Sisters of Sorrow

by Axel Blackwell

  Papers ruffled and flipped in the drafts. Several candles, melted into abstract paraffin gargoyles, stood amid the papers, their wicks extinguished. The kerosene lamp struggled to remain aglow. Anna thought Mary One wanted her to douse that flame, to prevent it from being seen when she opened the door. Good thinking.

  As she reached across the desk, a gust rearranged the papers, unveiling an odd brown lump. It looked like a gnarled root ball from a sapling. Then, she saw the nails, fingernails.

  Anna’s heart leapt into her throat. Joey’s shriveled fingers, curled into a loose fist, looked so much like her own pinky had. The candles, five of them, surrounded the hand. Heavy threads strung between the candles formed a five-pointed star. Three blackened needles protruded from Joey’s palm.

  McCain has been tormenting him. She’s been taunting him, calling him…I hope she’s not disappointed.

  Anna reached across the desk. Don’t touch it! one of her voices gasped. Anna obeyed, grasping a needle, instead, and yanking it free. As she took hold of a second needle, the hand twitched. Anna flinched away, yanking the needle as she did so. She withdrew her hand rather than pulling needle number three.

  Joey’s fist tightened on the table, flecks of dried skin crackling. The index finger straightened until it pointed directly at Anna. Then, it began curling and straightening in a come-hither gesture. Anna stumbled away from the desk.

  Donny grabbed her upper arm. She turned on him, eyes wide, questioning. His eyes were bigger than hers. He nodded. Yeah, I saw it. Then gestured to the door. In her ear he said, “I’ve had enough fun for one afternoon, Anna. We need to go.”

  Anna spun and headed for the door. Donny and Jane raced forward with her. Lizzy huddled with the rest of the girls behind McCain’s desk. Anna knelt down in front of the doors. She turned the handle and eased one door inward, peeking through the narrow gap. Nothing waited for her but the railing. She opened the door wide enough to poke her head out and looked each way. The balcony curved away from her on either side. Still, she saw none of McCain’s goons.

  Anna crawled out onto the balcony. She stayed Donny with her hand, but he ignored her and followed. Here, the calamity of sound reached an ear hammering crescendo. The bell hung directly above them in its tower, singing and singing and singing its single ceaseless note. Gale force wind screamed through the open bell tower. Anna felt the thunder more than heard it.

  From the room below came new noises, not borne of the storm. In the rotunda, someone bellowed directives. The words were indiscernible, but the cadence and tone were that of an officer giving orders. There was another noise as well, a terrible thudding sound, something heavy slamming itself against something solid.

  Anna raised her head, just high enough to see over the railing. To her right, the balcony swept halfway around the inside of the rotunda before dropping into a curved staircase that terminated near the front entrance. Beyond the entrance, another swooping flight of stairs rose back up from the main floor to the balcony. To the left, the balcony circled all the way around the rotunda until it met with the second staircase. Several doors lined the outer wall, most were offices similar to McCain’s. Directly across the rotunda stood the door to the dining hall and kitchen. Boards had been nailed across it.

  Anna turned to Donny, intending to point out the barricaded door. To her horror, he was leaning over the railing, staring down into the room below. She snatched him by his shirt collar and yanked him down. They’ll see you, stupid! But it was no use trying to yell over the bedlam.

  When he looked up at her, his eyes were wide with worry, or fear, or something. Anna didn’t care which, whatever was going on below didn’t concern her now. Just get to that door and we’re home free. She pointed across the opening to the boarded up door. Donny glanced that way, saw what she meant, and nodded. Uncertainty showed on his face. She pointed again, more emphatically this time.

  Donny nodded again. He motioned her back to McCain’s office and crawled that way. Anna watched him, wondering. Below, the crashing and shouting ebbed slightly, quieted just enough to admit another sound, chanting. Multiple voices recited verses, prayers or spells or something.

  Anna rose up again, intending to look over the rail to the room below. Donny grabbed her from behind. She spun around, startled. Donny shook his head emphatically No! and pulled her toward McCain’s office. She let him take her.

  Chapter 18

  “What’s going on down there?” Anna yelled into Donny’s ear once they were back inside McCain’s office.

  “You don’t want to know,” he yelled back. “Just keep your mind on your business. Right now your business is getting Maybelle and your girls to the woods.”

  “I know what my business is, Donny, I don’t need you to tell me.”

  Donny gave her a grim grin. “I think Joseph is about to bust through those doors down there.”

  “Yeah, I figured that. What else?” she asked, studying him.

  “Nothin’ else,” he shrugged, then changed the subject. “Ya’ think we can pry those boards off the door with Jane’s ax?”

  Anna nodded. She motioned for Jane to bring the other girls to them. When the group had huddled around Anna and Donny, Anna spoke. “We can see the service door from here. It’s on the opposite side of the Great Round Room. If we stay on hands and knees around the balcony, we can make it there without being seen. Just follow us, stay low. Stick to the wall, do not go anywhere near the railing. Got it?”

  The girls nodded, faces pale, eyes empty.

  “It’s too loud out there to talk, so don’t try. The door is nailed shut, it’ll take a few minutes to pry the boards off. Just sit against the wall until it’s open. After that, we’re free and clear. There shouldn’t be any guards beyond a boarded up door. We’ll just run through the kitchen, out the door onto the patio and down the stairs to the dock. Once we get there, it’s a quick walk across the lawn and into the woods. You all are doing so good. Just keep it up a few more minutes and this will all be over. Can you do that?”

  Again, the girls nodded. Anna recognized their blank expressions and their unquestioning acceptance of ridiculous commands. Abbess McCain’s zombies had become Anna’s zombies. A troop of broken orphans, shell shocked into doing the next thing that must be done. The only difference was that this time, the next thing that must be done involved sneaking through a storm while being chased by ax wielding nuns and a Joseph-Thing. These girls had faced the stampers and needle machines on a daily basis, this wasn’t much worse.

  She raised her eyebrows at Donny, then glanced from him to Lizzy to Jane. Donny put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. Jane smiled weakly and gave her a light punch on the other shoulder. “We got it, Pinky.”

  Lizzy squeezed Donny’s shoulder – at which Jane rolled her eyes. Anna put her arms around the three of them and pulled them into a huddle hug. Joan, Norma, Mary, and Maybelle joined the huddle. Lilly somehow squirmed her way into the middle. They hugged that way for only a moment, then Donny cleared his throat and pulled away toward the door.

  One by one, Anna’s orphans crept onto the balcony. The ceiling over them bowled upward. A circle, ten feet across, opened at the middle of the dome. The bell hung in its tower, another thirty feet above this oculus. Rain and a few chunks of hail poured through the open bell tower, dropping into the center of the room below. Mist and fine drizzle, floating on restless air, dampened everything.

  They circumnavigated the rotunda without incident. Jane, who still held the ax, made short work of the boards. The nails screeched as she yanked them, but it was barely audible over the cacophony. Below, Joseph continued to hammer the doors, someone barked orders at short intervals, and the chanting prattled on.

  Anna herded her girls through the door, still on all fours. If someone below looked up and saw the open door, the jig would be up. Anna held her breath and urged her little band to hurry. Jane, with her ax, went first. Donny brought up the rear, his flintlock in one hand and Maybelle’s hand in th
e other.

  Once everyone was through, Anna glanced back to ensure they were not followed. No one approached from either direction. She took a deep breath and crawled away from the wall to the railing, again checking both sides before peering over.

  Donny grabbed her ankle. She knew it was him before turning back to see. He shook his head and tried to pull her away from the railing, his eyes frantic. She yanked her foot away, but his grip was solid. She tried again, nearly losing a shoe, but managed to slip out of his grasp. Before he could grab her again, she frog-hopped away from him and pulled herself up to the rail.Below, the Great Round Room looked like all the acts of a three-ring circus performing at once in a single ring. Sister Eustace played ringleader, directing the chaos through a cone shaped bullhorn.

  Half a dozen men hammered beams and braces against the main entrance. One of them was the giant Jane had described. An enormous sword hung in a scabbard on his back. Three of Joseph’s seagulls had apparently made it into the rotunda before McCain’s goons sealed the rest out. The birds flapped above the men at the door, pecking and pooping and screeching at them. A little man with a big broom kept the seagulls at bay while the others worked against Joseph’s relentless pounding.

  Two priests screamed a Latin chant at the door, flailing their arms to emphasize important passages of their litany. A woman dressed like a gypsy, maybe Hattie’s sister, swayed and clapped her hands in time with the priest’s recitations, throwing her hands in the air and shouting “Hallelujah!” at the really good parts.

  Rain and hail poured through the opening to the bell tower. It fell in a circular curtain, forming a hollow, pillar-shaped waterfall. The deluge cascaded around a pair of men. The two stood across from each other pumping up and down on a giant lever. It looked like a railway handcar, but the levered mechanism did not move. After a minute, Anna realized it was a bilge pump. The two worked feverishly against the torrent from above.

  A pack of sad, saggy-faced hounds bayed and brayed. Some hunkered under the flights of stairs, others raced around and around the rotunda.

  A team of women, some could have been nuns, others certainly never had been, formed what looked like a bucket brigade, only instead of passing buckets of water, they handed chairs and stools and other bits of furniture down the line. The last woman in this line, Sister Elizabeth, hucked the wooden brick-a-brack onto a growing heap, just outside the splash of the rainwater.

  Another group of witch-hunters pitchforked straw onto the heap. At the center of the growing pile stood a twelve-foot tall crucifix. Anna thought she had seen it before, maybe among the debris that littered the beach on the night she escaped. One of the crucifix’s arms had broken off, giving it the appearance of a signpost missing its sign.

  Abbess McCain presided as the calm at the center of the storm. She sat in a high-backed oak chair, cool and serene in the midst of chaos. A contented smirk curled one side of her lip. Around her, soldiers and misfits and ex-nuns scampered and thrashed, holding their world together. Sister Eustace barked orders through the bullhorn, firing off directives as steadily as the late-afternoon sky fired lightning bolts.

  Seeing McCain, Anna finally understood. She saw what Donny hadn’t wanted her to see. The reason for McCain’s peace of mind sat facing her in a second oak chair. Dolores. Coarse rope bound her wrists to the chair’s arms. Another length at her waist bound her to the chair’s back. A belt strapped Dolores’s head to the chair. It had been run through her mouth and synched tight so that it doubled as a gag. A blindfold hid Dolores’s eyes. Blood ran freely down her left leg.

  Anna felt Donny slide up behind her. He clamped his hands on both of her shoulders and pulled her away from the rail. Her head spun as she fell against him. Both of her voices clamored circular arguments that neither of them believed. Donny dragged her through the door and eased it closed, though he could have slammed it and no one would have noticed.

  Anna heard Donny say, “Here, you take her.”

  She felt someone else grab her arms.

  Jane’s voice said, “What’s wrong with her?”

  She felt herself being jostled through the dark kitchen.

  “Nothin’s wrong, just keep her movin. Which way’s the door to the patio?”

  “Follow the lightning…” Lizzy’s voice.

  “Donny,” Anna said.

  “Jus’ keep walkin’, Anna.”

  “Donny, wait…”

  “No. Anna. Whatever it is you’re thinkin, we ain’t doin’ it.”

  “They’re going to burn her alive,” Anna said, “We can’t let them…”

  “We can’t stop ‘em neither! We can sneak past that mob, but ain’t no way we can jump right in the middle of ‘em and snatch their witch away! Don’t you know that’s exactly what McCain’s hopin’ you’ll do?”

  “I won’t leave her to burn. I can’t.”

  “Anna, she came here to die. Said so herself!”

  “No, Donny, she came here to rescue her little brother. She was willing to die to save him. That’s not the same as getting burned alive for no good reason!”

  “Are you willing to get burned alive for no good reason? ‘Cause that’s sure as hell what’s gonna happen if you go back there!”

  Anna dug her heels into the floor and grabbed the edge of a doorframe, bringing the party to a halt.

  Donny grabbed her arm. “You made me a promise, Anna, an’ I’m holdin’ you to it.”

  “I helped you get Maybelle! Just follow Jane, you’ll all be out of this place in three minutes. Besides, I’m the one that saved you, remember, not the other way around. I don’t owe you anything, but I do owe Dolores.”

  Anna saw Donny blush bright red. He let go of her arm. “Anna, please, come with us to the woods. Let’s take Maybelle to safety, and your girls. Once everybody’s safe, you and I’ll come back together. We’re a team, Anna.”

  “There’s no time, Donny. You saw how fast they’re working. They want to make sure to get her burnt before Joseph breaks through…” Something flashed inside her head, crisp as a lightning bolt. “I got it! I know how to save her without getting caught! Listen, get those girls out of here. If there is a cross on the kitchen door, get rid of it. I will be right behind you!”

  An explosion at the far end of the kitchen rocked the entire structure. Electricity arced along the ceiling and down one wall, setting one of the tattered tapestries ablaze. A slab of charred plaster dropped from the ceiling and shattered across the floor. Lilly screamed.

  “I found it!” Lizzy yelled, “I found the door! Hurry up before we get blown to smithereens!”

  “Anna…” Donny started.

  Jane, who had been holding Anna’s other arm, released her and stepped between them. To Donny she said, “Dolores saved us from starving to death.” She turned to Anna, “Can you get her out without getting caught?”

  Anna nodded.

  Jane embraced her and pecked her on the cheek. “Then go do it.” She shoved Anna toward the rotunda. Anna staggered backward, amazed. Jane yelled, “Go!” then grabbed Donny’s arm and dragged him in the other direction. Donny struggled against her, but Jane stood at least a foot taller than he, and outweighed him by thirty pounds. Anna lifted a hand to him, then turned and fled back onto the balcony.

  Chapter 19

  Joseph’s hand responded to Anna’s presence the minute she slipped into Abbess McCain’s office. That terrified Anna, but also gave her hope. Dolores had said that every piece of him retained his will and his awareness. If he could see through the eyes of a bird that had pecked his flesh, or pecked the flesh of some other dead thing that had once eaten him, then Anna suspected she could communicate to him through his hand.

  Another explosion shook the orphanage, an electric missile slammed through the office next to McCain’s. The bolt struck an exterior patio just beyond the glass doors, blowing it clean off the old stones. Electric fingers danced across the interior walls, like cracks through shattering glass, humming and sputtering. Then
, as quickly as they had appeared, they were gone, leaving behind an acrid, nostril-burning stench.

  Anna screamed eeeeeeee! in her head and scooped Joseph’s hand off the desk. It immediately grasped hers, firm but gentle. Anna didn’t flinch. She grabbed the third needle and yanked it out of his palm.

  “Joseph,” she yelled at the mummified hand, “I can let you in. I’ll show you how. But you have to promise not to hurt my friends. Tell your animals to let my friends get to the woods safely! Can you hear me? Do you understand?”

  Joseph’s fingers twitched, squeezing her hand twice. Did that mean he had heard? Or maybe electrical storms summoned by a witch made dead hands twitch. That explanation was just as reasonable as the other.

  Anna tried to think, tried to calculate how much time had elapsed since she left Donny and the girls. She clearly remembered Jane dragging Donny away from her. He had tears in his eyes. She had waved at him and run for the balcony. Had she sprinted or crawled around the rotunda? She couldn’t remember. Nor could she know whether Donny had resigned to leave her and escape with his sister or if he continued to struggle.

  The tumult made it impossible to think. She did not want her girls meeting Joseph on the storm-thrashed beach, or in the crumbling kitchen. She wanted them all the way deep in the forest before Joseph was anywhere near this place. But, Anna had long ago given up on getting what she wanted. What she needed was Joseph inside the orphanage. And she needed it now.

  “The kitchen!” she screamed at the hand. “My friends are clearing a path for you through the kitchen. Use the entrance above the dock, the one you led me out. Come now. Come take your hand. Leave my friends alone!”

  The hand spasmed, dry skin crinkling and flaking. Anna placed it back on McCain’s desk, but it would not release her hand. Anna yelled, “Let go!” and tried to shake it off, but the hand clung to her. Fine! I’ll be seeing you soon enough, I suspect. She headed for the door with Joseph’s hand clutching hers.