Going Lucid (10 page)

“How
are we going to get in there?”

Julius
pointed out one of the many humanoid beasts walking in and out of the castle.

“See
what those things are wearing?”

“Yeah,”
Malakha said as she looked at the long flowing black cloaks the beasts were
wearing. In their hands were long sharp scythes, all with long silver blades
and not for the first time since visiting Hell did Malakha wonder if she was
the only person with experiences in Hell. These beasts looked like the very
image of the grim reaper that she had seen in books.

“Those
are given to them personally by Lucifer. It specifically marks them as one of
his minions. If there’s any kind of havoc going on in Heaven, you best believe
that they have everything to do with it on Lucifer’s behalf,” Julius explained.

“What’s
Lucifer got against Heaven?”

“Your
people kicked him out of Heaven. That’s what,” Julius muttered poking his head
from behind the large rock near the castle. “Now all we have to do is wait for
one of them to come this way.”

Malakha
clutched Julius’ coat a little tighter against her. “And then what?”

“We
take the cloak.”

Malakha
thought that sounded a little dangerous, but Julius seemed so nonchalant about
the issue that she couldn’t help but be a little nonchalant herself… At least
until they finally came face to face with a beast.

Malakha
narrowly avoided the claws and the scythe of the beast that Julius snuck up on
to attack. But it was so focused on her, easy prey she guessed, that it forgot
about Julius entirely until he kicked it in the back, causing it to fall
forward and drop its scythe in the process.

“Pick
up the scythe,” Julius yelled.

“You
don’t have to tell me to do that,” Malakha said, already scrambling for the
weapon as best she could while trying not to trip over Julius’ coat. She picked
up the scythe just as the beast regained its footing. Without thinking, Malakha
swung the scythe as hard as she could into the chest of the dog-like demon. It
let out a terrible cry before dissipating into dust. The cloak fell to the
ground.

“See.
That wasn’t too hard,” Julius said as he picked up the cloak.

He was
grinning at her, but Malakha didn’t find anything worth grinning at and so just
panted, still holding the scythe in her hands. While she stood there, Julius
brought the cloak to her and put it on her body. As he fastened the front, he
gave her instructions on how to make it through the castle.

“Whatever
you do, keep this hood on!” Julius said as he pulled it over her head. “When
you get to Lucifer, you can tell him you’re from Heaven if you want, but as
long as this cowl is on, he won’t know who you are. Remember. This is Lucifer,
the king of Hell, you’re dealing with. Not me.”

Malakha
nodded, dropping the scythe so that she could put her arms through the wide
sleeves of the cloak. Then she picked it back up.

“What
about you?”

“I’ll
find a way in later.”

Malakha
nodded and made her way towards the castle. The walk seemed longer than it had
appeared to be from the rock they had been hiding behind. But finally she made her
way across the bridge to the castle, trying to act natural even though there
were beasts much bigger and stronger than her walking past.

Malakha
tried to think where the throne room would be if she had a castle and figured
it wouldn’t kill her to just wander around until she figured out where she was
going. At the worst, someone would figure out she wasn’t supposed to be there
and she would just go back home.

“Where
are you going?”

Malakha
turned around, making sure she kept her head down so that the cowl completely
hid her face. There was a large beast standing behind her, with a much bigger
scythe than the one she had and even though his cowl was up, his dark red eyes
were visible underneath. Malakha opened and closed her mouth, trying to come up
with an excuse before deciding on the truth.

“I’m
going to see Lucifer,” she said.

The
large beast looked down on her and never had Malakha been so aware of how small
she really was. The beast inhaled deeply and then exhaled, disturbing the air
around them.

Then it
said, “Does he have an appointment with you?”

“Yes,”
Malakha said.

“Then
we will continue,” it rumbled and began to walk past her. It then gestured with
a scaled hand to follow it.

Malakha
did so, hoping she had said the right thing. The reptilian beast didn’t say
anything as it led her down the hall and then up a grand staircase. At the top
of the steps were a set of large black double doors with large silver handles.
Malakha wasn’t even sure that she had the strength to open the doors. Luckily,
the large reptilian beast with dark red eyes opened them for her. He made his
way in, and Malakha followed.

Lucifer
wasn’t in the room.

“My Lord.
You have an appointment.”

A loud
rumbling echoed through the seemingly empty room, and it was then Malakha
noticed that the reptilian beast was talking up towards the ceiling. Malakha
followed his gaze and saw nothing but shadows. Thinking the rumble was
disembodied like the wizard in the
Wizard
of Oz
, Malakha started to take in the rest of the room.

“Oh,”
the voice
rumbled,
a sound that came from deep inside
the belly.

It was
when Malakha was making her second scan across the ceiling that she saw part of
the shadows move. So the voice wasn’t disembodied.

“What’s
your name?”

“Malakha.”

For a
while there was silence and then another rumbling sound permeated the room.

“Leave
us to talk,” the voice said to the reptile.

The
reptile bowed and then left the room, closing the doors behind him. Malakha
scanned the room again, this time searching for potential exits in case it took
her too long to get back to Earth.

“You
are not one of my minions,” Lucifer said. His voice sounded like the voice that
belonged to the thing that kept laughing in her world, but it was different.
Not quite the same.

“What
gave it away?” Malakha asked, starting to get a little nervous now that she saw
that the only way out the room was through the doors she came in from.

“Your
name… My minions don’t have those names.”

“I’m
from Heaven,” Malakha replied.

Lucifer
made the rumbling noise again and said, “Heaven?”

He
sounded angry. It made Malakha want to inch her way back towards the door, but
she bet Lucifer moved like the harpies did too.

“I need
to ask you something, about things happening there. At my school,” Malakha
added.

Lucifer
laughed a deep gruff laugh that told Malakha he was truly amused by what she
said for some reason.

“Your school?
You think that I’d waste my time.”

“It’s a
Catholic school?” Malakha gave.

Lucifer
laughed again and added, “Is that supposed to make me care?”

“I just
want to know if you know what’s behind it. Two of the students are acting weird
and I can hear one of your minions laughing,” Malakha added.

Lucifer
huffed. “I have my hands tied keeping the Vatican busy and using my suggestive
power to control your world from this side of the divide. You think I would
waste my time keeping up with the havoc my minions cause elsewhere on their own
time? Good for them. It only helps my cause.”

“It’s
one school. Asking your minions to leave it and me alone won’t take away from
you visions of dominion and grandeur,” Malakha said, forgetting who she was
speaking to for a moment, at least until she noticed the shadows in the ceiling
had stilled and suddenly there was Lucifer, standing in front of her.

He
looked nothing like she was taught the devil looked like. Then again she heard
he was supposed to be tempting, and it was taking every amount of will power
for Malakha to keep herself from gaping at him. Wow… Julius was nowhere near
Lucifer’s league. And the fact that he was only wearing a robe that was only
very loosely tied did nothing to persuade Malakha otherwise.

“Well
you’re certainly different,” he said and instead of the beastly rumbling, his
voice was smooth, soothing, and persuasive.

He took
a step forward. Malakha took a step back.

“How about you and I strike a deal.”

This
brought new meaning to making a deal with the devil…

“I’ll
see what I can do about your problem, but you have to do something for me,”
Lucifer said.

“And
what’s that?”

“I’m
not sure yet,” he said, but his eyes said something else and Malakha pulled her
cloak tighter around her, tilting the scythe upward some. “Why don’t you take
off your cowl, and I’ll decide if I like what I see?”

Was it
just her or did Lucifer’s voice always sound so convincing, so suggestive, so
tempting… Still she shook her head. Julius had warned her and though she didn’t
know Julius that well, she trusted him a whole lot more than she trusted
Lucifer. He just sounded way too good to be true. Nothing sounded that good.

“I think
I’ll just go. Obviously, you can’t help me,” Malakha said glaring at him, a
warning to keep his distance. He wasn’t as intimidating when he looked like a
man and not something slithering in the shadows.

Lucifer
laughed and said, “If you haven’t noticed, there’s only one way out and you
don’t get out until I say you can.”

“That’s
what you think,” Malakha said, once again trying to find the background noise
in the back of her head that was her awareness of her world. She found it and
the timing couldn’t have been better, because just as she found it, Malakha
found
herself
pinned down against her will for the
second time that night.

She
concentrated on the background noise, all the while trying to keep Lucifer at
bay. The scythe in her hand helped with that because when Lucifer realized she
still had it, he tried to wrestle it out her grip.

“I think something’s happening!”

That
was Sabrina’s voice.

“It looks like…
Like she’s
fighting someone
.”

Malakha
felt like she was drifting again and Hell again began to look surreal and
mirage-like as she saw her world begin to appear on top. Then Hell was gone,
and she was back in her world, in her physical body and in her bed.

Chapter
Ten

Chaos

Malakha popped
up in bed, but that wasn’t what scared Malak and Sabrina. What scared her two
friends were the scythe and cloak that fell on the floor next to her bed
eliciting a surprised yelp from Sabrina and a cry of “What the hell?” from
Malak.

“What
is that?” Sabrina asked looking at both the weapon and the cloak.

Malakha
took a moment to get her bearings straight before she looked over the side of
the bed and saw the black cloak and scythe sitting on the floor.

“The cloak!
It came back with me. And the scythe did too!”

“Who
gave that to you?”

Malakha
swung her legs over the side of her bed and said, “No one. I took it from one
of Lucifer’s minion.”

“Lucifer?”
Malak asked raising his eyebrows.

“He’s
the king of Hell.”

“Like
Satan.”

Malakha
tilted her head back and forth a little before replying, “Sort of.”

“Wait a
minute! What happened?” Sabrina asked.

“I
talked to Julius,” Malakha said as she picked up the cloak, “and he suggested I
go talk to Lucifer if I wanted to find out what was going on. I had to steal
this so I could first get to him and second so he wouldn’t be able to see who I
was. As far as he knows, I could have been anyone.”

“So
what did you find out?”

“Nothing
except he’s got nothing to do with what’s happening here, and if any of his
minions do, he doesn’t care. As far as he’s concerned, they’re allowed to have
their fun,” Malakha replied as she removed the habit from over her uniform.

“We
still don’t know if this has anything to do with Hell,” Sabrina said sitting
down. “As far as we know, this could all be a bunch of strange coincidences
with no connection whatso—“

“What’s
that smell?” Malakha asked.

“What
smell?” Malak asked.

Malakha
threw down the habit and walked to the window, taking note of the orange glow
of the darkening sky as she approached. That was weird. The sun had been
setting when she first went under, and she could have sworn she was in Hell for
at least a few hours. Malakha had never paid attention to how time ran in Hell
in comparison to her own world, but she guessed it was safe to assume that time
ran faster there… Only when Malakha was standing right in front of the window
did she realize the orange glow had nothing to do with the sky. The sky was
completely dark and a quick glance at her watch told Malakha that it was eleven
o’clock, so time probably did run similar in Hell.

She
opened the latch on the window to investigate the orange glow more, leaning the
upper part of her body out the window. Malakha very nearly fell out the window
in shock at what she was seeing. It looked like a bonfire or something and a
few of the students, a mixture of boys and girls, were around it goofing off
and throwing random things inside of it. The fire was getting bigger too and a
little too close to the girl’s dorms for her liking.

“Are
they nuts?” Malakha asked, moving over so that Sabrina and Malak could see.

“Hey!”
Malak yelled trying to get their attention, but to no avail. They weren’t close
enough and the students around the fire were laughing and talking too loud to
be paying any attention.

“What’s
gotten into them?” Sabrina asked.

Malakha
grabbed her boots from the side of the bed and slipped them on her feet without
even zipping them up.

“I
don’t know, but I would like not to die because a bunch of students were being
stupid,” Malakha said as she started out the room. Sabrina and Malak followed.

All
three forgot that it was way past curfew and that there would be nuns
monitoring the halls. So after they got down to the second floor, down the hall
again, and began to round the corner to go down the stairs that led to the
living area, they were unpleasantly surprised by running into a nun; Sister
Mary to be exact; one of many “Sister Mary’s” in the school.

“Damn
it,” Malakha muttered tilting her head back as she held in a groan.

“Where are
you going young lady?” she asked and then noticed Malak trying to duck back
around the corner. Looking scandalized, Sister Marry immediately added, “And
what is he doing here?”

“Relax.
If I we were really up to something sinful, I would have found a much more
discreet way to sneak him out than through the main hallway,” Malakha said and
then said, “But listen, something’s happening outside!”

“Back to bed!
Both of you.
And
you!” Sister Mary said fixing Malak with a stern look.
“Back
to the boys’ dormitories.
Father Lucas will be hearing about this.”

“If you
would just listen,” Malakha began starting to raise her voice, but it seemed
Sister Mary wasn’t listening. Instead the nun was sniffing the air.

Then
the nun asked, “What is that smell?”

“That’s
what I’ve been trying to tell you!” Malakha exclaimed while rolling her eyes.
Adults! Honestly, they could all be so—

Malakha’s
train of thought was interrupted by the laughter, causing the exasperated look
on her face to vanish as she began to frown.

“Where
is it coming from?” Sister Mary began to ask in reference to the smell.
“The heater perhaps?”

“That’s
not the heater,” Malakha said breezing past the nun and making her way down the
stairs and into the living area.

She
ignored the nun as she flew through the connecting hall and the foyer and out
the front door to see the large bonfire. It had gotten bigger and closer to the
entrance of the dorms.

“Are
you crazy?” Malakha asked after she was down the steps. She snatched one of the
students toward her. It wasn’t a student she recognized. In fact, Malakha was
beginning to doubt this was a student at all.

The boy
snatched his arm out of Malakha’s grip and proceeded to throw a glass bottle
into the bonfire. It flared and pieces of flaming debris shot out of the fire.

“You’ve
got to put this out!” Malakha said, trying not to lose her temper at the way
everyone part of the group was lounging around the fire as if it wasn’t getting
bigger and threatening to get out control.
“Fine.
I’ll
do it.”

Malakha
went around to the side of the dorms, where she knew there to be a water hose
with a powerful spray attachment that should at the very least contain the
fire. When she came back with it, Sister Mary was already outside and sending
Sabrina to find Father Lucas and possibly call 911. Malak was trying to gain
the attention of the rest of the teenagers, whom Malakha
was
beginning to believe were drunk, maybe even high.

Malakha
turned on the sprayer and began to douse the fire. Seeing their bonfire begin
to dissipate caused the teenager, whose arm she had grabbed earlier, to turn to
her.

“Stop
it,” he said lunging for Malakha.

Malakha
moved out the way, but tripped over the hose in the process, causing her to
fall backwards anyway and lose her grip on the sprayer. She scrambled to her
feet again, trying to move out the way of the fire and grab the sprayer again,
but the teenager grabbed part of the hose and tried to yank it out Malakha’s
hand. This was one of the times that Malakha cursed her size. She was by no
means a little girl, but she wasn’t like some of the girls at the school who
were tall and thickly built like Malak’s sister. So because she was much
smaller than the male teenager yanking on the hose, Malakha not only lost her
grip on the hose, but on her footing as well causing her to stumble into
him.
 
They both crashed to the damp
ground.

He
rolled them over so that he was on top of her and then sat up so that he was
kneeling next to her with the sprayer in hand. As he brought it down to try to
knock her out with it, Malakha bent one of her legs and kicked him in the
chest. He fell back near the flames and part of his hair caught fire. Malakha
stood, starting to pull the hose toward her so that she could use the sprayer.
She had her hands fixed on the sprayer when the laughter, that she had begun to
simply associate with the background noise, got louder.

Then
Malak shouted, “Malakha! Look!”

The
older teenager was pointing up, and Malakha thought it was something in the sky
at first until she spotted someone on the roof. The person then stepped onto
the ledge of the building. Then they swayed a little before gaining their
balance.

“What
is she doing?” Malakha asked trying to ignore the laughter as it got louder.

“I
think she’s going to jump into the fire!” Malak yelled.

“What?”
Sister Mary said looking up in the direction Malak and Malakha were. “Is that a
student?”

“For
you all’s sake, I hope not,” Malakha said imagining the lawsuits that would
come as a result of a student committing suicide by jumping off the roof and
into a bonfire.

The
laughter increased, and this time it was accompanied by a voice.

“Ignoring me?”
it asked her.

“Are
you doing this?” Malakha asked aloud causing both Malak and Sister Mary to look
at her. She ignored their looks, hoping Malak would come up with something to
tell Sister Mary. “Why?”

By this
time, more students were beginning to gather outside. Some were gasping at the
potential disaster. Others took out their phones to film it.

“It’s fun. You and me… We’re both the same.”

Malakha
growled. “I’m nothing like you. I may not believe in all this stupid religion
stuff, but I don’t make mockery of it by hurting people like you.”

“You sure about that?”

Malakha
paused, trying to figure out why the demon or whatever it was sounded so smug.

“What
do you mean?”

He
laughed. Then he said,
“Have you ever
asked your friend if your little rants hurt her?”

“I’m
not like you,” Malakha said, ignoring the nagging feeling that made her want to
review her conversations with one of the only friends she had at school. “This
is wrong. Stop it.”

The
voice didn’t answer only laughed again, making Malakha turn her attention back
to the student who was egging the crowd below on.

“Malakha,”
Malak said coming to stand next to her, “do you know how to get up there?”

“I may
be a little rebellious every now and then, but I’m not reckless,” Malakha
replied. Malak looked at her expectantly with an eyebrow raised. “Doesn’t mean
I don’t have an idea…”

Malakha
ran back inside the girl’s dormitories with Malak racing behind her. She
climbed up the stairs to the second floor and then rounded around the banister
to climb to the third. Many girls had left their room doors open when they
rushed outside to see what was going on, so Malakha chose a random one and went
to the window. She threw the latch open and then climbed out onto the thick
ledge.

“Get
out here Malak. I’m going to need a boost,” Malakha said.

“Should
I at all be concerned that at some point you thought of a way to get on top of
the roof?” Malak asked climbing out with her.

Malakha
ignored his comment and urged him to pick her up by the waist so that she could
grab on to the edge of the roof. Then Malak put his hands under her feet to
help her raise herself onto the roof. Malakha hoped Malak could get up here on
his own because she doubted she had the strength to help pull him up. That also
meant that if she tried to catch this eccentric student before she jumped into
the bonfire, the bonfire that the monks and nuns below seemed to be having
trouble trying to put out, she may only succeed in making them both fall into
it.

She
made her was across the roof to where the student was balanced—Malakha used
that term loosely—on the edge, soaking in the attention from below.

“Get
back here,” Malakha said while trying to keep her distance. If she tried to
grab the other girl, she may fall or jump off before Malakha could reach her.

“No!
It’ll be fun!”

“Do you
want to die?” Malakha yelled as the laughter of the demon or whatever was
causing this was joined by others.

The
girl didn’t answer, only turned around and spread her arms out.

“Stop
this,” Malakha shouted to the demons in Hell she knew to be causing this. “This
isn’t funny!”

They
ignored her and Malakha ran up to the ledge to catch the girl just as she fell
off the ledge. She caught the girl by one of her arms with both hands and
struggled to pull her up. The fire had gotten higher and licked at the bottom
of the girl’s feet, but she didn’t notice as she was more concerned with
scratching Malakha’s hands and arms with her free hand.

“I’m
trying to save you,” Malakha yelled, trying not to call the girl the multitude
of rude names running through her head as she looked at the sky, not sure where
the divide was, but knowing the demons from hell could hear her as she said,
“You bastard. Stop this.”

Many
things happened in succession. First, thunder began to boom in the sky and the
laughing stopped as though the demons in Hell had stopped to pay attention to
it. Second, the girl somehow managed to bite one of Malakha arms causing Malakha
to let go of her. Then finally, the girl fell, but as she did so, rain began to
pour heavily from the sky.

Just as
soon as the girl fell into the fire, the rain began to douse and put out the
flames. Still, the flames didn’t do so instantly, and everyone screamed in
horror as what was left of the flames briefly consumed her before also being
doused by the rain. Malakha leaned over the edge of the roof and saw that the
girl was lying on the ground, not moving with one of her legs bent at an odd
angle.

“Someone
take
her to the infirmary,” a teacher shouted.