Crimson Instinct

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"...Are you alright?"

Ying Yue's eyelids fluttered.

"...wake up...sis…"

She felt as if somebody was talking to her. But when she tried to open her eyes, she felt a numb pain course through her head.

Then she felt as if somebody was gently shaking her shoulder.

"Are you alright?"

"Ugh…"

Ying Yue fought the dull pain and slowly opened her eyes. At first, everything was dizzy and spinning in front of her eyes. She blinked her eyes more, and that hazy figure was beginning to clear.

Somebody was leaning over and shaking her shoulder.

"Sis, can you hear me? Sis?"

Ying Yue finally saw a young boy, worriedly looking at her.

Huh? Who is he? He seems like a teenager.

She turned her head in confusion, left and right, and realized that she was in a strange room that she never saw before. The ceiling was different. The walls were dirty and dusty.

This...I don't understand...Where am I?

Then the memories began to come to her one by one.

The interview message from FriendsChat, how she left with Xue Jingjing, two masked men barging in and pointing their guns at them, their escape and then…

Ying Yue widened her eyes as she remembered everything. She woke up with a jerk.

Xue Jingjing left me and then...those men captured me and hit me in the head.

Then it was all black for her. 

Once again, she felt an ache in her head as she had suddenly got up.

"Ah…"

"Slowly, sis! You will hurt yourself."

Ying Yue faced sideways to look at him. "You...who are you? What is this place?"

"My name is Chu Jie. I am sixteen years old. This place…" he bit down his lip, and his body mildly trembled. "This is a horrible place, sis! All the people here...they are monsters. They kidnapped me so that they can...k-kill me…" He burst into tears. "And now, they have kidnapped you too! They want to kill us!"

Ying Yue heard everything, but she still felt as if she failed to understand anything. But when she looked at his shaking figure, sniffling and sobbing, her heart ached for the boy.

She was unsure of what to do and thought for a moment. She wasn't good at consoling people. Whenever anybody cried in her school when she was young, she had no idea what she should do. She always wished to help, but how? So, she used to just blankly stand at the same place, unable to get an answer.

Ying Yue seriously thought about it and recalled how Ying Lan would hug her or pat her head whenever she felt down.

That always makes me feel calm.

Ying Yue inward nodded. She raised her hand and gently placed it on Chu Jie's head. She brushed her fingers through his hair.

Maybe hugging will be too much. He might feel uncomfortable.

"It's alright. D-don't cry…Everything will be fie fine."

Am I saying the right thing?

Ying Yue was too nervous.

Chu Jie sobbed even harder, and he jumped in her arms. He tightly hugged her and buried his face in her neck.

Ying Yue froze for a moment. Apart from her mother, nobody had hugged her like this ever.

But she felt a little nice to know that for the first time, she could be reliable and of help to someone.

"You don't know...this is all really scary... They are horrible."

She softly patted his back. "Don't cry. I am here."

Chu Jie slowly calmed down, and his violent burst of tears reduced to sniffling. "En."

Ying gently asked, "Will you tell me everything from the beginning?"

Chu Jie wiped his tears and retold what happened. The most terrifying part was when they showed how they put the man's hand in boiling water and tortured him. Then he told about his confrontation and to wait for seven days to spare him until his birthday.

Ying Yue's expression turned grim as she kept on listening.

"So...there is no personal grudge with the people who died before?"

Chu Jie shook his head. "They bring us here just to enjoy torturing us. That is the only reason. They are insane! They were talking about blood, and it's beautiful color and how they enjoyed seeing it as if it's completely normal!"

Ying Yue didn't know what to think about this. She had no idea that a normal day would take such a horrible turn. But once again, like that night when those four men were threatening to rape her, she didn't fear the thought of her possible death.

Yes, she felt sad about Ying Lan, but that was the only limit until which her feelings extended. She never had any opinion when it came to herself.

Mom will be so worried for me…

Chu Jie was in disbelief to see her unaffected. She didn't get scared or didn't freak out. Her expression was more or less the same for the entire time he told everything.

"Sis…aren't you scared at all?"

Ying Yue said, "Death is actually a very common occurrence as opposed to what people assume. 26% of the young adult population still die due to unforeseen circumstances. This situation is one of them. If this is my fate, then, unfortunately, I cannot fight back."

Chu Jie looked at her dumbfounded.

Huh? What 26%?

"Sis, I think you are not getting it. You might die here. They have killed people, and they will kill us too."

"I understood it."

"So, don't you want to live?"

Ying Yue's voice was low. "I am not in any position to resist. I don't know how to fight. If there are really about twenty to twenty-five people involved, as you said, then I cannot do anything. I don't know martial arts to attack and defend myself. How will I win against so many people alone with no skills to fight? And…" she looked around the room, "I don't see a way to get out of here. They must have tight security outside, too, as they show in movies. So, I understand that I cannot escape. Maybe, I am really fated to die here."

Chu Jie wanted to say a ton of things, but he felt he couldn't retort what she said. This was the first time he met someone like her who was so calm about the possibility of her death.

He was seriously puzzled. 

"You must be thinking that I am weird, right?" She asked.

"Huh? No, not at all. Why did you think that?" 

"Everybody says that about me. Whenever I talk, they make awkward expressions, and then they avoid me later."

That hit Chu Jie hard.

So was she bullied too, like how I am?

"Not at all! I think you are cool!" His eyes sparkled.

Ying Yue furrowed her brows. "Cool?"

"Yes. I have never met a person like you. You are so calm and composed even in this horrible situation. You didn't even flinch when I talked about those people. I admit that your way of thinking is quite different, but that is not necessarily bad. I quite like it!"

She curiously looked at Chu Jie as if trying to digest the fact that somebody actually said this about her.

Finally, there is someone else other than Mom, who thinks that I am not weird.

A warm feeling fluttered in her chest.

Then suddenly, Rodey's face flashed in her mind.

'You are interesting.'

No, there is someone else too…

As she was lost in her thoughts, she felt a warm sensation on her cheek.

Hm?

Ying Yue turned and was startled. She jolted backward in surprise. Her mouth opened in a small 'O.'

"A dog…"

"Arf! Arf!"

Cocoa leaned towards her and started sniffing her face and neck. Then he circled her two times before he began to wag his tail furiously.

"Arf!"

"Cocoa!" Chu Jie smiled and patted his furry head.

"Arf!" He licked Chu Jie's hand.

Ying Yue furrowed her brows in confusion.

"Who?"

"I told you that Cocoa jumped in the car to save me, right? When that woman took me away?"

Ying Yue nodded.

Chu Jie pointed at the German shepherd dog. "He is Cocoa."

---

The same three men at the bar were rejoicing and clinking their wine glasses when Rodey entered the room.

"Ah, Rodey! Good news as always. We caught the woman. She is kept at the same place as that teenager."

Rodey snorted. "Whatever."

He sat down in his seat and poured himself a glass too.

The third man, nicknamed - Risfun, smirked. "Now, I will take my own sweet time with that bitch."

Rodey was lazily browsing on his burner phone and didn't pay attention.

"Heh. That fucking waitress dared oppose my advances that night. Now, I will show her how much she pissed me off."

Rodey's fingers stopped browsing. He slowly raised his head and spoke with a hardly audible voice. "Who?"

Risfun said, "You forgot? That night a waitress came here. I was trying to touch her, but then she started talking some weird shit. And then you stopped me from doing anything to her! Che. I am talking about that waitress. Haha! She is the one we kidnapped so that I can have my revenge! Hahaha!"

He slowly said, "Show me her picture."

Rodey knew the answer, but he had to see it for himself.

Risfun shrugged. He took out his phone and showed it to him.

Rodey blankly stared at the screen as Ying Yue's picture flashed on it.