Dead by Morning (Rituals of the Night Book 1) (17 page)

                                                                      Chapter Thirty

Sarah sat quietly at the kitchen table reading her worn out copy of
Macbeth.
She loved all of Shakespeare’s work and had a beat up copy of all of his famous plays. She wasn’t like Susan or her friends, the only reason she ever hung with them was because Susan was family, otherwise she’d probably be an outcast like Luna.

Sarah licked her finger and turned the page. The tiny swooshing sound was the only one in the house. She frowned and set the book down onto the table spine, up. She glanced at the clock again anxiously; she was waiting for Susan to get home.

It had been six or seven hours since she had left with Chance, and she had still been in a nightgown, Sarah had noted. She was surprised (and worried) that she hadn’t come home to get a change of clothes. Sarah got up from her chair and paced to the living room to peer out into the street. Still no sign of Chance’s black truck. She frowned deeply wondering what Chance was doing with her sister.

                                                        ~~~~~~~~~~~

Luna was lying in bed. She was exhausted from staying awake the entire day but too uneasy about what might happen in the DreamWorld to sleep. She was completely helpless there with Chance’s escape-proof design. It was hard for her knowing that no matter what happened, she couldn’t change it.

Max’s info about the dog pack earlier had only succeeded in frightening her more. If it wasn’t bad enough she was trapped with a murderer, she was also surrounded by her biggest fear. That bit of information had managed to kill her curiosity. She had no desire left to go to DreamWorld. 

She sighed and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she realized she was sitting in the cabin again, but there was no surprise there. She blinked and glanced around to see if anything was different than it had been last night. She noticed the candles were out and a bit of light streamed through the black paint on the nearest window.

It was still considerably dark, but instantly she noticed Chance sitting in a chair across the room from her. A table was next to him. A bone with a very familiar rose wrapped around it sat there. Her eyes flicked back to Chance to see that he clutched a white rag in one hand. In the faint light she caught a gleam from his dagger as it sat on the table beside him. They were clean of blood though Luna worried about what he had taken the time to clean them for.

She narrowed her eyes at him.

After a few long drawn out minutes he didn’t say anything.

“What are you doing?” she asked feeling like she didn’t really want to know.

He looked at her and smiled but didn’t say anything. She sat with her wrists surrounded in the white cloths and shackles as she stared at him. After a while, Chance still hadn’t spoken. He picked up the dagger suddenly and with his other hand he wiped the blade like he was shining it.

Luna swallowed nervously as the silence engulfed her. The blade was so clean that it shone with an eidetic gleam. Finally, he stood up and set the white cloth on the table while his hand clutched the dagger by the handle. Luna looked at him wide-eyed.

“I think your friend has been locked up long enough,” he said. “It’s time I take him for a little walk next door.”

She stared at him unfazed for a minute. Then realization clicked into place, next door was the stone temple.

“You can’t do that,” she said quietly.

He smiled. “You forget
I
can do what I want.”

“Why do you have to sacrifice him?” she asked in a louder voice as she found that she could speak.

“He’s taking up space,” Chance replied shrugging.

“But you’re the one that brought him here.”

“You’re the one that brought him into the picture in the first place,” Chance retorted.

“So what? He’s never done anything to you. Why sacrifice him?” she said looking up at him through pleading eyes.

“Yes, he has done something wrong,” he said holding the dagger up so that it was once again in view.

“Tell me what that would be then,” she said watching the dagger as he swung it back and forth like a pendulum.

“He’s in my way of getting to you,” he said. “With him here how can I possibly get you to listen to me?”

She opened her mouth to respond, but closed it again. What
could
she say when she didn’t quite understand what he had meant? Was he fully aware that Max knew his secret?

“I’ll leave you alone to think for a while. I have some business to take care of,” he said smiling at her innocently as he crossed the room, dagger in hand, to disappear down the hallway.

Once again, she pulled against the chains, and once again they didn’t break. If Chance stabbed Max with that dagger it would be game over for him. Max would really die tonight. If he really was keeping Luna safe then she knew that she wasn’t doing a good job of returning the favor.

She pulled her wrists against the chains as hard as she could. Grunting with the effort she sighed as pain flooded through her wrists from the force. She looked at them, trying to pinpoint the point of pain as red began to soak through the white cloths. She stared at it in horror.

A loud crash sounded from the hallway followed by a loud ‘thump’. Luna looked that way and closed her eyes as she suddenly remembered what she had been trying to stop. She heard the sound of panicky footsteps approaching and opened her eyes in time to see Max (the spiky blond haired dream version of him) come running out of the hall.

He turned to Luna instantly and dropped to his knees beside her. Max’s brown eyes stared at her from the strange face and he surveyed the shackles in horror. “Luna, let me help you.”

“No, Max, go now while you still have the chance,” she said desperately. “You won’t have another one.”

“But this might be your only chance out,” he said looking at her through stubborn eyes.

“Max, Chance won’t kill me if I stay here, I’ll be okay, but if he catches you then he’s gonna sacrifice you!” she said wishing he would stop arguing.

“But your wrists are bleeding. Luna, you’ll die here! Let me help you out!” he pleaded. “I won’t go.”

“Why?” Luna asked looking up at him, wishing he would leave already.

“Because if you die here, it’ll be my fault,” he pointed out.

She shook her head. “Go before
you
get killed.”

Max didn’t look keen to argue anymore. He stood up and ran through the door without wasting another second.

She heard a scuffling from the hallway and turned to see Chance walking out slowly. His hand was to his face and as she stared at him he moved it away. Half of his face was covered in fresh red blood and his hand was covered in it. Max had gotten in a decent punch as he had escaped his closet prison.

“Felix! Sniper!” Chance yelled out suddenly and instantly two Rottweilers stood side by side just outside the open cabin door. Both of them were alert and waiting patiently for an order.

“Get him!” Chance snarled pointing in the direction that Max had just fled into. “Tear him to pieces!”

Instantly, the dogs took off running after him barking and howling in excitement. As she watched the dogs disappear into the forest, she hoped that Max would hide someplace and be out of harm’s way.

Luna turned her attention back to Chance as his blood dripped down his face from a cut underneath his eye. He looked back at her, his eyes blazing like he was angry at her for what Max had done. He stalked over to her and she flinched as she realized he still clutched the dagger in his hand.

He knelt down beside her and set the blade to her knee. She looked away instantly; she could smell the blood on his face. He ripped the white cloths out from her shackles and looked at the blood for a moment. Then he looked at her wrists, and Luna followed his gaze as she realized in horror there were gashes where the metal had sliced into the skin. Chance blinked and looked away before he turned the cloths to the whitest part and wiped his blood off onto them. He crumpled them up in his hand and looked at her.

“Your friend will pay deeply for what he’s done here tonight,” Chance snarled once he wiped off most of the blood. “You can tell him to run as far and as fast as he can, I’ll get him. Just let him know that once this is all over, it’s just gonna be you and me and a world full of corpses.”

Luna stared back at his angry blue eyes. They smoldered with his rage and she realized he meant every single word. Even though this was a dream, he had added Max to his list of victims that were to be exterminated forever. 

                                                                      ~~~~~~~~~~

Max ran for his life, the two huge hounds right behind him. They howled, the sound echoing with death as their beady eyes twinkled with their urge to kill. Max kept running. He was trying, trying his very best to wake himself up. If he couldn’t do it in time, then he never
would
wake up again. He knew that as clearly as he knew that the sun would rise again each morning. He kept running, though he was tiring and losing speed while the dogs were unrelenting.

Every stride brought them closer and closer to him. Max was growing desperate now. He tried harder and harder to wake up. The forest still surrounded him. Suddenly hot pains radiated from his calf and he realized that the first dog had made contact. Its sharp teeth were locked into his leg.

With a jolt, he pulled out of the dream and was back in his own room…the dog was too. Max screamed and rolled over, kicking at the dog and desperate to get it to loosen its grip. Its teeth slid out a bit and it growled as it lunged at his throat. With as strong of a kick as he could manage, Max kicked the dog in the face.

It went flying backwards from the impact and right through his window. The glass shattered with an ear splitting crash, and the dog whimpered in pain as glass pelted it. Max stared at it, waiting for its next attack.

When it stood up, it lifted its lip to snarl at him before it turned tail and ran away towards the horizon. Max was left in his room staring after the dog through his shattered window as his calf gushed blood from the massive dog bite.

                                                        ~~~~~~~~~~

Chance jolted out of sleep as sunlight hit his face. He groaned at the pain in his neck and sat up. He was startled at first as he realized that he wasn’t in his own room, but then he remembered he was in his truck, he hadn’t gone home last night. He had buried Susan’s body in the woods (the empty duffle bag hidden beneath his seat), and been so exhausted that he had fallen asleep in his truck when he was done.

He yawned and covered his mouth with his hand and a bit of blood smeared off onto his fingers. He stared at it aggravated as memories of his dream flooded back. That kid that “mystery kid” had punched him clear in the face as soon as he had opened the door and escaped,
escaped
from the cabin. No one had ever gotten away from him before!

As if that wasn’t bad enough, he had a reminder on his face of his failure. He glared at it in his rearview mirror as blood dripped from it. He growled in his throat at the ugly wound and pulled Susan’s hair ribbon out of his pocket. He dabbed at the wound with it and cleaned away the blood before cramming it back in his pocket.

He looked at the clean wound on his cheek. He wasn’t happy at all that Luna’s friend had escaped. He would get back at him, he would. And he had the perfect plan to make it happen.

                                                                      Chapter Thirty-One

Luna’s eyes shot open and she stared up at the ceiling, drenched in sweat. The look on Chance’s bloody face as he had snarled his rage at her was still burned into her mind. She thought through her dream. The situation they were in was dire. At least Max had escaped Chance’s clutches…just barely. She hoped he had been able to outsmart Felix and Sniper.

Even if he did escape the dogs, it didn’t seem like hope was high for him. Chance hated him and was obviously targeting him. Did he want to kill Max so that Luna would be clueless of DreamWorld, or did he know that she had told Max his secret? She sat in bed for a long while just watching the images that floated across her mind.

Finally, about an hour later, she sat up. She wiped the sweat off of her forehead as she pulled the covers off. She walked over to her single window and moved the blinds to open it. Outside, the sun was on the horizon line as the rays stretched into the sky. The bright pink color of dawn filled her gaze. She blinked and narrowed her eyes as they adjusted to the light.

As she peered outside, she noticed instantly a figure cloaked in black that stood unmoving. She recognized Chance standing on the sidewalk outside of her house. He didn’t move as she made eye contact with him. As she stared at him she realized he had a deep gash across his face…in the same place Max had hit him in the dream. The blood was cleaned away, but judging by the look on his face he wasn’t happy.

He stared back at her through cold eyes. His chin was high as his gaze challenged her. She could tell that the wound Max had given him didn’t count as a loss, it counted as a challenge to do his best. Her heart seemed to flutter in fear at the sight of him. Images of her dreams flashed through her mind. She swallowed unevenly and pulled the blinds shut as fast as she could. She stared at the material that she clutched in her hand. She was hiding from Chance when maybe she should be confronting him. Her home was far from the old rundown house that he lived in, and she didn’t see his truck anywhere. He had walked, but why?

She frowned as suddenly she thought of how ridiculous she was being for hiding away from him. This was
her
house! She had every right to know what he was doing! In one quick movement she ripped open the blind, prepared to confront Chance. But he wasn’t there anymore. She looked up and down the street and in the distance spotted a black cloaked figure walking away with a brisk pace. She pulled the blinds open the rest of the way and observed the yard carefully.     

Shaking her head to clear it of all thoughts of Chance, she turned and walked across the room. She went to the bathroom and brushed through her jet black hair before she brushed her teeth quickly. She pulled her hair into a tight ponytail before she crept into the living room and noticed right away that David wasn’t awake yet. She frowned at the silence that filled the house…it reminded her too much of being in the dream cabin.

Luna picked up the remote from its usual place on the couch and flicked on the TV. Since it was early, there weren’t very many good things on so she turned on the news and set the remote back on the couch. She went into the kitchen and rummaged through the fridge for the orange juice. When she found it, she pulled it out and poured it into a glass. She set the carton back in the refrigerator, and turned her attention to her glass as she prepared to take a drink.    

“Another teen disappearance,” she heard the news anchor say from the living room.

The sip of orange juice she had taken stuck in her throat. She forced herself to swallow it as she nearly dropped the glass to the floor. She walked across the kitchen and into the living room to see the TV. She sat on the couch and stared at it as she turned up the volume. A brunette sat at the news table and stared back through the TV as she spoke her report.

“Last night local high school senior, Susan Cross, was reported missing. She is described as being 5’6”, brown waist length hair, emerald green eyes, and a distinguishable heart shaped birthmark on her arm. If anyone sees her they are asked to call the police immediately,” she said.

Luna stared at the picture of Susan in disbelief. Chance had been thorough on his threats it seemed. She thought back a few minutes to when she had seen Chance standing outside her window. He had been wearing a somber look. Was it possible that he was on his way home from killing Susan?

She shivered again and picked up the remote to shut off the TV. She didn’t want to listen to it anymore. She heard a loud knock at the door. Instantly her head snapped to it, and she stared at the white door uneasily as her fingers gripped into the couch. It wasn’t even seven in the morning….who could it be?

Is it Chance?
a small voice seemed to whisper inside her head.

She remembered the bitter look on his face, answering the door to him could end badly. She stood up slowly and quietly crept over to the door. Cautiously, she peered through the peephole…but saw no one beyond. She stared at the door as she mentally contemplated opening it or not.

“Luna, for Christ’s sake, open the door!” she recognized Max’s voice on the other side.

Instantly, she unlocked it and pulled it open. Max rushed in and he closed it behind him. As fast as he could, he put the lock back into place. He rushed up to her and pulled her into a tight hug, nearly squeezing the breath out of her.

“Thank you, Luna,” he said in her ear. “Thank you so much.”

Uncertainly, she reached her arms around him. He had never done this before…ever.

Something must be really wrong,
she decided to herself.

Finally, he pulled back and Luna looked at him. “Max, are you okay?”

“No, everywhere I go fucking dogs are trying to kill me!” he said.

“What? Why?” she asked in disbelief as she remembered the twin dream dogs.

“It’s something that Chance did,” Max said. “I barely even escaped that dream alive. I mean, look at me,” he said and pulled his pant leg up to reveal a deep red bloody gash on his calf.

Luna gasped in horror as she stared at it. The wound was fresh and gruesome.

“H…how did you get that?” she finally managed to ask.

“One of Chance’s dogs bit me before I woke up,” he said dropping his pant leg to cover the ghastly mark.

“Did you pull it through?” she asked worriedly.

Max looked traumatized. “Yeah, of course I did!”

“Max, you need to be careful…”

“Duh,” he said sarcastically. “Hell’s hounds are following me wherever I go, and all you tell me is to ‘be careful’? If only I’d thought of that!”

“No, seriously, Max, there’s more to it than just the dogs.”

“What else could there be?” he snorted putting his hands up into the air like he didn’t think it could get any worse.

“Chance hates you. In the dream he told me you were standing in the way of me and him. That sounds like a threat to me, Max. He’s after your blood.”

Max frowned, and all traces of his bitter sarcasm faded. “You’re right, it’s really serious.”

“I think he killed again,” Luna said quietly. “In the real world, not the dream.”

Max raised an eyebrow at her. “What are you talking about?”

“I was watching the news this morning, and it says Susan went missing last night. It was almost to the exact same detail as Kate.”

“Susan Cross?” Max asked. “The one that came to talk to you about Chance?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“What makes you think he did it?” Max asked.

“I think he found out that she slipped.”

He was silent for a moment, and Luna felt he didn’t believe her.

“When I woke up this morning, he was standing outside my window. I think he had just gotten rid of her body.”

“Whoa,” Max said. “That’s really, really creepy.”

“I know. But when I closed the blind he walked away. I think he was going home.”

Max shook his head and moved past Luna to sit on the couch. “Damn, this whole situation is spiraling way out of our control.”

“I’ve been thinking the exact same thing.”

Max looked at her through dark eyes that were glittering with defeat. “I’m gonna be honest, I don’t know what to do anymore.”

“Let me see your wrists.”

Luna walked over to the couch and sat down beside Max. She pulled up her sleeves to reveal the blackened marks. Max set his fingers to the skin as he stared at them.

“My God, these dreams are far from being over. Your wrists look awful,” he said finally.

She looked up at him. “I know, every dream I have makes them darker.”

Suddenly, a knock sounded from the door and rang out through the silence that enveloped the house. Max and Luna exchanged scared glances. Shakily, she stood to her feet and made her way over to the door. She set her hand on the doorknob but didn’t open it.

“Luna, be careful,” Max called him from his spot across the room. “It could be Chance.”

She nodded in response but didn’t take her attention off of the door. With her mind alert for the first sign of danger, she grasped the gold handle and pulled the door open. On the porch in front of her stood Chance.                  

She took an involuntary step away from him. Chance looked rugged and had dirt smudges on his face and neck. It looked like he had been in a forest. His eyes were glazed and unfocused, and in his right hand he clutched a half empty bottle of alcohol.

“Hi…Luna,” he slurred. He was obviously wasted.

“Hello, Chance,” she said uncertainly.

“How’re you doin’, babe?” he said but his words slurred once again so it was hard to understand him.

Luna took a step backwards again, and Chance took a clumsy step forward. He wrapped his arms around her and pushed his lips to hers. She could taste the alcohol in his mouth. She let out a squeak of surprise and disgust at the sudden movement. She pushed against his chest as hard as she could. He broke away from her easily but stumbled forward towards her. His heavy weight leaned against her, and his head was resting on her shoulder. He had passed out.

“Luna,” Max said uncertainly from where he stood beside the couch. “What’s he doing?”

“He was drunk, he passed out,” Luna grunted as she struggled to stand against Chance’s weight.

“Bring him over here,” Max said and he walked towards her.

She nodded and wrapped her arm around Chance to keep him in place. Carefully, she moved him over to the couch. Max held a hand against his back to prevent her from dropping him, and she laid Chance down on his back on the couch. His eyes were closed, and his head lolled limply. Luna looked at Max, and he looked back at her.

“Hard to believe that boy is nothing but pure evil,” he scoffed in disgust as he glared at him.

“I believe it. I know what I saw in that room, and I know that he threatened me about it,” Luna said. “And Susan was a mess that night.”

“He’s the source of all of our problems yet there’s nothing we can do about it,” he said. “Even though he’s right here, he’s out of reach of anything that could help us.”

She nodded. “It’s frustrating, but there’s nothing we can do. Hopefully things will just pass with time.”

“After everything that’s happened do you really believe that?” Max asked in disbelief.

She looked at Chance and his lip twitched. She remembered how his eyes had smoldered rage and he had snarled venom at her. He wouldn’t let things pass with time. There was some reason that he was doing what he was.

“No, I don’t,” she replied finally.

“Good. We don’t know what he’s planning to do,” Max said.

She looked at him evenly. “I know and until we figure it out we have no idea how to stop him.”

“He’s evil, and the only thing that stops evil is death. But of course we can’t do that,” Max snorted. “He can kill us through our dreams, but we can’t do a thing back to him.”

“I know, if we did no one would believe we were only defending ourselves. They’re all too deep under his spell.”

“At least we see him for what he is,” Max said.

“That’s an upside, I guess,” she replied shrugging.

“He thinks he’s tough, but he’s not,” Max said.

She looked at him confused. “What do you mean?”

“His biggest weakness is that he works by himself,” he pointed out.

“He relies on Satan,” Luna added quietly. “He thinks he gets all he needs to be powerful from him just by doing his rituals.”

“That’s true,” Max said. “And he’s dangerous for that.”

“And the fact that we still have no idea what he’s planning to do,” she pointed out.

He nodded. “That’s true, but we know one thing for sure, we’re both pawns in his plan somehow.”

He sighed and they both fell silent as they looked at Chance. She had the feeling that their thoughts echoed one another as they thought of their extensive list of problems.

“Now what do we do with him?” Max asked suddenly.

Luna shrugged. “I guess he’s gonna be here until he wakes up. I don’t know where else to put him.”

“Are you sure you’ll be all right with him here?” Max asked.