“Hello?” She sounded tired and defeated.
“Hi, it’s Luna. Is Max home? I need to talk to him.”
“No, he’s not.”
“Well, when he gets back can you tell him I called?” Luna asked, frowning at the woman’s statement. “It’s kind of important that I talk to him as soon as I can.”
“He won’t be home for a while, Luna.”
“Wh-why?” Part of her instantly worried that something had happened.
“He’s in the hospital,” she replied, confirming Luna’s worst fears.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
“WH-WHY?” LUNA STAMMERED as panic shot through her. “Is he okay?”
“He got his neck torn open by a dog the other day,” she replied. “It didn’t break his windpipe, thankfully. He’s conscious, but he won’t be home for another week at least. The doctors need to keep an eye on the wound to make sure it doesn’t get infected. If you want to talk to him, I can give you the number to his hospital room. I’m sure he’d be happy to hear from you.”
For a minute, Luna was silent. Her words ran a blazing trail of fear through her mind. The dream dog had been trying to kill Max, and by the sounds of it, had come close to succeeding.
“Luna?” Max’s mother prompted uncertainly.
She realized she hadn’t answered her. “Of course, ma’am, just let me get paper and a pen first.” Luna picked up a pad of paper that had been sitting on the table beside her and pulled a pen out of her pocket. “Okay, what’s the number?” she inquired as she held the phone to her ear with her shoulder.
She repeated the number twice, and Luna wrote it down, double-checking each number. Max needed to tell her what had happened to him in the week’s time they had been separated. There was bound to be more to the story than he had told the doctors.
“Thanks,” Luna said.
“It’s no problem. He could use a friend to lighten his mood,” she replied, hanging up the phone.
Luna did the same and looked at the pad of paper in her hand. It was almost hard to believe Chance could be so calculating that he had managed to almost rip the life out of her friend while being nowhere near him. She typed Max’s number into the phone and listened while it rang.
“Hello,” Max answered, his voice sounding weak.
“Max, are you okay?” Luna asked him immediately, fingers digging tight into the phone as she waited for his response.
“Luna? Is that you?”
“Yeah, it’s me. I’m so sorry for everything Chance said to you.”
“That was Chance who said that to me?”
Luna bit her lip, hesitant to answer, but Max spoke up to fill the silence.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she assured him.
“Why the Hell was that idiot at your house?” Max snapped. “Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for him.”
“No, no, no. It’s nothing like that, I promise,” Luna rambled, grimacing at the thought. “Long story short, Chance got me grounded.”
“Is that why you didn’t answer my calls?”
“Chance didn’t let me. I didn’t even know you called, he forbid me from talking to you! Literally snatched my phone from me.”
“And you listened to him?” Max sounded incredulous.
“Yeah, I had to. My dad assigned him as my ‘supervisor.’” Luna snorted, tousling her black hair with her hand.
“What does that mean?”
“It means I had to be babysat by Chance and basically do anything he told me to do,” she replied, sticking her tongue in her cheek as she waited for Max’s reply.
Max scoffed. “That’s stupid. Your dad did that to you?”
Luna nodded then realized he couldn’t see her. “Yeah, he did. Basically training me for when he marries me off to some asshole.”
“I’m so sorry. And I thought I had it bad.”
“What happened to you, Max?” she asked as she remembered he was in the hospital. “Your mom told me you nearly got your throat ripped out.”
“Yeah, I sure did,” Max replied. “And I thought I could escape from them.”
“Were they real dogs or Chance’s dream dogs?” She almost didn’t want to know the answer.
“It was the dream dog. The same one that tore open my calf. The worst part is that it’s still out there somewhere.”
She shivered at the thought. With Max in the hospital, where would it possibly go? Was it hiding out, waiting for him to recover so it could try to claim his life again?
“Have you had any new dreams this past week?” Max prodded.
Realization dawned on Luna that she had actually slept a week without having a nightmare. A slow smile spread across her face at the thought of how well-rested she felt. A voice in the back of her mind seemed to mock her, reminding her to enjoy it because it most likely would not last.
“No, I haven’t,” she responded finally.
“Neither did I,” Max said thoughtfully. “I thought it was just the morphine, but I guess not.”
“I didn’t even realize it, I guess because my nightmare was waking up to Chance,” Luna murmured, clenching her hand into a fist as she ran her thumb over her knuckles.
“That would be pretty horrifying,” Max agreed.
“So, does this mean Chance wasn’t thinking up any new dreams?”
“Yeah, he must’ve been so occupied with watching you that he forgot about them.”
She frowned as she considered it. Was there something about her she wasn’t aware of that made Chance so attached to her?
***
WHEN LUNA OPENED her eyes, the dreaded dream cabin surrounded her. Right away, she noticed the body slumped in the corner where Max had been lying before. She stared at it. It barely showed any signs of life. The slight rise and fall of its chest every few minutes told her the person wasn’t dead…yet. Each breath came more and more spread out. Luna guessed that in ten minutes, they would stop altogether.
Luna didn’t recognize the girl. Her eyes were closed as the dark hair on her head splayed out around her. Luna was sure she had a bullet wound somewhere she couldn’t see. She wondered where Chance had gone, and why he had left the girl. Just then, she spotted him standing over the body as if waiting for her to move. He clutched the small handle of a long sword between both of his hands as he set the tip of it to the air hanging above her chest.
Luna’s eyes grew wider by the second as he brought the sword up over his head and then swung it back down into the girl. The cabin echoed with the horrible ripping sound of flesh. Fear pierced through her—she had witnessed a murder.
Chance still clutched the sword as if unsure whether she were truly dead or not. The girl’s blood coated the tip with red, and it ran down the silver blade to drip to the floor. Luna pulled her eyes off of the body to look at Chance. Her breath stopped in her chest when she saw a smile spread across his face, wrinkling his blood-splattered cheeks. He studied her, nearly beaming in excitement.
“Did you see what I did? You’ll be doing the same thing soon enough, and you’ll get stronger just like me.”
“I will never kill!” she spat, on the verge of snarling at him like a wild animal. “I hate you. I’ll never help you, you freak!”
Chance stepped up to her and set the tip of the bloody sword to her chest. She felt her heart flutter with panic as blood dripped onto her shirt. Even though her words had been brave, she felt nowhere close. He could kill her.
He was more than capable of it.
“Say you’ll help me or I’ll dispose of you. You know too much to leave you alive. I could kill you and then do the same to Max.” He locked her in his gaze. Luna couldn’t look away as his sharp blue eyes penetrated into her soul.
“I…I…” she began. She didn’t know how to respond.
She didn’t want to help Chance, but she certainly didn’t want to die at his cruel hands either. She couldn’t stop him if she died in a dream. She found herself wishing she would’ve let Max
help her escape the cabin when he did. Luna felt the tip of the sword dig a little into her chest. Pain shot through her entire body. If she let him kill her, it wouldn’t be an easy death.
“Okay, okay,” she squeaked as more pain flooded through her. She couldn’t take it anymore. “I’ll help you…just stop, please.”
Chance smirked, holding his shoulders back as he pulled the sword away from her. He set the tip of the blade to the ground and leaned against the handle like a cane.
“I’m so glad you agreed. It would have been such a pity to kill you when you have such a marvelous ability.”
“Ability?” she asked, glancing up at him wide-eyed.
“Oh, it’s nothing really,” he said with a shrug, then looked away toward the opposite side of the cabin.
Luna frowned; was he playing with her?
“Why am I here?” she whispered.
“Why are any of us here?” Chance dropped the sword, and it landed next to her with a loud, metallic clang, making her jump.
“You didn’t answer my question,” she said through gritted teeth.
“All right, you want to know? Then I’ll get straight to the point,” Chance replied, crouching down to her level. He rested his bloody hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes as his fingers dug into her skin. “I need a queen to help me with what I plan to do.”
She smacked his hand away and screamed as loud as she could. She wanted out. She sat up and the cabin vanished.
What a nightmare, she thought blankly.
Then it all came back to her—it wasn’t a nightmare, it was a real threat to her life. She had watched Chance offer a sacrifice right before her eyes, and it made it worse knowing she had witnessed a murder. Whoever it had been, their soul would never return from DreamWorld.
Luna now understood the line he had said to her before he drove off into the night after their dinner date. Thoughts of it flooded through her mind. Before you judge me, just know sometimes killing is necessary, he had said. Sacrifices…he had been talking about sacrifices. He had been giving her hints about who—and what—he was all along.
Luna sighed and glanced at her alarm clock. Five past twelve, time to get up. She drew in a deep gasp of air and felt a sharp pain in her chest. She coughed at the feeling and looked down. A deep puncture glowed purple where Chance’s sword had been.
There was no way to doubt DreamWorld’s existence anymore.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
WHEN LUNA SLAPPED his hand away, the contact had been brief, but it had been long enough. She woke up, and he could feel his character being ripped right out of DreamWorld. When he awoke, he was in terrible pain as if he had been lit on fire. His chest seemed to be tearing open under the sudden pressure. The pain ripped through him again, wave after wave, and he knew perfectly well what was happening to him.
He hadn’t imagined it would feel that bad.
Finally, when the pain reached its peak, and Chance teetered on the verge of passing out, the pain subsided all at once. He blinked, feeling different in a way he couldn’t explain. He’d be able to put his plan into action.
No more smoke and mirrors—it was the real thing.
***
LUNA STARED AT her reflection in the mirror as she combed absently through her hair. She had deep circles under her dark eyes. She looked tired and stressed—a sign of prematurely aging. She sighed and set the brush down on the sink as she left the bathroom. She went into the kitchen and rummaged through the cabinets for something to eat. Her father sat at the table reading a newspaper. When she walked into the room, he set it down on the table in front of him and cleared his throat.
“Any plans for today?” he asked.
“Not really. I was gonna go for a walk in the park, but that’s about it.”
“Alone?”
She turned to look at him over her shoulder. “Of course, why?”
“Well, Chance called about an hour ago. I thought you two had plans for today.”
She yawned and turned her attention back to the cabinet as she pulled out a box of cereal. “How did he get our number?”
“What did I tell you about that attitude, Luna? I gave it to him last week to keep in touch when you were grounded.”
Luna grabbed a bowl and poured her cereal. “There’s no reason for you to have to stay in touch with him.”
“You could use a friend sometimes, Luna. I barely ever see you talk to anyone. It worries me a bit,” he admitted.
“Yeah? Well, so what? I’m just not very social. I don’t want any friends, and if I did I could find my own. I don’t need Chance to shadow me. Besides, I have Violet, remember? She’s my best friend,” she said as she set the bowl on the table and poured milk into it.
“If Violet’s your best friend, then why is she never here?” her dad asked.
Luna sat down and took a bite of the cereal before she spoke. “She’s busy. Being a senior entails a lot of work. I talk to her a lot at school, you know.”
“Well, whatever the case, he could be a good husband,” he said.
She stared at him, her mouth hanging open in disbelief as she froze, dropping the spoon into her bowl with a clang. She remembered Chance had called himself her boyfriend before. Had that been David’s fault?
“Dad!” she exclaimed when she had recovered from the shock. “That’s what you’re trying to do? That’s why you want me to be nice to Chance?”
She frowned as she stared at her dad. He and Chance had been plotting out her life for her. How could she trust anyone when her own father had been consorting with her enemy behind her back?
“Now, Luna, no need to get upset…”
“Does Chance know you’re trying to do this?” she roared as anger flooded through her veins. Only a faint memory of his threat in her dream plagued her mind.
He pursed his lips to the side, drawing his eyebrows together in thought “Yeah, we’ve talked a bit.”
“No! You’re plotting with a kid I hate to force me into doing things that make me so angry I get physically ill! And I have no reason to get upset?” Luna yelled at him and felt her throat burn with the strain of her anger.
“Don’t you think you’re overreacting?”
“No, I don’t. You know what? Forget this! You never believe me anyway. No matter what I say, you listen to Chance instead! It’s like he’s your kid, not me!” she spat. “You want him instead, then that’s fine by me.”
“Luna, that’s not what I want,” he replied, watching her frenzied movements.
“Yeah, it is. Don’t worry, I’m gone!” she said, standing up and stomping over to the front door.
“Where are you going?” he demanded, hands slamming to the table as he stood up as well.
“Mind your own damn business for once,” Luna retorted as she opened the door and stepped outside into the warm air.
She slammed it behind her before her father had the chance to respond. He had no right to interfere in her life. She was old enough to take care of herself! As soon as she graduated, she would definitely move out. She clenched her jaw as she walked down the grass—she didn’t know how to get rid of her anger.
Luna didn’t want to go home the rest of the day, but where could she go? Her dad had a point in some perspective; Luna didn’t have many friends. Max was in the hospital, Violet was tired of her, and she didn’t know Amy enough to ask her for something like that. Luna kept walking and barely paid any attention to where her feet took her. When she reached the park, her anger had all but dissolved away. She padded carefully across the shaggy grass to the swing set.
A calming breeze blew over the open ground, and the slight chill helped cool her down. She sat on one of the swings and looked up at the sky as she let the silence engulf her senses. The only people in the entire park were her and a group of teenagers on the opposite side who all stood crowded together next to the slide. She narrowed her eyes, recognizing one of the faces among the rest.
A group of cheerleaders form
ed a semicircle around Chance.
He had his arms wrapped around a small brunette as he locked lips with her. Luna snorted at the sight. Why couldn’t he have done that all along instead of bothering her? As she looked at him, she realized he acted like any other teenager. She frowned, knowing full well that he was far from being normal. Beneath his perfect exterior lay a monster of twisted and dark ambitions, which nobody but she and Max knew about. Susan had known too, and it had cost her. He hid his true self well. She could understand why no one listened to her when she tried to convince them of his dark side.
One of the cheerleaders giggled, and Luna glanced toward the group again. Chance had sucked all of those girls into his spell, and if they weren’t careful, they’d end up the next victims in his satanic plot.
She turned around on the swing with her back to Chance and his group. She hadn’t gone to the park to see him. She wanted to forget her problems, him included. Kicking her feet gently, she moved the swing a bit as she thought. She didn’t know how much time passed, but she noticed the sun hung a bit lower in the sky. More giggling sounded nearby, and Luna grimaced as three cheerleaders passed her, the same ones who had been around Chance.
One of them stared openly at Luna and whispered something to the girl beside her. She laughed, then they all laughed again. Luna rolled her eyes at them as they walked away. They could think what they wanted about her, she didn’t care. At least she saw Chance for what he was. If they stayed that close to him, they’d wind up dead anyway.
“So, are you following me now?” A voice said behind her. “I knew you’d end up missing me.”
She flinched and stood up to face Chance. “No. I came here to get out of the house because I was tired of my dad. How was I supposed to know you’d be here looking for your next victim?”
He shrugged passively. “I called earlier, but you didn’t answer. David said you’d call back.”
“I was sleeping, like most people do on Sunday morning.”
Chance stepped around the swing and pushed it away from him, leaving only a few inches between himself and Luna. He narrowed his eyes. “Are you implying I’m not normal?”
She swallowed unevenly at his tone. He glared at her. Averting her eyes, she scanned the deserted park surrounding them. They were the only ones in the entire place, and that meant he didn’t have to keep his sweet persona. He could—and would—easily turn into the monster she had grown accustomed to seeing.