Alive at Sunset (Rituals of the Night Series Book 2) (11 page)

L
una got home a few hours later. She knocked three times, and Amanda let her in. She looked surprised to see her.

“Where were you?” she asked.

“I was at work,” Luna replied, moving to sit in the kitchen.

“Oh, how was your first day?” Amanda asked as she closed the door. “Good, I hope.”

“It was alright,” Luna said shrugging as she gave Amanda the same answer she had given Sarah.

“That doesn’t sound too hopeful,” Amanda said, crossing her arms over her chest. “Did you like it?”

Luna nodded. “Of course I did. It’s just that my mind wasn’t really in it today.” She wouldn’t tell her that Sarah’s words had captivated some of her mind while her father’s death took over the rest.

“I’m sorry, Luna,” Amanda said.

Luna frowned slightly; she was starting to hate that line. To her, the worst thing to her was being pitied.

“So- um, are you ready to talk about it yet?” Amanda asked.

Luna raised an eyebrow as she looked at her.

“Talk about what?”

“Yesterday. In the hospital. You bolted from David’s room- who were you hoping to find?” Amanda asked.

Luna swallowed heavily, feeling her panic overload her brain. She had known Amanda would ask sooner or later. Luna wished she would’ve given her more time to think up an excuse.

“I wanted to be alone,” Luna slurred her words as she spoke quickly. “There were too many people there…I didn’t know what else to do.”

That look of pity appeared on Amanda’s face again, and Luna pushed away her thoughts of irritation. Chance was once again free to integrate with society, but there was no way she could voice her concerns. She looked at Amanda, studying her roommate. She noted the nice clothes her friend was wearing, and the careful work to her hair and makeup. She looked like she had an important place to go.

“You look dressed up,” Luna said passively, trying to change the subject.

Amanda blushed a bit as if she thought Luna wouldn’t notice. “I was going to go get some lunch.”

Luna nodded though she didn’t understand why she was that dressed up to go get some food.

“I’ll be back in an hour,” Amanda said.

Luna nodded again. “Have fun.”

Amanda smiled before she turned from the room; she looked like she was thinking of something else. A moment later, Luna heard the front door close, and she knew she was alone. She sighed and relaxed against the chair; her mind was focused on the cabin in the woods. Ever since Sarah mentioned it, she couldn’t get it off of her mind. She could still visualize it as if it had only been yesterday that she had been trapped inside.

Luna frowned and got up to find her way into her room. She dug under her mattress and pulled out her notebook. She sat on the edge of the bed with it on her lap, but she didn’t open it yet. She stared at the unmarked leather, thinking. Did she want to study the drawings she had put inside and drag her mind back to her past?

She knew that she didn’t have a choice. Either way she would see it because she already agreed to meet Sarah there. Finally, she built up the nerve to open it. She flipped to a page towards the end of the book. On the page was a rugged sketch of a cabin that she had drawn after her ordeal. Luna had drawn it based on what she could remember from her dreams. When she had drawn it, she had been searching out its weaknesses. Under her drawing was a newspaper article that had been written about it after the police discovered it.

As she stared at it, she thought about what Sarah had said. Sarah wanted to go in that place…but she had no idea of its past horrors. Luna did. Twin tears dripped from the corners of her eyes as she thought about it. If Sarah knew that her sister’s body had been burned only a few feet away, she wouldn’t want to go inside either.

She turned the page to the detailed drawing of the ritualistic temple that Chance had built next door. The drawing alone made her shiver. Next to the picture, she had written a scratchy line about Chance’s coma. Luna smiled sardonically at the writing as she remembered the hope she had held while writing it. She picked up a nearby pen and scrawled the date. Below that she wrote, “The day that Chance woke up.”

Suddenly, her phone rang again. She pulled it out of her pocket and looked at it. She didn’t recognize the number of the caller so for a moment she felt hesitant about answering it.

At the last minute she hit the send button. “Hello?”

“Hello, am I speaking to a Miss Luna Ketz?” the voice asked.

“Yes, this is she,” Luna said; her face was scrunched up in confusion. She didn’t recognize the voice of the caller.

“Hi, I’m Carl Jore from the Bowling Green Police Station,” the voice continued. “You’re the daughter of David Ketz, correct?”

Luna felt her stomach clench in foreboding, but she managed to get herself to speak. “Yeah, I am, is something wrong, sir?”

“We’ve been reviewing your father’s death, and it says shortly before he died, he was sent to the hospital for arsenic poisoning?” Carl asked.

“Yeah, that’s right. My Mom called 911 after he had a seizure,” Luna said.

“Well, our medical examiner found something in the autopsy, an abnormality, that you might be interested in knowing,” Carl said, and it sounded as if he was ruffling through some papers.

“What is it?” Luna asked, feeling as wary as she had when Max had called to warn her.

“The fatal heart attack that your father suffered from wasn’t caused by arsenic poisoning,” he said.

“Then what was it from?” Luna asked, feeling a numbing sensation rise up from the ends of her limbs.

“It was a coronary embolism,” Carl informed her. “We inspected the equipment used on him before his death. It was almost overlooked, but we noticed a hole in his IV that would fit the tip of a needle.”

“Are you saying two different people worked to murder him?” Luna asked, and her voice was a breathy whisper.

“That’s what we believe,” he said. “Now, Miss Ketz, could you tell me if you know of any enemies your father may have had?”

Luna tried to think, but her mind was frozen in shock. “I can’t think of anyone that would do something so horrible.”

“Do you know anyone else that was close to your father that might know?” Carl asked after a brief pause.

“My mother, Rose, would know,” Luna replied.

“All right, I’ll give her a call. Thanks for your cooperation,” Carl said, and then hung up without Luna’s reply.

Who would’ve known that one phone call could change her life? Luna couldn’t think straight with Carl’s words buzzing in her head. The phone (line dead) was clutched tight in her hand, completely forgotten. David’s death wasn’t an accident yet the other option was unthinkable. She stared down at her notebook with the picture of Chance’s cabin. Her mind stuck on one word that Carl had said, murder.

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

When Amanda finally got to
Cloud Café
it was a minute before she could convince herself to get out of her car.
She felt a fight between her emotions brewing. Her insides were still gravely upset over Luna. Every day she acted more and more like a hermit. She talked less and less and barely even wanted to leave the apartment. As her friend, Amanda knew she should be working harder to cheer her up instead of out doing things she wanted. No matter how much she tried, Luna still seemed stubbornly sad.

Her other part reminded her that it was summer break. It was her time to go out and do the things that she wanted to do, things she couldn’t do during the semester. She wanted to go shopping and go out and socialize. Staying pent up in the apartment drove her crazy; she didn’t know how Luna did it. All Amanda could think of was the last time she had been there. She missed going out to places to earn new friends and dates.

She reasoned that there was nothing to be done about Luna; at least not when she was so hostile about getting help. Amanda would have to give her time and hope that eventually she would be willing to talk it out. Amanda did her best to clear her mind before she went inside the building and up to the counter. She ordered her usual ice tea and chicken salad before sitting at an indoor table. She studied the room but couldn’t seem to spot the one person she was looking for.

As she ate, a smiling man with shockingly blond hair approached her. When she noticed him, she set down her fork and a wide smile spread across her face. She recognized him. He was the guy she had been close to asking out.

That was the day she would.

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

The door closed, and Luna was only vaguely aware of the fact that Amanda was home. Her mind was still gone, focused on the update of her father’s death. She didn’t know how (or why) she had managed to wander out into the kitchen, but the tremors that threatened to knock her over had gotten her to sit down. She sat staring straight ahead at the white of the refrigerator, not seeing anything around her.

Amanda came into the kitchen, her face full of happiness. At the sight of Luna, it dropped from her face. Instantly, she felt guilt gnawing at her insides, but she didn’t know what she could do to fix it.

“Luna, what’s the matter?” she asked, noticing the distant look on her friend’s face.

“David is-“ Luna couldn’t bring herself to finish that sentence.

“Dead?” Amanda guessed, wondering why Luna was acting surprised over news she had gotten days ago. “Honey, you knew that.”

“But…he was murdered,” Luna managed to choke out, looking at her friend through stinging eyes.

“But you already knew that too,” Amanda said.

“I don’t mean the poisoning part,” Luna said. “I got an update. He was killed a different way.”

“What do you mean?” Amanda asked, looking concerned.

“I just got a call from the police station; they said his heart attack wasn’t from complications. It was caused by a coronary embolism. They found a needle-sized hole in his IV line,” Luna explained.

“Are you serious?” Amanda asked, her mouth opened in shock.

“Yeah, the police are looking into his death now. They’re gonna talk to Rose to try to see if the can find any enemies he had,” Luna said. Suddenly, she wished she would’ve taken Sarah’s advice and looked into what enemies her father had. Maybe if she had, she could’ve prevented his death.

“I’m so sorry,” Amanda said.

“Me too,” Luna replied, unable to meet her friend’s gaze.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Amanda asked, taking a step towards her uncertainly. She hoped that maybe it was the breaking point that would make Luna reach out for comfort.

“No, Mandy, there’s nothing anyone can do. I just need to be alone for a while,” Luna replied, looking at Amanda through eyes empty of any and all emotion.

She got up from her seat and carefully made her way outside. She sat on the porch, staring at the field as the sun began to set. Despite her denial, she wondered about what Max had said about Chance. Was he right? Was Chance out there somewhere, targeting her all over again? She swallowed heavily as the wind tugged at her long hair. She hated herself for letting him live all those years ago.

L
una swiped Amanda’s keys off of the counter and quickly jumped in her car. She drove directly to the highway, leaving Bowling Green behind her on her way to Lima. She needed to talk to Rose, to find out if the police told her anything different….or if she knew who would’ve killed David.

Her heart seemed to race in her chest the entire drive. She parked the car outside of Rose’s house and hurried out of the car. Luna breathed in deep as she held her hand above the doorknob. She could feel the weight of her sorrow like a rock in her chest, but she managed to push it to the back of her mind for the time being. She let out the air she had been holding and pushed open the door.

The sound of Rose’s sobbing filled her ears instantly. Luna swallowed heavily as she followed the sound to the kitchen. Rose was hunched over the kitchen table, tears staining her cheeks as she cried.

“Should I come back another time, Mom?” Luna asked.

Rose sniffled and wiped at her eyes as she turned to acknowledge her. “Oh, no, how are you doing, Luna?” she asked, standing up as she hugged her daughter.

Luna hugged her back and pulled away to look at her carefully. “I’m okay, Mom. I would ask you the same, but…”

Rose grasped her hand as she sat her daughter down at the table.

“The police called me today,” she said suddenly. “They uh- they wanted to know a list of people that might have had an out with your father the week before he got sick.”

“They called me wanting to know the same thing. What did you say?” Luna asked, widening her eyes in interest.

“I can’t imagine anyone that would want to hurt him,” she said.

Luna felt her heart bunch up in pain at the thought. She could easily think of a person that would have the motive.

It’s not possible,
she thought to herself.
It can’t be him –his memory is gone.

“Twenty years, Luna. We were married, living together in
this
house for twenty years.”

“I know, Mom, it’ll take some getting used to.”

“This was my home for a large majority of my life, and now, without your father it’s empty. I’m alone. The home that I loved is now just a house. Cold and lonely like I am.”

Luna frowned. “You know I’m always here for you.”

“And I appreciate that, Luna, but you have to understand it’s not the same. You’re not a kid anymore, you’ve moved out and moved on with your life. I’m sitting in the middle of mine with an empty bed to greet me at the end of each day.”

“It was difficult for me and Dad to get along after graduation, I’ll admit that, but I never wanted this,” Luna said. “It’s hard on me too.”

“By the steel of your face, you could’ve fooled me.”

“I did all my crying this morning,” Luna said giving her mother a gentle smile. “Whatever you need, I can do. I’ll move back home for a while if you want. I mean, just until things get easier.”

“I can’t ever imagine things getting easier.”

Luna smiled bitterly at Rose. She knew exactly what she was feeling. David’s death had a vice grip on her heart. When Violet had died three years ago, Luna had felt the same thing. After the past week, she was numb –feeling oddly at peace with the idea.

“The funeral will give you a real chance to say goodbye, Mom.”

Rose shook her head. “I doubt that would help much. Seeing his tombstone will make me feel worse. It’s a reminder that everything I always feared is coming true, and there is nothing I can do to stop it.”

Luna was out of comforting words to say. Instead, she stood to her feet and wrapped her arms around Rose. She felt as if she were dead inside, but she could play a role just fine. She would be the shoulder her Mom could cry on –only for a little while.

It’s better than nothing,
she reminded herself.

In the back of her mind, all she could think of was the fact that when she was broken, she had had no one to glue the pieces of her life back together for her.

She had been alone.

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

Luna was more distant than ever before. When Amanda had found her staring emotionlessly at the refrigerator, she thought Luna might finally be willing to talk about what she was feeling. She wanted to do nothing but be alone in her room and only leave to go to work.

Amanda wondered what her mourning was doing to her mental health. Luna had always been a loner, but she knew it couldn’t be healthy for Luna to spend
that
much time alone. People were social creatures so even if situations made her nervous, she still needed to deal with them. She was so young; she was at the age where she needed to enjoy her free time, not use it to hide away.

Amanda heard the familiar chime of Luna’s phone and realized she had left it on the table. Luna wasn’t home; she had run off somewhere without a word and left her phone abandoned. It rang out three more times. Amanda sighed and picked it up, it was Max calling again.

She held it to her ear. “Hello?”

“Hey, Amanda,” Max said irritated. He was really beginning to wonder why she had a phone if she never wanted to use it.

“Hi, Max,” Amanda said.

“Luna’s not home again?” Max assumed.

“No, she’s not, but she just got some bad news about her father a few minutes ago,” Amanda said somberly.

“Really?” Max asked surprised. Suddenly he found himself glad that Amanda had answered the phone.

“Yeah, he was sent to the hospital a few days ago when he had a seizure. The doctors said it was from arsenic poisoning, and he actually ended up going into a coma. But he died during the night from a coronary embolism. They said they found a hole in his IV line that matched a needle,” Amanda explained.

“It was murder?” Max asked not feeling surprised at the news.

“Apparently so. Luna said the cops are looking into it. They’re going to talk to all the people he knew to try to see if he had any enemies,” she replied.

Max pursued his lips as he thought for a moment about what she said. He knew that their search would come up inconclusive. Try as they might, the cops would never be useful in that case.

“When’s his funeral?” he asked her.

“Later today.”

“Alright, thanks,” Max said, hanging up.

If Luna wouldn’t answer the phone to him then, like it or not, he’d find a different way to talk to her.

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

When Rose and Luna got to the funeral, people were still arriving in groups. Luna climbed out of her mother’s car slowly, wondering what to expect. She waited for Rose to gather her belongings in her purse before they walked over to the large grassy field. There were a couple of people already there milling about at the far end; a few of them were sitting in the foldout chairs that were neatly lined up. They were distant family members that Luna didn’t recognize.

They all seemed to be unsure of their grief. The figures moved about around the freshly dug grave, none of them seemed to take much notice of it except to make sure they didn’t fall in it. The pit had been dug to hide the grief that no one truly wanted to admit was real. The grief that everyone tried to ignore as they spurred simple small talk conversations with family members they hadn’t seen in years.

It was easy enough to pretend that they were somewhere else -a family reunion perhaps or maybe an anniversary. But with the pit still remaining open in the middle of all of them, it was the only real thing that made them aware of the social situation they were actually at.

Luna sat silently beside Rose in the stiff foldout chair. The ceremony hadn’t started yet, but she had no desire to associate with the rest of her family. She had never been close to any of them anyways. It wasn’t long before she was lost inside her own mind. A week and a half had passed since the end of the semester and Lucky’s death, and a half of a week since her father’s death. The awkwardness of the black skirt she wore was forgotten as she stared stolidly at David’s coffin.

Everything didn’t seem to matter at that point; her school, her crappy job, even Lucky’s death didn’t seem important as the realization of the situation finally set in. Tears rolled down her cheeks without her realizing it. Her father was actually dead; she couldn’t believe it. The rest of her estranged family finally found their way to their seats all around her as the Pastor began to speak.

“Lord, we gather here today on this sunny day to pay our respects to David Ketz-“ he began.

David, her sometimes hard headed father, was actually dead. And not from natural causes at that. It was too much to think that someone hated her father enough to kill him. Luna heard the grass across the cemetery crunch beneath someone’s feet, but she didn’t pay it much attention. Nothing was as important as her own father’s funeral.

Rose handed her a napkin suddenly, and she took it to dab at her eyes as she realized the lower half of her face was drenched in tears. She had been crying for the past few minutes without even realizing it.

“Luna,” a rough voice hissed from across the small group of chairs.

She ignored it, wondering if it was only her imagination. That was until the heads of everyone in the funeral turned that way. Finally, she brought herself to look and saw that Max was standing there panting. His face was red with exhaustion from running across the open field.

Luna was shocked to see him; it had been so long since they had spoken face to face. For a moment, she wondered what he was doing there. Max waved his hand at her in a gesture that signaled her to come towards him. Luna sniffled again as she stood up and crossed through the groups of mourners, earning some dirty looks in the process. The Pastor even stopped talking for a moment to watch her pass.

Luna felt her skin burning under their glares, but she tried not to take any notice of it. When Luna reached Max, he grasped her wrist and pulled her away from the mourners before she even realized what he was doing. She stumbled behind him confused as she tried to keep up, but he didn’t stop until they were at the other end of the cemetery, well out of hearing range of the funeral.

“Max, what’s the matter?” Luna asked him finally.

He finally stopped moving and let go of her before he turned to face her. “I’m tired of you blowing off my calls,” he said flaring his nostrils. “Luna, we need to have a serious talk.”

“About what?” she asked folding her arms over her chest.

“You don’t think anything that’s been happening lately has been odd?” he asked in disbelief.

Luna shook her head; her mind was too grief-laden to consider his question. She didn’t need to see him then of all days.

“Really?” Max asked.

“Yes, really,” she said slightly annoyed. “What’s the matter with you? You come barging into my father’s funeral making as much noise as possible to ask me a question? Why would you do that?”

“You know why, Luna. I think it’s starting again,” he said looking weary, “we’re in danger.”

Luna opened her mouth to ask what he meant and then closed it again as she thought. She cleared her grief long enough to realize what he was talking about, Chance Welfrey and his chain of murders.

“Max, that’s impossible,” she said sighing and wishing she would’ve stayed in her seat at the funeral. When he called her with that stuff she could hang up and ignore him, but there was no way to do that.

“Listen to me, Luna, please. It’s not impossible,” Max said desperately. “Surely you know about Murphy’s law.”

“Yes, I know, but, Max, I don’t want to hear this. My Dad just died,” she said feeling ultimately defeated.

“That’s my point exactly! He died of an embolism, that’s obviously no accident when you factor in the damaged IV line! And remember Lucky? Her throat was slit,” Max said. “That was no hit and run, their deaths were done on purpose! Luna, I can only think of one person who would be doing this to you.”

“How did you know what happened to my dad?” Luna asked.

“Amanda told me because you never answer your damn phone. She’s worried too, Luna,” Max growled.

Luna stared at him, drawing her eyebrows together. It was bad enough that she couldn’t trust her oldest friend; she couldn’t trust her roommate either.

“Enough!” Luna snapped. “Just stop it, okay? That whole mess with Chance is over, in the past! Everyone in Lima knows he lost his memory, you said so yourself!”

“In most cases he would have lost it, but he was smart. He found a loophole, Luna, a failsafe,” Max said in dismay. “I didn’t take that into account when I told you how to reverse his fusion.”

Luna shook her head. She had had a bad enough two weeks without him trying to scare her into listening. She wouldn’t admit it, but the thought of Chance fully armed with his old dangerous mind scared her beyond belief.

If it was happening again, she couldn’t handle it.

“Luna, you need to hear me out,” Max said desperately.

She didn’t answer him. That was enough to get under Max’s skin. He had shown her patience to the best of his ability. He was losing the hold on his temper.