Dead by Morning (Rituals of the Night Book 1) (6 page)

“Yeah, probably,” he replied.

Luna sighed. “Great.”

“Shh….” he said and his attention flicked away from her. “I hear something.”

She frowned, not hearing anything out of the ordinary. “What do you hear?”

He didn’t answer her as he crept over to the street. Luna followed him, curious to see what he was doing. Suddenly, she heard a soft shrieking sound and realized something was in pain. Chance was standing next to a small bird whose right wing was torn to ribbons. He was really good on picking up the sounds of pain.

“What do we do?” Luna asked him full of emotion as she peered at the bird sadly.

“Only one thing to do,” he said, lifting his heavy black boot which he swiftly brought down on the bird’s head.

With a sickening crunch, its cries of pain stopped immediately. Chance pulled his foot away and turned to go back towards the valet without a word. That hadn’t been the first time he had killed something, and he knew with certainty that it wouldn’t be the last.

Luna felt a tear run down her face again (though Chance didn’t notice it this time). She stared at the bloody mess that was all that was left of the bird. It was easy to see in his every action that killing didn’t bother him in the least.

                                                                                    Chapter Nine

They were still driving.

An hour had gone by and idly Luna had begun to think maybe Chance had gotten lost. An “accident” on his part. She sighed at the thought as she looked out the window. Things were starting to look familiar. They were close to home now and she couldn’t put words to how glad she felt.

She hadn’t spoken since he had killed that bird, and he hadn’t either. Luna knew he was a hunter and killing wasn’t news to him…or to her but actually seeing it made it a lot worse. It seemed like he hadn’t spoken much since she had begged him to tell her why she was here.

She glanced at him from the corner of her eye. He kept his eyes firmly on the road and they didn’t stray once. His shaggy silver-blond hair was swept out of his eyes and every few seconds they flashed in the passing streetlights. Right now he looked like a stone cold killer. The thought made Luna wonder just what he was capable of. She shuddered and tried to curl herself closer to the window, away from him. In just a few minutes she’d be home and this would all be just an unpleasant memory.

As she looked at him she thought again of how strange he looked. Then she sighed; all she had to do was survive until she got home. Suddenly, she felt the truck slow and looked out the window. She recognized the street beyond, she was home. Luna felt relief at the sight.

She opened the door as quickly as possible and climbed out. She circled around the truck so that she was out of the street and heading home. Behind her, Chance hadn’t gotten out, and she was glad. She glanced at him over her shoulder and his face was as blank as it had been hours ago. Luna wondered if he had even noticed that she had left.

“Hey!” he called suddenly turning to look at her.

Luna winced at the sound of his voice before she turned to look at him. “Yeah?”

“You’re not gonna give me a good night kiss?” he asked teasingly.

Luna groaned and turned back towards her house. His sarcasm was back, so much for the silence.

“Sometimes killing is necessary,” he called suddenly out the window and without waiting for a response, he sped off into the night.

Luna turned to stare at his ink black truck in horror wondering if he she had really heard him say that.

                                                                      ~~~~~~~~~~~

Luna went inside the house and into the kitchen. She headed towards the refrigerator and pulled out a gallon of water. She took a sip from it before she put it back and sighed loudly.

“Aren’t you going to tell me how it went?” David called from his usual spot in the living room.

Luna sighed. Why did it matter?

“Yeah, it was a long drive to some fancy place, we ate, he killed a bird and we came home,” she said as she stomped over to the table. “Nothing worth discussing.”

“Was the food any good?” he asked ignoring her agitation.

“It was all right,” Luna said shrugging. The food was the least memorable part of the evening. “I’m just glad the whole thing’s over and done with.”

“Now, Luna is that any way to act after someone so nicely took you out to eat?” he asked.

“No, it’s not,” she said sighing.

In the other room she heard the squeak of the couch springs as David stood up and she guessed he wasn’t through chastising her yet. He appeared in the kitchen suddenly and stood looking at her unhappily.

“You should be nicer to him from now on,” he scolded. “He’s really going out of his way and you don’t seem to notice.”

“Yeah, I’ll remember that,” Luna said. Nothing he said could ever get her to be nice to Chance.

“Good,” David said looking at her.

She sighed again as he moved back into the living room to sit back down in front of the TV. They fell silent and she stared absently at the wall. She was considering going to bed and putting the horrid day to rest, what else was there to do?

“Luna, doesn’t she go to your school?” David called suddenly breaking into her thoughts.

Luna turned towards the living room, what was he talking about? She got up and stepped into the darkened room before looking at the TV. David was watching the news and on it was a picture of Kate Red. Luna stared at it in disbelief.

“Yeah, she does,” Luna finally answered him, not taking her eyes off of the screen as she remembered that Kate had just insulted her the other day.

“Well, she’s missing, says she’s been missing since yesterday,” David said scrunching up his eyebrows as he squinted at the TV.

Luna stared at the screen in disbelief. She had just seen her yesterday and now she was gone. Luna blinked as she remembered that she was a friend of Chance’s. Did he know about Kate’s disappearance? She frowned as she thought of Susan; she had seemed rather indifferent too.

Luna turned away from the TV and the picture of her lost classmate. What did it matter to her what happened to Kate? She had been nothing but cruel.

“That’s too bad,” Luna said and turned away to go back into the kitchen.

She was sure that Kate was okay. She had heard rumors before that Kate had run away to be with a guy and this time might be no different. She hated her anyways; maybe school tomorrow wouldn’t be so bad with Kate and her taunts gone for the day.

Somewhere, miles away in Elida, Ohio, Max Cazmea was channel surfing through hundreds of channels of boring material. He was Luna’s age though unlike her he was big for his age and mean. Similar to Luna, however, he didn’t have many friends. He had at one time in the past been friends with her, but complications had caused him to move away from Lima.

He kept flicking through the channels uninterested until he finally stumbled across a certain one. The news, in particular the story about Kate Red. He watched it in quiet disbelief. Someone from his old hometown, his own high school (so close to his old home and Luna’s current one) had just disappeared. Someone he had seen every day when he had been in elementary school had vanished into complete nothingness. He couldn’t believe it. He knew it could’ve easily been Luna.

He hoped that she was okay as suddenly he had the urge to call her. He went to stand up and then stopped himself. They hadn’t talked in such a long time…he could almost guarantee that she wouldn’t want to talk to him. He scoffed to himself and settled back against the couch. He was being ridiculous…he was just too shaken up to fully realize that yet. He had no real reason to talk to her after all the time that had passed.

She would be better off without him putting himself back into her life. That was what had caused the problems before. She was fine, he was sure. Luna was small, but she was a tough girl. She’d defend herself. And she was quiet enough to barely ruffle any feathers. Whatever had happened to Kate wouldn’t happen to her. She would be okay…she would be okay…

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

As soon as Luna stepped foot into the kitchen again the phone rang out suddenly. She stared at it for a moment wondering if maybe it was someone calling to ask about Kate. She jumped up and went over to it to answer it anyways.

“Hello?” Luna said wondering who was calling that late at night.

“Hi, Luna,” Violet’s voice said on the other line.

Luna stiffened…Violet never called her.

“Hey, I heard you skipped class today,” Violet said. “Is that true?”

“Yeah, Susan and her friends convinced me to go with them dress shopping for the dance,” Luna replied.

“And you actually cut school to be with them?” Violet asked. “This is unbelievable!”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t really have much of a choice. I was sure they’d make me go with them no matter what,” she said yawning.

“So, does that mean that you’re going to the dance after all?” Violet asked. “That means you like Chance, doesn’t it?” She couldn’t help but feel hopeful that maybe she had gotten through to her stubborn best friend after all.

“No, it doesn’t, and I have to go remember? David ordered me to do it,” Luna said unhappily.

“Yeah, but knowing you I would’ve thought you would come up with a brilliant excuse to get out of it by then,” Violet said.

“Trust me, I would’ve tried something, but David said he wouldn’t listen to any excuses,” Luna replied.

“He knows you. Cheer up. I’m sure you’ll have fun with Chance if you stop being so negative about him all the time,” Violet offered.

“Easier said than done.”

“How was your date?” Violet asked. “What’d you two do?”

“Geez, Violet, I just walked through the door less than five minutes ago,” Luna said exasperated. “What, are you spying on me?”

“No, I just have incredible timing it seems. So, how was it?” Violet asked again.

“Well, we went to a fancy place and ate dinner and he killed a bird and we went home,” Luna said sighing as she wondered how many times she would have to repeat herself.

“What fancy place?” she asked wanting details. “It had to have a name.”

Luna looked at the phone before she answered her. “I don’t know…it had a valet and everything, does it really matter?”

“Yes, it matters to me because I want to know.”

“Then why not ask
him
,” Luna snorted. “I’m sure he knows.”

“I just might do that.”

“I don’t see the big deal,” she said.

“Oh, what’s with that attitude?” Violet said. “You can’t tell me the whole evening was bad.”

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you. He was weird tonight…even by his standards,” Luna said.

“What was he doing that was so weird?” Violet asked. “Talking?”

“Just staring for minutes at a time without saying anything or blinking,” Luna replied. “It was almost like he was zoning out.”

“Did you guys kiss?”

“Ewww. No, we didn’t. Violet I was being serious. I really think there was something wrong.”

“It’s too bad that you two didn’t,” she cooed.

“Violet you’re not listening, it was really weird!”

“According to you he’s always weird.”

“Not this weird…it’s like he had something on his mind.  Something was bothering him and he couldn’t seem to clear his mind,” Luna said thoughtfully as she remembered back to the look on his face.

On the other line Violet was silent and Luna knew she was done arguing about him. She guessed Violet wouldn’t listen to her no matter what she said.

“Why did you call me anyways?”

“Just to talk I guess,” Violet said. “I got really bored watching my brother. Hey, did you hear about Kate on the news?”

“Yeah, I just did, it said she was missing. I wonder what happened to her,” Luna said not really meaning it.

“I don’t know,” Violet said sounding almost mystified. “It’s so strange. Did Chance seem upset about it or talk about her at all or anything?”

“Maybe that’s what he was being weird about!” Luna said in excitement as her mind suddenly clicked.

“Why would he be acting weird over that?” Violet asked. “I mean he’d be upset that she’s missing, not acting like a total weirdo.”

“If he had something to do with it then he’d be acting pretty weird.”

Violet snorted. “Whatever.” Luna could tell by her tone that she had rolled her eyes when she said it.

“Well, I’ve had a rough day, and I want to go to bed so I’ll see you tomorrow,” Luna said. She was growing tired of Violet shooting down her thoughts just to defend Chance.

“All right, fine,” she agreed. “I’ll try to come up with a good joke by then.”

Luna ground her teeth. “’bye,” she said and hung up the phone without waiting for Violet to reply.

Luna sighed and began to walk towards her room. The entire time she thought about what Violet had said. Why hadn’t Chance been upset about Kate? Surely he would’ve known she was missing. And Susan hadn’t been upset either. Was it possible that Chance
did
know something about her disappearance and had slyly made their date an alibi to his crime?