SHADOW NINE

And so when the next day Ivie saw the Sister who brought her talking to Sister Gabriel, she felt ecstatic. She stood far enough to make sure she wasn't eavesdropping, and watched their little exchange of words. It did bother her though, that the Sister also had the dark shadow around her, but she was thankful that at least she would no longer be treated like a delinquent, and that would give her enough time to conclude on Sister Gabriel. Itohan had decided not to tell Sister Gabriel just yet and Ivie was very grateful for the decision. She was still smiling when Simon came to join her.

"Have you now decided to keep an eye on Sister Gabriel?" He asked her.

"That Sister she's talking with is the one who brought me here, I'm going to prove my innocence today."

"Even though you're not lying, there still have to be a reason why you are here. And you don't want to tell her."

Ivie didn't want to tell her, and her why had changed; at first it was so that she would not be seen and called as possessed, but now that she suspected her, it was to save her head. At least until Father Chibuike came. It worried her that for the three days she had been her, he had not come to pay her a visit. Ivie wanted to imagine that he was immensely busy, but busy enough not to spare her a visit, especially knowing the shadows that follow her, was so unlike him.

And wasn't her cover about to be blown off now the Sister was telling Sister Gabriel? Her smile fell. She started to say something when the shadow appeared, slithering in the zigzag pattern peculiar to snakes and Ivie watched it at first, and when it slithered outside, Ivie told Simon she was going to the bathroom and followed it, trusting her instincts. She had come to realize this shadow had less darkness than the one around Sister Gabriel. It led her away from the house, crawling underneath the bushes to resurface again, past the gates that opened into the church, and Ivie turned to look back, skeptical. Sister Gabriel would be furious. She decided not to care, Sister Gabriel's anger could only do so little.

The shadow led her to the Lighthouse and circled around it, letting her know it was stopping there. The Lighthouse was made of a transparent glass, and inside of it stood a huge figure of Mary. It was called the Lighthouse because during the time of the night the figure would emit light bright enough that they could see it from the prison, as Simon called it.

The shadow then danced around a particular spot covered in dry leafs. Ivie squatted and began brushing the leafs away to reveal, underneath, a cursive letter of C, the same C that was engraved on Sister Gabriel's ring. Ivie did not want to believe that it held any particular significance, but she had come to understand that even coincidence was not coincidental.

"What are you doing?" The angry voice of Sister Gabriel jolted her and she jumped to her feet. Sister Gabriel's eyes looked past her md settled on the letter on the ground, her eyes turning ten shades darker. "What is that?" She asked.

"Nothing," Ivie replied, cursing her luck.

"Then what are you doing here?"

Ivie racked through her brain. "I thought it was okay to come here since that Sister told you."

"Told me what?"

Ivie stared at her, confused. "She's the one who brought me and—"

"Liar from the pit of hell," Sister Gabriel cussed. "Get back and await your punishment."

And Ivie wondered if that Sister had really not told her, and since ministers of God like them did not tell lies, she concluded that she had not, and somehow she was grateful. When they got back, Sister Gabriel gave her an earful, told the others how disrespectful she was, how dared she go to the church when she was not permitted to? No wonder her family abandoned her, and despite being caught red handed, she never stops spinning her tales of lies; Sister Gabriel's rant went on.

"I have no excuse for what I did," Ivie said.

"Of course you don't. You know what?" Sister Gabriel held her fingers to her temple and clenched her teeth, as if fighting a headache. "I have no punishment for you, it's God that will judge you."

There were so many things Ivie could not wrap her head around, so many things that piqued her curiosity about Sister Gabriel, and so, when Simon told her to meet him by ten o'clock at night, outside her room because he wanted to show her something concerning Sister Gabriel, she obliged.

"What do you want to show me?" She asked when she had successfully exited the room without waking the two girls, and met him waiting at the front of the door.

"Shh." He took her hand. "We can't use a candle because the light would attract that crazy woman, come, you'll see something very interesting today." He led her and they went outside, walked past the general room. When they got to the office, Sister Gabriel's office, Simon pushed the door as slow as he could and went in, leaving it half open. Ivie followed after, pushing herself through the half open door, careful not to make a sound. The room was disarranged, in that ordered manner she first met it. Although it was pitch dark, she could map out things not being they were not supposed to.

"What are you doing?" Ivie's heart leapt multiple times inside her chest when she heard Sister Gabriel's voice, using the words she always used when she caught her doing some she was not supposed to.

Sister Gabriel held a candle, and to say she looked angry was trying to mince her expression, she looked like she could kill the devil. "I said what are you doing?!" Ivie flinched. "So the both of you now sneak in the middle of the night to make out? Did you come here to offer him your breasts?" She asked Ivie. "What am I even doing asking a liar. I can't believe this." Her eyes went from Ivie to Simon, back to Ivie. "I am supposed to lead you away from sin, but right under my nose—"

"Did you see us do anything?" Simon interrupted her with a question.

"Do I have to see before I know? What am I, a child? Okay, if not so that the both of you should pleasure your flesh and make a decent path to hell, what are you doing here, away from your rooms, just the two of you." Then she looked around as if surprised by the untidiness." No wonder this place is always like this."

"Ah Sister—" Ivie started to say.

Sister Gabriel held up her hand. "One more word from you, just one more word, and you'll regret the day you stepped your foot here."

"I already regret it," Ivie murmured.

"Now, as I am looking at the both of you, to your room! Now-now!"

On their way back, Simon whispered. "Did you see it?"

And Ivie whispered back, "See what?"

Simon did not whisper back. He did not whisper back in the morning when Sister Gabriel reprimanded them in the presence of others. She had started with, "Nobody here will believe what my eyes saw yesterday," said it with the horror associated with the unbelievable, and Ivie wanted to tell her that nobody would believe it because it was not true, but wisdom told her to told her to trap her tongue in-between her teeth.

"It just strikes me in odd places that Ivie and Simon would decide to go to my office and touch themselves." Sister Gabriel continued, and Paul looked shockingly, not at Simon, but at Ivie. "Exactly the expression I had," Sister Gabriel said to Paul's face. "Like, I could not even sleep throughout last night, I was just wondering how they would have the guts. In the church, in a sacred place." Sister Gabriel's tone was exaggeratively false.

"I am of the opinion that since you did not see us doing anything, your assumptions are baseless," Simon said.

"And I am of the opinion that if you cannot tell me what the both of you went into my office, by ten o'clock at night, without so much as a touch light, to do, my assumptions are not baseless. And since you cannot, the both of you will clean this whole house and the chapel for one straight week. During that week, you'll cook and wash. You'll only have your meals twice everyday, with only one serving. If you have any objection, come to me with the reason why you were there last night." She stormed her feet, angrily, away.

That was when Simon whispered back. "Ivie, how quiet was the office last night?"

"Pin drop."

"Quiet enough for us to hear the sound of footsteps no matter how tiny right? Or the sound of opening door, because you and I know that Sister Gabriel cannot pass through the door like that. Then how dark was it?"

Ivie nodded, understand. "Dark enough to see the ray of a candle light especially with a door half open."

"Then how come neither of us heard or saw Sister Gabriel coming? It's almost like she didn't walk."

Ivie remembered the first day at the office. It was the same thing that happened the night with Itohan when she had gone to bring the water. Even the time at the Lighthouse, she had left Sister Gabriel talking with that Sister, and had only gotten there herself, how had she arrived that fast, creepy enough that she didn't hear the sound of footsteps even though the ground was surrounded with crisp dry leafs? Then it occurred to her and her eyes went wide. She turned to Simon, "She appeared."