Kathryn Dahne - Curse of the Nun

“I’ll get it,” she said and marched down to meet the driver.

“Twenty-one oh nine,” the delivery man said in a bored tone as he handed over the pizza.

Anna handed him a pair of bills and some change with a cheery “thanks!”

She turned to head back up the drive.

“Wait!” The pizza man shouted.

Anna looked back and raised an eyebrow at him.

“This is twenty-one oh six. It was twenty-one oh nine.”

Anna blinked, frowning heavily. She felt the strangest feeling wash over her at those words. Her heartbeat quickened and a drop of sweat that had nothing to do with the day of hard work slid down her back, between her shoulder blades.

“I’m sorry?” She said, confused.

“I’m short!” The pizza guy protested.

“It’s three cents,” Anna said in an annoyed tone, suddenly defensive.

The pizza man just shrugged unsympathetically.

“That’s all I have,” Anna replied.

She needed to leave, get out of this situation. Something felt very wrong. She walked back to the front porch, trying to ignore the nagging sensation that she was missing something important. There was something she should know, but she didn’t know what it could possibly be.

Mike came out with glasses of lemonade to go with their pizza.

“Déjà vu,” Anna murmured to him, unsteadily.

She watched as Claire practically wolfed down her first slice.

“What?” Mike asked.

Anna makes a vague gesture with her hand, trying to encompass everything that was going on her head in the last five minutes.

“This, all this.”

Mike eyed her a little strangely. He looked around at the porch and the pizza box open next to her.

“We had pizza in the moving truck,” he offered, sounding more confused than anything.

“Right,” Anna said, defeated.

She remembered that, if only vaguely. It wasn’t what she meant however. The golden overglow of the day had seemed to fade a little.

Anna stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. She lifted the hem of her shirt to inspect the twisted scar on her stomach. Mike came in behind her, checking her over with concern in his eyes.

“How’s it looking?”

“Much better,” Anna said.

“Does it still hurt?”

“Nah, just sore.”

The worst of the pain was behind her; all that was left was the aching feel of the scar tissue as it pulled.

“You still don’t remember anything?” Mike asked.

“Last thing I remember is sending you and Claire off,” Anna replied.

Mike shook his head in amazement.

“Wow.”

Anna snorted.

“I’m not sure I want to remember being stabbed again,” Anna pointed out.

“The other guy, KK, he doesn’t remember anything either. I still think he could be a suspect.”

Something in Anna twisted a little at the mention of KK. She pushed it aside. Her gut instinct kept insisting that KK wasn’t who had hurt her, but she couldn’t deny that he had come out pretty unscathed in comparison.

“We’ll let the police worry about it,” she replied.

Anna picked up the bottle of pain pills on the counter and furrowed her brow at them. She was hurting bad, but she knew she had to be careful not to take them too close together, even if there was breakthrough pain. The Doctor had been very firm on that point.

“Did I take one of these in the car?” She asked Mike, trying to determine if she was good to take one.

“No.”

“You sure?” Anna pressed.

She thought she had, but couldn’t remember for certain, and her pain was spiking aggressively.

“Positive,” Mike assured her.

Anna made a face, but swallowed one. Mike had promised to help keep and eye on it all. If he said she hadn’t, Anna was inclined to trust him.

Anna closed the lid of the trash bin with a sigh. She still seemed to tire out so fast. She felt her phone go off in her pocket. She pulled it out to check the caller ID. The display read “INCOMING CALL: LEX.” Anna hesitated for a moment before accepting.

“Hello?” she said into the receiver.

“Hey,” Lex began. “Don’t call the cops, I—”

“You’re fine.” She hesitated, then added firmly, “Just this once.”

“I heard you got out of the hospital. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

Anna wandered around the garage as Lex spoke, idly taking in the items scattered around.

“I’m fine,” she told him. “I don’t remember anything.”

“The doctors didn’t think you’d make it. I hated seeing you like that.”

“Seeing me?”

“They let me visit you in the hospital.”

“No one told me that,” Anna said, startled.

“The nun let me in, from the hospital chapel.”

An icy feeling settled in the pit of Anna’s stomach.

“Nun?” she whispered.

“Sister Catherine, I think? She read you your last rites.”

Everything in Anna went cold at the name, but she couldn’t figure out why.

Lex continued, oblivious. “Look, I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“Thanks,” Anna said quietly.

“I’m getting cleaned up and I’m ready to move forward.”

“You’ll have to talk to the lawyers about that,” Anna reminded him bluntly, trying to shake off the odd mood that had settled over her.

“No,” Lex cleared his throat. “I mean I’m moving on for good. I met someone and I’m starting over.”

Anna paused in her walk around the garage to examine a large dent in the wall. She had a flash of memory, her and KK watching a hammer strike hard against a wall. She ran her fingers over it curiously.

“So this is it?” Anna asked Lex.

She wasn’t sure how she was supposed to be feeling right now. Sad? Relieved? All Anna felt was the lingering certainty that nothing was really resolved between them. Could something really be over without resolution?

He sounded calm, certain. “I think it’s best that way.”

“I’m sorry I never got you help,” she said sincerely.

That was the biggest regret that still hung over her head. Anna need to say it, not for Lex, but for herself.

“That wasn’t your responsibility,” Lex dismissed. “Tell Claire I’m sorry. When she’s older, tell her I’m here if she wants to see me.”

Anna wasn’t going to let that happen unless she was certain Lex was clean and committed to this new path he said he was on, but she knew he needed that bit of hope. Afterall, Claire was what had pulled her through rehab herself.

“I will,” she reassured him.

“Goodbye, Anna.”

Anna hung up with a sigh. She was sorry it took this long for things to turn around for Lex. She hoped he might find some peace for himself. She hoped he would make this new start stick the same way she had.

Later that night, Anna lay in bed, feeling more tired than she wanted to be. Fatigue was normal after an injury like hers, she supposed, but it still frustrated her. Beyond that, she was mentally tired, as if she had been chasing ghosts around her head all day. She thought of her conversation with Lex, and maybe she had been, in away. She rolled over to face Mike as he entered the bedroom. Anna scrunched up her face in confusion when she saw him holding a glass of water and one of her pills.

“You forgot this,” Mike said, holding out the pill.

“No, I took one in the bathroom earlier.”

Mike frowned. “When I was in there?”

“Yes!” Anna made an exasperated noise, sitting up on the bed. “I asked you!”

“No, you didn’t.”

“I swear I did. And even if I didn’t, I took one in the car.”

Mike set the glass on the nightstand next to her.

“I’d take one just in case.”

Anna shook her head. “I’ll take one tomorrow.”