Tarot of Death

by Safa Shaqsy

  “Nora”, he whispered.

  Muzin heard nothing but his daughter’s insistence not to answer him. He paused momentarily, before knocking against the door once again.

  “Nora! I know you’re in there and I would love to come in”, he spoke in more demanding, yet pleasing tone.

  Her silence answered him once again, before her voice broke through after a few seconds. “The door is unlocked… you can come in”.

  Muzin reached for the door knob and froze. He bit his lower lip and closed his eyes as thoughts of how his late wife used to be the one to merge bridges on such occasions. Summoning as much courage as he could find within his weary heart, he gently turned the knob and granted himself entrance upon his daughter’s request.

  Nora stood by the south side window, gazing into the fields, without acknowledgment of her father’s presence. Muzin held his hands behind his back, while his robe swept the floor upon proceeding to stand by her side. The beautiful sight of endless roses planted in gorgeous landscape seemed to make the air feel better for them both, while Nora would choose the silence over her father saying anything to her at that moment in time.

  “I know you’re angry”, he finally sought to break the ice between them.

  Nora wondered if he believed in the words he was pelting.

  “The problem is, you never let me in or allow me to reach you”, he added, before turning to stare at her.

  Nora scoffed, closed her eyes and leaned her head towards the ground.

  “If only I believe you”, she whispered. “If only I believe you haven’t forgotten about mom since you remarried!”

  Boldly, and with trembling lips while her arms crossed her chest, she looked back up and into his eyes. He broke his gaze away immediately, seemingly too uncomfortable to face whatever reality she was about regaling him with.

  “I loved your mother dearly, Nora”, Muzin sighed and parted his lips to continue, but halted halfway.

  With a raised brow, she awaited her father to finish whatever he had to say.

  “I miss her every day and even while you don’t think so, trust me… “, he continued, but got interjected.

  Nora scoffed, flailed her arms in the air and grumbled. ‘You miss her? Yet, everything about her seem to be going away! Her favorite Chinas are no longer even being used to serve soup or even exist in the kitchen!”

  Muzin raised his hand but brought it down slowly

  Nora wasn’t done. “I know you blame her for what happened… I know you still blame her for her death and the sense that she was naïve”.

  Muzin sighed and placed his face into his hand. He looked back up and slowly at his daughter, lips parted and looking like they were about to spill, before slowly clamping them shut again.

  “You sound just like her”, he finally muttered. ‘You’re beginning to act like her too, and it scares the living hell out of me to even begin to think about it!”

  Nora stepped backwards upon hearing her father roar.

  He looked away subtly and held his hands behind her back. ‘I don’t blame anyone but your mother for her own death and she could have avoided it had she listened to me”.

  It was the closest thing the man had ever said or mentioned about her mother’s death in years. It prompted Nora to step closer, hoping for more information on the mysterious death on how someone who was locked inside her home could vanish without a trace.

  “Why wouldn’t you tell me?” Nora asked. “Why wouldn’t you tell me about Mom or what happened to her? Is she truly dead or did she leave you!?”

  “Your mother would never leave me! She loved me and I loved her as well!” he raged. “It was those darn things! Those darn voices and that bloody card deck!”

  He suddenly halted, almost as though he had said too much. He looked away and slowly began to breathe so he could manage his anger. Nora straightened her expression and approached the man immediately.

  “What cards?” she asked.

  Muzin shook his head and slowly began to weep. “It came back… the darn thing came back for you like she said it would”.

  Nora was even more confused than ever, and she wanted answers. She tugged at her father’s cloth and watched him turn around with swollen eyes tempting to let down copious amount of tears.

  “When I saw the deck, I couldn’t tell you, but I don’t care how you got it or from where it came”, he sniffed and held his breath for a while before continuing. “It isn’t going to get you too. I will not watch you dally into taromancy”.

  He walked past her without a smile or anymore words, but left the girl with many in her heart in form of questions. She stared out the window, wondering if her father wasn’t becoming delusional or if he is simply trying to scare her off using the tarot card.

  Yet, there was without doubt, an underlying fear in every tone with which he had spoken. He was terrified and that alone, he could not hide regardless.

  “How did mom die?” Nora asked herself for the umpteenth time.

  Her world suddenly felt darker and absent of any proper illumination. Her father was without doubt hiding something from her and she could sense the tarot card she had ignorantly gotten, which the man now had in his possession, had something to do with it.

  “I need to get those cards back”, she mumbled to herself.

  Nora headed back for the dining table.

  ***

  Hurrying down the hallway and towards the bickering sound that threatened to cause her sleepless night, Nora stopped just a few feet from the door, and peeled her ears towards the words emanating from her father’s bedroom. The duo had been at it for the past hour and their argument didn’t seem like it was about stopping anytime soon.

  “She found it or at least it found her!” her father yelled. “How do you explain that?”

  A long and odd pause soon followed, before a resounding hiss to dispute what the man had said.

  “People buy things online all the time and the package clearly states that it is from EBay, so why bother yourself in such nonsense?” her step-mother adder.

  The man sighed aloud and growled. He stomped his feet across the room and walked to the door to slam it shut. Nora stepped closer, hoping to pick up everything they were speaking about.

  “I know you’re scared and the traumatic experience with your late wife’s passing still haunts you, but I don’t believe some tarot cards have anything to do with her death”, the woman inside the bedroom spoke softly. “You’re at a critical point where you could lose that young lady if you don’t start trusting her”.

  Nora couldn’t help but feel surprised as her lips tightened. Her stepmother was on her side and the feeling was somewhat odd. She waited to hear her father’s response, but nothing came from the man. She figured he was probably not going to hand her back the card, but that wasn’t Nora’s major concern. In one day, he had spoken about her mother more than he did for years.

  “How did she die?” she wanted to ask and hopefully get a good answer for it.

  It would definitely help soothe her world and maybe, fill the hole she continued to feel inside her chest since she came home to the sight of blue and red lights and blaring cops siren outside their home that night.

  “Your mom is dead… she is dead”, were the words her father said on that night, and nothing more.

  The cops found no bodies, and they never recovered any till the current day. It had left her life toiled in misery and mystery ever since, and now, the presence of those dingy old looking tarot cards had found a way of exhuming talks and memories of the incident in their house. She heard the door slowly begin to creak open, and Nora took to her heels immediately.

  She slammed her door shut and hurried to her bed to bury herself underneath her sheets.

  “If you’re going to keep being a child and choose to ruin our night with your late wife’s issues and talks, then you should sleep in the bed alone tonight!” Lama’s voice rang aloud and along the hallway as she marched to the living room.


  Nora closed her eyes and hoped to find some sleep; there were secrets being hidden in her house and she was going to get to the bottom of them without fail.

  ***

  Endless screams mixed with haunting laughter soon filled the air. Nora tossed to the side of her bed and began to roll from side to side as she tried to blot her ears out. The screams were from her father; they were exactly as the man had yelled upon finding out his wife was dead in the most bizarre of manners. Nora clamped her hands over her ears once again, trying to nullify whatever it was that was bringing the eerie sound.

  Yet, it persisted, followed by an aggressive gust of wind threatening to tear down the curtains, while it also hammered into the window pane. She sat up hurriedly, breathing heavily and sweeping her gaze around the room in the most frantic manner. Something swept around the room in maddening speed and she could hear its movement, but seeing it felt impossible.

  She clenched her fists into the sheets and heard them rip as she felt herself cowering in fear.

  “Dad! Dad!” she cried atop her voice, trying everything within her power not to race to the door.

  The gust of wind hammering into every window pane in her room suddenly stopped, but the entity sweeping across the room had found a corner in there to stick with and slowly, like a mirage, it came into view in fuzzy image, before disappearing out of sight. Nora pinned her gaze towards the corner of her room, feeling frightened dearly and terrified to even move a nerve as the fuzzy entity continued to appear and disappear.

  Something about it felt familiar, and not just the mild form of familiarity one would have when they remembered a distant memory. She could have sworn she saw a hand reach out through what appeared to be her room wall tearing, before closing back on every turn. She gulped down hard and felt her throat stiffen.

  “Dad!” she yelled out once again, hoping the man would hear this time.

  His silence and absence of any response from him brought the realization to Nora that she was all alone. She eyed the door momentarily, clenching her fists tighter into her sheets, before taking subtle breath and closing her eyes as she slowly slid out of bed and motioned away from it.

  “Keep your calm and things will be fine… it is nothing but some terrible dream”, she told herself while her eyes clamped shut momentarily.

  She pictured herself waking up from another terrifying dream, and subsequently joking about it with her friends. She imagined herself drenched in sweat, breathing heavily, and looking around her somewhat cramped room to the sight of the familiar objects in there without any oddity in the distance like the one she was desperately trying not to look at.

  Yet, the feeling that she wasn’t alone only continued to dawn on her some more. There was something about whatever was around her that didn’t make sense, yet, terrified the living hell out of her. It had stopped moving, and the fuzziness only continued to burst into some form of solidity before disappearing again.

  Opening her eyes once again, Nora stiffened all around to the image of fuzzy white smoke, hovering before her face. Her lungs slowly collapsed as she held her lips tight but still felt air escape through it. Her heart felt dead and barely made a beat, while she could feel herself about to urinate all over. It hovered around her and gently came to a halt before her eyes, as it began to take rather odd form.

  “Get it!” the subtle, yet troubling voice whispered.

  Nora held her thighs and tried to pinch herself hard, hoping she would wake up.

  ‘Get it back!” the voice rang aloud again.

  Beads of cold tears began to roll down the side of her face, her eyes threatened to shut close but only widened with the passing second in absolute fright, while her tongue glued itself and shrunk into the lower part of her mouth. Everything within her motioned for the flight action, but something about the voice left her too petrified to even move.

  “Get what!?” she heard herself scream aloud.

  The fuzzy cloud before her slowly dissipated, before returning within a split second.

  “It is afraid of you”, Nora felt her inner voice tell her.

  Yet, she couldn’t see anything to indicate whatever was in her room was frightened. She motioned to her left and it followed her duly, and it did the same while she stepped to her right. There seemed to be no escaping it regardless of how hard she tried, and it made her heart sink further even while the organ wasn’t pumping enough blood through her body.

  “It is yours and you have been chosen to wield it”, the voice spoke again, and this time, it felt clearer.

  “Mom” Nora asked, hoping her bold leap would give her answers.

  Instead, the hovering cloud of fuzziness only zoomed off fast and headed for the door. It seemed to pause and turn back to have one more look at Nora, before going through the door and out of sight. Nora motioned to move, but she felt restrained for the next few seconds before breaking through. Her heart was bent on getting answers to whatever it was and why it was in her room.

  The words it spilled continued to linger in her head, but she hoped it was only her subconscious trying to mess with her rather than some odd paranormal event which she would not be able to explain to anyone.

  “It was mom’s voice”, she whispered to herself before yanking the door open and stepping into the hallway bare feet.

  Heading south, the cloud of air moved fast, but managed to grant Nora the space and time to see it and follow it successfully.

  “What if this is all your imagination?’ she asked herself while she cut a corner to her left and began marching up the stairs.

  The wall clock to her left read some minutes past one, but it had stopped working for some reason which was quite odd because her father was a stickler for making sure everything in the house was in functioning condition. She ignored the clock and hurried after the bizarre entity, before stopping before the attic door, which she had never used or attempted to open because her father had some silly excuse for them not being there.

  “A lot of work still needs to be put into that place before it is safe to use”, he had stuck with over the years without ever changing his story.

  Nora reached for the metal door knob and felt her hand stiffen just upon touching the cold handle. It had gone through there, and she was sure of it, but to what purpose it had led her there, she remained unsure. She looked around and felt the darkness seem to be growing on her while she stood there. Light barely seeped into the region of the house where she was, and the air had begun growing extremely cold the longer she stood there without proper covering for her feet.

  “Open it!” she heard the voice cry aloud in her head.

  Her guts wanted to rip through the door and finally break free from her father’s shackles of silly rules which always had no reasonable explanations attached to them. She tugged at the door and stopped, wondering if the man was right, and if it was truly unsafe.

  “Nora!” she heard the voice call to her loudly than ever now, and this time around, it was right behind her.

  She turned her neck slowly and felt her body follow, while her back pressed against the door hard and wished it could materialize itself through it without having to face whatever was before her. It slowly took form and a really familiar one too. The bold brown eyes slowly emanating from the fuzzy white smoke, to the color of dark long hair, brought back haunting memories to Nora as she felt her eyes widen.

  “Mother!” she gasped and clenched her fingers into the door.

  It drew closer and pressed its cold feel into her face while she felt too frightened to even blink.

  ‘Save me”, the eerie voice from her mother hushed before slowly dissipating into a distant tone. “Save me!’

  The second time made her jump and leap ahead as a pissed looking image of her father stood by the stairs with his hands crossed over his chest. She looked at him, still frightened, before looking back to where the entity had stood, but with nothing in sight.

  “You will defy my orders whichever way you can, Nor
a!” he raged.

  Nora waved her hands in the air and tried to speak but her voice seemed to have gone missing. She waved and pointed in the direction she assumed the entity had gone, but her father wasn’t having any of her drama. He marched towards her, shoved her aside and tested the integrity of the door behind her.

  “How many times have I warned you against even trying to get into that room?” he asked.

  Nora stared at him oddly, tried to reconnect herself with the bizarre incidence she had just witnessed, and hopefully not get angry at her father’s obvious disregard to or for whatever was going on with her.

  “Dad! This isn’t about the door!’ Nora yelled. ‘I saw something!”

  He turned around and waved her words off. “We will talk about your appropriate punishment in the morning”.

  She chased after him, yanking at his pajamas, hoping to get his attention, but the man remained as stubborn as a mule while he hurried down the stairs and continued to ignore his daughter.

  ‘I have nothing to listen to and I will take appropriate steps when the time is right, in dealing with you”, he continued to mumble.

  Nora stopped for a moment to think and reason through the odd incidence. The formed image through the cloud still lingered in her mind and she was certain she had made her mother’s face and heard her voice from it.

  “I saw mom!” she cried atop her voice just as her father was about to disappear out from her sight.

  Muzin stopped walking but didn’t turn around immediately. Nora felt her breath heighten and her anger towards her father take on higher leaps as she waited for him to speak.

  He simply replied without turning around. ‘Your mother is dead, Nora. Please go to sleep”.

  It felt like the confirmation she had always wanted; something to indicate the man had moved on ar at least, wasn’t interested in anything that had to do with his previous wife. His heart was cold towards the dead woman now or so it seemed, and Nora could not believe everything she was seeing from the man. He was different and definitely not the same one her mother had been married to.