The Crucial Miscalculation (Rick and Morty) | ✓

Chapter 8: Imagining Things

The next planet they landed on was much different from the ones they had already visited. Achainia was freezing cold and seemingly lifeless. It was snowing constantly and the light coming from a nearby star was always muffled by dark clouds.

Rick led him to an underground hiding place and this time it didn't look like a nice summer house. Every surface was grey and seemed old as if it had never been used by anyone before.

Morty's grandpa apparently could see that the boy didn't want to talk to him as he left him alone saying that he needed to work on something. The first few days they spent almost not talking to each other at all. Rick would spend hours in his lab while Morty would either walk around or watch TV while trying not to think about anything at all.

Once again Morty had his own bedroom and during the night he could hear nothing but his own breathing which was both good and bad. It felt relieving to finally be left alone with his thoughts but at the same time said thoughts were haunting him and leaving him breathless.

Each time he went to sleep he had nightmares. He could see rotting bodies chasing after him and seeking his heart. Sometimes he would be taken back to that goddamn moment. He would feel everything all over again. All the fear. All the pain.

When he was tired of running from his demons he would look at the glowing green portal gun and wonder if maybe he could make a short trip home. Just to see his family and check if they were alright. At least for a few minutes. Rick would never know about it.

But that stupid wish would probably get them all killed and that was certainly something Morty didn't want to risk. So he would just examine the portal gun hoping that some day it would bring him home.

After a few days of isolation the dark thoughts started slowly disappearing and leaving Morty hungry for human contact. But even though he now understood that killing that Rick had been their only chance, he still couldn't look at his grandpa the same way as before.

The fact that Rick wasn't just mean and snarky, but rather selfish and cynical was now more clear than ever and it was something that Morty didn't want to deal with. He preferred to be delusional and believe that Rick's crazy antics were harmless. But now he was painfully aware of the fact that it wasn't true.

Morty didn't want to imagine what the other Ricks were chasing his grandfather for in the first place. Now it was obvious that it couldn't have been just something silly and relatively vague. It had to be something dark and serious.

But when three days passed Morty couldn't stand the silence anymore. He needed to talk to someone or otherwise he was going to go crazy from only having his grim thoughts for company.

So on the fourth day he wandered over to the lab for the first time. The door was ajar so Morty peeked inside and surely his gaze landed on his grandpa working on some kind of machine. Empty beer and vodka bottles were all over the place and Rick didn't look that great either. His eyes were slightly red and the circles underneath them were more prominent than usual.

Some part of Morty felt bad about not talking to his grandfather for three days straight but he still was angry at him for causing him so much suffering. But he knew he would need to move on eventually, so Morty pushed the door open and entered the lab, ready to face his demons.

Rick's eyes immediately wandered over to him but he didn't stop working on the machine. Morty didn't know if he was just imagining things or not but he thought he saw a glint of joy or hope in Rick's eyes as he carefully studied his grandson's face.

"What are you working on?" Morty asked wanting to avoid talking about what had happened. Even just looking at Rick's face was enough to remind him of everything. But he needed to move on from that and start looking into the future with hope instead of dread.