Chapter 14

Morgan tripped over her own feet as she rushed to the corner of her street, hoping to 'accidentally' bump into Damien on the way to school. 

She picked herself up, wiped the dirt from her knees and stared up the main road that led to the school. There was no sign of him, so she guessed he was late, which wasn't unusual for Damien.

Pacing around the pavement, Morgan alternated between checking the time and scanning the street for any sign of Damien. When he eventually appeared, she straightened up, pushing out her chest and adjusting her hair.

As she took a breath, preparing to say hello, he shoved past her.

Spinning, Morgan closed her gaping mouth and ran after him.

"Damien?" she asked, running to keep up with his speed walk. Cold tingles of dread spread out to her extremities when she saw the look on his face.

"Di—did I do something wrong?" she stammered.

She almost tripped over again when he stopped abruptly and turned to face her, pushing his face into hers.

"You're dumped. Bye, Morgan," he uttered before turning and continuing at his ridiculous speed.

"No. What? Wait. Why?" Morgan cried, chasing after him. "What did I do?"

Panic rose in her chest as she chased him, repeating the question over and over despite his clear unwillingness to answer. By the time they arrived at school, she was in tears.

"Please tell me what I did?" she begged him.

"You really don't know?" He asked.

"I really don't know," Morgan replied quite honestly.

"So, you don't remember telling my entire family I was forcing you to be with me?" Damien asked.

"Oh, God." Morgan took a deep breath. "I didn't say that, I swear! I only said I knew about you... about your... you know."

Morgan broadly gestured in Damien’s direction, unable to conjure the words to describe his ability because she had no idea of the scope of his powers. 

Damien flared his nostrils and pursed his lips, almost shaking with rage.

"I had to listen to my mother giving me a talk about sex and the importance of consent," Damien uttered through gritted teeth.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't think," Morgan cried. She grasped the fabric of his jacket, but he yanked it away and stormed off. He had disappeared into one of the endless sprawling mass of corridors before she could follow him.

"Shit, shit, shit," Morgan muttered to herself. She punched her locker so hard the door flew open and her books spilled out onto the floor.

Some kid made a whooping sound as he passed. The old Morgan would have given him an earful for daring to make fun of her, but what was the point?

She slid to her knees, gathering up the books with her arms. When she lifted them over her head to place them back into her locked the books slipped straight back out on to her head.

At this point, Morgan burst into tears.

'I can't survive without him,' she thought. 'I can't live without him in my life. I'll die. I'll just die.'

Curled on the floor, sobbing inside a fort of books, Morgan was vaguely aware that people were staring at her, but she didn't care. For the first time in her life she wasn't the tiniest bit concerned about what other people thought of her.

She left her books on the floor and her locker agape as she pulled herself into a standing position and dragged herself into the classroom. 

The grief and pain were heavy. They weighed on her psyche like a black mass, making it difficult to walk. She collapsed by Damien's desk, crawling over to him to wrap herself around his leg.

"Please forgive me, please, please, please," she begged in tears. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get you into trouble. Please forgive me. Please, Damien."

"Morgan?" Miss Fletcher frowned down at her. "You need to go and get in your seat."

Morgan heard her and understood the request, but she couldn't do it. Sitting through an entire hour-long lesson knowing Damien was still mad at her didn't seem impossible.

"Oh, please, Damien," she continued, ignoring her teacher. "I didn't do it on purpose. Please forgive me. Please, please—"

"Morgan!" the teacher barked.

"I can't sit down until he forgives me," Morgan explained before continuing to beg. "Please forgive me."

Miss Fletcher sighed heavily, resting her head in her hand. When she looked up, she wore a stretched, almost crazed-looking smile.

"Damien, can you please forgive her so we can get on with today's riveting lesson on rivers and estuaries?"

"Oh, Lord, no." Damien shook his head.

His response elicited a round of laughter from the other students and an angry tut from the teacher.

"Both of you out," she demanded. "You can sort your personal problems in the hallway."

Morgan managed to keep her mouth shut as they made their way into the corridor... barely. As soon as the door was closed, she continued to plead her case.

"You can't make me fall madly in love with you and then just dump me off like a piece of trash when you realise you don't like me. It isn't fair."

"I think you'll find I can do whatever I like," he sneered.

"You're being cruel, and you know it," she argued. "If you don't want me then let me go back to normal. Please."

"Why should I?" he asked.

"Do you really hate me that much?" Morgan sniffed back tears and wiped at her face. 

When he said nothing, she fell to her knees. "Please, please make this stop. I'm begging you. It feels like my heart is being torn up into little pieces. It's torture. Please have mercy. I don't want to do this anymore. Please, I'm begging you for mercy, please, I can't bear to go on like this."

He stared down at her with a satisfied grin until footsteps in the corridor pulled his attention away.

The school counsellor woman approached, stopped, and looked like she was going to say something before shaking her head and hurrying off.

"Okay, done," Damien mumbled, clicking his fingers before chasing after the counsellor. 

The relief was so sudden and so overwhelming it made her laugh. Her face stretched into a smile as her old feelings flooded back, washing over her like a tidal wave. She floated back into the classroom, drifting on air as she passed the tables and flashing Toby a dreamy smile as sank into her chair.

He was back to being his gorgeous self. Not that he'd ever changed. 

'Oh my God, I've cheated on him!' Morgan realised with horror. 'How will he ever forgive me?'

She was about to formulate a suitably grovelling apology when there was a knock at the door.

"Oh, we have a new student starting today," Miss Fletcher announced. She opened the door and he walked in.

She noticed his shoes first—leather and expensive looking. Morgan always noticed shoes first. As her eyes moved up his body, she felt a familiar and dreadful feeling.

'He's beautiful,' she thought, gawping openly at his face when her eyes met his. He was looking around the class at the sea of faces before him, and his eyes lingered on her for just a second, making her heart flutter.

'This sensation. It's so familiar.'

Little strings wound their way around her heart and pulled in all directions as she continued to stare at him. His hair was pitch black, neatly parted and pushed back but a few strands fell over his ice-blue eyes.

'Like glaciers,' Morgan thought.

The little vein in her right eye twitched as she slowly blinked, looking down at her clenched fists.

'Dammit, Damien... why?'

"My name's Logan, I moved here from Riverside, and I, erm, I'm not sure what else to say," the new boy introduced himself. 

A cursory glance about the room at the other females suggested they were all under the same spell.

'But why would Damien make us all fall in love with the random new guy?' Morgan wondered. It made very little sense... unless he really was that good looking.

Glancing back at him as he moved to the corner seat by the window, it was the exact feeling she'd had when looking at Damien, only not quite as intense. 

'That cannot be a coincidence.'

"Any volunteers to show Logan the ropes?" the teacher asked.

Every single hand rose. Even the guys. 

Morgan looked up to see her hand was in the air along with them.

"Wow," Logan muttered, looking about the class with wide-eyed disbelief. "You guys are a lot friendlier than my last school."

Miss Fletcher chuckled. "I guess you can pick."

Logan looked left then right, sizing up his classmates before his eyes lingered on Morgan. 

"Morgan?" she asked, nodding with a sly look.

"Oh you don't want to upset the lord of darkness," Toby muttered, making the new boy frown in confusion.

She shot him a withering stare, shaking her head in an attempt to shut him up.

After the class Logan lingered at her desk, looking at her with a shy smile.

'My God, he's adorable,' she thought, smiling back. She waited for the rest of the students to file out before leading him into the corridor.

"What did that guy mean by 'upset the dark lord' or whatever?" he asked.

"It's nothing," Morgan tried to shake it off. "He means Damien."

She tried to think of a way to gloss over the situation and came up blank. 

"Don't worry about it," she said.

As they walked past the counsellor's office, Damien burst out of the door backwards, still talking to the woman who laughed behind the desk. He turned and looked genuinely confused to see Morgan with Logan.

"I see you got over me in record time," he teased with a toothy grin.

'I'm so glad you're back to looking like a demented squirrel,' Morgan thought. Memories of their intimate moments flooded her brain, making her face flush.

After a moment of silence, Morgan figured it was polite to introduce the two lads. 

"Logan, this is Damien, aka the Lord of Darkness," she said.

"Who called me that?" Damien scowled. 

"Erm, no one." Morgan looked at her feet, worried about getting Toby into trouble with Damien. She got the feeling his love spell was more about getting revenge on Toby than her, but she could be wrong about that. Both her and Toby had harassed him and his group in the past.

"Hmm, like The Omen." Logan smiled.

Instead of replying, Damien flashed his patented death stare.

"Okaaay, I have to show this one around," Morgan said, grabbing Logan's arm and pulling him away.

"He seems... scary," Logan said with a nervous sounding chuckle.

"He's the devil. Stay away from him if you can, and never, I repeat, NEVER insult him," Morgan warned.

Logan turned back, face screwed up as he watched Damien drop a book, kick it as he went to pick it up and swear loudly.

"Are you sure he's the devil?" he asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Don't be deceived by his general clumsiness. He's pure evil," Morgan said, only half-joking.

Once Damien had gathered his things and disappeared, Morgan became very aware of the fact her arm was now linked with Logan’s. She was close enough to smell him.

Breathing in, she got a whiff of coconut.

"Di-did you just smell my hair," he asked.

"Yes," Morgan admitted. "It smells like coconuts."

'Why did I say that?' Morgan panicked silently. She let out a strained laugh to pass it off as a joke, but it hadn't been.

'I can't lie to him,' she realised. 'This has to be Damien's doing. Or at least some weird side effect of what he did to me.'

...

'Well, this is just great.'