Something Knocking by Kate Bold

Author:Kate Bold [Bold, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kate Bold
Published: 2023-07-17T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Sister Fiona gasped and sat bolt upright, clutching her chest. Her heart pounded rapidly and her ears hummed from the force of the blood rushing to her head. She got out of her cot, shaking, her breath coming in shallow gasps.

She tried to recall the nightmare she’d had immediately before waking. Something about judgment and hellfire, God casting the unbelievers, sinners, and idolaters into everlasting torment. Father Vincenzo’s sermon had been on the book of Revelations this past mass. She must have been dreaming of that.

Why couldn’t she catch her breath?

A sharp pain seized her chest. She gasped again and doubled over. Two drops of blood fell from her mouth and stained the floor underneath her. She stared at them, eyes widening.

“Oh no,” she whispered. “No, no, no.”

Everyone had heard of the demon attacking convents in Abruzzo. The Vatican had dispatched Father Emilio Carbone, the famous exorcist, to banish the devil, but he had only just arrived. He must not have banished the demon yet.

“Oh no, no, no!” she cried, stumbling out of her room into the cloister. “Help!” she cried, her voice choking.

The demon had come for her. It was coming to kill her. It was coming to drag her soul to hell!

She clutched at the rosary around her neck, but the moment her hands touched the beads, another stab of pain shot through her. She gasped and fell to her knees.

Her eyes swam with blood. Why was the demon coming for her? What had she done? She had done nothing! She was a sinner like all others, a sinner saved by the merciful grace of the Lord but she had committed no great sin, no reason for this! How had she sinned that God would abandon her to—

Then she realized. She had allowed certain thoughts to enter her mind. She’d allowed curiosity to become stronger than that. She’d allowed curiosity to become desire and this past year, the reality that she had agreed to spend her life celibate, never feeling the love of another, never feeling the warmth of a man’s body next to hers, never knowing the joy of bearing children… She’d considered leaving the convent.

But she hadn’t!

She had thought of leaving, but she hadn’t left! Not yet!

But I was, she thought with terrible certainty. I hadn’t yet, but I was going to. I was going to leave as surely as I was going to ask the handsome baker out to coffee when I left. Not yet. Yet. The word was terrible. Yet.

“Oh God, no!” she cried, “Please, Lord! I am sorry! Forgive me!”

She tried to regain her feet, but another stab of pain caused her to collapse to the floor of the cloister. She fell forward flat but she exerted a great deal of effort to lift her upper body off the floor. Her vision swam, but she could make out the shapes of her sisters, her faithful sisters, rushing to her side. She couldn’t see the alarm in their faces, and she couldn’t hear the cries of their voices, but she could imagine them.

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