Glitched

~Chapter Ten~

"Morgan, I swear, if you did this..." Cassi quickly rose to her feet and stood mere inches in front of Morgan, staring down into her eyes. Glints and specks of bright, glowing purple began to flicker inside of Cassi's emerald eyes, and I think Morgan appeared to be a little frightened by her older cousin.

"Cassiopeia, you know I'd never lie to you," Morgan spoke shakily, her fingers fidgeting as she breathed hard. "Is it getting hot in here?"

"We're outside, Morgan," Colt said nervously. "Calm yourself, chica."

"You calm your sister over here, Colten!" Morgan hissed under her breath, her eyes flashing scarlet for a split second before turning back to Cassi. "Just search me, Cass! I promise you, there are still only five marks here!"

"Cass, you know Morgan doesn't..." Colt spoke but stopped himself as Cassi started searching Morgan's entire body. "And you're doing it. Lovely."

"What's going on, exactly...?" I whispered into Colt's ear, my grip on him tightening even though his grip on me loosened. We watched as Cassi counted all of Morgan's marks - the patches of skin all around her body that reminded me of when a television lost its signal.

Cassi pulled up Morgan's shirt and searched her entire body, making Morgan scream and shove Cassi to the ground. "Okay, I'm done! Riley's dead, so who cares? I didn't do it. No one else here has the balls to murder someone like that. Can't we just rule it as a suicide or something so I can get back to torturing Hannah?"

"She only has five..." Cassi said softly, more tears coming to her eyes. "Why are there only five...? There's supposed to be six! Why aren't there six!"

"Because I didn't freaking kill him!" Morgan yelled at Cassi, bending over to look into her eyes. "If I did it, I would damned sure be taking my credit."

"Morgan doesn't lie, Cassi," Colt said gently, trying to calm her down. "How are we supposed to know what happened?"

"Maybe Harry actually did something useful for once and murdered the kid for me!" Morgan said sarcastically, throwing her hands up in the air. "Who cares!" Morgan smirked in my direction and grabbed onto Cassi's arm, jerking her up to her feet. "We'll never know unless we get out of here to ask Harry himself."

"Morgan...!" Colt cut himself off, forcing me behind him. I peered out from behind his shoulder, watching Morgan turn Cassi to look into her eyes. "Morgan, don't-"

"Colten, hush," Morgan said calmly, attempting to seem collected. "Maybe we'll be able to ask Riley himself. Who knows if they're all actually dead on the other side? Only one way to find out!"

"And how do we do that...?" Cassi spoke slowly and softly, her tone changing back into the peppy, upbeat voice I first met.

"Cass, please!" Colt began to plead with them. "Stay with me, okay?"

Cassi looked over at Colt, but Morgan grabbed her face and forced her to look back up into her grey, soulless eyes. "Stay with me, Cassiopeia, alright?" Morgan and Cassi smiled at each other, Morgan's becoming more devilish with each passing second. "The way we're going to do that is, can you guess it?"

"We're going to slit Hannah's throat!" Cassi giggled and clapped, raising one of her knees behind her before twirling around in a circle.

Morgan smirked at Colt and tilted her head. "That's exactly what we're going to do." She took a few steps forward, looking right into Colt's eyes. He tried to back up but couldn't go anywhere with a crippled me hiding behind him. "I suggest you run," Morgan whispered into his ear, her fierce red eyes peering down at me over his shoulder. "I like when my prey puts up a good fight."

"Morgan, come on. Let's be civilized." Colt looked down into Morgan's eyes for a couple seconds before pulling me up into his arms and sprinting away as fast as he possibly could - which was nowhere near Cassi by any means.

I could hear Morgan laughing in the distance as I held onto Colt. My lungs couldn't seem to work; no matter how much I screamed at them, they would not cooperate. I couldn't breathe. I heard my heart pounding as if it was trying to break free of my chest. The only comfort I could find was Colt's unnatural calmness.

"I can't do this!" I hid my face in Colt's shirt as uncontrollable tears forced their way into my eyes.

"You're right!" I heard Cassi's giddy voice say as Colt skidded to a stop. "You can't! I'm so happy that you finally understand this!"

"You're wrong, Cassi." Colt asserted. "She can do this. Because I'm here for her. I believe in her."

"But no one else does." Morgan's voice spoke into my ear before a sudden force knocked the wind out of me. I felt Morgan shove my body into Colt's, making him fall to the ground. I coughed and wheezed as I rolled over Colt's head and onto the dirt beside him. Before I had a chance to register what had happened, I opened my eyes to see Morgan towering over me. She grabbed my wrists and pinned them above my head with a single hand of her own, making me feel as if she was going to quickly pull my arms clean off of my shoulders.

"Get off of me!" I screamed, kicking and thrashing around as hard as I could, but nothing worked. Nothing made her so much as flinch, let alone loosen her grip.

"Just give up, Hannah." Morgan ran her fingers down my face as I did just that. "It'll all be over soon." She pushed my hair behind my ears and smirked when she revealed my right ear's cartilage piercing - I was wearing a small silver hoop earring, the last thing that my father gave me before he passed. I never took it off. "Edgy, isn't it? I did not expect this from you."

"What are you-" I was cut off by the sound of my own screams. I didn't even know that I was screaming or that I had started kicking again. All I knew was the pain: the pain of kicking with my broken foot, the pain of Morgan holding me down, the pain of Morgan tearing my favorite earring out of my ear.

"Woah, woah, woah! Morgan, please!" Colt gasped and scrambled to his knees, crawling over to us as fast as he possibly could. "Hey!" He yelled as Cassi grabbed his feet, pulling him farther away from us. "Cassi put me down right now! Cassiopeia, stop it! It's me, Ten! Remember! Come on, Cass! Ten! Ten!"

"You still use that name, Colt?" Cassi asked as she tilted her head. "No one's called you that in years! You're not a number, silly!"

"Can't rely on your little Colten now, can you?" Morgan snickered and dragged her fingers along my face once again, making my blood run cold. Her hand made its way down to my throat, and I suddenly couldn't breathe again. I lost track of time. All I could think about was air. Oxygen. I couldn't hear anything, and I couldn't feel anything - the only thing that existed was breathing. I need to breathe! I looked up into Morgan's blood-red eyes, sensing myself slip away before I saw a blur of something swiftly come down onto the back of Morgan's head. Her unconscious body fell down onto mine, and I could finally breathe. I could breathe! I coughed so hard I thought I was going to see blood spew out of my mouth.

I rolled Morgan's body off of me and let Colt help me up. "Sorry, Morgan... You should've listened to me." He sighed and looked around us at the other foes still standing, holding a large limb in his hands. "Anyone else want to learn a lesson? Freaking listen to Colt when he tells you to back off!"

"Colt... You... You killed her!" Cassi screamed, tears forming in her eyes.

"Cass, come on. You know Morgan's not going to die so pathetically. And besides, I couldn't kill her. I look at her grey eyes, and I see the same her that you do."

Cassi sighed and smiled, wiping tears from her eyes. "So Morgan's not dead? Yes!"

"Yeah, but Hannah's about to be if she's still here when Morgan wakes up, so if you'll excuse us." Colt bowed and dropped the limb to the ground, scooping me up into his arms and taking off as fast as he could. "Adieu, my lady!"