The Exorcism of Anna Ch. 02

Anna's head jerks up when the sound of her name pierces her reverie. She had been pretending to be deeply engaged in prayerful contemplation as the Reverend ascended into the pulpit to deliver his usual weekly drawl. It would be an hour, at the least, of haranguing and invective, quotes from the Bible hurled at the congregation like lances. Anna knew what to expect, and so she had thought herself safe as she contemplated, with a little guilt, the week to come.

Her parents had warned her about The Mainland the night before she set off to college on her own for the first time. The Mainland, though, had not been the den of Wickedness they described. True, the college students initially looked upon the three as oddities, but the Islander children all soon found their places in the student body.

Rebecca was the second daughter of the Olsens. Chad, Rebecca's brother, ran the ferry and helped their father Mark out with their lobster traps. Rebecca was short and curvy, having inherited her mother's full figure, but unlike her mother, was as quiet as a mouse. Rebecca took the longest to fit in, but soon she was heavily involved in the Computer Club, where her skills for mathematics and programming made her a star.

Luke had it much easier. It helped that he was rangy, with perfect teeth and a movie star smile. Luke joined the swimming team and, almost a year on, was vice-captain, having seen the team to several victories over local colleges. Word had it they were favourites for the State Championships.

Luke was twenty-one and an only child. His father had died five years ago, soon after the family arrived on Morris Island, and his mother Elsa had brought him up. When it was time to go to college, Elsa had allowed Luke to stay on the mainland with her sister's family during the week, returning home at weekends and for holidays. Anna had only seen him occasionally at college as they passed in corridors and on the ferry home on Fridays.

Anna had noted, as did Rebecca, that Luke looked different from college when he got on the ferry home. On the mainland, he wore skinny jeans, branded sneakers and T-shirts. On the ferry back, he dressed modestly, in the customary long-sleeve shirt, buttoned to the neck, and plain slacks. Anna had also heard from her new BFF, Elena, that Luke went out drinking in the evenings, and that he had had girlfriends. Several girlfriends.

Elena came from a well-to-do restaurant family. Elena's mother was Ukrainian and had married into the Chalmers dynasty. They ran a chain of successful seafood restaurants dotted all over Charlston. Elena had inherited some of her mother's smouldering good looks, her fine bone structure, blonde hair, and crystal blue eyes. When Elena first tried to make friends with her, Anna had been suspicious, even stand-offish; Anna couldn't understand why a girl such as Elena, from the very upper classes of Charlston society would befriend a curiosity such as her. Anna soon realised that there was something about Anna and her upbringing that fascinated Elena in the way a brand new doll might fascinate a child.

They soon became fast friends, Elena using her wealth to cement their relationship. Where the other students would adjourn to the canteen or the parks to eat their lunches, Elena would whisk Anna away to 'Chalmers' Seafood Inn' two streets away, where they would always receive a rousing welcome and a prime table overlooking the Boulevard. It was over one such meal, lobster cooked in its shell and glittering with butter, that Elena told Anna about Luke.

Elena had giggled at Anna's horrified face.

"What? He's really cute. And he's got a great body. All the girls want him. You know he's on the swimming team, right? I've seen him. At practice. In the pool. You should look."

Another day, they had snuck in, huddling just inside the door of the swimming pool, ogling the boys as they did their laps. Luke, emerging from the pool, had seen them and given them a wave. Whether it was Anna or Elena he was waving it, they weren't sure, giggling as they were.

It was Elena that had given Anna her phone, an old iPhone 6, complete with a SIM card. "Oh, I don't need it," Elena had said, waving it away. "I've got my 13 now. So much better. You keep it."

The phone didn't work on the Island but Anna took every spare moment at college to discover the limitless Internet. Instagram had been a revelation. Elena had her own account where she posted selfies of herself, headless, in bikinis and lingerie. Elena had over three thousand followers.

"Of course my parents don't know!" Elena had laughed. "They'd have kittens. You should try it." They'd been upstairs in Elena's luxurious bedroom, a space larger than Anna's entire house, on the third floor of the Chalmers family townhouse. Class had finished early that day and they had an hour to kill before Anna had to head for the ferry. "Seriously. You've got a beautiful body. Come on, let me see you. It's just us, silly."

Elena's hands had been all over Anna, unbuttoning her blouse. Anna lifted it over her head and let it drop to the floor without thinking. She stood in the middle of the floor, feet bare in deep carpet, the sunlight playing over her skin, as Elena circled her.

"Yeah, I knew it," Elena said finally. "You're gorgeous, Anna. That ass. Those tits. My God, the boys would go crazy if they knew. Listen, let's try something. Lift your head like this. Put one arm here. The other there. Cock that hip. Don't worry, I won't show your face."

Two minutes later, and Anna's body had been posted on Elena's Instagram account.

"Hey! Check out my hot friend! Anyone like? #hotBFF #natural #sexycollegegirl #rudeMormonchick"

The two girls huddled together, Anna's eyes widening in amazement as they watched the likes rack up.

"See!" Elena shrieked, holding her phone out. "I knew it. One hundred and fifty-three likes, babe. In ten minutes." She turned to grin at Anna. "That's with all that gross underarm hair and that grandmother underwear. There's no limit to what you can be with a little attention."

Anna began leaving Morris Island early each weekday, telling her parents she was in a study group. The Oates were uncertain, and slightly worried. However, Anna's grades were good, her behaviour at home exemplary and with little Levi, Anna's younger brother, being such an unexpected gift from God late in life, Anna's mother and father had their hands full. It was on another afternoon that Elena arranged for Anna to have her first Brazilian. It was Elena that had given Anna her unused lingerie. And it was Elena that had introduced Anna to the thong.

Anna had laughed as Elena held it out. "That's not underwear, Ellie! That's just, just cloth. Like a handkerchief."

"Oh, get over yourself," Elena had said. "Just try it on, Miss Holier than Thou. All the girls wear them. So much more comfortable than your Mormon knickers. Come on, girl!"

Anna had, blushing as she stood in front of Elena's mirrored wardrobe, pivoting this way and that. Anna wondered at the sight of her buttocks, bare with just a flash of scarlet separating them, running down to cup the mound between her legs. Elena circled her, snapping away. That post got a thousand likes in under an hour. Anna wore the thong all the time now. Part of her loved it, but there was the other part of her, a small voice in the back of her head, that warned of Sin, a voice she found increasingly easy to ignore. After a while, that voice hardly sounded. Except on Sundays at Church.

Under a loose floorboard, she hid her new underwear. She washed them herself in the small sink in the single family bathroom, door firmly locked. She would sneak into the woods behind the family house to hang them out to dry on a line she had set up in a thicket. She would never have taken the chance of wearing it to church, but something evil had whispered to her that morning as the family was getting ready. How wicked it would be to wear the thong under her shift! No one would know. That gave her a thrill, and so she had.

It was only as they took their pew that Anna's thoughts turned back to her phone. She had misplaced it. When the phone needed to be charged, she left it at Elena's. She'd thought it too great a risk to borrow a charger. Besides, there were no power points upstairs in her bedroom. But she had a worrying feeling that she had lost it. She had trawled through her bag, even retracing her steps from the ferry through the village. But nothing. There was nothing to be done, she decided. She would just have to check when she returned to college on Monday.

It was just as she reached that determination that the Reverend calls her name. She sits there, stunned, looking up at him. She can't help noticing that all heads turn in her direction. All except her mother and father on either side. Her mother has her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking. Her father sits immobile, like someone has turned him to granite.

Her own knees have turned to jelly. She sits, rooted to the pew, until her father elbows her in the ribs.

"Stand up," he growls through gritted teeth. "Stand up. And face your punishment. You have shamed us enough. Stand up! Whore."

The last word so shocks Anna that she leaps up. She clutches her hands to her chest, staring back down at her father. His face is a picture of fury. Her glance darts over the congregation like a captive bird. Shock. Horror. Even disdain. She glances up at Morrow, standing behind his lectern, arm outstretched, finger pointed at her, like the sword of the avenging angel. She feels her cheeks burning.

Her mouth is dry. Her first attempt to speak is a squeak. Desperately, she moistens her lips and tries again.

"Reverend," she says, "Sir. I- I don't know what I have done wrong. Whatever it is, I'm sorry. She raises her clasped hands in front of her, like a shield. "Please. I'm sorry. God forgive me."