Dead by Morning (Rituals of the Night Book 1) (28 page)

                                                                      Chapter Forty-Eight

Luna frowned and pulled her wrists against the binds. If she hadn’t been strong enough to break them in her dreams, there was no way she’d break them in real life. She rested her head against the wall and groaned. She was stuck. She sunk to the floor as all the hope left her.

He had won the war.

I’m gonna die here.

She wondered how many more lives he would take on his rise to power. Would he wipe out towns worth of people in order to make the world fear him? Or was Max right about the universe collapsing? Kate and Susan had been friends of his and he had had no trouble murdering them in cold blood.

Suddenly, she could hear the sounds of dogs barking close by. They were so loud that she knew the beasts were just outside. She knew it was the same one that put Max in the hospital. Suddenly, the door popped open and light flooded through the darkness. Chance stood in the doorway, his figure an eerie silhouette on the dusty floor.

For a moment, he didn’t move.

“I knew you’d still be alive,” he said.

Luna swallowed and pressed the bloody shirt to her wound as she barely clung to consciousness.

“I got something that I want to show you,” he said.

She remained silent.

He narrowed his eyes. “You’re supposed to be working with me.”

She didn’t respond to that either. Why did he think that she was supposed to be helping him with anything? She was in no state mentally or physically. He turned around to look at something that sat on the ground behind him before he stepped into the cabin. He walked inside and a dragging sound accompanied him as he moved. Luna realized in horror that he was dragging the body of Susan Cross.

Chance dropped it next to her, and she stared at it speechless. Susan’s hair was a tangled mess that covered part of her face and hid one of her eyes from sight. Her flesh had turned gray and flaky. It was obvious that she had been dead for a while. A blood-shot eye peered out sightlessly from her face. Her bloody, mangled, and twisted body was covered in a ripped and dirty white dress that was spotted with large brown bloodstains in the places Luna guessed he had cut the satanic markings into the skin.

The smell of death rose from it strong and un-stunted. Though there was soil that covered parts of her, Luna couldn’t smell any of it. The smell of death overpowered everything. She clamped her hand to her mouth to try to block out the scent. She looked up at Chance as tears trickled from the corners of her eyes. The sight brought her back to life, and for another moment, she managed to forget about her agony.

How in the world could Chance do such horrible things to people that had trusted him? At that restaurant his food had been as bloody as his victims were. How could he eat that without remembering all the things he had done?

She pulled her hand away before she spoke. “How could you do this to your own friends?”

He shrugged. “As easily as I did to yours. Now, if you look close enough you can still see the markings.”

She stared up at him with hatred in her eyes. She couldn’t take much more before she fell apart. “Why?”

“Because it’ll come in handy,” he growled. “Now look.”

She frowned and forced her eyes to look at Susan’s twisted body again. Very faintly, in the withered flesh, she noticed tiny satanic markings that were like tattoos in her skin. She knew instantly that they were the same markings that had been reported on Kate’s body. Chance stepped over her like Susan was nothing but a pile of dirty laundry. He stepped closer to Luna. She flinched and moved as close to the wall as possible. She didn’t like the look on his face.

He was plotting something again, Luna could tell that. She wondered if he was deciding where else to stab her. He turned away suddenly, and she watched him, desperate to figure out what was going through his mind. He walked away out of the room leaving Luna alone with Susan’s mangled corpse. She swallowed hard as she looked at it. She wondered if she was looking into her own future. A flash of pain in her stomach reminded her that she wasn’t too far away from it.

Luna shut her eyes.
Stop it,
she thought to herself.

When she opened her eyes again, she noticed Chance was standing at the table on the other side of the room. She wondered what it was that he was looking at. He set his hands underneath something and picked it up before he turned to look at her. In his hand, he was holding the bone entwined with a rose that she had seen in the dream. He walked over to her and crouched down beside her. She stared hard at the item in his hand wondering what he wanted her to do with it.

“This-“ he said finally “-is a very important object.”

Luna didn’t speak. Like everything else around him, she didn’t understand. She almost wished that she would go unconscious.

“I call it the Rosebone,” he said looking down at it carefully as if it were precious gems. “I bet you recognize the rose.”

Luna looked at it and squinted her eyes at the delicate design of the flower. She
did
recognize it. “That-that’s the rose you gave me the night of the dance.”

He nodded. “Correct.”

“So, what are doing with that?”

“
This
is how I’ll give you some of my power,” he said. “My plan won’t work if something happens to you, so before anything, I need to give you this.”

He held the Rosebone out to her, but she didn’t take it. She stared at it warily. If she took it from him, what would it do to her? Would it make her want to kill? Would it make her accept helping him?

“Well, go on. Take it,” he said, extending it even farther to her.

“I-I can’t,” she said.

“Why not?” His gentle tone had vanished.

“Because I don’t know what will happen,” she admitted.

Chance rolled his eyes. “Just take it.”

Luna stared at it, more wary than ever. She realized that he wasn’t giving her a choice. Even though his weapons were hidden, it was still implied that he could use them. No matter what she felt about the strange object, she’d have to take it.

She took a deep breath in preparation before she held out her hands. Chance smiled and gently set the Rosebone down into her hands. He jerked his hands away, and a feeling like an electric shock soaked into her skin. It pained the skin on her hands and sent it all the way up to her wrists. She tried to throw the bone to the floor but found that it wouldn’t come off of her fingers. Luna grew more panicked, desperate to get it off. It wouldn’t budge. Suddenly, she got a tight pressure in her chest that turned to a sharp piercing pain. It hurt almost as much as the gash in her stomach.

Chance watched her, a tinge of worry on his pale face, but he said nothing. She would fight it, he was sure.

In her head, Luna was panicking.
I’m having a heart attack,
she thought.
I’m having a heart attack, and he’s not going to help me.

The pain in her chest radiated down to her legs and up to her head. The electric shock felt stronger, leaving scorching pains in its wake. Luna closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, desperate to not scream. Desperate to not let Chance have the satisfaction of knowing just how much pain she was in.

Her head slammed against the wall as she stared up at the ceiling through narrowed eyes. The electric pain was ringing in her feet and the top of her head. The pain was immense, and she didn’t know how much longer she could take it before she cracked. Then, just as suddenly as the pain had begun, it vanished in eerie respite.

Instantly, Luna’s tensed body went limp. The Rosebone fell from her open hands and clanked against the floor. Her blood soaked the place she had held it. She was too weak to look at it as she slumped against wall, panting.

Chance stared at her, trying to catch her eyes. He was uncertain if she had passed out from the pain. “Are you okay?”

She didn’t answer him. Her neck was weak and tingly, and she stared straight ahead at the wall. She was unable to turn her head to look at him. Chance picked up one of her chained wrists and set his fingers to the skin, searching for a pulse. He found it and let go of her wrist. He didn’t like her silence, but he knew she was too weak to move. He stared at her helplessly.

“What…did…you…do….to…me?” Luna finally managed to rasp.

“You experienced a small part of what I’ve gone through,” he replied.

Luna was silent again. Her breath was wheezy, and her stomach seemed to have doubled in pain. Chance knew she was incredibly weak. He sighed and pulled the keys out of his pocket to un-do the locks on her wrists. She was aware that she was free, but she was too weak to even flex her wrists. She was in far too much pain to make logical sense of her situation. He left the Rosebone on the floor as he scooped her up in his arms.

He wasn’t surprised to find that she weighed almost nothing, even when she was completely limp. Her head lolled, and he popped it up on his shoulder so that she had no choice but to look at him. He carried her out of that room. Even though he was a cruel person, he still thought it’d be inhumane to leave her in that condition in the other room.

Monsters had feelings after all, it seemed.

Weak as she was, Luna was still aware that for the first time she was in a part of the cabin that she hadn’t been in before. They passed a closet, and she wondered if that had been the one Chance had been keeping Max a prisoner in. He kept carrying her, past the closet, and Luna wondered where they were going. Was he going to end up feeding her to his dogs like a human steak? She wanted to protest, but found that she was still too weak.

Chance carried her through a doorframe, and Luna realized they were in a bedroom. The walls were still wooden, and the window was painted over in black like the others. In the middle of the room was a queen-sized bed with red covers. He carried her over to it. Balancing her in one hand, he lifted the sheets with the other and set her down gently.

He straightened out her arms and legs and she stared up at him, amazed and baffled by his kind behavior. It was a brand new side of Chance. He stroked a lock of hair out of her eyes and pulled the blanket onto her. She blinked at him gratefully then stopped herself. His face was still covered in her blood. He was the reason that she was so battered. He was the reason that she was on the verge of death.

He was helping her out of guilt.

He looked at her carefully a moment longer before he turned and left the room. Luna heard a click as he locked the door behind him. She didn’t fully understand what had just happened, but she did understand that she was still too weak to move. She coughed weakly, and the hitch in her breathing caused it to be irregular again. She guessed that she would be there for a while.

Silently, she prayed she wouldn’t die.

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

Luna’s eyes fluttered open. The room around her seemed to be a bit darker, and she guessed it was nighttime outside. She breathed in; glad to find that it was easier to do so. Movement beyond it was still difficult. She found herself glad that Chance had tucked her under the blanket because she was shivering violently.

              She wondered where he had gone. Maybe in the time she had been sleeping he had unlocked the door. Maybe she could force her joints to work, and then she could get out. She struggled and managed to finally turn her head. She realized that the blanket beside her was rounded in a lump. She recognized Chance’s golden hair on the pillow. He was lying on the other side of the bed with his back to her. She wondered if he was sleeping or waiting for her to wake up.

              “Chance…” Luna got herself to say.

Instantly, he looked over his shoulder at her. “You’re awake.”

Luna swallowed, unable and unwilling to answer him.

Chance stood up and stretched. He looked down at her carefully. She noted he was wearing the same black clothes he had had on yesterday. His golden hair, which was usually so carefully slicked back, was a mess. The only thing she was grateful for was that her blood had been cleaned from his cheeks.

“How do you feel?” he asked her.

“Better,” she forced herself to say.

Chance looked satisfied and turned to go towards the door. He opened it, and looked back once. “Be back soon,” he said and disappeared down the hall leaving the door open.

Luna looked at the open door longingly. She closed her eyes for a minute to concentrate. She could move her neck; she kicked once to test her legs and was glad that they worked as well. Then, she tried reaching out to pull the blanket off, but her wrists wouldn’t move. She butted the blanket off of her with her hands anyways and realized that her wrists were handcuffed together. She pulled them, frustrated. Of course he wouldn’t let her be capable of leaving.

He reappeared in the doorway as if her thoughts had summoned him. She winced at the sight. After everything he had put her through, she loathed him more than ever.

In the back of her mind, she knew she was still in danger.

                                                                      Chapter Forty-Nine

He approached the bed. Luna noted that his hair was carefully fixed, and his black sleeves rolled up. She was angry at Chance, though she was glad that she had full control of her body back. She pulled against the handcuffs again.

“What did you do this for?” she asked him angrily.

“You’re back to yourself,” he said ignoring her question.

She pulled her wrists again. “Why?”

He ignored her as he pushed her wrists aside. He pulled up the bottom of her clothes to reveal her stomach, and Luna realized in that moment that she was wearing a white gown. She felt uncomfortably exposed as she realized that all she was wearing underneath was her underwear.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

He didn’t speak as he ran his fingers over her stomach. She knew instantly that was where his knife had sunk into her skin. Confused, she sat up to see it. There was a swathe of white fabric taped over the laceration, and all the blood had been mopped off of her skin. Chance’s fingers skirted lightly over the bandage.

“You’re gonna live,” he said pulling his hand away.

“It didn’t stop it from being unnecessary,” she said trying her best to pull the dress back down.

He smirked as he leaned towards her wrists and immediately in reflex reaction, she flinched away from him.

“Aww, stop doing that,” he said.

Luna’s eyes glinted as she looked back at him. “I can’t help it.”

He reached down and ripped open the handcuffs with a quick flick of his key before he shoved the keys into his pocket. He grasped her arm as gently as he could. He helped her up off the bed and kept his hand on her arm after she balanced herself.

“Okay, I have something that I need to do,” he said, “and now that you’re better you’re gonna help me.”

“What am I supposed to be helping with?” she asked him warily.

“Well, we don’t want Susan’s body getting found by the town like Kate’s did, do we?” he asked and his voice was overly calm.

In a way his calm, sweet voice was far more threatening than his angry voice could ever be. She couldn’t tell what it was that he was really feeling inside. And after the odd act of kindness she wasn’t sure what to make of his mood swings anymore.

She shook her head uncertainly. “No, we don’t.”

“Exactly right,” he said looking pleased.

He pulled her gently back into the main room. The room of the dream, and the room that still held Susan’s body. Luna clamped her hand to her mouth again at the sight of it. After not seeing it for a while it somehow made it much worse.

With his free hand, Chance grabbed the collar of Susan’s dress in a tight fist. He began to walk towards the cabin door, dragging Luna in one arm and Susan’s remains in the other. Luna winced as the body came close to touching her feet. She forced her eyes to look away. She walked a bit faster so that she was beside Chance.

Finally, they were outside of the cabin. She had been wrong about it being nighttime. It was sunset, she had slept through all day. She was sure David would notice that she wasn’t at home, but what difference did it make? He wouldn’t call the cops unless she didn’t show up in a few days. Chance let go of her suddenly, and the movement brought her back to her surroundings. He gave her a sharp warning glare before he drug Susan’s body to a halt in front of them. He dropped her before he backed up to where Luna stood.

“What are you gonna do with her?” she asked him quietly.

“Get rid of her the easiest way I know how,” he replied.

She looked at him and realized that he had pulled out a box of matches from his pocket. He opened it and pulled out a match. Was he actually going to
burn
her body?

“You’re joking, right?” Luna couldn’t hold in the only thought she had at that moment.

He shook his head. “Nope, how do you think I’ve never been caught?”

She shuddered at his words. He had been a wolf in sheep’s clothes his entire life.

Beside her, she heard Chance strike the match, and it caught fire instantly. He looked at it for a minute before he tossed it onto Susan’s unmoving body. Right away, her clothes caught fire and within a minute, it had completely consumed her in red-orange flames. The smell of burning flesh filled the clearing, and Luna lifted her sleeve to her mouth as she gagged on it. Her eyes started to tear up as she watched the hungry flames devour every part of Susan. Beside her, Chance was seemingly unfazed.

“Look at that fire burn,” he had said in what sounded like an amused voice.

She couldn’t take it anymore and turned away from the body. She felt bile rise up into the back of her throat. She leaned over and vomited into the grass beside her. Chance heard her.

Luna wiped her mouth on her sleeve.

“We can let this finish burning in peace,” he said. “We got other business to take care of.”

“Like what?” she asked him feeling that sickening trill again.

He pointed to something, and Luna turned to look. Instantly, she noticed the stone temple that stood next to the cabin. Half of the stones had fallen out of place in the ancient walls and ivy had made its home there too. She felt Chance push her, and she swallowed as she realized he wanted her to go in there.

She looked at him from the corner of her eye. No matter how she felt, she wouldn’t let him know that the calm part of her mind had left her. She stepped towards the stone temple slowly, and Chance stayed behind her. When she reached it, she stepped up the rounded stone stairs one at a time to go through the door-less gothic archway. The hallway that the door led to was pitch-black. She stopped for a minute, her senses felt disoriented.

“We’re not there yet,” Chance said from behind her.

“Where are we going?” she asked him.

“You’ll find out,” he said.

Luna sighed to herself. She took a breath as she tried to regain her senses and padded forward. The tunnel seemed to stretch on and on forever. Just when she thought it wouldn’t lead them anywhere, it emptied them into a small smoky room. The room was dim, lit by only a few sparse candles, and with no ventilation, the smoke had formed a haze in the room that made it hard to see. She narrowed her eyes against it.

In the middle of the floor lie Amy. Her wrists were bound behind her back as well as her ankles with thick, white lacy ties. A gag blocked her mouth, but at the sight of Luna, she started to mumble around it. Her face was purpled with a trail of bruises, and Luna guessed Chance had hit her. Amy was lying on a pentagram that looked drawn out of blood.

Luna knew it was human.

“Chance, let her go,” Luna said dragging her eyes off of her.

He shook his head. “No, Luna, you let her go.”

She blinked at him once before she took a step closer to Amy.

“I didn’t mean untie her,” he said.

Luna turned to look at him and realized what he was clutching. As her eyes caught sight of the small dagger, she realized what he had meant; he wanted Luna to sacrifice her.

“No.”

He rolled his eyes. “This is getting old,” he said, extending the handle to her.

Luna looked at it knowing she wouldn’t let it taste Amy’s blood. Chance was the psycho, not her.  He could never force her to kill. She’d have to make the choice to comply on her own. If he killed her, at least she’d die a good person. She knew too well what the knife felt like. She didn’t ever want to inflict that kind of agony on another person.

Luna looked at Amy again as she lie on the floor. She stared at her through desperate and fear-filled eyes. Luna thought back to when she had gone over her house. She remembered how different Amy was. Luna wouldn’t rip her future away to save her own life.

Luna remembered that Amy had saved her from Chance before. A life for a life.  He tilted the blade, and it glinted in the candle-light. Luna reached out and slapped it out of his hand. Without the knife to hold, his hand clutched into a fist as the dagger skittered across the floor. She looked back at Chance and saw his eyes were glowing pale green fire.

In that moment, she knew it. She knew that this was it, the final showdown.

“Pick that up,” he said calmly though he spoke through clenched teeth. It was the same voice he had used before he decided to stab her.

“No,” Luna said standing to her full height. “And you know why? Because I’m not helping you!”

He pulled the gun out of his pocket and cocked it once as it pointed towards the ground. “It’s either you kill her or I kill you. You choose, Luna.”

Luna stared at him and noticed that his hands were shaking as he lifted the gun up towards her. She thought about what Max had been about to say to her back in the forest before Chance had shot him. Chance was scared of being something….but what? She frowned, and looked at Chance through determined eyes.

“Is something the matter?” she asked innocently.

“You, you’re defying me…you can’t do that to me. I’m all you have left,” he spat and it was hard to tell if he was scared or angry.

As she stared at him, her mind clicked.

“You’re scared of being alone, aren’t you?” she asked him quietly.

“No,” he replied simply. His hand trembled again as he tried to hold the gun steady.

“That’s why you took my friends away from me…so-so that I’d depend on you. You thought that way I’d never leave you,” she whispered as understanding took her. “You stabbed me, but in a place you knew wouldn’t kill me just so that I wouldn’t run. You didn’t want to be alone.”

“I said I’m not scared of that,” he growled.

“Why is that your fear?” she asked him. “You’re the most popular boy in the school! Girls love you, and guys want to be your friend.”

He blinked, and for a second, the green hue in his eyes disappeared as he prepared to answer her. “They’re not interested in me for who I am as a person; they’re interested in my reputation, the popularity. But you…you never cared about that. You saw me for me, and it made you
different.”

Luna stared at him and caught the color change in his eyes. She had been right about what Max had been about to tell her.

“Of course I didn’t care about your popularity,” Luna said in shock. If she could keep it up, she might be able to cancel out his fusion, and then she could get Amy and herself out alive.

“That’s why I wanted you really, fuck your ability,” he said. “It would help me, but I easily could’ve found someone else with it.”

“You’re a jerk, and you’re ruining my life,” Luna said.

“Why say that?” 

“Do you even have to ask? All the stuff you’ve done to me over the years?” Luna said in disbelief. “I have a hole in my stomach!”

“How dare you say that to me? I’ve done everything for you,” he said. “It’s not my fault you wouldn’t listen.”

She scoffed. “Oh, really?”

“I took you out on a date, and you got to go to that dance with me,” he said. “You should be thanking me, especially since I saved your life on that bridge. I could’ve easily let you fall.”

“I will never thank you. You may have saved my life once, but you threatened to take it too many times to count. You’ve had your outbursts and choked me. You got me grounded, and made my Dad think I’m an alcoholic. I’m supposed to
thank
you?”

“Those were just a small fraction of problems, they don’t count,” he hissed.

“Yeah, they do,” she growled back.

“You’re really gonna leave it with that?” he asked narrowing his eyes at her.

She looked back at him through narrowed eyes. “You made me lose my friends, and you turned my own father against me. I can never fix what you’ve done to me. You’ve made my life a living hell.”

“It doesn’t have to be permanent. I can easily get David to believe you again,” he boasted, “with just one meaningful conversation.”

“He never should’ve thought I was a bad kid in the first place,” she said, “because I wasn’t. You know it was your fault yet you still made me take the blame.”

“Now you’re just being harsh,” he said and his voice sounded angrier.

“The truth hurts,” she said. “Listen to this, and listen good; I don’t like you, I never liked you. I hated having classes with you because that meant I’d have to sit by you and listen to you. I dreaded seeing your face every single day. I was the only person you couldn’t get under your spell, because I don’t want to be around you. I have just one wish in life. I just want you to go away,” Luna said saying each and every word slowly to enunciate her hatred for him.

She hoped he realized that he truly was alone in the world. She felt no guilt after everything he had done to her.

“That’s not true,” he said, and she could hear the emotion in his voice as he raised the gun at her again.

She wasn’t worried about him shooting anymore. She was utterly calm, too determined to win to give up. Chance’s eyes flashed their normal blue color again.

“It is true. They only like you for your popularity, just like you said,” Luna said slowly.

He opened his mouth to say something when suddenly he let out a scream of agony instead. Luna watched in mystified horror and took a hesitant step backwards. As she watched, his whole body began to glow a pale green –the same color his eyes had been. Suddenly, the room was filled with a deafening tearing noise as the pale green color rose to look like Chance had been engulfed in flames. The color stretched almost up to the ceiling as he screamed again. The gun went off suddenly as he clutched it tight in his agony.