I lead the way into the next room, stopping in the center of it, shining the light in all directions, searching for anything that could help us. Mike veered off to my right, something had caught his attention. I noticed him moving toward the shelves that were to our right, I moved closer to shine the light so we could see what was there but I jolted backward in fear. He grabbed my wrist with his right hand and held the light in place so he could see only to scoff, "this place just keeps getting creepier and creepier," he said, releasing my wrist and moving away from the shelves.
The room seemed to be a morgue of some sort, there were cupboards with the only things I could think of: dead bodies. I may have been a detective but I was not a dead body person, I could stomach them when I first found them at a crime scene but once they've entered the morgue, I couldn't stand them any longer. I guess I was just afraid of morgues, rather than dead bodies themselves. I moved to follow Mike closer to the cupboards, opening every single one we could, finding little tidbits of information and we also found a keycard for chapel security. That was in the last cupboard we looked inside.
"Female. Decomposing. She must have worked here," I said after groaning at the initial sight and smell, noting her uniform.
Suddenly, her mouth moved! I gasped. Something came crawling out of her mouth. A rat. I squealed in disgust, playing tap dance as it scurried away and I moved closer to Mike. I tried to hold my vomit back as Mike picked up the keycard from the deceased's uniform pocket, "god, I hate rats," I muttered under my breath.
"It's gone, Vee, calm down, we got a keycard," he tried to calm me down but it wasn't exactly working out the way he wanted, "let's go, mouse," he laughed and we set off toward a locked door that sat next to the shelves where we were looking at jars of heads.
He used the keycard to unlock the door, pushing it open and allowing me to enter first, seeing as I still had the lantern and we still needed the card, so he waited until I was through before grabbing the card and pulling it out of the slot. I turned right toward a doorway leading to a staircase that went up. Mike was right behind me, seeing as I waited for him at the base of the stairs. We started up the stairs, talking in low voices. Just about the things we had seen and such, nothing in particular because everything else would have been awkward and intruding onto his relationship with Jessica.
We got to the top of the first little flight of stairs. I started up the second with Mike behind me but a wolf appeared behind us and proceeded to chase us up the remaining three flights and down hallways until we reached a door we could close in its face. I almost dropped the lantern but I grabbed it before it could fall to the ground just before I slid through the doorway after Mike, since he had rushed forward, waiting for me since I had fumbled and slowed because of the lantern problem. I slid inside and he slammed the door quickly. I groaned, reluctantly handing him the lantern when he asked for it, and stood up, rubbing the back of my jeans, dusting off the dirt from my butt.
We seemed to be at the top of the sanatorium, in like a tower of some sort that overlooked what seemed to be the main hall where visitors were able to sit and wait comfortably, I supposed. I could see a strange figure down there, "Mike," I called him over and he watched him with me.
"Okay....," he was a bit confused.
"More like creepy," I retorted.
"It's a quaint little psycho crib, that's for damn sure," he replied.
"Yeah," I agreed, "but like how are we gonna get down there, again?"
"I guess we'll figure it out," he shrugged.
There were different stairs that led us down this time, and we took them, not having much of a choice. The floor cut off abrupted a few inches away from the base of the small staircase. We looked at each other and I waved him forward. He could go first, I wasn't in any hurry. He gave me a soft glare and an eye roll, I merely stuck my tongue out at him playfully while laughing. He scoffed at me, grinning as he shifted to sit on the edge and jump down, almost losing his balance. He gestured for me to follow, and I did after I dropped my backpack on his head.
That made him curse at me playfully, knowing I did it just to piss him off and not to hurt him. I started down in a slightly different way than he had, I did the opposite of what he had done, my belly facing the ledge rather than my ass. He sat the lantern down with my bag onto the ground to wrap his right arm around my legs loosely, so I could slowly inch my way down until I was only holding on by my hands. He tightened his grip as I let go, letting me slide down his chest until I was on my feet. He helped me find my balance before we moved to grab our things, him the lantern, and me my backpack.
I muttered a 'thanks' and he muttered a simple 'don't mention it'.
We realized we were in the same place we had been moments before that we had lost track with all of the running and the bear trap and the morgue and such. Things we were glad were over and done with but we still didn't like the idea of them nor the memories.
Since we remembered the area, we immediately moved toward the doors we couldn't get through before, Mike pulled out the keycard and unlocked the doors. He swung the door open before pulling the card out of the lock and putting it back in his pocket.
As soon as we entered the room, the same white wolf from before who chased us was now snarling at us, aiming to pounce us. I screamed whilst Mike let out a startled yell. I held onto Mike's biceps and hid behind him, pleading for the dog not to hurt us while Mike spoke to it calmly as he moved us away, slowly.
"Easy boy, easy," he repeated the same phrase over and over as the wolf merely growled lightly and laid down.
I let out the breath I had been holding into Mike's back, shifted to face the wolf, so I could calm down, "sorry, Mike," I slowly let go of him and moved away, "the wolf startled me, I wasn't expecting it," I tried to apologize and come up with truthful excuses on why I was stuck to him for so long.
"It's okay," he said to me, "easy, that's a good boy," he spoke to the wolf, "you're fine, Vee, calm down, you'll get him all rowdy again," he interjected between calming me and the wolf perfectly, I could relax finally.
I breathed in through my nose and breathed out through my mouth. I did that about five times before I was fully calm and collected, "easy, we can be easy, right boy?" I said to the wolf who seemed to growl and nod in agreement, while I was nodding with him, "good wolf."
Mike decided to approach the wolf which stirred him a bit but he was calm as ever, speaking very calmly and assuring the wolf that he wasn't going to hurt him, "that's a good boy, easy," he bravely held a hand out to the wolf and the creature reciprocated by allowing the human to rub his head, "yeah, everyone likes a lil' attention and lovin', right boy?" He smiled lightly, giving a much-needed chuckle.
I smirked at the scene, "I think you made us a new buddy," I giggled as he chuckled more at me this time.
"Sure I did," he was so confident.
"Okay, Indiana Jones," I rolled my eyes, "oh, wait! I got the wrong hero," he eyed me curiously, "John McClane," I was proud of this one and wasn't going to let him take it away from me, though he was still confused, "the whole dirty white tank top thing," I explained, "the only difference is that you're wearing socks and shoes, he wasn't for the majority of the movie, literally almost all of it," I laughed and for the first time, he laughed with me, finding the way I thought of him funny yet in a strange way empowering and enlightening.
"I see," was all he said though and he moved toward the spacious room with me following close behind him.