Dead by Morning (Rituals of the Night Book 1) (26 page)

“Well, he’s going to, and it’s all thanks to you,” he said harshly. “We can’t stop him.”

Luna snorted. “Thanks for the encouragement. There has to be a way to stop fusion, right? Every problem has a solution.”

On the other end of the line, Max was silent, and she knew that wasn’t a good sign.

“Right?” she insisted. She desperately wanted him to speak his thoughts.

“Yeah, there is one way to stop him…but you definitely won’t like it,” he replied.

“If it means stopping that monster from what he’s trying to do, then I’ll do it,” she said. “Tell me what it is.”

“The main bystander has to um…kiss him on the mouth,” Max said, and Luna could tell he was waiting for her reaction.

She scrunched up her face in disgust as she remembered when Chance had done that when he was “drunk”. The thought of him made her physically sick to her stomach.

“What? Why would that stop fusion?” she asked him.

“A kiss between a real person and a person undergoing fusion will repress the dream character away, and bring out the true identity. I don’t know why. I think it has something to do with the intimacy of it,” he explained.

“If that’s the case, who’s the main bystander?” Luna asked him cautiously.

“There are two in this case, me and you,” he replied.

“You’re joking, right?” she asked him hopefully.

“No, sadly, I’m not,” he said. “It’s up to you to stop him from fusing completely.”

“I’m not going to do that again! I’ve already had the unpleasant taste of that once, and I hated it. Absolutely despised it,” Luna replied hotly. “I’d rather
die
than do that again!”

“There’s a good chance you might,” Max said, “at least you’re prepared for it.”

“There has to be another way to stop him,” she said.

“Nope,” he said. “You have to do it or else he’ll finish fusing. He’ll be invincible.”

“No,” she said firmly. She wanted to stop Chance with every ounce of will in her body, but she had to draw the line somewhere.

“Then be prepared for a load of trouble,” Max said ominously.

                                                                      Chapter Forty-Four

When Chance woke up in the morning, he still felt that bitter boiling anger. He tried thinking about why he might feel as mad as he did and realized that he hadn’t drank any in a few days. It wasn’t the alcohol that was making him feel this way. He wondered if it was because he hadn’t been sleeping well ever since Luna had pulled his dream character out of DreamWorld.

He was glad that his knife was lying across the room so that he wouldn’t get the urge to stab his mattress. It was lumpy enough already. Pressure was heavy in his chest, it had been for a while. He gritted his teeth trying to hold in a frustrated groan. He breathed out roughly and lifted his hands to claw at the skin on his forehead. Finally, he couldn’t seem to stay still anymore and got up to go to the bathroom.

He stood there in the dark, looking at his reflection in the cracked mirror. He poked at his face trying to see why he was so angry, and then his attention was drawn to his eyes as he noticed the abnormality. They were a sapphire blue, but every few minutes they flinted with a bright pale green that looked like ivy growing carefully through his irises. He recognized it…his fusion was close to being done. It explained his mood alright, but he wondered how he’d be able to hide it from the people at school all day.

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

The pencil jabbed Luna in the ribs again as she sat at her desk. She gritted her teeth. All she had to do was survive the hour; just this one hour, and then she’d have her next class where she’d be free of Chance. This reminded her too much of the drive home from their date.

“Luna!” Chance hissed again from his spot beside her.

She sighed and turned to look at him, annoyed. “What?” she whispered.

“You didn’t say ‘hi’ to me today,” he said with a fake sadness.

She rolled her eyes at him. “Do I ever say ‘hi’ to you,” she said and turned back to the front of the room to watch the teacher.

If fusion was occurring inside of him, he seemed no different than usual. Luna looked at him from the corner of her eye as he sat looking down at a pencil that was sitting on his desk. She remembered what Max had said was necessary to stop fusion from overcoming him and shuddered at thought.

Things will be just fine,
Luna decided to herself.

The dream Chance was a horrible twisted person. He wasn’t annoying because he was able to create fear. The true Chance had his moments, but most of the time he was an idiot, and nothing but annoying.

She felt the pencil hit the spot between her ribs again. He just didn’t stop. She winced at the pain and knew there would be a bruise there tomorrow. She sighed again and looked at him wondering what it was that he wanted
this
time.

“I’m not going to leave you alone until you talk to me. I can make your life a living hell, you know. And when you sleep I can haunt your dreams just as easily as I haunt your reality,” he hissed, and his eyes flashed a green color.

Luna stared at him without a word. His voice had changed a bit, and he didn’t look quite the same when he threatened her. He didn’t seem to care that anyone could hear him. Was this his dream side that was threatening her?

“Just be nice to me, Luna, and we can all be happy,” he said looking at her calmly. He sounded back to himself. His eyes stayed their sapphire blue once again.

She looked back at him and doubted anyone would be happy as soon as his fusion was complete.

                                                        ~~~~~~~~~~~

Luna walked down the sidewalk, alone with her mind full of thoughts. She couldn’t doubt Max now that she had seen for herself that the dream character was already a part of Chance. She needed to stop him. She heard a screech beside her and looked to see a black truck slow down beside the curb. She stopped walking instantly. She knew who was inside, and she didn’t want to step to close. Chance peered at her from the driver’s side; heavy black sunglasses covered his eyes.

“Need a ride?” he asked calmly.

Her instant reaction would be to say ‘no’, but she had a feeling that if she agreed, then she could see if he was farther along in fusion yet. She might not like him, but she needed to gather information to pass to Max.

“Yeah, if you don’t mind,” she called trying her best to sound friendly.

“Then hop in,” he said, and she heard a pop as he opened the passenger side door.

Swallowing her feelings, she stepped into the street and climbed into the truck feeling like she was climbing into her own coffin. She closed the door, and they sat in silence as he started to drive.

“So, how are you today?” he asked her finally, in an even tone.

She frowned, his sentence had been too stiff. She couldn’t tell which Chance he was. “I’m fine,” she answered finally. “And you?”

“Never been better,” he said smiling.

Luna nodded and looked down at her hands as the car went awkwardly silent once again. She twirled her fingers absently as nervousness overcame her, she didn’t know what to say.

“So, what’s with the sunglasses?” she asked breaking the silence.

“It’s bright out,” he replied simply.

She glanced out the window at the glowing cloud-covered sky.

“Yeah,” she said finally.

They fell silent again, and she pulled out her chap stick as nervousness overcame her. She played with the stick absently as she twirled it between her fingers. The silence seemed to flood her mind. Suddenly, the car pulled to a halt. She lurched forward and dropped her chap stick by Chance’s feet.

Instinctively, he reached down to get it, and the sunglasses fell off of his face. He looked up at her uncertainly, and she gasped in horror as she realized his eyes were glowing a pale green.

Luna didn’t take her eyes off of him. She couldn’t seem to look away as they sucked her into some sort of trance. She snapped out of it suddenly as she remembered that his eyes meant trouble. She reached backwards for the handle on the car door. She had to get away before he had the chance to see the look of fear that had spread across her face.

Chance grabbed her arm suddenly. She tugged against him, but he wouldn’t let go. She looked up at him, panicked.

              “Don’t go yet, Luna,” he said in his usual suave voice. “These are just contacts.”

She clawed at his hand as the fear got the best of her, and he finally let go of her arm. “No they’re not!” she said as she jumped out of the truck and slammed the door behind her before he could grab her again. She ran to the sidewalk.

As she passed the truck, she looked back to see if he was following her. She realized he hadn’t moved from his seat. He was staring at her through pale green eyes, watching her every move carefully. As she stared back at him, she realized there was no way that they were contacts.

Luna turned and ran up the sidewalk into the house. She closed the door behind her and slid the lock closed in case he tried to come in. He stood there panting as she thought about Chance.  His fusion was already done! There would be no stopping him.

She turned to walk into the kitchen and noticed David at the table. She wondered briefly if he had seen her run from Chance. She hoped not…he’d make her apologize. As she passed the window beside him, she couldn’t help glancing out to see the yard beyond. She noticed that Chance’s truck was gone already, and she felt instant relief flood through her.

“I saw Chance gave you a ride home from school today,” David said.

She looked at him not amused by his comment. Her heart was still fighting to slow its frantic rhythm. Chance was a danger to her yet all her Dad could comment on was the obvious. She frowned at him. She felt momentarily jealous of how naïve he was. 

“Yeah, he did,” she said finally.

“That was nice of him,” he said.

She shrugged.

“That’s good, Luna. Keep this up, and you’ll be a good kid again in no time.”

Luna nodded though inside her blood was boiling. She had been a good kid the entire time! It was Chance that had been nothing but pure evil. Of course David didn’t believe that.

“Of course, Dad,” she said.

She had given up arguing with him a long time ago. Arguing with him was as futile as arguing with Chance. Luna started to walk to her room, the image of Chance’s glowing eyes was still burned into her mind.

“Luna, he’s a nice guy. He treats you right, you have to admit that.”

She didn’t know how to reply so she nodded once. She knew he wasn’t a nice guy, but what could she say when she knew that David wouldn’t believe her anyways?

“You should hang onto him,” David said not caring that she hadn’t spoken.

She didn’t reply to that either as she walked to her room. What the world saw as an average teenage boy with everything going for him, she saw as a bloodthirsty monster waiting for the right moment to strike.

                                                                      Chapter Forty-Five

              When Chance got home, he went immediately to the mirror. He took off his glasses to see what had startled Luna. His eyes were solid green, no more flints of color. It was real, and Luna knew what it meant. He smiled in triumph and threw his glasses to the floor. He had the ability that he had wanted ever since he had first learned about it. He’d be invincible. He turned to leave the room. He went into his bedroom and lifted his mattress up off of the floor. Underneath, sat a small revolver. He picked it up and smiled at it as he crammed it into his pocket. Real world Chance’s weapon of choice was a dagger; DreamWorld’s Chance was a revolver.

              He left the house. He crossed the yard to his truck and climbed in. It was time to pay Violet another visit. He didn’t plan to kill her yet. Not in her house, the gunshot would be sure to draw attention. He’d lure her to the woods by the dream cabin. He drove to Violet’s and parked in front of her house. Chance walked up to the door. He knocked once, and she answered. Her eyes were filled with fear at the sight of him.

              “What do you want? I’ve been mean to Luna like you want,” Violet said.

“I want you to go camping tomorrow,” he said.

Her face scrunched up in confusion. “What? Why?”

Chance pulled out his knife. “Do you need to ask?”

Violet bit her lip for a minute then un-did it. “You know what? Yeah, I do need to ask. You made me lose my best friend, I haven’t slept in weeks, and you’re threatening to kill me. I damn well
need
to know why I should go camping. My guess is that, what? I go out there so you can kill me?”

Chance was stunned by her attitude, his fingers inched towards the revolver in his pocket, but he forced himself to keep it hidden.

“Fine. I just thought it’d be better for everyone if you, and your whole family if you want, goes out of town for a bit.”

“That’s not a reason.”

“Just do it, okay? Do it or I’ll kill Max, and then you,” he said pointing the dagger at her. “How’s that for motivation?”

“You wouldn’t,” she said.

“I would. You know I
will
.”

He stared at her, his eyes hardened emeralds. It was the first time that she looked up and caught his eye.

“What’s-what’s wrong with your eyes?” she asked worriedly.

“It’d take too long to explain,” he said, “but here’s what I will tell you. If you aren’t in those woods by the time school starts tomorrow, then you’ll have more to worry about than my eyes, are we clear?”

Violet swallowed, the fear had returned. Even with her lack of sleep she could see that something was seriously wrong.

“Crystal,” she finally mumbled.

“Invite Luna too,” he said, and with that turned, and left her porch, leaving a confused Violet behind him.

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

Luna opened her eyes and looked around groggily. The book she had been reading earlier lay across her chest, and she realized she must have fallen asleep. She yawned loudly and looked up at the clock to see how long she had been sleeping. It was only midnight. She blinked and shuddered suddenly as cold air washed over her.

She picked up the book and closed it before she set it on her nightstand and sat up. She stood up off of her bed and stretched. She decided that maybe a hot shower would warm her up and help to lure her back to sleep again. She walked to the edge of her room and opened her door quietly. She peered into the living room beyond and noticed that it was pitch black. She guessed David was sleeping. She opened her door the rest of the way, and the light from her room flooded the living room.

Luna carefully made her way through the darkened rooms and into the bathroom. She closed the door behind her before she turned on the faucets of the shower. She let it run warm as she slid off her clothes. She climbed into the shower and let the warm water soothe her tensed muscles and chase away the cold of the night. She closed her eyes in satisfaction.

Suddenly, the water no longer felt soothing. It felt hot and thick. As it ran over her skin, it felt sticky. It was almost syrupy. She opened her eyes and looked down at herself. She realized in horror that she was completely covered in crimson blood. She looked at the showerhead as more blood poured from it in an unrelenting stream.

The hot liquid flooded her eyes and mouth and gagged her as she tried to turn away from the stream. It flooded the walls and covered the shiny bathtub in an ominous crimson in less than a minute. Slipping and stumbling on the blood as it started to cover the walls and the shower curtain, she made her way over to the faucet as it kept pouring out the blood in hot torrents. When she reached the faucets, she turned off the ‘water’.

She closed her eyes for a minute and wondered how she was going to explain it to David. When she opened her eyes again, she looked down at herself and realized there were no signs of blood. She frowned…it had been another illusion, just like the bloody apple had been.

She knew it wasn’t good. Either she was going crazy or the illusion had been a warning of some kind. Was her Teardrop of Knowledge telling her about her future if she chose –well was forced to- help Chance? Was it telling her that in the end he would reign in an era of bloodshed? She shuddered and climbed out of the tub. Though she hadn’t been done with her shower, she didn’t want to risk turning the water back on.

She ran her fingers through her wet hair glad it was only water as she wrapped a towel around herself. She wiped her face, and she looked at her reflection in the mirror. Red lines were running from her hairline down her face. They dripped to the floor by her feet into a deep colored pool. She blinked, and the crimson vanished again. Either she was losing whatever was left of her mind…or something terribly wrong loomed in the near future.

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

“Come on, heat up already, you stupid thing!” Luna said frowning at the thermometer that sat on the sink.

She held the hairdryer closer to it and waited anxiously for the reading to go up higher. It inched up by half a degree, and she gritted her teeth, it was certainly taking its time. It was morning once again, and she didn’t want to go to school. She needed to find a way to stop Chance from going through with his plans.

David thought she was drying her hair. She had already had the hairdryer on for ten minutes. If the thermometer didn’t rise soon, then she’d have to go anyways. Luna looked down at it again, and the number read 101.2. It wasn’t perfect, but it was enough to get her out of school. She turned off the hairdryer and set it aside on the sink. She picked up the thermometer and winced as the heat from it burned her skin a bit. She set the end of it in her mouth and winced again as the heat singed a place in her mouth before she opened the door to go to the kitchen.

David was sitting at the table like usual with a TV guide laid out on the table in front of him before he went out to find work. Luna took a deep breath as she prepared to face him.

“Dad, I feel really sick,” she said in a fake voice that sounded slurred thanks to the thermometer.

He looked up at her and frowned as she clutched pitifully at her stomach. She hoped he would believe her ‘sick’ act. The world really depended on this right now.

“Let me see it,” he said.

Luna nodded and pulled the thermometer out of her mouth before she handed it to him.

“Here, take it,” she said and groaned slightly.

He took it from her and turned it to see the reading. His eyes widened a bit at the number on the stick.  “Luna, you
are
sick,” he said handing it back to her. “You’re staying home today for sure.”

Luna nodded and sat down in the chair across from David as she continued to clutch at her stomach. She set the thermometer down before she set her head on the table.

“You’ll be able to take care of yourself today, right?” he asked.

Luna looked up at him confused. She was seventeen years old, of course she could take care of herself. Why was he asking her that?

“I’ll be just fine, why?” she asked.

“Well, I need to leave again today to help Adam clean the insulation out of his attic. I don’t know when I’ll be home,” he said. “I’m not sure if I should if you’re sick.”

“I’ll be all right here by myself. It’s just a fever. I’ll drink some juice and lie down.”

He nodded. ”Okay, if you’re sure,” he said and stood up to go into the other room. She stared after him feeling surprised that for once he actually hadn’t argued with her. Then, he stopped walking suddenly and turned to look at her.

“By the way, I forget to tell you, Violet called here yesterday. She said her and her family are going camping today, and they’ll be gone for a week. She wanted to know if you’d come with them since you two haven’t been talking much”.

Luna tensed at his words. If Violet was going camping then she’d be in the woods. She’d be in vital danger thanks to Chance. If Luna didn’t go to those woods, then she wouldn’t live, that was a fact. She needed to stop Violet from ever setting foot in that forest. She needed to before it was too late. What could she do to make her old best friend realize that she was in imminent danger?

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

“I’m going now; I’ll try to be home by five if you need anything,” David called from the other room.

Luna continued to sit at the table. She wanted so badly to reach for the phone and dial Violet’s number, but she couldn’t do that with David still present. Every second he took to leave was a second less of time that she had to save Violet. She couldn’t stay home and play ‘sick’ anymore.

“Okay,” Luna called back still trying to sound sick despite her eagerness.

In a minute, she heard the door close. She watched out the window as David walked down the sidewalk and disappeared into his waiting car. Once he pulled away, she watched him to make sure he was completely gone. In a flash, she stood up and picked up the phone. She dialed Violet’s number and held it to her ear. As it rang, she hoped that they hadn’t already left for their trip. If they had…there was nothing she could do to save Violet.

“Hello?” Violet’s voice answered after the third ring.

“Hi, Violet,” Luna said feeling panicky.

“Oh, hey, Luna, I’m so glad to hear from you. Did David tell you that I called?”

“Yes, he did,” Luna said feeling the panic rise as every single second passed.

“Do you want to come with us when we leave?” Violet asked.

“Whose idea was it to go camping?” Luna asked her quickly.

“It was Chance’s. I’m suspicious, but I wanted to see if you’d come with me so we could have the chance to talk. We’re going to the woods just outside of town. It’s not too far away so it should be okay with David if you come.”

“Violet, I’m not going to go on that trip, and neither can you!” Luna said exasperated.

“What, why?” Violet asked sounding confused.

“Don’t you see? This is the beginning of the dream! It’s why he wanted you to go out to the woods and bring me along with you. Violet, Chance will kill you!” Luna exclaimed. “Please, you can’t go.”

“Luna, I have to go there. I-I don’t have a choice.”

“Yes, you do.”

At the other end of the line, Luna heard Violet sigh. “It’s too complicated for you to understand. We’re about to leave. If you won’t come, that’s fine, I just wanted to help you out. I have to go now. Bye.”

“Violet! Don’t-“ she started to say, but she stopped when the click of the phone cut her off in mid-sentence.

The phone fell from Luna’s fingers and crashed to the floor. If Violet went to those woods she might just as well be giving up her life. Luna needed a plan, but she came up short. She remembered that Max could help her. He’d definitely know what to do. She bent down and picked up the phone off of the floor to dial Max’s number as fast as she possibly could. She held it to her ear and tapped her foot impatiently as it rang.

“Hello?” Max’s voice answered with a yawn.

Luna let out a sigh of relief that he was home. Maybe they’d be able to save Violet after all.

“Max, we have a problem,” she said instantly.

“Luna, you skipped school?” he asked completely ignoring the urgency in her voice.

“Chance is done fusing,” Luna said desperately.

She heard Max take in a gasp of air. “Already?” he asked finally in disbelief.

“Yes, he had sunglasses on yesterday to try to hide his eyes from me, but they fell off. His eyes were pale green. No more joking around, we’re out of time.”

“It must be your Teardrop of Knowledge. It pulled him through with such force that fusion didn’t take long at all,” he said in horror. “I thought we would’ve had at least a week, but we barely had a couple days. That must be what he planned to use you for this whole time. He waited until he had enough power then decided to see how he’d stack up in the real world.”

“Please tell me there’s a way we can stop him, something that we can do to save Violet.”