Chapter 5

I must have only slept a few hours when I woke up, because it was still dark outside. I looked down at the death on my floor and that rush hit me again. But I didn't have time to satisfy my urge, I had to make this disappear before the cardinal got wind of it.

I pulled the blanket off my bunk and wrapped the body into its folds. I wiped the walls and floor quickly and shoved the bloodied towel in under his mangled head, to soak up any more blood. I wrapped the body again with the sheets from my bunk.

I held his feet and drug him down the stairs leading into the tunnels under the monastery, his mushy head making a wet, thud sound as it bounced down each step. I chuckled at the noise it made. Dragging my victim deeper into the dimly lit tunnels, I stumbled over a small mangled body leaned against the wall. I dropped his feet as I fell face first into the face of obviously a child's remains. Picking myself up I saw a flash of blonde hair in the candlelight. Looking closer at the remains, I realized at that moment whose skeleton it was.

"Poor child", I said as I held her little hand in mine and stroked her blonde hair. Some of her hair fell out into my hand and I went down to my hands and knees and began to weep. Alice had been raped and beaten to death. Her pretty little face no longer resembled anything human and still wearing the bloodied gown she had gone to bed in. She was the only person I felt any attachment to, maybe because she was so young and I needed to protect her. Maybe she didn't deserve any of this. Or maybe I just needed to love someone and feel something like love in return.

Now enraged, I stood up, turned around and started to kick and curse Richard's body. I just kept kicking him until I couldn't stand any longer. Exhausted, I took the outer sheet from around my victim and gently wrapped her inside.

I decided that Richard deserved no more of my time or energy, so I left his body as I had dropped it. Left alone as they had left poor little Alice.

Taking Alice's little body into my arms, I left the dark tunnels. This was no place for her. Her innocence was too good for these walls.

I took her with me back to my quarters to get the bloody shovel. Shovel in hand, I carried the little girl outside the sin filled monastery.

Lit by the moon above, I found a large ash tree on a hill, leaves glistening in the moonlight. I thought my Alice deserved this beauty. To sleep under the moon and stars and this lovely tree to keep her shaded from the sun's heat. This was to be her new home and she would be free.

Several hours later my task was finished, the moon was disappearing, early morning now. I lay down beside her burial place and watched the dawn break. It was breathtaking and I hoped Alice was at rest.

Completely broken and tired, I hurried back to my quarters before the nuns came to fetch everyone for breakfast.