Curse of the Nun

by Kathryn Dahne

  Anna winced, awkwardly pushing herself into a sitting position without the aid of her injured wrist. She looked around the living room, desperately searching for KK.

  He was gone.

  So was his equipment.

  “KK? KK!” Anna shouted.

  A muffled thump came from overhead, where Claire’s room had been.

  “Anna!” KK shouted.

  His voice was muted by distance. He had to be upstairs somehow. Anna struggled into a standing position. She retrieved the pendant from the floor. She didn’t know if it would come in handy again or not, but she wanted it with her just in case. She cradled her injured wrist close to her body and headed upstairs to search for KK.

  Chapter 8:

  Anna walked silently through the open door into Claire’s room and stopped dead in her tracks. KK was nowhere to be seen, but the room was not empty. Mike and Lex sat on the bed, facing away from Anna and talking quietly to each other. Anna sucked in a breath. This was another hallucination, she told herself.

  It had to be.

  “I should have done something,” Mike whispered brokenly.

  Lex half-shrugged in response. “It was her own fault.”

  “She was always so scared of relapsing,” Mike said.

  “There was nothing you could have done.”

  Mike looked over at Lex. “What about Claire?”

  “What about her?”

  “She’s your daughter.”

  Lex snorted.

  “Doesn’t feel like it,” he said bluntly. “I haven’t seen her since the split.”

  “Anna kept you away with that restraining order,” Mike said sympathetically.

  “And I resent her for that,” Lex replied.

  “I don’t blame you.”

  “He was dangerous!” Anna blurted out, unable to help herself.

  Lex turned to look at her, something inhuman in the set of his face. Anna froze, her heart racing rabbit fast.

  “So were you,” he said, his voice twisting into that demonic tone.

  Both Lex and Mike turned fully to look at her.

  “I didn’t do anything to you!”

  She hadn’t. It was Lex who had tried to hurt her. She had no choice but to leave him.

  “Then why are you so guilty?” Lex taunted.

  “I…” Anna stuttered, not expecting the question.

  Mike chimed in, “she never could get past it.”

  Anna turned to look at him in disbelief. How could he side with Lex against her?

  “Do you still love me?” Lex asked, standing up and starting to advance on Anna.

  She tried to form words, but she couldn’t seem to force them out of her throat. Her eyes flicked desperately between him and Mike.

  “Mike…I,” she forced out.

  Mike looked at her with a horrified expression

  “Oh my God! After everything he did to you?”

  Of course Anna didn’t still love Lex, not like that. She cared for him, that could never fully go away. He’d been Anna’s shelter once upon a time. Mike understood that, he always had before. She just needed to say something to reassure him. She backed up a step.

  Why wouldn’t the words come out?

  “Mike, please…”

  “He stabbed you, Anna!” Mike shouted at her.

  “Come here,” Lex whispered, stepping closer.

  Anna backed up further. Lex made a grab for her wrist as she tried to escape back out the bedroom door.

  “Stay with me, Anna.” Lex said.

  Anna shook him off and bolted for the door, only to find herself running back into the room from the closet.

  She stumbled to a confused halt. Mike and Lex were gone. Anna looked across at the open bedroom door. She dashed forward, flinging herself through it, only to come through the closet door and back into the bedroom once more. Anna moved over to the windows, frantically tugging on them.

  “KK!” She shouted in desperation.

  Anna heard a soft sniffle behind her. She turned back to look at the bed and saw a shape was curled up beneath the covers. It was her daughter crying quietly.

  “God…Tell my mom that I love her and miss her,” Claire said under the blanket.

  Anna walked over to the bed, trembling.

  “Tell her that I love my new school, and that I am skipping fifth grade,” Claire continued.

  Anna reached out to grab the blanket.

  “Ask her if what she did was an accident.”

  Remembering the game of hide-and-seek, Anna braced herself for anything as she threw the covers back.

  Claire, curled up on her side, looked up at her with a startled expression. Her hands unfolded from their prayer position as she launched herself at her mother.

  “Mommy?!” Claire cried.

  “Oh, honey,” Anna cooed, sweeping Claire up in a teary hug.

  “What are you doing here?” Anna asked.

  Claire pulled away to look at her.

  “What do you mean?”

  “In Aunt Donna’s house!”

  “We moved back,” Claire said sadly. “Dad couldn’t afford the new house without you.”

  Anna smoothed the hair away from Claire’s face with a confused frown.

  “Without me, baby? I’m right here.”

  “Are you a ghost?” Claire asked suddenly.

  Anna drew back in surprise.

  “What? Of course not. Why would you ask me that?”

  “Momma, you died.”

  Anna closed her eyes, flashes of memory assaulting her all at once. A bottle of pills in the bathroom. She’d swallowed them all down. Choking slightly as she worked to move them down her throat.

  “No…” Anna begged.

  “You didn’t come to the new house,” Claire said. “I found you in the hallway.”

  Anna could see herself in the hallway. Her body contorted as she seized in her overdose. A trail of vomit down her chin. Claire sat by her side, sobbing in fear.

  “Am…am I dead?” Anna whispered.

  She opened her eyes to look at her beautiful daughter.

  Claire nodded sadly. “Yeah…but Dad said ghosts aren’t real.”

  Anna pulled Claire tight against her again. If only, Anna thought bitterly. If only.

  “He’s wrong, baby, he’s so wrong.”

  The closed door swung open with an ominous creak of hinges. Anna looked up. Sister Catherine stood inside, watching her with a cold expression on her inhuman face.

  “She wants you to go with her,” Claire said suddenly.

  Anna pulled away from the hug, alarmed.

  “What?”

  “Your Guardian Angel, Sister Catherine. She says you won’t go.”

  Anna glared at the nun as she stepped out of the closet. Anna wasn’t going to go. Nothing could make her leave her daughter.

  “Stay with me, Momma,” Claire begged.

  “Shhh. I’m not going anywhere baby. I’m staying right here.”

  Anna turned back to look at her daughter just as Claire brought the silver crucifix down on her, impaling it between her neck and shoulder with a wet squelch. She howled, pain singing through every nerve in her body like fire as she dropped to the floor. She writhed there, agony overriding any ability to do more than scream for long moments.

  Anna sucked in shallow breaths through her teeth as she fought to regain control of her limbs enough to force herself back to her feet. The room was empty once more: no sign of Sister Catherine, or Claire. Anna limped towards the open bedroom door, this time crossing the threshold without incident. She made her way to the bathroom, the silver crucifix still embedded in her flesh.

  Chapter 9:

  Anna stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror as she bit down hard on a towel. She looked pale, her pupils dilated from pain and panic in equal measure. Her clothes had become tacky with blood, though the dark material hid the true extent of her seepin
g wound. The crucifix moved with every shallow breath she took, each one causing another small jolt of pain to race along her nerves.

  Anna wrapped her good hand around it and clenched her teeth tighter against the towel.

  One…two…three…she thought.

  She yanked hard, wrenching the cross out of her neck. Pain flared in its wake, followed by the hot, wet feeling of fresh blood gushing up out of the puncture. Anna let the crucifix clatter into the sink as she reached for the bandage she’d pulled from the medicine cabinet. She wrapped the wound as best she was able to staunch the upwelling of blood.

  “Nice try, you bitch,” Anna snarled.

  Knock, knock, knock!

  Anna looked up. Someone pounded hard on the ceiling above her.

  “Anna? Is that you?” KK’s voice filtered down to her.

  “KK? Where are you?”

  “In the attic!” KK shouted.

  “Stay there, I’m coming up.”

  Anna grabbed the crucifix from the sink and headed out of the bathroom. This time she wasn’t going to leave it behind for Sister Catherine to use again.

  Anna ducked into the spare room. The lingering childhood fear of the attic didn’t seem so foolish now. Her heart raced; she could feel every beat of it in her wound. Her hand slid along the wall, groping for the light-switch. Her hand was shaking so badly she almost didn’t realize it when her fingers finally found it. She fumbled with the switch a few times, flicking it up and down rapidly, but the lights refused to turn on.

  Unlike her irrational childhood fear, this time Anna knew there was something to be feared in the darkness and the attic above.

  She inhaled and exhaled slowly before cautiously stepping into the dim room. There was some ambient light drifting in from the hall, but she still made her way over to the pull-hatch for the ladder mostly by touch and memory. Anna tugged it down and looked up into the tiny entryway to the attic.

  “KK?” She called out, hoping she didn’t sound as terrified as she felt.

  “Up here!” he replied, sounding much closer.

  Anna clutched the crucifix tighter and started to climb the stairs. She hoped it really was KK up there this time. Not that she had found any way of telling. Everything felt so real.

  A light was on somewhere in the depths of the attic.

  Anna peered over the line of the floor and spotted KK sitting against a pile of boxes, a bare light bulb swinging from its cord above him. His equipment was sprawled around him and he was clutching at his leg. It bore a nasty looking gash that bled sluggishly, visible through a tear in his jeans. He didn’t look like he’d had a much better time of it than Anna since they had been separated. He still did his best to smile at her as she climbed up.

  “‘Sup?” he said, irreverently.

  Anna chuckled, relief at seeing him more potent that she expected.

  “How’d you get in here?” She asked.

  He shrugged helplessly.

  “I have no idea. I woke up here after you used the pentacle.”

  “My bad,” Anna replied.

  She moved aside the EMF meter and settled down next to him.

  “Yeah, your bad,” he agreed with a small smile.

  “You okay?”

  “My leg’s a little chewed up,” KK said.

  “What happened?”

  “It was a hallucination. I could have sworn I saw my mom.”

  “Those visions are too real,” Anna agreed fervently.

  “They are. I’ve never had one that vivid before,” KK admitted.

  “Hopefully she’s starting to run out of energy,” Anna replied.

  The EMF meter let out a soft beep and the reading spiked.

  “Anna…”

  They shared fearful looks before turning to the still open ladder-hatch. The atmosphere of the attic grew more oppressive. The small room was windowless, lit only by the bulb above KK’s head. The air suddenly felt too thick, like molasses in Anna’s lungs. The ladder groaned with the weight of someone climbing up it. A sharp sound that got a little louder with each successive rung. KK and Anna pressed themselves tight against the wall behind them. The top of Catherine’s habit breached the portal into the attic space itself.

  Anna bit her lip harshly to keep herself silent. She could feel KK trembling next to her. Catherine’s head and shoulders appeared through the hatch as she climbed into the attic. Black eyes glinted, shark-like, in the reflected glow from the bulb.

  The light above them grew in intensity before the bulb died with a sharp pop! The trapdoor snapped shut and the room was engulfed in total darkness.

  There was something about being robbed of sight, of losing that most basic human sense, that sent Anna’s panic into overdrive. Anna could feel herself starting to hyperventilate as the fear rose fast in her. She couldn’t see anything. Not Sister Catherine, not even KK who should have been sitting right next to her.

  “Don’t move,” she heard him whisper.

  Anna could feel someone kneel down next to her, their knees cracking in the blackness.

  “Stay with me, Anna,” Sister Catherine whispered, too close to Anna.

  Anna swallowed hard but said nothing.

  “I can hear everything in this house. I know you can hear me…I can hear you both right now.”

  Anna heard what sounded like someone standing up and walking away. Had Catherine moved off? Or KK? She strained to hear anything else in the darkness. Nothing. Not even the ragged whispers of her own breath seemed to reach her ears. The silence stretched the air taut with something crueler than anticipation.

  KK’s agonized scream shattered the stillness.

  She froze up, every muscle in her body locked tight. She was too afraid to even reach out in the darkness to find him, sure she would only find Sister Catherine’s frigid fingers instead. She remembered on a visceral level what had happened every time she slipped up and let the nun get her hands on her. She didn’t want to go through that again.

  From across the room she heard KK’s frightened voice. “Help.”

  “Oh God,” Anna whimpered.

  How had he gotten so far away? It must have been him earlier she had heard. He’d gotten up to get away from Catherine and left her behind.

  “She’s lying, Anna! I’m right here.” KK’s voice said right next to her.

  “I’m over here! Help!” He called from across the room again.

  “Touch me if you are okay,” Anna whispered to the voice next to her.

  She wasn’t sure if that would prove anything but she didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know which voice to trust. She braced herself for feeling the nun’s grave-cold grasp instead of KK.

  “I can’t see you!” KK hissed next to her.

  “Anna, please! Help! I can’t breathe!” Shouted KK across the attic.

  She could hear him coughing wetly, his breaths labored and harsh.

  “Help…me,” KK choked out across the room.

  Anna knew she couldn’t just abandon him if he was in trouble. He had come into the house when he didn’t have to, to try and help her. She wasn’t going to betray that by ignoring him. She stood up and made her way over to the hatch. She needed light. She needed to be able to see. Then she would stand a better chance of figuring out the truth.

  She took a shaky step in what she hoped was the right direction. She’d lost all sense of her surroundings in the dark. The previously claustrophobic attic now seemed endless.

  “I’m opening the door,” she called out to him.

  “No!” One of the KK voices shouted.

  “Anna,” the other cried desperately.

  Anna took another determined step towards where she believed the hatch was. Something collided with her in the blackness.

  White hot pain exploded across her abdomen. Anna dropped to her knees, a noise of suffering ripped from her throat. She tried to suck in air, but each inhale pulled on her stomach, sending a fresh
wave of agony through her.

  Light suddenly flooded the room again. KK was crouched in front of her, unharmed. He’d managed to pull the ladder hatch open again. Anna looked down to see the silver crucifix stabbed into her gut.

  “Oh my God, Anna,” KK reached out and pulled her up.

  Anna clung to him, her fingers clenched tightly in his shirt as they stumbled down the stairs and out of the attic.

  Chapter 10:

  KK set her down in the large tub. Anna shivered, she felt so cold. The pain was still there, but it felt distant. KK grabbed a heap of towels and pressed them to the wound around the crucifix.

  “Keep pressure on it,” KK said.

  Anna obediently pressed down on the towels. She couldn’t really feel the pressure the way she knew she should. It wasn’t a good sign.

  KK frantically combed through the medicine cabinets looking for bandages. Anna could only stare at the crucifix, which shivered with each of her stuttered inhales. She lifted one hand off of the towels and reached for it. KK caught the motion from the corner of his eye.

  “No!” He admonished. “Leave it in there or you’ll bleed out.”

  The whole world was a little fuzzy at the edges already. Anna didn’t think it would make much difference. She closed her eyes and thought about all the things she would never see again. Claire’s face entered her mind. She was never going to know how her first day at the new school had gone. Would never get to watch Claire decorate her own bedroom. She thought about Mike, living in the new house without her. Wondering why she had never shown up. His face when he learned she never would. Tears slid hot and wet down her face.

  “I’m not gonna make it,” she said weakly.

  KK made an unhappy noise of protest in the back of his throat and moved next to the tub to hold her hand. His hound brown eyes were sad and lost, but there was a determined set to his mouth. A single tell of the stubbornness his outward appearance belied.

  “Yes, you are, Anna. Hang in there!” KK demanded. “Just keep talking, stay with me.”

  Anna forced out a smile for his benefit. She wished she had half his conviction right now.

  “I’ve lived through a lot of shit, but killer nun wasn’t how I was expecting to go,” she admitted wryly.