Kathryn Dahne - Curse of the Nun

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.

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 seeping 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.