We still need man-things!

Chapter Thirty Five

 Mike's bloody and lifeless body remained in the tower. He just lied there without thinking or feeling anything. Because he was a victim of murder, he never learned the true reason why these two girls wanted to steal the dagger, what happened to Astrid, who lured him into this place, or about the fate of his friends who were told to be safe. Mike had no emotions or anything at all; he was in an absolute state of blackout because he was dead. Or was he?

In some unspecified time, he still started to experience some kind of feeling, like warm and cold. The warmth was exactly like he was lying on the bed, but the cold was like a wind that was blowing against his chest. He couldn't explain what was going on, nor could he hear any sounds or open his eyes to see where he was.

In the first minute or so, that was the only thing he experienced, but as time went on, he felt that he needed to breathe, and after doing this, he started seeing white flashes in his eyes. Some of them were so bright that it looked like someone was welding right in his face, while others were just like sparklers.

All this meant one thing: Mike wasn't dead; he was well and alive despite a massive injury to his head. If Heisenberg really almost killed him by throwing him off the ladder, then Astrid's 9-mm bullet was only able to put him down temporarily. She had failed to take into account that, after receiving Cadou from Mother Miranda, he wasn't mortal anymore. Night vision wasn't Mike's only ability; he was also gifted with regeneration powers similar to those of Lady Dimitrescu.

In seconds after the bulled had hit him, Mold, having a symbiotic relationship with his body, stopped his dying process and launched a repair program that started building new cells in the area affected by the wound channel.

That process was still going on when Mike started feeling these weird things. As minutes passed, the more clear these flashes became, until he suddenly regained consciousness and found himself in the same room with a horrible headache.

"Ahh, my head!" He moaned then.

He saw that the candles on their stands were still burning, and Astrid's corpse was just next to him, bleeding heavily from her mouth.

"What? That's impossible. She is dead, but I am still alive."

These were the first things Mike thought of when he woke up. As he had no idea about his regeneration powers, he was certain that there must be some other explanation. One day of his life came to mind: the day when he woke up in Miranda's laboratory after falling from a ladder.

Does that mean I have a titanium plate in my skull? He started to suspect There...there has to be. How can I be alive after that?"

He had no mirror to see his face at the moment, but by touching, he didn't find any hole or penetration in any side of his head. There was only a bruise above his right eye, like he had hit his face against something hard, and that was all.

"Yes, I must be a damn lucky man! I can't explain this, but I feel that God loves me."

As he tried to get support from the edge of the coffin and stand up, he started to feel extremely dizzy and fell on the floor again.

His brain was almost regenerated by now; only fragments of his old skull were left in the brain matter that needed to be dissolved. A few minutes later, however, they were gone, and there was some improvement in his balance.

"Okay, I'll try again."

Mike was very weak. Cadou had used a lot of water and nutrients to rebuild his structure, and his body wanted them back. He got himself sitting against the coffin, and then he slowly stood up to take a few steps.

"I should pray she hasn't done anything to my friends." He said that then and let his hand loose to start his walk towards the staircase.

Unfortunately, the secret door leading back to the Hall of Four was closed, and he found himself at a dead end. Before her escape from the castle, Linda had collected all the masks from the statues, making the door go shut again, and then placed them back in Alcina's room to make her believe that Mike and Astrid just disappeared and that no kind of entry into the crypt ever happened.