Tarot of Death

by Safa Shaqsy

  “You want the dead to serve under you”, Nora whispered.

  She had not figured it out before but things were slowly taking shape. The reason behind her mother disappearing without any trace had baffled her dearly, but even more worrying was why she and Lara seemed to be at loggerheads without any clean intentions in their hearts obviously.

  “It is why you sacrificed my brother”, Nora continued. “An innocent life for the damned souls of the dead, and you left me the cards knowing I will someday read them and bring you back”.

  Sarah capped her hands together and smiled wildly at her daughter.

  “Why?” Nora asked. “Why did you have to leave?”

  Sarah shrugged and slowly turned away from her daughter to look at the Mega-Onamega standing outside, almost as if it was itching to come inside.

  “Only the damned can control the dead”, Sarah explained without looking at any of them. “It is something I had to learn the hard way after sacrificing my son and almost including my sister in the deal”.

  Nora felt her stomach walls suddenly weaken, and her heart plunge into one of absolute dismay.

  “Now I know better and I have enough understanding on how we can rule this realm with the power of life and death on our side”, Sarah continued

  Nora held up her hand and halted her mother from speaking. “The journals I found… everything you made me believe from the onset… they were all lies?”

  Sarah nodded her head to attest to the validity in her daughter’s assumptions.

  “Now that you know everything, will you join me?” Sarah inquired without a hint of remorse on her face.

  Muzin looked gob smacked, while Naomi could barely look the woman in the face.

  “The cards aren’t just cards to tell the future or the course of events!” Sarah tried cajoling her daughter. “They are the gateway between life and death… the path between the world of the living and the dead!”

  A loud ad eerie sound screeched from the walls and around the house, causing Muzin to mishandle his gun and let off a shot in anxiety.

  “It is here to heed my bidding”, Sarah cackled and slowly began stepping back from her daughter. “It is a simple decision to make darling, and all I ask is that you read the cards for me”.

  Nora understood too well what reading the cards and granting her mother the ability to shape the course of events would be. She understood too well what it meant to hold fate by the scruff of its neck and make it dance to one’s tune and it meant more danger than anything she could ever imagine.

  “With your aunt, my little sister, dead, you and I remain the only surviving members of our bloodline”, Nora’s mother snickered. “We will be unstoppable”.

  Nora shook her head and declined the claim. “We will become monsters, which is exactly what you have managed to become”.

  Muzin held up his gun and steadied it towards his wife. “I never married this being before me”.

  Sarah snickered derisively in her husband’s face, as the Mega-Onemega outside jammed Daren into the ground and placed its large foot into his neck.

  “Nora”, Sarah called out to her daughter. “Events are about to follow which will largely rest upon your abilities to read the tarot card bestowed upon you”.

  Naomi raced past Sara and pinned her face into the window as she came to see the beast clearly for what it was; a hideous creature with multiple eyes on its skull, and scaly skin of those it had absorbed. It shrieked and yelled at her from where it stood, almost as if it was frustrated at not being able to make its way in, before looking down at Daren.

  “What is it doing?” Naomi turned to Nora to ask.

  Nora hurried to the window as did her father to watch the beast grab unto Daren’s head while its leg remained pinned into his chest.

  “It wants to break the barrier!” Nora gasped. ‘It wants to make a sacrifice so it can break the barrier!”

  “It is only appropriate, isn’t it?” Sarah asked rhetorically. “Seeing the barrier was first created to keep it out by spilling the blood of my innocent son and the same sacrifice will be what brings it down”.

  Muzin had had enough of his wife’s shameless bickering and he held his gun to her face and threatened to squeeze the trigger. “I mourned you! We mourned you for years!”

  Nora looked at her mother with teary eyes, as beads of warm tears slowly began racing down her cheeks.

  “Yet, you brought another woman into my bed some years after my passing”, Sarah answered sarcastically. “So much for love and desire”.

  Naomi screamed out her lungs suddenly, causing everyone to look in her direction. “Oh my God! Oh my God!”

  Slowly, and rather painfully, the creature yanked at Daren’s head, spitting it clean from his body, before holding the blood up for it to drip along the edges of the front porch. The vileness in its eyes was incomparable to anything Nora had come across in her life, and the manner in which it stared at them seemed to bear a soul sucking intent with it as well.

  “You need to make you decision now Nora”, Sarah called to her daughter. “Make a decision on whether you want to stand with me or fall against me and that common enemy out there”.

  Like a trapped mouse with nowhere to go, Nora felt her choices towards survival seriously dampen.

  “Why will I want anything to do with you?” Nora asked as she turned around to look at her father and Naomi, before settling a despicable gaze on her mother.

  Sarah spread her arms apart slowly, smirking boldly as she looked towards the wall through which Laura had been taken by the wraith. Loud and bothersome screeches eased from the hole in the wall, and whatever was inside of it began to crawl closer as evident by the noise it made.

  “I have something to fight for me”, Sara finally replied. “I’d bet you don’t want me as an enemy and that beast out there as one too”.

  Muzin looked lost and drained of strength as they continued to watch Daren’s head drip its blood into the front porch. The creature stepped closer, with sizzling sound and fumes oozing from the porch as it broke through the barriers a drop of blood at a time.

  “I will kill you! I will fucking kill you!” Naomi raged at the beast.

  She fell to her knees, weeping profusely, while Nora remained undecided on what next to do. She cast her gaze on the deck of magical cards in her hand, and looked up to her deceitful mother whose power for hunger was insatiable. It was left to her to stop the woman, but it was easier said than done.

  “The wraith is coming”, Nora whispered to herself with her head bent low. “The Mega-Onamega is coming too”.

  She felt trapped in between and her shoulders weighed heavily with the need to make a choice as soon as possible. The wraith reached out from the wall with its bloody claws and a loud shriek, just as the Mega-Onamega took its first step upon the front porch. Nora closed her eyes to think, knowing their lives could very well end any moment.

  Death was literally at their door… death was inside the house too…

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Chilling cold and unaired words filled the room as Nora had to face the reality that her world isn’t ever going to be the same again. Having a treacherous bloodthirsty and power hungry mother, an aunt who would connive to kill a newborn for power, and a father whose world has been destroyed through betrayal, all summed up to be nothing but recipe for catastrophe.

  Yet, she remained undecided on what part to play in everything. The beast at their door seemed to be taking its time to come in, while that crawling through from the other dimension also seemed to be waiting and bidding its time. Naomi looked driven with loss and unable to move her limbs, even while Nora tried to urge her to find a place to hide.

  “I need your help!” Nora finally broke her words out to her best friend.

  Naomi shrugged, closed her eyes and began to weep. “What sort of mother are you?”

  She turned to Sarah with a frown and reddened eyes, clenching her fists and grinding her teeth angrily, while the wo
man seemed undeterred and absolutely unperturbed by Naomi’s pain or suffering.

  “I didn’t kill your boyfriend”, Sarah simply replied. “He was simply part of something larger but he never realized it”.

  Naomi nodded her head and smiled awkwardly, while Nora shot her mother a damning look. Without notice, Naomi lunged at Sarah, shoving her to the ground and jamming her entire weight on the woman as she threatened to choke the life out of her.

  “You caused all of this! You are to blame for all of this!” she cried atop her voice.

  A loud bang ensued from the front door, followed by the creaking noise from rusty hinges falling off just as the door fell inwards and flat on the ground. A shadow stretched into the house, causing Muzin to breathe aloud and ready his gun firmly in his hand, while daughter hurried over to assist Naomi to her feet.

  “We need to find a place to hide!” Nora muttered to her friend.

  Naomi resisted, but slowly eased off the smirking woman who bore no regret for anything she had caused thus far. Nora dragged her friend along, while her father hurried behind them towards the basement.

  “You need me, if you truly want to stay safe from any danger coming your way!” her mother lifted her hand and cried.

  Nora paused, just as her father did too. They shared a brief look with one another, before casting their gaze on Sarah together.

  “I don’t trust her”, Naomi voiced.

  Nora nodded her head and responded. “We don’t trust her either, but with those things coming for us, and her being in control of one of them, we need her”.

  Naomi shrugged, showing her reluctance towards entertaining the woman anywhere near where they intended to hide. The Mega-Onamega took one step into the house, to the sizzling sound emanating from its feet as though rotten flesh was being burnt, as the last line of defense placed on the ouse came into effect.

  “You have precisely five minutes to decide, before the last barrier wears off and it comes in here to kill us all!” Sarah yelled at her daughter.

  Muzin knelt before his treacherous wife, staring into the eyes he used to love and had fond memories of, but finding nothing remotely close to any of those affections and emotions in them anymore.

  “If you try to harm our daughter, or crate some scheme to have your way, I swear to… “, Muzin tightened his jaw and looked to his daughter and her friend.

  Sarah sat up to square up to the ma threatening her. “I control the wraith, Muzin… you need me and if you want this entire mess sorted, she needs me to help her channel power from the cards”.

  Her words seemed convincing enough, even while they still spelled enough arrogant tone to piss everyone off. Muzin assisted her to her feet while she dusted herself clean.

  “It is good to have my family back”, she snickered, before leading the way.

  Muzin tailed the group, keeping his focus on the door as the creature finally crosses the threshold and makes its way into the room. It looked in Muzin’s direction, causing the man to feel sick within his stomach as he felt the need to puke immediately overcome him.

  “Don’t stare at it Muzin!” Sarah warned.

  Averting his gaze immediately, Muzin looked to the ground but held his gun towards the beast while he let off three rounds, the bullets struck it hard and well in the chest, but it simply continued walking in their direction as though it had been hit with fodder.

  “Shit!” Naomi muttered. “It is coming!”

  Sarah turned around, waved her hand in the air and with it came the disturbingly frightening creature from the walls. It stank of death and oozed of blood dripping from its lanky fingers. Upon spotting the Mega-Onamega, it let off a loud shriek, almost like two enemies coming to face each other, as the Mega-Onamega shrieked in return.

  “Now is our chance!” Sarah cried, forcing them to run towards the basement and down the stairs.

  Naomi stumbled, catching her knee against the edge of the stairs. Muzin raced back to held her to her feet, with her arm slung over his shoulder and around his neck.

  “We are almost there… we are almost there honey”, he sounded to the terrified and injured girl.

  Naomi nodded her head and tried hard not to wince or moan as they made their descent into the basement. Sarah received them all before hurriedly closing the door behind them. She slipped her hand into the pocket of her dress and yanked out a small bag.

  “This should hold them for a while”, she smiled to herself while she began lining the foot of the door with some grey dust within the bag.

  “What is that?” Nora asked with a raised brow.

  Sarah turned to look at her daughter and replied, “Dead man’s ash… it wards off such creatures as the ones trying to kill us, or at least for a while”.

  “Dead man’s ash? Whose ash is that?” Muzin asked directly with a frown.

  Sarah shook her head and bit her lower lip as she stepped away from the door. Loud shrieks and really troubling noise emanated from the living room, with items being broken and knocked off. The wraith could be heard shrieking intensely, while the Mega-Onamega’s groan and roar indicated they were both hurting one another rather badly.

  “They can kill each other, can’t they?” Naomi asked worryingly.

  Everyone turned to look at Sarah, who shook her head. “They can only wound each other until one absorbs the other… these are creatures of the old times and they seek what is theirs one way or another”.

  Nora let out a loud sigh and turned to her mother. “What happens when the wraith absorbs the… “.

  She paused and assumed her mother already knew what she intended to say. It was a pretty damning thought, since her mother controlled the beast, and should that happen, she would stand to gain immense power.

  “The wraith is only here to serve me, but the beast with which it fights wants balance between the world of the living and the dead”, Sarah explained. “The wraith can never win… it can only stall it, unless we get you to use those cards well”.

  Muzin couldn’t believe his ears and it wasn’t hard to tell by the manner in which he stared at his deceptive wife. “You never tell the complete truth, do you? It is one half-truth after another for you and you just will never stop”.

  Sarah waved his words away and helped herself to a seat on the dusty chair and around the table Nora had used earlier.

  “Shall we begin?” se extended her hand towards her daughter.

  Naomi looked to Nora, bearing a disapproving look on her face. “Don’t trust her”.

  Nora knew this to be ideal and she wasn’t ever going to trust her mother, but they were at a junction where things needed to get sorted real soon or they will all die.

  “What do we do?” Nora asked, preparing herself.

  Naomi cursed and fussed, jamming her fist into the air angrily, while she kicked at nothing.

  “We need to channel something powerful”, Sarah replied. “It is the only way you’ll be powerful enough to handle whatever comes through that door”.

  “Channel something powerful?” Nora asked in bewildered tone. “I thought all we needed were the cards?”

  Her mother nodded her head and lowered it. “The cards will direct us on how to go, but we still need something powerful to help channel our path”.

  She stretched out her hand to meet with her daughter’s, while the latter reluctantly handed it to her.

  Naomi fumed red in her face and mumbled incoherently before stepping towards Sarah. “If you hurt her in any way, I promise you nothing but a very painful death”.

  Sarah cackled derisively and nudged the girl’s hand off of her shoulder, before turning her head to look at Nora.

  “Spread the cards on the table before you, close your eyes, and follow my lead”, she informed her daughter.

  Muzin readied his gun and pointed it at his wife. “I will be here watching for any funny business too”.

  An eerie cry from the living room caused them all to cover their ears as the wraith continued to cry for
half a minute.

  “You can do as you please darling”, Sarah blew her husband a kiss before turning her attention back to their daughter.

  Doing as her mother had instructed, Nora slipped her hands into her mother’s and closed her eyes.

  “You cannot break your hands from mine, and you shouldn’t open your eyes until this is done”, Sarah warned.

  Nora nodded her head in compliance.

  “What about us?” Naomi asked. “What are we to do?”

  Sarah smiled at the girl and simply replied, “Keep whatever manages to come through that door away from us”.

  It sounded rather cheesy in the manner with which she had said it, but Naomi agreed, while thumping sounds continued to air in frightening manner from the living room.

  “Repeat after me”, Sarah said to her daughter.

  Nora agreed, and within seconds, her consciousness drifted away from the room.

  ***

  A loud gasp ensued and with it came her breath and life again coursing through her body. Nora looked around her to see walls on her left and right, illuminated by a thin ray of light from up ahead, bearing ancient runes and markings, as well as symbols no different from the ones she had seen on the tarot card she had.

  “Mother?” she looked around and called out.

  Darkness stretched around her and extended far ahead with nothing in sight. She pinned her ears to listen for the slightest sound but none came, and her hands continued to strike rocks and air the more she waved them to try and catch her mother’s frame nearby.

  “Mother!” Nora yelled atop her voice, wondering if the woman had not dealt her a bad hand again.

  Slowly and carefully, she dragged herself to her feet and began to trail the wall with her hand. Until she heard footsteps begin to approach her from the south.

  “Who is there?” Nora turned around waving her hand and hoping to catch something.

  The footsteps stopped, and within seconds, the walls began to light up with flames extending along them and straight ahead.