Page 120 - NS 2024

Faced with whatever awful creature could or would make its residence in the rancid, stinking home, all she could wish for was the safety in the numbers she had rejected; the community she had abandoned so selfishly.
The door to the abode, a poor excuse for a barrier held up by a strange craft of mud, sticks, and what appeared to be small animal bones, slowly swung open. There had been hardly the slightest breeze to have caused this unwelcoming invitation, yet...
You found me, Min.
Despite the inexorable horror, her initial movements began to halt, and a moment of indecision struck her. Whatever monster lay within the claggy walls ahead of her...what intentions could it harbor that would prove more iniquitous than those that drove her mom to take her own life? Or killed her dad? Or Grandma Jeanne? Or sent Charlotte away from her?
She felt...summoned. Drawn by the willpower of an unseen being. Sister Tonya had always pushed through Min’s insistent agnosticism with a simple argument during their sessions:
“We are limited in what we can see, Min. You must recognize that there are forces that drive us beyond this world. Maybe then, you will finally be able to forgive yourself the way God forgives you. I hope one day, you can even forgive your mother...”
Min doubted this was the application Sister Tonya had envisioned. Regardless, the darkness began to appear less hostile, and instead felt alien to the cheery and sunny environment in which she had felt eternally tormented. Min methodically laid one tentative step ahead of the other and crept towards the open door. She went through it and felt as if she’d entered a world all