Chapter 3

“Leslie,” I sighed, “I can’t accept all of this,” I pleaded, putting the white dress back on the bed.

Leslie was sitting in the chair by the desk, looking at me intently. We had spent the last two days debating whether or not I should go to the Summer Fest or if I should just ignore it. But this morning, when they started setting up for it, placing lawn chairs and tables everywhere, creating almost a small stage, and then when they started bringing out the food, I got weak and accepted.

“Luna, we talked about this,” she started. She had finally caved and started calling me Luna instead of Miss Jones. Every time she did, I got this icky feeling inside of me. “You’re our guest of honor,” she continued, a soft smile on her lips, “and the guest of honor needs to wear a white dress, and she will wear a flower crown on her head. And then you have to sit on the throne, eat, drink, laugh, and simply have fun. It’s our tradition, and we will get sad if you don’t do this for us.”

A sigh escaped my lips as I yet again grabbed the dress. It was incredibly beautiful and would definitely look good on me. It was only for one night, and it would be something I did for them, for those who had welcomed me, kept me company, talked with me, gotten to know me. But my gut was saying something else; something deep inside of me was going; don’t do it, just don’t, it’s okay to say no.

“I’ll do it,” I answered, “but then I want to do something special for you before I leave in three days,” I warned her, lifting a finger at her, all the while I couldn’t stop smiling.

I had been so busy talking with Leslie and her friends about all the town gossip that I had forgotten what happened in my own life. A lot of the talk circled Liam, and how he was the father of half the small children in town, but wouldn’t claim any of them. When I heard that, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud, practically snorting my tea right into Leslie and her friends. What an ass.

“Alright, alright,” she said, shaking her head at me. “We’ll see about that when we get there.”

After my shower, which ended extremely cold—not just a little, but fucking freezing—I dried my hair and put on a light makeup. I fixed up my eyebrows, put on some light mascara, and put a gloss on my lips, making them shine in the sunlight. It had gotten extremely warm; summer had arrived in Ireland.

I threw the dress over my head, seeing how it fit snugly around my breasts, but not in a bad way, and flared out at my hips. It had lace sleeves, which hung loosely around my arms. The skirt of it was loose as well, and it moved gently with my movements. I looked in the mirror and couldn’t help but think that I looked like a modern-day princess.

I curled my hair into loose waves, putting some more volume into it, knowing it would make it look even more fairytaleish when I got the crown of flowers on there as well.

Downstairs was Leslie, standing in a beautiful summer dress. She smiled widely when she saw me. The dress fitted her loosely, making her body look like a field of flowers. Her face was beaming, happiness and joy shining from her. Just like she had said, today was a good day. It was the day when we would welcome summer. We would be dancing, eating, and drinking it forth. She had warned me that the men would be extremely nice to me tonight, since I was the beautiful woman—her words, not mine—that they were celebrating, as a goddess, as the one who would let in the summer. Just great.

“Oh my,” she sighed dreamily, her hands clasped over her chest. “You look positively gorgeous, Luna!”

“Right back at ya,” I answered, giving her a grin.

I hugged her as I reached the bottom. She had been nothing but amazing since I got here, acting like a surrogate mother to me, acting like I wished my own mother did. She had listened to all of my problems, had given me a tight hug, and told me not to worry my pretty head about it, because I was young and beautiful, and I was talented, so I would be just fine.

She found the flower crown behind her desk. It was beautiful, filled with different greenery sticking out in different directions. So many different flowers were put in, and I didn’t know half of the names for them. But they were beautiful, the colors so amazingly vibrant. Both blue, yellow, red, purple, and pink colors shone at me.

I crouched down slightly, making it so that she could place it on my head, which made us both laugh.

**

“Cheers!” Apparently, everyone had to drink every time I lifted my glass off the table, which only made it more fun to do, and also made me quite intoxicated quickly. The wine was incredible, and it tasted divine with all of the different foods. They had made everything: lamb, pork, chicken, and beef. There were potatoes in every shape, and a lot of vegetables. All of the different dishes were placed in little bowls in front of me.

“To our Goddess!” Even Ed toasted. The one who had been nothing but sour and moody since I got here was smiling and beaming with joy today.

Liam was perched on a bench, a girl underneath each arm, smiling and laughing while they prided themselves on getting his attention, even if it was only for the night.

I tasted all of the divine food. I drank plenty of wine. I laughed every time the drunk people tried to dance on the designated dancefloor of the evening. It was right in front of me, making it easy to see the spectacle. Beyond that, there were a lot of different people who came up and told funny stories about the year that had passed.

It was a great party. People were just having fun, enjoying the fact that they could let loose, that they could just enjoy themselves. The drunker they got, the harder it was for me to decode their accents. But even through my hardship, I could still sense when it was acceptable to laugh and when not to.

“How are you doing, dearie?” Leslie stood next to me, her smile beaming right at me. I think I answered something about being awesome, or something to that effect, at least. “That’s lovely! Here,” she said, taking a golden bottle out and filling the liquid into my glass. Everything on my table was made of gold. “Drink some of this, it is the most amazing thing you’ll ever taste!”

I was beginning to have a hard time focusing and concentrating. It was hard to gauge how to act. And around all of these drunk people, I couldn’t help but laugh uncontrollably, eating so much food I was afraid the dress would rip, and then I drank even more. I drank, and I drank, and I drank.

Whatever Leslie had put in my cup, it tasted different. It didn’t taste like the red wine I had consumed earlier, but it had a sweet and fruity taste. I licked my lips and looked into the glass, but I couldn’t place the taste. Another sip. More! Yet another sip.

Be careful. My gut feeling. Put the glass down. Why are they being so nice to you?

But before I could do anything, I felt my body going limp. It felt like my thoughts were pushed to the back of my head, like it was fading out. And suddenly, everything went dark.

**

My entire body jumped when I could suddenly move again. You can’t move. My eyes slowly opened. Practically no people were left on the square, everyone having opted to go home. Darkness had slowly crept in, starting to overthrow the summer night, but you could still hint at the sun in the background, coating the sky in a beautiful dark purple.

I looked down. I was tied down. My brows furrowed. I tried to move my hands, but my arms were tied to the armrests of the thronelike chair I was on. My feet were tied to the chair legs, tied so tightly it hurt to move them. They had even put a rope around my middle, tying me to the back of the chair.

I tried to scream, but no sound came through. A piece of fabric was tied around my head and put into my mouth. I was now wide awake. I tried to fight my way free. My eyes flittering around, but the dancing people on the square didn’t even look up at me, it was like they didn’t even care.

Help me! I tried to scream, tried to get words to leave my mouth, but it turned into weird, unrecognizable sounds. Help!

No matter what, I wouldn’t give up. I kept yanking the chair, kept trying to move the ropes. Everything hurt and cut into my skin. My screams turned into cries of agony.

The last of the people disappeared, and the last thing I saw was Liam’s green eyes and his smile. He smiled triumphantly, like he had won something.

What the fuck is going on?!

My thoughts kept circling, kept moving around faster than I could register them. I could feel a headache pounding at the back of my head. What had I been drinking? It must have been whatever Leslie brought me that made me pass out. What have you done?! My mind kept yelling at me, only resulting in the headache getting worse.

The sun disappeared completely out on the horizon, and made room for the night sky to kick in. My head leaned back, and yet again I looked up at the stars, feeling my tears streaming down my cheeks. What’s going on? I sobbed between the screams that I tried to push past the fabric.

Someone, somebody, had to be able to help me, to hear my prayers.

Help me! Just this once!

As if an answer to my prayers, a white, shining light suddenly appeared. It came right in front of me, shining bright like a star that had fallen to rescue me. The light was blinding and hurt my eyes, just like it would if you looked into the sun for too long.

Out of the light, a hand came through, like it was reaching out to me. Another blood-curdling scream left my lips. What the fuck is going on?! A scream of pure terror.

Help me!