Chapter 17: Master of Puppets

"That was fun, playing pretend. But it's time to go," the stranger said as his eyes turned back. Morgan panicked. Her demon knife was in her bag in the house. As the demon grabbed her and put his hand on her throat. She didn't want to expose her abilities, so she made a decision that was going to probably ruin any chance she had with Jonah, the real Jonah. She turned him into a puppet, and the strings were her psychic power forcing him to sneak inside the house and grab the demon knife. The demon was dragging her away to a car in the parking pad when Jonah came back outside, the most strained look on his face. She felt so horrible, making him do this. But it didn't matter. Jonah had the knife, and Morgan needed it. She made him run up to her and the Demon, acting like he was gonna stab the demon. The stranger let go of her to to deflect the blade, but Morgan made Jonah duck away and slip her the knife. As soon as it was in her hands, three more demons got out of the car that was waiting for them and charged. They had angel blades.

"What do you want?" Morgan asked the four demons as she brandished the knife and stood so Jonah was behind her. She was going to protect him with her life. Either she was going to kill all four demons, or she was going to die trying. But they sure as hell weren't going to take her.

"What the hell is going on?" Jonah whispered to Morgan, a sort of discomfort filling his voice. She had released him from her power, but she knew it hadn't been pleasant being controlled in the first place.

"Isn't it obvious what we want?" The demon taunted her. He pulled out his own angel blade, and Morgan laughed. She was faster than he was. He lunged, she kicked the angel blade out of his hands, she swept his legs out from under him, and climbed on top of him. She had the demon knife at his neck and the angel blade in her other hand, pointed at the other three demons. No one moved.

"I want you to explicitly tell me or else I'm going to kill you. Not exorcise you, not put you in a devil's trap, kill you. You won't bounce back from hell, you'll be gone. Now tell me what you want," Morgan threatened, pressing the knife further into his neck, the small cut releasing a bit of golden light as the Demon groaned in pain.

"Butch over there wants a new meat suit, sleepover was our best bet. We were gonna take one of you from the house, but you came outside, all nice and on a silver platter," The demon told her.

"You're lying." She plunged the knife into his chest and he flickered with golden light.

"What the hell!" Jonah yelled, but Morgan shushed him before she threw the angel blade into one of the demons, killing him to buy herself enough time to charge the other two. She ducked and rolled under the first demon's blow and stole his angel knife. She threw it into his back as she simultaneously slashed the second demon. They both dropped with golden flickering bodies.

"I'm sorry you had to see that, and I'm sure you never want to see me again after tonight let alone be even friends with me," Morgan apologized as she lifted her hands and willed the bodies to float over to their car. She stopped and approached the four empty vessels, quickly searching their pockets for wallets, weapons, and possible clues to why they attacked her of all people in this middle of nowhere town. Once she had everything, she checked the car for stuff, even the trunk as Jonah stood their in silence, until his silence broke.

"Please explain to me what's going on," he pleaded, running his hands through his hair, his stress beginning to show through. Morgan took a deep breath as she willed the four bodies to sit themselves in the car and closed the doors behind them and made sure all the windows were rolled down for what she was about to do next.

"Jonah, you've always known I was kinda different. But I don't think you realized how different," she began, not quite sure how to properly explain. As she spoke, she started crushing the car, like at a dump. It was slow, so as not to make much noise.

"Are you a witch?" He questioned. She shook her head.

"I'm not a witch. Descended from quite a few though. Jonah, I'm a psychic," she admitted. He took a minute to respond, not quite sure what to say next. Morgan continued crushing the car. This action was going to take quite a bit of time.

"So you did that to me? Made me bring you the knife?" He looked scared.

"Yes, and I am sorry. I never wanted to hurt you, I just really needed the knife."

"What were those things that attacked you? One of them looked just like me and they all had black eyes," He inquired, recalling the aggressors.

"Those were demons. Judging by how they were easily overwhelmed by a fourteen year-old hunter, they were just low level demons, henchmen. So someone sent them," Morgan explained as the car was nearing being fully crushed. She could feel her nose running, she tried sniffing to stop it, but it keeps going, and she wasn't done yet.

"Hunter?" Jonah asked.

"There are other monsters in this world apart from people like me and demons. I'm a hunter, my mom was a hunter, kinda why she died, my dad and uncles are both hunters, we basically kill monsters for a living, but I don't usually go on their hunts," Morgan rambled as she finished crushing the car. She had to take a moment to think about where to put the crushed vehicle. It was dripping with the demon vessels' blood, but she made a psionic barrier that caught it so it wouldn't get on the pavement and show any sign of her crime.

"You're not a monster," Jonah told her. She rolled her eyes as she ripped apart the the ground and buried the crumpled car 10 feet into the dirt. When she closed the ground, it was nearly seamless. You would only notice the line of dirt cutting through the grass if you really looked for it.

"Really, of all that, you pick up on the self deprecating joke?" Morgan turned to him, touching her face. That nose running feeling was a nose bleed, and there was blood dripping from her nose, over her mouth, and down her chin. She used her sweatshirt sleeve to clean her face and cover her nose.

"I just think what you did was kind of cool. Dangerous, but kind of cool," Jonah told her.

"Why?"

"Because you didn't need anyone to protect you. You did what you had to do and saved yourself," Jonah told her. She just looked at the ground.

"Let's just... go inside, I have to… I have to… clean my face. It's bloody…" She stumbled, Jonah catching her shoulders.

"Hey, you're okay, let's get back inside," He told her as they began walking.

"Jonah?"

"Yeah?"

"Please don't tell anyone."

Morgan woke up with warm sunlight streaming through the porch door. The smell of scrambled eggs and bacon were wafting through the living room from the kitchen. Once again, Morgan woke up with Jonah's arms around her. For a moment, she thought that she simply had the weirdest dream, but the reality of it all came crashing down on her as she saw her sweatshirt next to her with a bloody sleeve. Morgan sighed. She rolled over in Jonah's arms and found that the teenage boy was still asleep. But it wasn't long before the teenage male mind to be enticed by the smell of a nice hot breakfast. Jonah's eyes opened, the sunlight catching in the blue of his irises. The second his eyes opened, she closed her eyes so he wouldn't think that she was watching him while he slept. She pretended to be waking up and slowly opened her eyes to his.

"Good morning," he told her as a searing headache hit her. Her eyebrows knit in discomfort.

"Not so good," she told him as she put her cold hands on her face.

"Everything okay?" He whispered, trying not to alert any of the other's that may not be awake.

"Fine, probably residual from my extreme level of exertion last night. I've never done anything like that before," she whispered back before he sat up, sniffing the air. Morgan got up with him.

"I think Madison's mom is making breakfast," she told him and he nodded. The two of them and got up, walking around some sleeping kids to get to the kitchen.

"Good morning, Leslie," Morgan greeted her as she placed two plates of cheesy scrambled eggs and bacon in front of the two of them.

"Good morning. Madison and her sister Lauren went on a donut run, they'll be back soon," Leslie told them as they started eating.

"That's fun," Jonah said as they ate.

"How was the dance last night?" She asked. Morgan smiled.

"I think it was pretty fun. I've never been to anything like that before," She started, taking a big bite out of a piece of bacon. Then she remembered something. "Hold on, I gotta call my dad." She dialed his number and waited for him to answer.

"Hey, Kiddo," Sam answered.

"Oh, Good morning Sam, I said I'd call when I woke up so…"

"Yeah, just letting you know that we're gonna have to pick you up in an hour instead of at one. We have some stuff we need to do."

"Oh, okay, yeah that's fine. I'll see you soon then," she told her uncle before hanging up.

"What was that about?" Jonah asked her.

She took another bite of her eggs before saying, "My uncle said they're picking me up in an hour, we have stuff to do," she told him. Jonah nodded in understanding and continued eating. It wasn't long before all the others were awake and at the kitchen table with an assortment of chairs that didn't quite belong at that particular table. She finished her food and when she went to get ready for the day, Madison's mom offered her a towel and let her use the shower since her hair was a hot mess from all the hairspray that had been in it the night before. Maybe twenty minutes later, she was sitting back in the kitchen with the others, all clean with wet hair. She dried it just enough so it wouldn't soak through the back of her dark green longsleeve that she had paired with her ripped jeans, her black vans, and her anti-possession charm back around her neck. Even then, it wasn't much longer till the end of the hour crept up on her and the sound of the impala neared the house. Morgan got her bags together, made sure she had everything, and said her goodbyes to everyone. Jonah followed her out the front door, which made Morgan happy that you couldn't see the front door from the driveway since the house is slightly up on a hill.

"I'm sorry that I put you in danger last night," Morgan told him. He gave her that same half smile that he always made when she amused him.

"That wasn't your fault. It hurt a bit, yeah, but you did what you had to," Jonah told her, still brandishing that half smile that nearly always made her knees weak. A honk came from the impala.

"And now I have to go," She told him. "I have to go, bye Jonah," Morgan said as she moved to walk away. He grabbed her hand.

"Bye, Morgan. I'll see you on Monday," He told her before hugging her. It was awkward, but it was something that she didn't know that she needed. "And try not to use me like a human puppet next time you need help." Morgan laughed.

"Hey, I was trying not to expose to some stupid demons that I'm a psychic in case one of them escaped and went to tell whatever nutjob sent them," Morgan explained quietly before walking away. She could hear Jonah let out a chuckle before the door opened and closed once again. She walked down the steps from the deck to the driveway and made her way to the Impala, shoving all her stuff into the back seat.