Dead by Morning (Rituals of the Night Book 1) (29 page)

Luna heard the bullet speed past her ear by a mere inch. She barely noticed it as she watched a purple mist seep out of Chance’s body and up into the heart of the green flame. It sat for a moment as it hovered inside the green mist before it shot upwards and vanished. At once, the green hue began to vanish, and Chance fell backwards against the wall, the gun laid on the ground beside him. His eyes were closed, and he didn’t move as he lay crumpled on the floor.

Is he dead?
Luna wondered solemnly to herself.

                                                                      Chapter Fifty

Luna crept over to him carefully, unsure if he’d wake up. When she reached him, she nudged his side with her boot. He still didn’t move, and she started to think that maybe he
was
dead. She crouched beside him and looked into his face. His eyes were closed. She held her fingers to his throat. There was a pulse…but it was faint.

Luna stood up and turned back to Amy. Amy was looking at Chance wide-eyed before she looked at Luna. Luna walked over to her. She pulled the gag out of Amy’s mouth, and the binds off of her wrists and ankles, and threw them onto the floor beside her. Amy sat up right away.

As Amy rubbed her sore wrists, she turned to look at Luna. “Is all of this real?” she asked quietly.

Luna stared at her, unable to speak. For so long Luna had had that same question on her mind. She hadn’t known what was real or fake and part of her still didn’t know. Luna glanced at where Chance lie and looked back at Amy. Luna thought of Violet and Max who were dead somewhere out in the forest.

Sooner or later she’d find out the truth.

“This is real,” Luna said finally.

“What happened today?” Amy asked.

“It’s impossible to explain,” Luna said shaking her head.

Amy shook her head.

Luna looked at her and realized her small brown eyes were filled with horror. She had seen more than she was willing to stand.

“Are you okay? Can you stand?”

“Yeah,” Amy said quietly standing to her feet. “Thank you for saving me, Luna. I was so scared.”

“There was no way I’d help him kill you,” Luna replied. “Let’s get out of here.” She wasn’t eager to stay in the tiny smoke filled room. She was worried Chance would wake up at any minute.

Amy nodded in agreement and turned to lead the way down the long dark hallway that led outside. Neither of them spoke as the darkness engulfed them. After a few minutes, they emerged on the other side, narrowing their eyes against the suddenly bright light.

“Are you going to be okay?” Luna asked Amy again.

The small girl nodded but didn’t say a word as she made her way to the edge of the clearing and disappeared into the trees. Luna wanted to follow her, but she knew she had worse problems to focus on at the moment.

Luna walked quietly through the forest. She just wanted to get as far away as she could. She was sobbing hard as she stumbled through the trees. She felt so weak from blood loss, and her stomach ached as if she had just undergone surgery. She knew the thin scab that had formed over her skin broke from her effort. Blood began to seep through her white dress. She prayed that she would be able to get somewhere safe before Chance came back to life.

As she walked, she recognized the foliage up ahead suddenly. She remembered that it had hidden Max from view. She crept over to it, desperate to see him. Max was lying on his back, and his light colored shirt was soaked in his blood. He didn’t move as he lay there calmly. His eyes were closed and his mouth barely parted. She crouched beside him and set her fingers to his bloody shirt as she stared down at him in quiet horror.

“Max…” Luna finally said quietly and felt her grief well inside of her at the sight of him.

She closed her eyes. She couldn’t believe that he had died at Chance’s hands. With all the knowledge that Max had had she never would’ve thought that Chance would’ve been the one to kill him.

“Luna,” she heard a raspy voice say in response.

She opened her eyes and looked at Max’s face again. His eyes were open.

“Max!” she said in amazement. “Are you okay?”

He nodded. “He only shot me in the shoulder. I’ll be fine. Where’s Chance?”

“He’s in the temple; he was going to make me sacrifice Amy.”

“Is she okay?” he asked and she could hear his worry there. She knew that she wasn’t the only one with a tender spot for the soft spoken brunette.

“Yeah, Chance’s dream character is gone. Amy was so scared that she just went home,” Luna said guessing where the girl had gone.

Max sighed. “At least you managed to save her.”

Luna nodded sadly as she remembered what had happened to Violet.

“Are you okay?” Max asked her concerned as he caught sight of the blood soaking through her gown.

She shook her head slowly.

“What happened?” he demanded.

“Chance stabbed me,” she said.

Max’s eyes grew wide. He sat up so fast he pained his shoulder again.

“Luna! My God! Are you alright?” he asked when he recovered.

“I-I’ll be fine…” she whispered. “So…what happens to Chance now that the dream character left him?” she asked him. “Is he going to die?”

“No, he’ll live, though he’ll be a totally new person when he recovers,” he replied.

“What do you mean?”

“Chance will have complete amnesia. He won’t remember anything that just happened today. Hell, he won’t even remember his own name,” Max said. “We’ll never have to worry about this happening again.”

Luna looked away from him for a moment in the direction of the temple. She couldn’t believe that just like that, everything Chance knew was gone. Max had been right about what would happen all along. The true Chance
had
vanished forever when the dream character had taken over his mind.

“You should probably call 911 for us,” Max said clutching at his wounded shoulder. “My shoulder is starting to hurt.”

“Why didn’t you call them already, Max?” she asked.

“I didn’t know what Chance was doing. I was worried if I called the police, he’d end up killing you,” he admitted.

Max sighed and moved his arm to reach into his pocket. His face twisted in pain as he passed her a pitch black cell phone. She took it from him quickly and opened it. She stared at the numbers on the black plastic as it sat in her hand and called 911 as quickly as she could. On the third ring, they finally answered the call and for a moment, she couldn’t think of what to say to them.

“My friend’s just been shot,” Luna said finally, “and another one’s been killed.”

“Where are you at?” the woman on the other line asked.

“We’re in the woods outside of town. We’re in a clearing towards the middle of the forest,” Luna explained, “and please hurry, he’s bleeding really bad.”

“Okay, we’ll send someone right away,” she said

“Thank you,” Luna replied and hung up the phone.

She closed it and handed it back to Max. His face twisted in pain again as he crammed it back into his pocket.

“Why didn’t you tell them about you?” Max asked dumbfounded.

“I don’t want to go to the hospital,” she whispered. “I don’t want people to know what happened to me.”

“You’re in pain, Luna. Don’t do this,” Max said.

“I need to get away from here,” she said.

Max frowned at her. “I can’t make you stay.”

“I know,” she said.

“You’re sure that Chance’s dream character left him?” Max asked quietly, and she could hear the doubt in his voice.

She looked him in the face as she thought back to the image of the green flame that had encased Chance’s entire body back in the cabin. If that hadn’t been the dream character leaving then she had no idea what had happened.

“I’m sure it did…” she replied. “I saw something…”

“What exactly had happened in there?” he asked her.

“I figured out what you had been trying to tell me before Chance shot you. I kept convincing Chance that nobody liked him. He was going to shoot me, but then he just started screaming, and his whole body glowed green.”

“Was there a purple mist that seeped out of him?” Max asked.

“Yeah, but it disappeared right away. When it did, Chance collapsed,” she told him.

Max let out a sigh of relief and looked up at her through calm eyes. “Good, then you really
did
manage to stop him.”

“But how?” she asked him feeling distressed. “If he was done fusing, how did I beat him?”

Max shook his head. “I don’t know, but we got lucky.”

“Yeah, we did,” Luna said.

“I have to congratulate you for winning. To be honest, I thought he might get the best of you.”

She looked at him feeling a bit irritated. Had he had no faith in her?

“It was just a feeling that I had in my gut. It was wrong of me, I know, but I couldn’t help it,” he said. “I really have to thank you.”

“No, I should be thanking you.”

He tilted his head to the side and looked confused. “Why?”

“If it wasn’t for you trying to find me to tell me about Chance’s biggest fear, then I would’ve never been able to stop him,” she explained.

“That’s true, isn’t it?” he said thoughtfully. “After he shot me, I was worried that you might not be able to figure it out. He was scared of being alone…who knew?”

“I definitely didn’t. Of all the things to fear…it’s amazing,” she said in astonishment.

Max nodded wistfully. “I just wish we could’ve figured that out sooner so that we could’ve used it against Chance
before
he had undergone fusion.”

“Then none of this would’ve happened.”

Max frowned. “Maybe, but we don’t know what could’ve happened. It’s impossible to tell in times like these, especially when half of the events weren’t even real.”

“Yeah, but all of that’s over with now,” she said.

Max nodded. “I know.”

They fell silent. Luna looked at his shoulder again. The ambulance needed to find him fast. Every moment that passed was another moment that his wound was allowed to bleed.

“I think I should get out of here before the cops find you.”

“Please stay here and let them look at your wound too,” Max begged.

“I can’t do that, Max,” she said. “I just can’t.”

He nodded once in understanding. “Okay, but I think you should go see Violet before you go home today,” Max said.

“Why?” Luna asked him. “I watched Chance shoot her point blank in the forehead.”

She knew that she didn’t want to go find Violet’s body, because when she did, she would instantly remember that she had let her down. She had let her walk into the trap that had killed her.

“You should find her to say goodbye before the cops take her to the morgue,” he replied.

“You’re right.”

“I don’t know what to tell the police. I don’t even know if Chance has woken up yet. If he hasn’t and the police find him, what kind of story could I possibly use?”

She frowned. “I don’t know, Max, but whatever idea you come up with will have to work. Chance won’t be able to say one way or the other.”

Max nodded. “That’s true; I just hope that the police believe me.”

“They’ll have to,” she said. “Will you tell them I was here?”

He shook his head again. “No, you’ve been through enough Hell without me pointing the cops to you. Just find Violet, and then go home and rest. You deserve it.”

“I think you deserve the rest since it was your information that helped me beat him,” she said.

“We’re both heroes,” he said smiling.

She nodded. “Will you be okay here by yourself?”

Max stretched and groaned as his shoulder popped. “Yeah, I’ll manage.”

“Okay,” Luna said as she stood up.

She gave him once last glance before she turned her back to him and began to walk the direction she knew Violet was. She pushed her way carefully through the thick foliage and carefully traced her path. The sun shone in the sky overhead as she traveled through the eerie trees.

It didn’t take long for her to discover Violet’s body lying stiff in the field. She had almost had the route memorized. The horrid scene was like a burn in the back of her mind. She forced herself to look at Violet again and noticed that the blood around her head had doubled.

Luna stood on the edge of the clearing and continued to look at her through narrowed eyes. She didn’t go all the way up to her. She had seen enough death without focusing on the gory details. She looked at Violet’s face to see her eyes sightlessly staring at the pink sky above. All around her face, her dark blonde hair looked red and dirty. It had been stained from her own blood.

Luna looked away from her feeling a twinge of guilt flutter in her stomach once again. If she had been able to stop her then she’d still be alive. Maybe if she had been quicker to get to the forest, she could’ve warned her in time. She closed her eyes and bowed her head. Max’s words played gently in the back of her mind. She knew that he was right; the events could’ve played out anyway, and if Chance hadn’t been the one to kill her, then something else might’ve been.

Luna turned and began to walk away slowly through the trees, and her shadow followed her. She knew there was nothing she could do. Luna was grateful that she had at least been able to save Amy.

Luna pushed through the thick foliage as the leaves continued to scrape at her face and arms. She noticed that the trees began to thin out. They were spread farther and farther apart, and eventually, she reached the road beyond. She walked alongside it as she slowly followed it back into town.