Chapter 4 - A New Beginning

Mother Joan stands at the rectory door with her heart pounding against her chest like a hammer on nails. She's spent twenty years rehearsing this moment. Now her fist hovers above the wood, trembling. Mother Superior answers, and the sight of her still stops Joan's breath short. Gray hair. Lines around her eyes from laughing too hard at things that should have made her pray instead. The old rivalry crashes between them first. Joan's rule book versus Nina's willingness to tear pages out when the spirit moved her. Then the words come out ugly and raw. Joan talks about the righteous crying out. About the Lord hearing them. About losing the only person who ever made her feel like burning the habit. She confesses the love she's carried like a secret knife. Nina kisses her once, testing, then again with teeth and tongue and years of wanting. The convent disappears. Their fingers tear at fabric, mouths follow down the paths they've memorized in dreams. Hands slide under habits they swore they'd never remove except in death. They feast on skin that tastes of incense and regret. Tongues find secrets hidden beneath their collars. They fuck like the walls might fall in. Nothing short of dying will make them stop.