by Holly Dae
Chapter Fifteen
Convictions
Malakha’s entire body ached. So while she had been awake for a while, long enough to glance at the clock and tell it was six in the morning and long enough to scan the room and see that Malak and John were gone and Sabrina was sleep against her bed, Malakha hadn’t quite found the will to make herself get up.
It wasn’t until close to seven that Malakha was able to drag herself out of bed, grab some clothes out of her drawer, and make her way to the bathroom. Malakha turned on the light and faced the mirror. She was immediately sorry she had done so.
There were bags under her eyes and blood stained the entire left arm of her jumpsuit from where the wound in her shoulder had reopened. Her hair was in disarray, but it was nothing a little braid spray wouldn’t be able to take care of. After she peeled off the jumper, the bruises on her arms from where Julius had thrown her around in his dragon form became visible. Malakha had half the mind to go back and kill him, but decided she had enough of him, and she didn’t need Julius to get any ideas.
Malakha sighed and left the bloody clothing on the floor, making a mental note to go to the laundry later. Her feet felt heavier than normal as she began to climb into the shower and she looked down to see why. The boots she had stolen from the harpy had come back across the divide with her. One of these days, she was going to figure out what could come back across the divide with her and why. She kicked off the boots and climbed into the shower.
After letting the hot water soothe her aching body and wash away most of the blood, Malakha ran a bath to let her soiled clothes soak and then threw on some sweats and a long sleeved top before stepping out the bathroom. Sabrina was up now, sitting on her bed and rubbing her head as though fighting off a headache.
“Malakha!” she said standing up. Sabrina ran to Malakha with the intention of crushing her in a hug, but Malakha held up her hands.
“My body aches in places I didn’t know could ache Sabrina so no hugs of relief right now please,” Malakha said throwing her towel in the dirty hamper. Then, feeling the soreness starting to return to her, Malakha bent her leg behind her, grabbed her ankle and began to pull. “Is my whole body supposed to ache like this?”
“Be glad the only thing you’re feeling is just some aches,” Sabrina said in a tone Malakha was all too familiar with. It reminded her of her mother sometimes. “If John hadn’t known how to read that Hebrew you would have been a lot worse.”
Malakha looked up as she grabbed her other ankle, hopping a little so that she could gain her balance.
“Hebrew?” Malakha asked.
“Yeah. It was… some kind of chant or prayer Malak found. It was so ridiculous. We didn’t even think it would work but the cuts and bruises stopped appearing after that so we guessed it was working,” Sabrina replied.
“You mean these,” Malakha said holding out her arm.
“Yeah,” Sabrina said. “You sounded like you were getting beat up. You… your body... it kept taking sharp intakes of breath and acting like the wind was being knocked out of it even though it was just lying there and then the cut on your shoulder started to open up. It was bleeding so bad. I ruined a towel trying to stop the bleeding.”
“So… what did the prayer do?”
Sabrina shrugged. “We’re not sure, but your body wasn’t injured anymore after that and the bleeding on your shoulder stopped.”
“That’s… that’s weird.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because in Hell, I could suddenly do things I normal couldn’t. It was like my senses started to get enhanced or something and I could summon the scythe from far away and then after I beat Julius, it went away,” Malakha explained.
“Wait. Defeated Julius?” Sabrina asked.
Malakha groaned in irritation. “I don’t even want to talk about it.”
But even though she didn’t want to, Sabrina forced the details out of Malakha, even the parts where Julius kissed her. Sabrina was so engrossed in the tale that she was almost late to class. Malakha decided not to go, feeling that she would be able to get away with not going for the rest of the week considering how traumatic the first part of her week had been, and that was without including going to Hell.
At first, she lay around, letting her tired muscles relax. But then she grew bored… well bored wasn’t the word as much as it was anxious. She looked at the boots across the room, the ones she had taken from that harpy; the only evidence that her experience had been real. Evidence. She owed John some proof.
With that thought, Malakha slipped on a pair of tennis shoes and made her way down to the living area of the dormitory and then into the adjacent hall that connected it to the rest of the school. Most of the nuns and monks were busy with a class or another so no one was in the halls to stop her this time when she crossed the large hall with glass stained windows that took her to the church side of the building.
Malakha decided to check the sanctuary first. If he wasn’t there she’d just ask around. Thankfully he was sitting in the sanctuary, kneeling before the altar at the front that depicted Jesus hanging on the cross. Malakha knelt next to him and set the boots next to her, content to let him finish his prayers first, but he looked up almost as soon as he felt her kneel down next to him. He didn’t turn to look at her though.
“Sorry. I wasn’t trying to disturb you,” Malakha said.
“That’s fine,” John said continuing to kneel before the altar. “I was going to come check on you myself later, but I’m glad you found me first. That at least proves that you’re alright.”
Malakha grabbed the boots and sat them in front of the two. “I brought these back from hell. Trust me. I didn’t already have them in my closet. I stole them. From a harpy.”
“I don’t need any more proof that you were telling the truth than what I saw last night Malakha. It was… disturbing to say the least.”
“I figured as much from Sabrina,” Malakha replied. “She also told me that your prayer… it helped me. Thanks for not thinking I’m crazy and for everything else I guess.”
“It wasn’t my prayer,” John said. “I just said the words because I could read them. I didn’t even think they would work until they started.”
“Either way something in the universe was activated by it. I wouldn’t have been able to defeat Julius without it.”
“Julius?” John asked.
Malakha sighed. “Let’s just call him my own personal demon and as much as I would like to never see him again, I don’t think this is the last time I’ll have to deal with him.”
“So you were possessed in a way?” John joked.
“Yeah, but no amount of exorcisms will get rid of him although I’m starting to wish it were that simple,” Malakha said rubbing the bruises on her arms.
“There are different kinds of exorcisms Malakha and not all of them involve sitting you in a chair and letting someone bring them out. We all have demons and the best way to fight them is on our own. Your fight is just a little more literal,” John said.
He still hadn’t turned to look at her and so Malakha followed his gaze to the statue of Jesus, Christ, nailed to the cross. The image had never invoked much of anything in Malakha spiritual or emotional. To her, it was just a tragic piece of art. Someone had called her a heathenish sociopath for voicing that opinion when she was younger. But whether or not that was true, Malakha still never found a way to relate to the image.
“So,” Malakha asked keeping her gaze on the statue. “Are you here questioning the foundations of your belief after last night?”
“No. In fact, my convictions have been strengthened because of it and my understanding has deepened.”
His answer surprised Malakha. A less convicted person might have been rocked to the core by what they had witnessed. Then again, John hadn’t really witnessed anything. He only had Malakha’s testimony as prove that there was a hell that was very different from the one Catholicism taught. The only thing he had se
en was her bruised body, the result of her struggles in Hell.
“What about you? Have your convictions changed?”
That was easy.
“No.” Malakha replied simply.
John didn’t say anything, and Malakha guessed he was waiting for her to elaborate.
“I believe there is a Hell and I believe there is a Heaven and I still believe they co-exist, but on two different planes of earth. Nothing has changed.”
“But you met Satan, right?”
“I met Lucifer.”
“Who was kicked out of our plane and sent to Hell.”
“But not by God. Religion is just based on an old conflict between the people on earth.”
“So you don’t believe there is anyone who might be the God to Hell’s Lucifer”
Malakha sighed and then said, “I’ve been to Hell and I’ve met Lucifer. So I believe in Hell and I believe in Lucifer or Satan if you want to call him that. I haven’t met God yet, and Julius didn’t convince me this is actually Heaven.”
“So does that make you a Satanist or something?”
Malakha cringed. “Why don’t we just say I have faith in the truth or something? It makes me sound less evil and not a delinquent.”
******
The next few days were different or at least that was the only way Malakha could describe it. Julius must have made good on his promise because something changed in the school, something in the atmosphere that Malakha couldn’t quite put her hands on. Whatever it was, it made the monks and the nuns much more patient with her and not in the patronizing and condescending way that frustrated Malakha. It could have had something to do with the fact that she had agreed not to tell her parents about the fact that the school had her exorcised because she didn’t feel the need to yet and they were trying to make sure she never felt the need. Still, either way, they didn’t quite grate her nerves as much as they used to and she was seriously going to have to do some research into Hell and Julius’ definition of “possession.”
“You’ve been a lot less outspoken lately,” Malak said when he caught up with her outside the following weekend.
Malakha shrugged. “I haven’t had the need to be.”
“Or maybe, you actually learned something about sensitivity and respecting others opinions and ideas after seeing someone who completely mocked and ridiculed others for it?” Malak suggested.
“Hardly,” Malakha muttered, but Malak did have a point. She saw a lot of the potential to become something like Julius or even Lucifer in herself, especially with Julius’ interest in her. “What do you want anyway? I know you didn’t leave you Saturday football game just to tell me that when you could have waited until lunch or dinner or something.”
Malak grinned at that. “I talked to Sabrina.”
“And?”
“She told me about you and Julius.”
“You mean our epic battle?”
“No. I’m talking about something a little less epic than that. Like the fact that you kissed him before and after you found out he was the prince of Hell.”
Malakha stopped and turn to raise her eyebrows at Malak. “So.”
Malak looked around and before Malakha could ask why, he had pressed his lips to hers. If the nuns or the monks saw this, they would have in school suspension for life and the thought thrilled Malakha, and it was the only reason she might have kissed him back. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she held a softer spot for him than she liked to let on. Then Malak pulled away, grinning at her stunned expression.
“I felt like you owed me that. I mean you kissed him three times and you knew him all of three days or something? And you’ve known me since last semester?”
“Did Sabrina also tell you that I threatened to hurt Julius with my scythe after he kissed me every single time?”
“You don’t have it with you thankfully,” Malak said though he started to walk backwards away from her.
Malakha glared at him and started to take a step after him. But she hesitated when she heard a rumble, like a low roar. It sounded annoyed, angry, maybe even jealous… She shook it out of her head and followed after Malak.
###
A Note from the Author:
Thanks for finishing Going Lucid. I hoped you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you enjoyed the book or even if you didn’t enjoy it, I kindly ask that you please rate and review the book with a little commentary on your thoughts and feeling about the book on Going Lucid’s Amazon page.
Thanks again,
Holly Dae
Other Books by this Author:
The White Rose Series:
The Seal of Oblivion
Plague of the Black Akantha
Books Coming Soon By this Author:
Revenge of the Illusionist (Book # 3 of the White Rose Series)
About the Author
Holly Dae is a senior in college and writes novels for children, particularly tween and teenage girls, in her spare time. She eventually aspires to be an editor of her own publishing house. Until then, she will continue to write about young teenage girls trying to find their place in the world while also battling fantastical and paranormal beings that threaten their normalcy at the same time.
Contact
Facebook: Holly Dae
Twitter: @thesealofoblivion
Blog: thesealofoblivion.wordpress.com
Going Lucid Fan Page