Chapter 115 - Quick Thinking

  And they did run, but not right away. They stopped, stared, backing away slowly, horror inching into their eyes. Morrigan had just been stabbed, and not only was she smiling as if it were no big deal, but she pulled the knife out of her stomach and threw it at their feet as if it were no more than a mild inconvenience. She had changed into a monster.

  Red eyes blazing, her hair and skin unnatural. Blood was dripping on the floor all around her, and in the back of her mind, she knew that wasn’t even the worst of it. She could direct a little magic to the seal, unlock it, and let the changeling out. Oh, then they would really see a monster, and if it were not for the fact she had no trust in her control over the changeling while its targets were standing dumbfounded right in front of her, Morrigan might have done it.

  She didn’t want to kill these girls. That would be bad… really bad. But, the changeling apparently felt differently, and it was agitated enough to rip into her body and pull at her flesh. Most of the blood dripping on the ground around her and soaking her hoodie was not from the knife wound but from her back.

  Finally, wordlessly, Tyler turned and ran, and Livy was practically falling over herself as she did the same. Jenna, to her credit, didn’t make a mad dash for it, though it may have been that she was frozen in shock.

  Morrigan spoke calmly. “Considering I have evidence of you assaulting Pepper, I suggest you get your dogs back on their leashes.” She reached up to her face, brushing the hair out of her eyes and adjusting her hood. As she did so, she smiled softly and re-engaged her glamour so that Jenna was once again staring at the normal blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl she had thought Morrigan was. “Because nobody is going to believe you.”

  It seemed some people, when faced with the impossible, are still able to keep their wits about them enough to do what is logical. Or maybe it was just Jenna’s instinct to protect whatever control over a given situation she could salvage, and obviously, she’d have no control over the zombie girl who literally just pulled a knife out of her fucking stomach.

  But to be fair, and little did she know, it was mostly a performance.

  So, Jenna turned and bolted out of the room, the phone wholly forgotten.

  Morrigan instantly fell to her knees and dug into her jean-shorts pocket for the skeleton key. “Pepper, lock the door,” she gasped.

  Pepper gulped, nodded, and grabbed the key.

  Then, Morrigan waited a moment before letting the magic of her seal unleash, the black tendrils of the changeling instantly came out, angry and agitated, slapping at the ground and surrounding area. Morrigan breathed heavily as her hand shakily reached for her phone. Blood got on the screen as she navigated to Hilda’s contact and typed, “Emergency healing tonight. Changeling tore me up again.”

  The tendrils continued to slap and writhe, but they were not overly violent now that the initial threat was gone.

  Pepper stepped cautiously forward. “Morrigan are you o—”

  “Stay back!” Morrigan snapped warningly, holding up a hand. She was surprised Pepper wasn’t freaking out more. She knew Morrigan was a reaper, knew she was technically dead already, but probably didn’t know about the changeling. That’s something Morrigan had kept to herself for the most part.

  Pepper nodded obediently and backed away a few steps.

  Morrigan looked around. There was blood everywhere. “Grab uh… something to clean. And… my sewing kit.” Her words came out in pained gasps. She knew this would feel better once she got some proper treatment from Hilda.

  Once the sewing kit was in her hands, she scooted back to the wall and slipped off her hoodie. As expected, her white undershirt had been turned red, which, surprisingly, stayed red. So, makeup on my face turns black and gray, but blood stays red. Then a stupid joke flashed through her mind. What’s black and white and red all over?

  She threaded a needle, lifted her shirt, and inspected the wound in her stomach. It truly was odd how such an injury felt more sore than traditionally painful. Something like scraping your foot on concrete “hurt” a lot more than getting stabbed, as it turned out.

  She leaned forward, used one hand to pinch her flesh together, and then started sewing. Luckily it was a simple pocketknife with a short blade—this could have been a LOT worse.

  As she worked, the changeling’s tendrils explored the wall around her, moving with a restless energy. They didn’t strike violently, but they weren’t still either. They squirmed and pulsed, occasionally snapping at the air as if testing for any potential threats.

  Morrigan winced as the needle slid through her torn skin, her fingers trembling slightly as she slowly stitched the wound closed. The tendrils mirrored her discomfort, flaring briefly and smacking against the wall with an audible slap whenever the needle poked too painfully.

  “Easy girl…” Morrigan muttered under her breath, though whether to herself or the changeling, she wasn’t entirely sure.

  “M-Morrigan? Are you…”

  “I’ll be fine. Believe it or not, I’ve had worse. Just… find anything you can to soak up that blood. I can probably make myself look normal enough with magic, but hiding the blood on the floor at the same time won’t work out.” When it came to perception blocking external things, she could only do it confidently if it was something small. Blocking perception of the entire floor was beyond her, and maybe beyond Death as well. She didn’t think it was meant to work that way.

  As she pulled the last of the stitches tight, successfully closing the wound, she glanced at the locked door. Throughout this whole process, she was worried about a counselor showing up to see what all the fuss was about, but thankfully, it didn’t seem to happen yet.

  Morrigan tied off the last stitch with shaky fingers, cutting the thread with a small pair of scissors from the kit. She glanced down at the wound, a jagged line of haphazard stitching that barely held the torn flesh together. It wasn’t pretty, but it would do for now.

  “Morrigan um… Th-that’s just sewing thread. You really should um…”

  “Yeah, it’ll tear if I move the wrong way. I need real stitches. But this will be enough for me to meet with my friend tonight, and she can heal me.”

  “One of the witches?”

  “Yeah.” Morrigan closed her eyes and took a deep breath, willing the changeling back under the seal. It obeyed, surprisingly, and the tendrils slithered back into hiding inside her flesh. Maybe it was picking up on how tired she felt and, likewise, didn’t even have enough energy to give her more attitude. Still, her entire body ached, and her clothes were drenched in blood. “Hey, I’m sorry about my stupid plan. I didn’t mean for you to actually get hurt.”

  Pepper shook her head. “They’re the ones who did it, not you.”

  “But I put you in that situation.”

  “All you did was tell me to stand up for myself. A-and now…”

  Morrigan smirked. “Well, I think we should talk about how to get them kicked out. That wasn’t my plan originally, but we got plenty of dirt on them. Let’s keep me getting stabbed to ourselves, though.” Morrigan walked over to her nightstand and opened the drawer, which had all of her clothes in it.

  She felt surprisingly calm, everything considered. Maybe it was the necessity of needing to force her mind into a state of dull serenity or else risk having her body destroyed by the changeling.

  “Um… so what is that thing?” Pepper asked meekly as she used a washcloth to wipe up the blood on the floor. “Um… d-do all reapers…”

  Morrigan shook her head. “When I was killed, it was during a ritual to open a gateway, the type that can let things from other worlds slip through, apparently. It turns out a demon made its way through, and weeks later, it ended up attacking me. It’s called a changeling and… well, it's a shapeshifter, basically, but it wants to become its host and will take on their appearance and personality. It latched onto me; Death managed to kill it, but not without damaging my body first, so… we grafted some of the demon's flesh onto my body.” She looked over her shoulder at Pepper, who had her head canted and eyes wide and curious. “Sorry… I hope that doesn’t scare you.”

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Pepper quickly shook her head. “No. You could never scare me. You’re someone I know I can trust.”

  Morrigan smirked. “Well, enough about me. Are you sure you’re alright?”

  Pepper nodded. “I… I really am.”

  “Well, I’m glad you stood up for yourself at least.”

  “I-I know. It felt exhilarating,” She clenched her hands and pumped both fists. “I never thought I’d have the courage to tell them to leave me alone.”

  Morrigan frowned. “But they still hurt you.”

  Pepper nodded slowly. “But… the fact I didn’t just let them do what they wanted felt good. I couldn’t stop them from hurting me, but I did stop myself from being subservient to them. And so, I’m proud of myself. I… I think… I should learn to do that more.”

  Morrigan chuckled as she wiped. Pepper was always so earnest. “Well, I’m proud of you. I know it's not easy for you, but you really stood your ground.”

  Pepper smiled and slapped the air, “Did you see Livy’s face when I hit her!?”

  Morrigan laughed again. “Yeah, she never saw it coming.”

  Then, the door shook as someone tried the handle, followed by a knock. “Morrigan? Pepper?” Sarrah called through the door.

  Morrigan gave Pepper a look as the younger girl’s enthusiasm turned to terror. Pepper really didn’t like getting in trouble.

  “Uh… yeah?” Morrigan asked.

  “Why’s this locked? Anyway, I’m coming in.”

  Morrigan dug through her nightstand, pulled out a sweater, and put it on. She glanced at the floor as Pepper grabbed her blanket and quickly wiped at a spot, perhaps noticing a spot of blood they missed. Morrigan took a seat on the end of the bed, putting the blanket over her legs since she didn’t have time to wash all the blood off of herself.

  They finished getting into their places just in time as the door opened. Sarrah gave Morrigan a suspicious look, then came in. “Okay… so what the heck is going on here tonight? First of all, how is that door locked?”

  Morrigan cleared her throat. “I used my sewing needles to lock it, to make sure they didn’t come back in and mess with us.” She wondered how much they had said, but based on the vaguely skeptical, non-overly concerned look in Sarrah’s eyes, Morrigan assumed not too much, or at the very least, Sarah didn’t believe them if they did say anything about Morrigan’s true appearance.

  “Sewing needles, huh?” Sarah asked. “Does that mean you’re able to unlock the door too?”

  Morrigan grinned. “Yeah, sorry about that—guess you caught me. But I haven’t been using that trick at all. I just did it today to lock the door because Jenna, Livy, and Tyler were bullying us.”

  “Well, it seems I’ve been told you’ve been sneaking out at night…” Sarah said. “Is this true?”

  Morrigan’s smile faded. “Uh… no.” Is all she could say.

  Sarah rubbed her temples. “Livy and Tyler came running downstairs a while ago,” Sarah explained. “They weren’t making any sense, but the gist of it, as I gathered, is they caught you sneaking out, and you guys got into a fight when they confronted you about it.”

  “Is that… all they said?” Morrigan asked.

  “Well, Jenna interrupted them. It seems Jenna was trying to protect everyone involved and insisted the fight was no big deal and just a small scuffle.”

  As much as Jenna, once again playing the hero, annoyed Morrigan, she had to thank her for getting control of the situation. However, she was likely only doing that out of self-preservation.

  Sarah sighed. “They won’t explain what the heck happened to me now, so I wanted to get your side of the…” Her eyes dropped down to the floor, and her eyebrow furrowed.

  Oh shit… did we miss some?

  Sarah kneeled down. “Is that… blood?” she said.

  Shit, shit, shit!

  Then, Pepper suddenly started sobbing. Morrigan raised an eyebrow, not knowing what the sudden outburst was for. Was it that she felt the situation spiraling and it overwhelmed her?

  “Pepper?” Sarah asked, standing back up.

  Then, Pepper revealed her arm from under the blanket; it was cut and bleeding badly, and her arm was shaking.

  “Oh my god, Pepper! What happened?”

  Pepper sniffed. “I-I’m sorry, miss Sarah… I-I…”

  “Pepper, what happened?” Sarah repeated firmly as she knelt in front of Pepper and inspected the wound.

  What the hell did just happen? Morrigan thought. Pepper hadn’t been cut… But she has Jenna’s knife… did she just…

  “P-please Miss. Sarah, you don’t need to make Jenna go away! It was just an accident!” Pepper cried. “It was an accident. Sh-she was just—”

  “Hang on, are you saying Jenna did this!?” Sarah asked seriously.

  Morrigan had to hold herself back from smiling as she realized what Pepper was doing. Morrigan was so proud of her it was an effort to force her expression to stay serious. Damn, Pepper. You’re a frikken genius! Holy crap—you didn’t have to cut yourself so badly, though. Still, Morrigan had to respect her for going through with something like that.

  “I’m sorry,” Morrigan said, getting into character. She pulled her phone out of her pocket. “I wanted to say something sooner. They’ve been bullying Pepper pretty badly, but Pepper said she didn’t want me to get involved. Then, when I talked Pepper into at least standing up for herself Jenna attacked her and eventually threatened her with a knife. I have it all on video.”

  Morrigan was pretty sure the video had cut off at some point when Livy was holding her back, and Jenna was trying to pry it from her hand. So, no risk of revealing a scary-reaper mode on film.

  She held the phone out to Sarah, who came over and took it from her as she watched the video. It began with them coming in. It would be clear Livy was looking through her things, and Jenna’s intimidation was obvious despite her veiled words. Then came Jenna cursing at Pepper, clearly making the girl uncomfortable.

  By the time things escalated and Jenna punched Pepper in the stomach, Sarah had her hand over her mouth and a shocked look in her eyes. Granted, Jenna put on a completely different face in front of her, and she probably couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

  After the punch, Pepper continued wheezing on the floor as Jenna said, “See? Don’t be an idiot and put a bruise on her face. Now Pepper, this is for your own good. You need to learn your—”

  After that, the video became less focused as Morrigan lept over the bed to stop her, and thankfully, shortly after that, Jenna pulling the knife was briefly caught on video before Morrigan’s struggle with Livy. Sarah played back the video and paused it where the knife could be seen, just to confirm it really was what she saw. Plus, Jenna’s verbal threats with the knife were unmistakable, whether it was on video or not.

  After that, the video ended somewhere in the process of Morrigan struggling in Livy’s grip as Jenna tried to pry the phone back from her hands.

  Morrigan cleared her throat. “So… the video stops there, but after that, Pepper tried to stop them from hurting me, and Jenna ended up cutting her.”

  “Um… J-Jenna said it was an accident,” Pepper said softly, clutching the blanket. “I-I don’t think she’d really cut me on purpose. A-and I guess she was really upset, I-I mean… I slapped Livy. I just didn’t want to hang out with them it’s just…” Her eyes lowered. “They’re never very nice to me, so I didn’t want to.”

  Sarah frowned. “Pepper, you don’t owe anyone anything like that. They have no right to treat you like that, and what they did here is wrong! Come on, come with me; we need to get that cut cleaned up. It might need stitches.”

  Morrigan watched as Sarah carefully helped Pepper up from the bed, her frown deep with concern. Pepper’s trembling act was so convincing that even Morrigan found herself impressed. The younger girl gave Sarah a small, apologetic smile through her tears as she led her away.

  As they started toward the door, Sarah paused and glanced back at Morrigan. “Stay here. I’ll come back after I’ve taken care of Pepper. This is a very serious situation.”

  “So, what’s going to happen?” Morrigan asked. “Are they in trouble?”

  “Well, by being in possession of that knife at all, Jenna knew she was breaking the rules. Then the fact she threatened someone with it, and accident or no, she hurt Pepper—but it’s clearly not just an accident. She’ll have to leave the shelter soon and the police will decide what to do with her from there.”

  Morrigan tried not to smile too obviously. With all of this revealed, even if the three girls try to say what really happened, nobody will believe them about her scary-reaper mode and just think it's some desperate attempt to get out of trouble.

  “M-miss Sarah. You don’t need to kick them out,” Pepper said meekly.

  “It's not about kicking them out. They knew what they were doing, and Pepper, what they’ve done to you is just wrong. I hope you know that.”

  “O-okay…” Pepper said softly, hanging her head as Sarah guided her out of the room and down the hall. Morrigan frowned, wondering if it wasn’t entirely an act. She thought back to her own childhood and how she once thought her issues with her mom were normal—having a parent who always drank too much and all the other things that came with it. Pepper had put up with that bullying for a long time, and it's possible that part of her actually did think it was okay.

  Though, once they were gone, Morrigan couldn’t help chuckling. Not loudly, but she shook her head and laid back on the bed. “Holy shit…” Things got pretty dicey, but it seemed that, in the end, it would turn out even better than she had hoped. Screw the cold war and playing politics. They just won, and in no small part thanks to Pepper’s quick thinking.

  However, there was one last loose end to tie up. Morrigan went over to Pepper’s bed and searched the sheets for the knife. Once she found it, she wiped the handle off to get rid of Pepper’s fingerprints—that would get rid of Jenna’s prints as well, but the video evidence would be enough—then she tossed it under the bed to be “found” later.

  Actually, there is one more loose thread after this. Morrigan thought. Jenna still needs to get a personal visit from the scary reaper… Just to set a few ground rules.

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