The Donor House: Morgan: Meeting Lacey

[k_a_webb]

Lacey: First Night at the Donor House

Morgan bit her lip. She stared at her reflection, trying to work out exactly when her opinion of vampires had changed, but she couldn’t pinpoint one thing. On the day she’d walked into the House, which seemed like it had been years ago rather than just months, she had disliked vampires, because of what they were, like almost all new donors. Since then it had been a rollercoaster. It was hard to believe how much her life had changed, and in a few minutes time it would change again, when she met the new arrival for the first time.

Alice had given Morgan the job of being the greeter, for the first time, and she wanted to do it right, as Lacey was arriving at a difficult time for the House. Breathing deeply, because doing such an important job made Morgan nervous, she tried not to think about what Lacey might be like. Having expectations was a bad idea, because all of the new arrivals reacted differently to entering the House. They often varied between being unable to believe that they really had walked into the a house full of vampires, being angry at the world for forcing them into the House in the first place, and simply accepting the decision they had made, which depended on the reason they had applied to be a donor.

Shaking her head, Morgan tore her gaze away from the mirror. Entering the House had changed her life, and she was glad that she’d done it, but some days she couldn’t help wondering what her life would be like if she’d never applied to be a donor. There were people she never would have met, like Caleb, Alice, and Blake, and she couldn’t imagine her life without them. Of course there had been a time when she couldn’t imagine having a civil conversation with a vampire, let alone thinking about several of them as friends.

Even though Morgan had been thinking about what she should say to Lacey for several days, but it was almost impossible to find the right words, because there weren’t any. Morgan straightened her white jumper, touched the necklace that Caleb had given her, and left her room, still attempting to plan out what she should say. Lacey was on the same floor as Morgan, so it didn’t take long for her to get to the right room, and she knew that all she could do was go with the flow. Swallowing, she knocked on the door.

It was almost a surprise when the door opened moments later. Morgan remembered how much she’d wanted to stay in her room, away from everything and everyone, because it was easier, and safer, than dealing with the vampires. Being scared of vampires was really the only thing that made sense, even though Nick had explained to her that they were a different kind of vampire. Until she’d met Alice, and then Blake, she hadn’t understood what that meant.

“Hi,” Lacey said, as she opened the door, with what seemed to be no emotion in her voice at all, but it was hard to tell from one word.

“Lacey right?” Morgan asked, trying once again to work out what the right words were, which was even harder with Lacey being there. “Great. I’m Morgan. I’m here to be your guide tonight and introduce you to some of the people who work here. Today you need to make sure you’re wearing something white to show that it’s your night off.”

Morgan felt like she was babbling, and the words she was saying probably weren’t coming out the way they should, but at least she remembered the one thing she needed to. The wearing of white was more important for new donors really, even though Alice was insistent that even the practiced donors followed the rule, and the last thing Morgan wanted was for someone to scare Lacey on her first day at the house.

“I don’t know if I have anything white.”

“That’s why I brought this.” Morgan pulled a white ribbon out of her pocket. “Wrap it around your wrist and we’re good to go. I suggest you buy something else as soon as you can but for now the ribbon will be fine. If you forget to wear something white on your night off then a visiting vampire will assume that it’s fine to drink from you.” Not that something like that had ever happened, because Alice wouldn’t let it happen. “Normally a vampire will talk to you before they drink from you. They think it’s bad manners not to have a conversation with their donor. A few don’t care. Wearing white is your only safety mechanism against them.”

The words Morgan spoke were the same words that had been said to her on her first day. She didn’t think she was saying the right thing, because the few vampires who might ignore the unwritten protocol were watched closely by Alice, but repeating the warning that had first been passed from donor to donor when the house had first opened and no one was sure what to expect.

“Has that happened to you before?”

Morgan nodded, even though she was lying, because she had come to the conclusion that no new donor would understand why she had made the decision she had. “It was my own fault. I thought I’d be fine because I was only popping into the dining room to pick up a bottle of orange juice. One of my regulars was there and he couldn’t do anything to stop it because I wasn’t wearing white.”

There had been a girl, during the first few months of the house being open, who had been bitten by a vampire because she wasn’t wearing white. Alice had kicked the vampire out, put his name on a list of vampires who weren’t permitted into the house under any circumstances, and reminded everyone that the donors were to be treated with respect. No vampire had permission to bite any donor at random. It had never happened again. Morgan had chosen to drop her white ribbon in order to help a vampire and she would do it again if she had to, because it had been the right thing to do.

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.