Till Dawn and Beyond | Until Dawn | Mike x Reader

Chapter 10: Sanatorium Part 1:

I look closer at the photos on the board and see people wearing miners hats holding up pickaxes. They look happy, laughing. I check the date and it's from 80 years ago.

"I see another light, we should check it out." Mike says from the doorway.

We leave the room and I follow his lead. We go to another gated door. He tries it and it's locked. I observe the room and see the ceiling open. I look to where it is and see it connects to the upper level from an accessible staircase.

"We can get in from up there." I say, walking to the stairs.

We walk up and make it to the hole. Mike drops down and looks around. I sit on the edge and drop down, my legs hitting the ground a bit hard. I see another desk with two things on it. A gun and an unlit torch. Mike takes the gun and checks if it's loaded. I look around the room and see nothing else of interest. I take the torch and luckily find a lighter next to it. I put the flame to the torch and it quickly ignites.

"Lets keep going." I say.

We leave the room and I continue to follow Mike. We find another locked door to a side room. It doesn't look like just a room, like it leads to a hallway, to more of the sanatorium. He takes out his gun and points it at it. I step back a bit and he shoots it.

He opens the door and walks into the room. Like I thought, it leads into a hallway. We walk into the next room and hear a tapping noise grow closer. Mike brings his gun back up and trains it on the corner of the wall. It stops close to us and we wait, hoping its not what we think it is. A wolf peeks it's head around the corner and Mike lowers his gun.

"Hey boy." Mike says.

The wolf seems to recognise him and trots over to Mike. He pets it and I wearily rub its back. It doesn't seem to mind me so I calm down a bit, the last thing I want is trying to not die from a wendigo, then getting attacked by a wolf.

I look to the wall and see a map. It's intact. The only reason being that it's framed.

"Okay.. if we hang a left.. and head up the staircase, there's an exit through the psychiatric wing." I say.

"Alright, come on big guy." Mike says, patting the dog's side.

We take the left hall and the wolf stays with us, going a bit ahead. We walk in silence. It's less of an awkward silence, and more of a forced silence. Needing to listen to any noise that may or may not be a danger to us. We enter another hallway and straight ahead is a room with some light coming from it. I would normally pass it, but the light doesn't seem natural, coming from the outside, but rather from a lamp. It looks orange. I walk in and see a journal opened.

"I bet it's that guy's." Mike says.

I flip the pages, skimming for information. It's quite hard, a lot of useful information about these wendigo things. It mentions everything from how to kill them, to how people become them. They dont like fire, it's the only way to kill them. Bullets only slow them down.

I flip the page and see a drawing of teeth biting into an arm. I read the caption below it.

'I've been bit by one. It's been weeks and I've concluded that the bite is harmless.'

"Did you read that?" I ask.

"Yeah..." Mike says.

'Because they resort from us, they know how to hunt us. They mimic us. Mainly our cries for help. They lure us in and strike. They can't see us, only when we move. If one is in sight, not moving a muscle will save your life.'

I flip the page.

'Ive been able to contain them in the sanatorium at the top of this mountain. Ive lured them into cages and locked a few in chains.'

"We need to get out fast." Mike says.

I take the journal with us and we leave the room. We walk down the hallway and come to a rather abrupt ending. A doorway leading outside. It looks like there's chain link fences surrounding this path. It's snowing pretty hard. I open the journal and flip to a map of the sanatorium.

"There's another building through this path. Psychiatric wing is in there." I say, closing the journal.

The wolf runs ahead and we walk out into the gated path. Its gated walls and a chain fence ceiling. We quickly make our way across. I get reminded by the cold that I dont have my jacket and wrap my arms around myself.

"I know this is a stupid question Mike, but why are we here and not in the mines?"

"There was a cave collapse into the deeper mines. This is the unfortunate long way. I came in the way we're leaving when I chased him."

I frown.

"Mike, I'm so sorry about Jess."

He nods sadly.

"Yeah.. Me too."

We make it inside and see the wolf waiting for us.

"You ready to get outta here too Wolfie? Yeah?" Mike asks.

Wolfie barks in response and Mike smiles for the first time in hours. It's a good sight. I know he's not happy, but anything to change that even if for a few seconds is enough.

We walk around and find a staircase going down. It looks almost royal. There's cleaner red carpet leading down the middle. We head down and Wolfie runs ahead, turning the corner. We make it to the bottom and come across a door to a room. The door is bent from what would be the inside of the cell. There's claw marks and blood caking the window of the door. I peek into the room and it almost reminds me of a prison cell. What the hell were they doing to those people?