BODYS ; M. MUNROE

CHAPTER SIX

★彡

CASSANDRA AWOKE covered by a large, coarse sheet, that did little to keep her warm. She blinked slowly, adjusting to the dim light. She looked to her side, where Mike's blurred form slowly gained detail, his hand recoiled before he could touch her, as if getting burnt, he smiled.

"There she is, there's my girl," He said quietly, hand fidgeting against his knee. "how'd you feel?"

Cassandra winced as she pushed herself up, groaning softly; she looked down to see that what was draped over her, was a torn curtain. She turned to face Mike. "Where are we?" She then noticed his plaid shirt was gone, leaving him in a tank top. "Where's your shirt?"

Mike looked down at himself, as if forgetting what he was wearing, he then looked around the dilapidated innards of what looked like a hospital's main hall. "The sanatorium. I saw you fall, and then, some guy, probably that fucker that killed Jessica- he picked you up, and I followed him here."

Jessica. Cassandra shut her eyes, the image of Jess' mutilated face had been seared into her mind, she leaned forward, shuddering as if she was going to vomit. Mike moved closer, planting his hand between her shoulder blades, rubbing her back with his thumb. Cassandra's body jolted, remembering how she last saw Will.

She opened her eyes, and looked up into Mike's own. "Will?" The simple word cracked as she said it, her voice quiet and afraid.

"I'm sorry—" Before he could finish, she leant into Mike's chest, beginning to sob.

Despite everything, she had loved Will once, and no matter what he had done, he didn't deserve to die.

"I should've tried harder to get that stupid rope I-" Her words died in her throat as she hiccuped another sob.

"No, Cassandra that's not true, it's not your fault, there was nothing you could've done. Okay? I promise." He stroked her hair gently, subconsciously pulling her closer.

The two stayed hugging until the whine of an animal caught Cassandra off guard, she jumped back, suppressing a yelp seeing a large white wolf at Mike's side. "Mike..." She swallowed, pointing to the creature.

Mike turned to the animal, and began to scratch behind its ear. "Oh, Wolfie? We're good friends." He finally stood, Cassandra's brows raised, seeing just how dirty his clothes had gotten. "He was protecting you when I came in."

"Really?" Her voice was low as she watched the wolf, nervously, she reached her hand out, the wolf quickly leaned into it, sniffing at her palm. "Well, thank you."

Not yet trusting herself to stand on her own, Cassandra held onto Mike's wrist and pulled herself to her feet. She closed her eyes as a violent head rush swept through her, and she wobbled lightly on the spot.

"Hey, you good?" Mike scanned Cassandra's face, inspecting it for marks he somehow may have missed.

She nodded, letting go of his wrist. "Yeah, thanks." She felt her cheeks burn, as her eyes drifted to his exposed arms. "You didn't answer my question about your shirt."

"Went past a fence going after you, got caught, shirt became no more." He rubbed his arms nonchalantly, trying his best not to appear cold.

As Mike began to walk around the large room, inspecting as much as he could, Cassandra couldn't move, too distracted by what had happened, and where she'd ended up. Why did the stranger bring her here? Going as far as to put something over her to keep her warm, to have their wolf keep watch. It didn't make sense, her hand moved to the side of her head and she rubbed it slowly, was she still unconscious? Her dreams had never been this vivid before.

"Hey look!" Mike's voice pulled her out of her thoughts, she half smiled, watching as he dangled a meat covered bone in front of the wolf, he eventually tossed it in the air, the wolf catching it with ease. "Nice job, buddy."

Eventually, Cassandra's body allowed her feet to move, they felt heavy, tired, but she pushed past it, forcing herself toward a green jacket she had spotted. "Think this'll keep you warm?" She called out, swiping the jacket from the makeshift hook, as she did so, her nose crinkled, getting a strong smell of oil.

"Well I've always thought I looked dashing in green." He smirked down at her, took the jacket out of her grip, and slipped it on, it fit him seamlessly. "Well? Think I look- hey, woah..." Mike stepped forward, behind where the jacket hung was a large hole, on the other side, sat a revolver on a shelf just slightly out of reach.

Cassandra watched curiously as Mike knocked out the brick keeping the shelf up, the revolver sliding down and into his hand. "Why would someone need a gun like that up here?" She asked, lightly biting at her thumb, surely something like that wouldn't do much against a bear or a wolf.

"I dunno... It makes sense," Mike began, slotting the gun into his pocket. "while I was trying to get to you, I saw some pretty weird shit."

Cassandra's eyes widened slightly. "Creepy old sanatorium weird, or weird weird."

"Weird weird. I found some shit about miners who survived a cave in, they came back all... Mad and sick, one of 'em even bit someone." He shook his head, rubbing the side of it.

"Jesus..." Cassandra breathed out. "What could've happened down there to make them act like that?" She thought aloud, Mike having moved to the second, small gated room.

"Fucking freak... Get a load of this." The lantern in his hand bobbled, casting pointed shadows across the room.

Cassandra followed his words, and was met with the sight of a map, and newspaper clippings, reminding her of the detective films she and Josh would watch. Her head tilted, trying to read the various pieces of articles. "Footprints found... Local man dead... Bigfoot sightings. What?" She then pointed to the picture at the bottom of the board. "Are those the miners?"

Mike stepped forward, peering at the photo. "Yeah... Yeah looks like it." He then let out a long, shuddered groan and stepped back. "We need to get outta here, I'm getting the extreme version of the willies."

"No kidding... Place feels haunted." Cassandra hugged herself tightly, and turned around, half expecting to be met with a ghostly figure staring at them.

"C'mon, this way." Mike called out, pointing to a door, a padlock standing in the way of their potential freedom. "Cover your ears, I'm gonna shoot it off."

Cassandra did so without question, flinching as the bullet fired, the sound echoing all around them, behind her, the wolf barked.

"Sorry buddy, should've warned you too." Mike said, looking over to the wolf, who was now lying in front of the chair Cassandra had woken up on.

The two peered into the hallway in front of them, Mike raised the lantern, the flickering glow doing little help them see. Cassandra shuddered next to him, her hand instinctively wrapping around his wrist.

Mike glanced down at her hand, then to the side of her face, her eyes too fixed on in front of them to look at him. "It's okay, I've got you."

Curious: Increased

Relationship with Mike: Increased