“Again?” Claire asked.
“He’s clumsy, isn’t he?” Anna agreed, a teasing note in her voice as she kissed Claire’s forehead.
“Goodnight, Lovebug,” Anna whispered as she drew away.
Claire snuggled deeper into the covers as Anna crossed the room to flick off the light. Claire was going to love the new house and her new room, though Anna wasn’t completely sold on black bedroom walls just yet. She closed the door just in time to hear another thud from somewhere down the hallway. She flinched slightly at the noise. Her nerves still getting the better of her.
What the hell was Mike doing? Dealing with his aunt tomorrow was going to be hard enough without explaining any damaged property.
“Jesus, Mike, be careful,” She muttered to herself.
“What?”
Mike’s voice drifted up from the bottom of the stairs in the opposite direction that the thud seemed to have come from.
“Was that you?” Anna asked, leaning over the stairwell to look at him.
“Was what?”
“I thought I heard something fall.”
Mike just gave her a confused puppy look that Anna felt shouldn’t be as endearing as it was.
“Wasn’t me,” he said dismissively. “You coming to bed?”
Anna frowned. “Yeah, gimme a sec.”
She wanted to figure out what the noise had been.
Anna headed back into the spare room, wondering if it had been that box again. Sure enough, there it was, sitting in the middle of the floor. This time the only escapee had been the photograph of the nun. It had fluttered to the floor next to the box, face down. Anna approached the box with caution. She mentally scolded herself for being so jumpy, not sure if the move was putting her on edge or not. She picked up the fallen photograph, the edges of it almost unnaturally cool against her skin. The word “STAY” had been written on the back in large block letters. Anna used her free hand to rub at the goosebumps that had sprung up along her arm. She flipped it over and stared at the sad-eyed nun again.
She sighed heavily and put the photo back in the box before picking it up to replace on the shelf. This time she made sure to push it as far back as it would go. She just hadn’t put it back carefully enough the first time. That had to be the reason it had fallen again.
It was only as she made to leave and follow Mike to bed that she noticed the pull-ladder leading up into the attic was hanging down slightly. They had never kept anything in the attic, why would that be open? She peered up into the darkness overhead with no small amount of trepidation. Part of the reason they had never stored anything up there was how much Anna hated the attic. It might have been a little childish, but something about attics had always creeped her out. She hardly ever came into the spare room where the hatch was for that reason if she could avoid it. She licked at her lips, trying to get some moisture back into her suddenly dry mouth.
“Mike?” She yelled. “Mike, did you go into the attic for some reason?” She tried to keep her tone as even as possible.
No response.
It must have been Mike, Anna reasoned. It’s not like the hatch had opened itself. She physically shook herself. She was being silly. This move was really starting to get to her.
Anna huffed loudly and shut the ladder hatch with a small bang of her own. This day certainly felt like it was trying to last forever. She was ready to shower and crawl into bed. She was so done with this house. Anna headed out of the spare room and down the hall.
Behind her, the attic hatch slowly dropped open again.
Anna spat out the remains of her toothpaste in the bathroom sink and rolled her head to relieve some of the lingering tension in her neck. A good hot shower was sometimes all that was needed to put the stress of the day behind her. She tossed her toothbrush in the open suitcase on the floor before deciding to do one last check of the medicine cabinets.
She opened Mike’s first, discovered his hair brush, and tossed it into the suitcase as well with an amused noise. His hair was short enough that she supposed hair brushes weren’t quite as high a priority on the Do Not Forget List. She opened hers next. A tube of face cream and a nearly empty bottle of lotion were also summarily tossed into the suitcase.
Tucked away in the very back corner of the cabinet, Anna found an old bottle of narcotic painkillers. She looked at them with a deep frown. She didn’t remember them and didn’t know why they were there. They shouldn’t be there. She had been very careful to avoid temptation since rehab, removing anything from the house stronger than basic acetaminophen tablets.
She turned the bottle over in her hands and chewed on her bottom lip, considering. It was impossible not to think of the bliss that could be found in that bottle. The little white pills had been a perfect escape from the pressures of life. Today had been long and frankly awful. She shook the bottle, the pills clattering inside. A familiar music to Anna. The thought of unwinding, letting go of all of her worries for just a little while, was a sweet siren song in the back of her mind. She ran her fingertips along the ridged sides of the pill cap in something that was almost a caress.
Unnoticed, the word “STAY” slowly etched itself into the foggy glass of the mirror behind her.
Anna flushed angrily as she realized where her thoughts had gone. She wasn’t that person anymore. She moved over to the toilet and yanked up the lid, twisting the pill-cap off harshly. She dumped the entire contents of the bottle into the toilet and depressed the flusher. She shut the lid decisively and tossed the empty bottle away in the trash. It might have felt good for a while, but Anna knew exactly how high the price for that pleasure could be. Her past had no place in the new future she was building.
The bathroom door swung open and Anna turned to face Mike. She found herself immediately trying not to laugh, her earlier thoughts vanishing at the image Mike was currently presenting. Her wonderfully silly husband stood there in boxers and a t-shirt, a rose clamped between his teeth, and a rather hilarious impersonation of a “come-hither” expression on his face. God, she loved that man.
Anna arched an eyebrow at him. “What’s this?”
“I’ve found a way to repay you,” Mike said in the sultriest voice he could manage with a rose-stem in his mouth.
Anna chuckled even as she allowed him to lead her into the bedroom.
Later, Anna cuddled up against her husband, tracing idle patterns on his chest.
“Claire is so excited for tomorrow,” Mike murmured contentedly.
Anna walked her fingers up his chest as she made a non-commital noise.
“She is, but I’m still not sold on the whole private school thing.”
Mike nipped at her fingers as they came too close to his mouth, drawing a laugh and reproachful look from her.
“What’s wrong with private school?” He protested.
“Private school is like, second place awkward to homeschool,” she replied.
“I went to private school!”
“And look at you, you’re a mess,” Anna teased.
Mike chuckled and pressed a kiss to her hair.
“It’s not too late to change your mind,” he said more seriously.
Anna shook her head. “Nah, their gifted program is supposed to be amazing. She’ll get the attention she deserves.”
“I still think you should have gone to a gifted school.”
“As if,” Anna scoffed. “Claire didn’t get her brains from me.”
“Well, she sure as hell didn’t get them from her dad,” Mike commented thoughtlessly.
Anna swallowed hard and went tense against him. Claire definitely didn’t get her brains from Lex, that was true.
“I’m sorry,” Mike said, suddenly apologetic. “I didn’t mean to bring him up.”
“Actually,” she said carefully. “It’s interesting you mention him.”
She needed to tell Mike that he was calling again. Anna knew that Lex could become a serious problem again a
ll too easily.
“He’s not calling again, is he?” Mike looked at her sharply.
She could feel the sudden tension and alarm radiating from him, Anna immediately backpedaling in her own thoughts.
“No, no, nothing like that,” she assured him, albeit untruthfully.
She could handle Lex. Mike was doing enough for her, he didn’t need the added worry.
“The move was just reminding me of him and all that shit with the divorce and going to rehab,” Anna continued. “I’m realizing how far I’ve come.”
“That’s good, right?”
“Of course it is! It’s just hard to stop associating yourself with all that sometimes.” She added, quieter.
Mike drew her in closer to his side and pressed another kiss to her head. Anna could only think about how lucky she was to have him. Sometimes it didn’t even seem real, to have found someone who cared for her as much as Mike.
“All you need to worry about now is moving past all of that,” he said softly.
Anna smiled to herself and chuckled.
“Maybe I should go blonde then.”
She could feel the rumble of Mike’s laugh under where her head was pillowed.
“Be my trophy wife?” He flashed her a teasing grin.
“I think on the inside, I’ve always been blonde.”
“Oh totally,” Mike agreed. “Very, very, very dark blonde.”
Anna laughed and lightly whacked him on the chest even as she snuggled closer. Tomorrow everything is going to change, she thought as she drifted off.
The darkness of the room obscured the figure that watched them from the doorway.
Chapter 3:
The next day dawned bright and sunny, the morning sky a pure, crystalline blue with only a few fluffy white clouds drifting lazily overhead. Anna checked over the last few boxes that had been loaded into the moving van. She couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful morning to start the next chapter of her life on. Mike walked out of the house, dressed for work in pale blue medical scrubs. She smiled at the sight of him and whistled her appreciation of the uniform.
Mike did a mock runway twirl. “Like the scrubs?”
“Totally, you have that hunky medical show vibe going for you.”
Anna tugged him close by the back of the neck to kiss him goodbye. “Get to work, those wisdom teeth aren’t going to pull themselves.”
“They’d better not,” he agreed. “See you at the new house at six?”
“Yep, I’ll drive the moving truck.”
“Perfect.” He pulled back a little to get a better look at her. “You ready for Aunt Donna?”
Anna rolled her eyes. No one was ever really ready for Aunt Donna, but she could handle it.
“Oh yeah,” she replied. “I’ve got my gun in my purse if she gets too feisty.”
The gun, of course, was more out of concern about Lex showing up than anything Aunt Donna could possibly do, but the comment got an amused head shake from Mike.
Claire dashed out of the house moments later, dressed for the first day of her new school. She practically flung herself into Mike’s car in her obvious excitement. Anna smiled widely as she followed. She crouched down to help buckle Claire in, not because her daughter really needed the help anymore, but just to feel a few extra moments of closeness on such a big day for her little girl.
“Look at you,” she murmured. “Excited?”
“Yeah!” Claire declared enthusiastically.
“Don’t be shy,” Anna reminded her.
She was still so worried about how Claire would adjust to such a huge change once she was there, no matter how excited she seemed at the moment.
“I know,” Claire rolled her eyes.
“The last thing she has to worry about is being shy,” Mike remarked, coming up behind Anna and laying a hand on her shoulder.
“You certainly didn’t get that from me,” Anna said wryly.
She kissed Claire noisily on her cheek and stood back up. So much was about to change for them, and a part of Anna could still hardly believe this was her life. Her own home, a sweet, kind man with a good job, her daughter off to a prestigious private school. It didn’t make sense that all this goodness could be waiting around the corner for an ex-addict with an attitude problem. But Claire looked so happy, so excited, and Anna knew that whatever else she may feel, her daughter deserved to have this chance. Maybe that was enough, Anna thought, unable to stop her eyes from welling up at the cocktail of emotions going through her at that moment.
Mike noticed her distress; of course he did. He came up and wrapped his arms around her.
“Private school isn’t that bad,” he teased, trying to deflect some of her roiling emotions.
Anna gave him a reluctant sort of smirk.
“I’m alright.” She tried to adopt a reassuring look.
“You sure?”
She nodded and offered him a slightly less conflicted smile.
“You deserve this, Anna,” Mike said seriously, seeing right to the heart of the matter in that perceptive way that still surprised her sometimes.
She swallowed. “I don’t know if—”
“Anna, look at me.”
Gentle fingers tilted her chin up and she looked at him through tear-blurred eyes.
“You’ve worked so hard for all of this. And tonight, we are going to lay down in our bed in our amazing new house and have amazing S-E-X, and you are going to deserve all of it.” Mike said steadily.
Anna looked away, unable to cope with the sincerity in his eyes and huffed out a reluctantly amused breath.
“Okay?” Mike pressed.
“Okay, but…” Anna dropped her voice to a whisper and glanced at Claire in the car, “she can spell.”
“Oh S-H-I-T,” Mike whispered back, prompting a real laugh out of her.
Anna pulled him in for one last kiss before gently shoving him away.
“To work with you,” she said.
Anna leaned against the kitchen counter later that morning. She had just completed her final walkthrough, having checked each room to ensure there were no overlooked items and no damages for Aunt Donna to hold against them. God knew that woman would certainly try to find anything she could.
Anna pulled her phone out again, her thumb poised above the contact reading “LEX.” She swallowed hard and hit the “CALL” icon. The phone rang once, twice, before guilt and shame made her quickly hang up. She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself and sort through the mess inside her head.
SLAM!
The cupboard doors in front of her violently exploded open, plates leaping off of the shelves to plummet to their death. Anna screamed.
She stood there for a few moments, too stunned to move as she feverishly tried to process what had just happened. She trembled slightly. Her mind groped desperately for an explanation. Had there been an earthquake? Nothing else had seemed to move, but there hadn’t been a lot on the counters left to really judge. She bent down, shaking slightly, to examine the broken heap on the floor. Anna had been so sure that she’d packed these already. She must have delegated it to Mike and he’d forgotten. Right?
The only semi-rational thought she could conjure at the moment was that Aunt Donna was going to kill her if the floor was scuffed. She grabbed a trash bag and started to hastily clean up the remains. As she picked up one of the larger pieces she noticed the letter “S” carved harshly into the hardwood floor.
Oh no. She brushed aside a few more pieces to uncover a single word: “STAY”.
She jumped a second time at the sudden chime of the doorbell, eyes snapping up at the sound, her heart pumping with another shot of adrenaline. When she looked back down again the word had vanished, the deeply etched letters gone as if they had never been there at all. She sifted through the pile in confusion, but the floor beneath was unmarked and smooth.
Anna shivered. Seeing things was not a good sign, especially b
ecause she wasn’t even on anything. Was she somehow relapsing?
The doorbell rang again, more insistently.
The stress was apparently getting to her more than she had realized. It had to be the stress. She’d be fine once this move was over. Anna licked at her lips in uncertainty, then pushed herself back up to a standing position. She would really never hear the end of it if she didn’t let Donna in soon.
Anna hurried to the door, trying to put the kitchen event out of her mind in favor of dealing with the very real threat of Aunt Donna. She plastered the most sincerely welcoming smile she could manage on her face and opened the door.
Donna stood on the doorstep, dressed in designer clothes and draped with more jewelry than Anna could afford to buy from a year’s wages. She privately thought it tacky, but Donna’s favorite pastime was flaunting her own wealth. A pair of dark sunglasses hid her judgemental eyes as Donna flipped through a large key ring containing a true multitude of keys. What could she possibly need that many keys for?
“Oh good, there you are!” Donna exclaimed, looking up. “I can never find the right key.”
No wonder, Anna thought to herself.
“I’m Donna Winslow, Michael’s aunt,” Donna continued, thrusting out her hand for Anna to shake.
Anna raised an eyebrow. “We’ve met. Many times.”
Apparently, it was going to be “pretend you are a total stranger” with Donna this time. Anna mentally shrugged. It could be worse.
“I’m here to inspect the house before you go.”
Anna bit back a sarcastic, “really? I thought you were here for tea” through a monumental effort of will.
“Sure,” she said, trying for amiable instead. “I just need to—”
Donna pushed past her and walked inside, apparently completely indifferent to anything Anna had to say.
“I’m in a hurry; I left my dog in the car,” Donna said.
Anna had zero problems with that. In and out again was just fine by her. The least amount of time in Donna’s presence the better.
“Oh, Okay,” she said, hovering awkwardly a few steps behind the other woman. “Can you start upstairs?”
Curse of the Nun Page 3
