chapter seven ─ ghost world

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THE REAPER HOUSE WAS IN ABSOLUTE CHAOS. Reapers were popping into Lin's office, leaving a report on the growing stack on his desk and then disappearing again. Lin himself was near frantic, flipping through files as quickly as he could read them to try and combat the piles on his desk. Morrigan was going through messages on a tablet, trying to make sense of the flood of concerned messages that they were getting from reapers who didn't want to or couldn't take the time to write out a report and deliver it.

Something had happened last night after Bonnie did her spell. The chaos had started not that long after she'd returned home from the high school. But it was what exactly had happened to cause all the chaos that she was unsure about.

Ghosts could interact—something they really weren't supposed to be able to do.

Reapers all over were trying to manage the situation, to deal with the vengeful ghosts without resorting to violence; they didn't need to, but it wasn't easy. And there were more dead people than there were reapers; they were outnumbered. So that wasn't making anything easier.

"We need answers on why this is happening before we get overwhelmed," Lin said.

He dropped another report haphazardly on a pile on the floor between the two of them, and Morrigan looked up at him from the beanbag chair she was sitting in that she had insisted he put in his office for her use.

"No kidding," she agreed.

"You said your witch friend, Bonnie, did a spell last night to send away the ghost of... Victoria Donovan?" Lin questioned, digging for a file in the mess on his desk. "Because she was able to interact?"

"Yeah," Morrigan confirmed. "Her brother helped do a spell to bring her more to our plane, and then she tried to kill Elena Gilbert. Bonnie's spell was just to block her magic. And now she's a reaper."

"You're sure it's settled?"

"Positive."

"Alright. Well, I need you to send Alan in here to take over for you, then go talk to Bonnie Bennett and figure out if any wires got crossed when she did her spell. Before all hell breaks loose around here, please?"

"You got it, boss."

Morrigan gave him a mock salute and then vanished from sight.

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AFTER SHE TRADED HER TABLET OFF TO ALAN, Morrigan left the house and found herself on the streets of Mystic Falls. The streets were being decorated for some kind of festival, a founder's festival of some kind if Morrigan were to take a guess. Ahead of her were Bonnie and Caroline.

Just as she started walking down towards the pair, Bonnie leaned down to grab her bag. When she went to stand up, the bag opened instead of lifting, and the contents spilled out onto the sidewalk. Bonnie sighed heavily and leaned down to pick up her things when a breeze blew by, opening the grimoire to a specific page.

"Okay, did your grimoire just..." Caroline asked.

"I think so," Bonnie agreed.

After a moment of staring at the book, Bonnie leaned down and picked it up, quickly reading over the page.

"Okay, please tell me that's a recipe for witch cookies," Caroline said hesitantly.

"It's a manifestation spell," Bonnie said, still reading. "It's used to reveal veiled matter."

"What's veiled matter?" Caroline asked.

"Ghosts," Morrigan supplied.

Both girls whipped around at the sound of her voice and looked at her. Bonnie seemed surprised to see her, if not a little apprehensive. She probably assumed that she thought the young witch had something to do with the ghost problem and was here to accuse. Caroline also looked surprised, but she also looked very unhappy to see her. Unhappy being a major understatement, of course.

"What are you doing here?" Caroline asked.

"This didn't happen because of me, I swear it didn't," Bonnie said quickly.

"Are you sure?" Morrigan asked.

"My spell was just to block Vicki's magic, I didn't do anything else," Bonnie explained.

"Well, I'm not leaving until I know what's going on with all the ghosts." Morrigan looked down at the grimoire. "So it looks like there's a spell you're supposed to do. Let's get to it."

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BONNIE BROUGHT MORRIGAN AND CAROLINE TO an abandoned house out in the woods around Mystic Falls. Before they even got into the house, the reaper could sense all the death that happened there. There were lots of places where traumatic deaths stacked up, and it always left residual energy that a reaper could feel.

"So this is where you brought Jeremy back to life?" Caroline asked as they entered a room in the basement.

"Yeah. Sorry, I know it's creepy, but we needed a private place around here to do the spell," Bonnie answered.

"Hmm," Caroline said, looking around. "There's no chance it's haunted by the hundred dead witches who were horrifically burned to death in this very spot, is there?"

"They're not here anymore. And they made it clear they were never coming back," Bonnie assured her friend.

"Right. They pinkie swear?"

"Take it from the reaper, sweetheart. They've gone," Morrigan said as she passed the younger blonde.

"Like I would trust anything you say," Caroline said, narrowing her eyes.

"Caroline, honestly, you're not still mad about what happened at the school, are you?" she questioned. "You and Damon, honestly. Just let it go."

"Do not compare me to Damon."

"You don't want me to compare you to him? Then let it go."

"Okay, that's enough, you two," Bonnie said. "Candles, please."

Both of them rolling their eyes, Caroline and Morrigan went around and started lighting the myriad of candles that were scattered around the room, most of them already partially melted. Morrigan could tell that this was a place Bonnie had done magic quite a few times, what she'd said about this being the place she'd brought Jeremy Gilbert back to life aside.

When Caroline had lit the final candle, they both turned back towards Bonnie.

"Ready? Do you need me to do..."

Bonnie was already kneeling on the ground, hands clasped and eyes closed, muttering the spell.

"Right. Okay," Caroline muttered.

Bonnie continued muttering her spell. The wind kicked up, a strong breeze blowing through the room. Leaves scattered, glass pieces that had remained intact on the chandelier clinked against each other in a way that sounded ominous even though it shouldn't have.

"Bonnie, I don't like this," Caroline said, sounding really nervous. "Bonnie..."

It didn't seem like Bonnie could hear her. To try and help soothe her nerves, Morrigan put a hand on Caroline's arm. The wind picked up again, and when she looked down, she couldn't help but smile as she noticed a new ghostly presence in the room.

The ghost grabbed Bonnie's hands, causing her to stop and open her eyes, looking up. Immediately, her confused expression changed.

"Oh, my God. Is that your...?" Caroline said.

"Grams," Bonnie said, tears welling up in her eyes. "I can't believe you're here!"

"Now stop your crying, we don't have time for tears," Sheila instructed her granddaughter.

Sheila looked around and spotted Caroline and Morrigan, a smile forming on her face.

"Nice to see you again, Caroline."

"Hi, Miss Sheila."

"Morrigan."

"You look good, Sheila Bennett."

Sheila looked back at Bonnie. "A fine mess you've made, honey. The witches told you there'd be consequences to bringing Jeremy back, and you did it anyway."

"I didn't have a choice. I love him, and I...I couldn't just let him go."

"I understand. But you cracked open the door to the other side. There's an old witch over here. She took advantage of it. She took advantage of you, honey. When you did that spell to send Vicki Donovan away, she wedged the door wide open, giving a free pass to anybody with unfinished business."

"Oh, it figures," Morrigan muttered.

"How do you know this?" Bonnie asked.

"Witches talk. Even on the other side," Sheila answered. "Who do you think makes all the rules?"

"Um, hello, I'm right here," Morrigan said.

"What does the witch want?" Bonnie asked.

"That's Original vampire business, not yours. I don't want you getting in the middle of that," Sheila explained. "I'm here because you upset the balance of nature. And it's your duty to set it right. You need to close that door."

Bonnie looked up at Caroline, who quickly pulled out her phone and called Elena while Sheila explained what she needed. When Elena picked up, Caroline quickly explained the situation on the other side of the room, letting Bonnie and her grandmother catch up some. Morrigan stood a few steps away as well, texting Alan so that he could relay the information she'd learned to Lin.

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THEY DIDN'T HAVE A WHOLE LOT OF TIME AFTER Caroline got off the phone with Elena. She explained that the necklace they needed, Elena's necklace that Stefan had given her, the one that had also belonged to Rebekah, was now in the possession of Damon. Caroline texted him, and he told them it was in his room. So the trio quickly departed to the Salvatore Boarding House to look for it.

Only, they weren't having the best of luck. And that wasn't helping out with the attitude that Caroline had towards Morrigan.

"Alright, Caroline," Morrigan said, throwing down a stack of books onto Damon's bed after she caught sight of Caroline once again checking a place she'd just looked in. "I know you don't trust me and everything, but do you really think that I would not want to solve this ghost problem?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't think I haven't noticed you checking every single place I have after I've done it. This is not the thing that I am going to not put all my attention into. Do you even understand what this kind of problem is like to try and deal with as a reaper?"

"Well, I-"

"My boss, the Grim Reaper, the man who for all intents and purposes is my father, can't even get up from his desk because he's practically buried behind a mound of reports from reapers all over the world that are trying to deal with the ghosts. My phone is on silent because if it wasn't, the only sound in this room would be messages coming in from reapers who can't even find a spare moment to write a report for Lin."

Just to prove her point, Morrigan pulled her phone out of her pocket and held it up so that Caroline could see each as message after message after message came in, the same as on the tablet she'd handed off to Alan.

"This issue, the door between life and death being wedged open as Sheila Bennett put it, is probably the most serious issue that a reaper will ever have to deal with in their entire lives, and we can live pretty long lives."

Morrigan took a breath as she tucked her phone away.

"I understand that vampires feel everything more and that I betrayed you all by siding with Klaus, and I understand that you're also a teenage girl. But, Caroline, please understand that first and foremost, I am a reaper. It's why I helped Bonnie out with the spell to send Vicki away. That's why I'm here now."

"But Klaus-"

"I know, Caroline, but imagine the position I was in for a moment, please. I am over three hundred years old in a reborn body. I had a life before the one I can remember. For three centuries, I've wanted to know about that life and not been allowed to. And then someone comes along who knew me, who could tell me about that life. And as bad as it sounds, I've only known you all for a few months. That's the blink of an eye in three hundred years of life. So in a contest of something you've wanted for that long and a few people you've known for a little while, what would you choose, honestly?"

Caroline looked down. "The thing I've wanted for three hundred years..."

"Exactly, thank you," she said softly, relieved that she'd finally gotten it. "I meant what I said that night at the school. I'm not on anyone's side, but I am here to help."

"I'm sorry, Morrigan," Caroline said.

"You don't need to apologize; it was a fair reaction for you. All that matters to me is that you understand that I'm not here to sabotage everyone."

She seemed to understand the reaper's words, and they went back to searching the room, now being much more productive than they were before. But even with that added bonus, they weren't having any more luck finding the necklace in Damon's room.

Eventually, they realized that they could just text Damon to find out exactly where he'd put it. Only, he wasn't responding. So no matter how many times they texted or called him, they got no answer. Meaning they weren't going to have any clues as to where the necklace was.

That was when Caroline called Elena to update her on the situation. She stood off to the side of the room from where Bonnie and Morrigan were still looking while she talked to Elena.

"What?" Caroline exclaimed, getting their attention. "But you said you were in full support of getting rid of them."

There was a pause while Elena answered.

"Okay, let's just find it first and then we'll choose between boyfriend ghost dramas."

Caroline hung up but didn't turn back around immediately as Bonnie and Morrigan watched her expectantly.

"What are you talking about?" Bonnie asked, finally.

"Um..." Caroline said, turning around. "Lexi's back, so Elena wants us to hold off on destroying the necklace."

"You said boyfriend dramas. Plural," Bonnie pointed out. "What is it, Caroline?"

"Elena caught Jeremy kissing Anna," Caroline confessed sadly.

"What?"

"Oh, that stupid boy," Morrigan said, rolling her eyes. "I really ought to smack him."

"I'm sorry," Caroline told Bonnie.

"He kissed her?" Bonnie questioned.

"She's got a foothold now, so she probably thinks that she's here to stay," Caroline said. "But you, Morrigan and I, Bonnie, we're going to find that necklace. Okay? Okay."

They continued looking with a renewed vigour. They checked everywhere that a necklace could conceivably end up. They looked in every drawer, in the stupid soap bowl that Damon had on his bathroom counter, behind every book, under every piece of furniture. They looked everywhere.

But it wasn't there.

At some point in the long and tedious search, Morrigan — and the other two girls as well, she was sure — began to suspect that maybe the necklace wasn't here at all. Maybe it wasn't in Damon's room, and he had hidden it somewhere else in the home. And that, of course, was something she was really hoping wasn't true because if they had to search the entire Boarding House for one small necklace, they'd be here for days.

"Ugh! I give up," Caroline eventually exclaimed. "It's not anywhere in this room."

Bonnie's phone vibrated from where it was sitting atop one of the dressers. She looked at it and saw that it was Jeremy calling her. She gave a knowing look to Caroline, who immediately walked over and answered the phone for her, and Morrigan stepped closer so she'd be able to hear the conversation.

"What do you want, Jeremy?"

"Caroline? Did you find that necklace?" Jeremy asked.

"Not yet," Caroline answered. "Wait, what's going on?"

"Ghosts of the tomb vampires killed Tobias Fell," he explained. "You might want to find that necklace before they start going alphabetically through the founding families."

"Well, it's not where it's supposed to be," Caroline said. Then her expression changed as she'd just realized something. "Unless someone took it."

"Who?"

"Well, who do you think?"

Caroline was obviously referring to Anna and Jeremy knew it.

"She said she didn't take it."

"Oh, and you believe her."

"You know what, yeah, yeah, I do believe her."

"You know what, you're an even bigger idiot than I thought. So wake up, Jeremy, before you lose everything."

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AFTER SEARCHING DAMON'S ROOM MORE THOROUGHLY than any of them ever wanted to and coming to the realization that someone did take it, the three of them left the Boarding House and headed for the square where Jeremy was to hopefully regroup and figure out what was going on. They were nearly there when Caroline's phone rang. She had a brief conversation with whoever it was before hanging up.

"Jeremy's got the necklace. He's going to meet us at the witch house," Caroline said.

"Okay," Bonnie said. Then she started to slow the car as something came into view ahead. "What's going on up there?"

On the side of the road, a car was crashed into a tree and the driver was unconscious in the driver's seat. Morrigan moved closer to the edge of her seat so that she could lean forward and see what was going on better.

"It's Mrs. Lockwood's car," Caroline realized.

Suddenly Bonnie slammed on the brakes as someone walked across the road right in front of them, heading for Mrs. Lockwood's car. That was when they saw the others heading for the car as well and when Morrigan realized they were all ghosts.

"Bonnie? I'm going to get out of the car," Caroline said.

"What?"

"And you're going to drive the hell away from here," she continued.

"No way!" Bonnie protested. "I am not leaving you!"

"Bonnie, you've got your ghost boyfriend drama. Elena has hers. And right now, the mother of mine is about to be ghost bait. So go and send them all back to the other side, okay?" She turned to look at Morrigan. "You know when it's my time, right?"

"I do."

"And it's not now, right?"

"Not even close, Caroline Forbes."

That seemed to fill her with new confidence, and she got out of the car, heading for the ghosts. Morrigan climbed into the passenger seat as Bonnie drove off, casting a look over her shoulder in time to see Caroline throw one of them.

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WHEN THEY MADE IT BACK TO THE WITCH HOUSE, Bonnie and Morrigan hurried back downstairs to where they'd been earlier. They didn't waste any time, knowing that with the ghosts attacking people, they couldn't afford that luxury anymore. Bonnie lit the fireplace, the candles around it and all the others in the room with her powers.

There was the sound of someone coming in quickly and then thundering down the stairs. Then, Jeremy called out for Bonnie, and they turned in time to see him come into the room. Bonnie gave him a cold look as he gently held out the necklace for her. She snatched it from him and walked away, throwing it into the fireplace.

Knowing that she was about to start the spell, Morrigan hurried over to the young witch.

"Bonnie, before you start..."

"Morrigan, we don't have a lot of time here, what is it?"

"The more power you have, the stronger the spell will be, right?" she asked.

"Right."

Morrigan held out her hand to Bonnie. "I might regret this, but... if you're sending ghosts away, what'll make the spell stronger than the power of a reaper, right?"

"Are you sure?" Bonnie asked.

"No," she admitted. "But I'm gonna let you do it anyway."

Bonnie took Morrigan's hand and began to cast the spell. Morrigan sucked in a deep breath as she felt the witch channelling her and conjured her scythe to use as something to lean on and help support her.

A moment passed as the sparks flew in the fireplace, and Sheila Bennett appeared on Bonnie's other side and took her hand. The two witches started chanting the spell, and the flames in the fireplace grew as more sparks started flying.

With the power of two Bennett witches and a reaper, the necklace soon melted down in the fireplace.

"You are stronger than all of this," Sheila told Bonnie. "I'm so proud of you."

A few tears slipped down Bonnie's cheeks, and her grandmother disappeared. Bonnie didn't let go of Morrigan's hand, even as she felt the magic stop now that the ghosts were gone and Morrigan didn't force her to. She just let her stand there, hold her hand, staring at the fireplace where the necklace had burned and cry.

"Bonnie..." Jeremy started.

"Just go away, Jeremy," Bonnie said.

"I owe you an explanation."

Bonnie finally looked at him, turning and taking a few steps towards him and Morrigan followed, not letting go of the teenager's hand.

"Matt let go of his sister before you let go of Anna. His sister, Jeremy," Bonnie spat at him. "You know what you owe me? The respect of not making me listen to you explain yourself."

"I am sorry, Bonnie," Jeremy said.

"You need to go," Bonnie said.

"But-"

"That wasn't a statement that was up for debate, Jeremy," Morrigan told him sternly.

Jeremy finally turned and left. As soon as he was gone, Morrigan tugged on Bonnie's hand and pulled her into an embrace, letting her rest her head on her shoulder. The girl trembled as she tried to hold back her tears.

"It's okay to cry, Bonnie; you don't have to be strong. You've been through a lot today, and you deserve to let yourself have a moment to cry," she assured her.

That seemed to do the trick as she heard Bonnie let out a sob and start crying into her shoulder. Morrigan simply held her tighter, letting her have her moment and comforting her through it. For several moments they stood there, the only sounds being Bonnie's cries and Morrigan's soft words of assurance.

They both jumped when there was a sound from the fireplace and they turned towards it, seeing sparks flying. The two of them went closer to it, looking closer only to see that the necklace they'd just destroyed was fully intact.

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MORRIGAN DROPPED BONNIE BACK AT HOME WITH some tea, a blanket, told her to call if she needed anything at all and also made sure Elena was on her way over. When that was done, she finally returned home.

Notably, the house had calmed down. There weren't as many reapers around anymore, and when she popped her head into the sitting room, she even saw Mara sitting with Teresa and Juliet, an open book in front of them. So they were back to studying. That meant things really had calmed down—an excellent sign.

Smiling, Morrigan ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time until she reached the second floor and then Lin's office. She went right in without knocking, and as soon as she came in, Lin looked up from his desk and smiled at her.

"You did it, Morrigan," he told her.

"Bonnie did it. I just helped a little."

"I'm proud of you."

Lin got up from his desk and walked over to her, cupping her cheek in his hand.

"You're going to make an amazing Grim Reaper when it's time," he told her.

He stepped around her then as a smile spread across her face and pride filled her chest.

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an. this chapter is one of my favourites, honestly. Morrigan's relationship with Bonnie is just so cute, she's like a big sister or mom to her and I love it so much. Tell me what you thought and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!!