Tarot of Death

by Safa Shaqsy

  Muzin hurried backwards and Naomi did well to stand behind the two.

  “What is a wraith?” Naomi asked in shivering tone.

  “A soul sucker… they feed on souls to fuel the living so they can return to life”, Laura explained.

  The words didn’t seem to make much sense to the other two, but they got the picture that something terrible is about happening again.

  “This is just perfect”, Muzin sounded in sarcasm. “We cannot make a run for it because of the beasts outside and Daren, and now our home isn’t safe for us either!”

  The creature screeched some more, plunging a long talon-like finger through the wall and causing the ladies to jump backwards. It retrieved the claw and simmered into silence for a minute, thereby granting them all sighs of relief.

  “What are you doing on that side, Nora?’ Laura whispered to herself. “What are you doing?”

  “If that thing gets in here, I’m assuming we are fucked”, Naomi asked before looking at Muzin who looked pretty pissed now because she used such profanity in his home.

  Laura waved her hands and settled in the chair Nora had occupied before leaving. “There must be a reason it is trying to get in here… my guess is Nora is awakening something she shouldn’t from the other side”.

  She picked up the deck of cards and took another look at it. She ran her fingers along the bloodied parts on two cards, sighing aloud and lowering her head in the process, before leaning into her seat and looking into the ceiling.

  “Who could have thought I’d be in the same room where it all began for my sister again?” Laura chuckled. “If only she had listened to me”.

  Muzin cleared his throat softly. “Errrm, we don’t have time for your reminiscing while we have my daughter to save”.

  Laura burst out laughing in hysteria. She cackled on annoyingly until her sides began to hurt dearly. Naomi shared a pissed look with the man before looking back at the crazy lady.

  “If you think your daughter is the one who needs saving right now, then you must be a fool”, Laura got to her feet and chuckled.

  She stepped away from the table, hands folded behind her back and a rather disturbing grimace stretched across her face with an odd smile as she stepped towards the door and stopped.

  Casting her gaze in Muzin’s direction, she muttered, “That wraith will find its way into this house any moment from now… even if we try to save your daughter, it will only mean her own death in here since she’s the one causing the wraith to come into this world!”

  As hard and as unwise as it was to believe anything Laura would say, Muzin found himself believing her. Her words seem to bear some tone of sincerity in them, and her eyes never flinched for a second while she spoke. She seemed distraught or rather really scared, but without the strength to show her weakness.

  “So, we are to wait here and die?” Naomi asked. “We are to do nothing, while all these things come for us and peel the skin out from out bones?”

  Laura took two more steps forward before stopping to cackle aloud. “Don’t be silly, they aren’t here to eat your flesh… your soul is most likely what they want, just as they have your boyfriend’s”.

  With the hurtful words aired, she disappeared from sight. Muzin ran his fingers through his hair and began walking to the east end of the room, shoving boxes out of the way and mumbling incoherently too in the process.

  “Two wives”, he mumbled aloud. ‘I have lost two wives to those things!”

  He shot the cards on the table a gloom gaze and returned his eyes back to a large box on the ground.

  “What are you planning on doing?” Naomi finally asked.

  Muzin jammed his fist into a box and yanked at the cover before plunging his hand into it. He took his time searching through the box before taking out two silver coated magnums from within it.

  “The only thing left for me to do’, he finally replied. ‘Get my daughter back and save my family, or at least what’s left of it”.

  Naomi chalked down some bolus of saliva with discomfort, while Muzin began to load the gun in his hand with bullets he had stored up in the same box from which they had been retrieved.

  “Nobody else dies on my watch”, Muzin declared before getting to his feet.

  CHAPTER NINE

  The tender colored walls were nothing she had come across before. Nora figured her parents must have repainted but it still didn’t make sense enough for her, because they were absolutely lovely in comparison with what they had on their walls currently. The room felt homey and warm with love, while the fire place burned brightly with a large table some feet away from it.

  Nora halted her walk to look at her mother again, almost as if she still wasn’t sure about what the woman intended to tell her. Her mother beckoned on her to go ahead and step closer to the fire place, as footsteps began approaching down the staircase.

  “Laura, we cannot do it! The tradition is centuries old and it should not be followed!” Nora heard her mother mutter in a rather bothered tone.

  Nora squinted, and strained her gaze as she caught sight of a really younger figure than the one she had left in her living room; her aunt Laura looked more beautiful and less haggard in comparison to the last time she saw her. Her dark hair ran and danced freely on her back, while her face held a rather warm smile across it.

  In her hands was a child whose face Nora could not see, as she stepped closer to try and make it out, but felt her mother’s hand hold her back from doing so.

  “You know you’re meant to own the card and all you need is some little blood from your own personal line to activate it”, Laura continued. “You cannot be this stubborn headed when you might be able to change a lot of things in this current world!”

  Nora’ mother, much younger but with the same stern expression on her face as always, shook her head and closed her eyes.

  “That card drives people nuts”, she replied. “You’ve heard the stories and I will not become another family story for the next generations to tell themselves”.

  Laura chuckled while they settled around the table. The little child in Laura’s hands squirmed and purred softly, prompting Laura to pat him on the back gently until he fell asleep again.

  “If you will not do it, then I will”, Laura warned her sister.

  Nora’s mother laughed out loud and hard. “Muzin will be home any minute now and he wouldn’t like to see you defiling his home with dark magic”.

  Laura hissed and shrugged. “Come on, where is your sense of adventure? More so, if this truly works as granny said it does, you can bring him back”.

  The latter sentence seemed to have an effect on Nora’s mother, and the woman sat up in her seat, eyes fixated on Laura, and then on the deck of cards on the table. Nora looked at her mother and she could see the same emotions she had in her when she realized she could use the cards to bring back someone she loved.

  “Sam is gone”, Laura’s mother tried to deflect the possibility.

  Laura got to her feet with the baby still in her arms. “Is he? Will it hurt to give something as harmless as this a try?”

  Nora felt her own breath begin to heighten as she watched the proceeding. She was scared stiff and the thought of things going wrong slowly began to cripple her spine. She could sense the air in the room had a dour feeling to it and everything that the smiles and laughter were about becoming nothing but memories.

  “This is how it began for our family”, Nora whispered to herself.

  Laura turned around and looked towards the fireplace where Nora stood, almost as if she had heard someone speak. Her gaze lingered on and fixated against Nora for a while before she looked away to her sister.

  “What do you say we do this and we do it now?” Laura asked.

  Her sister took a minute to maul through the idea, but eventually succumbed by nodding her head. “Yes… we can”.

  Laura pumped her fist into the air and began to take out the cards, just after she handed Sam over to her sister.


  “We draw once and if things don’t look good, we stop”, Nora’s mother insisted.

  Laura bobbed her head and accepted, smiling all the way and seemingly happy by the decision.

  “I’ll tuck little Sam into his cot and then we can begin”, Nora’s mother whispered, tickling the little boy who had just woken up and was now smiling wildly.

  She returned within minutes and took her lace on the other end of the table while Laura lit the candles. It was no different from what and how Nora had carried out her own readings, but the fire burned brightly and wilder right from the start.

  “Looks like we have ourselves some energy to burn”, Laura sounded excitedly.

  Her sister began shuffling the cards until she felt the impulse to stop. One after the other, she began laying them on the table, looking nervous but with some good degree of bravery in her actions too.

  “Cross”, Nora muttered.

  Her aunt had lied about how their family never read the cards sing the cross method, and here they were; her mother doing the same thing. It was becoming even more apparent that her aunt Laura was nothing but a liar and a manipulator to say the least.

  “Draw them open”, Laura mumbled.

  One after the other, Nora’s mother began to open the cards, and with each one opened and laid bare with its face up, she gasped in horror and looked absolutely lost. Nora stepped closer to see what her mother had drawn, and it was a wraith, with its scary head slightly peeking from underneath the hood it donned.

  “A wraith”, Laura whispered.

  Her sister nodded her head and slowly began packing the cards back, but stopped to the sound of a loud creak coming from the room upstairs. The creaking sound stopped, and the candle lights began to go off one at a time until there was one left.

  “Laura”, Nora’s mother mumbled.

  Laura smiled and sheepishly cast the thought and notion of anything odd aside. “Don’t get your nuts all twisted up… its just some crazy wind I’m sure”.

  They both agreed and burst out laughing at the thought of what had just happened.

  “We are truly silly”, Nora watched her mother sound nave. “Thinking some dingy old cards with folklore tales meant to be told at bed time would have any powers in them”.

  They motioned to get to their feet as the last candle blew out and brought their world into darkness. Deafening silence aired, with the intermittent sound of the wind howling tenderly from outside the house.

  “That’s odd”, Laura admitted while both ladies refused to move.

  Strong sulfur smell suddenly began to fill the room, causing Nora to labor in breath as did her mother and aunt. The latter choked aloud and coughed endlessly as the creaking noise they had all heard earlier began to heighten in sound.

  “Get the matches! Get the matches!” Nora heard her mother shout in paranoia.

  Laura struck the first match and watched it fizzle out immediately, before getting lucky on her second strike as she fondled to light the candles one at a time. Nora had spotted it first; hovering in ragged attire, with blood dripping from underneath its hood on the table. It barely moved, but twitched as the last candle got lit.

  “Oh my God!” Nora’s mother exclaimed.

  The frightening wraith slowly hunched on its back, extending its claws towards the cards on the table as blood trickled in frightening sight atop them. It shot Nora’s mother one good glance before slowly looking back up the stairs, almost as if it was trying to pass a message across.

  “Sam!” Nora heard her mother scream in agony.

  Laura stepped backwards, panting and whitened in the face as she grew terrified like hell. The wraith simply vanished and nothing of it could be seen again. Loud screams in agony filled the air and emanated from the room upstairs, causing Nora to wish she could leave immediately and not witness whatever was happening any longer.

  Her aunt Laura jolted for the door and never looked back, with smirks on her face, and a rather disturbing laughter emanating from her lips.

  “She knew”, Nora whispered. “My aunt… she knew what would come and she tricked my mother into doing it regardless”.

  “Of course your hand knew… she summoned it here in fact and not until after years of studying the cards did I realize she had summoned that thing here on intent”, her mother sighed. “She has the ability to read those cards and she has the ability to manipulate them”.

  Nora’s heart sunk, and her chest felt heavier than it usually would or should be.

  “It is why I need your help to stop her from hurting anyone else on your side of the world”, her mother waved her hand and the room slowly disappeared. “I am not strong to do it on my own, but you are”.

  Nora nodded her head. “I will help you, but I haven’t the slightest clue on how to get here”.

  Her mother laughed aloud and smiled back at Nora. “Magic always has a loophole honey, and reading cards isn’t all our family and bloodline exists for”.

  She led Nora by her hand down a hall with no doors on either side until they came across a red colored door at the end. Nora had not noticed her surroundings until her mother grabbed hold of her hand, but her heart had begun to ram nervously as though it was trying to warn her against doing whatever it was that they intended to do.

  “Will this not make things worse?” Nora asked in a rather terrified tone. “Are we not breaking more rules?”

  Her mother shrugged, smiled and replied. “Rules exist to make men too scared to live their own lives… all we are doing is righting a wrong I wasn’t strong enough to do some years ago”.

  Nora felt convinced and agreed. She tightened her grip around her mother’s hand and with it came warmth like she had never felt before. Her heart took on steady beats, and her eyes shone brightly with happiness as they both approached the door and stopped before it.

  “Go on now child… this door was created for one purpose and one alone”, her mother whispered.

  Nora looked at the plain door with nothing but a handle made with what appeared to be a femur bone. “What purpose is that?”

  A gush of air breezed past them both, with the gloom feeling and some form of nervousness rushing through Nora in particular. Her guts screamed against her intended action, but her heart felt it was right.

  “Follow your heart darling”, her mother muttered. “Your heart knows what is right”.

  Nora bobbed her head, reached for the door handle and stopped with her hand barely touching the bone handle.

  “One more thing”, her mother interjected just before Nora tightened her grasp on the handle. “You cannot let go of that handle, no matter what comes your way or what you feel”.

  Nora nodded, closed her eyes and held unto the door handle as tightly as she could. Streams of pain shot through her hand and ran violently through her entire body in what felt like being burnt alive in a pool of volcanic larva. She yelled and shrieked in pain while her mother cackled aloud.

  “Yes child! We are almost home!” her mother rejoiced happily.

  The note bore a sound of worry for Nora, but also came with the anticipation of having her mother back home where she belonged. For that reason alone, she will endure the pain and whatever suffering that comes with opening the door back to the world of the living.

  ***

  Loud groveling shrieks and noise from outside the house caused Muzin to hurry to his living room window. Parting the blinds to the side slowly, he watched in befuddled manner as his world began to take another form just outside his house.

  “Laura! Laura! Laura!” Muzin yelled atop his voice.

  Laura came running into the room with Naomi not far behind. The ladies stopped by Muzin and feasted their gaze upon the disturbing sight too, with Naomi gasping and slowly retreating with her hand over her mouth.

  ‘Something is coming”, Laura whispered. “Something is coming our way and they can sense it”.

  The Onamegas had slowly begun to merge, fusing into one another with a giant structu
re emanating, while Daren remained unperturbed and with his gaze on the house.

  “What is coming?” Muzin asked without peeling his gaze away from the window.

  Laura wished she could give a candid answer, but even she looked scared stiff and unwilling to admit to whatever was coming their way.

  “We need to seal your daughter in”, Laura replied.

  Muzin shot her a rather glum and angry look. “You must be out of your darn mind if you think I will allow my daughter remain trapped wherever she is and without a way back home”.

  A loud thud shook the house and threatened to dislodge the foundation. Another terrifying thud ensued and with it, Muzin flicked off the safety on his gun and aimed his weapon towards the hallway leading to the basement as the sound seemed to be emanating from there.

  “You need to do as I say Muzin, or we might not live to tell this tale!” Laura pleaded.

  Muzin wasn’t sure he could ever trust the woman. He didn’t want to trust her and he decided to rely on his own instincts. More so, he wanted his daughter back badly and he would do almost anything to have her back even if it meant defying the rules of nature.

  “I want my daughter back”, he mumbled. “If I have to hold off whatever that beast outside is until she comes, then I will do just that”.

  Naomi handed herself two knives from the kitchen with her chest pounding hard and her breath becoming rather difficult to come by. Scared stiff to her bones, she sought refuge beside Muzin, while Laura’s face paled as the thumping thud continued before a loud blast and a wave of wind blew them hard and dangerously into the wall behind.

  Dust filled the room, and visibility became impossible to navigate through. Muzin groaned and moaned with his ears buzzing endlessly, while immense pain shot through from his right knee.

  “Naomi! Are you alright?” he called out, coughing and spitting in between. “Where are you?”

  Naomi’s response remained scarce, but Laura coughed aloud and slowly made her way towards the living room couch where she fell. The dusty air slowly began to clear, and with it came two figures walking towards the trio in the distance before they both halted their walks.