Dead by Morning (Rituals of the Night Book 1) (23 page)

                                                                      Chapter Forty-One

As soon as Luna climbed into the truck, she sat down carefully. She didn’t know what Chance had in the backseat. As she glanced around, she noticed it looked as normal as any truck…except for the duffle bag at her feet. She kicked at it absently wondering what she had been expecting to find.

“Luna, where have you been all day?” David asked her worriedly from the passenger seat.

She looked at him and realized he had turned around in his seat to look at her.

“I was away, what does it matter to you?” she asked him bitterly as she remembered her anger at him.

“You’re my only daughter,” David said as Chance climbed in the truck and closed the door. “Of course it matters to me what happens to you.”

She ignored him. He didn’t care about her; he had already proved that much. “How did you know I was here anyways?”

“I didn’t,” David said.

“I did,” Chance piped up. “I had a feeling you’d be at her house.”

“How?” she demanded. “You didn’t even know that I know her.”

David didn’t give him the chance to answer. “You’re lucky he found you, Luna.”

“Why’s that? Because I was actually hanging around
decent
people for a change?” she growled.

“Luna, I apologize, but having an attitude with me right now isn’t helping anything,” David said.

“Just let me out,” she growled in the same bitter tone. “I’ll walk home. That’ll help a lot.”

“Luna, stop,” David said.

She frowned at him before she turned her attention to the door. She was prepared to pull it open anyways, but suddenly she heard the locks click shut. David looked at Chance wonderingly as he heard the same thing.

“I know she’ll do it, and I don’t want her to get hurt,” he explained quickly.

Chance wouldn’t tell them that all his experience in murders had taught him that people in desperate situations would do very desperate things.

David nodded and then looked back at her. “See, Luna? He cares about you, why can’t you just be nice to him?”

“I HATE him!” she roared as the anger overcame her. “Why don’t you listen to me EVER!?”

“Because you overreact too much,” David said his voice rising. “How can I listen to you when all you ever do is lie?”

“I can’t take this anymore!” she said angrily.

Luna pulled against the handle again, but because of Chance’s locks it wouldn’t budge. She growled loudly in anger and pulled on it again as she thought of hitting Chance the next time she got the opportunity to do so.

She had to get out of the truck! She pulled once more as hard as she could, and she heard a snap. She realized that she had broken the handle….and the lock with it. She rammed her shoulder into the door, and it opened with ease. She looked into the night as it rushed past and felt the chilly air tug at her raven-dark hair. One leap and she’d be out of the truck.

One leap separated Heaven and Hell.

“Luna, don’t!!” Chance and David exclaimed at the same time.

She ignored the both of them as she focused on the air outside. She leapt suddenly from the truck and out into the night. The wind pushed and pulled against her as she tucked into a ball in the air. She hit the ground hard on her lower back and cried out in pain as the force sent her flying sideways.

Finally, she came to a halt and lie on the ground on her side. She let out a moan of pain. Her sides felt bruised, and her lower back screamed in pain. She blinked once as she stood slowly to her feet. She flexed each arm and then each leg. Each of them popped uncomfortably, but none of them felt broken.   

Luna slowly began to walk down the road. She was free…for the moment. Her legs popped painfully with each step, but she felt like it was better than being in Chance’s truck with him and David.

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

“So, let me get this straight,” Max said. “He dropped a bloody knife and then followed you?”

“He had Susan’s hair ribbon too. It was blood splattered. He somehow found me at Amy’s house even though he doesn’t even know that I know her.”

“Well, we knew that he killed Susan, this is just proof,” Max said.

“I guess,” Luna said looking at her muddy shoes.

She hadn’t taken them off when she got home. She was panicked and desperate to tell someone about what had just happened to her.

David and Violet, she wouldn’t bother trying to tell her story to. But Max she knew would listen to her…if only she could say what she was thinking.

“Did he try to hurt you?” Max asked.

“No, but I don’t know what he was going to do. He followed me all the way to the road where Amy found me. I didn’t want to stick around to find out what he was planning,” she replied.

“You should
be
more careful from now on. Jumping out of a moving car? That could’ve killed you.”

“Yeah, well, dealing with Chance calls for some drastic measures,” she replied.

“Why’s that?” Max asked, and by his tone she could tell he was frowning.

“I have classes with him, and I have to walk home from school. He knows the route,” Luna replied. “And he knows where I live, and David calls him over all the time because he thinks he’s going to fix me.”

“Well, how about you watch your back at school, and once they let me out of here, I’ll walk you home?” he asked.

“That’s a nice plan, but don’t you have to go to school too?” she asked him.

He snorted. “I come and go from there as I please.”

“If you’re sure.”

“I am sure,” he said. “Now, why don’t you get some sleep? You need to rest after all those stunts you pulled today.”

Luna sighed and felt a muscle pop in her back. “Okay, you’re right.”

“I’ll call you tomorrow,” he said.

“All right, ‘bye,” she said as she hung up the phone.

He was right, she
did
need to rest. After the scare that Chance had put her in, and the pain she felt from throwing herself out of the truck, she felt like her heart might stop at any minute. Though the thought of sleep was soothing, she frowned. What if she had another dream?

Chance could get to her easily that way.

She was right about him. He
had
killed Susan and was keeping her bloody hair ribbon as a sick kind of trophy. She knew he was a murderer, but there was nothing she could do to prove it to anyone besides Max. Her own father even took his side over hers. What could she possibly do?

She pushed the thought away. She needed to sleep…no matter what might happen to her. She got up, and walked over to her room, the whole time wondering how she could face Chance tomorrow without dying of fright.

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

Chance had been surprised at Luna’s stunt, and that was the best word that he could use to describe it;
stunt
. Beside him, David was just as surprised. She could’ve killed herself with a move like that, easily broken her neck on a curb or busted her head open on the cement. But lucky for her, she had landed in the grass, though she’d still be in pain. He wouldn’t be surprised if she needed to go to the hospital. The beginnings of fusion had made him lapse into a state that made him feel as if he was in That mind all the time. He found that That mind was braver and a bit sharper.

He had figured out that she was okay because of her gift, her Teardrop of Knowledge. He had also discovered that she couldn’t stand to be even in his vicinity anymore, and after what had happened, he didn’t blame her. He knew the fear that must be running through her mind, it was the fear he had seen on many of his victim’s faces.

That realization that he wasn’t playing around, that this wasn’t some poorly written crime novel, that he meant murder, cold blooded murder seemed to have sunk into Luna’s mind. He recognized that desperate urge to escape. Chance frowned. He could feel the cold wind from outside rushing in through Luna’s open door. She was that desperate to get away from him, that desperate because she knew that stunts like that were a hell of a lot safer than being around him.

Luna stirred her tea again absently as she stared out the window and into the darkness of the night beyond. She was sitting at the kitchen table since she hadn’t been able to sleep. The only upside was that her body felt a bit better from relaxing. She thought again, what had Chance been about to do with that knife? Would he really have hurt her if Amy hadn’t managed to take her away?

“Luna?” David said uncertainly as he stepped into the room.

She looked up at him but didn’t speak. She was still sore at him…literally. 

“This is for you, it was in our mailbox,” he said extending his hand to her.

She looked at it and realized he was handing her a small white envelope. She took it from him and stared at it. What the hell was in it? David went back into the living room, and she looked at the envelope carefully. Her name was written on the front, but nothing else was there. Luna flipped it over and un-tucked the flap from the envelope. She peered inside and realized there was a folded piece of paper inside. She guessed it was a note. She pulled it out and unfolded it. It was a piece of drawing paper. She read the words that had been written on the middle of it.

Meet me on the bridge at midnight tonight or else

Next to the words was a brownish smudge. She wiped at it and it only smeared onto her fingers. Her eyes widened in horror as she realized what it was. There was no way that it could be anything but blood.

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

Luna pulled her hoodie tighter around her as the breeze blew again. She bowed her head against it as she kept walking down the street. It was cold outside. She didn’t want to be outside, but she had to be. She may not have known who it was that had written that note (though she had a pretty good idea), but she could tell that they meant business by it.

Up ahead she could see the small bridge where she was to meet them. She stepped onto it, and the wooden boards beneath her feet creaked uncertainly. She looked around, and saw she was alone. She leaned over the black railing that ran along each side of the bridge, and stared at the water as it lapped at the bridge below. It looked like a black abyss in the darkness. As she watched, a leaf drifted down and splashed across the water causing a ripple effect across the stream. She stared at it mesmerized as she heard a creak from the other side of the bridge. Whoever had written her that note had finally arrived.

Luna turned and saw Chance walking towards her calmly. Alone in the darkness, she knew that it was
not
good news. She swallowed and took an involuntary step backwards away from him. Suddenly, there was a loud crash, and she felt her foot slide through thin air. She realized in horror that the boards had broken. She was falling to the deep water that sat hungrily below.

In a flash, Chance reached forward and grasped her hand. She looked up at him, her eyes were pleading as he looked back at her.

“Right now, I have two choices. I can let you live, or I can let you die,” he said and his voice was cold.

“Chance, please help me,” she said desperately as she gripped his hand tighter.

Luna felt him clutch her hand tighter as well, but he made no move to pull her up. He stared down at her thinking how ironic it was that she had been able to survive the extreme earlier, but if she went through with this one, she’d die.

“Only if you promise to hear me out before you run off,” he said.

“Deal,” she said quickly. She knew very well that if she turned down his offer, he’d easily let her fall to the churning waters.

Her answer satisfied him and he pulled her up with her free hand. She grasped at the bridge and pulled the rest of her body up onto the solid surface. Chance let go of her and backed away. Her body was shaking with a mix of fear and adrenaline.

“I have a proposition for you,” he said.

She swallowed and looked up at him. This is where the real fear would begin. “And what would that be?”

He looked back at her and smiled for a moment. “I know you told Max my secret.”

She looked up at him, panicked, not knowing how to respond. Is that why he had lured her outside?

“But that’s okay. If you promise to not tell about my dagger, I promise that you won’t end up like Susan,” he said. “What do you say?”

She backed away from him, catching the bitter note in her voice. “What do you mean by that, Chance? Where’s Susan?”

She already knew of course, but she found her only chance to get him to say what had happened. She wanted the words right from his mouth.

He smiled again. “Don’t play dumb. You know what I did to her. Keep your mouth shut this time, and we won’t have any problems, okay?”

Luna stood up slowly, to her full height and locked eyes with him. They glinted back at her, the eyes of a murderer. Although he had just saved her life, he had also confirmed her worst fears.