Excerpt: The She

The next day, Cora woke feeling as though she ran a marathon in her sleep. Her body ached and protested when she flipped back her blankets to get up. Even though she sat up slowly, Cora’s vision blackened as the blood rushed to her head. She closed her eyes and touched her forehead. Her head throbbed at the temples and she worked to unclench her clenched jaw.
Groaning, Cora got up and prepared for her day, wondering which class the six girls would show up in this time. Strange they would change their mind about art in general, and suddenly become friends like that. Again, she tossed it aside as fickle young minds, easily swayed and influenced. Core remembered she had to speak with Louise. Hopefully her sister would show her face around the orphanage today.
Her first and second class went smoothly, and in her third class, Maggie’s class, the six girls showed up again. None of them were even supposed to be in that particular class, but there they sat, at the back of the room, heads together as if in conspiracy. Every once in a while one of them would shift and look toward the front of the classroom.
Maggie was there before Cora had even arrived, already working on a piece. She didn’t look up when Cora walked in and she smiled, impressed with Maggie’s submersion in her art. Of all the children, Maggie seemed to take her art class seriously, used it to her advantage. The drawing from the previous day had been the first that didn’t have a depiction of the bible in it, and Cora didn’t remember seeing any sign of the symbol Maggie referred to as The She. Cora pulled the drawing from her desk and looked though. Her shoulders slumped when she saw it, small but definitely there, on one of the butterfly’s spots. Cora sighed. Her head still felt like an elephant stepped on it. An elephant wearing golf shoes.
Picking up a pencil and flipping to a blank page in her sketchbook, Cora started to doodle and think about several things at once. The main topic her thoughts kept drifting toward were her nightmares. Louise had mentioned having nightmares as well, that they were so real she couldn’t sleep. No, it wasn’t couldn’t, she didn’t want to sleep. Cora wondered where her sister had been all day the previous day. She felt like she was alone in some boarding school without seeing her sister the way she was used to. The nuns were also scarce it seemed.
Then Cora remembered what she saw outside. The six nuns in a circle on the hill, bereft of their black robes and habits. She wondered if that was real or if it had been part of her dream. She vaguely remembered getting up to close that door, but did she really see the nuns in the circle? She was fairly sure she’d seen what she saw, that it wasn’t some remnant of the nightmare or a trick of her vision and tired mind.
Cora didn’t realize class had finished until she heard the children packing away their things and shuffling out. The little ones were excited because apparently the menu for dinner included cartoon character shaped mac ‘n’ cheese. Cora smiled as they walked out, but her smile was cut short when the six girls walked by, none of them smiling. They all glared at her as they had the day before when they left. Cora glared back but changed her mind and beamed at them. Again, they’d left their supplies out. She didn’t know why they got out all the supplies when they now only drew in charcoal or pencil. Anxiety filled her heart and stomach when she saw they’d left their drawings on the table. Were they just as dark as the day before?
A scritch scritch sound came to her ears, pulling her attention back to Maggie who was hunched over her drawing, her entire body moving as she scribbled and drew, finishing her piece. Dedicated child, Cora thought. But something was odd about the way Maggie held her head, about her posture, the way she moved the pencil over the paper. Cora stood up just as Maggie took in a sharp breath and relaxed against her chair, panting.
“Maggie?” Cora said. She went to the girl’s side.
“Is class over so soon?” Maggie said, her eyes sleepy. “Did I fall asleep?”
Cora looked at her. “No, you were drawing this whole time.” Maggie held up her cramped hand and looked at it. She slowly straightened her fingers, wincing. Shifting her gaze, Cora looked down at Maggie’s drawing and jumped back.
“Cora?” Maggie looked up at her. “I’m so tired, why am I so tired?”
“I-I don’t know,” Cora said, was all she could say. Her eyes were locked on the drawing. Eyes, the red eyes from the night before, stared up at her. The dark hallway, the eyes, Cora’s terrified face looking over her shoulder at the thing, the dagger-tipped tail. The nightmare replayed itself in Cora’s mind and she gripped her stomach where the tail had skewered her.
The detail in the picture was amazing in itself. Every scale on the lanky monster’s body, Cora’s freckles, her eyelashes. Everything was in such detail if Cora hadn’t seen Maggie drawing it she would have sworn it was a black and white photo.
“Maggie,” Cora said, clearing her throat. She dropped back to a squat to be at Maggie’s level. “Maggie where did you see this?” She asked.
“Huh?” Maggie looked at Cora, her eyes not quite focused, then at the drawing. “I’ve never seen that before,” she said in a small voice. She yawned and blinked rapidly.
“Maggie you drew this,” Cora told her.
Maggie shook her head, slowly at first, a curios expression touched her eyes and her eyebrows furrowed. “No I didn’t,” she said. “I didn’t draw that.” She picked up. “It’s so frightening.” She flipped it over to hide the monster from view.
“What made you draw that?” Cora asked her, panic filling her voice. She swallowed to repress the rising bile and touched Maggie’s shoulder.
“I-I swear, Cora, I didn’t draw it!” Her eyes were wide now. She lifted the corner of the page and peeked at the drawing, shuddering at sight of it. “No. No I didn’t draw it.”
“Maggie, did you dream this?” Cora asked, trying a different route.
Maggie started panting, her inhalations laced with panic, rasping through her throat. She swallowed heard and turned toward Cora, her eyes welling with tears. She shook her head almost imperceptibly and whispered, “no… you did.” She fell forward and Cora caught her. Maggie looked up into Cora’s eyes, her own half closed. “The She… they sent the image… they’re sending the nightmares…” she said. Her voice faded and she fell asleep. Cora shook her to wake her and her eyes opened for a second and closed again.
Cora carried Maggie up to the bedroom and put her on her bed, tucking the blankets under the little girl’s chin, then she went back to the art room, her skin prickly and hot, but cold and icy at the same time.
Flipping the picture back over, Cora examined it close, her nose an inch from the charcoal. Every detail. The monster was so incredibly real, Cora felt it would leap from the page and attack her, stab her again. She took the picture to the back two tables. Seven pictures in all. The six pictures the other girls had drawn didn’t seem like anything, but something in one of them caught Cora’s eye. She matched up the corner to Maggie’s picture, then another, until all six pictures surrounded Maggie’s. Cora’s hand went to her mouth and she sat down hard.
Maggie’s picture was a mere fraction of what the whole image contained. Around the main image, indiscernible alone, but pieced together… six clouded forms surrounded the middle picture. The six forms looked just like the nuns had, in a circle faces lifted to the sky, hands held out to their sides. Not only that, but one of them was wrapped around Maggie’s little form, pulling her toward the monster in the middle and away from Cora.