The Devil's Labyrinth

CHAPTER 16

SOFIA CAPELLI FELT her body responding not only to Darren Bender’s kisses, but also to his touch as he fumbled with the buttons on her blouse. She should make him stop — she knew it — but it felt so good when his fingers brushed against her breasts that she just couldn’t make herself pull away, and she found herself pulling his shirt up out of his pants and running her hands up the smooth skin of his back. His hand was inside her blouse now, and—

The door to her dorm room burst open, slamming hard against the wall, and Sister Mary David stood glowering in the doorway, her knuckles white as she clutched the doorframe in cold fury.

Darren leaped up, his face red, his hair mussed, tucking in his shirt as fast as he could.

“Out!” Sister Mary David commanded, her voice low but more menacing than Sofia had ever heard it before. “Father Sebastian will deal with you.”

Darren dashed out without so much as a backward glance.

“You!” Sister Mary David spat, striding into the room. “Cover yourself!”

Sofia pulled her blouse together and had begun to button it when the nun grabbed her hand and yanked her up off the bed.

“You’ll be lucky if we don’t expel you,” Sister Mary David hissed.

Expel! Fear shot through Sofia as she scrambled to button her blouse with one hand while being marched down the hall ahead of the furious nun.

“No, Sister, really—” Sofia began, frantically searching in her mind for something — anything — with which to defend herself.

But the nun wasn’t listening. “We don’t condone that kind of behavior here, Sofia,” Sister Mary David grated. “If you want to act like a—” She groped for the right word, then found it: “—a harlot, then you should go to school somewhere else.”

“I–I’m sorry,” Sofia stammered. “I didn’t want him—”

“Too late,” Sister Mary David snapped, her voice cutting into Sofia like the barb at the end of a whip. “You are in charge of your actions, and you shall be responsible for the consequences.” The nun guided her down a set of stairs and through another hallway. Sofia stumbled ahead, barely able to keep the pace Sister Mary David was setting.

“Wicked,” the nun muttered. “Wicked, evil child!”

“No, Sister,” Sofia gasped. “I’m not wicked. I’m—” Once again she searched for words that might appease the dorm supervisor. “Darren and I love each other!” she finally blurted out.

The nun stopped short and spun Sofia around to face her, her thin lips set into a harsh line. “Love does not sneak about breaking rules, Sofia. Evil does that.”

“No, Sister—”

“Silence! I do not wish to hear another word from your sinful mouth.” The nun twisted Sofia around once again and steered her down another set of stairs, then guided her so quickly through a series of narrow hallways that Sofia was at a loss as to where they were. Certainly they were somewhere she had never seen before.

What was going to happen to her? Was she really going to be expelled? Her father would kill her. He’d send her somewhere else — somewhere even more awful than St. Isaac’s.

And her father would give her a beating.

“Please, Sister—” Sofia began again, trying to resist the frantic pace the nun had set, but Sister Mary David pressed relentlessly onward, the fingers of her left hand digging like talons into Sofia’s shoulder, while her other hand held Sofia’s right arm in an agonizing hammerlock.

Her body burning with pain and her soul with humiliation, Sofia began to cry.

The nun stopped in front of an old wooden door, unlocked it with a heavy key she took from her pocket and pushed it open to reveal a tiny chapel with an enormous carving of a crucified Christ hovering over its altar. “Stop crying and light the candle for your soul,” the nun whispered.

Sofia sucked in her breath and wiped the tears from her cheeks. She picked up the single candle that lay in the box, and struck the lone match that lay next to the box. Both shook so badly in her trembling hands that she could barely touch the flame to the candle’s wick, but finally it caught.

She blew out the match.

“Now get on your knees and pray to the Holy Virgin for forgiveness of your sins,” Sister Mary David said.

Sofia obediently dropped to her knees on the stone floor, clutching the small candle.

“You will stay here until I return,” Sister Mary David said, her voice devoid of any warmth — any mercy — at all.

Sofia nodded, her chest heaving. “Please don’t expel me,” she choked out. Then she crossed herself and took a deep breath. “Oh my God,” she whispered. “I am heartily sorry for having offended thee and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell, but most of all because they offend thee, my God, who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life.”

The nun nodded once, then backed out the door.

Sofia began the prayer again.

Then she heard the ancient lock turn in the heavy oak door, and her heart lurched.

A moment later, the overhead light went out.

The chapel was completely dark, except for the tiny flame in Sofia’s trembling hands. The room seemed to close in on her, and she felt as if she could no longer breathe.

“Oh my God,” she began again, “I am so sorry…please don’t expel me…please don’t let my parents know what I did…I am heartily sorry for having offended thee…”

Sofia spoke faster and faster, trying to rid herself of the panic that was closing in on her with the darkness.

All she could see was what the flickering candle flame in her hand illuminated, and as she looked up, the visage of the tortured Christ seemed to lean closer, leering down at her as she knelt repeating her prayer of contrition. She shrank away from its ruthless gaze, doing her best to hide her shame.

But the figure on the cross held her. This being was not the Jesus who loved her and forgave her all her sins. This was an angry Christ who hated her sins. This was a terrifying Christ, looming over her, judging her.

Condemning her to an eternity in Hell.

She started the prayer yet again, careful not to breathe too hard on the flame, terrified of losing that last tiny flame that was all that held her fears at bay.

What if something happened to Sister Mary David and she never came back?

Would anybody ever know where she was?

Did anybody else even know about this chapel?

Sofia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Now she welcomed the pain in her knees on the stone, for she knew she deserved the pain, the fear, the threat of expulsion.

She was truly contrite now, truly ashamed.

And terrified that the Christ above her might extinguish the single flame that stood between her and the darkness, until Sister Mary David returned to pronounce whatever penance she must perform. But whatever it was, she would do it. Just as long as the candle in her hands did not go out…

“Oh my God,” she said a little louder, the sound of her voice her only company. “I am heartily sorry for having offended thee…”