Dead by Morning (Rituals of the Night Book 1) (13 page)

                                                                      Chapter Twenty-Two

It took Susan a few hours to calm down. Part of her had wondered where Sarah had gotten to while the other half was happy that she hadn’t come back up to see her in the middle of her mess. Susan lifted her hand to her throat and noted the thin crust over her cut. She dropped her hand glad that the bleeding had stopped. The wound could’ve been much, much worse she knew.

She stood up and wiped at her swollen eyes as she made her way over to her vanity mirror. She flinched away from her reflection; she knew that at the moment, she was anything but pretty. She wiped the tears from her face again and turned away. She couldn’t believe what Chance had told her.

Every instinct in her told her to run to the cops and tell them what she knew anyways. Maybe they’d be able to keep her and her sister safe if she told them in time, but fear kept her silent. She couldn’t flag down the cops that had been there even if they were still outside because she had no idea where Chance was. Had he gone home or was he lurking around outside? Lurking and waiting for her to crack? Susan sniffled and stood in the middle of the room trying to decide what she should do next. 

In his rage he had mentioned Luna. Susan’s eyes widened, what if Luna was his next victim and that’s why he wanted her to stay away? She frowned as she remembered Luna’s reaction to Chance’s name in the store. Luna knew, didn’t she? Susan knew she couldn’t keep her mouth shut, especially if she knew something that was capable of saving another life.

Her reddened face hardened with ambition and she ran from the room and out the front door, the entire time her eyes were on the lookout for Chance. It was clear all the way through and she rushed to her car.

She cowered in it as the little voice in her head reminded her that Chance could be
anywhere.
She hurried to start her car and drove to Luna’s. The whole time she was hoping that she would be home. If she wasn’t…well, this would be Susan’s only chance to tell her.

She slammed on the brake as soon as she was in front of Luna’s. It looked empty and unwelcoming. The lights seemed dimmed and it was hard to tell if anyone was home. Susan turned off her car and ran up to the front door anyways. She knocked until her knuckles turned bright red.

After a minute, Luna answered. Her hair was rumpled and she looked like she had been lying down. At the sight of Susan, broken, bloody and hair knotted about her head, Luna’s eyes stretched wide in horrified disbelief.

“Luna-Luna you gotta listen to me,” Susan began before Luna could wonder out loud what had happened. “And you have to really hear everything I’m saying.”

“Susan, what is it? Are you okay? You-you’re bleeding!” Luna couldn’t hold in her shock. Susan just looked so battered, so frail, and so lifeless.

“Yeah I-I know. It’s fine, it actually stopped now, but I need you to listen to me. Please listen!!”

“What is it?” Luna asked feeling frantic.

She didn’t know what had happened to Susan, and she certainly didn’t know how she could possibly fix the situation. But she did know how to listen and Susan seemed intent on talking.

“Cha-Chance,” she panted and then swallowed. “He-he’s dangerous.”

Luna felt her heart sink. Had Chance been trying to
kill
her? She squinted her eyes to see the tiny gash on Susan’s throat better. It was a near perfect line, obvious knife mark. Chance had been to work.

“What did he do to you, Susan?”

“He-he killed someone and-and the cops came and he thinks they suspect him. He made me promise to keep my mouth shut but-but I think he’s gonna kill you next. I wanted to warn you.”

“What?” Luna was too shocked to believe what she had heard, and part of her wondered if this was another of her messed up dreams.

“He’s insane. I-I don’t know what to do.”

“Did he try to kill you?” Luna asked in a hushed whisper.

Susan shook her head and then looked at Luna with eyes clouded with uncertainty. “I don’t know. I don’t think so- I mean at least not yet.”

“Tell me what happened,” Luna said feeling as though she could really connect to Susan in this moment.

“I-I can’t.”

“He’s attacked me twice,” Luna admitted.

Susan’s face twisted a bit but she wasn’t surprised after what she had experienced today.

“Did he pull a knife on you?”

“No, he choked me though.”

“Please be careful, Luna.”

“You should do the same, you know.”

Susan nodded absently, her mind miles away.

“Come inside, please, we’ll call the cops and press charges together. He’ll get put in prison. And we’ll be okay.”

“I-I can’t do it,” Susan said taking a step backwards off of the porch.

“Why?” Luna asked confused.

“He threatened to hurt Sarah if I did anything.”

“But you’ve already told me and that’s against what he wanted, if he finds out you know for sure that he’ll hurt you…why don’t you just call the cops. Protect yourself and your sister?” Luna pleaded knowing that if she didn’t choose to be protected, then she was choosing to be dead.

“I just thought you should know so you can try to protect yourself,” Susan said and turned and ran from the porch to her waiting car leaving behind a very confused, and upset Luna.

                                                        ~~~~~~~~~~

Luna watched as Susan’s pink car sped away into the dying light of the evening wishing that she could’ve gotten her to stay. She knew that if Susan was killed as well it would be all her fault. Luna closed the door behind her as she went back into the house, not able to believe what she had just seen.

Had she really just said that Chance had killed someone just like Luna had suspected? And by
someone
did she mean Kate? She frowned, momentarily wondering if Susan was only playing with her, but then she remembered the gash on her throat. She knew that
that
wasn’t fake.

Chance must’ve snapped and gone into his rage again only this time on Susan. Luna wondered if he had cornered Susan when she had been alone or if he had done it in front of Sarah anyways. Either way, Luna had a feeling that in this attack he had been more capable of controlling himself and planning out his actions since he had threatened her with a knife. He hadn’t done that to her.

Pieces seemed to fall into place inside Luna’s head like rusty gears spurring into action. That was why he had some people blindly obey him. There must’ve been others exposed to his secret (though most of them were six feet under now). There was something deeply wrong with him, and Luna wondered what it was. She frowned, wondering if she should tell someone about Susan.

Luna knew very well that Chance was dangerous, and if she slipped and told somebody about what Susan had just told her she’d end up having both Sarah and Susan killed. She thought it was incredibly foolish of Susan to refuse to try going to the authorities, but she couldn’t blame her.

“So what are you going to do about him? He’s clearly unstable.”

“Nothing.”

“Why nothing? What happened today looked serious.”

“Because no matter what I do he just won’t leave me alone. Telling someone will only make him much, much worse I’m sure.”

Luna remembered her earlier conversation with Violet and realized she was the same exact way. Having been assaulted twice, she still refused to go to the cops out of pure fear. As foolish as it seemed, fear was a powerful emotion.

                                                                      ~~~~~~~~~~

Chance sat in his Honda Ridgeline just around the block from Susan’s house carefully wiping her blood off of his blade with a jet black rag. He observed the beautifully carved snake in the dark wooden handle before he tucked it back away gently into his pocket and started his truck to start driving home. When he had left Susan’s house he hadn’t seen Officer Smith or Novak, but he still had the uncomfortable feeling that he was being watched.

That’s when he realized that all of his senses were still keen and he was alert. He didn’t feel bleary and out of it, like he usually did after he had an explosive episode. That was simply because this time he hadn’t slipped into That mind in the process. He had been fully himself, fully aware of his surroundings.

Except this time, he wasn’t worried that people would find out about his secret. That constant worry was what kept him from snapping unless he slipped into That mind, but he found that today he didn’t have to. That was new. He shook his head, so many things were new with him that he couldn’t keep track.

That mind seemed to be spiraling out of control, but he seemed to be pulling traits from it and incorporating it in the part of him that he could control. He didn’t know when the transition had quite happened. He guessed it had happened about the time he realized that Luna had the gift he was looking for.

He liked how he had felt seeing the fear in Susan’s usually so happy eyes. Knowing that he had complete control over her at that moment. Control over whether she lived or died. It had made him feel empowered, lighter than air. He never knew that he could be so violent outside of That mind, but now that it had happened, he found that he didn’t regret it, not at all.

He pulled his truck into its usual place on the outskirts of ‘his’ land. He cut the engine, and sat there for a moment. He noticed that in the seat next to him Luna’s beautiful rose was still sitting. He hadn’t noticed that she left it. He picked it up and clutched it in his hand as he left the truck.

He crossed the land quickly, his heavy black boots flattening the grass as he went. He was the only moving shadow amongst the darkening sky. He opened the heavy door to the old house and closed it behind him again. He pulled a matchbook out of his pocket and struck a match to light a small white candle beside the door. He set it down on the table by the couch and turned to go down the hallway.

He went into his dark room, the rose was still clutched in his hand. He bent down to pick up a large bone off of the floor that had been sitting by the door (it had at one time been a femur he thought), but it was hard to tell as it was blackened and worn down by years of decomposing. He took the rose and wrapped the stem carefully around the bone. He kicked the bones out of the way from between the two candles and set down the femur-rose combination between them.

He stared at it for a moment, in admiration of the way the candlelight threw shadows across the rose making it look as if the bone itself was bleeding. He bowed his head in respect to the pentagram and uttered a little prayer to Satan before he turned and left the room without glancing back.

He made his way back to the living room where the tiny candle still burned ominously. He picked it up and carried it to the dark room that he had been using as his bedroom. The old beat up mattress he called his bed lie on the floor looking unwelcoming. Chance sighed and settled down on it, the broken springs pressing uncomfortably into his back. He licked his fingers and put out the candle with a tiny hissing noise.

He clamped his eyes shut to go to sleep, but he knew that he couldn’t relax just yet. He had more work to do in DreamWorld than he had to do in reality.

                                                                      Chapter Twenty-Three

Once again, Luna fought her dream abductor. She kicked and struggled with everything she had left in her, but that strength was dwindling away slowly with every pointless thing she tried. Luna tried to elbow him again, but her arm missed by inches. Taking in a deep breath, she gave up fighting. The harder she fought, the tighter he held on.

As he dragged her along the strange forest, Luna noticed that the scenery around her finally seemed to change a bit. The thick luscious trees of the heart of the forest were beginning to thin out as they moved away from it, only dead trees and trees stripped of all leaves remained around them.

The air didn’t feel right, and the atmosphere had grown darker above their heads. Beneath their feet there wasn’t any more grass, but black colored dirt that looked almost like soot with awkwardly shaped pebbles that were sparsely scattered across it to make a kind of cobblestone look.

They weren’t in the forest anymore, but had taken a remote trail that led somewhere else. Luna looked up and noticed a cabin come into view. It looked old and unsafe, and she knew instantly that she didn’t want to go in it. It was certain death. She noticed an enormous stone temple that stood right next door to the cabin. Ivy grew through the cracks in the side between each of the heavy stones, and it looked like no one had been there for a while.

Luna stared at it in horror as her body froze in fear. She knew what a temple like that was for. People used them to practice sacrificial offerings. It was then that she realized they had stopped moving. It dawned on her that they had reached the cabin as the rotting wall stood less than a foot away from Luna’s face.

It didn’t look like he was taking her to the temple after all. Her abductor reached around her to push open the door to the cabin. Luna peered inside timidly. It was barely lit so she couldn’t make out any details, and the only light she could see seemed to flicker. It was candlelight.

Luna felt a strong shove from behind and stumbled inside the cabin as she tried to catch her balance. She tilted awkwardly into the cabin. There would be no way out now. He stepped in after her and closed the door behind him. She felt a trill of fear as the darkness surrounded her on all sides, nearly suffocating like a cloth over her face. He pushed her suddenly and kept edging her closer and closer to a wall and in the faint light she caught a metallic glint. She realized that there were two shackles attached to the wall, and a skeleton beside it.

“Sit on the floor next to the wall,” the familiar voice growled in her ear.

Luna turned to glare at him, but even being this close to him, she couldn’t make out any particular features. It was just a blur of shadows across her face. She remembered that he could easily hurt her like he had done to Violet. She wasn’t willing to test his patience again.

He crouched down to her level suddenly as if he was going to say something. She glanced at him hoping to see his face. Though he had taken down his hood when he had entered the cabin, it was too dark for her to see any details of his face. He stayed like that for a moment staring at her. She felt her stomach clench in fear as she wondered what he would do next.

Quick as a flash, he grasped her arm and locked the silver shackle around her wrist. She tried to pull it free, but when she was distracted, he was quick to do the same to her other wrist before she had even realized what had happened.

She pulled against the chains with all her might, but her arms slammed back against the cold wall. Her abductor stood up and stared at her as if she was artwork on display. It was the same thing he had been doing after he had shot Violet.

“Well, I’ll be heading out now. Don’t go anywhere,” he laughed before he paced to the door. He looked around the room once, and then left without another word.

Luna frantically glanced around in the dim light as her eyes slowly began to adjust. The cabin was completely wooden with beams that ran across the ceiling and delicate cobwebs in the corners of the frame. The door seemed heavy with crossed beams and the windows were painted over in black.

There had to be some way out. Right away, she noticed a small end table a few feet away, and she wondered if the keys to the locks were there. On top of it, she noticed a dagger with a cobra carved into the silver handle. Her eye moved to the blade which she was horrified to see was glistening with fresh red blood. She screamed louder than she had ever screamed before.

                                                        ~~~~~~~~~~~

In Elida, Ohio, Max stirred in his bed, caught up in the same powerful dream trap that had caught Luna in the next town over. In his mind, he was back in that bloody forest, in the dream at exactly the place where the other one had left off. He was glad he wouldn’t have to deal with getting shot a third time. He never thought he’d say it but he was glad that he had already been wounded.

He was lying behind the bush he had crouched behind in the last dream. He couldn’t seem to get up because his arm radiated pain from when he had been shot. Faint phantom pains still managed to echo throughout him and squirts of blood found their way to the surface of his skin.

He wiped at it absently, feeling himself growing dizzier and dizzier as the blood leaked out, but out in the woods there was nothing he could use to slow it. Then, he felt something new, a strong tug on his collar (which brought the bit of his shirt up against his throat) and he realized he was being dragged. He tried to protest or fight but the blood was weakening him. He looked up at whoever was there, trying desperately to catch the identity. He only caught a flash of black, no details.

He coughed, struggling to breathe. He was still being dragged roughly through the forest, a bit faster now. Max kicked out trying to get the figure to let him go, but he barely had an impact. Then, he was dropped roughly from the tight grip and the back of his head slammed into the ground.

Max groaned but managed to turn his head enough to see the clearing ahead of him and the boots of the figure beside him. There was a cabin and a temple sitting side by side, and Max knew instantly his initial feeling of dread when he had first entered this dream was spot on.

A dog’s frustrated howling rang out from somewhere nearby. It made Max jump. He tried turning his head again (wary of having a dog that sounded like that coming anywhere near him), but he only caught a glimpse of large dogs milling about around the cabin, eating chunks of something. He couldn’t tell their breeds or how many of them there actually were. He shook his head, Luna would not be happy.

                                                                      ~~~~~~~~~~

Luna shot straight up in bed as the cabin suddenly disappeared. The sight of her walls didn’t bring her much comfort. Her entire face was drenched in sweat and her black hair was matted thickly to her forehead. She raised her hand to her forehead to pull the dark clumps off of her skin. She wiped the sweat off, still shaking a bit from the aftershock of her dream. Her heart pounded in her chest, and she gasped for air. She knocked the covers off of her as she tried to frantically catch her breath.

It was only a dream,
Luna told herself to calm down even thought subconsciously she knew better than that.

Her efforts to stop panicking were futile. She had the feeling that this new dream was somehow tied to the first one. It was like that dream she had just had simply continued where the first one had left off. It had seemed like it, but then why had she had the first dream twice? Could that be of any importance?

Luna stood up shakily as she tried her best to calm down. She didn’t want to lie back down right away to try to sleep because she knew that she’d see the image of the bloody dagger again. It was like it had been burned into the back of her eyelids with a branding iron.

Still feeling unsteady, she managed to walk across her room and into the kitchen without falling. She used the wall to hold her up for a moment. She decided that maybe a glass of cold water would help her calm down. She went over to the sink and filled up a cup. After she filled it to the brim, she carefully crossed the kitchen and took small sips out of the glass. Her mind began to wander as she stared at the dark water as it splashed against the sides of the cup.

In the back of her mind, she couldn’t help but wonder if Max had had the same dream that she had tonight. Once again, Luna found herself wishing it was tomorrow so that she could talk to him already. Tomorrow seemed so far away, especially when sleep was next to impossible to come by.

Luna sighed as she set the cup in the sink and silently headed back to her room. She settled down into her bed. She blinked and immediately her eyes opened again. She just couldn’t get the image of the bloody dagger out of her mind. It wasn’t so much the sight of the blood glistening on the blade that had bothered her, but the thought that went along with the image.

Who had he killed with it?

And who was ‘he’ anyways? He seemed so familiar to Luna, but his identity was still just out of reach. If she knew him, she couldn’t seem to point out who was haunting her dreams. The bloody dagger belonged to him that much she knew for sure.

Was it possible that she really knew someone that was that cruel? The voice in her head seemed to whisper “Chance”. Susan had said that he had admitted to killing someone, but Luna found that in that moment she was having a hard time believing her. She’d keep her mind open. She knew that anything was possible ever since she had found out Chance’s secret.

No, this isn’t possible,
a tiny voice seemed to answer her after a moment of thinking.
It’s just not possible.

She pulled the covers back up to her neck and stared up at the ceiling through unblinking eyes once again. It was hard to fall asleep knowing what could be waiting in the invisible realm on the edge of reality.

She closed her eyes feeling satisfied that she finally didn’t see the image of the dagger burned there. As soon as sleep engulfed her, she was horrified as the vivid dream began to replay through her mind once again.

                                                       
Chapter Twenty-Four

Chance awoke feeling pure joy and ecstasy. He definitely had Luna trapped in his dreams. Then the feeling wore off as he remembered finding the boy he had shot out in the woods. The boy knew Luna, it was obvious. What was worse was that had seen Chance in his worst element.

This mystery kid was a definite problem, especially since Chance didn’t know who he was. Could he be the mystery person that Luna had been talking to on the phone yesterday? He didn’t know, didn’t have the smallest clue. But he did know one thing for sure. He was going to stick to her like glue today.

There were too many threats to leave her unattended. There was Susan (which he reminded himself to keep an eye on her as well), and now there was this strange kid that Luna wouldn’t tell him about. She thought he was annoying before, it was nothing compared to how he was going to be today.

                                                        ~~~~~~~~~~~

The bell rang announcing lunch. Luna got up gratefully from her desk as her stomach churned in hunger. She heard Chance stand up behind her and felt him set his hands on her shoulders gently. She sighed and froze in place as she gathered the last of her books in her arm.

“Luna,” he said softly.

She blinked in annoyance and turned to look at him finally. She had avoided looking at him today. He hadn’t been in study hall and in class he had been surprisingly silent. Luna didn’t want to look at him though because if she did, she’d remember the whole incident with Susan yesterday.

He-he killed someone.

Luna couldn’t –wouldn’t- believe that. Chance was violent sure, but a murderer? It was too much for Luna to take. She knew if she looked at him she’d see the mental images of him threatening Susan and all of her conscious thought would be rendered useless if she would flash back to him threatening
her.

“What?”

“Are you going to lunch?” he asked.

She blinked once and wasn’t amused by him. Luna realized though that she
could
look at him and still managed to find annoyance. Fear had no place in her at the moment. “Maybe I am.”

“Can I come with you today?” he asked and all around them the kids gasped in surprise at his question like they couldn’t believe it.

Luna wasn’t surprised. In fact she was more agitated and worried than ever. Why was he keeping such a close eye on her? Did he know that she had already told Violet his secret? Or did he know that Susan had come to her in tears yesterday?

“If you want to,” Luna replied finally.

She knew it really didn’t matter if she said ‘yes’ or ‘no’, she knew he’d just follow her anyways. Something was bothering him; he wouldn’t say what, he’d just shadow her until his mind was clear. She turned away from Chance to walk away towards the cafeteria.

“I do want to,” she heard him say and she felt his hand brush against hers once as he walked beside her.

She pulled farther away from him and set her hand in her pocket as they walked side by side down the hall. She noticed the curious stares on the faces of all the people they passed. Popular and unpopular alike couldn’t believe she was walking with Chance to lunch…like she even wanted to. She remembered what Amy had told her the other day, the rumor that Chance and her were dating.