Going Lucid, A YA Paranormal Read online

  Decision made, Malakha looked at the time on her phone, a simple old-fashioned flip-up phone that the school distributed to them. 8:45 flashed at her. Tucking the phone in her pocket, she took her foot off the first step and started down the halls, heading in the direction of the courtyard. As she got closer to her destination, the halls slimmed. Then she began to pass walls with large windows that looked out into the courtyard.

  It wasn’t too late, so the there were no hall monitors yet to catch her sneaking out. It would be sneaking back in that would be the problem and even then it would only be slightly harder. She would just wait until about six o’clock in the morning when it wouldn’t be too odd to see a student up and about in the halls headed to the dining hall for an early breakfast.

  Malakha crossed the courtyard and then went through the arched entryway that led to a shorter hall with stone walls and damp concrete floors. The hall led to the garden, which was bordered by large hedges on the side, with only one official exit at the end, usually guarded by one of the many nuns or monks that volunteered at the school. However, there was another, unofficial exit; a hole through the hedges that would free her from school property. The hole was small, but since Malakha was a small girl, she fit through it easily.

  Now free of the school, Malakha crossed the field of what Malak called wild flowers, weeds in Malakha’s opinion, to the road about a hundred yards or so from the castle. A group of people were already there, Malak not one of the people among them. Their stares probably should have made her uncomfortable, but instead Malakha stared right back.

  “What are you doing here?” a girl with blond hair, blue eyes, and pale skin from the senior class asked.

  “The same reason you are,” Malakha replied standing next to the edge of the road.

  “We know that,” said one of the guys standing near the girl, while throwing down and stepping on a cigarette before taking out another to light. And the nuns thought Malakha was a delinquent…

  “Question is who invited you?” another guy said looking up from the phone he was texting on.

  “I did,” came Malak’s voice from behind them. He was making his way out the flower field, followed by a tall dark skinned girl with relaxed hair hanging down in waves just below her shoulders. Malakha guessed she was in one of Malak’s classes because Malakha had never seen her.

  “You invited her?” the blonde girl from earlier said.

  “Yes Eliza. I did,” Malak replied. “Is there a problem?”

  Eliza didn’t reply, only looked at Malakha out the corner of her eyes before looking back at Malak. “I guess not. As long as she doesn’t spoil it.”

  Again, Malakha’s reputation preceded her. Their problem wasn’t necessarily her beliefs or lack of them, but not many people appreciated Malakha’s brutal honesty and inability to mince words.

  “I’m not spoiling anything. I’m going because no one in there knows the definition of fun,” Malakha said nodding back toward the school and then added, “But if you really don’t want me to go, I’ll go back. But don’t expect me to cover for you if one of the nuns catch me sneaking back into the dorms.”

  It was an obvious threat; one Malakha knew everyone in the group knew she’d carry through even if Malakha would get herself in trouble in the process. She was already in trouble as it was.

  Eliza glared over Malakha’s shoulder at Malak, who Malakha imagined shrugged behind her, before looking at Malakha again.

  “Whatever,” she said turning back to the road to wait for their ride.

  Malakha was perfectly content to wait by herself and let Malak talk with his classmates, but instead he came to stand next to her. He didn’t say anything, but Malakha could feel his eyes on her.

  After a while, he finally said, “You look like a school girl.”

  Malakha started to ask him what he meant, but he raised an eyebrow at her, which made her look down at her clothes. She was still wearing her school uniform.

  “Damn it,” Malakha muttered.

  “Did the exorcism last that long?”

  “Not really or at least, I left early so I wouldn’t know. I had time to get changed, but I just didn’t feel like arguing with Sabrina about it tonight.”

  Malak laughed. “You? Not up to an argument? What happened at that exorcism?”

  Malakha rolled her eyes. “That is the last thing I want to talk about right now. Can we just figure out how I’m going to find something else to wear?”

  “Okay. Now you’re passing up a chance to vocalize your problems with Catholicism and their practices? I know something’s wrong.”

  It was supposed to make her laugh, but Malakha didn’t. Instead she again heard the deep, throaty laugh from the exorcism in her head.

  “Malakha, are you okay?”

  “Just not in the mood for your joking right now,” Malakha said while glaring at Malak to back up her statement.

  Malak sighed. “Relax. Just take off the jacket and tie and open the top buttons of your blouse some. You wear enough jewelry on a regular basis that it makes you look more dressed up,” Malak offered.

  Malakha removed her jacket and then swung her arm back and forth to loosen the silver bracelets on her left arm so that they would make a clanging sound when she moved. Then she took off her tie and opened the top three buttons of her blouse.

  “Better?” she asked

  Malak looked her up and down. “Perfect. It’s a good thing you’re already inclined to breaking the school dress code anyway.”

  That was true. Jewelry was against the rules in school, but Malakha thought it was stupid and wore her silver bracelets, two silver rings, and a pair of silver stud earrings anyway. She was also supposed to wear tacky patent leather shoes that not even a six year old would wear. Instead she wore her black leather boots with silver buckles on either side. The nuns stopped trying to correct her ages ago.

  “My hair okay?” she asked running her hair through the long wavy micro twists.

  Malak nodded, and Malakha finished adjusting her outfit just as a large van pull up on the road.

  “You’re late Ralph,” Eliza said as she opened the front door and took the front passenger seat while everyone else climbed in the back.

  “By ten minutes,” said the boy at the wheel. Malakha couldn’t quite tell how old he was because his beard threw her off, but she guessed he wasn’t that much older than she was.

  Malakha got in last, ensuring that she got an end seat. She looked over to her left to see the tall girl Malak brought with him. She met Malakha’s gaze and smiled, but didn’t say anything which left Malakha to lean on her arm and look out the window.

  The ride to the rave took half an hour and made Malakha glad that she caught a ride with the group because otherwise she didn’t know how she would have gotten to the rave. When they got there, there was a long line of people outside the door. Normally Malakha would have tried to find a way to get ahead of it, but the line was moving fast, so she was content to wait in the line with everyone else. When they got to the front after about ten minutes in line, she flashed her ID and the bouncer let her in.

  The sound of the electric dance music immediately assaulted her ears and already Malakha was beginning to feel better. She looked back at Malak, who was saying something to the tall dark girl she had been sitting next to in the van, and decided to leave before he could try to glue himself to her side in the name of protecting her or something. Malakha didn’t particularly care to dance at the moment, so she went to find something to drink before finding a place to sit on a round circular lounge couch with a round table in the middle of it.

  As Malakha sipped on her drink, she watched the bright flashing light show, entranced by the different colors and shapes.

  “You’re going to have a seizure if you keep looking at that.”

  Malakha turned to look at the person behind her. He was a tall muscular Caucasian with what looked like brown hair, and Malakha was pretty sure he didn’t go to school with her, so
she guessed he must be one of the local teenagers.

  “They probably won’t,” Malakha said to him, turning back around in her seat. Normally strangers made her uncomfortable, but this time she wasn’t bothered by the fact that he was invading her personal bubble. Maybe it was the rave or maybe it was something in her drink. She smelled it as she took another sip, but wasn’t sure she would know what to smell for since she avoided alcohol and no one in her family drank it.

  “Want to dance?” he asked.

  Malakha shook her head. “I’m fine.”

  “Don’t tell me you came all the way here to sit and drink by yourself.”

  Malakha actually would have been content to do that all night. Half the fun of going to a party was watching what other people were doing.

  “I might dance later,” she decided.

  “Come on,” he said.

  Malakha sighed as she looked at him. There was definitely something in her drink because she was actually considering taking him up on his offer. Or maybe it was the fact that she still couldn’t get the laughing out her head. The guy was a welcome distraction if he could help her keep the laughing away.

  “You’ve convinced me,” Malakha said, trying to seem like she was only acting coy. She didn’t think the guy cared though as he led her to the dance floor to dance to the electric music.

  Malakha was normally a very conservative person, despite her very non-conservative beliefs or rather, her non-conserved way of making people to know them. But she didn’t care about that, so desperate to get the laughter out her head, the screams of that girl as she was supposedly exorcised. So she began to sway her hips and raise her arms, picking up her feet to the beat, keeping up with the music and the mental metronome in her head, a habit formed after years of formal piano lessons.

  The guy, whose name she belatedly realized she hadn’t bothered to ask for, flashed a smile as she began to let the music loosen her up. Then he placed his hands on her hips to guide them, staring at them as she swayed them back and forth. Normally, Malakha would have been uncomfortable with that too, but she let it slide as long as he didn’t try to grind his hips into hers.

  Her heart began to race with the beat of the music, thumping faster and faster, pounding the laughter from the exorcism earlier that night out of her head until she was lost in the moment. Somewhere along the way she changed dance partners, until she was just dancing amongst a group of four or five people, none of whom she knew.

  Malakha didn’t know how long she danced, losing track of time, not even worrying that she had no clue when her ride was supposed to leave and take her and the rest of her schoolmates back to school. Honestly, she didn’t even care, allowing herself to stay lost in her own little world, moving to the music. The beat began to pick up, the same notes repeating over and over, but higher and higher and higher on the scale until they climaxed with a deep, throaty, dark laugh at the end.

  It snapped Malakha out her trance and caused her to look around. While she was sure it had been part of the music, she wasn’t sure. Regardless, the laughter was back to the forefront of her mind, and she doubted she would be able to forget about it again. So she went to get another drink and found her seat at the round lounge couch. More people were there, Eliza being one of them sitting next to their driver.

  “Where have you been?” Eliza asked.

  “Dancing,” Malakha said.

  “Malak was looking for you,” the tall dark skinned girl from earlier said.

  “I figured. Probably so he could be all protective of me. I won’t have any fun with him around.”

  Their driver grinned then. “You haven’t begun to have fun yet dear.”

  Then he took something out his pocket, a bag of what looked like tablets.

  “What’s that?” Malakha asked though she already suspected.

  He gave her a wry look as he began to pass them around the table. Eliza took one and so did some other people she didn’t know. The tall girl passed, and when the bag got to her, Malakha stared at them for a moment, not sure what to do with them or if she would take them. The laughter was getting to her again though, beginning to suffocate her and make her feel claustrophobic. One time wouldn’t hurt; one time to get rid of the laughter. She took a tablet and passed the bag back to Eliza. Then Malakha watched to see what everyone else was doing and seeing everyone just stick the pill under their tongue, she did the same and waited.

  Malakha leaned against the back of the couch as her body began to relax, the tablet beginning to take effect as she began to feel out of control of her own body, unable to move her limbs even though she was perfectly aware of what was going on around her. Then everything started to look like a dream.

  “Malakha. Malakha. Malakha!”

  Malakha wanted to answer, but it was like she wasn’t in her body anymore. Instead she felt like she was on the outside, watching as the tall dark skinned girl was shaking her body.

  “Shit!” the girl said turning to their driver. “What was in that stuff?”

  “Nothing!”

  “Nothing! Look at her!”

  Their voices began to get further and further away and the world began to shift to some other place, a dark place that wasn’t the rave and looked like an abandoned dilapidated building. And then, though she was aware of the rave still happening, like a place in the back of her mind still there where her physical body still was, the new dilapidated building overtook everything else.

  ******

  The first thing she noticed in the new world was that everything lacked color. The entire place was gray, brown, old, and dusty. Even when there was a splash of color, it was dull and drab. The main light fixture was an old chandelier and only hanging by a few loose wires from the ceiling and all the furniture was broken in some shape, form, or another. The second thing she noticed, as she began to look around to see why she wasn’t at the rave anymore was that she was naked.

  Malakha immediately brought one hand to cover her breasts and the other to cover her lower regions. She looked around, searching for something that would cover her but to no avail. She opted to cross her arms over her chest since it seemed like there was no one around. How barren everything looked began to concern her, so she looked around to find an exit. When she found one, she decided there would be no risk to just see if there was anyone around.

  Malakha poked her head out first, still very self-conscious of the fact that she had no clothes on, and called out, “Is anyone here?”

  No one answered and so Malakha stepped timidly outside. Outside was just as bad as the inside of the building. All the buildings were dilapidated and rundown and the sky had what Malakha guessed was a permanent overcast. She continued walking, stepped onto the sidewalk and eventually into the cracked street, lowering her arms since no one seemed to be around.

  “What is this place?” she asked aloud even though no-one was there or at least that was what she thought.

  “Isn’t it obvious?”

  Malakha jumped and turned around to see a man. He was tall and lanky with thin lanky grayish black hair and wore a sick grin on his face, made creepier by the fact that his skin seemed to take on the bleak coloring of wherever they were.

  “It’s not often we get visitors here, let alone a pretty thing like you.”

  Malakha’s arms flew to her chest again, to cover them, her face beginning to burn in embarrassment at the man’s leer.

  “I… I don’t know how I got here. I just…” Malakha trailed off. She wasn’t quite sure what to say, wasn’t sure if this wasn’t just a bad dream.

  “I’ll help you.”

  “No thanks,” Malakha said backing away, getting ready to spring off.

  Sensing her intentions, the man snatched her to him by her wrists and pressed her against him.

  “Let go,” Malakha yelled, heart racing in fear and rage.

  He ignored her, fidgeting with his pants, which left him with only one hand holding both her wrists. Taking advantage of the opportunit
y, Malakha lifted her foot and stomped on his bare one. His grip on her wrist loosened as he hissed in pain so that she was able to snatch her hands back and shove him away from her. He fell to the ground, catching himself on his hands.

  Malakha continued to watch him, slowly backing away from him and trying to figure out how the hell she was going to get out of the barren world when the man laughed.

  “You shouldn’t have done that,” he said. “You should have just let me rape you.”

  His shape began to shift into a something bigger, something with gray fur and red eyes.

  “What the…” Malakha trailed off as it roared. “Shit.”

  She ran back towards the building she had come out of, managing to get inside just as the thing—that was now about five times bigger than Malakha—rose to its feet, red eyes on Malakha, who was now looking for somewhere to take cover.

  She screamed when it came crashing through the wall, throwing debris everywhere and forcing Malakha to duck into a room directly in front of her. There was a bed in the room and Malakha got down on her stomach and slid under it, putting her hands over her mouth as she looked in the direction of the creature. It looked something like a cross between a demon and a wolf.

  Malakha counted in her head as she waited for the beast to simply walk out the room. No way it was smart enough to look under the bed. Creatures like this were never smart enough to look under the bed.

  This one was.

  The demon-wolf creature flipped the mattress off her and roared, raising his claws to scratch her. Before it could land a hit or Malakha could try to scramble out the way, something else tackled it across the room. Malakha rose from her spot, looking to where the two landed. The person who saved her was a man not much older than she was, holding a weapon to the demon-wolf’s throat.

  “Get out of here!” he yelled.

  “I wish I knew how,” Malakha said to herself, standing up.

  Then the beast threw the man off him, and into the wall, causing more debris and dust to fall. Malakha coughed, waving the air to try to clear the dust, but when the dust did clear, the world was blurry again, like a dream, and was beginning to fade. But this time instead of waking up somewhere else, all that she could see was blackness.