Dead by Morning (Rituals of the Night Book 1) (12 page)

                                                                      Chapter Twenty

“Who was that?” Chance asked Luna and she turned to see him standing behind her again. She wondered how much of the conversation he had heard.

“It was an old friend of mine,” she replied and pushed past.

“Would it be someone I know at the high school?” he asked standing in front of her so that she couldn’t pass him.

“Perhaps it is or maybe it isn’t,” she said as she pushed him out of the way without looking at him. If he was going to give her evasive answers then she could easily do the same.

“Where are you going?” he asked and she could tell he was growing annoyed with her.

He didn’t understand why she wouldn’t just take the time to answer him. It seemed like whoever was on the phone had told her something that she wasn’t supposed to share. He hated not knowing everything that happened around him.

Luna stopped walking and turned to look at him. He towered above her and she looked up at his cold blue eyes as he looked back at her expectantly. For a moment, he wondered if she was actually going to answer him. At the same time, Luna noticed she wasn’t scared of him at that moment. She guessed it was because of her whole conversation with Violet earlier. She had aired her weakness, gone into hysterics and come back. Without the weight of her burden, she was ready to face the problem head on.

“I’m going to bed.” 

Her mind was bubbling in excitement from what Max had been talking about and she wanted time to herself to be able to sit and think. She didn’t want to deal with Chance; not now, not ever.

“It’s like four in the afternoon,” Chance said turning to look at the clock.

“Yeah, so what?” she replied turning back towards her door to push it open.
Just a minute more with him, and then you’ll be alone,
she thought and used the strength it gave her to head towards her room. When she got inside she’d close the door on him and he’d have no choice but to go home.

“Hmm, something tells me you don’t want me here,” Chance said suddenly.

“You just now figured that out?” she asked him.

“If it’s about the whole business earlier at school, I’m sorry,” he said.

Luna looked at him, looked at the blank emotion that clung to the edges of his face. It was hard to tell if he had really meant his apology or not.

“Why can’t you just tell me why you do it instead of apologizing?” she asked him. “You can choke on your apology for all I care, just explain to me what the hell is wrong with you.”

“Why do I do what?” he asked swallowing nervously.

“Why did you hurt me like that? And why don’t you care Kate is dead? Don’t you feel anything knowing you’ll never talk to her again?”

“Things um…happen that I can’t always control,” he said not sure how to answer that question. He felt extremely uncomfortable that she had had the nerve to call him out on it, especially after she had seen what he was capable of doing. “As for Kate, her and I were never exactly close so of course I don’t really mind that she’s gone.”

“Why do you worship the devil?” she asked him the question that had been burning her tongue like acid.

Chance tensed at her question and stared at her completely speechless for a whole minute. She had caught him off guard with it. He knew she had seen the bones but how did she know what they meant? “I don’t worship the devil.”

“That’s why you attacked me today, right?” she asked.

He frowned. “I just wanted to make sure that you wouldn’t tell what you saw. Fear’s the best way to go about it.”

“I looked up what the pentagram was for and it’s for worshipping the devil. There’s no point lying to me.”

He stared back at her speechlessly for another moment and a moment was all it took for him to slip into That mind. In an instant, his hand wrapped around her throat and he slammed her up against the wall holding her just a foot off of the ground before she even had a chance to realize what had happened. “You cannot and I mean CANNOT tell anyone about that,” he said. “Do you understand?”

She gasped and looked up at him through fearful eyes. Violet had been right to be worried. Just as she feared, they were alone.

“Nobody in that whole fucking school knows about it. I know you’re not associated with them but you have a mouth and if you spill it it’ll be all over the school in a day. I can’t have that. If you’re gonna keep talking about this then maybe I’m going to have to do something to make sure you
can’t
tell anyone.”

“I won’t tell a soul,” Luna managed to squeak out partly knowing that humility might be the only thing to save her life. “I promise.”

Chance sighed before he let go of her neck, a red finger pattern was left in a ring on her pale skin. Luna slid to the floor gasping for air as she set her hand slowly to her throat. She looked up at him through panicked eyes as he looked back at her.

That’s when he realized the mistake he had made. She wasn’t safe from That mind and he almost killed her. But he had stopped and he had a feeling it was due to that nagging little voice in the back of his mind. The one that reminded him that even monsters had feelings. He looked down into her sad, scared face and knew that he had to get away from her before he snapped again.

“Oh, my god, I’m sorry,” he said and his voice sounded oddly hollow as it echoed about the room.

Luna stood up slowly and didn’t speak as she backed away from him without breaking her mortified stare. Her back hit the wall and she looked at him nervously, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to get away if he snapped again.

He stared at her speechlessly for a moment before he turned away. The next second she heard the front door slam shut, and she guessed he was going home. Sighing in relief, she turned and went into her room. She closed the door behind her, making careful sure to lock it in case Chance came back.

She stared at the closed door. He was so prepared to defend his secret that she wondered what lengths he would go to just to make sure it stayed hidden. She didn’t understand why he had looked so horrified after he had snapped out of his rage, hadn’t he been aware of what he was doing?

Luna frowned, was it possible that he didn’t control all of his actions? Was it possible that he was like a puppet only moving because of the strings that someone else pulled? She wondered again if he had been responsible for Kate’s death (or at the very least her disappearance). The sound of the satanic marks still bothered her since she didn’t know anyone else besides a Satanist that would do that to their victims.

She sighed and turned away from her door to look at her room. They hadn’t caught Kate’s killer, and Luna didn’t know for sure that Chance had done, it but that didn’t make her feel better. She set her fingers to her sore throat again. She didn’t know what to feel except that she definitely didn’t feel safe.

                                                        ~~~~~~~~~~~~

Violet paced worriedly back and forth in front of the phone waiting for it to ring though instinct told her that it wouldn’t. It had been an hour since she had left Luna alone with Chance, and she hoped more than anything that Luna was alright. She had asked her friend to call but she knew Luna was upset and probably wouldn’t even after Chance left. Violet had betrayed her, she could understand if Luna never wanted to talk to her again.

Violet stared at the phone contemplating the pros and cons of her situation. She knew that waiting was killing her inside; she had to know what was happening even if Luna decided to hang up on her. She picked up the phone and dialed Luna’s number in a flash. It rang a few times (each one that passed seemed to fill her heart with a feeling of dread and doom) and finally after the fourth ring Luna answered.

“Hello?” her emotionless voice rasped.

“Luna, are you alright?” Violet asked glad that she was just able to keep her desperation clear of her tone.

Luna coughed like she had something in her throat before she replied. “Yeah, I’m fine.” She wasn’t going to tell Violet about the second outburst of Chance’s, at least not yet. Not until she could figure it out.

“Did Chance leave yet?”

“Yeah, a while ago.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Just peachy.”

Violet was silent for a moment, of course she wasn’t convinced. “Are you still mad at me?” she asked her finally.

“It’s only been an hour, Violet. I need time to think still and I’ve got a lot on my plate right now.”

“Oh.”

Luna sighed feeling a little bit guilty; she could see that Violet was really concerned. Luna knew she could find it in her heart to give her best friend a second chance as much as it filled her with aggravation at the thought of what she had done.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure I’ll be over it soon.”

“I’m worried though,” Violet said.

“I’m okay, don’t be worried.”

“If you say so.”

“Did you hear about Kate?” Luna asked changing the subject. She didn’t particularly care to keep talking about Chance.

“What? That she was missing? I know, I told you that remember?”

“Yeah, I remember that. I meant the new one. They found her dead today.”

“Wait...what?”

“She’s dead; her body was found in the woods by an old road.”

“This is unbelievable.”

“That’s what I said.”

The girls were silent for a long moment.

“Look, just be careful, alright? I gotta get going.”

Violet sighed. “All right, see you at school tomorrow then.”

“Yeah,” Luna sighed and hung up.

Violet stared at the phone as the line clicked off. She didn’t feel any better for deciding to call, not at all. Luna sounded even more upset, and Violet knew that something must’ve happened in her absence.

She sighed deeply dismayed, what had she gotten Luna into?

                                                        Chapter Twenty-One

Chance was driving to Susan’s house, a bouquet of flowers in the seat beside him. He figured that she would have heard about Kate, and she’d be grief-stricken. He was confident that he could pretend a lot better with her than he had with Luna.

He pulled up in front of her house and climbed out of his truck, flowers clutched tight. He walked up to Susan’s house and right inside. She had always insisted her friends not knock; they were more than welcome inside. He found his way into her room in a few minutes.

Susan was lying on her stomach on her bed with her feet bent up as she stared intently at the laptop in front of her. Sarah was sitting in the bean bag chair on the floor with a nail file that she was gingerly running across her fingers.

“Hi, Chance,” Susan said.

She didn’t look the least bit upset; she was nearly radiate with her dark hair pulled back with her hair ribbon and her rosy cheeks. He knew instantly that she hadn’t been crying. He guessed that she didn’t know about Kate yet.

He nodded in greeting and stepped towards her, flowers held out. “Here, these are for you. I never got the chance to properly thank you for helping me out with Luna.”

Susan took them and smiled at them as she held the petals up to her face. “It was no problem really, she’s a sweetheart.”

Chance froze for a minute; there was a reaction he hadn’t been expecting. “You like her?”

“She’s nice, yeah. I might try to talk her more sometime.”

Chance’s stomach knotted up at the thought. Susan didn’t know about his darker half, but she did. If the two girls became friends, he knew it’d be only a matter of time before Susan found out.

“Did you see the news today?”

“No, I haven’t, why?”

“They uh…they found Kate.”

“Is she alright?” Sarah mumbled up from her place on the floor.

“No, she’s dead,” he said trying his best to wrap his words in sorrow.

Susan and Sarah gasped and their eyes were all for him. Their mouths were hanging open in clear shock; neither of them seemed to know what they could say.

“You’re kidding right, Chance? Please tell me you’re kidding.”

He shook his head and sat on the edge of her bed ‘sadly’. “I’m being serious.”

“Oh, my god,” Susan said slowly as it seemed to sink in and tears filled her eyes.

“It’s unbelievable!” Sarah whispered.

“I know,” Chance said doing his best ‘sad’ voice, and he was glad to see that they were falling for it.

“I’m going to call Maddie and see if she knows about this,” Sarah said getting up from the bean bag chair and leaving the room.

A knock sounded downstairs suddenly. Through her tears, Susan managed to look irritated. “What is she doing down there?”

“I don’t know,” Chance said turning his keen hearing downstairs. Alongside Sarah’s muffled voice, he could hear a new one, a deeper one (obviously a male).

A few minutes later, two cops appeared in the doorway. Both of them staring at Chance and Susan with expressions on their faces that were hard to read. They were dressed in full uniform, professional manner.

“Susan Cross and Chance Welfrey?” he asked.

“Yeah,” they replied at the same time.

“Good afternoon to you both. I’m Officer Smith and this is Officer Novak, we’d like to ask you some questions about Kate Red?”

“Yeah, of course,” Susan replied.

Chance stayed silent.

“Okay, well Mr. Welfrey you come out here with me,” Officer Smith said to him gesturing to the hallway. “And Officer Novak will stay in here to question you, Miss Cross.”

Chance gritted his teeth but walked towards the cops. He had dealt with cops enough that he had learned how to keep his cool around them, but they still managed to make him a tad nervous. He never knew when he would slide into That mind and it would be disastrous if it happened around an officer of the law.

They stepped around the bend in the doorframe and Officer Novak closed the door so that only a crack was open. It was enough for Chance to still hear inside.

“Were you close to Miss Red?” he could hear Officer Novak ask Susan at the same time that Officer Smith asked it to him.

“She was a good friend to Susan and I,” Chance lied and listened as Susan replied almost the same thing.

“And do you mind accounting for your whereabouts last Thursday between five and six p.m.?” both officers asked.

“I was getting a milkshake with my sister, Sarah Cross, and my friend, Madeline Hertz,” Susan said.

He could hear Officer Novak scribbling down her response probably in the notebook similar to the one Officer Smith clutched (who he realized was still waiting for his answer).

“I was here.”

The officer nodded. “Okay, and were you visiting either of the Cross sisters?”

“I was but they left.”

“Did you go with them?”

“No, I stayed here.”

“Why?”

“I’m close to Susan; her home is like a second home to me.”

“Okay,” Officer Smith said breathing out a gusty sigh and scribbling down Chance’s words. By his face, Chance could tell that he suspected something, but he didn’t know what.

“Okay, well when was the last time you saw Miss Red?”

“We both saw her when she stormed out of here on Thursday,” he heard Susan said. “Chance, Maddie, Sarah and I were all talking about the Homecoming Dance and she got upset when she found out that Chance was taking someone else, and she stormed out. I never caught up with her.”

“I was hanging with Susan and her sister and friend and Kate was here too and she left in the middle of us all talking,” Chance said shrugging.

“Okay, that’s about all,” he heard Officer Novak say to Susan. He looked at Officer Smith waiting for the same response, but he was staring hard at his notebook.

“One last question, Mr. Welfrey,” Officer Smith said as Officer Novak appeared from Susan’s room.

“Sure.”

“When we were looking for Miss Red before our unfortunate discovery, her mother found some jewelry in a pawn shop that she was wearing the day she disappeared. We checked the records and the clerk says you brought in the jewelry. Is that correct?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Care to explain that, Mr. Welfrey?”

“Not really, sir, it’s kind of embarrassing.”

“You do realize that this doesn’t look very good for you right now, don’t you?”

Chance bit his lip silent for a moment as he composed his thoughts.

“Yes, sir, but I have an explanation.”

“It’d be wise for you tell me what that explanation is, mister.”

“Well, you see she had a crush on me. Like a really big one. And she really wanted me to take her to the dance, but I told her I was taking someone else and she”- he stopped for a moment to fake a laugh but really he was trying to find the rest of his lie- “she wanted me to take her so bad that she gave me her jewelry as a kind of a bribe. I took it because like I said we were friends, and I was already hurting her feelings, I didn’t want to do any more damage by refusing her gift. But of course I didn’t want it either because it was so girly so I took it and I sold it. Is there any harm in that, Officer Smith?”

He wrote Chance’s words and then looked up at him. “No, Mr. Welfrey, I suppose not.”

“Of course, you don’t arrest people for taking back Christmas gifts that they don’t like, do you? This is pretty much the same thing.”

“I suppose if you’re telling the truth then it is.”

Chance nodded. “Sir, I always tell the truth.”

“Hmmph,” Officer Smith said disbelief in every part of him. He didn’t like the looks of the over confident teenager in all black. In all his years on the police force, he had learned how to identify a troublemaker from the bunch and he certainly fit the part.

“Well, good day then, sir,” Officer Smith said turning to go down the stairs and Officer Novak followed.

Chance sighed in heavy relief and then thought about how different his and Susan’s stories were. He knew the cops would compare them probably as soon as they got back in their car. They’d see the difference, they’d be back. He had to take advantage of this time. He rushed into the room and Susan looked at him, surprised.

“Wow, that was scary, huh, Chance,” she said to him.

“I got something even scarier for you,
sweetheart,”
he said and pulled his trusty dagger from his pocket.

Instantly, she cowered away, but he gripped her by her long beautiful hair. “Listen up and listen up good. The stories we gave the cops were different and they’re gonna realize that. When they do, I need you to do something for me.”

Her pained eyes stared up at him scared. “Chance, what are you talking about? What did you do?” Then understanding clouded her gaze. “Oh, my god! It was you…you killed Kate, didn’t you?”

He held the blade to her throat and knotted her hair up tighter into his fist. “Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t, but when those cops come back to question you again you’re gonna tell them that what you said was a lie. She didn’t storm out of here, she begged me to go to the dance with her and gave me her jewelry, but when I refused she was so heartbroken, she left.”

“But-but that didn’t happen!” she protested.

“I think this knife says that it did! Now, are you gonna be a good girl, and do as I said or are you planning on joining Katie?” he asked pulling her hair harder so that she was forced to look up at him.

“I-I’ll do what you said, I promise!”

“And this little incident here?
It never happened,
” he said rubbing the blade of his trusty dagger gently against her throat. It wasn’t gentle enough though, and it left a tiny incision, a tiny reminder to Susan that what was happening was very real indeed.

Tears streamed down her face. “Okay, I promise I won’t tell anyone, just please don’t kill me, Chance.”

“Not even your own sister.”

“Not even Sarah.”

“Good,” he smiled at her and more tears dripped from her wide eyes.

“And no more of this befriending Luna nonsense either,” he snapped. “She’s mine and no one else’s. If you go by her again, I’ll kill your sister in front of you, and then kill you as well, understood?”

Susan nodded, so scared she had forgotten how to speak.

Finally, Chance tucked his knife away and let go of her hair, but Susan didn’t move from the position he had left her in.

“Now that that’s out of the way, I’ll see you at school tomorrow,” he said. “And remember Susan, not a word.” He pulled out the dagger so that it flashed in the light before he turned and left her room.

Behind him, Susan broke down into a mess on her bed, her blood dripping into the white covers. She didn’t notice it as the fear took over, and she was left alone to cry out her hysterics.