It was his idea, and besides not being too thrilled about it at first, I was enjoying it too. The aura of history coming from the stone walls made me feel small and powerless, as I imagined old and young monks walking and preying around this place.
"Cool huh?!" Rick inquired. "Come on you have to admit it was a good idea."
I surrender. "Yeah, you were right, it's definitely interesting, being here." At his smug grin I had to correct myself. "Not that you'll ever get me to listen to those boring audio-guides, but the place... it has a certain... charm."
"I know right? Don't you feel so powerful knowing this is where some of the biggest personalities of the ancient religious world walked? Don't you feel like it's them talking to you from those mosaics and murals?"
I shook my head, walking close to a painted wall. Some of the color had come off, centuries had scraped it off the solid wall, but I could still see the image clearly.
"Quite the opposite actually." The face of the nuns, enclosed under their order's veils, had peaceful expressions, but the last one in line, hands joined in prayer, further away from the tourist's eye in prospective, had a mournful look in her eyes. A detail I imagined the artist included of his own initiative, because why on earth would a convent show the miserable side of the nuns' lives?
"I feel powerless here. I feel like so much has happened between these walls that all of future history could not change it. I feel bad for admiring the wonderful colors, and paintings, and sculptures, when I can only imagine how many here suffered a life of seclusion and sacrifices." I had kept my stare on the nun's face and didn't notice Rick approaching. He set his hands on my shoulders, making me jolt.
"Audrey, you just gave me the shivers. You could be a horror stories' teller." He joked.
I scoffed and proceeded along the wall, further in the corridor. "We should have gone to the beach with the others."
"Ugh, I'm bored of beaches and parties. This will probably be the only trip to Italy in my entire life, I want to see interesting things. Like this place." Rick walked up to me. "Beside, you are sunburned, a bit more sun and we could use you as a traffic light." He sneered.
I snuck out my tongue at him, but it was true. I could feel even now my reddened skin brush painfully against the long skirt added on top of my short one and the shawl I had to wear to be admitted in the monastery.
"And you so kindly offered to bring me somewhere interesting, what a true friend." I said sarcastically..
"Come on, wipe off that frown and let's visit the crypts, I bet the walls keep horrible secrets..." he mocked my previous words, wiggling his fingers in my direction in front of his face, spooky-like.
The crypts were cooler, and I was grateful for the shawl now. Grazing the stone with my fingers, I wondered if what Rick said might be true. Who knew what could have happened in these crypts, hundreds of years ago? What if a monk had taken his life, regretting his decision? What if a spark caught between a nun and a monk, in their later years, and the crypts were witnesses of their forbidden love? What if a cruel mother Superior made young novices sleep in a haunted crypt for penitence...
"Why so serious?" Rick sprung up from behind my shoulder, making me gasp.
"Rick! You scared the hell out of me!" I turned and slapped his chest.
"Careful Audrey, you don't want to say those wards in a sacred place."
I scoffed and made for the exit, but he caught my arm. "If you were a novice here they'd teach you to watch your mouth." His tone was strange.
"What are you playing at Rick?"
"Rick? Who is this person you speak so rudely of, sister? I am the Abbot of the monastery, and I will not allow such a misbehaved nun under this roof."
That actually made me giggle, and I decided to play along. "I am most repentant for my behavior, Abbot, it will not happen again." I faked a contrite face and bowed my head slightly. I raised the shawl on my head and wrapped it up so that it covered both my hair and shoulders.
Rick grinned, a flickering light in his eyes. "I am afraid, Sister Audrey that I cannot allow this to go unnoticed. Surely you comprehend."
"I beg you, kind Abbot, don't make me penitence too hard. I am willing to make up for my errors."
I was having troubles not breaking into laughter, as was Rick, but it was fun, and it had been such a long time since we spent some time alone together... we used to be the best of friends, and this was so like us.
"Sister Audrey, I fear you have more on your account than a mere impolite behavior towards an unknown person."
"What is it you speak of, Abbot?" I frowned confused. Where was he going?
"There have been rumors, sister..." he walked in a circle around me, his height overshadowing me. He really emanated the kind of power an Abbot must have had in the old days. And I really felt as powerless as a young nun would have. "Your misconduct goes way back I fear. First of all, the clothing you wear is nowhere near to be fitting for a novice." He jerked at the thin, long skirt and pulled it down, leaving me in my short dress.
A shiver went over me, both from the cold and the adrenaline of our game. "I apologize profusely, Abbot, I am but a sinner, I could not resist the temptation of vanity." I let my shawl fall too, freeing my red curls to fall on my shoulders and my bare arms exposed to the chilly air of the crypt.
I did not expect his reaction. I felt his cold finger trace a straight line from the nape of my neck to the hem of the low-cut dress, halfway down my back. I shivered.
"I heard much more on you, sister Audrey. You have allured men with your inappropriate clothing. That is unforgivable." I felt his breath closer. I was really confused, but I would not break out of character.
"Who did I allure, Abbot? Perhaps it was unintentional, and I surely never approached a man so forwardly."
"Brother Philipp and Greg tell otherwise, I'm afraid." The tone was definitely that of Rick's anger.
Philipp and Greg? Our friends... Oh! I did have a flirt with Greg last year, and I admit to have flashed some skin to Philipp in more than an occasion to see him look hungrily at me. The sin of a lonely girl, perhaps.
