Kathryn Dahne - Curse of the Nun

“I’ll shoot!”

She tried to hide the way her hand trembled. She prayed that Lex would go away and not call her bluff. She wouldn’t want to shoot him even if the gun had been loaded.

“You’re worth dying for,” Lex said in that inhuman tone.

He pulled out a silver crucifix and raised it threateningly, advancing on her.

“Go on. Shoot.”

Anna backed up again. There were no bullets. She had nothing to defend herself with. Her left hand fumbled in her pocket and closed around something small, cold to the touch, and oddly heavy. Anna saw a flash of a man with untidy hair and a puppy-dog expression placing something in her pocket with the instruction to use it in an emergency. As if on instinct, Anna reached for it.

It was a pentacle pendant.

Lex dropped the crucifix and immediately backed away.

“Alright! Alright! Jesus Christ,” he muttered, slamming his way out of the foyer.

She looked at the pendant in her hand incredulously. That worked? I pull fucking gun on him and he leaves because of a fucking necklace? Anna sucked in a few lungfuls of air, trying to calm the wild galloping of her heart. She raised the pentacle up closer to stare at it in utter bemusement.

She turned it over in her hands. Mike was acting strange, Lex had nearly attacked her again. Where had the sense of peace and purpose that had filled her just a day ago gone?

Anna accepted a refill on her iced tea from the waiter before she turned her attention back to KK. He sat there, ball cap over his wild brown hair, and one leg bound up in a thick cast. His crutches leaned up against the side of the table and his eyes kept darting around nervously.

“Nothing?” Anna asked.

“Nothing,” KK confirmed.

“No flashes or anything?”

“The only thing I remember is the name Sister Catherine.”

Anna flinched at the name. “The nun from the hospital chapel?”

KK gave her a bemused look and shrugged. “I just know the name.

“Does this ring a bell?” Anna set the pentacle pendant on the table.

KK picked it up with a noise of confusion. “This is mine.”

“I remember you telling me to use it in an emergency and putting it in my pocket.” Anna said.

“I bought this on a ghost hunting project.”

“Ghost hunting?” Anna raised an eyebrow.

KK shrugged. “It’s a hobby of mine.”

“We must have been messing with it in the rental.”

KK wrinkled his nose, setting the pendant down. “I doubt it. I fixed some pipes there once and thought there might be something paranormal, but nothing came of it.”

“Then how did I end up with this?” Anna gestured at the pendant on the table between them.

KK looked at her pityingly. “Does it matter?”

“Strange stuff is happening at my house. I think it’s related to what happened that day.”

KK began fumbling with his crutches, his eyes darting away from Anna’s pleading ones.

“Look, I’m sorry, I am, but I can’t help you,” KK mumbled.

He managed to get the crutches back under his arms and stood up. Anna stood as well, hands outstretched toward him as if part of her wanted to catch at his clothes and force him to stand fast.

“Maybe it’s connected to your ghost hunting thing,” Anna said desperately.

“You’re crazy.”

Anna felt a lump in her throat. She had been so sure that KK would have answers, that somehow he would just know. She had been counting on him.

“KK, please…”

He looked up to meet her eyes again. “I can’t do this anymore.”

He hobbled towards the door.

“We need to figure out what happened that day!”

As he reached the exit, KK looked back over his shoulder at Anna, pity and concern in his eyes.

“It’s over, Anna. You’ve gotta move on.”

The bell on the restaurant door jingled as it swung shut behind him. Anna stared at it long after he was gone. She felt hollowed out by the conversation. It was crazy, of course; she barely knew the guy, but watching KK walk out had felt like a betrayal.

Dinner had been a subdued affair that night. Claire had done most of the talking, updating the adults about her day. Anna had tried to give the appropriate amount of attention to her daughter’s stories, but her thoughts kept spiraling back to the blank space in her memory where the last day at the rental house should be. She’d excused herself right after dinner, claiming a headache, and collapsed on her bed. She felt wretched, it wasn’t a lie, but she also wasn’t keen on spending much time around Mike right now. The incident with the pills still carried a sting of betrayal no matter how many times he had apologized. The surge of energy and new possibilities that had seemed so strong only a few days ago had faded, leaving behind only the sensation of something important slipping away from her.

Anna jumped, startled out of her maudlin reverie as the door to the bathroom slammed open. Mike loomed in the doorway, an angry expression twisting up his features. Anna sat up, the beginnings of a concerned frown turning down the corners of her mouth.

“What the hell is this?” Mike demanded.

He brandished her pill bottle at her. Anna tilted her head to the side, confused. It seemed fairly obvious what it was. Was he about to start forcing them down her throat again?

“My medication,” Anna replied, crossing her arms.

Mike gave her a condescending look. “Yeah? Why are they all gone?”

Anna stood up, furious. Exactly what was he accusing her of?

“I haven’t touched them!”

Not since she’d spent the night throwing up in the bathroom. Not since the night he talked her into taking too many.

“Don’t bullshit me, Anna!” Mike shouted. “You’re hooked!”

“Mike!” Anna shook her head in vehement denial. “I swear to God I haven’t taken one since I got sick.”

Which had been his fault, a nasty voice in the back of her head reminded her. How dare he come in here and accuse her of that?

“How could you do this?”

Mike threw the pill bottle at her head, forcing Anna to duck away as he advanced on her. This wasn’t like Mike. He never got angry, even when Anna found herself in situations that had her temper on a hair trigger.

“Mike, please!” She tried to reason, backing away.

“Do you want a repeat of what happened with Lex?”

“I didn’t take them!” Anna snarled.

From where she was standing, he was the one that was becoming Lex.

“You’re lying!”

Anna didn’t need to listen to this anymore. She turned and marched over to the door.

“Where are you going?” Mike demanded. “Don’t ignore me!”

Anna was going to ignore the hell out of him until he calmed down. Was he drunk? He hadn’t smelled like it, but Anna couldn’t think of another rational explanation for such out of character behavior. Where was her Mike?

She heard the rapid thump of his footsteps charging after her too late as his forearm dug hard into her throat. Anna struggled wildly in his chokehold. She drove an elbow back into his gut, hard. She felt the sharp oof of his pained exhalation against her ear as his grip loosened enough for her to wrench herself free. She sprinted away from him as fast as she could.

Mike had just attacked her. She thought of frozen yogurt dates and dress shopping. She thought of the man who tucked Claire into bed and made lopsided Mickey Mouse pancakes for breakfast on Saturdays. Mike. She couldn’t even begin to process that thought.

Anna nearly skidded into the kitchen. To her horror, Mike walked in from the other entryway, looking mildly confused.

“Hey, is everything okay?” He asked sweetly, as if he hadn’t just attempted to choke her moments before.