody wrist before turning my eyes away.

How is cutting someone’s hand off a solution, you psycho?!

I turned toward Marven. He seemed to find the situation perfectly normal. All he cared about was the result.

"Open the door," was all he said.

Dorian pressed the hand against the scanner.

Light passed beneath the palm. This time, it turned green.

"Access granted."

A mechanical sound came from within the door. The thin line down its center widened as both halves slid silently aside.

Marven turned toward me.

"Now we can continue."

He wore a polite smile, as though nothing strange had happened.

Then he started walking inside.

As I moved to follow him, my eyes met Dorian’s. His gaze shifted from my face to my hands, then back to my eyes.

He was watching me more closely than before.

Had I done something strange?

Or was the problem that I hadn’t done anything at all?

Should I have screamed when I saw the bloody hand? Backed away and started crying?

How would an innocent person visiting a place like this for the first time normally react?

It was probably too late to suddenly pretend to be frightened now.

I swallowed and quickened my pace to catch up with Marven.

But when I saw what lay beyond the door, I forgot all about my act.

"This..."

A vast open space stretched out before us.

The passage we stood in connected to a wide platform on the opposite side by a white bridge. Other bridges ran above and below it. Some stretched straight across, while others curved toward corridors in the surrounding walls.

I looked up.

Beneath the white ceiling, rooms, walkways, and staircases extended across level after level. Looking down, I found the same arrangement continuing below us.

With so many bridges connecting everything, I couldn’t tell which path led where.

Everything was white.

The railings, the walls, the doors... I could barely even tell where the light was coming from. I thought of the rusty machines in the old factory. I never could have imagined a place like this beneath that building.

People walked across the bridges.

Most wore white coats. Others were dressed in strange outfits that covered their entire bodies. Their masks differed, too; some covered only their mouths, while others reached all the way up over their eyes.

A woman passed us carrying a small case lined with tubes. Two workers on the opposite bridge were talking as they looked over the papers in their hands. Farther ahead, someone entered a room with nothing but a number above its door.

For a while, I even forgot that I was standing beside Marven.

The sight before me looked nothing like any research facility I knew.

This wasn’t a laboratory. It was practically a small city built underground.

All these rooms, bridges, workers, and samples being carried around...

Everything was part of an enormous operation.

My first reaction wasn’t fear.

Quite the opposite. I was in awe.

I tried to imagine how much money, how many people, and how much time it would take to build a place like this from scratch. Even keeping it hidden was insane.

Then something else occurred to me.

There was a reason so many resources had been gathered here.

And the fact that I hadn’t seen that reason yet made my growing awe slowly turn into something else.

Unease.

"Welcome to HOPE, Layla."

I turned at Marven’s voice, but my gaze immediately drifted toward another walkway behind him.

So many rooms...

So many workers...

What were they doing here?

Marven laughed at my reaction.

"Ahaha! You’re shocked, aren’t you? You definitely weren’t expecting anything like this."

"What is this place?"

"This place?" He pretended to think for a moment. "I suppose you could call it a gateway to perfection. At least, that’s what my mother says."

Fuck your mother! Can’t you just give me a straight answer?!

His smile widened at the blank look on my face.

"Anyway, you’ll understand what I mean by the end of the tour."

He started walking. I moved a little farther from the bridge’s railing and followed beside him.

When we reached the first room, I couldn’t see inside. Only the thin lines around its edges distinguished the door from the surrounding walls.

Marven stopped a passing worker in a white coat.

"Hey. Make that door transparent."

The worker looked at him, then at the door. Tucking the folder they were holding under one arm, they touched a small panel on the wall.

The white surface began to fade.

Within a few seconds, the room behind it came into view.

There was a woman inside.

Her head hung forward. Her disheveled hair fell across her face, hiding her expression. She wasn’t wearing any clothes. Wounds crisscrossed her shoulders, arms, and legs.

Some ran side by side, like marks left by fingers.

As though she’d clawed at her own skin.

I slowly approached.

There seemed to be nothing else in the room for her to look at. Bare walls, a floor, and a woman standing all alone...

I waited for her to raise her head.

She didn’t move.

I placed my hand against the translucent surface and tried to see her face.

The moment my hand touched the door...

The woman lunged at me.

I jumped back at the sound of her hands slamming against it. My foot slipped, throwing me off balance. Just as I was about to fall, Marven caught my elbow.

"Hahaha! Did that scare you?"

I could see the woman’s face now.

Her mouth was open. Sharp teeth protruded between her lips, and blood ran from her chin down her neck. She dragged her hands across the door, trying to scrape at its surface with her nails.

Then she lowered her head and tried to bite it.

I shuddered as her teeth struck the hard surface.

"Don’t worry," Marven said. "These doors are sturdy."

After helping me straighten up, he let go and looked at the woman.

"She looks disgusting, doesn’t she?"

The woman slammed her hands against the door again.

I didn’t know whether she could hear Marven. Her eyes shifted between us, but I couldn’t tell what she was thinking.

"A failed test subject," Marven continued.

Then he gave a small laugh.

"Hope has abandoned her."

He started toward the next room.

I remained frozen in place.

What had I been thinking when I pressed my palm against the door? That seeing her face would help me understand what had happened?

I could see it now. Yet I still didn’t understand anything.

She must have been a normal person once.

Maybe she’d had a family. Friends, someone she loved... Gone to work or school in the mornings and checked the time when she was tired and wanted to go home.

There had been people who called her by her name.

But now she was here.

Even her clothes had been taken from her, and she was clawing at the door of an empty room.

I looked at her teeth. Then at the marks she’d left on her own skin.

Could I still call her human?

I felt ashamed for even asking myself that question.

I didn’t know what she’d been through. How she’d been brought here, what they’d done to her, or what remained inside her mind...

Yet all Marven knew was that she was a failure.

When the woman struck the door again, I didn’t step back this time. I stood there for a while longer, looking at her face.

Finally, I looked away from her and turned toward the man walking cheerfully ahead of me.

The real monster here.