The lights flicker, casting eerie shadows in the corners of the long hallway. It’s not a safe place to be, especially this late at night, but she doesn’t have a choice. This is the only way they could meet, the only place that nobody would think to follow them to. She follows his directions exactly, taking two rights, a left, and then going straight for a few minutes before turning left one more time.

There were rumors about what used to go on inside this place, the experiments that would be performed on unwilling participants, the literal torture that hundreds of people went through. If she listens closely and falls completely silent, she can almost hear the echoes of their screams, their cries begging for mercy but knowing full well that it will never come. It looks like just an ordinary building, showing no hint of what’s gone on inside but it’s not like she can just forget.

She takes a deep breath, trying to calm her breathing as the smells of blood and heavy duty bleach fill her nostrils again, dragging her right back into the nightmares she’d been trying to escape. Every cut, every scar, every burn mark, has been indelibly saved and preserved in her mind, waiting there ready to pounce at any minute. There is no escaping this place, and it’s ironic that the place that she had once thought would be her tomb is now her one and only safe haven. Oh how life changes.

This is all her fault; if she hadn’t gotten him involved then he wouldn’t be here, he wouldn’t slowly be getting turned into a sentient machine with a conscience controlled by a figure in a dark hood and bright red robes. While she had been here before, she had always assumed that the color of the robe had served to conceal the bloodstains of all the people that weren’t as lucky as she was.

Now she’ll be asking for help from the very people she promised to kill a long time ago. It’s a surreal experience, to come back, crying, to the arms of the person who caused her so much pain. At the same time, she doesn’t have a choice, because she’s alienated everyone else, because she has absolutely nobody left to turn to.

The door at the very end of the hallway has a dim red light that she can see shining from the crack under the door, and that’s where she’s going. Taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders, still flinching at the feeling of skin rubbing up against metal on her shoulder blades, she walks forward.

They didn’t replace every part of her with metal, their technology could only inhibit her so much, but she’s not worried for herself, she’s worried for him. She’s worried that it’s too late, that the person she sees on the other side of that door will be unrecognizable.

It’s either be hunted here, where she can see her enemy, or be hunted out there where all she could see is shadows. Safety is a relative term, and the second she opens that door, she may never be safe again.