Record #12

I heard Jimin cursed out loud as Taehyung pulled me to run upstairs. Mikki gave us certain directions to find a safer place for the time being. After some turns and weird noises coming from the long halls as echoes, we ended up hiding in a small bathroom.

I kept glancing them. Their reactions and movements. They showed a serene expression, but their bodies had become rigid. And even if the run have left them breathless, the boys couldn’t hide the pallid look their faces showed me. I also noticed the small lost look their eyes shown. And the tense atmosphere we were entangled couldn’t get any worse.

Taehyung was the first who exploded in the tense silence. He cursed and yelled for an explanation. Jimin tried to calm him down as Mikki tried to clarify the situation, but even her voice sounded weak, confused and lost. Jimin made him sit on the toilet, and Taehyung hide his face in his hands. The first pull me down to sit next to him, in the edge of the tub. I turned the speaker on just in case I have something to ask Mikki, but knowing me, I will probably stay silent.

Basically, Mikki doesn’t know what happened. She was so immersed into decoding the Shawn Mansion wall’s system and everything seemed going smoothly. She checked more than twice the backup safety program didn’t activate every time she unlock a door and purify the codes. But it happened. And we are the new targets of the Shawn’s security Chimeras.

This wasn’t her fault. The way she unlock the system so fast for us was admirable and I couldn’t blame her for this because, as we were, she was doing what she could for this mission to succeed. Besides, she’s trying to give us a reason to come back home. Due to the good but small references I heard about her, I imagined a scenario. An outsider might have activated the backup program without her noticing. It must have taken a single distraction moment for it to activate, and I guessed it was an easy task to do because Mikki has been working with so many stuff at the same time.

“What are they like?” Jimin asked. Stern eyes, but trembling hands. He was hesitant.

“A mix between wolves and hyenas,” Mikki answered softly.

That picture didn’t gave me any forfeit at all. I bit my lower lip as my hands became fists, my nails immersing in my flesh to the point of damaging them. And, suddenly, I felt my hands getting pulled and opened to be locked with someone else's. My gaze lifted and met Taehyung, who was trying to smile for me. He was trying to give me strength. He didn’t need words from me to understand my position. He knew it. He must have seen my reaction to wolves when I was in the South’s forest.

He opened my hand between his and caressed the red spots, and I couldn’t help but bite my lower lip to prevent the forming tears.

“Don’t do that. We’ll be ok.” I nodded when he caressed my hair fondly with those long fingers of his.

I breathe in and out to gain composure, and turned my beeper on. I heard Mikki saying the Chimeras were advancing towards the second floor, so I searched for the main room in the hologram and figure a fast way to reach it. Since the Chimeras move according to our still lingering smells, they must be gathering to this floor faster than we did.

For the first time, I spoke to her directly. “Can you set traps on them?”

“Of course,” she agreed and proceed.

We left the room and run towards the searched one. Mikki didn’t lost connection and updated every single moment the Chimeras did. I heard long and loud howls coming from the lower floors, and I couldn't help but flinch every time they growled.

Once we reached the room, Jimin tried to open it, but it was locked. We didn't bother to ask Mikki to unlock it, because she was busy cursing the smart moves of the racing beasts. She already said she unlocked it, so it must be stuck. I moved Jimin from the door and took a closer look at the knob. Inside, I saw a weird spark of circuits which meant the system was disconnected. I forced the knob as I hit the door with my shoulder. Taehyung, seeing my struggles, pushed me away softly, so he kick near the knob. I saw the door flinched and encouraged him to do it again. And this time, it opened. We entered and closed the door. Inside, besides a bed, a mirror, a desk with random papers and the nightstands, two doors to the left and right caught my attention. I opened them as the boys searched in other places. The first was a bathroom, the second was a huge closet and the remaining two were connected to the hallways.

I found no single clue in first room and discard the extra doors, so I entered the closet and checked the hanging suits, neckwear, shirts and shoes.

I left the place a mess. My blood was starting to boil due to not having a single clue about anything. Everything was so clean and organized to the point I couldn’t find a single detail can be unnoticed.

I was about to leave the place when I noticed the tattered paper that covered the walls falling in the corner of the closet. I teared it apart to found a wooden dusty wall. The crumbled material sounded empty when I knocked, so stab the walls with my dagger. Once I opened it enough, I tear some of the wooden bars with my bare hands to have a better view. The woods harmed my bare hands, but I ignored the pain and growing red scratches. I took a lantern from my belt and spot a bunch of documents with a laptop covered both in cinder and dust. With a pounding heavy heart I tried to reach them as I heard the louds curses from the boys outside, it took me longer to reach the pile of papers since they dropped every time my fingers collected them. Once I did, Taehyung came in and dragged me out as fast as he could.

Jimin was protecting the steel door with his back as I heard the loud barks coming from outside as the door pulsated strongly. When he saw me, Jimin activated the bomb in his hands, dropped it on the floor and ran towards us. It gave us enough time to enter one of the extra doors and run before the explosion’s power reached us. We flew a few meters away. I coughed and I started getting up, the walls were calcined and starting to tear apart as well as the floor was, the windows were broken and the still alive howls resonated. The remaining Chimeras must be finding another way to reach us, which were now less than a half of the pack according to Mikki, exactly, ten out of the twenty-four.

I was lucky I didn’t left the documents or the laptop flew away as we did. Else the papers will be mixed and the laptop might have been damaged.

Taehyung and Jimin sat up in silent and carefully. Broken glass around us. They weren’t injured, but dizzy due to the blast. Jimin shook his head to soothe his ears. And Taehyung hit his sides softly.

Both check on me with worried gazes and I assured them I was fine. I changed topics when I notified them what I found. Taehyung took the papers and examined its content. And with a proud smile, he reassured what we need it’s in here, and about the laptop, he suggested to handed it to Mikki. She might find something useful in the device. So he put both inside his equipped bag.

I my beeper to localize us, but it didn't work, as well as Taehyung’s. The powerful vibration from the explosion affected them. Luckily, Jimin’s did , but the image was distorted and it probably won’t last long. We were still in the same floor, but in order to come back we have to go through the dining room to find the entrance hall where the stairs were, room which connected the entire floor’s doors.

So we started going back with Mikki tracking the Chimeras’ whereabouts. They were getting near us as we did to the dining room. Once we reached the searched room, a long growl came from my left and then I was tackled down.

My eyes got wider when I saw it up on me. It’s big and sharp teeth, dark and piercing eyes, heavy and abnormal grey body, and it’s big but deformed paws. Everything but the ears was the exact replica of a wolf. The resemble of the animal before my eyes made me scream out loud. And my heartbeat calmed down even when my face was covered in its blood as twisted it sounded.

Soon I was entangled in Taehyung’s arms. He was comforting me. He had shot the Chimera before something happened. He didn't think twice, and just pull the trigger.

“I’m sorry I covered your face with its blood,” he said as he wipe out the fresh liquid from my cheeks with his sleeves. I just shook my he