Kathryn Dahne - Curse of the Nun

As the fingers withdrew Anna could feel something else being pressed against her throat. It was as cold as the fingers had been, but this was somehow smoother. And sharp.

Anna felt the rough metal of the gun grip beneath her own fingers and almost smiled. She opened her eyes and brought the gun up, shooting the nun straight though the center of her forehead. The specter staggered back, unharmed but obviously startled by the surprise assault. The nun dropped the bright silver crucifix she’d be preparing to stab into Anna’s throat.

Anna seized the precious few moments of the nun’s surprised retreat and scrambled to her feet. She backed away towards the stairs, firing on the nun. The specter seemed frozen, standing fixedly in place as Anna made it to the bottom of the stairs. Once her feet were both back on the hardwood floor of the ground level, Anna ceased shooting and bolted for the back door.

Locked. Locked. Locked.

She abandoned the door and looked for another option. Anna tried every window. The latches refused to budge. She was still trapped.

She pressed her face against the cool glass of one of the windows framing the back door. Tears were pricking at the corners of her eyes and her stomach felt full of lead. How was she supposed to fight this? She didn’t understand what was going on, couldn’t even make sense of what she saw.

She thought about the other Anna, lying on the floor of the bathroom. Overdosed, dying of pills she should have never taken. Had that been real? Was this nightmare nun just her mind trying to cope with her own death? Anna couldn’t imagine why she would do such a thing. Not now when she had so much good to look forward to.

Maybe it had been too much good.

Movement in the backyard pulled Anna’s attention away from the dark spiral of her own thoughts. A man stood in the shadows of a tree. He was scruffy and gothic in a way that Anna hadn’t dressed in years. Spiked jewelry and even darker eyeliner than she had on. She recognized him at once. He shouldn’t be here.

Anna pounded her fist against the window.

“Lex!” She screamed. “Lex, over here!”

Lex drew closer and looked up at her with a forlorn expression.

“I’m sorry, Anna. I had to see you.”

Anna chose to ignore that. “Get me out of here!”

“What?”

“I’m stuck. Get me out of here!”

Lex looked bemused, as if he couldn’t quite work out what Anna was trying to ask him.

“What do I do?” He asked.

“Break the window!”

Anna tried to point at the decorative rock landscaping around him as best as she could through the glass. Luckily Lex seemed to catch on quickly. He stooped and grabbed a large grey rock out of one of the flowerbeds.

“Stand back,” he shouted.

Anna immediately backed away from the window. Lex started to pull back his arm in a motion to send the rock sailing into the glass back door… and stopped. He looked down at the rock, suddenly contemplative.

“Actually…” he murmured, almost to himself.

Anna pounded on the door again. This couldn’t be happening.

“Lex, please!”

Lex looked up at her, his eyes suddenly hard.

“Why?” He asked.

“ Why?” Anna repeated in a strangled tone.

Lex half-shrugged. “You never helped me.”

“What are you talking about?”

Lex’s eyes narrowed further.

“You hung me out to dry.”

“Now is really not the time to talk about this, Lex,” Anna pleaded. “Get me out of here. Please. ”

“I just got out rehab, Anna,” Lex continued, as if he hadn’t heard her. “They said you went during the divorce. You left me behind, saved yourself, and tore apart our family!”

How dare he make it seem like he was the victim?

“I did it for Claire!” Anna yelled at him.

“You robbed her of her father!” Lex screamed back.

“It was for her safety !”

“Don’t give me that bullshit! You were popping pills, too!”

Lex discarded the rock back into the flowerbed, crushing some of the bright flowers beneath it.

“We were a team and you abandoned me, Anna,” he said in a choked voice.

“Please, Lex, just call the police,” Anna cried.

“Sorry. Shit catches up to you,” he said philosophically, pulling a cigarette out of his pocket and lighting it up.

“I can’t wait until you relapse,” he added nastily.

He took a deep drag off the cigarette as he stepped right up to the window. He let out a stream of smoke right in Anna’s face before fading away into nothingness.

Anna screamed in denial and pounded on the glass. Hot tears trailed down her cheeks as she tried to break it. She took a half step back, brought the gun up and fired. She flinched as the bullet ricocheted. With a cry of rage she threw the gun at the glass. It clattered to the floor and skid away from the momentum.

She was still trapped.

Anna pressed her face against the window, sobbing in earnest now. Cold metal pressed against the back of her skull. The barrel of her own gun now held against her. Anna just continued crying. She was out of ideas. Out of hope.

“STAY,” the inhuman voice behind her demanded.

Anna didn’t move, didn’t turn to face the specter of the nun behind her. What good would it do?

CLICK. Silence.

The chamber was empty.

The gun clattered back to the floor as the nun faded away. Anna slid down the window, panting harshly. She couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything except try to pull oxygen into her lungs. She wasn’t even sure she was relieved any more.

Ding-dong !

The doorbell? Anna used the door to pull herself back to her feet, grabbing the empty gun as she went. What trick was her mind playing on her now, she wondered?

Anna tiptoed carefully though the dining room as the doorbell rang again. She peered around the corner as she heard the sound of the front door swinging open. No specter from her past stood on the threshold. No nun shrouded in darkness. It was a young man. He was dressed in ratty working clothes with a worn baseball cap over his unruly brown hair. In his hands he was holding a toolbox.

“Mrs. Winter? I’m here to fix the pipe?” He called out, half-stepping hesitantly into the empty foyer.

Donna’s maintenance man! Anna felt a fresh surge of hope flood into her veins. She charged into the room.

“Don’t close the door!” she shouted.

The young man didn’t expect anyone to come running at him full-tilt. He let out a startled shriek and took a step back, just as the door closed on him. His toolbox crashed down as he was pinned, half in and half out of the house.

“Shit!” Anna said.

She pulled hard on the door, trying to pry it open further to free him. It wouldn’t move. Something was trying to force it closed and only the maintenance man’s body stood in the way. Anna tried shoving him bodily back outside into safety but he was wedged tight.

“My toolbox,” he grunted. “Wedge it into the door! It’ll give me room.”

Anna grabbed the plastic box and shoved it in over his head before trying to shove him back outside.

“Ow! Ow!” he protested. “Pull me in!”

“You don’t want that,” Anna said seriously.

He looked at her with earnest eyes.

“I know what I’m doing! Pull me in!”

“I’m stuck in here!” Anna tried to warn him.

“I know! It’s the nun!”

Anna blinked, surprised, and pulled him inside.

Both of them scattered away from the door as the plastic toolbox shattered under the pressure and flung tools out in every direction. The maintenance man rubbed at his ribs where he had been crushed, moaning in pain.

“Are you okay?” Anna asked.