Chapter 82 - The Screaming Dead

Morrigan thought she was back at the hospital, except the hallways stretched impossibly long. Or rather, hallway—singular—as there were no turns, just an endless corridor with doors on either side that stretched as far as she could see. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw the same infinite hallway trailing behind her.

At least I have my…

She checked her pockets for the tracking talisman to find her mom, but then remembered it was taken from her by the police. She checked all her pockets again, frantically, confirming she didn’t have it. A knot formed in her stomach as she looked down the hall, realizing she would never find her mom.

Bastards… they said they’d let me see her, but how am I supposed to find her?

Morrigan started walking, testing each door she passed but finding each one locked. As she kept going, she found herself panicking, realizing she might have already passed her mom's room without knowing it since they were all locked.

Then, she heard the unmistakable sound of someone sobbing. The sound echoed through the corridor, drawing Morrigan further along until she was running and testing doors. The sobbing turned to anguished screams, and Morrigan started yelling, “Mom! Mom! Where are you?”

Morrigan woke with a start, sitting up in bed. The sound of the anguished screaming from her dream still lingered in her ears… except… that was wrong. She cleared her ear with a finger and realized it wasn’t just a dream; she could still hear it. The sound echoed through the house, tearing through the night, unrelenting and full of anguish.

Is someone having a nightmare? Or some kind of mental breakdown? People who end up in places like this are usually not in the best situations in the first place, so maybe…

But no, it sounded painful and desperate. It sounded far worse than an unstable girl having an episode. It sounded like… torture.

Why isn’t anyone helping her?

Morrigan’s thoughts raced as she tried to make sense of the situation, her mind turning to dark possibilities. Was someone being hurt? Could the staff be involved? What they did something to these girls under the guise of some twisted treatment or punishment? Her stomach churned at the thought, every scream punctuating her fears.

Morrigan heard a much more subdued whimper and looked over to see Pepper curled into a ball. She had both hands clenched tightly over her ears, and she was visibly shaking.

"Pepper,” Morrigan whispered loudly. She didn’t know what was going on, but she felt it would be a bad idea to draw attention to them. “Hey, Pepper!” she whispered again.

Pepper shook her head, still clenching her ears and whimpering, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”

That only exacerbated Morrigan’s fears. Any attempts to convince herself there was a responsible explanation for this just went out the window.

Morrigan got out of bed, stepping as quietly as she could, and put her ear to the door. She reached down and tested the knob, very softly, confirming it was still locked.

Pepper was sitting up now, tears glistening on her cheeks in the dark room as she hugged her knees, visibly shaking.

Morrigan tiptoed over to her. “Pepper, what’s going on?” she whispered.

Pepper only shook her head. “I-it’s nothing. I-I’m sorry.” She hugged her knees tighter. “I’m sorry for bothering you. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

Morrigan stared at her, completely perplexed. If this wasn’t so creepy, it would be almost comical. There was someone wailing in agony somewhere in the house, but Pepper was apologizing for waking her?

“Pepper…” Morrigan looked at her seriously. “What’s going on out there?”

“Out… there…?”

Morrigan paused, her mind trying to piece together Pepper's reactions, before asking uncertainly, “The screaming? What’s happening?”

Pepper’s eyes widened. “You can… hear it?”

Morrigan’s jaw dropped. “What do you mean? How can I not? It sounds like someone’s getting their legs sawn off or something.” She glanced anxiously back to the door.

“You… you can…” Pepper rubbed her eyes and looked away. “Just stop making fun of me. I’m sorry I… I’m sorry…”

Morrigan was only becoming more and more confused and freaked out. “Making fun of you?” she took a breath. “Pepper. Tell me what’s happening out there. Does this happen all the time?”

Pepper looked at her, blinking in disbelief. “You… really can hear it?”

“Like I said, how can I not?”

Pepper suddenly grabbed Morrigan’s hands without warning. Morrigan was glad she kept her gloves on as a precaution. “N-nobody else can! They either say I’m making things up or make fun of me… or… think I’m crazy…” Pepper’s eyes lowered. “Nobody has ever believed me before…”

Morrigan had a lot to process with that. But what she started with was, “I just got here, and I just met you! How could I be trying to make fun of you?”

“I thought maybe… one of the other girls put you up to it.”

“I didn’t even meet anyone until I met you in the hallway. You’ve literally seen my one and only interaction with anyone else in this house.” Morrigan sighed. “Well… I think I know what it is anyway…” Her mind went back to her few occasions confronting hollows. Their voices were always a little different but always anguished in the same way this one was.

“It’s a ghost…” Pepper said in a low voice.

“Have you… always been able to see ghosts?” Morrigan asked.

Pepper nodded. “Y-yes… ever since I was little. But nobody ever believes me.” Then she looked up, making eye contact with Morrigan again. “H-how about you? Could you always see them too?”

“Well, not really…” Morrigan’s words trailed off, thinking over how much she should tell Pepper. After giving it some thought, she figured it would be best not to get into the whole reaper thing for now. “Anyway… have there been an abnormal number of accidents here? You know… people getting hurt?”

Pepper nodded. “It’s the ghost. It sometimes hurts people who go to the basement. One of the staff members fell down the steps and got hurt very badly… but it was actually the ghost. I-I tried to explain why it happened… but…”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Nobody wanted to listen, right? I get it,” Morrigan said, pacing back over to the door. She put her ear against it and listened out into the hallway. Between the wails of the hollow, she heard an occasional creak of a floorboard from someone patrolling the hall. Maybe she could ask to use the bathroom and then use perception blocking to sneak down to the basement?

No… that won’t work. They’ll still watch the door, and they’ll definitely see through my perception blocking even if I try. Plus I’m not good enough at shadow stepping to use it without a running start or crashing into a wall or something.

She folded her arms and thought about it a moment longer. The other option is once I’m in the hall to just make a run for it. Or I could just wait until morning and look for a chance to sneak down to the basement… problem is I’m never going to be able to sleep with that damn thing wailing all night.

“Um… so… how long have you been able to see ghosts?” Pepper asked. “I never met anyone else who can before.”

Morrigan looked at the girl who was still in her bed, twiddling her fingers nervously. “It’s a bit hard to explain. That thing isn’t a normal spirit, though… uh… I call them spirits. But anyway, that’s a hollow. Basically, it’s a spirit that’s been left to linger here for too long and became corrupt.”

“You sound like you know a lot about this.”

“Yeah… I kind of do.” Morrigan placed her ear against the door once again. When she didn’t hear any creaking footsteps, she carefully grasped the knob and firmly pulled it up and out, giving it a little jiggle. It wasn’t deadbolted. If she had a credit card, she could pop it open easily.

She walked back over to Pepper. “Hey, so how many staff members are here overnight?”

“Um… well… I think only two. Maybe only one… I’m not sure.”

“Sarah told me I can get someone’s attention just by knocking on the door. Is that right?”

“Um… y-yes. That’s right.”

“So, I assume they patrol the hall every so often, but they are probably not constantly pacing up and down all night long. Therefore, they have somewhere they sit that is in earshot for anyone who knocks. Right?”

“Yes?” Pepper confirmed uncertainly.

“So where do they sit? Down the hall, in an unused room? What?”

Pepper’s eyes lowered without answering.

Morrigan sighed. “Look, I can take care of that hollow… uh… put it to rest. So I’m going to try to sneak out. Okay?”

“You can do that?”

“Yeah. I’m kind of a ghost hunter, I guess.” She supposed that wasn’t an entirely inaccurate description of her job. “Anyway, do you have anything like a credit card I can use to pop the door open?”

Pepper blinked, then slowly shook her head. “I don’t think so… what about a bookmark?”

“Is it made of plastic?”

“No… cardboard…”

“Then it’ll probably just rip.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No worries. I’ll think of something.” Morrigan’s mind raced as she considered her next steps. She returned to the window, surveying it once more. Even though it was barred from opening fully, she studied the frame closely, her fingers tracing over the lock. It didn’t help that it was dark, and she didn’t manage to magically discover something she didn’t notice before.

“Do you really think you can help?”

“Yeah, I’ve dealt with worse,” Morrigan reassured her, though her mind was still working through the logistics. The locked door and window would normally be the best escape routes.

Now would be a really great time for Noir to show himself.

She assumed he’d be coming to help her at some point. If not by his own volition, Death would certainly order him to. After all, Morrigan still had a job to do. Hopefully, reaping a hollow in the meantime would score her a few extra fate points, though. She wasn’t actually sure how that worked.

Morrigan went over to her nightstand and opened it. She reached in and felt around in the dark. There was a book that turned out to be a bible, some pens, a notepad, a roll of scotch tape, and that was about it. She took out the notepad and tried flexing its cardboard back. It wasn’t firm enough. It would just tear apart if she tried to pop the door open with it.

She sighed, returning the notepad to the nightstand. The hollow’s wailing seemed to have died down a little, but it was still present. Reaper or no, if she had to listen to that all night, she’d go crazy. She didn’t know how Pepper could stand it.

Then, Morrigan had another idea. She took out the roll of tape, tore off a small piece, and pressed her finger to test its stickiness. “Pepper, I think I have an idea.”

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

“Just hang on. Don’t worry, you don’t need to do anything.”

Morrigan pulled off a strip of tape, then another, and kept doing that until she had a thick strip, careful not to touch the sticky side at all. She then went to the door and knocked. She didn’t hear anything right away, so she knocked and called out, “Can I use the bathroom, please?”

She heard footsteps coming, so hid the thick strip of tape at her side. If perception blocking could cause people to not notice all of her, maybe she could use it to make people not notice one tiny thing. If this didn’t work and she got caught, it would be awkward, but she’d be right back where she started, so it didn’t really matter.

The door jiggled with the sound of a key, and then it opened into the hall with another woman holding it open as she stepped to the side. “Go ahead, be quick about it,” she said with a bit of annoyance in her voice.

“Sorry, I won’t be long.” Morrigan said, focusing on her magic the way Death had taught her, but instead of imagining how she might blend in as a whole, she imagined her hands remaining innocently in the front hoodie pocket. She wasn’t sure if it was working or not, but deftly smoothed the tape over the locking mechanism and continued down the hall, with the woman following close behind her, seemingly having noticed nothing amiss.

Once inside, Morrigan quickly did her business, maintaining the ruse. She washed her hands, watching the woman through the mirror, who merely stood there in the doorway with folded arms as she tapped her foot impatiently.

Returning to the hallway, Morrigan prayed her plan would work and the tape would hold. "Thank you," she murmured as she passed the woman, stepping inside the room.

“Just get back to bed.”

The door shut behind her, but there was no click from the latch engaging. Morrigan’s heart jumped, wondering if she would notice. Then, she heard the very subtle sound of the key entering the lock and turning. The hopefully useless locking mechanism engaged, and then the woman's footsteps continued moving back down the hallway.

Morrigan felt her heart in her throat. She’d think after fighting literal demons something like this wouldn’t get her adrenaline running quite as much as it was, but she really couldn’t help it. She was aware of Pepper watching anxiously from her bed as she placed her hand on the doorknob and pulled very softly, not opening the door yet, but just verifying that she could when she was ready.

Sure enough, her plan worked flawlessly. Morrigan silently pumped a fist and mouthed the word, “YES!”

“Wow! How did you do that?” Pepper asked in a loud, excited whisper.

Morrigan placed a single finger over her lips and winked. “Street smarts.” She placed her ear against the door again. Now perception blocking would be a little more useful since they wouldn’t expect to see her in the hall. Still, she’d rather make her move when nobody was looking.

She then glanced at Pepper who was beaming at her from across the room like she was some kind of superhero. A slight tug of guilt pulled at Morrigan’s stomach because after taking care of the hollow, she had no intention of coming back here.

“Hey Pepper… um… it was nice meeting you,” she said as she walked back over to the girl.

Pepper canted her head. “Same to you.”

Morrigan exhaled and said, “Listen, I’m going to take care of the hollow, but after that, I don’t plan on coming back. When they discover I’m gone, all you have to do is claim you were sleeping, so you don’t know what happened. I’ll leave the tape so there are no mysteries about how I escaped.”

Pepper slowly shook her head. “But…”

Morrigan gave a reassuring smile. “Sorry. I don’t know how you ended up here, but I’ll be rooting for you.”

Pepper’s eyes lowered, not saying anything. “I know we just met, but… nobody else sees what I see…”

Morrigan felt terrible. They did indeed just meet, but this girl looked completely crushed. She hated to have to do this to her. “I’m sorry, but I really can’t stay here. It’ll be… dangerous for me. There is something I have to do, but I can’t do it while I’m trapped here. So I’m sorry.”

“Do you think… we’ll meet again?” Pepper asked.

Morrigan smiled. “I do hope so.” She glanced back to the door. “I’m sorry. I have to go now.”

Morrigan went back to the door and listened for any signs of movement. When she eventually felt it was safe, she opened the door and peeked her head into the hall to find it empty. She looked back to Pepper and mouthed the words, “Good luck,” then left.

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