Dead by Morning (Rituals of the Night Book 1) (2 page)

                                                        Chapter Two

Luna sighed as she shifted her heavy backpack on her shoulders and closed her locker door. It had been a long day, and she couldn’t wait to get home. She pushed through the halls of Shawnee High school.

She wove through the thickest part of the crowd as fast as she could- she had never been so desperate for fresh air. She closed her eyes as she tried to quickly get through the crowd and once again, she felt herself crash into somebody. Luna looked up and went to apologize, but the words caught in her throat as soon as she realized she had crashed into Chance.

“What are you in a rush for?” he asked.

“None of your business,” Luna replied as she pushed past him.

He grasped her shoulder, and she jumped from the unexpected contact. “Hey, wait up. I want to ask you something.”

She turned to look at him uninterested. “Yeah, what is it?”

“Do you want to maybe go somewhere sometime?” he asked. “Like the dance this weekend?”

Luna glared at him for a moment, completely speechless. She started to laugh. Without answering him, she shrugged off his hand and went back to weaving through the crowd.

Luna had to admit that his joke had actually lightened her mood. Once the crowd began to thin out, she ran until the school was out of sight far behind her. She felt lighter than air.

                                                                      ~~~~~~~~~~

Chance stood there staring dumbstruck after Luna as she left him behind without looking back once. Had she really rejected him? Laughed in his face in front of everyone? She had rejected him, the king of the school, person of the year, the most wanted date of the century? He had never (and he meant it when he said “never”) been rejected before, never in his entire life.

He had always gotten girls, even in elementary school during the whole “cooties” epidemic. Even his incarceration in juvenile hall hadn’t been able to stain that record. How could he be rejected when he was in his prime? It hurt him. How could she, someone so low on the social ladder, say no to him like he was nothing? He couldn’t understand.

Violet had lied to him. He frowned. She couldn’t say no to him, she just couldn’t. He knew she was different from all the other girls in the school, but was she really
that
different?

No one had ever resisted his charms before! He needed her. Needed her cooperation though. It was senior year, their last year together before graduation would permanently separate them. He would change her attitude. He was confident in himself.

He could feel himself sliding into That mind frame. The one no one knew about, the one he kept to himself. But he couldn’t help it. The mere thought of Luna put him into it, despite everything. He knew he needed to get her to listen, but she was difficult. Somebody bumped into him suddenly, and he was brought back to the reality of the hall. Brought out of That mind and back into the normal one. Everyone around was staring in shock. Even they couldn’t believe that he had just been rejected. He composed himself…as best he could anyways.

“It was a joke,” he said feigning a laugh and pushing quickly out of the school.

He emerged onto the steps of Shawnee High in time to catch a glimpse of Luna’s raven dark hair as she ran from the school, and presumably from Chance himself.

He growled. She could run for, but he’d find a way to get her to go on that date with him.

                                                        ~~~~~~~~~~

“Luna!” a voice called in the distance behind her.

Luna stiffened instantly as she recognized it. She turned around to look at Chance. He was walking towards her calmly and both hands were tucked into his pockets. He looked like he was out for a relaxing stroll, but she knew better. His bright blond hair hung over his eyes as he moved so it was impossible to read the emotion there; if there was any that is. Luna frowned as she wondered what he wanted to say. Then, she realized that she should’ve kept running when she had the chance.

Too little too late,
a small voice whispered. 

“What do you want?” she snarled at him as she felt all her anger flood back into her.

“I have a surprise for you,” he said smiling at her sweetly.

Luna took an involuntary step backwards as she suddenly remembered that the last two weeks’ worth of ‘surprises’.

“
More
water balloons?”

He smiled even wider at her reaction, and she could see his teeth as he pulled his hands out of his pockets. Each of them clutched a thick blue water balloon in each hand as he continued to saunter towards her. “That’s right, you really
are
smart.”

“If this is because I turned you down,” Luna began, “it was so worth it. I regret nothing!”

She backed away from him again and turned to run. She heard him laugh then she heard his footsteps behind her as he chased her. She hated it; she should’ve known her torment for the day wasn’t over at the sound of the final bell. Luna sighed in agitation and pushed herself to run a bit faster. Behind her, she heard a water balloon open near her feet and the cold water from the inside sprayed all over her legs.

She gritted her teeth in annoyance, but at least he had missed her. She knew he only had one balloon left…and five blocks left to throw it. She could outrun him (like she was so used to doing these past few weeks) as long as nothing stopped her. She took another step forward and felt her foot stick in a hole in the grass. Instantly, she lost her balance and fell forward to the ground. Her teeth clanged together painfully as she made contact with the rough terrain. For a moment she didn’t move as she stared at the grass blades that tickled her face in disbelief.

Behind her, Chance’s footsteps stopped and she finally forced herself to sit up. She turned to look at him feeling unsure. This would be gold to him, pure gold. He smiled and she didn’t like the look on his face as he threw the water balloon directly at her face. She let out a gasp of air as the feeling of the cold water hit her.

Chance laughed. “I finally got you,” he sneered. “About damn time too I was starting to think I’d never catch you.”

Luna gasped for air and coughed for a minute before she lifted her arm and wiped the water off on her sleeve. She narrowed her eyes at him, and he stopped laughing as soon as he caught the expression on her face.

“What?” he asked. “I was just playing around. Lighten up for once and you could have some fun.”

“That
wasn’t
funny!”

He shrugged. “It was to me, don’t worry about it.”

She continued to frown at him. He was so ignorant, rude, and conceited that he had to be the worst person that she had ever met. Luna wiped at her face again. The water was like ice and it clung stubbornly to her face. After a minute, the smile fell off of his face. He stepped over to her and reached his hand out towards her.

“Here, let me help you,” he said and the sneering tone had vanished from his voice.

Luna looked at his pale hand as it hung by her face and then smacked it away. For all she knew, he’d just push her down again.

“You’ve done enough.”

She stood up and stared at him hatefully as he looked up at her from the crouched position he had taken. His face looked uncertain like he was surprised that she had rejected him. Luna snorted; moron.

As she stared back at him, she noticed how the sun glinted off of a silver object that stuck out a bit from his black pants pocket. She frowned again as she looked at it. What was that? Chance looked back at her and saw her expression had changed. He noticed where she was staring, and he stood up straight so that the silver object disappeared into the depths of his pocket. He set his hand in his pocket for a minute before he pulled it out again. What was he hiding?

“What are you looking at?” he asked and his voice actually sounded…nervous.

“Nothing…” Luna said as she wondered what she really had been looking at.

“Am I that captivating?” he asked and his teasing tone had returned.

“No, you’re not captivating,” she snorted.

Luna took a step away from him as they stared at each other. Neither of them had a single thing to say.

“Just leave me alone,” Luna said to him finally before she turned and walked away. Her speech was trite, but Chance wasn’t worth her time. Besides, the more time she spent there, the less time she could spend at home in peace.

                                                                                    Chapter Three

Chance didn’t move. He
couldn’t
move as he watched her go. Suddenly, he couldn’t seem to think of why he had done that. The look in her eyes when had gotten herself up had been pure hatred. He had never seen that expression aimed at him before.

When he had gotten the water balloons he had thought it would be a good idea, it’d be cute. Surely she’d know that he was just teasing her like kids did in elementary school? Maybe she would like it, he had thought. He frowned…she hadn’t known he was kidding.

He reached into his pocket to reassure his favorite knife was still there, tucked away into the depths. Had she seen it? He couldn’t tell for sure. Nobody knew about his knife. It was his favorite sidekick when he was in That mind.

Even when he was okay he kept it with him. He never knew when he’d need it (his time behind bars had proven that) so he had it always. He tried to convince himself Luna hadn’t seen it. If she had she would’ve said something, questioned it. Yes, he was positive of that.

He looked to the ground where Luna had fallen. The grass blades were bent in a peculiar pattern. He bent forward and noticed a tiny tooth lying there. He knew it was Luna’s. He bent down and picked it up.

He suddenly worried for himself. What would Luna tell her parents about him?

He knew that her mother Rose was an uptight business woman that expected nothing less than perfection from her daughter. Luna’s father David wasn’t as uptight, but he was overly protective of his only daughter. Chance knew that if Luna told about her tooth then he’d be in big trouble. He didn’t doubt her father would try to strike up a harassment charge against him which wouldn’t be good for his record.

He had to fix the situation that he had created, and he had to make sure he did it brilliantly so that no one could ever suspect his true motives.

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

Luna wondered what it was that had been hidden in Chance’s pocket. He had been so eager to hide it from sight the moment her eyes had drifted to it…why? She frowned feeling like maybe it didn’t really matter. It was his business.

She drug her feet and groaned under her breath as she finally pushed open the door to her house. The way home had been a long exhausting walk since she had spent all her energy running away from Chance. Instantly, she threw down the backpack she had been carrying (already feeling better for the loss of its weight) and sat down in the soft black armchair in the corner in the room.

Luna bent forward to start untying her shoes and her dad, David, who had been sitting on the couch watching a sitcom, turned to look at her as he noticed her arrival. His face looked a little bit horrified.

“Luna, something happen at school?” he asked.

Luna looked up at him, surprised for his tone. “No, it was same old. Why do you ask?”

“You’re bleeding,” he said. “Are you sure things are okay?”

She froze; she wasn’t bleeding…was she? Her curiosity won out, and she reached up to her mouth. Scarlet smeared onto her hand, and she realized he was right. She had forgotten to wipe it off from when she had fallen.

“It’s fine, I fell is all,” Luna replied through gritted teeth as she returned to untying her shoes. There was no way she’d tell him about Chance. “You know how clumsy I can be, Dad, and when I’m in a rush, it’s worse. It’s fine.”

“Did you get into a fight?” he questioned. “Or did you get beat up?”

“No, Dad, why do you think that?” she replied and didn’t look up at him.

“You’re bleeding. You’re hiding something from me,” he replied.

“I’m not hiding anything.” Luna snorted as she kept untying her shoes. 

He was silent for a moment, and she peeked up through the strands of her dark hair to see him frowning at her.”I wish your mother was here, she’d know what to say to you right now. I’ve never been good at talking to you about problems like this.”

“I don’t have a problem,” she said slowly.

“She really needs to know about this,” David said, and his voice was distant.

“Then why not call her?” Luna asked absently as she tossed her shoes aside. She wasn’t worried. Her mind was too wrapped in her plans to get revenge against Chance.

“She said she’d be busy all week. I don’t want to interrupt one of her meetings on accident,” he said.

She scoffed quietly. “Then e-mail her if you’re so concerned,” Luna said getting up to walk past him. She wasn’t concerned about what he thought had happened. She wanted to see where the blood was coming from.

He didn’t answer her, and she could tell he was considering it; that worried her. Luna’s mother was a serious woman, and she was always strict when it came to her. She wanted Luna to be perfect. For the past year, Rose had been stationed across the world in China (which had come as a relief to Luna) and she wouldn’t be home again until she graduated which was months away. David was a lot easier to deal with considering her parents, but when something really concerned him, he always involved her before he decided to do anything.

And that could be bad news, especially in times like this when he persisted on things that weren’t true. Luna knew Rose would take his side, and she’d be helpless to do anything to defend herself.

She sighed as she went into the bathroom, and she frowned as she looked at her face in the mirror. Blood was running from the corners of her mouth. She sighed and wiped it away but more dripped out in its place…where was it coming from?

Luna opened her mouth to try to find the source and instantly noticed one of her molars was missing. She guessed she must’ve knocked it out when she fell. She frowned, knowing she’d always remember the agitation Chance caused her just by running her tongue along her teeth.

Luna closed her mouth as she continued to stare angrily at her reflection. There had to be some way she could get back at him for what he had done. She turned away from the mirror and walked back towards her room, the entire time thinking of possible ways to get revenge.

Once she stepped into her room and sat down on her bed, she realized that there was nothing she could do. Every plan that she had thought up would require help from somebody…but nobody was on her side when it came to Chance. In order to take him down she’d have to do it on her own.

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

“Luna! Come here for a minute!” David called. “I need to talk to you about something important.”

Luna sighed and set the book she had been reading down. Hours had passed since she had gotten home. She had gotten no closer to a solution to her real problem, and she wondered if her ‘fighting problem’ was still on her father’s mind. She stood up and the chair scraped against the floor loudly. She winced at the sound as she crossed the room to the door and peeked into the living room that lay across from her room.

She didn’t see David from within the room. Luna left her bedroom to go into the kitchen. He was frowning at her almost instantly, and his deep set eyes looked just as unhappy. He was standing there with his arms crossed and next to him she immediately spotted Chance sitting at the kitchen table. Rage filled her from head to toe.

Luna narrowed her eyes at him as she wondered why he was in her sanctuary. He looked back at her. He was wearing a long sleeved black shirt and the sleeves hid his hands as he peered at her from under his long bright blond hair with that expression that she hated the most. She could tell that that was his best innocent look. Then panic struck as she realized that it could work on someone gullible like David.

Chance was trying to cause trouble for her…again.