Alive at Sunset (Rituals of the Night Series Book 2) (15 page)

“
Y
ou,” Luna said with tears in her eyes. She wanted to stand up to her full height, but her legs felt as weak as noodles.

“Yes, me,” he said stepping into the room. He closed the door behind him, and Luna felt like she was going to pass out. She hoped Amanda would come to find him. Chance smiled as he looked at her. “You’re looking well.”

Luna scoffed as she looked at him.

“You wear makeup now, I see,” Chance said.

“It’s the only way to keep myself from looking like a corpse in public,” Luna retorted.

“That’s a very interesting perspective,” he said.

Luna raised her eyebrows.
I’m already dead on the inside.

“You were so surprised to see me last night,” he said.

“Your memory is supposed to be gone,” Luna said quietly. “You weren’t supposed to find me.”

“It’s not gone obviously,” Chance said, rolling his eyes.

“How? I broke you out of your fusion! You were supposed to be lost in DreamWorld forever!” Luna said, furrowing her brow.

“I got out,” he said.

Luna ground her teeth. He was purposefully beating around the bush.

“Thanks to you,” he said, smiling.

“That’s not possible,” Luna spat. “I would
never
help you. We’ve been through that before.”

“Ah, but you did, even if you didn’t realize it. Remember the Rosebone, Luna?” he asked, tipping his head to the side as his hand dipped into his pocket. She knew what was hidden there.

The Rosebone had been a contraption of Chance’s that had caused her immense pain after his fusion. He never told her what the purpose of it was, but she always assumed it was something for a satanic ritual of his.

“Yeah, what of it?” Luna asked warily. In her mind, she could clearly picture it. The device consisted of a worn, rotted old femur bone that was hidden within the twine of a beautiful long stemmed red rose.

“With that, I stored part of myself within you. It was a just-in-case failsafe option for the possibility of something going wrong. Which it obviously did because of your disobedience. But that’s all in the past because I’m back now,” Chance said. “Things are finally the way they should be.”

“What are you back for?” Luna challenged.

“Revenge,” Chance said. He pulled his faithful snake-handle dagger from his pocket. The blade glinted in the light.

Luna winced at the sight of it as she remembered all too well what it felt like. As he brandished it in front of her, she stared at it, mystified. She suddenly realized that that was where the knife went. How had he gotten that when it had been safely tucked away in her notebook?

“How did you get that?” she asked in a breathy whisper.

Chance smirked. “You don’t remember?”

Luna shook her head solemnly. All memories of the “dream” she had had on the morning of Lucky’s death had been repressed to the depths of her mind.

“No matter, it’ll come to you sooner or later,” he said, shrugging.

“What did I ever do to you that you hate me this much?” she asked teary-eyed. Her whole life she had been an outcast because of the macho blond-haired monster in front of her.

“You ignored me, first of all, acted as if you were too good for even a simple ‘hello’. You ruined my chance to achieve ultimate power. You ruined my goal, my ambition,” Chance spat, the venom was obvious in his voice.

“I never wanted to be involved with any of it! I just wanted to graduate high school and move on to college. You ruined your own plan by bringing me in. If you would’ve left me out, you could’ve succeeded,” she pointed out.

“I needed you then. You were a part of it, a big part,” he said. “But I’ve grown. I don’t need you now,” he added, and pointed the tip of the blade at her as he approached her.

“Kill me then,” Luna said, trying her best to sound defiant. The fear in her body nearly choked her of her words, her sense.

When he was a few feet away, she took a step backwards and fell onto the bed. He came to a rest beside her and set the cold metal blade to the side of her throat. Luna swallowed heavily and looked up at him. Inside, she wanted to cry, but she wouldn’t give the monster the satisfaction.

“That’d be a little too easy, don’t you think?” he asked, softly trailing the blade over her exposed throat.

“Depends on how you planned to kill me,” Luna scoffed.

“You were always so good with semantics, weren’t you?” he asked, laughing lightly as he pressed the blade a little rougher into her skin.

“If you won’t kill me today, then what
are
you planning to do for revenge?” she demanded, feeling annoyed that he was still managing to dodge her questions.

He bent down so that his face was an inch from hers. “I’m going to make you suffer the way I did.”

Luna tried to stand up to spit her rage into his face, but he held the blade tight to her skin. To avoid being cut, she had no choice but to sit down again. She stared up at him through narrowed eyes.

“What does that mean?” she hissed.

Chance pulled back his dagger and hid it from sight as he dug in his pockets. He didn’t answer her, merely stared at her with his eyes full of hatred as he searched. In his hand, he clutched what looked like a black wad of cloth. It was hard to tell what it was when he kept his hand clutched around it. He arranged it quickly so that she could see a small human-shaped figure.

Luna gasped knowing what it was the second her eyes deciphered the familiar shape. “Is that a-“

“Voodoo doll,” he finished, a cruel and malicious smile was spreading across his face. “Yes.”

“Who’s it of?” Luna asked warily, finding it suddenly hard to speak.

Chance didn’t answer again. He merely sat on the bed beside her as he pulled a pin from his pocket. The silver glinted in the light, showing the true size of the needle. He angled it towards the doll, and stuck it straight through the stomach, spearing it all the way through the back.

Instantly, hot pain erupted in her stomach in that familiar sensation she had felt two times before. She fell off the bed and groaned in pain as she curled up on the floor. She bit her lip so hard she felt as if she would puncture the soft skin in a second and blood would start pouring down her chin. It was worth it if it meant not crying in front of him, not letting him see how truly miserable she was.

Chance laughed, the sound was as cruel and mocking, and his smile was wide. “Can you guess now, Luna?” he sneered.

She struggled to look up at him through the paralyzing pain. In that moment, she wanted to do nothing more than find a way to put him in as much pain as she was in. No matter what, she couldn’t muster up the strength to stand to her feet.

He smiled again, jeering as he twisted the pin around the stomach of the doll. The pain in her stomach felt like it was ripping open, gutting her from one side of her torso to the other. The more force he put in, the more devastating the pain.

He crouched beside her. “I have more power than you give me credit for, love,” he said, twisting the pin again for effect.

Luna curled into the tightest ball possible as tears streamed down her face. Finally, when the pain got so bad that she considered pleading with him to stop, he pulled out the pin. Instantly, the pain vanished like cobwebs in the rain. Luna took in a deep breath, barely managing to hold back the fresh tears that threatened to flow. She struggled to find the strength to climb back onto her bed.

Chance stood up, his black boots clanking on the floor as he put the doll back in his pocket. Luna collapsed on the edge of the bed, watching him through exhausted and pained eyes. She wished that Amanda would come looking for him. If not, she guessed that he wouldn’t be done torturing her.

“So, you see the things I’m capable of doing,” he said, sounding proud as if he had made a profound point. The knowledge he could control the pain in her body made her believe that he did.

“It’s been you causing that. You’re the one ruining my life, just like you did in high school.” She panted.

“Oh, come on. You know you missed me,” he said.

Despite her exhaustion, Luna frowned. “No.”

“But I brought a present for you,” he said suddenly as if he just remembered, “or maybe two.”

Luna sat up nervously, for obvious reasons she was scared of anything else he had. She watched, wide-eyed, as Chance dug into his pockets. First, he plucked out a small hypodermic needle. He tossed it onto her lap, and she moved her arms out of the way to avoid touching it. She stared at it speechless, remembering everything that she had been told in the past two weeks.

“It was you that killed him,” she whispered, feeling the tears brimming in her eyes as she stared down at it.

“Of course it was, Dollface, who else do you know of that has such a knack of getting away with murder?” he asked, laughing.

“You didn’t get away yet, the cops are looking for whoever did it,” Luna said, outraged at his blatant cheer. The more she suffered, the happier he became. His smile managed to ignite the rage inside of her. It expanded the urge to get justice for all the lives that he had taken in cold blood.

“No cops have come knocking at my door,” he said shrugging. “They don’t suspect a thing.”

Luna stared him down eye to eye but felt her rage get put out. She felt suddenly defeated when his words sunk in. He was right. The cops were going in the opposite direction of the lead they should follow.

They always did.

“Why are you doing this to me again?” she asked quietly, not taking her eyes off the needle.

“Nope, I’m not answering that one. It’s part of the fun, making you wonder. I know it’s gotta be just eating you up inside. Beside gift time’s not over just yet,” he said.

“What else have you done?” Luna asked, aware of the miniscule weight of the needle in her lap. What other crimes could he possibly have to present to her that were as heavy as her father’s murder?

“I think the next present you’ll really love,” he said, ignoring her comment as he dug in his pocket once again.

He pulled out a wad of white fabric. He tossed it onto Luna’s lap on top of the needle. She didn’t touch it either, wary of what she would see when she opened it. Had he bundled something horrific in the cloth? Chance pointed the blade at her again threateningly.

“Go on, open it,” he ordered. “I know you want to.”

She didn’t look up at him as she stared down at the shirt with all of the focus left in her. With trembling hands, she picked it up and un-wadded it as carefully as she could manage. She realized immediately it was a white t-shirt. Specifically,
Max’s
white t-shirt. Across the chest were two red smeared streaks in the form of an ‘X’. She could tell that it was the marks left by cleaning off a knife. Luna pieced it together instantly.

“No!” she wailed, her eyes not able to pull themselves off of the red X. It was Max’s shirt, and she knew it was his blood.

Chance laughed and tucked his knife back into his pocket as he watched her. “When I’m done getting my revenge, you’ll know what it’s like to be alone,” he said. “Maybe then you’ll understand why I am the way that I am.”

“How did you even get to my dad?” Luna asked, crestfallen. “They have security at the hospital.”

“It’s easy to have access to patients when the hospital is so desperately underhanded,” Chance said.

“There’s no way they could’ve possibly hired you. You have no medical training, and as far as I know, you’ve never even been to college. You aren’t gonna get away with this. They’ll know it’s you,” Luna said. “If you were working on the floor where he was killed, then the cops will come to your door eventually.”

“Paperwork can easily be forged,” he said, shrugging. “Like I said, no one even suspects me.”

“You did all that work just to kill David?” Luna asked.

“Worth it,” he replied with a deep smile.

Luna felt sick. “Are you the one that poisoned him too?”

“Do you even have to ask?” he replied.

“Why me?” she whispered. “Why not just let things go?”

“Because I have to make right the wrongs of my past. You’re my favorite toy. Don’t worry, you won’t hurt too much,” he said.

She looked up long enough to give him a stare empty of any emotion. She wanted to be defiant, but she felt so hollow that she couldn’t pretend anything different. He stared back at her; it was hard to tell what he was feeling through his look alone. He was good at composing himself. Luna felt Max’s shirt sliding off of her lap, and she glanced down to grasp it. When the gaze was broken, he whipped open her door and left the room.

It’s said to kill a spider is a crime worthy of seven years of bad luck. Luna wondered what it was she had done to deserve so many years of dread and doom. What had she done to aggravate karma so badly? Was it that her existence was a mockery after what happened to her?

Was she supposed to have died in the woods all those years ago and the fact she survived meant karma would find a way to make her pay? Or was she too pessimistic to see the little acts of good that happened around her? Amanda had been trying for the past few weeks to cheer her up, and she hadn’t treated her well in return.