“I know it’s you,” Sister Catherine rasped.
KK heard her begin to climb up the ladder and went weak with relief. She hadn’t sensed where he was. He’d been so afraid that he’d given himself away without even trying.
“I heard you in here.”
KK peaked out from behind the boxes to watch the trailing end of her habit disappear into the attic. It had worked. He tiptoed over to the door and slowly turned the knob as silently as he was able. He looked over his shoulder as he pulled it open, to check that she had not come back down the ladder yet. All clear. He turned back to the doorway.
Sister Catherine grabbed him ruthlessly by the throat.
She wrenched him high into the air, KK coughing and spluttering in her hold.
“What the hell do you think you are doing?” she hissed at him. “It’s time you kept your promise.”
KK whimpered.
“I can’t,” he choked out.
Sister Catherine tightened her grip on his throat and KK wheezed.
“You disobeyed me,” she growled.
KK continued to claw futilely at her hands.
“It’s time to keep your promise.”
KK let himself go limp in her grip.
“Okay, okay,” he said, utterly defeated.
Sister Catherine dropped him to the floor. KK lay there, rubbing at his throat, despair in every line of his face. Catherine smiled down at him cruelly.
“Good. Thank you, Kenneth.”
I’m so sorry, Anna, he thought weakly. He had tried.
Chapter 17:
Anna stood a few paces back from the door separating the garage from the rest of the house. She had her left arm curled defensively around her stomach with her right hand curled tightly about the handle of the sledgehammer. The door creaked open and Anna let out a sigh of relief as KK’s baseball hatted head peered around it. He slid into the garage and shut the door behind him. He looked as worn down as Anna felt. She was so happy to see that he was alright.
“Oh, thank God. Now follow me.” Anna walked over to him. “Let’s go.”
KK smiled sadly at her and shook his head. “I’m sorry, Anna.”
Anna frowned. “Don’t be, let’s go.”
He didn’t move, just looked at her with tortured eyes.
“KK, move!”
KK kicked her hard in the stomach. The sledgehammer slipped out of her grasp as she was sent sprawling to the floor. Pain flared like molten metal poured over her nerves. Anna’s vision went spotty as she tried to work out what was happening. This wasn’t the real KK. It was another of Sister Catherine’s illusions. It had to be, right? Anna hadn’t though the nun would have enough energy left to do that still.
“I don’t want to do this,” KK walked over to her. “I really don’t, but it’s my only option.”
Anna struggled back to her feet, clutching at her stomach. She reached for the sledgehammer, but KK snatched it away before her fingers could gain purchase on it. She could see genuine regret in his eyes. Her heart sank. This wasn’t an illusion.
“KK, why?”
“Anna, I’ve been dead for three years.” KK swung the hammer hard at her.
Anna stumbled back just in time to avoid the hit from connecting.
“Catherine’s too powerful. She’s been holding me hostage until I help her kill her replacement.”
Anna licked at her lips, tasting the salt of her tears there. “Please, KK, don’t do this.”
His foot snapped out, catching Anna in the stomach again. She crumpled with a cry of agony.
“I tried to save us both,” KK continued, pain in his words. “If we got rid of Sister Catherine, we would both be free.”
Anna stared up at him from her prone position, crying in earnest now. “It’s not too late, Kk, we can still do this!”
He swung the sledgehammer again. The strike landed true on her left leg. There was a sharp crack as pain shot up her leg, curling through her hip and into her spine. She screamed.
“We don’t stand a chance against her. I thought we did, but I was wrong.”
“KK Stop!”
Anna rolled just in time to dodge the blow aimed at her head. She used the wall to drag herself back upright. Putting weight on her leg was agony, but she didn’t have another option if she wanted to survive. She wasn’t sure how to get through to KK, even if his eyes told her that it was costing him everything to do this.
KK had backed her into the far corner of the garage. She was trapped.
“I’m sorry, Anna. I really am.”
He raised the hammer as high as he could and swung it at Anna’s head with all his might.
Anna ducked at the last possible second. She could even the feel the soft brush of air from the hammer’s passage sweep across the top of her head.
Too close.
The momentum of the swing had overbalanced KK and he lost control of the hammer as he attempted to correct for another swing. It dropped to the ground with a clatter. Anna dove after it, snatching it up before KK could recover.
She swung it wildly at him. The head of the sledgehammer caught KK full in the face. He crumpled to the ground with an abrupt cry of surprise and lay there, unmoving. Anna stepped closer to him cautiously, the hammer still clutched in her fist. She reached out one hand to touch KK’s shoulder, but pulled it back hastily as his form dissolved away like smoke.
Anna didn’t have time to mourn for him, even if her heart felt as battered as her body.
She limped out of the garage, dragging the sledgehammer behind her.
Anna made it into the kitchen on the dregs of adrenaline and her own stubbornness, but she’d lost too much blood to continue any further. Her uninjured leg trembled, barely holding underneath her. Her breathing had become shallow and wet. She struggled with the weight of the hammer for a few moments, her arms shaking, before she gave up. It crashed down to the hardwood, punching a hole through the expensive flooring.
Anna looked at the hole and smiled suddenly, a second wind of energy surging through her veins. She grabbed up the hammer again and began punching the hole wider. With each swing the hole grew, revealing more of the crawl space beneath the house.
“Anna,” Sister Catherine’s voice came from nearby.
Anna didn’t look up. She kept swinging at the floor.
“Anna!”
She looked up. Sister Catherine stood in the doorway. Full pieces of her face and body were gone now, crumbled away like some ancient weathered statue. Both of her wrists were flayed open to the bone. Anna remembered the second photo KK had shown her, of Sister Catherine’s corpse in a tub, wrists slashed and the crucifix on her chest.
“Why did you do it, Sister?”
Even at her lowest, Anna had never actually wanted to die.
“My life, like yours, wasn’t worth living. My demons would only stop haunting me after death.”
Anna bit back a few choice words she wanted to say in response.
“Father Don,” Catherine continued, “said I would go to Hell if I killed myself, but I didn’t care. Then I was blessed with the chance to protect this land and prove myself to God. I want you to have the same opportunity.”
It wasn’t much of an opportunity in Anna’s estimation.
“Are you at peace?” She asked, looking at the crumbling visage of the nun.
Catherine smiled with what was left of her mouth. “I will be soon.”
She levitated up off of the ground, filling the doorway in its entirety.
“You will be, too.” Catherine added.
Don’t think so, Anna thought, dropping the hammer and reaching into her pocket. Sister Catherine swooped down at her. Anna raised the pentacle pendant up in front of her face. Catherine collapsed to the ground, screaming in fury.
Anna wasted no time in dropping down into the hole she had made. She cried out in pain as she landed hard on her damaged leg. The crawl space was cramped an
d dusty, and Anna found herself forced to army-crawl forward on her belly.
A banshee shriek echoed from behind. Anna glanced behind her. Nothing. She turned back to find herself face to face with Sister Catherine’s decrepit visage in the gloom. Anna screamed and Sister Catherine scuttled away into the darkness.
Ahead of her she could see a dim light. She pushed herself toward it despite the agony wracking her body. Her breath came in hitching sobs as the wound in her gut dragged painfully against the ground.
Hands wrapped tight about her ankles. Anna looked back to see KK. He had started to crumble and rot the same way as Sister Catherine. Anna whimpered a little as she kicked him hard in the face. She wasn’t going to share his fate. She was getting out of here. Alive.
She kept crawling.
More hands were spun out of the darkness, grabbing at anything they could reach. They tried to drag her back. Anna snarled defiantly at them, refusing to give ground. Slowly, she inched her way towards the light drifting through the vent panel.
For KK! Another precious few inches further.
For Mike! Further still.
For Claire! The panel was almost in reach.
For herself, because she deserved the life that was waiting for her.
Hands grabbed at her face and Anna shook violently to dislodge them.
“Stay with me!” Sister Catherine cried.
Anna reached out and grasped the edges of the large access vent panel, tugging it loose. The sunset streamed inside, red-gold and so beautiful.
“Stay where you will no longer be haunted by your demons. Where there is no addiction. No heartbreak. No abuse. These things are what being human is.”
Then Sister Catherine was as human as they came, Anna thought bitterly. She screamed as she pulled herself through the opening and half-outside onto the lawn. Anna rolled on to her back to look behind her.
Sister Catherine still clutched at Anna’s ankles, but she looked weak. She was fading.
“Leave it behind, Anna,” Catherine begged her. “Don’t do this to yourself.”
Anna wrenched her legs free, scrambling back on her elbows fully out onto the lawn.
Sister Catherine hissed and vanished back into the darkness. Anna let her head fall back on the grass, staring up at the orange-hued clouds. She had made it.
She was out.
Her wounds throbbed, reminding her that while she might have escaped the house, she wasn’t out of the woods just yet. Anna whined like a beaten dog as she clambered back to her feet. She needed medical help, and fast. She limped over to the moving truck, hauling herself up into the driver’s seat with no amount of grace. She settled herself in the seat, grateful that it hadn’t been her right leg that KK had smashed with the sledgehammer. She turned the key, the engine roaring to life. Anna pulled out of the driveway and headed into the larger neighborhood.
She drove slowly, pain and blood loss making her head swim with every minor lurch of the truck. Out the window Anna smiled as she saw life continuing on, undisturbed, for others. A family played in their front yard; a father and mother playing catch with twin boys. An elderly couple sat on their front porch, sipping tea as they watched the sunset.
Mike drove past, heading towards the rental house with a worried expression.
“Shit!” Anna swore.
She slammed on the breaks, the tires on the ungainly moving truck screeching as it came to a halt. Anna laid on the horn, trying to throw the truck in reverse at the same time. She had to get Mike’s attention.
Mike drove on, heedless.
Chapter 18:
Mike parked his car in the driveway of the rental house and hurriedly opened the door. When Anna hadn’t come home right at six he hadn’t been concerned. He knew what his Aunt Donna was like, and wouldn’t be overly surprised at her dragging things out simply because she had no concept that the rest of the world didn’t revolve around her schedule.
When sixty-thirty had come and gone with no sign of Anna, Mike felt the first stirrings of concern. He called her, of course, but the call had gone straight to voicemail. As six-thirty changed into seven, then on towards eight, Mike moved past concern and straight into panic. He left Claire with their new neighbor, a work colleague of his who had babysat for them before, and hurried over to the rental.
“Anna?” he called out.
He tried the front door. Locked. He tugged the handle a few times more just for good measure before giving up and pounding on the front door.
“Anna!”
The door opened. Mike was taken aback by the young man who greeted him instead of his wife.
“Hi,” Mike said in a deceptively friendly tone. “Who are you?”
The young man smiled brightly at him from beneath his worn baseball cap.
“Kenneth. I’m a friend of Donna’s.”
“Have you seen my wife, Anna? She was supposed to meet me two hours ago.” Mike tried to peer around into the house to see if he could spot any sign of Anna.
Something about the young man was rubbing him the wrong way.
“Is that Donna’s daughter?”
“No,” Mike said shortly.
The kid shrugged. “Why don’t you come inside and we’ll figure it out?”
Mike was fully prepared to do just that, when the moving truck came barreling up the driveway, horn blaring. He recognized Anna behind the wheel and breathed a sigh of relief.
“There she is!”
His relief was short lived. Anna almost fell out of the moving truck, and even at a distance Mike could see she was covered in blood.
“Oh my God! Anna!” As Mike moved towards her his elbow was caught in a firm grip.
The distinct press of a gun muzzle dug hard against his lower back. Mike froze.
“Don’t move,” Kenneth whispered in Mike’s ear. “Tell her to come here.”
Mike didn’t know what was going on, but he knew that he couldn’t let Anna anywhere near there.
“No,” he replied, flatly. “I’ll die for her.”
“Do it now!” Kenneth hissed.
Mike heard the gun cock. He braced himself.
“Mike, get out of there!” Anna screamed at him.
“Anna, get back in the truck. Now!”
Anna kept moving towards him. The gun clicked.
Empty.
Mike smiled grimly and spun, kicking Kenneth hard enough to send him staggering back into the house. Mike followed after.
“MIKE!” Anna screamed.
This wasn’t happening, she was out. It was over. It was supposed to be over!
FUCK THIS BITCH!
Anna pulled the front door wide, unsurprised that it gave easily under her hands. Sister Catherine in all her rotted glory stood in the foyer holding Mike. Blood burbled out of her wounds and from her mouth as she held the silver crucifix against Mike’s throat.
“It’s him or it’s you, Anna,” Catherine said coldly.
“Anna, run!” Mike begged her, his eyes wide.
Anna squared her feet and raised her chin defiantly at the nun.
“Let him go,” she said calmly.
Mike struggled in Catherine’s hold. “Anna! Get out of here!”
“Let him go, Sister Catherine,” Anna repeated.
The nun dropped her hold on Mike and looked at Anna curiously.
“Mike. Outside, now,” Anna ordered.
“Anna—”
“Trust me,” Anna added.
Please, Anna thought, please don’t let him argue. She wasn’t going to be able to do this with collateral hanging over her head. She had learned that lesson with KK.
Mike frowned heavily at her, but something in her eyes told him to trust her. He reluctantly stepped back out of the house.
Catherine smiled triumphantly at Anna and swung at her with the crucifix. Anna caught Catherine’s wrists with her hands and tried not to shudder at the feel of the nun’s blood oozing out betw
een her fingers. It was time to end this.
Catherine had made two very big mistakes with her three-month mental mindfuck. The first was that she had used up too much of her own energy in the illusion. Anna only had to look at her to see how she was barely keeping this form together. Whole portions of her face were crumbling away, rotted sinew and bone breaking into dust with every movement.
The second was it reminded Anna of everything she was fighting for, every good thing she had at her fingertips. Catherine was not going to take that away from her without one hell of a fight.
Anna threw all her weight backwards, using every last reserve of strength she had against Sister Catherine’s. It had come down to a war of attrition, whose strength would last the longest. Anna thought about Claire, Mike, even KK, and struggled harder. There were people she cared about, they gave her a resolve that Catherine’s bitterness and rage could never match. Catherine began to decay even more rapidly right in front of Anna’s eyes.
“It’s over, Catherine, let go!” Anna gritted out.
Sister Catherine screamed, the sound making every hair on Anna’s body stand on end. It was the sound of defeat, in the end. Catherine erupted in flame. Anna staggered back a few steps as the flames of the nun’s failure punished her like hellfire. Her habit burned, and even the crucifix was engulfed in flames, hurtling down to to embed itself into the floor. Sister Catherine was gone. Anna couldn’t say if it was for good, or if the nun had just exhausted her reserves. It was over for Anna either way.
She limped to the front door and walked outside.
The door slammed shut behind her. Anna turned to the window and placed her hand against it. On the other side of the glass, KK mirrored her action. She smiled sadly at him. She was glad to see he was okay.
“I’m sorry, Anna,” he said.
Anna sniffled a little. It wasn’t his fault. What had happened to him wasn’t fair.
“What’s going to happen to you?”
“I’m free,” he said with a shrug and a half-smile. “Hopefully headed to Heaven if I didn’t screw up too badly.”
Curse of the Nun Page 11
