Kathryn Dahne - Curse of the Nun

“Nope. Fuck that.”

“Don’t worry,” KK cajoled. “I’ve got it under control.”

Anna had serious doubts about that.

The planchette moved slowly across the board under its own power. It slid in a stuttering motion over to the “S” marker.

“See, she’s worn out,” KK said.

The planchette continued to move despite this assurance, gliding from one letter to the next slowly but clearly.

“Stay,” Anna read out.

She and KK exchanged an uneasy look. Anna wasn’t surprised to see the word again, but she didn’t quite grasp what the nun wanted. If she wanted Anna to stay so badly why was she trying so damn hard to kill her?

The planchette began spelling out as second word. The motion was smoother this time, more fluid.

“Protect?” KK read.

That was a new message. Anna was about to ask him what his take on it was when he suddenly yanked off his headphones and held them out to her, wide-eyed.

“What?” Anna asked, even as she reached out to take them from him.

She heard the same gruff voice from the phone calls earlier.

“Stay… Stay… Stay…” it chanted.

Anna watched as the ouija board spelled out her name. Was the spirit simply afraid of being alone in the house again?

“I can’t stay,” Anna pleaded.

The planchette slid back to “no.”

“I’ve been listening to you,” the voice in the headphones said. “You’re just like me.”

Anna shook her head sadly as the word stay was spelled out on repeat. Anna wasn’t like Catherine at all. She’d hit some pretty low points in her life, but she had always wanted to live. KK watched her with an apprehensive expression. He fidgeted with his hat as he waited, unable to hear the voice in the headphones.

Anna gulped and tried to reason with her. “Sister, you don’t want me, I—”

The voice cut her off harshly. “It is my time to go. You must protect this holy land.”

“I can’t,” Anna repeated. “I have a daughter.”

She closed her eyes in a brief moment of fear. Anna wanted so badly to see Claire again.

“Stay. Replace me as I ascend to Heaven.” The voice repeated stubbornly.

Anna looked across at KK, hoping he would have some idea of what to do in this situation. He offered her a helpless shrug as he bit his lip nervously. Anna felt for Sister Catherine. She could understand the feeling of wanting to move on to something better, but feeling like you couldn’t. They were alike in that way, she supposed.

It didn’t change the fact that staying wasn’t an option.

“No.” Anna said firmly. “I can’t.”

The voice dropped back into an inhuman register. “ Then I’ll force you.”

The planchette stopped spelling out “stay.” It stood stationary in the middle of the board.

“Pick it up,” the demonic voice ordered Anna.

“What is she saying?” KK asked, fidgeting anxiously.

Anna didn’t respond. She reached out and plucked the planchette up from the board. She raised the object to her face to stare through the little center cut out. She scanned the living room through the frame of the planchette - the back of the couch with a decorative throw draped over the back, the glass-topped end tables that Anna had always hated - and saw nothing out of the ordinary beyond KK’s uneasy expression.

“What do you see?” he asked.

Anna lowered the planchette and turned to look at him. Sister Catherine loomed over him. Her black lips twisted up in a cruel smile, eyes glinting in the shadows of her habit. Her hand was upraised, preparing to strike downwards with the sharp silver crucifix at the back of KK’s unprotected neck.

Anna threw off the headphones and fumbled in her pocket for the pentacle. KK realized her intent too late to give a warning.

“NO!” he cried, even as she pulled it free to hold it aloft.

KK grabbed her wrist as to prevent her from lifting it higher, shaking his head frantically. Anna panted heavily, adrenaline kicking back in. She looked back at KK, needing to understand what to do.

Sister Catherine sat in KK’s place, holding Anna’s wrist tightly in her grasp. She smiled again at Anna as she twisted her wrist back with a sickening snap .

Anna screamed, high and loud.

Pain burned up her arm from her wrist as she heard the pendant strike the floor. Sister Catherine forced her backwards, pinning her prone on the floor. Instinct alone allowed Anna to bring her other hand up in time to catch Sister Catherine’s wrist in turn. She strained, holding the silver crucifix at bay from her own neck.

Anna grunted at the effort required to keep from being stabbed, struggling to free herself from the nun’s hold. Sister Catherine’s face was uncomfortably close to her own, letting her see every unnatural feature of the specter. Her skin was grey and lined with veins that ran pitch-black. Her eyes were all black, shark-like and full of rage. Anna felt an involuntary shudder run down her spine. She had to look away from the twisted visage of Sister Catherine snarling above her. Her eyes fell instead on the discarded pentacle pendant.

It skittered further out of reach across the floor.

Sister Catherine took the moment of Anna’s distracted inattention to rear back, detangling herself from Anna’s grip on her wrist. Anna rolled to the side, moving barely in time to dodge the downward strike of the crucifix. It embedded itself in the hardwood floor inches from Anna’s face.

Anna had the brief, nonsensical thought of hoping that Aunt Donna couldn’t charge her extra for that.

Sister Catherine screeched loudly, a banshee wail of aggression and frustration as she vanished again. Anna wondered if that meant the specter had exhausted herself again for the moment.

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.

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.