Till Dawn and Beyond | Until Dawn | Mike x Reader

Chapter 12: Nevermore

"Mike?" I ask.

"Yeah?" he asks as he continues walking.

"It's uh.. getting too deep for me."

Mike looks back and sees me a bit back with the water almost to my collarbone, my neck clearly wet from me going deeper beforehand. Due to our height difference, the water only comes almost to his chest, but covers his stomach.

He walks back towards me with a small chuckle.

"Just hold onto me." He says, reaching his hand out.

I do just that, feeling like an absolute child, and I take his hand and kinda grab onto his shoulder. As me make movements to shift to position better, he ends up picking me up while keeping me still in the water. I wrap my legs around his waist and my arms around his chest, putting my head on his shoulder to take a small moment to rest. Mike walks in the direction of the ledge, getting a little lower, but then gets higher. Even with the water being cold, I feel so warm against him.

"I... Were across." Mike says.

He helps me onto the ledge and the coldness of the breeze against our wet clothes comes back. Mike gets out of the water and I stand up with him. We walk over to the metal door and see another small dark tunnel branching to the side.

"Should we look there first?" I ask.

"Mind as well." Mike says.

We walk down the tunnel for a few minutes in a focused silence before Mike breaks it.

"Uh Y/n?..." he asks.

"Yeah?"

"Look.."

He shines his light on the ground and there's a lot of blood leading down the tunnel, seeming to start here.

"Do we look? Could it be Matt?"

"If he's there hurting, we probably should."

We walk forward for a bit longer and reach an almost cliff like ground, into a clearing. It's created this room of metal and fire. I can't tell what it is. I see glass everywhere. It looks like a deep hole, above and below. It goes much further down than up.

"The tower..." Mike says, confirming what it is.

"Matt!" I yell, causing an echo.

"Shh, one of those things could be here." Mike says.

I look around and see it fell farther down. The trail didn't start back there, it ended there.

"If he's here, this is where he came from. Could he have gone through the metal door? It's shut." I ask.

"He could have shut it behind him. Let's go back."

I nod and we make our way back, having hope of seeing Matt somewhere on the other side.

"Be prepared for anything." Mike says. "There could be fifty of them, or none."

I nod as he pulls the lock down. He opens the door and water like what we walked through gushes out. Its worse, more grey and smells like death. Like something rotting. Along with the water comes a severed head of the guy we met earlier. I scream, but hold my mouth, looking away in disgust and trying not to throw up.

"I wasn't prepared for that one." He says.

Mike and I walk into the room, stepping through the grossly damp floor, and hear the rattling of chains. We look up and see the sky illuminating chains. Then we see the man's headless body dangling from a hook.

"Jesus..." I start.

"Fuck.." Mike finishes.

I walk around it and step on something soft.

"Mike, can you shine your flashlight on this?" I ask.

He shines it on it. It's Matt's jacket.

"It's Matt's." I say confusedly, picking it up.

I dust it off and observe it. Somehow it's not wet. It has rips and tears and what looks like a blood stain. Oh no. That was his blood. A lot of it. It covers the lower part of the front of his jacket.

"Mike that was his blood." I say, showing him the stains.

"There's no other blood in here Y/n, where else could he have gone?"

There's so many twists and turns to these mines, but if he was here and so close to the exit- he couldn't have been here, the door had water behind it. That had to have been there before. Where the hell did he go?

This place seems to be where these things bring there food. Matt wouldn't have just abandoned his jacket here. I think of how abruptly the blood trail ended and my heart stops for a moment.

"Mike.."

"No, don't think that okay?"

"Well where else could he be Mike?! We would have seen him if he came our way! And he sure as hell didn't come this way!" I snap.

All the worry, fear, stress, all of it just comes out. Mike stands there shocked at my sudden anger. I didn't even know I was angry. I exhale and rub my face with my hands.

"Hey-"

"Mike it doesn't make sense how he could have gotten from there to here. The blood there and the jacket here. He's dead Mike." I say, tearing at the last part.

"He's not dead."

"Then where is he Mike?! Where is he? Where is he.."

My anger starts melting into more worry and my composure crumbles under the monstrosity that is today. This night. Jess is dead, Josh is probably dead, Matt is probably dead, we're all scarred and traumatized surely. We could all die here, it's almost too good to be true that most of us are. Almost half have if Josh and Matt are dead. We came face to face with a fucking wendigo. Beth and Hannah aren't actually missing, but dead. This is all too much. Way to much.

"Hey.. c'mon." He says, opening his arm out to me.

I exhale and walk to him, calming into the embrace of his hug. I could totally break down right now, and honestly, it would feel great to, but me having a crying fit isn't going to help anyone. Isn't going to get us off of this mountain any faster or any better. I take a few moments to just breathe it out and tell myself we'll be okay, that Matt's okay.

"I'm sorry Mike this is just.. This is just too much. I can't take this much longer." I apologize.

"I know.." He chuckles a little as we pull away. "I'm getting near my end too."

"I know Matt. Maybe not as well as you do but he's strong and he's smart. I'm sure he's okay." Mike reassures.

"Thank you.."

"You're welcome. Now let's get out of here huh?"

I nod, somehow with a smile, and head to the one door ahead of us.

I open it to find a winding staircase around an elevator. We choose the stairs, knowing the elevator is either nonoperational, or would only bring more attention to us. I open the final door and get met by light. Lot's of it. We made it to the ground.

I again remember that I don't have my coat by the cold snowy breeze and put on Matt's. It smells familiar but distant. The smell of charcoal and smoke, mixed with his usual cologne. His cologne always smelled warm, a warm graham cracker like scent but also has that overall smell of cologne. It's never been overpowering.

We look around and see the lodge nearby. We run the whole way there.