LIABILITY ━━ until dawn.

chapter xvii.

chapter seventeen –
chaos theory.

     After Mike had acquired another gun and a torch that he had quickly lit with Sage's lighter, the two found themselves back in the chapel again after finding a makeshift graveyard that had shocked the two to their cores.

Sage pauses infront of a locked door with Mike right behind her, she had decided that she would be the one to finally do something important. It might be only shooting off a lock, but it was important to her. She had rarely done a lot to help Mike during tonight and it was slowly making her feel like damsel in distress.

And Sage Leona Wolfe was not a damsel in distress — dislocated shoulder and all.

Her hands shake slightly as she pulls the gun that Mike had given her out of her waistband, her shoulder screaming in pain and flashbacks of Mike aiming the same gun at Emily entering her mind, but Sage shakes her head defiantly as she aims the gun at the lock.

She wouldn't be scared. She needed to not be scared.

Sage finally pulls the trigger and flinches at the sound plus the recoil sending pain to her shoulder that she hides with a quiet whimper that Mike hadn't noticed. She was dying to scream her head off because of the pain, but she'd be okay.

I need to be okay, Sage repeats mentally as she enters the room with Mike right behind her. Her grip on the same gun that had almost kill– She wouldn't think about that. Emily was alive. That's all that mattered.

The duo walk further inside the new room before quickly turning their attention to the white wolf that had suddenly appeared from behind a table and looked at Sage and Mike with soft eyes.

" Hey big guy! " Mike greets happily as Sage kneels down and holds her hand out for the wolf to sniff before smiling as she starts to pet him.

" Good boy, " Sage whispers with a large smile as she continues to pet the wolf as Mike watches the two with a small smile, the moment was lighthearted and he was happy that it gave Sage the break that she deserved at the moment.

The moment's suddenly broken up by Sage biting her lip and turning her attention back to the main reason why they were there, " How are we getting to the mines, Mike? "

" That map that I saw earlier says that if we go through the psychiatric wing, " Mike pauses to gesture at the fenced outdoor path infront of them before continuing, " There should be a way that takes us right outside the mine. "

The white wolf bounds ahead of them quickly making Sage shake her head in amusement, the idea of the wolf knowing exactly where her and Mike were going was amusing to her.

Sage lets Mike lead her towards the psychiatric wing of the Sanitorium, she had no idea where she was going in all honesty. She didn't even think about looking at any of the maps around the building the last time that they were here.

The brunette rubs her hands together in hope of gaining atleast some warmth as she and Mike walk up the steps to enter the psychiatric wing, Sage holding back a shiver as she smiles thankfully at Mike for holding the door open for her while watching the wolf roam around the room.

Seconds later, a bark comes from the wolf as he departs from the duo making Sage look around in worry. The wolf had wormed it's way into her heart, and Mike's too, and Sage hoped that nothing bad would happen to it in it's departure from her and Mike.

" Wish I could move like you, Wolfie. . " Mike muses to himself as Sage looks at him with a raised eyebrow, the wolf's new name making her smile widely.

" Wolfie, huh? " Sage questions with a smug look, " Thought that was my nickname. "

" I thought it was a fitting name. " Mike shrugs with a small smile, he didn't want to admit anything about naming the wolf after Sage's nickname. Seconds later, Mike opens a lever to open a door and the one behind him and Sage quickly closes as the one infront of them opens slightly.

" Awesome, " Mike mutters bitterly as he moves to shimmy through the gap, grunting as he uses his hands to push the door open a little more before finally making it through the other side looking around excitedly as he spoke while Wolfie appeared next to Mike, " You see that? I do got moves. Don't I, Wolfie? "

" You're such a dork, Mike. " Sage smiles fondly before squeezing through the gap between the door and the wall and cheering silently when she made it to the other side.

She grips Mike's hand tightly as the two walk down the stairs and lets out a gasp at what she saw next.

The remains of the grey wolf that her and Mike had seen so long ago outside the Sanatorium, it felt like, were on the metal bars of the door torn apart with blood still falling out of the wolf's wounds. It shook Sage and Mike to the core as they both stared at the remains in pure shock.

" Fuck, man, that's truly disgusting. " Mike groans out as he tears his eyes away from the remains of the wolf finally.

" You think? " Sage mutters rolling her eyes as she shakes her head and leads the venture further into the Sanatorium, letting Mike shoot the lock off the second door as she was still trying her hardest to get the image of the wolf's remains out of her head.

A screech is heard as the shadow of a wendigo looms over the duo making Sage jump out of fear as Mike mutters something that she couldn't hear. They enter a wide room silently as Sage's grip on her gun tightens significantly, fear bubbling in her chest for a reason that she didn't know yet.

A can suddenly falls off of a small container causing Sage to jump once again as the fear in her chest rises. Oh god.

" Huh? " Mike mutters with furrowed brows as he shoots at the fallen can making a rat scurry away quickly. " Huh?! Huh?! "

He and Sage both turn their focus away from the rat that was now far enough and a scream erupts from Sage as they come face to face with a wendigo that jumps from the ceiling towards the two.

It was a ugly creature, Sage had to admit that.

She shoots the wendigo twice out of sheer panic and lets out a yelp as Mike tugs her arm and they quickly run out of the room with the wendigo close behind them.

They had to run like hell now.

━━━
authors note.

hi, i'm so sorry this took so long! it took me a minute to come to term with the fact that liability's ending soon ):