Red Eyed Nuns and Their Habits

Vf

They do not give warning to their appearance and never speak. The soft black cloth they wear does not stand out from the normal garb of other nuns. The only feature that makes you second guess are the white clay masks they wear. Flat, smooth and blank. Only two holes for peering eyes to see through. They walk in a diamond formation of four. No one knows if there are more than four, just that they are only seen in one group at a time.

Varied only in height, they always look the same. When moving together, they walk closely to each other, making it look as if it were one large black bed sheet moving along the wind. They do not wear any shoes and always have their hands clasped at their chests and heads tilted down, as if in prayer.

There seems to be no reason that they walk the streets at night. They will go to a random house and knock three times, with light scratching at the door frame. If there is no answer, they will simply move on.

A young woman is tending to her baby. A reminder of the man that left her, she did not resent the child. She placed him in a crib and hummed a soft song. Turning the handle of the door as it closed as to not make a sound, she hears the nuns at her door.

Knock

Knock

Knock

Scratch

The young woman knows the sign of the nuns, the image of their masks flashes in her mind’s eye, only for a moment. She’s heard of these nuns and their odd behaviors from her mother. Her heart races, but for no other reason than to have something else to focus on. She tells herself not to go to the door, but something clawed at the back of her hot neck, telling her to go answer the door. There was no reason to be afraid, as there has been no reports of the nuns bothering anyone other than with idle conversations.

She slowly inches to the door, readying her shaking fingers to open the latch and swing the door open slowly. Thoughts raced in her head and she practiced internally what she was going to say. “How can I help you?”, “What do you need?”, “Have you any idea what time it is?”, “Forgive my bluntness, but please leave me be.”. She could not agree on what to say.

She slowly pushed down on the door handle and opened the door slowly. She saw the shadows of their habits and gowns before her eyes adjusted to the dark silhouettes cast by the street light behind the group. The image came into focus and she did not have to guess at what she was seeing any longer. She saw the four nuns standing together, one in front, two in the middle and the last one in the back. It was hard to tell where one of their bodies began and where the other ended, as the black fabrics seemed to twist together in the soft breeze. She could smell something faint, like the smoke of a funeral. Like the canisters that priests swing with the rhythm of the dead leaving this earth.

“We do not mean to disturb you mam, but may we have a moment of your time?” The voice of the nun in front asked. Startled by the sound, the young woman braced herself against the half opened door. The nuns voice echoed in her mask, as if she was talking into a ceramic tea kettle.

“It’s quite late.” the woman responded, shook by her own frankness.

“We understand this, and we are terribly sorry” the nun to the left said “but you see, our sister has given herself a cut on her hand” the nun in the back lifted her hand forward, showing the scarlet ribbon running down, clasped by the other hand as if to hold the blood in. “Would you mind if we bothered you for some bandage so we mare care for the wound?”

The woman lowered her hands to her side, un-clenching her fists. “How did she get cut?” she asked.

The nun in front answered.

“We were walking around the neighborhood and were picking up some broken glass bottles at the park down the street. She is often clumsy with such delicate things, we asked her not to help, but little can be done to ease her worried soul.” The nun looked behind her at the cut, making the hurt nun turn her head away in embarrassment. “She really should take better care with dangerous things.”

The young woman thought for a moment.

“Why ask my house? You must have passed at least half a dozen on your walk from the park. Was no one else able to answer?” She said, looking down to her neighbors front porches, flood lights above the garages slowly turning off one by one. Indicating that the group had passed these houses already.

“”We had tried their doors, with no answer.” the nun to the right responded. “We heard you humming, so we thought we would not be too much of a bother as you were already awake.”

The woman stared at the group and back into her house, dimly lit by the kitchen light. “How did they hear me?” She thought. It couldn’t have been loud enough for even someone downstairs to hear, let alone someone outside the home.

“If we are being too disruptive, we understand” The nun in the back said, breaking the silence. “I do not wish to be a burden.”

The nun said this in a very calming voice. The young woman did not see it as a burden. The group in front of her no longer seemed to frighten her.

“Would you mind coming inside? I do not want to make you wait out here.” The young woman opened her door completely and waved her hand in, beckoning them to enter.

The nuns looked at each other and whispered.

“We do not wish to put you out,” The front nun spoke “But if you insist, we don’t have much say in the matter.” The group filed into her home. The young lady motioned for them to sit in the family room, with a couch and a few love seats.

“I don’t have much to offer guests, times a tight. But may I offer you some tea?” The young woman asked, turning a lamp on beside the window.

“We eat very well at the coven, but plainly. We do not allow ourselves such stimulants.” One of them said, taking a seat next to her sister. It was difficult keeping track of where their original positions in the formation were.

“Oh, I understand” the woman said, sheepishly “I apologize, I didn’t mean to tease you.”

One of the nuns assured her that it was fine, and said “God Bless your heart.”

The woman went to her kitchen cupboard where she kept the first aid kit. She took out a sealed package of gauze and medical cream. She returned to the nuns with the medical supplies and a bowl of warm soapy water.

She gasped and almost dropped the items. She saw that the nuns had removed their masks, but had their hands covering their faces, fingers spread only enough to peek through.

“We didn’t mean to spook you, my dear” The nun with the cut hand said. “We believe it rude to wear our masks while being guests to an unfamiliar home. We must still keep our modesty though, as to assure our promise with our lord.” the other nuns nodded in agreement.

The woman found this practice bizarre, but considering the situation already, it was not much to add. She knelt in front of the nun with the cut hand.

“Let me see it, I’ll tend to it.”

The nun stated something about refusing to let her, but she insisted. The nun allowed and lowered her hand, uncovering half her face. The woman could see blue and yellow marks, signs of bruising. She traced her eyes around the nuns face, there were small cuts and old scars. Finally resting at the most jarring detail, her dark, blood-shot eye. This made the woman hold her breath for longer than a moment, making her gasp when she finally let it go.

The woman apologized for staring, and tended to the wound. The nun smiled and dismissed the apology. The woman cleaned it with the water and applied ointment, then wrapped it in a few layers of the gauze. When finished, the nun thanked her and replaced her hand on her face.

The woman stood up and looked at the other nuns. Each one, fingers pried just enough to see, glinted red eyes back at the woman. She dropped her gaze and returned the items under the sink.

The nuns had already stood up and had replaced their masks by the time she returned. Each one placed a hand on her shoulder and exclaimed phrases of gratitude. The woman lead them to the door and let them out, they waved as they turned away and resumed their formation.

The woman hesitated before stuttering.

“Your faces, and your eyes. Are you...”

The nun in front turned and said very frankly,

“The lord works in mysterious ways, my dear.”

She watched them walk down the street and vanish into the dark. She stood in her doorway for a while before snapping back to lucidity. She had not noticed how much time had passed, as it had already been several hours since she laid her baby to rest. She went up the stairs and opened the door softly.

“Are you hungry?” she asked as she peered into the room.

Her baby was no longer resting in the crib. In his place was a black gown, a flat habit, and a white, clay mask.

The woman cried out.