A Curse Awakened: A Weird Girls Novella by Cecy Robson Read Free Book Online Page B

of locks I needed to bust through. “But it’s going to make a lot of noise.”
    Taran rolled her eyes. “You’re worried about someone reporting a breaking and entering out here? Trust me, these peeps learned to keep their mouths shut a long time ago.”
    “Good point.” My sisters gave me plenty of space as I whipped my foot back. Fear must have fueled my strength; I kicked the door from its frame with just a few strikes.
    Thick musty air carried dust and the bitter stench of menace into my nose, making me sneeze. My eyes searched through the darkness. This wasn’t just a place of worship, it was a crypt laced with suffering and pieces of the dead.
    Black candles in clear glass gathered in rows formed a circle at the center of the room, while skulls in varying sizes lined the shelves encasing the perimeter. It was obvious that no one had entered this place in years, and yet the flames flickering from the candles had barely chewed through the wicks. Griselda’s residual magic must have been feeding the candles’ energy.
    “H-how is it in there?”
    I think Emme had expected dead squirrels hanging from nooses. Hell, so had I. “Creepy,definitely creepy. But aside from the skulls lining the shelves and some candles, it’s not so bad.”
    Or it wasn’t until I stepped inside and so did my sisters. The air popped in sections like a cluster of balloons, releasing the rancid aroma of death. Torturous, bloodcurdling death. We gagged, trying to beat down the sudden surge of nausea.
    Something moist and sticky landed at the center of the circle. I fixed my gaze straight ahead. Nothing that smelled this bad was worth seeing. My tigress insisted otherwise and forced my head up.
    My body staggered backward and my knees threatened to buckle. “Oh … 
God
.”
    My sisters glanced up, muffling their screams. Terror kept me quiet and slammed my mouth shut.
    A woman was sprawled against the ceiling, anchored in place by nine-inch nails. Decomposing flesh slid along the metal shafts, splattering the concrete below while we stood frozen by the sheer brutality. Railroad spikes had been driven through her breasts, eyes, and belly button, and words were carved into her skin. NO SEE etched into her forehead. NO BREED lanced across her belly. NO COMFORT sliced above her breasts.
    She’d suffered long and hard. And despite the spikes blinding her and indenting her skull, she bore an uncanny resemblance …
    To me.

Chapter Six
    My breath came out in a shudder and my eyes burned.
It’s not you,
I told myself.
It’s not you.
I repeated the phrase over and over. Too bad I didn’t believe me.
    “Hello? Hello? Are you girls okay?” Danny’s shaky voice echoed through the dimness.
    “No. No! We’re not fucking okay.” Taran’s speech mixed with gags. “There is a goddamn woman nailed to the goddamn ceiling and she fucking looks like Celia!”
    “Oh, God. It must be the altar.”
    “You’re just a friggin’ genius, aren’t you, asshole!”
    Another lump of skin fell. Loud enough to be a foot.
    Taran spit on the concrete. “Son of a bastard’s ass … I’m going to hurl.”
    “Okay … okay … okay … t-tell me what’s happening.”
    I beat back the burn of my roiling stomach. “The woman is falling apart in … in … 
chunks
.”
    Danny coughed as if unable to stand the thought. “That’s just … 
wrong.
” He coughed a few more times and sounded as if he were shuddering. “But believe it or not, it’s a good sign.”
    A larger portion fell. Shayna clutched her battle-ax against her like a child would a teddy bear. “Oh … I don’t think so, little guy.”
    “You may not believe me, but the woman is not real,” Danny said soothingly. “She’s a culmination of the suffering your aunt caused.”
    “Then why does she look like me?” I couldn’t stop my hands from trembling.
    “I think because you’re the strongest, and the leader of your family. If there was a war, and the first to