Nora & the Boys | BTS AU | OT7

Chapter 25

[Unedited]

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She had asked the security to stop any staff members from entering the floor. What was this woman doing here?

Was she here for house-keeping?

No...

That wasn't right.

Nora paused, and took a second glance at the retreating back of the staff.

She wasn't imagining it. Nora had noticed it in the passing, a brief look at the staff member before she walked out of Nora's line of sight.

Along with the hunched back, that human's skin color also had a strange blue tinge to it.

And now, with her eyes fixed on the person taking slow steps towards the elevator at the far end of the hallway, Nora could finally see it.

To anybody else, the woman would have seemed normal. But to Nora, with her guardian senses on full-alert, she could easily make out the non-human parts weaved beneath the clothing. The right leg had uneven skin near the calf, and her stooping posture wasn't because she was old, but the poor skin-work done on her.

Nora didn't need to see it to know someone had tried to make multiple modifications and had run out of human skin to cover the second Furie's body.

The woman was bend from the waist up, to try and hide the part of body that didn't have human skin.

If she were to compare her last encounter of the Furie with the current one in front of her, it was an upgrade. Yet, it was still lacking in some areas.

Whoever was pulling the strings of this Furie, had created another monster, working on the shortcomings of the first one, but still failing to give it the perfect human body.

"Excuse me?" Nora called out, wanting to stop the Furie before it reached the elevator.

The woman stopped and turned around, slow and deliberate, one arm wrapped over her waist.

Nora was struck by another new discovery.

The current Furie had such a human expression - confused and frowning, that if she were to concentrate on just the face, Nora could almost believe she was talking to another human and not the Furie hiding beneath borrowed human skin.

But then again, the blue tinge coating the skin, gave away the woman's otherworldly existence, before she had a chance to conceal it.

"Yes?"

The Furie's mouth barely moved, and yet, Nora could hear her voice.

It didn't make sense in her head.

Why was someone trying to perfect the art of creating Furie and then sending them after her and the boys? What kind of grudge did this person have against her? Against the boys?

In all her time of being a guardian, Nora had never come across Furie that possessed intelligence, and who could focus on a single target in an arena full of potential victims.

And yet, she had fought one just a few hours ago.

Furie did not have perfect human faces, they couldn't express human emotions or mimic speech, and still...there was one standing in front of her now.

Who was this Furie's creator? How had they one-upped the last Furie in such a short time? Or did they already have a second Furie waiting to be tested on her?

It boggled her mind that some idiot had the thought of creating Furie...and not just one.

Nora didn't want to think of the possibility of there being a third Furie. But with her bad luck and pending injury, there was no telling how many more Furie were in-line to have a piece of her.

How many Furie had this creator built?

"Who are you?" Nora asked, watching the Furie.

"What's your name?"

How much work had the enemy put into this Furie? Nora had to know.

If these Furie could mimic speech, was it possible for the Furie to hold memories too? Would it remember the human's name? Identity?

"I-" The Furie opened it's mouth, and closed it. The skin around her lips twitched, as if the muscles around her mouth were being forced to do work they weren't used to doing.

"I-"

"Where did you come from?" Nora asked, and took small steps towards the confused staff.

If she could get close enough to the monster, Nora could cast a barrier and kill the Furie before anybody noticed the odd presence in their hallway. If she could-

A low growl interrupted her thoughts.

Nora looked up to see the woman's skin glowing blue, and the mouth stretched in a grotesque grin that looked wrong on a human face.

Was it the questions that had triggered this change?

She never got the chance to ponder over that thought, because the next minute that woman had turned on her heels and raced to the elevator.

"Shit!" Nora scrambled to catch up with the runaway Furie.

Her luck had been so horrible lately, it would be a miracle if the Furie wasn't noticed by anyone.

The low growl had given way to clicking, and soft cackling and the Furie's face distorted with each passing second. The skin took on a grey tone, hardening near the lips, and giving the woman's face a cakey appearance.

It was as if, any moment, the Furie's skin would break and crumble to the floor like pieces of dry plaster.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!"

The Furie jabbed at the buttons, eyes red and wild with hunger as they stared at Nora. It's tongue was lolling from side to side, trying to lick at it's cheek and lips at the same time.

A minute before Nora's hand could reach out and put a stop to the elevator, a loud ding sounded and the doors rolled closed on the guardian's face.

Panic flooded Nora's senses.

She stared at the blinking numbers, waiting a brief second, until the floor number was displayed overhead. And only then, did her heartbeat slow down a little.

The Furie was making it's way to the rooftop.

If this was a conscious decision by the Furie or just Nora's luck she didn't know. She wasn't going to question it either way.

The rooftop was the best-case scenario if things went south, and the Furie had made that choice for her.

Taking a deep breath, Nora stepped back from the elevator and instead reached for the door on her side.

Even if she wasn't aware of the members' rooms, Nora had made sure to at least memorize the blueprints of the building after the first Furie attack.

She knew the staircase behind the exit door would eventually lead her to the roof-top

Nora took two steps at a time, one hand gripping the railings, while the other hand summoned her sword.

Time was of essence, and Nora wasn't going to risk the Furie going on a rampage and killing anything that moved.

No... never again...never on her watch.

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