Living Armor Boyfriend: Morrow (rough draft)

Sometimes it’s hard for me to sit still and think straight. I have a hard time getting my words out properly when I speak. So, when I do feel like I can get my words out in a way that’s coherent for other people, I tend to shout and blurt it out loudly. It’s easy to feel like I don’t think like everyone else, especially not my sisters. Winifred is so responsible, and Edith is so smart, I don’t know exactly how I’m supposed to line up with them some days. My mind wanders, it blanks, it sometimes squacks loudly at me. It’ll shut off one day though, right?

At least I can read, is what I tell myself. Even if it does take time for me to focus on it, I can read things others can’t. In books, the words all make sense to me, I can see music and play it instantly. If I try really hard, I can sometimes read around a person. So far, all I can read about people is if they are acting nice or if they are acting mean. My mind won’t let me focus enough to read much else into a person. I’ve been told this is a blessing from Father Klaus, but I would give it away in an instant to be able to think normal.

I know I sometimes rely heavily on my sisters. I lean on them to help me plan and think ahead, but even then, it’s hard. Edith has always had good ideas for how to help me, like giving me something soft to touch, or making something that will occupy my hands while I read. I was told as a baby I was hard to hold, and my mother grew frustrated. My dad said he thought it was best I leave the Keep because it would be easier for me. I never knew my mother like Winifred and Edith did. So I feel bad that I want to know her, even though Edith is really angry with her.

I suppose that’s why I wanted to help Edith, because maybe, I could meet my mother, even for a little bit. I felt if I met her, I could put into perspective why my head was the way it was. Why was I so scrambled when my sisters were so hard boiled? So when we found books they couldn’t read, but I could, I grew really excited to be useful for something. But, I sort of twisted things, I did find a spell to summon an entity that could help give us power in doing Edith’s plan. Instead, though, I found something else, and since neither Edith nor Winifred could read like I could, I summoned it instead.

The spell said the spirits would mend hearts for the better, and I thought it would help Edith and Winifred, since they seemed so upset at our mom. But, I don’t think clearly all the time, so maybe I did do something bad. Because the suit of armor that stands before me is kind of scary. Okay, he is super fucking scary.

Black armor has never been good, right? I mean, in all the fairy tales, that’s the symbol of the villain. So this suit of armor, all black, sharp, and menacing, doesn’t exactly ring any happy bells for me. No, no, all I hear are huge, massive church bells that sound like darkness come to life.

“Wait,” I gasp out loud and turn. “Those are church bells!” I’m standing on top of a hill, but I had been in the pavilion with my sisters just a second ago. The area around me is dark and grey. Even the sky is shrouded with thick dark clouds. When I breathe, I smell smoke rather than the cold scent of fresh snow in the air. It feels like everything is still; no birds, no animals, no breath between the streets. Only stone like pine trees stood around me.

“Wait, where the fuck are we?” I snap back at the suit of armor. “What’s going on? Where are my sisters? What the fuck is this?”

The suit is silent and still for a moment, only moving to lift his hand up and point along a winding path behind us. I follow his pointing finger then look back at him.

“Fuck that. I’m not going anywhere near there,” I fuss.

He growls deep, rattling the metal armor around him.

“Shit,” I gulp and hold my tongue. Maybe it’s not the best thing to talk to this one too much. But, I never could sit still long enough to really hold anything. “I’m Lydia,” I say while pointing directly at myself. “I summoned you. So I command you to take me home.”

The suit snarled under his breath and shook his head.

“What do you mean no? Are you even allowed to do that?” I look around for the spell book. “I know there are rules for these sorts of things. This isn’t just something made up! This is magic and magic isn’t just a lot of surprising things. It’s real, you know? And it has rules just like everything else in life, so you can’t-”

The suit of armor roars at me, growing back his shoulders, craning his neck, and putting his all into it.

“Don’t talk to me like that! I can’t help this! My head isn’t put on right!” I knock my fist against my temple. “I’m also scared so it’s making all my talking worse! So the roaring and the spooky way you’re standing isn’t helping!”

He stands erect and lifts his hand, moving it in a strange fashion, but for some reason, I can understand the way his hands move, almost as if he’s talking with them.

“Oh,” I murmur. “So your neck isn’t put on right either?”

He moves his hands again to speak to me.

“I’m sorry. I’ll try to listen, but I have a hard time doing that.” I give him an apologetic smile. “I’m glad I can understand you though-” I hesitate. “What's your name then, sir?”

His hands move elegantly, even while being wrapped in the jagged, spooky armor he is wearing.

“Morrow,” I murmur. “That’s really pretty actually. Sounds like the name of a prince. You don’t look like a prince, though. Your armor makes you look like a-”

He points again down the path.

“Okay, okay, I’m going. Damn.” I walk ahead, but even before I can make heads or tails of where I’m going, I start to wander. I step off the path to look at some stones piled along the way. I step over towards them. “These look funny.” I say as I crouch down before them. “They’re stacked weird, almost like-” I realize it’s the foundation of a house, I’m not looking at any sort of stack, I’m looking at a set of ruins.

Morrow comes up behind me, motioning back towards the path.

“Where are we?” I ask. “What is this place? Everything smells old and earthy.”

Morrow grumbles deep in his chest, letting his shoulders sag. He points back onto the path then signs again. “Just follow me.”

“I’d like to know where we are going at least.” I stand up from the ruins and look back at them as I leave.

Morrow keeps behind me, if only to make sure I keep going. Once we crest over a hill, I can see the horizon before me. Everything looks strange, almost familiar, but there’s something that isn’t quite right about what I am seeing.

“You know, I was really thinking it was my sisters who needed this mending of hearts sort of thing. I didn’t think there was anything wrong with it aside from my-” I stop in my tracks when it finally clicks for me. After rolling around in my mind, the marble finally fell. “Where are the Kringle Peaks?” I ask breathlessly. “They’re...sort of there, but they’re not all there.” I look back at Morrow. “What happened?”

Morrow nods his head gently.

“What does that mean?” I huff at him. “I don’t have a train of thought like most people! I need you to be direct with me.”

Morrow takes his helm into his hand and opens it up, letting lava and spewing hot ash pour from inside. I scream at him, jumping away until I realize it’s no longer there. In a blink, it all just vanishes, and instead I only see the one, pale blue eye inside. He closes his helm back and I gasp.

My jaw drops and my lungs constrict tight within my chest. “The Peaks fucking erupted? But how?”

Morrow takes my hand and leads me along the path again. I soon come to understand that the ruins around us were once the town. Pine trees have spread inward, creating a sparse forest where the town once used to be. But due to the ash in the snow, the trees, too, looked stone like. There was no life here, just grey and doom.

We stop in a place that is familiar, at least, in my mind, it feels that way. I kneel down to the ground, digging away snow and dirt to find the street. There, on the stone path, I see the rock with veins of amethyst that my dads had put in front of our house. I look up, no longer seeing the brick house where I grew up, I didn’t see the windows trimmed in white, nor the little windchime I had hanging over the front door.

I turn back to Morrow, my thoughts spinning and colliding. There is so much that could have happened here, it’s making my head loud and angry.

“Please tell me this isn’t real,” I begin to cry. My head aches from so much effort and I have to clasp my hands over my ears as the world seems too loud. “Tell me this isn’t even a possibility.” I look at him, watching his hands move.

‘This is a possibility, but only a possibility.’

I have to give myself a moment to let the thoughts calm down, to let the world be quiet again. “If it is only a possibility, then why show me this?”

Morrow tilts his head down then turns and points again.

I grimace. “You can just tell me! I can read your hands. You don’t always have to point, that’s rude, you know?”

Morrow starts talking with his hands again.

I raise my hand. “You’re talking too fast, hold on!”

He starts over and I have a better time reading him. “Futures are not a permanent fixture on the horizon. They are points of direction we can go. Always changing, sometimes even with our breath. I need you to see this so you will know how to lead your family.”

“Lead my family?” I balk at him. “I can’t even lead a horse to water!”

“Your powers are more advanced than theirs are. Your perception, your ability to read, are needed to ensure your sister does not cause great harm.”

“Which one?” I murmur.

His hands go still.

I frown at him. “I need my sisters, I can’t tell them what to do.” I start pacing and rubbing my hands up and down my arms. “I need them to tell me what to do.”

Morrow just watches me pace back and forth in the ash.

“I’m not a future person!” I insist. “I can only think in terms of here, of now. If I try to think too far ahead, my mind gets all-” I stop and close my eyes as I begin to cry.

Morrow touches my shoulder and I look back at him to see him speak. “It’s not about time,” he says. “It’s about knowing what is good and what is wrong.”

Tears slip down my cheeks. “What do you mean?”

He continues to move his hands to talk. “You knew it was wrong to summon the creature your sister, Edith, wanted. So you chose something else. You say you can’t plan for the future, but in that moment, you did.”

“Then this…” I look around us and blink more tears free. “This could have been what happened had I not changed the spell?”

Morrow nods. “You changed the future because of the perception you possess. You knew it would be wrong, so you chose something that you felt was right.”

I sniffle and wipe my nose with my sleeve. “You could have just said so instead of scaring me,” I laugh despite the fact I’m crying. “Shit!”

Morrow offers his hand to me and when I take it, I find it’s so magically warm. I place my other hand around it, finding that his armor feels smooth to the touch. I smile shyly at him and shake his hand.

Morrow’s chest rumbles with a deep sound and, for some reason, I have the sudden urge to hug him. I put my arms around him, squeezing tight despite the armor. He holds his arms awkwardly, not exactly sure what to do in the moment.

“Thanks!” I say as I step back. “I’ve always felt I could never make the right choice without my sisters helping me. But after seeing this, maybe they’re the ones who need me.”

Morrow lowers his head slightly and signs again. “Just because you feel your train of thought isn’t the usual, that doesn’t mean it’s not good. Give yourself patience and understanding, you deserve that. Not everyone has to think or feel the same at all times. If that were the case, in times of crisis, we’d all react the same way.”

I smile at him again. “I’ll try to remember that.”

“I can tell you from now on when you need it. Because from here on out, I will be your familiar.” He holds his hand to me again.

I’m fit to burst. I’ve never had a friend outside of my sisters. I’ve always been too much for others to handle for too long. I can’t contain my grin, thinking about how Morrow and I will be friends from here on out. “Are you sure you want me?”

“It’s not about wanting this,” he replies with his hands. “We were placed together because the two of us needed one another.”

I never expected to hear those words from another being, at least, not directed to me. “My, my, if this was a different situation, I think those words would have earned you a kiss.”

The blue glow of his eye grows bright behind the helm.

Rather than take his offered hand, I slip my arm around his waist and stand by his side so he can use both his hands to speak, although, right now, I could feel something emanating from him. Not just warmth, but something a little more, something a little deeper. Perhaps this is the bond that has formed between us. The need for us to be together. I think I could grow to like that word a lot more. Need, it sounds so strong yet so weak at the same time. I wonder how long we will need each other. Days? Years? Is this a lifetime thing? I hope it is, I would like for Morrow to be around for a long time. Even if he is some spooky spirit from another realm.

Morrow puts his hand before my eyes and shuts off my train of thought. “Thinking?” He signs with his hands.

I smile up at him. “You could tell?”

“You got this look on your face. It was weird so I thought I’d intervene. It’s time we go back.”

I suddenly grow very worried. “Will my sisters be mad at me for what I did? Or did they see the same thing I did?”

“Your sisters saw what they needed, just like you.” He then extends his arm out and the ash turns back into snow. The ruins grow back into place, turning into houses and buildings. Between the snowflakes I could see my sisters appearing again.

I look back up at Morrow. “Thank you.”

His eye flashes blue behind his helm again and suddenly the world starts back. I feel life around me again, I smell cold snow. My sisters both look the same, but there is something changed in their eyes. We look at one another, smiling, before the three suits of armor gather together then kneel down before us.

“We are yours to command until the Eve you will want us no more.” They speak in unison.

I look at my sisters, each of us exchanging looks. I then break a smile and hold my arms out. “Well? Are we still going?”

“Uh,” Edith starts. “I’m not sure anymore.”

“We should go,” Winifred says decisively. “Not in war, mind you. But I do think we should go and talk directly to our mother.”

Edith and I look surprised at Winifred. “Yeah, me too!” I agree. “I’ve thought that the whole time!”

“Really?” Edith asks quietly.

I nod. “Yeah! You’ve been too harsh. I don’t even know our mom and yet you think I can’t stand her either?”

“I’m sorry,” Edith says softly. She nods. “You’re both right.” She takes a deep breath then smiles at us. “I should have listened to you two, or at least, given you both a chance to speak. I’m so sorry.”

It was a strange moment as Winifred and I were both used to Edith being loud and pushy with her strong beliefs. “We can forgive Edith,” Winifred replies.

I have so much going on in my mind. Like, what happened with Edith and her suit of armor? What did Winifred and her suit do? They both feel so different yet the same. Do I feel that way? Do I seem different to them too? Morrow then waves at me, catching my attention and diverting it. I smile at him and wave back before looking to my sisters.

“Then let’s go,” I hold my hand out to her. “We have back up now, after all.” I look back at the three knights who were with us now. “We can do this together.”