CHAOS THEORY.
ONE DEAD.
─────
February 2015
While the bad feeling had shrunk to the size of a pebble, Willow's anxiety had only skyrocketed. Nothing she did, not any breathing exercises or anything, could change that as she wandered out of the mines.
The storm had been fully taken under way, but didn't seem to be hitting the mountain as badly as Willow thought it would be. Her hair started flying around in the wind as she gripped the straps of her pack, moving through the snow as quickly as she could to get away from the mines. She wanted to go back in. See if she could find anything that she had gone in to find.
But with whatever the hell that thing was... Willow wasn't sure she wanted to risk it at the moment.
Walking a bit with her mind jumping all over the place, Willow didn't realize until it was too late that something was making noise up ahead of her.
Stopping, Willow turned her left ear closer to see if she could hear what it was.
"Jesus." A male voice mumbled, holding a light.
Willow sighed, stepping forward and stepping on a branch. It cracked loudly. Fuck. Willow bit her lip before holding her hands up and stepping to where Mike could see her.
"Just me." She mumbled.
Mike sighed, relaxing. "Don't fucking do that."
Willow smiled tightly, glancing over him. He was just in a tank top and she was sure he was freezing his ass off because even Willow had started to feel cold after her encounter in the mines. But there was blood splattered all over him.
"Uh," Her voice shook, "What the fuck happened to you?"
Mike hesitated for a moment. "Jess is dead. Her jaw...it just... Uh, but there was this guy leaving the mines from the scene and I've been following him up the mountain from a distance."
Willow felt like a log had gotten stuck in her throat. She could get the gist of what he had been trying to say. Jessica was dead? Shit.
Willow rubbed her hands over her face. Holy fuck. Yeah, her and Jessica hadn't been good friends since she had started seeing Mike (and breaking girl code) after the break-up, but they were still friends. She had told Emily she wasn't going to stop being friends with Jessica just because Em wasn't anymore, but because Willow was best friends with Matt and Matt and Emily had gotten closer after that whole situation, it did cause a decline in Willow's friendship with Jessica.
And Willow was starting to regret letting that happen.
"Oh, God." Willow breathed out.
"Yeah," Mike grimaced, "What are you doing out here? Why aren't you back at the Lodge?"
Willow clammed up. Shit.
She noticed the way Mike had pointed to indicate the direction the man was taking. She tilted her head. That was toward the sanatorium.
Should I tell Mike about the thing in the mines? Willow asked herself, wondering if she should elaborate as to why she didn't want to be alone at the moment, but thought about it for a moment. He just told her Jessica was dead. Yeah, I don't think he needs to know about that right now. He just lost his girlfriend.
"If he's going that way, it's to the sanatorium." Willow said, avoiding the question. "Do you want me to come with you? I don't really want to be alone right now."
Mike sighed, dropping the question for now. He nodded.
The two of them started walking together. Willow thought about offering him the other jacket in her bag, but it would be too small for him to even fit his arms into the sleeves and didn't even bother asking. No coat was better than one that would cut off his circulation.
Willow felt content walking in silence, despite the news Mike had just dropped on her about her friend being dead and apparently now without a fucking jaw.
How could a human just.. rip off a jaw? Jesus fuck.
No human should be capable of that, even if they were drugged the fuck up.
After a few moments, Willow sighed heavily. Mike had kept stealing glances toward her. It felt like he wanted to say something and just wasn't. "What?" She sounded defeated. Willow didn't even recognize her own voice as she spoke.
Mike licked his lips, holding the lantern out in front of them. "Will, just.. You had to have come out of the mines to find me. What were you doing down there?"
"I took a walk to cool down after.. what happened in the Lodge. I wandered around and came across the entrance, but I didn't feel like going back to the Lodge yet so I went in."
Was that technically a lie? Willow wasn't sure.
She really wasn't holding up to her standard of honesty, honesty, honesty tonight.
"You're wearing a headlamp. No one just carries one of those around. Seems like you planned on going somewhere dark rather than just 'wandering' in." Mike deadpanned.
"Sam does. And I always bring one with me coming here or whenever I go exploring. I had one last year." Willow said to him. "And besides, what does it matter? I'm pretty sure the matter of Jessica's murderer running around this damn mountain is a much more pressing matter than me being in the mines tonight."
If Mike heard the crack in Willow's voice at the mention of Jessica, he didn't think to mention it. He nodded briskly, shutting up.
They walked in silence after that.
The only sounds other than the nature around them was their breathing. As they approached the sanatorium at a distance, a wall appeared to line the land. Willow wasn't barely tall enough to see over it anyway, but both of them ducked down as they spotted the same thing.
"Jesus." Mike muttered.
Willow shook her head, "What is with you and Jesus?"
Mike ignored her. Willow rolled her eyes as he peeked back over the wall.
"That's not good. That's really not good."
Willow popped up to see over the wall and at whatever he was seeing. At the sight of the man walking with two northwestern wolves, Willow nodded numbly.
"Yeah, that's really not good." She agreed.
They ducked down again, Mike cursing.
Mike peeked over again. He glanced down at her, gesturing over the wall. "Alright, let's get a closer look."
Willow watched as Mike climbed on top of the wall and jumped off, grunting as he did. Sighing, Willow followed with his help. His hands lingered on her as they both looked in the direction of the sanatorium doors to make sure they were still in the clear.
They approached the steps leading up the doors. Willow looked over at the sign on the wall, reading the words.
She didn't realize that Mike followed her until he spoke up from behind her, making her jump and hold a hand to her chest. "Awesome."
Willow swung around, punching his arm.
He smiled sheepishly at her, "Why wouldn't we end up at the creepiest place on planet earth?"
"I'm pretty sure that's the mines, but to each their own." Willow mumbled as Mike turned around to continue looking around.
Following him this time, Mike led her over to a small opening in the bottom of the structure. He handed her the lantern, moving the covering for the entrance.
Willow grimaced looked at it.
"Why can't we just use the door?" She grumbled, ignoring the look Mike shot her as he climbed down, jumping through the hole.
He motioned for her to jump down after him. Willow held back her groan, she really didn't want to do this, but then again, she'd rather be here than alone and back down in the mines again.
Willow held out the lantern as she shifted to sit on the snow, not feeling like jumping down the way Mike had. That was going to hurt her feet more than the normal way of jumping. She had no idea why Mike jumped that way. Probably to avoid the pipe and grate lining it just a few feet from the wall under her, but Willow didn't dwell on it. She let go of the lamp, letting it drop a few feet into Mike's hands. He placed it on the ground beside him, holding out his arms to catch her if she slipped and dropped down wrong.
Taking in a deep breath, Willow braced herself before pushing off the bottom of the opening. Mike's hands reached out to steady her once she landed, making sure she was alright.
"Fine." Willow mumbled, wiggling her toes as the stinging sensation hit hard.
Running in the mines hurt her feet and if Willow had to keep jumping down off of things, she was going to scream. Her feet could only take so much impact.
Mike reached down, picking the lantern back up.
They both started to look around the dirty room. Willow didn't recognize it from the search parties. They had never been allowed to check inside the building, only looking in through small spots like windows. That meant that like the mines, there was a chance the twins could have made it here. They could've just wound up in a part of the sanatorium that they didn't check.
God, Willow was going to rip that Sheriff a new one again if she made it out of this.
Mike wandered a few steps away, heading toward a caged part of the room. Willow glanced the opposite way, but decided it looked way to creepy over there to be willing to check it out alone and followed after Mike into the other side of the room.
Willow looked around, her headlamp shining light on old pieces of metal that rust had taken over.
She winced. Thank god she was layered. She'd rather not get tetanus if she had to keep dealing with old pieces of metal that weren't taken care of properly. The area in question looked like an opening to a walkway, but there was no easy way to get up there. Mike could probably give her a boost up and she could help pull him up or vice versa-
"Look at his." Mike called over to her, squatting on the floor and holding up something in his hand. "I wonder what it is."
Willow licked her lips, stepping closer to see what it was.
"It's called a totem." Willow crossed her arms. "Native Americans use them as part of a ritual to try and ward off bad spirits, I think. I'm pretty sure each color can mean different things, the tribe that used to live on the mountain had this thing for butterfly prophecies. I found a black one and a yellow one earlier. They're all over the mountain it seems."
Mike looked at it, putting it down. "Huh."
"Yeah," Willow breathed out, "Knowing what I do about them doesn't help my anxiety about this place. But, uh," she avoided his concerned gaze, pointing to the opening she noticed, "that seems to be a walkway of sorts. Maybe we should go that way."
Mike nodded, standing back up and heading over to check it out. He looked back at Willow, glancing down at one of the barrels in the room.
"If we push that over to it, we can probably climb up without issue."
Willow nodded. Mike put the lantern on top of the nearest barrel as they both stood side-by-side and grabbed the top. Pushing it was easier said than done. Even with their combined strength, the barrel kept getting caught on the debris on the floor.
Eventually they moved it just under the walkway. Mike grabbed the lantern off the barrel, gesturing for Willow to climb up.
"Ladies first."
"Oh, fuck off, doofus."
Willow climbed up anyway, ignoring Mike's outstretched hands. He was always ready to catch her if she fell and it wasn't annoying, she just didn't understand why. He knew she liked to explore a lot. They'd even gone exploring some abandoned places together back in high school. Mike was fully aware that Willow knew what she was doing when it came to dangerous climbing activities.
Why he was so concerned about her getting hurt wasn't making sense, but then again, he did just apparently see his girlfriend die so maybe Mike just didn't feel like losing anybody else tonight. Willow would let it slide for now because of that.
Willow took only a few steps forward on the platform so that Mike had room to stand when he climbed up. She looked down the walkway.
"I think there's a hole in the ceiling down at the end. I can see light hitting from somewhere down on that end. Maybe we can get in that way?"
Mike stepped around her, holding the lantern up as he nodded. "Watch your step up here."
Willow nodded despite the fact that his back was to her as they walked along the thing grate that led to the hole in the ceiling. The closer they got, the more Willow knew that her thought about a whole in the ceiling was right.
Just under it was some sort of old object that Willow didn't care to identify. Mike handed her the lantern. Willow took it, watching as Mike climbed onto the object and looked up into the hole.
"Whoa, that's different." He mumbled, climbing through the hole. He reached down, a hand out stretched.
Willow handed him the lantern, standing on her toes to reach him. Barely making it, Mike took the lantern and placed it on the ground beside him again as he watched Willow copy his movements to climb the object. He reached down again, helping Willow through the hole. Swinging her leg up onto the floor, Willow used that grounding and Mike's hold on her to pull herself through the hole, rolling onto her back as Mike let go of her.
Looking around, Willow climbed to her feet. She dusted off her ass she Mike started walking toward the set of doors that read Chapel at the end of the room.
Mike pressed up to the door, looking in the small window as Willow caught up to him.
"Whoa..."
Willow grabbed Mike's hand before he could grab the door knob. She shook her head, pointing at the locked sign on the door.
"Don't bother, it's locked."