Kathryn Dahne - Curse of the Nun

“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.

KK returned her watery smile. “Anna, you are gonna be fine.”

She coughed wetly. Even the pain seemed distant now.

“Sorry you never go your proof,” Anna whispered.

“Pfft. We’re walking proof,” KK joked weakly.

Anna coughed out a pained laugh. At least she wasn’t alone at the end. She thought again of Mike and Claire. Were they already wondering where she was? Was Mike getting impatient and annoyed that she hadn’t shown up? No, that was more Lex’s style. Mike didn’t have anything resembling a temper. Would they find her body here? Or would she disappear, one more missing person attached to the house? She hoped KK could find a way out after she was gone. She prayed that someone would be able to escape this nightmare. She licked at her lips, trying to find the strength to make him promise to get out and never come back. She had to save him. It was too late for her.

RING-RING! RING-RING!

Anna and KK stared at each other, stunned, as the sound of the front doorbell reached them.

“Holy shit,” KK breathed.

His weak grin widened into a true smile as he helped Anna to her feet. She felt her own hope surge, giving her the strength to clamber out of the tub. They stumbled out of the bathroom and down the stairs as fast as they could manage, her arm thrown across KK’s shoulders for support as they limped across the foyer.

Through the windows alongside the front door they could see Donna, fumbling with her too-crowded key chain and muttering to herself.

“In here!” KK shouted.

“Let us out!” Anna yelled at the same time.

She never thought in her entire life she would be so happy to see Aunt Donna. At that moment, Anna didn’t care whatever stupid surcharge Donna was planning to tack on, she would pay it, gladly, if Donna could just get the door open.

They reached the front door as Donna lost patience with her multitude of keys and pounded hard on the heavy wood.

“Kenneth! Did you fix the pipe?” She screeched.

KK pounded the door from their side, trying to get Donna’s attention.

“Open the door,” Anna pleaded.

She didn’t know how long they had before Sister Catherine found them again. Outside, Donna checked her phone with a pinched expression. KK reluctantly gave up on his frantic pounding. Anna was pressed against the window to the right of the door, feeling lightheaded and dizzy. Their salvation stood just on the other side of the door, oblivious. Anna’s strength dwindled with her hope. Why wasn’t Donna responding? Was she really that much of a bitch, pretending to ignore them? As quickly as she thought it, Anna dismissed the possibility. There was no way Donna would let someone die in the house. Not when it could make her liable or drop the property value.

“She can’t hear us,” KK realized. “Our only chance is if she opens that door.”

“What if she doesn’t?” Anna asked.

It certainly didn’t look like it was going to happen.

As if in response, an inhuman scream echoed down from the second floor. Anna let out a defeated moan. KK pressed against her, trying to offer what comfort he could.

“I’m sorry, Anna,” he whispered sadly.

Anna shook her head. It wasn’t his fault. He’d tried his very best to help her. They could hear Donna fumbling with her keyring again from outside the door.

“Stupid kid,” Donna muttered. “He better not be screwing that goth chick.”

Anna rolled her eyes. Of course Donna would assume that. Afterall, to her Anna was just a gold-digger who had never loved Mike in the first place. I’m gonna die here because you have too many fucking keys, you bitch. What a joke. Maybe Donna was just one more hallucination. She’d seen Lex outside, too, she had thought.

Anna looked away from the illusion of freedom through the door and back to the stairwell. Sister Catherine stared down at them. Her eyes had become even more sunken in, the grey skin on her face peeling and riddled with wounds. Maybe KK had been right and she was weakening, and without a moment to spare. Anna couldn’t even find the energy to run.

Catherine descended the stairs. Each blackened, bare foot placed down a step with strange twists of ankles and knees that did not belong on human joints.

The door clicked open.

Anna whirled, surprise overriding even the horror in front of her for a moment.

“Kenneth!” Donna shouted as she stepped inside. “Where are you?”

Anna and KK lunged at Donna almost as one person, shoving her back outside through the door. They tumbled onto the porch in a messy tangle of limbs. Anna landed prone at the perfect angle to see Sister Catherine shriek as the door slammed shut in her face. Take that you bitch , Anna thought smugly, breathing in the fresh air in great shuddering lungfuls as the sky spun wildly overhead. She could hear KK beside her doing the same.

Donna flailed herself back into a standing position and looked down at herself in horror.

“Oh my god,” she shrieked. “That better not be my blood!”

Donna’s indignant noises of disgust and horror was a welcomed sound. She was out. They had actually made it out. She felt KK’s hands fall on her shoulders. The world was spinning too much for her to focus on his face, but she could hear him.

“Hold on, Anna. We’re gonna get you help.”

She thought about getting to hold Claire again. She would get to kiss Mike, and sleep in the bed in the house they owned. She tried to take another deep breath but found she couldn’t quite muster up the energy. That was okay, there would be time enough for that later. The sky spun faster overhead.

Anna closed her eyes and sound faded for a time.

“Is she going to be okay?” Mike said from somewhere nearby.

There was a steady beeping noise underscoring his words. Anna wanted to know why no one was turning the alarm clock off. She didn’t have to get up for work did she?

“We don’t know,” an unfamiliar voice replied. “We’ll just have to wait.”

Was Mike letting strangers in the bedroom? That wasn’t right , she thought distantly, but the why escaped her for the moment. She didn’t want to get up and go to work. She was going to sleep in.

Anna let the noise fade away again.

Anna opened her eyes again, but no farther than blurry slits. She could see white walls and hear the distant beeps of hospital machinery. Mike was sitting next to her, his hand tightly clasped about her own.

KK’s voice drifted to her ear from somewhere beyond her field of sight.

“She’s gonna be okay. Your mom’s tough.”

Mom. Mother. Claire. Where was Claire? She wanted to hold Claire so badly. She’d been fighting so hard for that, hadn’t she? Anna knew she had. Why was no one letting her hold Claire? She tried to sit up and look for Claire, but then there was a screech of protest from the machines around her.

Anna faded out again.

She faded in again to the sound of Lex’s voice.

“I love you, Anna. I always will.”

She kept her eyes closed. She didn’t understand why he was there. Go away, Lex . He didn’t love her. He wanted to possess her. He hadn’t tried to help her at all. Why was he there? Where was Mike? Where was Claire? She was supposed to be holding Claire.

“She needs her peace,” a female voice said gently.

She needed Claire.

“Thank you, Sister, for letting me see her,” Lex replied.