Morrigan was in class again. Or heading to it, at least. And still, a week later, the dream hadn't entirely left her.
It clung like fog behind her eyes- thin and persistent. She'd almost convinced herself it was just stress. A hallucination shaped by a sleep-deprived brain and a too-pretty boy who wouldn't leave her thoughts alone. Almost.
Alice was talking beside her. Rambling, mostly.
"-so then this guy from PoliSci tried to tell me Pluto is a planet, and I was like, okay, astronomer now are we? He looked like he hadn't passed basic math, Marah. Morrigan?"
She blinked and looked up. Alice was squinting at her.
"What?" Morrigan asked, feigning a distracted smile.
"You're doing it again."
"Doing what?"
Alice made a face. "Staring into the void like a Victorian ghost bride waiting for her dead husband to return from war."
Morrigan huffed out a small laugh. "That's... specific."
"Yeah, well, so's your level of checked-out lately. What's going on? Don't give me the 'I'm just tired' line again. You've been weird since last week."
Morrigan's grip on her bag strap tightened. She looked forward, letting her steps carry her toward the main building.
"I just... I've been having weird dreams. That's all," she said, too quickly.
Alice raised a sceptical brow. "Like stress dreams?"
"Sure. Let's go with that."
She didn't want to lie- not really. But the truth was even harder to wrap her own head around, let alone hand off to Alice with a bow on top. Hey, I might've seen a literal ghost outside the history department and then dreamed about him whispering my name in a haunted forest.
Yeah. No thanks.
Morrigan had a suspicion that maybe Samael was a ghost. That seemed like the only explanation she could come up with. As stupid as it sounded, it made sense to her. His appearance- pale and dark at once. His aura- the way the air and rain bent around his figure like a surrealist painting. His speech- the cryptic statements he made that night. It was all too much to think about, yet still somehow it was too little information then what she'd like to have.
Alice looked like she wanted to push more, but the moment passed. She sighed and stuffed her hands in her jacket pockets.
"Fine. But if you join a cult, I'm staging an intervention."
Morrigan offered her a grateful glance. "Deal."
They walked across the quad toward the south building, where early spring wind stirred the ash tree branches overhead. Her history class was in fifteen minutes, and she wasn't exactly ready to sit still, but routine helped. Even when your brain was a slowly unraveling threadball of mystery boys, spectral forests, and dream-glow symbols.
Speaking of which- her breath caught.
Across the lawn, under the same ash trees from the first time she saw him, Samael sat on a stone bench.
He wasn't alone.
Next to him was Professor Elston- her History professor. Slouched backward, eyes shut, arms limp at his sides. At first glance, it looked like he was just dozing in the sun, maybe even hungover.
But something about it felt... wrong.
Samael sat too still. As if he wasn't waiting. As if he already knew.
And then, he moved.
A slow, deliberate motion. He reached out and placed a hand on the professor's knee.
Morrigan's steps faltered.
A faint white glow shimmered to life where his hand touched fabric and skin. Gentle. Pale. Almost holy. It spread briefly -like light through fog- then sank inward and vanished.
Professor Elston didn't move.
Samael stood. Turned. Walked away.
Morrigan gasped, grabbed Alice's arm. "Did you see that?"
Alice jumped. "See what? Jesus, you scared me!"
"Over there!" Morrigan pointed, heart hammering in her chest. "Professor Elston. Samael. He touched him and there was -God, I don't know how to explain it- a light, and-"
Alice blinked. "Professor Elston? He's just sitting there."
"No, he was asleep, and then- Samael did something, I swear I saw it-"
"Morrigan."
Alice's voice had gone careful. "Are you okay?"
Morrigan's mouth went dry.
She looked back. Samael was gone. The professor was still, as if in a deep sleep. He showed no signs of stirring or waking, despite his class in 10 minutes. Surely, someone would wake him?
"I..." She let go of Alice's arm. "Never mind. I just- I must've imagined it."
Alice was watching her like she might spontaneously combust. "You're scaring me a little."
"I'm fine."
She wasn't. Not even close.
Her class that morning was cancelled- or at least, that's what everyone assumed when the professor didn't show up for it. It was beyond strange, Morrigan saw him asleep. There's no way nobody approached him, especially other staff. She couldn't wrap her head around it.
Walking back outside, an ambulance was on campus.
No students were allowed near the scene. The entire courtyard was blocked off by site staff who were helping the paramedics.
Passers-by said it was a heart attack, but that just didn't sit right with Morrigan.
She spent the rest of the morning pretending to focus. Pretending she wasn't constantly scanning the halls between classes. Pretending her stomach wasn't in a constant knot.
By late afternoon, she gave up pretending.
She found him behind the science building, where few students went. She hadn't meant to find him- it was pure instinct. She just knew he'd be there.
Samael stood near the tree line, his back to her. Coat still black. Unbothered by the sunlight beaming down after the icy winter.
She approached slowly. Her voice came out sharper than she meant it.
"I saw what you did."
He turned, slowly.
"What are you talking about?" His tone was empty, but his eyes weren't.
"Professor Elston. You touched him. There was a glow. Paramedics are in the courtyard. He was asleep on that bench before you touched him."
He stared at her in silence.
Morrigan took a breath. "I know I sound insane. But I'm not. You said things before- cryptic things. And I saw something on your wrist the other day. A mark. It glowed."
Still, no answer.
"You owe me," she said, stepping closer. "I told the professor you'd catch up on your missed work. I gave him an excuse. I covered for you. The least you can do is tell me the truth." She was aware of how pathetic her excuse was, but nonetheless, it seemed to work on him.
Something flickered in his face. A twitch of his jaw. His eyes narrowed, just slightly.
"You shouldn't have done that," he muttered.
"What? Helped you?"
"Interfered."
"I'm not the one glowing like a celestial lightbulb!" she snapped.
That did it.
He stepped toward her, too fast. Too sudden. She tensed, but didn't step back.
"Do you want the truth, Morrigan?" he said, voice low and steady. "Fine."
The air around him shifted- colder, like the wind forgot how to breathe.
"I am not a student. I do not belong at this college. I am not alive. I haven't been for a long time."
She stared.
"I am a Reaper. I exist to escort the dead. To sever the threads that bind souls to this world. That's what you saw. That light? It was the remnant of his soul being taken after it snapped completely."
Her mouth had gone dry.
"You're lying."
"I wish I was."
He let out a bitter, humorless breath. "I didn't want you to see. You weren't supposed to. There's something different about you, Morrigan. Mortals aren't meant to perceive the Veil."
"The Veil?"
"Where I come from. Where the dead wait. Where I live, if you can call it that."
She was trembling. Not from fear, but from how true it all felt. The puzzle pieces falling into place so suddenly it almost made her dizzy.
"I touched you," she whispered.
He went still.
"You saved me from the car. You touched me. I saw your hand burn."
His jaw clenched. "That shouldn't have happened."
"But it did. Why?"
He looked at her, eyes like cracked glass.
"Because you're not supposed to matter," he said quietly. "And I think you do."
Then he turned and left, coat trailing behind him like the edge of night.
And Morrigan was left in the silence.
Feeling like something very, very big had just begun.
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