Chapter 25: Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
It was the second week of December when Morgan stepped out of her morning shower before school and as she passed the mirror to grab her towel, she noticed her wrist. The scabbing was nearly gone from that night in the car. It was still a somewhat thick line since Morgan had a terrible habit of picking at her scabs, but it was moreso rough skin now. Though, her only regret from doing it to herself, was that people were going to see it and ask questions. She didn't want that. The teenager just hid the pocket knife away in her underwear drawer and left it alone. There was something that she wanted far more that would hurt ten times as much with a hundred times more meaning, but she was going to do that another time. She was only a freshman in highschool, and her father would disapprove of her getting a tattoo for a while.
Morgan simple applied some extra Curel lotion to the healing cut and got ready for school. She still hated wearing jeans with her boot, so Morgan pulled on a pair of black leggings, a black cami, and an oversized dark green knit sweater. She made sure the straps on her boot that were keeping it secure were tight enough and put on a cream fuzzy socks with a combat boot on her left foot. She walked back to her bathroom, happy that she could just walk on her own, even though the weight of her boot still bugged her. Morgan got into her makeup bag and decided today was the day that she was going to start wearing makeup again like the good benched cheerleader she was. Though she looked totally fine without makeup, Morgan wanted to put it on for herself. It may seem stupid to someone else, but for her, it was just a little something extra to make her more comfortable with herself.
She gave herself a somewhat dark brown smokey eye with thick black cat eyeliner and mascara. Morgan lined her eyebrows and plucked stray hairs to make sure they were defined. Then she added some shimmery champagne colored lip gloss before leaving the rest of her face alone because she felt naked without her freckles and she already had the defined cheekbones of her father. Morgan grabbed the makeup items that she used and put them in a little makeup pouch to stick in her backpack just incase she needed to fix something at one point or another. It wasn't longer than maybe a minute before she grabbed her winter coat and her backpack, walking out of her room to the main room where she could smell someone delicious. When Morgan sat down in the chair next to Sam, her father appeared from the hallway with breakfast. He placed a plate of cheesy scrambled eggs with a side of bacon and sausages.
"Dear Lord, you're gonna kill me," Morgan told her father as he gave Sam his plate and then sat down with his own. Dean chuckled to himself.
"Good morning to you too, kid," Dean told her before taking a bite. She grabbed a mug from the middle of the table and poured herself some coffee with creamer and sugar. Morgan started downing her breakfast and washing it down with her coffee. Today was going to be different. The moment she was finished, they got into the car and made their way to school.
Morgan went through her school day, everyone saying hi to her and congratulating her on graduating from her crutches to just walking around in the boot. Morgan forced a smile and kept on going through her day. She was still excused from gym class, so she asked to leave her last class early to go to the bathroom. It was easy to just take her backpack and leave because no one questioned it when a girl took her bag with her. No one wanted to subject the female students to answer with, I'm on my period and I don't want to take the tampon out of my bag in front of my classmates. So she walked right out of that classroom, strutted past that womens' restroom, and found herself behind the school where none of the security cameras look. There she met Riley, the Junior from the halloween party.
"Hey, Morgan," He greeted her as she reached into her bag, digging for what she needed.
"'Sup, Riley?" She responded. He smiled as he pulled out a paper bag from his own back pack.
"Not much, man. It's a slow day…" He smiled as she pulled out a wad of cash and handed it to him. He handed her the bag and they traded. "You can check the bag if you wanna make sure everything's there," Riley told her as he started counting the cash. She looked in the paper bag, finding that everything really was there. All 20 caramel edibles.
"So it's still half at a time?" Morgan asked. Remembering how crazy she got the last time she tried them.
"Yeah, just half unless you're really in the mood to be hella messed up," he told her with a laugh.
"Alright then. Thanks, dude," Morgan told him before turning to leaved.
"Anytime, Morgan!" He called after her as she stuffed the bag into her backpack and made her way over to the parking lot where her dad would be waiting. Sure enough, there he was. She obviously didn't tell him about the drugs she had with her, so she just rode with him in silence until they pulled into the parking lot of the grocery store. They wandered around from aisle to aisle, finding everything on the grocery list and then some before checking out and heading home. Morgan waited till she was in her room before she locked her door. She didn't have any homework that she hadn't already finished in study hall or at lunch, so Morgan pulled out an edible and her pocket knife. She unwrapped the plastic off her chosen edible and cut the two inch roll of caramel in half before popping it in her mouth and wrapping the rest of it back up and hiding all of it in a pair of shoes that she never wore. Morgan just sat there, playing on her phone for about forty five minutes before she started to feel it kick in.
It started with her motions lagging slightly, her head feeling fuzzy. Then, her legs started to feel twitchy. It felt like her heartbeat was more vibrant in her chest, like she could feel it radiating all over her body. Then, she finally felt what she wanted to feel. Morgan was numb to the world around her. She curled up on her bed, letting herself be engulfed in her comforters. She reached out with her mind and hit the light switch on the wall. The whole room went black and she couldn't help but let her eyes fall closed and her mind run blank. It wasn't long before she went to sleep.
"Hey… hey, can you hear me?" Morgan heard. It kind of echoed in her head, they way the person was speaking to her. She opened her eyes, and she was laying in a grassy field at the foot of a massive oak tree. The sky was bluer than usual and her skin was radiating with this warm sensation that confused her. It was December, and it was supposed to be cold. But it wasn't.
"What the hell…" Morgan looked around. The field seemed to go on forever aside from the mountain ranges surrounding it. This tree was oddly the only one in sight.
"All I want to know right now is if you can hear me. Can you?" The voice wasn't familiar, but she realized that the voice was coming from the other side of the tree. The disoriented teenager stood up and found herself trudging with slight difficulty through this alternate reality until she laid eyes on the person talking to her.
"No freaking way." Morgan didn't know what to say. "You're not here, I'm just really stoned… or I'm just insane… You're supposed to be dead!"
"I am dead. You're not wrong there, but you're not crazy. I am here," Her mother laughed. Morgan couldn't stop herself. She ran straight to her mother and wrapped her arms around her. The woman was warm. She even smelled the way she always used to. It was so real that it was heartbreaking. It was her mother, and she was there.
"How are you here if you're dead?" She asked.
"Even dead, my psychic abilities let me reach out. I figured out how to go see your Uncle Bobby when I died. You could see him too if you reached out like I am to you," her mother explained. Morgan's head tilted in confusion.
"What do you mean reach out? Like that seance huey?" Morgan snorted. Though she was psychic, she knew that moving things with her mind and communicating telepathically were different than communing with the dead. Though, it didn't seem too far out of reach.
"Exactly like that seance huey," Her mother took a breath, flashing her an understanding smile to ease Morgan's confusion. "And of all of us Psychics, you more than most have the means to do it. I could teach you, you know. I could keep reaching out, you just have to let me in. But it only works when you're in this dream state. I created a sort of pocket reality within your conscious mind. Though you made it a lot easier by getting… stoned… as you described yourself. I don't necessarily approve, but I'm no long in the position to tell you what to do. So I won't judge you for it," her mother told her. Morgan felt embarrassed, the heat rising in her cheeks. Morgan could feel the guilt of her mother knowing what she was doing.
"I know I'm not supposed to-"
"I know, honey. You've had a very trying year. First, the demons hunting us, then meeting the father you didn't even know existed, nor did he know about you. Then you meet a boy with a very… trying ex-girlfriend, only to end in you having to kill him because he was possessed by a demon trying to either kidnap you or kill you. I guess since demons are unpredictable he got frustrated with you and wanted to kill you. Though I'm sure you've already thought about it over and over again since the night it happened." Her mother just kept giving her a highlight reel of her negative encounters from the last year. But it didn't explain why her mother knew all of it in the first place.
"How do you know all of that?" Morgan asked.
"I'm dead not stupid, Morgan. I like to keep an eye on you. It's better than worrying about what your life is like without me. I can just see how you're doing myself," her mother stated before giving her yet another warming smile. It was weird seeing her in person. Her mother looked nothing like her side from their shared pillowy lips and mahogany colored hair. But her mother had curly hair and cognac brown eyes. She even had the flawless skin that Morgan used to always want before she embraced her freckles. The woman was wearing her usual leather jacket with a cotton blue button down and black skinny jeans. Even the same leather knee high boots. Her mother wasn't really one for heels unless she was working. Anything to look more proffessional, her mother always used to say.
"You're right though, it's been really hard. But I've been making a life for myself with my dad and Sam. I'm doing my best. But sometimes I just need to not feel anything at all," she explained, realizing that she didn't need to justify herself to a dead person, despite that person being her mother.
"That's good. Since I can't be there for you that way you want me to be, it's great that you're finding that with Dean. You know i always saw him as being a good father. But you're grandfather convinced me that both of our lives would be better if he was not apart of yours. I might have been wrong. Knowing Dean, maybe I would have alive today had I stayed with your father and raised you with him," Her mother was beginning to get emotional. Morgan touched her arm and consoled her.
"You couldn't have known. It's okay mom," Morgan crooned, hugging her emotional mother now. "Don't worry. I'll keep my mind open to you. I'm not gonna lose you again," Morgan said before burrowing her face in her mother's shoulder. It just felt so real.