Luna's Reckoning

23

LUNA

I opened my eyes and found myself in a dark room, laying back on a dirty, smelly cot. I blinked my eyes, trying to adjust them to the blackness of the room, and slowly sat up. I peered through the darkness to try to see if there was anyone or anything else there with me, but I couldn't see anything.

I strained my ears, trying to hear if there was anything nearby. I couldn't hear anything.

Sweat coated my skin, dampened my hair and clothes. I fanned myself; it was hot and muggy down here.

A bright, piercing light suddenly switched on, causing me to close my eyes against the harshness. My eyes finally adjusted after several minutes to see Anna Marie walking towards me.

I narrowed my eyes at her as she stopped in front of me. "What do you want?"

"It's time to rise and shine, sleeping beauty," she said mockingly. She grabbed me by the arm and wrenched me to my feet. "We have work to do."

She dragged me to the staircase and pushed up the first few steps. I bit back an angry remark and climbed my way up the stairs.

There was a door at the very top of the stairs, but it had no doorknob. What in the world -?

Anna Marie reached around me, pressed her palm against the door and it swung open. She pushed me forward and I stumbled forward, barely able to catch my balance. I was still wearing the high heels I had worn the night I died and I wished I had worn more comfortable shoes, but Johnny and I were going to try to make our second attempt at running away to get married in Vegas and wanted to look my best even though I didn't have a wedding dress. I stumbled again as Anna Marie pushed me from behind again. I cursed under my breath and walked into the room Anna Marie indicated.

Johnny, Dylan, Shaun, Madison, and Trinity were sitting on a couch, sitting shoulder to shoulder, staring forward, their eyes pitch black.

I wanted to run over to them, to see if Johnny was okay, but Anna Marie's hand clamped tightly around my arm. I stayed where I was and watched Johnny intensely. He was obviously under the control of Lilith, his expression stone-like, devoid of any emotion. I felt my heartbreak in two as I gazed at him, the expression so unfamiliar on his face. I hated seeing him like this and felt rage start to bubble inside of me. I wanted to rip Lilith and Anna Marie to shreds for doing this to him. They were violating his soul and causing him to commit all these terrible acts. I knew he was going to carry the guilt of the things he had done even though he knew it wasn't his fault, that it had been Lilith controlling him and forcing him to do this.

Anna Marie pushed me towards the couch and I stiffly stood beside it since there was no room to sit on it, carefully watching Johnny. He kept his ink-black gaze forward, unblinking, not glancing up at me once. I wanted to call out to him, to place a comforting hand on his shoulder, but I was too nervous as to what Anna Marie might do if I even moved a muscle.

I finally tore my gaze from the love of my existence to look at the others. My heart sank when I saw that Madison, Dylan, and Shaun had those same ink-black eyes as Trinity and Johnny had. Tears sprung to my eyes as I realized what Lilith had done.

She had caused Johnny and me to kill them. Their lives had cut short and now their entire being was going to be controlled by that monster. I envisioned the look on Luna's face if - when - she found out her brothers were dead, how devastating she was going to be as well as one of her best friends. She had one best friend betray her and her other best friend was deceased and controlled by Lilith.