The second time she had met Donna, the woman had spent an entire dinner party talking to everyone but Anna in the most obvious manner possible. Mike had been angry, but Anna was the one who lost her temper that time. She and Mike had been forced to leave early before it could devolve into more than an embarrassing argument between them.
The last time Anna had seen Donna was when she and Mike had met her to sign the rental agreement. Anna had been quite certain that she had seen less paperwork during the entirety of her divorce from her first husband. Reams of paperwork were stacked on the table and Donna kept making exasperated noises as Anna tried to carefully read each paragraph. During this, Donna made it explicitly clear that she was doing this as a favor to her nephew only, and that she had plenty of other interested renters. Which, all things considered, was fairly mild on the bitchy scale and Anna was largely able to ignore it. She did however take great delight in dragging out her careful read through of the contract to see how severe she could get the tic in Donna’s left eye to become.
The stated slew of other renters, of course, had been a lie.
They had gone to view the house not long after Mike had brought the possibility to her attention. It was a fairly standard looking two-story house. Not as cookie-cutter as some of the neighboring houses, but modest and understated in its design. Beige siding offset by neat white trim around the windows and doors, plain and unremarkable. The outside was well maintained, but there was a forlorn air about the house that could be felt, suggesting that it had been sometime since the inside had been occupied.
The front door was the predominant feature of the house’s exterior. It was a heavy wooden piece that looked far older than the rest of the house. There were two large full-length windows on either side of it, with dark curtains draped across them. It had given Anna the impression of a sad-eyed hound. Mike had run his hands along the door’s frame, noting where it didn’t seem to fit quite right and muttering about having to reseal it if they moved in. All Anna could think about was getting rid of the window curtains.
Anna had asked around about the property after they left and was told there was a long list of missing persons that seemed to come up attached to it. Mike had confided in her that Donna had gotten the house cheap for that very reason. Anna would admit to a certain amount of disquiet at the revelation, but it was a cheap option and they had never planned to stay for very long. Anna set aside the misgivings, reasoning the house could have whatever questionable history it wanted, that it would never be as terrible as some of her foster homes growing up.
Mike’s amused laughter pulled Anna’s thoughts back to the present.
“Donna has three houses. I bet she forgot we were even here,” he said, shaking his head.
Anna rolled her eyes and tickled Claire, who giggled and squirmed. “Three houses, huh? I’m excited to finally have one!”
“I know, and here you thought it would never happen,” Mike teased her, tugging on a still slightly damp lock of dark hair.
Anna smiled softly at him.
“I didn’t,” she agreed. “We’ve come a long way.”
It sometimes still seemed like a dream she might wake up from at any moment.
“Understatement,” Mike said with an amused smile, producing a photograph from somewhere next to him. “Look what I found.”
Anna snatched it from his hands and promptly groaned at the image. It was of her, heavily pregnant with Claire and looking like she had just walked out of a goth nightclub. She was dressed in black baggy pants that seemed to be mostly made up of buckles and pockets, with a black lace-collared shirt made for someone three-times her weight in lieu of a proper maternity outfit. Her arms were adorned with clunky silver jewelry from wrist to elbow. She had at least four piercings in each ear, one in her nose, and two in her left eyebrow. Her past self stared out at the camera with a slightly haunted look that sent a shiver of remembered pain down her spine. Anna flipped the photo over to see the scribbled date of “Jan 2008” on the back.
“Where did you even find this?” Anna demanded, shaking her head at the image of her younger self and trying to push away the associated memories.
Claire had been the only bright spot from that time in her life, but Mike’s amusement at the image was infectious.
“Your sister gave it to me,” he said with a grin.
Anna scowled at the photograph. Of course Tricia would have photos. She made a mental note to call her sister at some point this week and chew her out for saving them. Tricia would find Anna’s revenge to be swift and pointed. Possibly in the form of a glitter-infested scrapbook.
Anna rolled her eyes. “Can we lose it in the move?”
“No,” Mike said, snatching the photo back. “You’d regret it.”
“Maybe you would,” Anna muttered under her breath.
Mike carefully tucked the photo away in a box as if it was something he found precious. Anna still didn’t really understand how someone like Mike, a well-respected oral surgeon, had ever given her a second look. They had met after Anna had gotten out of rehab. Claire had been utterly terrified of seeing the dentist so Anna had coaxed her into going by promising to go first.
Anna hadn’t anticipated exactly what toll her former lifestyle had taken on her mouth. She’d been referred to an emergency oral surgeon almost at once. Mike, as the junior member on staff, had been the only one in the practice with room in his schedule. Several visits of awkward flirting later, Mike had finally asked her out on a date. For Anna, the whole thing seemed like the unlikely plot of some Hollywood rom-com, but she had decided to take the chance. It had arguably been the best decision of her life.
Sometimes though, it still seemed almost too good to be true.
“You’re not gonna make me, like, change my look or anything right? Ditch the nose ring, go blonde?” Anna asked suddenly.
Mike laughed incredulously, then frowned when he realized that Anna had not.
Some of the anxiety she’d been pushing away for the past few weeks bubbled up to the surface as she thought about her younger self in the photo. Anna had toned down her old gothic look quite a bit since marrying Mike. She’d gotten rid of most of the piercings save for one in each ear and her nose-ring, and while her clothes still tended to be dark, she did wear more than black on black. None of that, however, meant that she wanted to look like what a proper suburban housewife probably should. She tried to picture herself in some frilly pastel sundress and failed.
“You’re serious?” Mike asked.
Anna tilted her head to the side, half-shrugging while trying not to disturb Claire.
“We’re moving to such a nice neighborhood and your position is so big I don’t want to—”
Mike cut her off with swift kiss. He pulled back and fixed her with a serious expression.
“Never,” he assured her firmly. “It’s who I married.”
He kissed her again and then paused as if considering something.
“Just maybe let’s not go back to the ‘08 look?”
Anna snorted. That was easily done.
“Deal,” she agreed.
They all headed back inside when there was a break in the rain, splitting up in separate directions in the house to finish up any last-minute tasks. Anna walked through the upstairs hallway, checklist firmly in hand as she tried to surmise what was left to be taken care of. Anna knew she might have been a little obsessive about the move, but this was a big step and she wanted this to go well. A new life, and a fresh start. That was what she wanted now more than anything, even if…
Crash!
Anna jumped at the sudden noise behind her. Had Mike dropped something? She turned around and walked into the spare room where it sounded like the noise had come from. Anna had been certain that Mike was still downstairs with Claire. Hopefully it had been nothing too fragile. She couldn’t even think of anything they had in that room, save for extra moving boxes they had set up and ended up not nee
ding. Anna looked down to see “breakdown extra boxes” still unchecked. Maybe Mike had started in on that and had tripped on something. Anna pushed open the door and frowned.
The room was empty.
No Mike looking sheepish, just an old cardboard box, overturned on the floor with its contents spilled out around it. Anna crouched down to inspect it, none of the objects familiar to her. The cardboard was damaged and musty smelling, not one of the crisp new ones still stacked in the corner. The word STAY was harshly scrawled in large letters along one side. In front of it there was an old, leather bound bible, the gold print on the cover peeling away in places as if well worn by many fingers. On top of a stack of faded documents that appeared to be old church records, there was a large silver crucifix, remarkably untarnished and still gleaming brightly.
Anna shifted the crucifix off to the side to rifle through the records. She flicked through them, the paper brittle beneath her fingers as she carefully turned each page. Much of it looked to be donation records, items, amount, and benefactor each listed in neat, handwritten columns. Anna chuckled to herself at some of the odder donations listed. The taxidermy bat was probably her favorite.
An old black and white photograph had skidded the furthest away in the tumble. It was of a group of nuns and a priest standing grouped together outside what Anna assumed was their convent. Anna picked it up, staring down into the grayscale eyes of a young nun in the very front. She frowned at the picture, gently running her fingers over it. The nun looked so haunted, so sad. It was the same look she had seen in the photo of her younger self.
Anna found herself half-hoping that the young nun had found some sort of solace. She supposed that it was one of the reasons a person would become a nun. There was a lot to give up on that path, but she could understand wanting to find peace at any cost. At least a nunnery was a healthier choice than drugs.
Anna couldn’t figure out why Donna would have a box of old church stuff. She had never seemed the type. Still, it was obviously not one of theirs and the daylight was fading. Anna cleaned up the scattered items and headed over to the nearby open closest where they appeared to have fallen from. She didn’t spare any further thought to how the box had managed to tumble so far away on its own. Her mind back on her checklist, she headed off to find Mike.
Mike was trying to shove the pizza box into the kitchen trash when she finally located him.
“You okay up there? I heard a crash?” He asked, looking up as she entered the room.
“I found some old church stuff of your aunt’s. It had fallen off the closet shelf in the spare room.”
“Church stuff? My aunt is a lot of things, but a church girl definitely isn’t one of them,” Mike said wryly.
Anna snorted as she handed over the checklist. She definitely had to agree with Mike on that point.
“Everything’s all packed,” she informed him happily.
“Good. Now let’s hope we didn’t take any of her stuff on accident. We’ll never hear the end of it.”
Anna could only imagine the accusations that would fly if they had. She smirked and moved closer to him.
“You’re just lucky you don’t have to be the one to deal with her tomorrow,” she mock-accused, lightly poking his chest with her fingers.
Mike leaned in closer. “I am.”
Anna tilted her head back to look up at him coyly.
“You might have to find a way to make it up to me.”
He smirked in response.
“I might,” he agreed in a low voice, lips almost brushing hers.
Anna grinned mischievously at him, grabbed the trash bag out of his hand and sauntered away. Mike’s laughter followed her into the garage.
It was still raining even as the afternoon wore on into evening, the sound amplified against the roof of the garage. Anna dumped the trash bag into the large bin just as her phone started to vibrate in her pocket. Once her hands were free of their burden she pulled it out to check the ID. Her heart leaped into her throat as she saw the display read “INCOMING CALL: LEX.”
Anna bit her lip hard, unwilling tears pricking at her eyes as a thousand different memories suddenly played themselves out in her head.
She and Lex had met in high school, the perpetual outcasts bonding together against the world. He had been older than her by a couple of years and teenage Anna thought he was the coolest person ever. The fact that he had paid attention to a skinny little nobody like her had blown her mind. That had been Anna’s first taste of addiction, the thrill of being noticed, wanted. Lex had been so attentive to her, wanted to be around her all the time and was always asking what she was up to. Anna had been too naive to see the warning signs for what they were.
She viciously jabbed the decline button and shoved the phone back into her pocket. She only made it another two steps back towards the house when it buzzed again. Half reluctantly, she pulled it out to look at the screen. “VOICEMAIL: LEX” was emblazoned across a banner under the date and time.
Anna hesitated, her finger hovering over the option to listen. There were a million reasons to just ignore it. A million good reasons.
She pressed play.
A voice sounded out from the phone’s speakers, slurred and oh-so-familiar.
“Hey Anna, it’s Lex. Call me. I want to catch up, maybe see Claire. I heard you were moving up to Ridgedale of all places and I thought we could—”
Anna could feel the tears pricking at her eyes as she quickly hung up. She typed out a quick text message reading, “If you call this number again, I am calling the cops.” She reread the message twice before deleting it.
That was behind her now. She needed to let it go.
Anna headed back into the house, shoving her phone back into her pocket with a grim expression.
Chapter 2:
The rain had finally let up by the time night had fallen. Anna peaked into Claire’s room, wanting to tuck her in before heading off to bed herself. The room itself didn’t seem like a child’s bedroom at all. The walls were plain, beige with a single cream accent wall. The curtains over the windows were off-white and impersonal. The lighting fixtures were simple, unadorned brass. Even the bed was plain hardwood. Mike’s aunt would have had fifty fits had they tried to do anything that would have personalized the space for the ten-year-old.
Anna couldn’t wait to help decorate Claire’s room at the new house. She smiled widely as her eyes landed on a giggling lump under the floral-print covers.
“Claire?” She singsonged, playing along.
Anna made sure to make a great show of looking around the room as she entered.
“Where is she? She’s got a big day tomorrow?”
The lump giggled again and shifted slightly.
“I know I heard something… is she in here?!”
Anna bit back a smirk as she opened the closet door and pretended to be surprised to find it empty.
“No! How about in here?”
Anna pulled open a nightstand drawer and the lump giggled louder. She circled around the bed, preparing to pounce.
“Maybe she’s under - here!”
Anna pulled back the covers with a dramatic flourish, only to find the bed empty.
“Mom?”
Anna jumped and whirled around, her heart almost galloping in her chest as Claire, dressed in her pjs and hair freshly wet from the shower, fixed her with a confused look from the doorway.
“You sure are a good hider,” Anna said in a slightly stunned voice.
Claire just looked even more confused.
“I wasn’t hiding,” she said, hopping up onto the bed.
“Sure,” Anna replied, trying to swallow back her own confused fear with an attempt at normality. “Did you brush your teeth?”
Claire tilted her head back and proudly showed off her freshly brushed teeth. Living with an oral surgeon meant dental hygiene was of paramount importance to their family.
“Perfect. Excited
to move into your new room tomorrow?” Anna asked, sitting down on the edge of the bed to tuck the covers in around her daughter.
“Very,” Claire said with an eager smile.
“Can you believe it, your very own room?”
“This is my room,” Claire said, as if she didn’t quite grasp the distinction.
“Not some boring guest room, your own room. One you can decorate however you want.”
Claire shrugged. “I’m just happy I don’t have to sleep on the floor like the old house.”
Anna’s heart broke a little at the declaration, and she reached out to smooth some of the damp locks away from her daughter’s face. Claire had still been pretty young when Anna had finally divorced Lex, but the memories she did have of that time were the sort of memories that Anna had never wanted for her daughter. It was during these moments that Anna remembered all the reasons she had worked so hard to get to where she was now.
“Me too,” Anna said, voice soft.
“Can I paint my walls black?” Claire asked with sudden enthusiasm.
“Black?!”
“I like black.”
Anna couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s probably my fault.”
They both turned at the sound of a loud thud from the hallway. Anna tensed, still not entirely calm from the strange incident from before. Had she only imagined Claire under the covers? She looked over at her daughter who was frowning slightly. Anna shook herself, trying to ignore the sense of unease that curled uncomfortably in her chest.
“Uh-oh,” Anna smiled, ready to play it off for Claire’s sake. “Sounds like Daddy knocked something over.”
Claire’s expression cleared and she brought her hand to her mouth to stifle a giggle. Anna smiled in response, some of her tension easing.
Curse of the Nun Page 2