Chapter 101 - Morning Routine
Morrigan entered the orphanage through the back door and then snuck up the stairs quietly. Noir's shadow zipped along the walls beside her, darting ahead to check if the hallway was clear. Once he confirmed the coast was clear, Morrigan made her way back to her room, using the skeleton key to slip inside before locking the door behind herself again.
Pepper stirred awake and peeked over her blankets with sleepy eyes. “Ah… Morrigan. How did it go?” she whispered softly.
“Good.” Morrigan kicked off her shoes and collapsed face-first into her bed. After a moment, she glanced at the alarm clock—3 a.m. She could still get a solid five hours of sleep before Sarah came banging down the hallway. A small smile crept onto her lips as she remembered Emma planting a kiss on her cheek before they parted ways earlier that night.
Pepper sat up, perhaps with her curiosity piqued at one of Morrigan’s rare smiles. “Um… did something good happen?”
Morrigan rolled onto her side to face Pepper. “Yeah, I got to see my friends tonight. They’re the witches I told you about.”
“R-really?” Pepper asked, sitting up and crossing her legs.
“Yeah. Death set up a little reunion for us and…” Morrigan's words trailed off as she thought about Hilda’s offer. That would be a convenient way to escape the shelter without having to technically be on the run, but as she looked at Pepper, a pang of uncertainty nestled its way into her heart. Morrigan had grown a bit of an attachment to the "gazer," as Death had dubbed Pepper, and the idea of leaving her alone didn’t sit well with her.
Sure, Pepper had Cersi and Beth, but Cersi was kind of crazy, and Beth was kind of distant most of the time. Neither of them could do much to stand up to Jenna’s crew, so without Morrigan, Pepper would basically be on her own again. Jenna and her two lackeys had kept their distance for now, but whenever Morrigan caught Jenna’s gaze, she could sense some sort of assessment going on despite whatever nice words Jenna might outwardly speak. Livy, in contrast, made no effort to hide her disdain.
“I’m glad you got to see your friends,” Pepper said softly. “I’d really like to meet them sometime.”
Morrigan smiled. “Yeah, you’d like them. Hilda takes a little getting used to but she’s fun, and Emma’s just really sweet.” She let out a loud yawn, her eyes drifting closed. “Emma helped me when I was in a bad place… I don’t know if I’d still be here without her…” Her words trailed off as the comfort of the bed consumed her.
“Um… Morrigan, are you going to sleep in your jeans?”
Morrigan glanced down at herself. “Oh… right…” She had been taking naps every afternoon, but the late-night reapings were catching up with her. She turned her back to Pepper and changed out of her jean shorts, swapping them for a pair of sweatpants before collapsing back into her pillows. She was asleep almost instantly.
“Goodnight, Morrigan,” Pepper whispered, settling back under her covers as well.
***
The next morning, Morrigan was greeted by the usual routine of Sarah banging and shouting her way down the hallway, announcing breakfast. At Morrigan and Pepper’s door, she knocked and said, “Get up, girls. I’m unlocking the door for you now.” There was a clink as the tumblers turned. Morrigan wondered how much longer they planned to keep her under lock and key like this. She had been at the shelter for two weeks now, and she hadn’t tried to escape once. Well, as far as they knew, anyway. They had no idea about her nightly outings when she would go reaping. With the help of her skeleton key and a certain voidling companion, sneaking out was a breeze.
As usual, Pepper was the first to get up and move. The faint rustle of cloth was the only thing Morrigan heard as she remained buried under her blankets, and Pepper went about putting herself together. She dressed quickly, brushed her hair in the mirror, and then glanced back at Morrigan, who hadn’t moved an inch.
Pepper smiled softly, then tiptoed over to Morrigan’s bed and crouched down beside her. “Morrigan… it’s time to get up,” she whispered.
Morrigan didn’t stir at first, so Pepper bit her lip and gently nudged the older girl’s shoulder. “Come on, you don’t want Sarah to come back and find you still in bed.”
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Morrigan groaned in response and buried her face even deeper into her pillow. “Five more minutes.”
Pepper giggled quietly and nudged her again, more insistently this time. “Morrigan, we’ll miss breakfast if you don’t get up.”
With a heavy sigh, Morrigan slowly peeled her eyes open, blinking at Pepper. She rolled over and stretched. “Alright, I’m up,” she grumbled. Pepper coaxing her out of bed every morning had become somewhat of a routine. Though she hated having her limited sleep interrupted, she appreciated Pepper’s persistence. The few times when Pepper had obeyed her wishes to just be left alone, she ended up falling asleep again and being late for breakfast. Showing up at the table late and with creases from the pillow still indenting her face was kind of embarrassing, so she preferred to avoid that outcome.
So, with some lingering discontentment, Morrigan forced herself to sit up, rubbing her eyes. “You really are a morning person, huh?”
“Um… I just like to be ready on time!” Pepper replied earnestly. Morrigan couldn’t help but smile at her simple, genuine nature.
She stretched as she felt the familiar sensation of the changeling nestled within her back stirring. It was a faint, crawling feeling she had grown used to over the summer. For the most part, it had learned to stay content just living under the seal on her hoodie, which she rarely took off or unlocked. Hilda had designed the seal so Morrigan could release it with a bit of magic, but Morrigan preferred to keep it locked away. Hilda had suggested she might discover something cool if she experimented with it, but Morrigan wasn’t so sure. It tended to react to her emotions and intentions, but as far as she could tell, it did indeed still have some kind of will of its own, even if only reactionary.
About a week ago, she actually had made an attempt at controlling it. It was in the shower, the one place where she had no choice but to give the changeling a little freedom and let it air out. She had been staring at a bar of soap, wondering if her intention to grab it would be something the changeling might react to. So, she focused on it without actually lifting her hand, and sure enough, her experiment worked—well, kind of.
The changeling reacted by shooting a tendril over her shoulder. Instead of gently grabbing the soap, the tendril slashed at it like a whip, slicing it in half. Startled, Morrigan quickly reined it in by focusing on drawing it back into her flesh. It reacted to her alarm with more tendrils lashing at the air as if there were a threat. She had to close her eyes and focus on happy thoughts as the warmth of the shower water cascaded over her skin. Slowly, the tendrils began to retreat, curling back toward her body and slipping beneath her flesh like serpents returning to their den. The tension eased as she regained control, and that’s when she decided never to attempt something like that again.
The same way she kept gloves on due to her death touch, she would keep her hoodie on. Both the palms of her hands and the changeling were dangers that needed to stay locked away.
Yup, never taking a chance like that again, Morrigan thought, casting off the memory and continuing to go about her morning.
After changing into a fresh undershirt, she put on the jean shorts she had worn the night before as they weren’t too dirty yet and zipped up her hoodie. She ran her fingers through her hair, pulling it forward to let it drape over her shoulders then put her hood up.
Staring at herself in the mirror, Morrigan took in her appearance: a thin girl with paper-white skin, white hair, and red eyes. Only Pepper, with her ability as a gazer, knew what she really looked like. For everyone else, she kept her glamour up to appear like an ordinary girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. That was what she looked like before she had been murdered in the graveyard and subsequently accepted Death’s contract to become a reaper.
Part of her felt it was pointless to continue going about Morrigan Livingston’s life, convincing everyone around her that apart from a troubled upbringing, she was just a relatively normal teenage girl. She could just disappear from this life and fully embrace existence as a reaper. But, there were still attachments to this life she wasn’t ready to abandon. Maybe one day, but not yet.
“Ready?” Pepper asked innocently.
Morrigan glanced at the clock, figuring they had waited long enough to avoid crossing paths with Jenna and her lackeys in the bathroom. Morrigan wasn’t afraid of them, but she preferred to keep her distance for the time being.
Sure enough, the hallway was quiet, save for the distant clatter of breakfast dishes downstairs, and they had the bathroom all to themselves. As they brushed their teeth, Morrigan glanced at Pepper with a slight frown tugging at her lips.
What would happen to her if I left the shelter? Morrigan wondered. The thought gnawed at her. She didn’t even know if Hilda would succeed in getting foster approval, and it wasn’t like she’d be abandoning Pepper without a word. Maybe there was a way to bring her along… but that might be asking too much from Hilda. Morrigan would be an adult in a year and a half, so it's not like she’d be too much of a burden on Hilda. Pepper, on the other hand, was only fourteen, and besides that, Hilda didn’t even know her. It was probably a moot point anyway because Hilda getting approval to foster Pepper would be a much longer shot than doing so with Morrigan.
Morrigan shook off the thought for now. She’d figure it out later. For now, there was the present to deal with. She rinsed out her mouth and spat into the sink.
“Ready?” Morrigan asked, smiling at Pepper.
Pepper nodded, and together they stepped out of the bathroom and headed downstairs for breakfast.
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