Chapter 29: Hand of God
Morgan was under the tree with her mother in the dreamscape. Her mother was telling her all about the do's and don'ts of trying to induce a vision of the future with the aid of substances. She was telling Morgan all about how she could see the future, or at least interpret it. She said that many psychics have the gift of sight. Sam had previously told her that when he used to tap into that side of himself, he would get visions too. But his were painful, and everytime he received one it came hand in hand with an excruciating migraine that he couldn't shake until the visions were over. Morgan didn't want to feel anything like that, it was the kind of pain she was trying to avoid. It was the kind of pain that happened when she didn't use her telekinesis often enough, like a muscle that would atrophy if she didn't stimulate it often enough.
"Mom?" Morgan interrupted her mother in the middle of her explanation on why you should never use LSD to receive a vision.
"Yes, sweetheart?" Her mother looked at her with these eyes, eyes that Morgan hadn't seen since the first night that her mother had successfully tapped into Morgan's subconscious and entered her dream. Morgan got the weirdest feeling from it, like she was paranoid about it, but the teenager shook the feeling and kept on with it.
"Can I tell dad about you? That I see you? That you talk to me?" Morgan asked, but her mother shook her head.
"I know you wanna tell him about me honey, but I need you to keep us a secret for a little while longer okay? I don't know if your father would be very happy with me, reaching out to you when I haven't reached out to him, not even when I was alive. Considering he didn't even know about you until I was already dead. So just don't tell him anything until I say it's okay. Alright?" Her mother waited for confirmation from Morgan that she was going to keep it a secret. Morgan sat there, frozen in her own thought, before she conceided and finally nodded.
"Okay, I'll keep this all a secret. But I have to tell him eventually. I feel like this is something I shouldn't be hiding from him," She told her mother, crossing her arms.
"And I understand that. I just need a bit more time. When you tell him, he may want me to reach out, and I don't know if I'm ready to talk to him. I haven't seen him since the day my dad made me stay away from him, and I haven't spoken to him in five years when I told him about our demon problem. Your uncle Bobby connected us," Her mother explained. Morgan started to be a bit more understanding with the whole thing.
"Hey, if I can talk to you beyond the grave, do you think there is a way for me to talk to Jonah? I don't know, I feel like I need some closure or something. I feel like I need to know that he's okay in the afterlife…" Morgan could feel the sadness welling up inside her, but she forced it back down and waited for her mother's answer… and it was not one she was expecting.
"Morgan Elise Winchester, you will not contact that boy. That is the last thing you should be doing," Her mother used the tone that used to be reserved especially for her when she was in trouble.
"But why?" Morgan asked, but she wasn't going to get an answer.
Morgan woke up in the motel when the alarm her dad had went off. She rolled off the couch where she was sleeping since she let her dad and Sam take the beds since they were much taller than she was and needed the extra space. She dug through her big duffel bag and pulled out a pair of dark blue jeans and a black long sleeve shirt. She grabbed her black Timberlands that she got when she felt like blood spatter would show up on her grey ones. Dean was somewhat proud of her daughter for shoplifting them without getting caught. Her psychic abilities were handy when they needed them. Whenever they were out of town and not at the usual Mall that she had to go to for shopping, she would shoplift things they needed. The last time, the case was that she wanted a new pair of Timberlands and her dad and Sam need some new black t-shirts and flannels. Plus, no one would suspect a skinny little girl, even if the alarms didn't go off because she used her powers to deactivate the mechanism that would detect the merchandise as she walked out with them in a shopping bag that she stole from behind the counter. She just looked like she bought them, and Morgan was enjoying how it felt to not get caught.
She rolled on some deodorant and then went to the bathroom with her clothes and her toiletries/makeup bag. Morgan got dressed before brushing her teeth. Then she brushed out her long, mahogany colored hair. The teenager put on some basic eye makeup up before leaving the bathroom with her stuff so the boys could do their thing. She felt a little cold, so she went into her bag and grabbed one of the flannels that her dad suggested she get. He had joked and called them a hunter's essential, so naturally she stole five of them. The one she was wearing was just a solid dark green color. Morgan felt weird, like she should be taking Zoey outside at this time of morning, but Castiel was at the bunker for some research and he was taking care of the dog while Morgan was out with Sam and Dean for her first real hunt where she was going to get to actually kill monsters if she got close enough. With almost a year of training and some hands on experience, her dad an uncle figured she was ready to get out there in the hunter world.
Morgan agreed, and as her usual precaution, Morgan slipped her demon knife into a sheath she found in the bunker and stuck it into the side of her boot, hiding the hilt under the end of her pant leg. She saw her dad brushing his teeth and Sam packing up his things. The teenager followed suit in making sure all of her things were together. She unplugged her laptop and stowed it and the charger away in her bag and made sure her pajamas were back in the bag. It wasn't long before everyone was ready to leave. Morgan's stomach growled, reminding her that even hunters need a good breakfast.
"You ready to go, kiddo?" Dean asked as he slung his bag over his shoulder.
"Let's get this show on the road. I gotta be home at a decent hour tomorrow. Important practice on Monday. They're gonna tell us which team we're sorted into. Though I'll probably be doubled up for the freshman team and probably JV," Morgan told them and her dad laughed.
"What? No varsity? That's not the Winchester spirit. What are you? A Lose-chester?," He told her jokingly as Sam opened the door and they followed him out to the Impala.
"Hey! I ain't no Lose-chester! The varsity goalie spot is already taken, both first and second string, even though the second string is one of their defenders. If the Winchester spirit is aspiring for the best, I'm doing just that. They're not gonna put a freshman on varsity if the position is already taken," She explained as they loaded their stuff up and got into the car. Morgan just could not wait until they got to whatever place that they were gonna get breakfast. At the moment, it was all she wanted in life, a good breakfast before the hunt.
When they pulled up to a diner, Morgan got excited when the sign said 24/hr Breakfast. Places like that always had the best breakfast food. She got out of the car before her dad could even turn it off and snagged a booth and three menus by the window, right in front of the Impala. Her dad liked being able to see the car to make sure no hooligans tried anything with it. But they were in a quiet town in Missouri, there was nothing of that nature happening here. She was deciding between the Farm Style Breakfast and the French Toast Super Combo when Sam and Dean took their seats across from her. She felt like they always sat across from her at diners for the same reason they sit in front of the impala, because they wanted to keep an eye on her. It somewhat bothered Morgan because she could take care of herself.
"Good Morning, folks!" A waitress greeted them. "Can I get you anything to drink?" She asked.
"Two coffees and two waters for them and I'll take an orange juice," Morgan told her. The woman raised an eyebrow at her Dad and uncle and her dad nodded quietly, trying not to laugh.
"Rushing things, much?" Dean laughed, looking at his daughter. Morgan rolled her eyes.
"Whatever. You would've started flirting and you know it. I was just skipping that step so we could get to the food faster," She told him matter-of-factly. Dean just gave her a look as Sam tried to hide a smile, trying not to laugh. The two of them decided what they wanted and waited for their Waitress to come back. It wasn't long before she strode up with a cocktail tray of drinks and mugs with a pot of coffee in her free hand. She served them quickly before pulling out her pad of paper and a pen.
"Now, what can I get you this morning?"
Morgan was walking with her dad following close behind. He had an EMF and a shotgun in hand. Morgan had a shotgun as well, both of them with extra rounds of rock salt bullets in their coat pockets. Sam was checking out the rest of the house as Morgan and Dean made their way down into the basement where the cops found the bodies. When the two of them got down there, the smell of rotten flesh still lingered despite the bodies being cleared out. Morgan grabbed the strap on her gun and put it on, cross body, so the gun was sitting on her back. She needed her hands free for this. It was going to be a trick her mom taught her. The EMF was going crazy, so Morgan knew she was in the right spot.
"Alright, you're gonna need to lower your weapon for right now. We don't want to scare if off before I can get a… reading… or whatever you want to call it," She told him. Dean stopped aiming as Morgan stood in the center of the basement, took a deep breath, and whispered the enochian chant her mother taught her. She was nearing the end of the chant when something began to flicker into view. Morgan peaked through her closed eyes and saw not one ghost, but three children, all standing hand in hand. She finished the chant and they were all standing there, no flickering, just solid, seemingly tangible children. Morgan put on a smile and took a slow step to them and crouched so she could speak to them at eye level. She made sure to hold her smile despite the deep sadness she felt from them, especially when she saw that all three of them looked disheveled and hurt.
"Hi there," Morgan greeted them quietly and calmly. Since they were children, she felt like she was walking on eggshells, trying not to drive them away.
"You shouldn't be here," The older girl in the middle whispered aggressively, like she desperately needed them to leave. She seemed like she was maybe eight or nine years old. It looked like she died from suffocation, as there were bruises on her neck.
"You're going to wake daddy," the little boy on the left said. He and the other little girl couldn't be older than five or six. The side of his head was slightly dented and covered in dried blood.
"Please don't wake daddy! He doesn't like it when he get woken up," the little girl on the right cried out in an odd whisper. She was the one that broke her heard the most. She was just covered in bruised and gashes like she was beaten to death. Morgan was starting to realize what probably happened to the three of them.
"Is your dad here? Right now? In this house?" She asked. They all three nodded and put their fingers to their lips to quiet her. "Can you tell me what happened to you?" She whispered to them.
"We woke daddy," the older sister told her. Morgan looked back at Dean and he had the most disheartened look on his face.
"And he killed you?" Morgan asked. She was beginning to smell alcohol, a smell she was definitely not unfamiliar with. They heard the sound of gunshots upstairs and Sam yelling for Dean.
"Daddy's awake! Run!" The little girl half whispered half shouted before the three of them flickered out of sight and a pair of heavy boots thundered down the basement steps. Dean whipped around and fired his shotgun. Morgan rearmed herself, but the ghost appeared behind her and put her in a choke hold. He must've been really angry.
"Let go of me!" Morgan shouted. The house shook with her power as her hands were somehow coated in an odd kind of psionic energy, allowing her to touch the ghost as she took the chant her mother taught her and said it backwards, just like the practiced. She pushed him off of herself and he cried out in pain as her hands seemed to burn the ghost, as if he was a living, tangible thing. But then he flickered out of sight as she and Dean ran out of the basement and out of the house where Sam had already started the engine to the Impala. They got in the car and peeled out of there like a bat out of hell, tires screeching and everything. It was only then that Morgan realized her nose was bleeding pretty badly so she grabbed a napkin from her back and held it to her nose to stop the bleeding.
"What hell did you do back there!?" Dean yelled at Morgan, his anger of the attack and the confusion of his own daughter getting the best of him.
"I don't know! I just said the summoning chant backwards!" She yelled back at him. Like his anger and confusion, her stress was getting the best of her.
"I don't mean the chant! I mean your hands! They were glowing!"
"I don't even know, okay? I don't even know if I can do that again! It just kind of happened!" Morgan yelled at him. Sam's head whipped back and looked at her.
"Wait, wait, wait. What happened?" He asked her in complete and utter confusion.
"The ghost attacked me and I don't know, I yelled at him to let me go and the house shook and my hands glowed and I would like, really touch the ghost, like it hurt him, like he was real, and then he vanished."
