Last Rank

Chapter 11

Part 3

The Nun and the Rebel

- Elly -

With stoic calm Elly went about placing the little belongings she had brought from her aunt's place into her half of the single wardrobe that would be her own from that day on. Then she stepped back and let her eyes wander through the small chamber.

Bleak walls, two beds, both smaller than the one she'd had back at home, with too worn sheets, one shared desk and a chair for sitting at, which she didn't trust to carry even half her weight with how many times it seemed to have been repaired already.

She had cried and screamed and even begged to go back home again instead, but her aunt had not been swayed and Elly hadn't had it in her to try her luck on her own again. She had been too scared of being alone. She still was.

A soft knock sounded from the door and without waiting for an answer it was pulled open.

"Hello there," the girl with a tooth gap at the door said. She was dressed in the nun's apprentice robes, same as Elly, simple black dresses with long sleeves. 

"Good day," Elly said.

"Uh, how polite," the girl said. "My name is Sarah, pleasure to meet you."

"Elly."

"Hello Elly. Too soon to ask you what crimes you committed to end up at the end of the world?"

Elly grimaced. "Yes."

"Don't fret about it. We are all the same here," the girl said knowingly. The compassion in her voice ached in Elly's heart. "Want me to show you around the buildings of the convent?"

The head nun had given Elly a tour upon arrival that afternoon already, which had taken about ten minutes and been rather uneventful. Everything in and around the convent was fairly grey and empty. Living quarters, church halls, kitchen and dining room, all equippedonly with the bare essentials. Gloom and hopelessness creeped out of everycrack in the building's walls. 

 "I'll have to go make my pledges as soon as I am done here," Elly declined politely.

"Alright then. But if you need anything let me know."

"Thank you."

The girl closed the door behind her. Elly stopped at her task, fighting back tears, then she shoved the last piece of clothing she would never wear again into the wardrobe and forced it shut harshly.

A string of unfortunate coincidences. Bad luck. Nothing more.

Elly sniffled, forced herself to some determination, then found her way down to the main hall of the church, where the elder nuns welcomed her for the ceremony.

It wasn't anything fancy, as Elly had expected. There was no music, no crowd, no nothing. Besides Elly it was three nuns and an old book she placed her hand upon while reading the few lines from it. An older nun spoke a prayer and then it was over.

For the end of her life Elly had expected something more, something meaningful, anything.

But it wasn't.

Just like she herself was not meaningful.

***

After a wash with freezing cold water Elly prepared herself for bed. Her arms were sore and blistered from the chores the head nun had made her do. Cultivating a garden or anything was close to impossible in those harsh mountain regions. And although she was used to hard work, that night Elly felt exhausted beyond reason.