Going Lucid (5 page)

“What’s
wrong?” Sabrina asked.

“Nothing,”
Malakha said slowly.

“Yes
there is. You suddenly started looking around like something spooked you.”

“I…”
Malakha heard it again, but it didn’t sound like it was coming from in the
chapel. Rather she heard it coming from outside.

Malakha
stood up suddenly, starting past Sabrina.

“Where
are you going?”

“The bathroom.”

“For real this time?”

“Yes,”
Malakha said continuing out the row, then down the aisle and out the chapel.

The
laughing became louder in the hallway, but seemed to be coming from one
particular direction. Malakha took a left, heading down the hall, passing the
large stained windows, and going towards where the bathrooms were. The laughter
started to quiet down to low chuckles, but continued to persist steadily.

Malakha
stopped at the bathroom door, putting her hand against it, the laughter seeming
to echo from behind it. Malakha slowly began to push it open while saying,
“Hello.”

When it
was all the way open, she stopped, literally frozen in shock at the sight
before her. The girl, Eliza, from the night before was standing over the sink,
eyes red and puffy from crying at some point, and holding a small short knife,
a little bigger than a pocketknife but much smaller than a dagger or something,
in her hand to cut what looked like an X shape onto her wrist. The first line
of the X was already beginning to bleed, and it appeared Eliza was trying to
make the other line deeper since she hadn’t cut deep enough the first time.

Malakha
looked at her, managing to ignore the laughter for a while as he tried to
figure out what to do. Her first instinct was to just walk out and pretend she
hadn’t seen anything. She figured as long as the girl wasn’t trying to kill
herself, why should she care. But in the back of her mind she wondered what if
the girl did kill herself whether by accident or on purpose? She would have
been able to prevent it.

Before
Malakha could come to a decision, something seemed to snap in Eliza, and the
older girl looked at the knife and then back at Malakha before raising it and
charging at her with it.

The
girl’s attack took Malakha by surprise, causing her to dodge out the way late
and when she did finally move, she was too slow and was caught in the shoulder
with the blade.

Malakha
sucked in a sharp breath, falling sideways after Eliza pulled the knife out.
She clutched her bleeding shoulder, while looking at Eliza who pulled her arm
back to get ready to strike her again. Malakha managed to catch her hand and
hold it back, but Eliza was persistent and continued pressing her hand down
towards Malakha’s face. Eliza was so singularly focused on stabbing Malakha though,
that she forgot Malakha still had a free hand, a free hand that Malakha used to
pull a cheap dirty fight trick that she wasn’t sure would work or not. She
reached up and grabbed one of Eliza’s breasts, breasts that were thankfully
bigger than Malakha’s, and squeezed it as hard and painfully as she could.

Eliza
yelled lifting herself off Malakha. Malakha let go of the girl’s breast and
tried to leave the bathroom again, but Eliza grabbed her by the ankle and
stabbed her in the back of her calf.

Malakha
screamed and fell forward, hitting her head on the wall in the process. Eliza
began to pull her towards her by the ankle, while Malakha desperately tried to
grab hold of something. Her fingers caught on the other girl’s bag. She didn’t
know what was in it, but she hoped it was hard and heavy.

With
the bag in hand, Malakha rolled over as far as she could and swung the bag at
Eliza’s face. Eliza let out a cry of surprise and sat up on her knees to move
her hair out her face, with the knife still raised. Malakha scrambled to her
feet while Eliza tried to gain her bearings and swung the bag at her head as
hard as she could once more. The girl fell sideways and hit her head on the
sink, causing her to lose consciousness and fall forward on the floor.

Malakha
panted, dropping the bag as she stared at Eliza’s unconscious form. But that
wasn’t what bothered her. What bothered her was that she heard the laughing
again, but this time, it was laughter from more than one person.

Chapter
Five

Eliza’s Boyfriend

The laughing
had stopped a while ago, but now Malakha was irritated for another reason
entirely as she sat in the infirmary with the doctor fussing over her.

“I’m
fine. I promise. You wrapped up my cuts, so I would really like to get out of
here.”

The
doctor raised a small light to one of her eyes, checking for a concussion since
Malakha had a large bump on her head from where she had hit her head on the
wall, a bump which she was currently holding ice to.

“That’s
what you say, but better safe than sorry,” the woman insisted.

Malakha
sighed, wanting to switch the arm that was holding the ice, but unable to since
her left shoulder was stiff from being stabbed.

“Now
I’m going to need you to tell me again what happened,” she said.

“I
already told everyone what happened a million times. Eliza was cutting herself
and I don’t know whether it was to kill herself or not. Then she saw me and I
guess she thought I was going to tell and she attacked me. I swear I didn’t
mean to knock her out. I was just trying to get away,” Malakha insisted.

“You’re
not in trouble
Malakha,
I just have to ask you to make
sure the story matches up to the one you told everyone else.”

“I
cause a little trouble every now and then and skip a few classes and maybe I
don’t believe in Catholicism, but I’m not a liar. And I don’t start fights! She
attacked me first.” If she didn’t have such a reputation for causing trouble,
they wouldn’t be questioning her like this.

“And
she stabbed you in the shoulder?” the doctor said.

“Yes,” Malakha
said trying not to lose her temper.

“And the back of your leg?”

“Why
else would a stab wound be there?”

“And what about the bruises on your wrists?”

“Bruises?”
Malakha asked confused.

The
doctor pointed to them and Malakha scrambled to find something, anything to
say, because the truth was she wasn’t quite sure how they had gotten there.

“I… I
wore some bracelets too tight. You know the leather ones that look like mini
belts that you can fasten on?” Malakha asked, not sure if those types of
bracelets even existed, or if they could leave dark bruises like the ones on
her wrists, but the doctor seemed to buy the story.

“I have
some cream you can put on it so they’ll lighten up and heal quicker,” she said
going to a cabinet and taking out the cream and a bottle of pills. She shook
them and as she handed them to Malakha said, “This should help with the pain if
you have any.”

Malakha
took them from her and asked, “Can I go now?”

“After
I get you another blouse,” the doctor said.

Malakha
didn’t see why she couldn’t just leave in her tank top, but didn’t argue with
the woman. She hoped the doctor would hurry up, because even though Eliza was
still knocked out and on the other side of the room, being alone with the girl
made Malakha antsy. The woman came back with a blouse that wouldn’t button up
because it was too small, so Malakha left it open, put all of her jewelry back
on, and left the infirmary.

Malak
and Sabrina were waiting outside of it.

“You
were in a fight!” both of them said.

“I
didn’t start it,” Malakha sighed.

“We
didn’t say you did,” Sabrina said. “Are you okay?”

“Except
for being stabbed in my shoulder and leg, along with the huge bump on my
forehead, fine.”

“She
stabbed you?” Malak asked.

“Yeah,
but I knocked her out so I don’t know if I came out worse or she did.”

“Don’t
joke about this. You were just attacked,” Malak said solemnly.

“I
thought you were mad at me.”

“Yeah,
but I didn’t want you to get attacked either,” he muttered and then added.
“Sorry about all that yesterday by the way.”

“I’ll forgive
you if you forgive me for acting insensitive.”

Malak
laughed. “You weren’t being insensitive. You were just being Malakha. So what
happened anyway?”

Malakha
groaned and said, “This is the last time I’m telling this to anyone. Eliza was
in the bathroom cutting
herself
, she saw me, and then
she attacked me.”

“Eliza?”
Malak asked stopping in the middle of the hall.

“Yeah.
Girl who went with us to the rave
last night.”

Malak
frowned and began to walk again. “Her? She doesn’t seem like the type to do something
like that.”

“There
is no type for that kind of stuff,” said Sabrina.

“I know
that, but
her
and Ashley are tight. If there was even
the inkling that something was up, Ashley would have told me.”

“Who is
Ashley to you anyway?” Malakha asked. She didn’t know Malak had any female
friends besides her and Sabrina.

“My sister.”

Malakha
and Sabrina stopped walking this time and asked, “You have a sister?”

Malak
only rolled his eyes and continued to walk.

“Anyway,”
he continued, “it just feels weird to me.”

“It’s
not weird,” said Sabrina. “This stuff happens sometimes, even in a catholic
boarding school.”

“I’m
just saying that it was so unexpected is all.”

“I’ll
tell you what’s weird then,” Sabrina said stopping to look at Malakha. “I think
it’s weird that Malakha suddenly got all fidgety when the choir was singing and
had to go to the bathroom just before seeing Eliza.”

“It was
nothing.”

“You
had that spooked look again.”

“Malakha?”
Malak said pointing to the girl. “Spooked?
Nothing spooks her.”

“Something
during the sermon did. And so did something that happened at that rave,” said
Sabrina.

“She
had a bad trip,” Malak replied.

“I told
you. It wasn’t a bad trip,” said Malakha.

“Then
what was it?” Malak asked expectantly.

“You’re
going to think I’m crazy… I think I’m crazy, but it was too real to be a
hallucination.”

“We’ll
determine that,” Sabrina said.
“Spill.”

Malakha
led them outside to sit on the steps of the church and launched into a
description of everything she had seen during her experience, even giving in
and revealing the slightly embarrassing detail that she was naked the entire
time. When she was done, Malak sighed, arms draped over his lap.

“Still
sounds like a bad trip to me.
A very vivid one, but a still a
bad one.”

“I’m
telling you it wasn’t,” Malakha said standing up. She looked at Sabrina.

Sabrina
tapped both her feet twice before saying, “I don’t know. Maybe Malak’s right.”

Malakha
huffed and then said, “Oh yeah!
This
doesn’t happen because of a bad trip.”

She
held out her wrist so they could see the dark bruises on her wrists from where
the demon-wolf man had grabbed her.

“Are
you sure you didn’t have these before?” Sabrina asked.

“She
didn’t,” Malak said grabbing Malakha’s arm to look at the bruises closer.
“Ashley came and got me as soon as Malakha went out. I checked over her. The
bruises weren’t there.”

“Now do
you believe me?” Malakha asked.

“I
believe that maybe you didn’t have a bad trip,” Malak replied. “But are you
sure it’s not just something in your head. There are cases of people doing
stuff like this to
themselves
and not knowing it.”

“I hope
not,” Malakha muttered looking at her shoes.

Malak
and Sabrina exchanged a look and then Sabrina asked, “There’s something else
isn’t there.”

“You’ll
definitely think I’m crazy.”

“No
more crazy than we already think you are,” Malak assured.

Malakha
glared at him, but said anyway, “I heard laughter.”

“Laughter.”

Malakha
nodded. “I heard it today during the sermon. I got up to see where it came
from, and that’s how I found Eliza. But today wasn’t the first time. I heard it
during the exorcism, before the rave, and no one could hear it except me.”

Malak
and Sabrina had nothing to say about that, but Malakha could guess they
probably thought she might be crazy. Malakha was beginning to think she had
gone crazy. But none of that explained the bruises.

“So
what do we do?” Sabrina asked.

“Well I
was thinking that we could at least rule out the drugs first,” Malakha said.

“And
how are we supposed to do that?” Sabrina asked.

Malakha
didn’t say anything, only looked at Sabrina patiently, the look she only gave
Sabrina when she knew her best friend wouldn’t approve of something she was
about to do.

“You
want to go find the guy who gave them to you and take them again, don’t you?”
Malak asked dryly before Sabrina could figure it out, looking resigned to the
idea that he was going to end up helping Malakha.

Malakha
nodded to which Sabrina began to protest. Malakha spent all of ten minutes
listening to her before deciding to ignore her. It didn’t stop Sabrina from
voicing her disapproval though, even after Malakha and Malak decided to borrow
a school van to take them into town.

“This
is against all kinds of rules Malakha,” Sabrina said as she followed Malak and
Malakha to where the school kept passenger vans that were mostly used for field
trips.

“You’re
saying that like it’s supposed to make me care,” Malakha said as she began to
inspect the vans, looking for the smallest one.

“You
are,” Sabrina said, looking around to make sure no one saw them.

“It
will be real quick,” Malakha said. “We’ll be gone two hours tops. You stay here
and cover for us.”

“Can
either of you even legally drive? I mean, it’s not like being at a boarding
school gives any of us time to get our licenses,” Sabrina said.

“I can
drive good enough not to be stopped by the police. Relax,” Malak said as
Malakha chose a car and got inside.

Malakha
opened the dashboard and found the keys inside, tossing them to Malak as he
slid into the driver’s seat. Malak cranked up the car and Malakha rolled down
the window.

“What
if someone asks where you are?”

“Make
something up. Besides, the problem won’t be if they discover we’re gone. It’s
if they discover us coming back,” Malakha said dryly.

Sabrina
groaned and then looked around before opening the back passenger door and
getting into the van.

“What
are you doing?” Malak asked.

“If all
three of us are missing at least no one will assume that the two of you are
fooling around. They’ll assume if we’re together that we were doing something
proper, like studying and not going into town to find an illegal drug,” Sabrina
said as she closed the door.

******

Malak
drove them to a small house that was on the side of town furthest away from
their school. It was in an old quaint little neighborhood that reminded Malakha
of some of the places her friends grandparents from back home lived, friends
whose families weren’t wealthy like hers were. But those houses were neat
little houses with beautiful flowers and a clean yard.
 
This house was not like that. The grass
looked like it hadn’t been cut in two months and the house was in bad need of a
coat of paint. The overgrown bushes did nothing to draw attention away from
that either.

“Where
is this?” Malakha asked cautiously as she got out the car.

“This
is where Eliza’s boyfriend lives,” Malak said heading to the door and seeing
that he wasn’t deterred by the outer appearance of the house, both Malakha and
Sabrina followed.

“Her boyfriend?”

“The driver from Friday night.
The one who gave you those
drugs,” Malak added, still sounding irritated about the event.

“Oh.
You think he’ll still have some?” Malakha asked

“Either
that or he’ll know where to get it,” said Malak.

“I
can’t believe you two are talking so casually about this. We’re about to ask
for drugs and if stealing—“

“Borrowing,”
Malakha corrected.

“—the
van from school was illegal this is outright sinful.”

“Stealing
is a sin and no sin is weighted any heavier than another,” Malakha said as
Malak rang the doorbell.

“I
thought you didn’t believe in that stuff,” Sabrina said looking at Malakha out
the corner of her eye as they waited.

“I
don’t.
Doesn’t mean I don’t know how to use the doctrine when
I need to.”

The
door opened, and standing in the doorway was their driver, Eliza’s boyfriend,
from the night before. He stared at them for a minute, obviously recognizing
Malakha because he said, “I see you’re not dead.”

“Yeah,”
Malakha said pushing her way into the house. “But I’m not sure if I’m out of
the clear yet.”

“Listen,”
Eliza’s boyfriend said fidgeting with his beard. “I gave you the same thing I
gave everyone else. If it had a different effect on you, that’s not my fault.”

“We’re
not saying it is,” Malak said closing the door behind him and Sabrina.

“Then
what are you saying?”

Malakha
exchanged a look with Malak and then looked towards where she thought Sabrina
was only to find her wandering around the house. Finally she looked back at
Eliza’s boyfriend and said, “I’m saying we need more of it.”

The Caucasian
boy stared hard at Malakha for a moment and then said slowly, “More of it?”

“Is
there a part of that you didn’t comprehend?” Malakha asked, undeterred by the
boy’s stare.

The
older boy continued to stare at her for a moment. Then he went to sit down on
the couch in the den and began moving paper and dishes that were on the side
table out of the way as though he was looking for something. Finally, he found
a lighter and leaned back on the sofa and began playing with the lighter by
lighting it, letting it flicker for a moment, and then letting it go out before
repeating the process again.