Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
After washing up, I rejoined the mostly empty sanctuary a half minute later than the other nuns who were already dutifully seated in the first row pew. My gaze fell first to Sister Lilith as I took my seat at the end of the row next to Sister Pandorian.
My water angel herself flexed her jaw as if she were literally biting her tongue in an effort not to turn and face me.
Was I that difficult to ignore? Something about that felt satisfying.
Reverend Mother stared straight ahead at the altar as I settled in, bible on my lap.
Our leader didn’t spare me a singular glance of her cold hazel hue.
Did Veilentine look upon the altar and think of the things we’d just done?
Did that cross necklace of hers baring my teeth marks slip her notice?
Or had she fulfilled her sacred duty of instilling the Holy Spirit within me and had moved on to her next task?
Delilyx inched a quarter inch closer to Pandorian, their knees slightly touching the other. It seemed they were often finding excuses to touch each other. I wondered what sort of prayers they were sharing after hours… my, what a twisted lot of spirits this sanctuary housed.
A door creaked from the side of the altar, and Father Benedict shuffled onto the stage.
We stood, bowing our heads and receiving his morning blessings as he clutched the pulpit.
Everyone’s eyes were closed, but I peeked open one eye to glance at Sister Lilith.
With a flash of blue, my heart jolted as I caught her doing the same.
Her cheeks flushed the same rosy shade they had as I’d sucked on her nipples in the lake.
The morning blessing ended and rattled on into a short word from scripture.
While Reverend Mother sat next to Sister Lilith, paying rapt attention to a psalm she no doubt knew better than the priest himself, it was the visiting nun who couldn’t seem to pull her gaze from me.
It wasn’t the prioress who’d just strangled me with her cross necklace and fucked me in the ass.
Though, to be fair, my attention wasn’t wholly drawn to her either.
My thoughts, my focus, my desire… settled onto the blond-haired enigma at the other end of the pew.
The visiting nun who I’d been charged to look after and show around.
God had told Reverend Mother that Sister Lilith should be taken under my wing.
Which furthered a theory I’d already come to on my own after years of biblical study, wise counsel, and theological pursuits… god was an idiot.
Four more half glances, no more caught, only missed with a flutter of lashes, and our morning prayers ended. After a final blessing, Father Benedict silently motioned with a wrinkled hand for Reverend Mother to follow him. She answered with a solemn nod and tucked her bible under her arm.
We stood as she turned to address us. “Go on about your tasks. I will meet you all in town for today’s visits.
” She spun on her heel before stopping and turning her attention to me, as if she only then remembered I was there.
“Sister Jezebella, you will do as instructed and be Sister Lilith’s escort for the duration of her stay. ”
The blue-eyed nun glanced between us with wide eyes. “Reverend Mother, truly, I do not require—”
“That is final,” Veilentine cut her off with thinly concealed exasperation. “Now, I must go over this coming Sunday’s sermon notes with Father Benedict. If you’ll excuse me, Sisters.”
Delilyx skipped over as Sister Lilith and I stood awkwardly, mouths half gaping as we sought words in the wake of Reverend Mother’s command. “Did you look on the inside of your tunic?” Sister Delilyx asked with a sparkle in her big brown eyes.
“Did I…” I pulled my gaze from Sister Lilith. “No, should I?”
Sister Pandorian nudged Delilyx with her elbow. “Take a look or she won’t let you leave, I’m sure of it.”
Delilyx bounced on her heels. “Near the collar.”
I adjusted my white collar and peeled back the black robes near my breastbone. A huff of laughter left my throat as a red, sewn-on shape appeared. “Is that a… heart?”
“Do you like it? Don’t tell Reverend Mother if you don’t. Or anyone. Don’t tell anyone.”
“What’s it mean?”
“It means,” Pandorian answered, “you’re her friend and she likes you.”
A small smile warmed my face. “Is this what you’re doing in-between your laundry rounds?”
Sister Delilyx nodded. “It’s nice to have a little pop of whimsy somewhere. Plus, it’s on the inside, so it’s not distracting from our vows or drawing any attention.” She shrugged. “I figure god would be okay with it.”
Sister Lilith watched us as if we were kittens in a box—with both delight and confusion.
I reached out, taking Delilyx in my embrace. “It’s beautiful.” I spared Sister Lilith a quick glance. “I was just thinking yesterday about how I missed color.”
“An answered prayer!” Sister Delilyx clapped. “Now, if only the bats would bring back my bible.”
“I’m sorry, what did you say?” Sister Lilith asked in a small voice. “Did you say that bats took your bible?”
Sister Delilyx nodded seriously. “They’ve made me their target. I am paying penance for some unconfessed sin.” She let out a sigh.
“I don’t believe that is true… or possible.” Sister Lilith furrowed her brows.
Sister Pandorian wrapped an arm around the downcast, freckled faced, heart-sewing nun. “Says who? You?”
Sister Lilith straightened. “Well, yes. You’re doing her no favors by feeding delusion. Perhaps she should retrace her steps instead of blaming imaginary noctule.”
Sister Delilyx looked down at her feet and replied with a barely audible whisper, “They aren’t imaginary.”
“Noctule.” I toyed with the name as the corner of my mouth lifted. “Nice word. Did they teach you that at The Church of the Damned?”
Delilyx let out a small huff of a giggle and glanced back up.
Sister Lilith bristled at that. “The Abbey of Silent Damnation is my church. You’d do well to learn some respect, Sister Jezebella.”
“I’m sure your church is missing you greatly,” Sister Pandorian said. “Perhaps you should hurry back. Or, I don’t know, maybe you can’t… they did send you away, didn’t they?”
I interjected, feeling Pandorian’s growing ire mix with the newcomer’s reluctance to back down from this random battle of the nuns. “Well, you all heard Reverend Mother. We should head into town. Miss Honey will surely be waiting over the stove until we arrive.”
Pandorian leveled Lilith with one last stare as fiery as the red hair beneath her head covering. “Fine. You two see to Miss Honey and Fourth Street to Pire Road. We’ll take Wilson Henry and up to Fourth.”
“Sounds good. See you guys back here for lunch.” I looped my arm into Sister Lilith’s and urged her away.
Reluctantly, she followed me out of the stuffy sanctuary, down the hall, and out the mudroom into the backyard.
The moment the soles of my thin shoes met soggy grass and my lungs inhaled moist, cool air, my shoulders sagged in relief.
Though the thorn in my side wavered close by, lingering at the wrought iron gate.
A puff of air resembling smoke flew from my exhale. “You sure know how to make a first impression, don’t you?”
Sister Lilith crossed her arms and cocked her hip in an annoyingly distracting way. “Fools die for lack of wisdom. Proverbs ten verse twenty-one.”
“Are you seriously quoting the bible to me right now?”
Sister Lilith tilted her chin. Ever the pious nun, huh?
I took a step closer. “First Corinthians one, twenty-five. The foolishness of god is wiser than men, and the weakness of god is stronger than men.”
“What does that even mean?”
“You’re the nun, Sister Lilith, you tell me.”
With her own puff of smoke, she put her hands on her hips. “Yes, I am a nun. What about you, Sister Jezebella? What kind of nun are you?”
I took another step forward. “I could ask you the same.”
Sister Lilith glanced towards the windows of the convent before looking back at me and whispering harshly, “What kind of nun swims naked and alone in the forest?”
“What kind of nun lets a woman worship her breasts, naked and alone in the forest?”
Her jaw dropped, as if doing it weren’t as provocative as saying it out loud. “Don’t smirk at me like that.”
“Like what? Like this?” I smiled.
Sister Lilith shook her head, biting the corner of her mouth as if she could bite back her own errant grin. “Demon lips.”
Moths I thought long dead and taxidermied in the window of my soul creaked their wings to life and fluttered at the nickname. Our secret code. Proof it was all real, it had all happened, and even behind our black and white garb and bible verses—it couldn’t be wholly hidden from view.
Resting my hand on the iron gate right by her, boxing her in ever so slightly, I allowed myself what all my brief glances in church begged me for—a longer look at her. “Angel eyes,” I whispered.
Pink spread across her cheeks.
With a flick of my wrist, the gate unlatched, and I pushed it open. “Shall we?”
“Let us serve the lord through the good people of Howl Moor.” Sister Lilith straightened, walking through the fence.
“Eating Miss Honey’s potato patties will certainly feel like some sort of service, I’ll tell you that.”
Lilith giggled, and the sound lit up the moths within me again. “Bless her heart. I’m not much of a cook myself.”
We fell into a steady stroll down the grassy hill. “So, what were you doing in the forest yesterday?”
“The same as you, I suppose.”
“Catching moths to add to your dead insect collection? Fancy that, I’ve never met another with my hobby.”
Lilith whipped her head around. “That’s grotesque. Your prioress allows you to do such a thing?”
“Reverend Mother Veilentine is… unconventional.”
“My Prioress Lamia is what convention itself follows.”
“Sounds dreadful. My last convent was like that, too.”
“This is not your first? Your vows were not taken at The Altar Church of Lost Souls?”