SERAPHS: THE AWAKENING

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

"Max! Max!" Nora shouted, running down the academics' wing corridor. She barely slept last night as she ached to tell Max about her plan. Hopefully, she would subscribe to it and they could tell Keelan together. One thing she wasn't looking forward to, was Keelan's reaction.

Max heard her name. Who would call her with so much enthusiasm on a Thursday morning? Then she saw Nora scuttling towards her through the crowd. "Nora?" The corridor was busy as cadets hurried off to their classes. "Nora!" she waved so Nora could see her. "What is wrong? Please, tell me you are just excited to see me," Max said when Nora got to her.

Nora chuckled. "I'm afraid not Max, sorry."

"Bah!" she waved her right hand and walked with Nora, arm in arm. "What's up?" She noticed the dark circles around Nora's eyes. "Whoa! Didn't you sleep at all last night?"

Nora touched her lower eyelid, "What? Is it bad?"

"Sweetie, you look terrible. Come here." Max dragged her to a girl's bathroom, close to the lecture quadrangle. She unzipped a purse from her backpack, while Nora sat on the granite bathroom slab.

"You attend classes with a make-up pack?"

"Be prepared, isn't that your boy's scout motto? You never know when you might need it," Max said, applying concealer around Nora's eyes.

Nora laughed softly.

"What?"

"You remind me of my best friend, Ruby."

"Really? She can kill a demon too?"

"No, thankfully," she laughed. "You are both beautiful, hot, good dressers and she loves to doll me up too." Nora's voice dropped, "she must be worried about me by now, not knowing where I am."

Max stopped and looked at her, "Nora you know it is not safe for you to go home—"

"I know, I know and I understand. I just miss her and my mum."

"You will see them again, I promise, once we know how to deal with the demons after you. Now shut up and don't smudge my make-up." Max continued covering Nora's dark circles.

"Erm, Max, about that—"

"Hum? What?"

"I think I have an idea, a faster way to know what Asmodeus wants."

Max paused and looked at her, "What? What way?"

"I was thinking, instead of guessing and not knowing why he is after me, what if we," Nora avoided Max's laser eyes, "call him and ask him? That way we would be sure of his intentions and plan a course of action in defence." Max stared at Nora without saying a word for over thirty seconds. "Please say something," Nora said when she could not take the silence anymore.

Max dropped the concealer and brush on the slab and hugged Nora, tightly. "Okay, not the reaction I was expecting," Nora said as Max crushed her with her hug.

"You are crazy and that is why I love you!" Max declared with a bright smile.

"What? You- you like the idea? You do?"

"Of course! Well... not the idea, the idea is a bad, terrible idea—" she waved her hands, "crazy dangerous. But that is why I love it! Only you could come up with such an idea."

"You think Keelan will let us do it?" asked Nora.

"Oh no! No way he will not let you go through with it," Max shook her head sideways and waved her index finger, "hum-hum."

"I was hoping you could convince him," Nora said.

Max chortled. "There is not convincing my brother. Have you seen the guy? He is like a stone wall. You will have a better chance of convincing him than I will."