Chapter 5 - Sister Irene, Roy and Father Burke stays at St. Carta Monastery
After passing through the dense forest, the group emerged onto an enormous expanse of grassland.
Even more startling was the sight that stretched before them: countless crosses, each taller than an average person, standing in closely packed rows.
Each cross bore the unmistakable marks of age, weathered by time.
At the far end of this forest of crosses loomed St. Carta Monastery, though it looked far more like an ancient castle.
The stonework was as worn and gloomy as the crosses themselves.
Without the sign at the front gate, no one would have mistaken this somber fortress for a holy place of worship.
"Is that… St. Carta Monastery?" Sister Irene asked softly.
Disbelief flickered in her pure eyes.
Growing up in the Vatican, she had never imagined a monastery could be so dilapidated.
Even the usually stoic Father Burke wore a troubled expression.
A trained exorcist, he felt an oppressive heaviness the moment they entered these grounds.
Something here was terribly wrong.
"Follow me," Frenchie said, breaking the silence.
Unlike Father Burke and Sister Irene—whose faces showed their unease—Frenchie was calmer.
He had been here many times, and while the grim atmosphere still unsettled him, he was more accustomed to it.
They followed him through the grassland of crosses and toward the monastery.
Along the way, Frenchie explained the situation:
He had worked as a deliveryman for a while and would routinely drop supplies at the ice cellar by the side door of the monastery.
There was a passage connecting that cellar to the main building, so he never saw any of the nuns; they retrieved the deliveries themselves from inside.
The hanged nun found three days earlier was the first nun he'd actually laid eyes on.
So as not to leave the corpse at the gate—where it might decompose or be eaten by animals, Frenchie had placed the body in the monastery's ice cellar.
Now, with Father Burke, Sister Irene, and Roy alongside him, he led them to that same side entrance.
With a creaking sound, the wooden door swung open, revealing the ice cellar.
A wave of frigid air washed over them.
They could see Frenchie's breath condensing in the cold.
Father Burke shivered and drew his coat tighter, while Sister Irene reflexively stepped backward—only to find herself closer to Roy.
Oddly, she noticed that the chill lessened the moment she moved near him.
Sister Irene glanced at Roy, confused by the sudden warmth.
He merely gave her a small smile. Unsure why,
she found herself standing closer to him despite the circumstances.
Calm on the outside, Roy was anything but on the inside.
He discreetly clenched his right hand, feeling a faint tingling in his palm.
From that tingling spread a comforting warmth through his body. The stigmata—was activating on its own again.
This both surprised and reassured him.
Valak was indeed incredibly powerful if just stepping into the side entrance triggered the stigmata's effect.
Before long, Frenchie noticed something amiss—just as it happened in the movie .
When he'd placed the hanged nun's body in the ice cellar three days ago, she had been lying flat.
But now, her corpse was propped upright.
Nonetheless, after an examination, Father Burke found no immediate supernatural evidence on the body.
With Frenchie's help, they moved the corpse to the nearby cemetery for burial.
Once finished, they finally entered the main monastery.
In the hall, they encountered an old nun, heavily shrouded in a black veil.
She was the abbess of St. Carta Monastery—or rather, the abbess's spirit.
Roy sensed no breath, no sign of life.
It was just as he recalled from the movie: all the nuns here had been killed by the demon nun.
What remained were their souls, lingering in this blighted place.
As Roy edged closer to the abbess, the warmth from his stigmata surged again.
The abbess insisted it was late, advising Father Burke and his companions to rest overnight in the guest quarters outside the monastery walls.
Respecting her authority, Father Burke agreed.
With accommodations arranged, Father Burke and Sister Irene settled in, planning to stay the night.
Because dusk was falling and the surrounding forest was treacherous, Father Burke suggested that Roy and Frenchie return to the village, then come back in a few days to pick them up after the monastery investigation was completed.
Originally, Roy intended to follow the movie's trajectory—just step in for a moment, then step back.
But he suddenly remembered the three-day deadline imposed by the system.
If he stuck to the original trajectory, he would surely miss his chance.
So he changed his mind.
"I want to stay here tonight."
Father Burke and Sister Irene both looked puzzled.
Frenchie was downright alarmed. "Roy, what are you thinking? Let's just go back," he urged.
The eerie atmosphere, the corpse in the ice cellar that had moved on its own—Frenchie found it all unnerving, and he was worried about Roy's safety.
Roy ignored Frenchie's protests and turned to Father Burke.
"I have my reasons. I hope you won't refuse."
Father Burke frowned.
Guessing Roy's motivations, he hesitated, then relented.
"Very well. You may stay."
"The nun who was to guide us has gone, so you can share my room for the night."
"Thank you," Roy replied, bowing his head in gratitude.
Stepping toward the door, Roy looked out at the thick fog settling over the dusk sky.
He glanced back at Frenchie. "Come pick us up in three days. Head back for now."
Frenchie's brow furrowed. "But…why wait three days?"
Roy simply smacked him lightly on the back of the head. "Because we don't know the way back, obviously."
"If we try to leave on our own, we'll get lost in these woods."
Sister Irene, naive to the ways of the world, couldn't help but smile behind her hand at Roy's casual thump on Frenchie's head.
Then Roy took out a piece of white cloth from his pocket.
Pressing his right palm against it, he drew it away to reveal a blood-red cross appearing at the cloth's center.
Handing it to Frenchie, he said, "Keep this with you. It might come in handy one day."
"And remember—come for us in three days."
Though Frenchie was confused, he took the cloth.
With one last uneasy glance at Roy, he left the monastery.