Kathryn Dahne - Curse of the Nun

Sister Catherine grabbed him ruthlessly by the throat.

She wrenched him high into the air, KK coughing and spluttering in her hold.

“What the hell do you think you are doing?” she hissed at him. “It’s time you kept your promise.”

KK whimpered.

“I can’t,” he choked out.

Sister Catherine tightened her grip on his throat and KK wheezed.

“You disobeyed me,” she growled.

KK continued to claw futilely at her hands.

“It’s time to keep your promise.”

KK let himself go limp in her grip.

“Okay, okay,” he said, utterly defeated.

Sister Catherine dropped him to the floor. KK lay there, rubbing at his throat, despair in every line of his face. Catherine smiled down at him cruelly.

“Good. Thank you, Kenneth.”

I’m so sorry, Anna , he thought weakly. He had tried.

Anna stood a few paces back from the door separating the garage from the rest of the house. She had her left arm curled defensively around her stomach with her right hand curled tightly about the handle of the sledgehammer. The door creaked open and Anna let out a sigh of relief as KK’s baseball hatted head peered around it. He slid into the garage and shut the door behind him. He looked as worn down as Anna felt. She was so happy to see that he was alright.

“Oh, thank God. Now follow me.” Anna walked over to him. “Let’s go.”

KK smiled sadly at her and shook his head. “I’m sorry, Anna.”

Anna frowned. “Don’t be, let’s go.”

He didn’t move, just looked at her with tortured eyes.

“KK, move!”

KK kicked her hard in the stomach. The sledgehammer slipped out of her grasp as she was sent sprawling to the floor. Pain flared like molten metal poured over her nerves. Anna’s vision went spotty as she tried to work out what was happening. This wasn’t the real KK. It was another of Sister Catherine’s illusions. It had to be, right? Anna hadn’t though the nun would have enough energy left to do that still.

“I don’t want to do this,” KK walked over to her. “I really don’t, but it’s my only option.”

Anna struggled back to her feet, clutching at her stomach. She reached for the sledgehammer, but KK snatched it away before her fingers could gain purchase on it. She could see genuine regret in his eyes. Her heart sank. This wasn’t an illusion.

“KK, why?”

“Anna, I’ve been dead for three years.” KK swung the hammer hard at her.

Anna stumbled back just in time to avoid the hit from connecting.

“Catherine’s too powerful. She’s been holding me hostage until I help her kill her replacement.”

Anna licked at her lips, tasting the salt of her tears there. “Please, KK, don’t do this.”

His foot snapped out, catching Anna in the stomach again. She crumpled with a cry of agony.

“I tried to save us both,” KK continued, pain in his words. “If we got rid of Sister Catherine, we would both be free.”

Anna stared up at him from her prone position, crying in earnest now. “It’s not too late, Kk, we can still do this!”

He swung the sledgehammer again. The strike landed true on her left leg. There was a sharp crack as pain shot up her leg, curling through her hip and into her spine. She screamed.

“We don’t stand a chance against her. I thought we did, but I was wrong.”

“KK Stop!”

Anna rolled just in time to dodge the blow aimed at her head. She used the wall to drag herself back upright. Putting weight on her leg was agony, but she didn’t have another option if she wanted to survive. She wasn’t sure how to get through to KK, even if his eyes told her that it was costing him everything to do this.

KK had backed her into the far corner of the garage. She was trapped.

“I’m sorry, Anna. I really am.”

He raised the hammer as high as he could and swung it at Anna’s head with all his might.

Anna ducked at the last possible second. She could even the feel the soft brush of air from the hammer’s passage sweep across the top of her head.

Too close.

The momentum of the swing had overbalanced KK and he lost control of the hammer as he attempted to correct for another swing. It dropped to the ground with a clatter. Anna dove after it, snatching it up before KK could recover.

She swung it wildly at him. The head of the sledgehammer caught KK full in the face. He crumpled to the ground with an abrupt cry of surprise and lay there, unmoving. Anna stepped closer to him cautiously, the hammer still clutched in her fist. She reached out one hand to touch KK’s shoulder, but pulled it back hastily as his form dissolved away like smoke.

Anna didn’t have time to mourn for him, even if her heart felt as battered as her body.

She limped out of the garage, dragging the sledgehammer behind her.

Anna made it into the kitchen on the dregs of adrenaline and her own stubbornness, but she’d lost too much blood to continue any further. Her uninjured leg trembled, barely holding underneath her. Her breathing had become shallow and wet. She struggled with the weight of the hammer for a few moments, her arms shaking, before she gave up. It crashed down to the hardwood, punching a hole through the expensive flooring.

Anna looked at the hole and smiled suddenly, a second wind of energy surging through her veins. She grabbed up the hammer again and began punching the hole wider. With each swing the hole grew, revealing more of the crawl space beneath the house.

“Anna,” Sister Catherine’s voice came from nearby.

Anna didn’t look up. She kept swinging at the floor.

“ Anna !”

She looked up. Sister Catherine stood in the doorway. Full pieces of her face and body were gone now, crumbled away like some ancient weathered statue. Both of her wrists were flayed open to the bone. Anna remembered the second photo KK had shown her, of Sister Catherine’s corpse in a tub, wrists slashed and the crucifix on her chest.

“Why did you do it, Sister?”

Even at her lowest, Anna had never actually wanted to die .

“My life, like yours, wasn’t worth living. My demons would only stop haunting me after death.”

Anna bit back a few choice words she wanted to say in response.

“Father Don,” Catherine continued, “said I would go to Hell if I killed myself, but I didn’t care. Then I was blessed with the chance to protect this land and prove myself to God. I want you to have the same opportunity.”

It wasn’t much of an opportunity in Anna’s estimation.

“Are you at peace?” She asked, looking at the crumbling visage of the nun.

Catherine smiled with what was left of her mouth. “I will be soon.”

She levitated up off of the ground, filling the doorway in its entirety.

“You will be, too.” Catherine added.

Don’t think so , Anna thought, dropping the hammer and reaching into her pocket. Sister Catherine swooped down at her. Anna raised the pentacle pendant up in front of her face. Catherine collapsed to the ground, screaming in fury.

Anna wasted no time in dropping down into the hole she had made. She cried out in pain as she landed hard on her damaged leg. The crawl space was cramped and dusty, and Anna found herself forced to army-crawl forward on her belly.

A banshee shriek echoed from behind. Anna glanced behind her. Nothing. She turned back to find herself face to face with Sister Catherine’s decrepit visage in the gloom. Anna screamed and Sister Catherine scuttled away into the darkness.

Ahead of her she could see a dim light. She pushed herself toward it despite the agony wracking her body. Her breath came in hitching sobs as the wound in her gut dragged painfully against the ground.