The Kingdom of the Damned

by Mario Garrido Espinosa

  "If we had a good rope, among the three of us could drag it to our houses," Candid said, when the beast was dead.

  "I can go for one and come back in a couple of hours," Celedonio suggested.

  “This animal is very heavy and return home is partly uphill. In addition, we would have to go around many obstacles," Desiderio said, who did not see the operation clear.

  “Don't tell me we're not going to be able to carry this animal...” Candid said, who had the strength to carry out such work, probably because he was one of the three that had the greatest brutality, stubbornness and strength.

  "Be able to, we are," Desiderio admitted, "but it would take us well into the night..."

  Candid and Celedonio looked at each other, recognizing that his friend was right. Even they tried to avoid entering to the Burnt Willow forest when it stayed in darkness and flooded by a sea of ​​noise and moans of nocturnal animals. Especially Candid Cabrera, who despite the disappointment received to see that the animal wanted was a boar and not a dragon, still thinking that at night that place was a den of hundreds of these beings never seen.

  “We'd better take only what we think is best. The rest will be taken care of by the rest as soon as we disappear," Desiderio concluded.

  The three men got down working and in a very short time, the animal was dismembered and made the distribution: Desiderio and Celedonio each carried a back leg on their backs and Candid carried like a donkey with the ribs. Celedonio Butcher, in addition, kept the fangs with the healthy intention of using them for the manufacture of some kind of forceful tool or simply as a trophy to show his future grandchildren.

  CHAPTER 13

  Taming the devil

  1

  A

  ll La Alpurria del Campo people was aware of Irene Lopezosa’s absence. During the first weeks she was absent from the mansion where she had spent most of her life, rumors about her absence were widespread. Some people were happy and others —the less— regretted, because there was everything, but ultimately the people won enormously with her departure. Where nothing was achieved was in the convent of the Blessed Virgin Mary of all the Faithful Dead. Something terrible must have been done by the fifteen Augustinian Recollect nuns who formed that congregation, so that Divine Providence would reserve such a punishment for them.

  It was almost impossible for the poor nuns to strip Irene, just when she arrived, of her luxurious courtly costumes, almost princely, which at that moment looked dirty and destroyed, victims of her owner's anger during the trip to the convent in the carriage equipped as a cage. No one in the congregation knew how to dismantle the eight-eared whaleman, tied to a waxed cloth of cotton and wool, which served as a cupper of the black skirt that covered an underwear worthy of the very queen of a fantasy country. The nuns had not seen such a dress in their life and opted to break it, first so she would not put it on again and secondly because they did not know how to break it down piece by piece.

  Getting Irene Lopezosa's hair to fit was much worse than removing her dress. They tied her so they could cut her blonde hair of more than a meter long, and since she was not still, they left her with stitches and bald spots all over her head. In the end, her skull looked like the body of a half-plucked duck.

  In spite of all the inconveniences and after long hours of titanic efforts, Irene, dressed in a white novice habit, seemed like a nun. But she only kept a resemblance to a religious in her external part, because during the following days Don Higinio’s daughter did not respect at any time the laws of the closing, nor the vow of silence after the meal, nor any Centenary law established in the convent. So, after the first month Sister Cornelia and Sister Cipriana, who were a couple of moles of more than one hundred and twenty kilos each and that put the two in parallel could have replaced the two main pillars that supported the entire convent, could not endure for a longer time that situation. Taking advantage of the ten minutes that were free before going to the choir, the two colossal nuns went to the room where the Mother Superior, Sister Lorenza Justiniana, dispatched the affairs of the convent.

  “What do you want, daughters of mine?” It was the first thing she told them when they entered.

  “If Your Reverend Motherhood gives permission, we urgently bring to your attention the general discomfort that the congregation suffers.”

  “What's the matter?” Sister Lorenza Justiniana asked, who had once been a dry woman, rough and hard as a diamond, but who now, victim of her many years, did not seem the same. She had ruled the convent all her life and, in addition, had shown that she knew how to do it well, but in recent years she had become careless and let pass many small things that when she counted ten years less would have sanctioned harshly, sometimes disproportionately.

  “It's because of the new intern, the novice Irene Lopezosa.”

  “Ah! I know she causes some problems.” The Abbess mother did not seem to want to remember that from Irene’s arrival she had been forced to call her to order up to nine times, always receiving replies and reproaches capable of embarrassing a stranger. “She'll get over it. Do not worry, my daughters. Soon it will be in God's grace.”

  "Let us have your Motherhood to disagree," was Sister Cornelia’s quick response. “We believe that she is possessed by the devil and either we resolve, or she will sow disgrace and discord among us.”

  “Oh, come on! Sister Lorenza Justiniana exclaimed, who had really softened over the years. “Sometimes spit the food, but...”

  “She spits it always. Every day," Sister Cipriana corrected. “Besides, she does it to the sister’s face in front of her.”

  "Run from one place to another when you feel like it, shouting pagan songs," Sister Cornelia recalled, referring to some melodies which lyrics would scandalize the regulars of a smelly port tavern.

  “Very well. I believe that my obligation is to call her back to order," the superior admitted.

  “With all due respect, Most Reverend Mother, we believe that that will not be enough. Her demonic behavior can only be straightened in a way...”

  “Demonic behavior! That affirmation is very serious” Sr. Lorenza Justiniana said.

  “We know. But we believe not to be wrong.”

  "Your Motherhood knows that, when the weather permits, she does not wear her habits and walk naked through the two chapels of the cloister, dancing a highly inappropriate dance and touching herself without any qualms," Sister Cornelia said, referring to a kind of belly dance that Irene Lopezosa must have learned from one of her non-Gurracamese lovers, because most of men have passed through her bed when she was outside the walls of the convent.

  “Even so, we must be very sure that she is possessed by the devil to take the step that I think you are asking me.”

  “If she is not possessed, she is pretending to be, which is even worse...”

  Indeed, Sir Higinio’s daughter seemed devilish. She wanted them to get fed up with her and expelled from the convent. That's why she took off her clothes as soon as she could, and only the damp, invisible cold of the interior rooms of the convent forced her to wear it. She also spoke loudly of outrageous love arts, many of them against nature, during the Eucharist and prayer at six o'clock in the morning—that is, when they got her out of bed in her cell—. Nor she did her work in the orchard and she broke the poles of the hoes and other farm tools, supporting them against the fence of the convent and letting fall the heavy rock that until that moment had served as an ornament in a corner of the field. It also spoiled, with kicks and stomps, all the work of the other nuns whose occupation was to sow and thresh, taking advantage of the moment when they left to rest from the day's work.

  "A couple of mornings ago she took three of the crosses from the cemetery in the back," Sister Cipriana said. “Then we found them stuck in the ground upside down.”

  The Mother Superior instinctively made the sign of the Holy Cross three times.

  "Sister Anna Toribia did not say anything, but a week ago, the new intern killed the little f
ish that she cared for and fed," said Sister Cornelia. Irene had poured her urine three times into the largest pile of the small, broken and useless stone fountain that rested in the center of the cloister. Consequently, the redfish that lived there ended up dead after a slow agony.

  "It's fine, it's fine," Lorenza Justiniana admitted. “You have my permission to do what you already know. All for the good of the new inmate and the congregation... Do not go to the choir. Let her begin her path to salvation right now.”

  2

  Sister Cornelia and Sister Cipriana went in search of Irene Lopezosa, unable to disguise their satisfaction. It seemed to rumble the entire convent when the two walked in unison along the corridor in total and perfect harmony. They entered the cell of Sir Higinio's daughter in a hurry, just when she was sleeping on her uncomfortable cot. They raised her in suspense, each sister pressing one of her arms, while she screamed like a pig whose throat was cut in a village slaughter. In an attempt to silence her, Sister Cipriana gave her two slaps so strong and well executed that Irene was left stunned for a few seconds with her cheeks burning. Taking advantage of the moment, they began to transport the demoniac woman to their new destination through the corridors. In a short time, Irene was conscious again and began to feel more fear than anger and resumed her recital of primary sounds, while she spat out frothing blood and saliva.

  Some nuns came out of their cells shocked by the uproar, but Irene did not see them, blinded by that unsettling feeling mixed with rage and impotence. So, she continued in her efforts and continued throwing kicks into the air, curses and some bite that, happily, did not reach the nuns... But, these, tired of dodging Irene's violent movements stopped in their tracks and, Sister Cipriana, holding her by the chest against the wall, endorsed a whole rosary of slaps of which demonstrated to have so much mastery; on the seventh the demon possessed was vanished and the colossal nun ceased to be fatigued. All in all, Sister Cipriana wanted to be sure and flared to Irene's face two punches as brutal as they had been studied. If she had followed another more of the same strength, Irene, surely, would have died in the following days slowly.

  Sister Cornelia, without any difficulty, transported Irene to a humid cell without any window in the basement of the building. The piece was rectangular with one meter wide and one and a half long. The ceiling was one meter sixty from the ground. In general, it was impossible to stay upright or fully stretched if you were lying on the ground. The dimensions and the darkness made the stay there claustrophobic. It was like being a sandwich. The congregation used this department to do penance and purify the soul, voluntarily enclosing themselves in it when they thought it was necessary, always with the permission of the mother superior. They lived in that hole for days, without eating or almost drinking, on their knees —perhaps the only posture for which the place served— holding onto their own needs, with the sole consolation of power in solitude to pray and be in God's grace.

  "Slut's daughter, you bastard, let me get out of here!” Irene Lopezosa shouted, banging on the door with the violence of the madmen when she managed to wake up from her faint, but behind the wall of her dungeon there had been no one for hours.

  Later she calmed down but in his inner self she knew that her trick of looking completely possessed had not worked at all. Far from casting her out of the convent, what they had done was to enclose her like a wild beast.

  For a dozen days the nuns prayed for Irene and applied her to all their thoughts and meetings. After these, the mother superior considered that it was enough, so that Sister Cornelia and Sister Cipriana opened the cell of penance and took her out of there. They applied the same violence used to put her inside, but now there was no resistance. When Irene Lopezosa was away, Sister Hermenegilda and Sister Immaculate Conception were in charge of the unenviable task of cleaning the place, which stank on its four sides to the stench of the wild beasts enclosed, and which, consequently, caused more than one puke in the two nuns

  The penitent was much thinner, pale, bathed in her own excrement, her body full of blisters and sores produced by her uncleaned feces and ultimately in a state that seemed more dead than alive. After carrying with her, Sister Cornelia and Sister Cipriana cleaned and healed her, without putting too much effort into it... And thus, she remained convalescing for thirty days with her nights, in which, in turn, Sister Anna Dorotea and Sister Graciela watched and took care of her.

  Throughout this infernal Lent —ten days of confinement and thirty days of rehabilitation—, Sir Higinio’s first-born ruminated, amid absences and nightmares, atrocities worthy of an unbalanced being, which on the other hand, is what it was at this point. A terrible idea was followed by a worse one the next day. Some of these thoughts were discarded immediately because they were impossible to realize in her new life as a nun. However, something abominable occurred to her, although it was difficult enough, it was feasible. Something, that if it went well, would help her escape from the convent and take revenge on those nuns who had locked her in a small dark cell, like an animal. Thus, when she was perfectly recovered, the first thing she did was to become a nun as submissive and devoted as the others. This was part of her plan. So, she began to go punctually to all the celebrations of the day and she endured them swallowing all her anger. At the time of praying, she imitated the pious gesture of the other nuns just thinking of her revenge, and with time and from so much always hearing the same thing, she learned the text of some of the prayers. In the garden she worked just enough so that no one would suspect. She never spoke, as if her vow of silence was almost permanent. She did not run again in the corridors and ate what she would have without any protest...

  Irene's change was so incredible that it amazed almost the entire congregation, although Sister Cornelia and Sister Cipriana never came to believe such a miracle.

  3

  During the postulancy, Irene Lopezosa had to study sacred history, Latin, theology, the Bible, mountains of religious poems created by mystics or not, prayers, centenary prayers and a host of other matters that did not interest her in the least. The one in charge of teaching and measuring her progress was Sister Marie the Second, who was a very wise and patient woman, but very undemanding, so Irene studied rather little. However, Sister Marie the Second seemed to worry that her pupil would learn well and constantly, even if for that she erroneously believed that she was enough to be with her student all the study time. Thus, one day after another, the sister would read the same page of a huge missal resting on a sturdy lectern on the other side of the small library, while Irene memorized texts related to the Genesis of the Old Testament, the letters to the Thessalonians or the life of some saint whom no one remembered anymore. In fact, everything was very different, because the student always thought about something else and the teacher fell asleep standing up, held by the pages of missal prayers and orders to celebrate them.

  A good day Sister Mary Second came willing to vary the daily routine.

  "Come here, daughter," she said to her disciple. “The first hour we will not dedicate it to the study. The time has come for you to learn the history of our convent.”

  "Whatever you want, sister," Irene said, submissive and theatrical, sitting next to the master nun.

  “Listen out. In the spring of the year of Our Lord in 1564, before the construction of the convent, disappear from the church of Squill river Hard-course, the adjoining town, the Blessed Virgin of all the Faithful Dead image disappeared. Two days later it was found in a bald spot in this pine forest. Just where is now the main door of the convent.” She paused. “Well more or less. The fact is that around the area they found a man who must have been a stranger, whom they accused of stealing the image and leaving it in the middle of the forest.”

  “And was he the culprit?” Irene asked curiously to know if there had been anyone capable of such nonsense.

  “Well, no. Anyway, something bad must have done, because he was burned alive.”

  “By the Holy, of course.”

  "Ther
e was no need for a faith act dictated by the Holy Inquisition, because the people of the town took it upon themselves to carry the poor man to the stake. They were those good people very devoted of our Holy Virgin and God fearing.”

  “Why do you say, «they were», sister?”

  “Because they are not so much anymore, my daughter... Luckily, the Holy Office watches over them so that they continue being” she gestured with her arms that did not express anything.

  "Then they killed him," Irene Lopezosa said, picking up the thread of the story.

  “Yes, daughter, they did. Even the then Grand Inquisitor, Father Honorato John Star Cariol, may God have in his glory, traveled from St. Josafar to publicly proclaim the good judgment of the residents of Hard-course and the great example of the well-understood Christianity that they gave to the rest of Gurracam.” The sister looked at the ceiling with some regret. “Then he recommended to burn no one again, because they should let their courts decipher with their usual exemplary justice who should be purified by fire... Sometimes, daughter, the Inquisition is handled by Our Lord in a mysterious way for the people.”

  “But he's never wrong, right?”

  “That is the only certainty and, also, the consolation that every good Christian must be clear... Especially in these times of heresies and barbarisms that we live. Finally, strangely, one day after the Grand Inquisitor left and the Virgin’s image was brought to the town, the man who had first seen the Most Holy in the forest died. The illness that ended with that countryman was unknown, but no less devastating. The following week the Virgin was discovered by a villager at the door of the church, as if she were leaving Mass," Sister Marie the Second said, who always told this story to a novice and could not help making things up that did not happen, if any of this really happened at all. “The image was returned to its site and the civilian died a few hours later. No one escaped that the face of suffering that the sculptor had put on the image seemed less terrible and painful when they found it in the forest and at the door of its temple; and there were already those who related the last deaths to the Virgin's findings in a place other than its stone pedestal.