Chapter 36: Morgan
Sitting down there in the dark, even as hunger ravaged his stomach, weakening him to feed his skill. The creeping cold didn’t make things any easier.
Luckily, there were still some thermal blankets around. Not that Miles needed it. The warmth in his chest helped push back against it, but it couldn’t help with the discomfort.
The passing of time was only made somewhat bearable by Morgan filling in the silence with whispered stories of his life before becoming a vice-principal.
As it turned out, the man used to be a cop. The admission cleared up quite a few of the questions Miles had regarding Morgan’s composure.
But he didn’t stop there. He went on to talk of numerous busts, raids, and situations he’d been involved in during his time, though a vast majority of his tales were mundane things like parking tickets and wellness checks.
His voice was always tinged with a nostalgia that was hard to miss, even for Miles.
He spoke of his family. Of his daughter and wife living in Lincoln. Of the first things he planned on doing the moment he got out of here, or if rescue eventually arrived.
Everything and anything to get their minds off the current situation. Off sleeping.
It worked. Mostly.
Miles kept his gaze on the closed locker room door, even as he paid attention to the ex-cop. He was trying to build a timeline of what exactly happened with Mrs. Kathy.
Her group had been the last one on night watch. Mrs. Kathy, Sarah, Alice, the two girls he’d never bothered learning about, another boy, and Brandon. That brought the total to seven people.
Four of them were dead now. How it had happened wasn’t too hard to figure out when he thought logically.
Mrs. Kathy and the two girls entered the locker room to do whatever girls did in locker rooms at 3:00 a.m. Then they saw the mirror, were attacked by the monster in it, and somehow shattered it.
Alice came in when she heard the shattering, only to scream at the gruesome scene, which in turn resulted in the principal penalizing her.
He was sure it wasn’t exactly this, but it had to be close. A macabre chain reaction.
Anomalies compounding on each other, slowly pushing them all towards making mistakes. Mistakes that would inevitably end with their deaths.
With the principal’s new rules, the invisible net had tightened even further. Regardless of if the principal gave any more rules, the sleeping ban by itself now doomed any plans of waiting out the storm in the school.
Miles sighed, rubbing his face.
Worse still, he couldn’t contact Henry, Anna, or Jayce given the phone ban.
He glanced at the watch glowing on Chloe’s wrist. It was 6:56 a.m. About three hours had already passed like this.
Morgan was just about finishing his last story when the sound of movement came from the girls’ locker room.
The timer was up.
The tension that Morgan had worked so hard to reduce went ratcheting up again. The man silently stood up, bat in hand.
Brandon and Grimm moved to join him.
"Wait."
Miles stopped them. He could feel the eyes of the crowd on him again, but he pushed through.
"They need the kills more than you."
He considered the darkness surrounding them a small mercy. He could only imagine the sorts of looks Brandon and Grimm were sending his way.
They knew exactly what he meant by that. Skills.
They’d each killed a ghoul before, and since then required much less in the way of protection from the cold. Miles was certain they’d obtained the same skill as him.
Bu it wasn’t just that. This time was different. They needed capable people to work with.
"What do you mean by that?"
Morgan was the first to whisper.
"I mean, someone else should join you in killing the ghouls. Not Brandon or Grimm."
Before any of the three could respond, a bang rang out from the locker room door. Miles used the interruption to push forward.
"We might not have another chance at killing ghouls in a controlled environment. Three people won’t be enough to defend us all, especially on the way to the cafeteria."
That argument gave them pause, only for a moment though, as the door banged again, visibly deforming this time.
Morgan glanced at the two boys beside him, struggling with the decision, before sitting down after the third bang.
"Is anyone willing?"
A hand was up before he even finished the sentence. Another joined immediately after.
Chloe and Ryan.
Miles couldn’t see much of their expressions in the darkness, but he could feel determination in their outstretched hands.
"Let’s be quick then."
Morgan didn’t wait for them, heading towards the collapsing door. Chloe followed, bat in hand. So did Ryan, holding what Miles could only assume to be Kyle’s bat.
Although Grimm didn’t join them, Miles could see his silhouette taking aim in the dark.
With a final bang, the flimsy door came crashing down. A figure immediately ran over it, arms outstretched for Morgan.
Its silhouette framed by the light was enough to identify it as Kathy.
Morgan might’ve hesitated, seeing the face of his old colleague rushing mindlessly towards him. But the situation simply didn’t give him the chance to. He swung.
A crack sounded as the metal smashed squarely into the side of her skull, sending her veering off to the side and into the ground.
Right behind her, two more ghouls rushed out. One headed for Morgan again, and the other branching towards Chloe.
The girl gripped her bat nervously, but there was little room to hesitate as well. She swung the moment it was within range, aiming for its head but only reaching its arms.
The force stalled its momentum. She pressed, taking advantage of its disorientation to swing again, this time snapping its neck and sending it to the floor.
She was above it in no time, swinging her bat into its exposed head. Once, twice, as many times as it took to be sure the thing was dead.
By the end, her bat slipped out of her shaky hands.
Miles turned to find that Ryan had already dealt with the other ghoul, standing silently above its motionless body as blood dripped down the bat in his hand.
Morgan stood behind them both. He’d been ready to intervene in case things went awry. In the end, there had been no need at all.
The man sighed before turning to face Miles, whispering in a voice he could barely hear.
"Skills?"