The Convent of the Damned

The night Sister Consuelo died, the nun at her bedside whispered, "Thank you." She wasn't talking to Nayeli.

Nayeli Cruz walked out of the fire that killed her parents without a burn. She can't remember how she escaped. Now she lives at the Recogimiento de Santa Lucía, a half-empty convent in the mountains outside Oaxaca, built to lock away wayward women. The windows are barred. The gate stays chained.

Nayeli fakes her prayers. Beneath her habit, she wears a carved stone she swears is a souvenir.

At morning prayer, Sister Inés meets Nayeli's eyes. Her hand wrenches backward until her wrist snaps. Nobody touches her. Blood runs from Nayeli's nose and eyes.

Days later, Sister Consuelo, who can't use her right hand, raises both hands and pushes her own rosary down her throat. Nayeli grabs her wrists and pulls with all her strength. It makes no difference.

Sister Ruth, the infirmarian, pockets the broken beads and tells the Mother Superior that Consuelo choked in her sleep.

Ruth isn't afraid of what's happening in the convent. She wants to know what it is.

And she isn't letting Nayeli out of her sight.

The Convent of the Damned is a supernatural horror novella of possession, religious dread, and graphic on-page deaths.