The Sister(165)

It never ceased to amaze her how people denied the existence of God, yet readily embraced the possibility of alien life. There was no time to tell him everything. She reached out without warning and touched him.

If the stone had sparked an explosion, her touch was like planets colliding, an atom bomb. All resistance fell before it, scorching his senses; his thoughts flattened like trees as her experiences translated into impressions and came in a blizzard of wind, raining down on him from the Armageddon inside of her. He felt like a man who had tasted the sweet, heady nectar of life for the very first time. It enveloped him, and he wanted more.

Their histories exchanged in a matter of seconds, but this time she lost all control over what passed. Connections forged between them, which could not be undone.

Echoes of her past mingled with his. The black hole in his memory swallowed them up and regurgitated them as his own, there was no way of knowing if they actually belonged to him. It meant it would be a long time before he could pick them apart again.

Random voices and images ran through his consciousness.

A garish, modern, neon lit church appeared. A voice followed, ‘You must find another place to live or he’ll find you!’

Me or her?

‘There are many devils that walk this earth, and he is one of them. He has many faces.’

Pain, sorrow and guilt chained him with unhappiness and held him down; a vision formed of a choirboy sitting on a pew outside a confessional. He’d deliberately timed his confession, moving back in the queue three times, so remained the last to go in. How do I know this? A scene from the past played out in his head.





‘Bless me father for I have sinned, it’s been too long since my last full confession. Since then I’ve decided you’ll not be manipulating me into any more of your vile practices father. I didn’t know before, I was only ten years old, but I know it’s wrong now.’

The priest was calm. ‘You want to turn your back on all the special privileges your position brings? You no longer want to be in the choir?’

The boy blurted, ‘I’ll not be doing those things anymore. It’s against God and nature, and it stops now!’

The priest hissed through the grille, ‘It stops when I say it stops—’

‘No, Father, it stops now or I go to the police!’

‘Then go to the police, do you think they will take the word of an illegitimate orphan against the word of a priest?’

The boy didn’t make it out of the church grounds. The priest murdered him.

Miller saw it all. Head between his knees, he covered his face and then sat up abruptly at the gravelly sound of his grandfather’s voice. ‘Sometimes you find stray thoughts and tune in. Sometimes they are like ghosts in the air. Strong like they were from one hour ago, or yesterday. Only the strong ones mean anything; otherwise they wouldn’t be out there.’

He was in freefall. Thoughts manifested; scenes unfolded. Not all belonged to him. A man dressed in khaki, a tall girl. Bruce, I told you not to go off! Where are you? Bruce! His mother’s voice. What is she doing here? Wandering absently, he telescoped skywards, a birds-eye view looking down. A little boy tripped over, jumping stones. Faces, hidden for years by time and trauma, came back to him. More and more was stacking up; he couldn’t process the information fast enough.

‘Move on now, and tell no one,’ Sister said. The enigma that was her smile became clearer.

Moving on... Miller had been planning to do that for years, the perfect excuse to indulge his dark side at last, he felt as powerful as her. A crazily related thought popped into his head. How would you like to come back to my place for drinks? You would? How lovely. Just pop that sack on your head for me. Oh, boy!

His head spun with impossible velocity and just as he thought he’d pass out, it stopped abruptly.

All track of time had been lost. They stared at each other. Miller had a curious smile on his lips. He was first to break the silence.

‘So that’s what happened to you. .When Ryan tried to contact you again, you had left for Rome. The church recognised you were gifted and they trained you, effectively to use the gift for the good of people.’ He had a better grip on how the information had transferred itself into him.

‘That’s right.’ Her eyes shone. ‘They wouldn’t have wanted me to work for the other side now, would they?’

‘It might have been easier,’ Miller joked.

She smiled at him; eyes wide with warmth, green and bright as the newest leaves that caught the light of the sun in the treetops. ‘Aye, it might, but I chose the right way. I had to ask myself, would I give my soul to have everything in the here and now knowing I'd be damned forever? It was, as they say, no contest.’





The church had had enough of damaging publicity and was looking for ways to fight back. Vera had arrived at just the right time. Besieged by claims of child abuse and at a time when congregations were diminishing year on year; they needed someone capable of sniffing out the corrupt priests and the bishops that protected them. She became a soldier of the church. Known as The Sister; she answered directly to Rome. She became disillusioned with the way they dealt with the priests she handed them on a plate. They had sent them off to work in other parishes, where after a period of grace, the abuse would begin all over again. She’d lost confidence in the Church’s ability to punish their own. Preferring, it seemed, to rely on the day of judgement to administer their justice. The final straw was Father O' Donohue. She’d exposed him, and all they did was send him to another parish. She tried to leave; they refused her resignation. In despair, she ran away. She never forgot Father O'Donohue. He, who would become a child killer. Forbidden to intervene, she had to watch like a wildlife cameraman. Some things had to happen, before other things could.