Free Going Lucid by Holly Dae Page B

had better things to do than repeat the same answers to the
same questions over and over again.
    “I
think you’re a little frustrated Malakha.”
    “What
gave that away?” Malakha asked crossing her arms.
    “You’ve
had a tiring and traumatic weekend. Why don’t we cut it short today?”
    Malakha
dramatically stood up while saying, “Finally.” Then she rushed out the room and
headed for the dining hall where lunch was taking place.
    Malak
was once again sitting at her and Sabrina’s table, but again the nuns said
nothing. In fact, unlike last week, the nuns were hardly paying attention to
Malak. Malakha guessed it was because he was hunched over a book.
    “So,”
Malakha began as she sat at the table, not even thinking about going to get any
lunch, “Did you all find anything?”
    “Only
that this stupid pocketknife is really sharp,” Sabrina said taking out the
silver blade to illustrate, careful to keep it out the view of any nuns that
might be paying attention. Then she showed her left thumb, the top of which was
wrapped in a band-aid.
    “Nothing besides that?” Malakha asked.
    “There’s
nothing Malakha,” Malak said closing the book he had been reading. “Nothing that we have access to anyway.”
    “Have
you tried Google yet?” Malakha asked.
    “Not
yet. It’s kind of hard to use a computer during classes without getting
caught,” Malak said.
    Malakha
reached in her book bag and pulled out something smooth, thin, and black. She
handed it to Malak and said, “Use my Kindle. The teachers usually don’t see
that if you sit it on top of an open book.”
    Malak
looked at the tablet and then slid it into his book bag before the nuns noticed
she had given it to him.
    “Hopefully
I’ll have something by dinner,” said Malak.
    Sabrina,
who was still inspecting the knife said, “You know one of the monks or the nuns
might know something.”
    “I
thought about that, but which one of them in their right mind is going to tell
me about something like that without strapping my butt down in a chair to be
exorcised,” Malakha replied.
    “You
don’t have to tell them that your soul travelled somewhere, and you met some
hot guy that told you it was Hell.”
    Malak
rolled his eyes in obvious annoyance. “Do you have to keep emphasizing that
this Julius guy was hot?”
    “Yes,”
Sabrina replied. “Do you know how rare it is for Malakha to admit to something
like that? It takes someone extremely good looking guy to cause even a blip on
her radar!”
    Malak
grinned at Malakha and asked, “Am I on your radar?”
    Malakha
shrugged. “Wouldn’t know. I’ve never seen you out your
uniform.”
    “Yes
you have,” Malak said dryly. “Recently you have. At the rave and when we were
playing football and you stormed onto the field to talk to me?”
    “Forgive
me for being traumatized about going to Hell for the first time and hearing
laughter,” Malakha deadpanned.
    Sabrina
rolled her eyes and said, “My point is that you don’t have to tell anyone you
went to hell. Tell them you were just curious or something.”
    Malakha
gave her best friend a wry look. “Me? Curious? About
something that seemingly has to do with religion? Have you forgotten that I
usually run in the other direction if I can avoid stuff like that?”
    “Yeah,
but you could say you were forced to,” Sabrina replied.
    “Forced?”
    “Yeah. You could say it’s related to your punishment, with
the exorcisms or something. No one would think that’s too odd, especially if
you went with that air of wanting to know so that you can prove someone wrong
like you do in class,” Sabrina added.
    Malakha
looked at Sabrina and then gasped. “Exorcisms!”
    With
that, she stood up and put her book bag on her shoulder.
    “Where
are you going?”
    “I know
who I can ask.”
    Sabrina
looked puzzled, while Malak only sighed as though he had long grown used to
Malakha’s sometimes impulsive and unpredictable behavior.
    “Who?” Sabrina