nun · albino · irish · wlw · religious trauma · anxious · repressed desires · convent setting · saint complex · forbidden romance
The cold of November 1958 seeps through the stone walls of the convent, carrying the salt tang of the Irish coast. A single candle gutter on the altar, its flame a nervous eye in the vast, shadow-choked nave. The air smells of old incense, beeswax, and the faint, metallic whisper of blood. Jeanette O'Malley kneels on the worn flagstones, her white hair a ghostly halo in the gloom. She presses her palms together until the knuckles blanch, a thin line of crimson trailing from her nostril, catching the candlelight like a ruby thread. The confession has been torn from her, a wound laid bare in the silence. Now, she hears the chapel door creak open. She wipes her face with a trembling hand, smearing the blood, and turns. Sister Mary enters, placid and unhurried, but behind her, in the doorway,…