Alive at Sunset (Rituals of the Night Series Book 2) (25 page)

T
he day before The Fourth of July was when Sarah’s funeral had been planned for. Luna hadn’t found out about her death until three days after it happened. Although news of the fire Chance had started had been all over town, Sarah’s body hadn’t been discovered until the rubble was to be removed.

She knew that Sarah had suffered greatly in her final moments of life; she couldn’t help but wonder how much.

Luna dreaded going to her funeral more than anything. She’d be filled from head to toe with guilt once again; she knew that if she would’ve stayed in the cabin, she could’ve kept Sarah alive.

That was the third funeral she had attended within two months, four deaths that she had observed and been able to do nothing about. None of the deaths had been accidents -they all could’ve been prevented. Luna sat alone at Sarah’s funeral; none of her relatives seemed to even notice that she was there. She was used to nobody noticing her presence, she preferred it that way.

She had a habit of getting in and out of places without people being aware her. She had slipped out of the apartment without telling Amanda where she was going. She was getting used to sneaking out. Even though Amanda was home, Luna was pretty sure she didn’t notice her leave. She seemed to keep her distance ever since Luna had begun packing her belongings. Luna was relieved for that. She hadn’t forgotten about Max’s funeral when Amanda had stabbed her in the back by bringing Chance. It wasn’t something that could be fixed in time, and she was good at holding grudges.

She sat through that funeral alone having learned that she couldn’t depend on anyone else. She brought them their doom. When she was alone, she found that the thoughts in her head bit, and they bit
hard
. All she could remember was that Sarah had only wanted to live her life like the rest of the world. All she wanted was to not end up like her sister, but Chance had wiped that out. He had taken every ally away from Luna, like he had promised.

Luna was still in her chair throughout the entirety of the funeral. Other people got up and paced around to gather in a semi-circle when the Pastor began to speak. Luna sat tensed, surrounded by complete strangers dressed in a wave of black that hovered like human forms of smoke around her.

Inside, she found that the hollow feeling had returned and grown much larger. She couldn’t cry that time –funerals were becoming too commonplace for that. She found herself wondering when her own would be, would anyone show up to mourn her? Would Chance show up to admire his greatest achievement yet?

She set a hand to the side of her face to wipe away the lone tear that was making its way down her face. She stared at the glittering water on her hand. The small movement wasn’t much, but it reassured her that she was still alive. If she was alive, then she still had a chance of changing things, of making her situation better. That was more then she could say for all of Chance’s victims. Dead, they were unable to change anything that happened to them. Dead meant that they had succumbed to their fate forever.

When Luna thought about the day that Sarah died, she found that she wasn’t able to stay to finish her funeral. She stayed up to the part of the funeral where her coffin was to be lowered into the grave. Then, she slipped out before anyone noticed, leaving her bad memories and Chance’s latest victim behind her.

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

On the next day, The Fourth of July, Luna wasn’t in the festive mood. Thoughts of Sarah’s death still clung to her mind as she worked on moving her boxes back to Lima. She could still see the girl lying on the floor from where she had fallen from Chance’s dagger. She had suspected as much the day that Sarah died. Amanda didn’t think the same way. She knew Luna was still grieving; she didn’t like that Luna was living in pure misery. She wanted her friend to get back to the way she had been when they first met.

Amanda went to her parents for some extra money and then went out to buy as many fireworks as her money would allow. She looked forward to celebrating the oncoming holiday. Luna’s thoughts were contrast to hers. She knew that loud noises and flashing lights wouldn’t make her feel any better. She wasn’t a kid anymore; she appreciated her friend trying, but she wanted more than anything to finish her move in peace.

The back of Amanda’s car was packed with the last of her belongings, but Amanda had convinced her to stay for the rest of the day. Despite her anger, Luna’s guilt wouldn’t let her leave.

An hour before it got dark out, Chance had gotten home to get prepared to set off their fireworks. All hope of having a good night was over when she found out he was there. The sight of him made the gash down her arm burn as she remembered the sharp blade piercing her skin. Luna stayed in her room to avoid it all.

She was busy torturing herself by adding all the notes of recent events to her black leather bound notebook. Amanda noticed that she was keeping herself hidden. She wanted her to join into the holiday; she felt it was the best way of getting her to cheer up. Amanda peeked into Luna’s room, searching for her.

Amanda noticed the notebook on Luna’s lap, and for a minute, reconsidered speaking. When she made up her mind, Luna glanced up from her writing, meeting Amanda’s eyes, and she had no choice but to speak.

“Hey, we’re ready to do the fireworks now,” Amanda said cheerfully. “Come and join us.”

Luna nodded. “Okay, I’ll be out in a minute, Mandy. Just let me finish writing something.”

Amanda nodded and looked at Luna hesitantly. She didn’t want to leave with such a simple dismiss of her words. She wanted to drag Luna out to the living room with her. She wanted to make her travel outside of her fortress so that she could experience her life instead of spending it mourning over her losses every minute of every day. Defeated and without another word, she turned and disappeared into the hall.

Luna finished writing the details of Sarah’s death into the book making sure it was written on the same page as the details of Susan’s death. Luna gave the page a long hard look before she shut it and tucked it under her mattress. It was almost complete with all the details of her abnormal suffering. The only thing that she had neglected to write in it was the conception of her child. It was the only small detail that she wanted to ignore, to pretend that it wasn’t real, because doing so made life so much easier.

Luna finally worked up the nerve to face Amanda and Chance, and she left the safety of her room. She plucked Amanda’s keys off of the counter and slowly, she made her way outside. She was still wary of seeing Chance. She hadn’t seen him since the day he had killed Sarah, but she knew that she didn’t have a choice.

When Luna got outside, she noticed that the apartment complex was oddly empty for a major holiday. She guessed that many of the people that lived in the other buildings had gone to visit their family outside of town so only Chance and Amanda were gathered outside.

Luna clung stubbornly to the wall of the building; the feeling of the brick under her hands was the only thing reassuring her that it was real. No matter how much she wanted to brush off her life as one giant dream, she had to face the facts that she was awake and everything was real. Amanda was sitting on the small porch beside where Luna stood, watching Chance take the first firework out to the middle of the grass in the ring of buildings.

He lit it and stepped back, watching the firework with mild interest. When it exploded, the sound of it was loud, the color a deep red. Luna stared at it, feeling only upset with every second that passed of the display. She knew it was supposed to lighten her mood, but it didn’t. The sound was loud; it reminded her too much of the sounds of Chance’s gun as it killed Violet that day over three years ago. The harsh red glow was a reminder of what happened next, the blood that stained her life.

Suddenly, Luna couldn’t take it anymore. The pressure of pretending for Amanda collapsed on her pit of grief and made an earthquake that rumbled through her, leaving her insides a complete mess. The holiday was a time of joy which she was eons away from. She knew that Amanda wanted nothing more than for her to enjoy herself, but it was too much.

She ran.

Ran from the field as fast as her legs would allow before Amanda or Chance would notice or have time to stop her. No matter what she did, everything would always remind her of her past. As Luna climbed into Amanda’s car, she realized grimly that she truly
was
traumatized, like it or not, she was on the same path as Amy.

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

Amanda sat on the porch admiring the glow of the first firework as it exploded in the sable night sky. It was the start of a celebration, she liked that for once it was a day to be happy. The thought that it was Luna’s last day living in the apartment made her sad. Amanda had hoped that their time together would’ve been enough for her to change her mind.

She glanced at Luna. She was still silent; she hadn’t said a word in at least ten minutes. She was blending in with the shadows, making it hard to distinguish if she was still there or not. Amanda didn’t understand how she managed to stay so silent for so long -it drove her crazy. The red light from the firework splashed over Luna’s face, illuminating the expression there. Her pale face didn’t give away what she was thinking. Then, there was a moment of silence and darkness as the light went out. It was then that Luna’s face broke.

She pushed her small frame away from the building suddenly and ran from the field. When Amanda strained to hear, she realized that she picked up the sound of sobbing. Luna was still upset. Amanda frowned as she watched her disappear into the night. Lately, Amanda noticed that Luna had disappeared quite a bit.

She had tried to keep her distance, hoping that Luna would talk to her when she finally needed a friend. But every day they grew farther and farther apart, and she had to wonder whose fault it was. She wondered if maybe Luna still felt that she was choosing Chance over her. She felt a prick of guilt suddenly as she remembered their argument a few days back. Luna had opened her heart to Amanda, and she hadn’t cared, she only cared about herself.

She didn’t know what else she could do. She had tried being on Luna’s side, to help her through her crisis, but no matter what, Chance didn’t seem like that bad of a person to her; Luna obviously felt otherwise. Amanda wished that she could find a happy medium between Chance and Luna, but obviously, it was one or the other. She strained to see Luna’s outline in the dark sky before she watched Chance as he lit another firework off. She guessed it was too late; her priorities had already been made apparent.  

C
hance watched Luna’s tiny form disappear from the field into the sable night. Even from where he stood, he could hear her crying. He looked at the pile of fireworks at his feet and then Amanda as she sat on the porch. He frowned as suddenly he questioned what he was doing with his life. Why was he dragging things out longer than he needed to? Luna’s mood got worse and worse with each passing day; why did he strive to try to fix things when they were broken beyond repair?

He would change his situation once again, starting with Amanda. He walked around the pile of fireworks and headed over to his “girlfriend” on the porch. He looked at her for a long moment, deciding what to say. He needed her to provoke him, to drag him into That mind. He pulled his dagger from his pocket and carefully ran his fingers along the blade. He watched Amanda carefully. Her eyes widened at the sight of the knife, but she didn’t say anything.

“I’m sure Luna told you all about the real me,” he said, swinging the knife like a pendulum.

Amanda carefully stood to her feet; the look on her face was pure horror. “You have your memory?”

“Of course, I’ve had it the whole time. Why do you think I’m here? Because of you?” He scoffed, rolling his eyes.

“You’re a murderer,” Amanda hissed.

“And the last horse finally crosses the finish line. Of course I’m a murderer! Luna warned you, you idiot,” Chance said.

Suddenly, Amanda made a dash for the door, and Chance was right on her heels. He waited until they were both in the apartment before he grabbed her long blonde hair to pull her head back. The gesture exposed the white skin on her throat. Tears were pouring down Amanda’s face as she struggled to escape.

“Why didn’t I listen to Luna when she warned me?” she sobbed, talking to no one in particular.

“Because I’m much too captivating when it comes to logic,” Chance said, holding his dagger blade to her throat. “Luna was the smart one; the one that got away. Don’t forget that.”

“You never cared about me,” Amanda squeaked.

“At least you realize that now,” Chance said with no remorse. To him Amanda had been nothing but annoying, a mere pawn to get to Luna.

Amanda’s crying grew louder. Chance wasn’t ready to kill her yet. He moved slowly, holding her captive until they reached Luna’s room. He pushed her to the middle of the room before he drug the blade across her throat. Crimson flooded over her pale skin instantly, and Amanda fell.

Chance dipped his fingers in her freshly spilt blood and scrawled it on Luna’s empty bed as a message when she returned home. He left Amanda to die as he went to work on the rest of the scene. It was too late to turn back; it was the day that Luna would pay for everything.

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

Luna sped most of the way to Lima. Lights illuminated the sky as multiple people set off their fireworks. Out of nowhere, the sky began pouring rain as if Mother Nature was too tired for celebration. All Fourth of July celebration ended automatically, and she couldn’t be happier.

Water streamed from her eyes, making it hard to see. Despite her driving, she was glad that she didn’t get a ticket. When she arrived in Lima, she wiped at her eyes and began to cart the boxes she had packed into her old room. Rose smiled at her from the kitchen table but didn’t say a word as she watched her daughter work.

Luna was glad that Rose’s mind seemed to be invested elsewhere for the moment.

As she brought the last box inside, she sat down in the chair by the door, fighting the urge to cry.

“Having a good fourth of July, dear?” Rose called suddenly from the kitchen.

“Yeah, just busy,” Luna said quickly.

“How much more stuff do you have?”

“One box left,” Luna said. “I have to take Amanda’s car back and say goodbye.”

Rose nodded in understanding, and Luna trudged to the car. The only thing she had left was her notebook. Her trip back to the apartment was slower than when she had left. The closer to Bowling Green she got, the worse the rain became. She took her time driving the last few miles and parked slowly, glad to see the field was empty of Amanda and Chance.

She sighed and turned off the engine as she jotted up to the door. When she got inside, she enjoyed the warmth the dry apartment provided. She moved to flick the switch, but the second her fingers hit it, nothing happened. The apartment stayed as black as night, the furniture inside only mere silhouettes of what was there. Luna reasoned that the unreasonably hard rain had managed to severe a power line.

“Amanda?” Luna called out. The rain would’ve driven her inside, but Luna knew she wouldn’t have left the apartment so dark.

She waited a long, tensed moment for a response but got nothing. “Something’s wrong,” Luna whispered to herself as she skirted around the furniture in the living room.

A tiny light glowed down the hallway, and she knew it was from her room. It flickered and danced in the darkness -it was candlelight. Luna swallowed heavily, not liking the feeling of foreboding that ran down her spine as she walked. Her feet crept closer to the light though her mind was too preoccupied to notice. Her mind was on that flame. She crept closer to it, step by step; her whole body was shaking. She didn’t know what to expect, but she knew it wasn’t good.

“Amanda, this isn’t funny!” she called out, hoping that her friend was playing a mean trick on her. It’d be better than the alternative. Luna hoped the thing she felt in her heart was wrong.

Once again, there was no response. Luna’s breathing was near hyperventilation, and she was two doors away from her room. She was close enough to see that the light was indeed from a candle. Luna crept a bit closer; she was standing in her doorframe and saw a blood red candle in a golden candle holder. Luna’s heart sank as she recognized it.

Finally, she took the last steps into her room. The candle was sitting on her end table. She took a step towards it, and her foot hit something solid on the ground. She moved the candle to illuminate the spot at her feet. Instantly, her hand flew to her mouth. At her feet was Amanda’s limp body. Her throat was slit, and her wide eyes were open, staring at nothing.

Instantly, Luna backed up from her friend’s body, and the candle illuminated the side of her white bedding. Amanda’s blood had been smeared there in the words “Time’s up.”

She couldn’t hold it in anymore, and she screamed a loud ear splitting shriek.

Then, she heard the sound of movement from the darkened corner of her room. She felt a hand close around her throat, choking off her scream. Her hand released the candle as she desperately tried to free her throat. The force slammed her against the wall, and she could feel her feet being lifted off of the ground.

“Hi, Luna,” Chance hissed through the darkness.

“No!” Luna tried to gasp. The candle on the floor continued to burn, and it jumped onto the carpet.

“Do you remember this side of me?” he asked, and she could hear he was smiling. “Of course you do. It must be nice to have your memory.”

A flash of silver flinted from the candle’s flame, and she knew he was holding his snake-handle dagger to her throat once again. She could feel the force he put behind the metal. She had no way to get out that time. Tears brimmed in her eyes, and she couldn’t hold them in anymore. That monster had haunted her since high school. He killed her friends, her family, her dog, her enemies, and people she had never met. She would lose her life to him as well.

And for what cause?

“Why are you doing this to me?” she managed to whisper. “What do you want?”

“All you had to do was help me. If you had just helped me, you would’ve been fine,” he said, and the glint of the knife was closer.

“Help you with what?” Luna whispered, feeling defeated. She knew from experience that logic wouldn’t work. “I just don’t understand.”

“All you had to do was help me feel loved,” he said. “Was that so hard for you to do? Everyone that I’ve ever met has let me in, except for you. You kept me out even though I made it clear what I felt.”

“What did you feel?” Luna whispered.

Chance was silent. As the flames began to rise up the curtains, she could finally see his face. Tears were brimming in the corners of his sapphire eyes; his words were sincere. For the first time, she realized that he wasn’t completely dead on the inside. Luna couldn’t believe she was saying it, but reality seemed to have gone out the window a long time ago.

“I’m sorry,” she said to her lifelong enemy.

Instantly, Chance’s hand released her, and she slid to the ground. She gasped for air as the pressure left her windpipe. Chance’s knife flashed out in the darkness, and the tip of the blade was pressed into her throat again. It was sharp, and the force behind it was enough to draw a drop of blood.

“What did you say?” he demanded.

“I-I’m sorry,” Luna whispered again.

Chance said nothing; he stood with his head bowed as the room behind him was engulfed in flames. He didn’t believe her -he couldn’t believe her. The entire world was a lie.

“Chance, we have to get out before the fire stops us,” Luna whispered.

“We’ll die here,” he said without looking up, “together.”

“Chance, please. You don’t have to do this,” Luna said. “I’ll do whatever you want, just don’t kill us.”

“What else am I supposed to do?” he snapped, though the knife didn’t dig in any deeper. “I’ve given you choice after choice, and this is what it’s come to.”

“You can do whatever you want. You can start over! I hate admitting this, but you got away with every single one of your murders. No one knows your past but me and you. You can get out of this room and have a fresh start somewhere else. We don’t have to die,” Luna whispered. “You can restart.”

“You hate me, you’ll turn me in if I let you live,” he argued, and that time, his eyes opened to stare down at her. “I can’t let you go or else I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.”

“Listen to me carefully; I haven’t turned you in this whole time that you’ve been dating Amanda. If you let me live, then I promise I’ll never turn you in as long as I live,” Luna said, feeling her stomach twist in disgust the second she was finished speaking. She went against everything she believed in, against everything she knew to be right to live. She knew that if it meant saving her baby, it was worth it. “People change over time. I’m not who I was in high school. I’m not like anyone else that ever wronged you. I’ll never truly understand why you did what you did to all those people, but I know you had your reasons. I’m capable of forgiveness.”

“Why are you trying to be on my side now?” he asked, suddenly feeling disgusted with the tiny girl that he held at knifepoint. “You never tried to understand me before. Seems like you want to live so bad you’re going against your own values. You know, you’re not very good at begging.”

“I remember that night,” Luna said quietly.

Chance’s face contorted into a look of surprise. “Yeah, what about it?”

“Chance, I-I’m pregnant,” Luna said, using her last hope card.

Chance’s knife dropped off of her. He reached out and grabbed her arm to pull her to her feet. They stared each other down for a long moment.

“You’re pregnant with
my
baby?” he asked, his blue eyes boring into her fearful ones.

“Yes, Chance, yes,” she whispered fearfully as the fire began to blaze towards them. “Please, let me go.”

He stared at her for another moment as if he was trying to decide if she was telling the truth or not.

“Let’s get out of here before it’s too late.” He could see the sincerity in her eyes, and he knew enough to take responsibility for what he had done.

Luna nodded in response. Her and her arch enemy raced out of the burning apartment a second before the doorway collapsed in on itself. They fell onto the ground outside, coughing from the smoke, their eyes streaming water as they struggled to regain themselves. The rain had stopped though the grass they had fallen on was soaking wet.

Luna stayed on the ground coughing while Chance stood to his feet. He looked down at her, suddenly full of grief. The mother of his child was so miserable, and it was because of him. He grasped her arm gently and pulled her to her feet. Luna was horrified to see that his hands had blood on them. She knew it was Amanda’s though he didn’t seem to realize it was there.

“I’ll never have a fresh start,” he said to her. For the first time in a while, he felt his conscience come into play.

“You can if you try,” Luna replied. She didn’t know why she wanted to change him, she felt as if someone should try. “You’ll be a father. You want to be loved? Well, our baby will love you like no one ever has.”

What about you?
he thought but didn’t have the courage to say it out loud. Instead, he smirked. It was that arrogant cocky smirk that Luna had hated for years. “You don’t understand what it’s like. Sure, I can restart, but inside, I’ll always be a killer. Old habits die hard, you know.”

Luna stared at him; she was speechless. A small part of her actually believed that news of his child would’ve changed him.