Dead by Morning (Rituals of the Night Book One)

  She picked up the book and closed it before setting it on her nightstand and standing up to stretch. A hot shower might warm her up and help to lure her back to sleep again. She walked to the edge of her room, opening her door quietly to peer into the pitch-black living room beyond. She guessed her father was still asleep. Opening her door the rest of the way, she carefully made her way to the bathroom.

  She let the water run warm as she slid off her clothes. She climbed into the shower and let the heat soothe her tensed muscles and chase away the cold of the night. Closing her eyes, she sighed in satisfaction and relaxed her shoulders.

  Suddenly, the water no longer felt soothing, but rather hot and thick. As it ran over her skin, it felt sticky, almost syrupy. She opened her eyes and looked down. She was covered in crimson blood. More blood oozed from the showerhead in an unrelenting stream.

  The hot liquid flooded her eyes and mouth, gagging her as she tried to turn away. Slipping and stumbling on the blood as it covered the walls and the shower curtain, she made her way over to the faucet and fumbled with the knob until it finally shut off.

  She closed her eyes for a minute, bent over and spitting the blood out of her mouth, wondering how she would explain it to her dad. When she opened her eyes again, there were no signs of blood. Her mouth parted as she thought about what she had seen; it had been another illusion, like the bloody apple.

  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? She shuddered and climbed out of the tub. Though she hadn’t been done with her shower, she didn’t want to risk putting the water back on.

  Thankful it was only water, she ran her fingers through her wet hair as she wrapped a towel around herself. She wiped her face, staring at her reflection in the mirror. Red lines ran from her hairline down her face. They dripped to the floor by her feet into a deep, ruby pool. She blinked her wide eyes, and the crimson vanished again. Either she had lost the remaining fragments of her sanity…or something terribly wrong loomed in the near future.

  “COME ON, HEAT up already, you stupid thing!” Luna cursed, frowning at the thermometer sitting 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. Morning had dawned 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.

  Her father thought she was drying her hair. She had already had the hairdryer on for ten minutes. If the temperature display didn’t rise, she’d have to go anyway. Luna looked down at it again, and the number read 101.2F. It wasn’t perfect, but it would get her out of school. 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 the underside of her tongue before she opened the door to go to the kitchen.

  Her dad sat at the table like usual with a TV guide laid out 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, which sounded slurred thanks to the thermometer.

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

  “Let me see it.”

  Luna nodded and pulled the thermometer out of her mouth to hand it to him.

  “Here, take it.” She groaned slightly.

  He 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 slowly and sat down in the chair across from her dad, slumping her shoulders as she continued to clutch at her stomach. She set the thermometer down and set her head on the table beside it.

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

  Luna stared up at him, confused. She was seventeen years old, of course she could take care of herself.

  “I’ll be fine, why?” she asked.

  “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 a fever. I’ll drink some juice and lie down.”

  He nodded. “Okay, if you’re sure.” He stood up to go into the other room. She stared after him, surprised that for once he actually hadn’t argued with her. He paused halfway across the room and turned.

  “By the way, I forget to tell you. Violet called 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 go with them since you two haven’t been talking much.”

  Luna tensed at his words. If Violet went 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, her friend wouldn’t live—that was a fact. She had 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 she was in imminent danger?

  ***

  “I’M GOING NOW. I’ll try to be home by five if you need anything,” her father called from the other room.

  Luna still sat at the table. She wanted so badly to reach for the phone and dial Violet’s number, but she couldn’t do that with her dad still present. Every second he took to leave was a second less of time 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.

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

  “Hello?” Violet answered after the third ring.

  “Hi, Violet,” Luna answered, digging her hands into her hair.

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

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

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

  “Whose idea was it to go camping?” Luna asked 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 are you!” Luna exclaimed, twirling on her heels so quickly she temporarily wrapped herself in the phone cord.

  “What, why?” Violet wondered, 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 said, pulling herself free of the trap she had woven herself into. “Please, you can’t go.”

  “Luna, I have to. 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 stopped when the click of the phone cut her off mid-sentence.

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

  “Hello?” Max 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 blurted out.

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

  “Chance is done fusing.”

  She heard Max take in a gasp of air. “Already?”

  “Yes, he had sunglasses on yesterday to try to hide his eyes from me, but they fell off. I saw what you were talking about. His eyes were pale green, just like you said. No more joking around—we’re out of time.”

  “It must be your Teardrop of Knowledge. It pulled him through with such force, fusion didn’t take long at all,” he said, his voice shaking. “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 we can do to save Violet.”

  “There is, but I doubt it’ll do any good,” he said. “At the rate Chance’s fusion is going, it might already be too late.”

  “Tell me anyway,” Luna said, stiffening as a bit of hope coursed through her. “It might still work if we try.”

  “Well, after fusion, the dream character is still weakened by their biggest fear, and if they’re exposed long enough, it pushes the dream character away back to the depths of DreamWorld,” Max explained.

  “But Chance has no fear,” she said, frowning. In her mind, she flashed back to all her encounters with him. He didn’t fear anything—he caused fear. Like he had done to her, to Max, to Susan, to Kate, and his countless other victims.

  “Exactly.”

  “We have another problem we have to deal with too.”

  “I doubt it’s worse than Chance’s fusion being complete.”

  “Violet’s going camping today,” Luna informed him. “She’ll be in the woods outside of town. She said it was Chance’s idea. I have a feeling it might be the same woods where the dreams began.”

  “You need to stop her!”

  “I tried, Max! She won’t listen to me,” she said, chomping into her lip until she drew a drop of blood.

  “Meet me at the edge of the forest in fifteen minutes,” Max ordered. “We’ll stop her together.”

  “Right,” Luna agreed and hung up the phone.

  She charged outside and ran faster than she had ever run before. The time quickly slipped by, and Luna hoped they weren’t too late to save Violet’s life.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  LUNA STOOD IMPATIENTLY by the line of trees. Ten minutes had passed since she left her house, and Max was still nowhere in sight. Time was precious. Every second he wasted, Violet spent getting closer to her death. Luna looked at her watch—another minute had passed. She hoped the dream dog hadn’t found him again—though part of her hoped he had an excuse dire enough to be late. She gritted her teeth and looked both ways down the deserted road, feeling the strain of her wait in every joint of her body. After another minute of rocking back and forth on her heels, she lost hold of all her patience and bolted into the trees. If Max was going to be late, she’d have to help Violet on her own.

  As Luna got deeper into the foliage, she realized the trees around her were all frighteningly similar. The bark, the sticks beneath her feet, and the sky high above produced a sinking feeling in her chest—she had stepped into the first part of her nightmare.

  She ran through the trees as quick as she could, desperate to find Violet. She had no idea where to begin, but she had to find her before Chance did. She pushed a low-hanging branch out of her face and frowned at the sight of the foliage ahead of her. At this rate, without knowing where to go, she’d never find Violet on time.

  She froze when she thought she heard a sound nearby. Straining her ears, she waited for it again. They were footsteps. She crept toward the sound and peeked through the foliage uncertainly, waiting to see who—or what—approached. Her mind flashed the two options—Chance or Violet. That thought encouraged her onward. In the clearing ahead of her stood Violet. Breathing a quick sigh of relief, Luna’s heart fluttered in her chest as the impossible hope blossomed that she might be able to save her yet. She pushed the foliage out of her way as she ran toward her friend. Violet was still alive, and Luna needed to warn her before it was too late.

  “Violet! You need to—”

  Her words were cut off by the sound of a gunshot.

  Her heart caught in her throat. Luna watched in horror as a bullet pierced through Violet’s forehead. She fell to the ground instantly, blood pouring from the wound. Luna watched in agony, dropping to her knees at the edge of the clearing; she had been too late. She stared at Violet’s paling figure and blinked as her eyes welled with tears. She clenched her hand into a fist and punched at the ground once as she bowed her head from the macabre scene in front of her. The sound of the gun cocking reminded her the shooter was still there, and she looked up slowly through her long raven hair to see Chance. He pointed a revolver at her.

  “That’s far enough, Luna,” he said, a small smirk on his face. “It was nice for you to try to help your pathetic friend though.”

  Luna’s heart skipped a beat as she stood to her feet, hoping the trembling in her body wouldn’t cause her to fall back down again. “How could you do this?”

  “She was just a pawn. You, I need. Honestly, I didn’t know if the bait would work, but maybe I overestimated you a bit much. I mean, you’ve seen this all before, why would you knowingly walk into a trap? To save her? She betrayed you!”

  Luna ignored the sting of his comment. “I might be here, but that doesn’t mean I’ll help you,” she retorted, standing her ground.

  He stalked toward her quickly, and the gun didn’t falter off of her once. She didn’t submit to him. Instead, she turned and ran, certain staying put meant facing her own demise. In that desperate moment, she didn’t know where she was going; all she knew was that Chance was right behind her.

  Her heart pounded in her chest so hard she thought it might explode. It didn’t matter; she could hear Chance’s footsteps closing in. She cried as she forced herself to move as fast as her body would allow. Up ahead, the clearing dropped off into a thick patch of forest. Luna couldn’t turn to skirt along the edge or he would catch her. She held her breath and hoped the Teardrop of Knowledge would keep her safe once again.

  Chance’s weight slammed into her back, and the two of them rolled over and over as they plunged down the hill, their bodies slamming together, leaving a trail of bruises on both of them. Finally, Luna’s back hit the ground. She struggled to breathe from the force, and Chance landed on top of her. He crouched above her, an angered glint in his green eyes as he glowered at her. He sat back, straddling her hips, and pointed the gun at her head. Tears streaked down her face as she watched him.

  “You thought you could run from me?” he asked.

  Luna closed her eyes, raising her hands up to shield her face as she anticipated her death. Chance laughed, and she felt his weight climb off of her. When she opened her eyes, Chance stood beside her, gun still ready.

  “Get up,” he said simply, flicking the gun upward to exaggerate his command.

  She stared at him blankly. In the back of her mind, she could imagine the ground beneath her being her final resting place if he did pull the trigger. She closed her eyes again, imagining her brains staining the grass the same way Violet’s did in the clearing.

  “Come with me or I will shoot you,” he growled, breaking into her thoughts.

  Luna’s eyes opened slowly, and she whimpered in despair but obeyed. Chance wrapped his arm around her waist, his body pressed to hers from behind as
he held the gun to her temple, like he feared she’d try to run again. He forced her up the rise like that, back to Violet’s prone form.

  How did my life come to this? she wondered to herself as she felt the tiny scrapes from the revolver every time Chance took a step. As they approached the top of the hill, Luna considered throwing her weight backward into him. Would it be enough to knock him off his feet, to stun him, so she’d have the opportunity to get away?

  “Don’t do it. Don’t you dare fucking do it,” Chance grumbled, and she guessed the tension in her shoulders had given away her plan.

  Her feet hit the level ground at the top of the hill, and Luna pulled away a bit, feeling his fingers dig into her hipbone, before she stopped walking at the sight of the body once again. She stared down the dark, hollow barrel of the gun with Chance beside her. She wasn’t in the dream this time, where she was certain he wouldn’t kill her if she woke up in time. She lived her nightmare now. If his finger slipped, she’d be dead. She’d share the fate of her friend who lay a few feet away in the grass.

  Luna sighed, a broken and pitiful sound, and stepped closer to him again. She wouldn’t be able to beat him. “I surrender,” she whispered, holding her hands up as her eyes trailed the ground. She wanted to shoot herself for agreeing. It was a coward’s move, cooperating with the man who killed her best friend in cold blood.

  I’m better than this, she tried to convince herself before the thought fell from her mind. No, I’m not.

  “Good,” he said, lifting his chin. He didn’t move the gun as his hand slipped from her waist. “Now walk.”

  She felt a trill of fear as she walked ahead of him. The bit of freedom he had reintroduced to her gave her the urge to run away again.

  “Luna!” She recognized Max’s voice from the depths of the woods and spun around to face his direction as he emerged from the trees. “Luna, you can stop him! Chance’s biggest fear is being—”

  Chance turned from her in a flash. She heard the sound of the gun go off again before she had even spun all the way around. She turned in time to watch Max fall to the ground, disappearing into the foliage. She couldn’t see him anymore, and she had the sinking feeling that she wouldn’t want to.