by Safa Shaqsy
Still absolutely unsure of what she needed or what was going on, Muzin shot to his feet and snuck his hand into his pocket to ascertain he had enough bullets in there. Tightening his grip around his magnum, he looked around the room for signs of whatever trouble his daughter seemed to have sensed was coming.
“You can feel it too, can’t you?” Nora asked her father. ‘The cards have granted you and I the ability to know something is coming for us”.
Muzin stiffened his muscles around his gun while he tightly groped it in his hand, before looking around and sighing softly. “It is back”.
With the words escaping his lips, a loud growl came roaring through the ground, just between where Naomi stood and where Muzin was. The Mega-Onamega broke through the earth and reared its ugly face and frame, gnarling its teeth towards Muzin, and growling aloud and violently some more. Muzin stepped to the side and shoved the table out of his way, while his daughter clung to her cards as she scampered to the corner of the room.
Nora watched her father grow in confidence, even while he understood death was literally standing before him, and that the end might just be before him. He smirked in the face of the beast and steadied his shaking hand with the gun still lodged into it.
“I guess going down in one last bit of heroic deed wouldn’t be a bad idea”, he smirked to himself.
Nora blinked, and with it came tears as she watched her father face the beast. It glared at Muzin but didn’t seem entirely interested in the man as it looked past him and towards Nora.
“Hey! You deal with me!” Muzin yelled and called out to the beast. “You answer to me, you freaky slime!”
It growled, cast its gaze at Muzin and lunged towards the man in full swing. Muzin managed to dodge the attack before side stepping almost as if he had danced with the devil before. He steadied his gun towards the beast’s head and let rip into the base of its neck as it growled and spun around angrily and dangerously too.
“You will not touch my daughter!” Muzin yelled atop his voice, doing his best to remain out of reach.
The Mega-Onamega growled and tried to pacify itself by touching the spot where it had been shot, but Muzin gave it no chance to do so; the man let rip another round of gunshots into its face, causing it to stagger backwards while it groaned in agony.
Approaching the beast, Muzin continued to let rip fire upon fire until it growled and sought means for escape.
“Nobody messes with my daughter!” he yelled atop his voice while he let rip the last bullet in his glock.
He squeezed hard against the trigger and felt the gun become unresponsive, while the beast groaned in pain and remained flattened on the ground without much strength to move.
Muzin sighed, slipped his hand into his pocket and mumbled. “Nora”.
Nora shifted her gaze from the beast on the floor to her father.
“I don’t know how long I can hold this thing for, but whatever happens, promise me… “, Muzin stopped halfway.
He groaned mildly and looked to his gut which was now spewing blood. Lodged into his belly was the beast’s hand while it groaned helplessly on the floor, seemingly waiting for death to come take it away. Muzin coughed out some blood and smirked gladly as he placed the last bullet into his glock’s compartment.
“Promise me you will right all wrongs created through greed in this family”, he whispered weakly. “Promise me every life lost here will count for something!”
Nora slowly got to her feet, clinging to the cards now being pressed into her chest as her eyes let down excessive tears beyond what she could spell out in words.
“Papa!” she teared up, hand stretched, but without the chance to ever touch her father again.
Muzin sucked in one last breath, placed his gun into the beast’s head and smiled. “Let’s end this!”
In one loud bang, the creature bellowed in pain, just before Muzin let rip some more as he fell towards the beast and down the hole from which it had come through. Naomi shrieked in fright, as did Nora, but their pain was about to get compounded, as the wraith was tired of playing games. It sunk its fingers hard through the door and jammed one into Naomi’s back.
Naomi cried in hurt, staggered away from the door and towards Nora.
“It burns, Nora! It burns!” she cried atop her voice.
Nora received her friend in her arms, watching her squirm in pain, looking as if she was about to die. Her heart felt numb with pain, and her eyes ceased from tearing up any longer.
“I will kill you! I will bring an end to you all!” Nora yelled atop her voice towards the door.
A gush of wind expelled from her cries and blasted hard towards the door as it tore through the wood and shoved the wraith hard and dangerously into the far wall.
“I will kill you all!” Nora yelled.
Naomi coughed and slowly crawled into a comfortable position while her back bled from the wound she sustained.
“Then you better read my fate too”, Naomi smirked weakly.
Nora shot her an ignorant look, trying hard to act as though she had no idea about what her best friend was talking about.
“You know it’s the only way to end this mayhem”, Naomi smiled.
Nora shook her head dearly; she wished there was another way… she would gladly take another way.
***
Still visibly distraught and shaken by seeing her father go down in such manner, Nora lowered her head to let down enough tears to drown her sorrows. Her face had suddenly grown pale, and her hands shook fervently while she tried desperately to keep herself from thinking about what horror awaited her father wherever he was with the dead Mega-Onamega.
“The wraith is still alive!” Naomi reminded her friend, whilst she winced in pain.
She reached her hand towards the sore spot where the wrath had jammed its claw into her and felt her world unravel with pain as it oozed of blood.
“Nora”, Naomi called in weak tone while she reached her hand for her friend.
Naomi shrugged her head but soon rose her head upon seeing her friend collapse to the ground in a rather heavy thud as her head struck the floor in the process.
“Naomi! Naomi!” Nora cried aloud, desperately trying to nudge the girl back into consciousness.
Naomi gasped back into consciousness, but with squirms as the pain jetting out from her wound only continued to grow immensely.
“Please… read my card ad let my fate be known”, she whispered in weakened tone to her friend.
Nora nodded her head and did well to wipe off some tears from her face with the back of her hand. She helped her weakened and wounded friend to her feet, slowly dragged her back to the chair, but Naomi groaned with each step taken as he wound continued to ooze of blood badly.
“I can’t… I can’t”, Naomi muttered weakly. ‘We do it here and now… on this spot”.
Nora looked at the spot her friend suggested, and it was on the floor, with some pieces of candles tossed around. She helped Naomi back to a spot on the ground, hoping she would find some comfort there, before beginning to retrieve some of the candles and placing them in a circle around them one after the other.
No sooner had she placed the fifth candle into the floor that they suddenly lit and blare out fire wildly.
“I am so sorry for all of these”, Naomi apologized with a thin smile.
Nora shook her head and refuted her friend’s words. “This is all my fault and I will fix it, if it is the last thing I’d do”.
Naomi nodded and smiled, but barely held the facial expression as she squirmed in pain once again.
“Here we go”, Nora took in deep breaths with her cards in her hand.
The air in the room suddenly grew sterner and more discomforting, while the wind hammered into the windows and threatened to bring them caving in. The wooden floor creaked and shuddered, but remained firmly in place, just as she placed the first card on the ground and with it came the shrieking noise of the wraith from the other side of the door.
<
br /> Nora heard her heart beat aloud, and felt her stomach begin to churn with fright and discomfort. She wondered why she had to keep reading the cards, considering everyone she had read cards for had fallen victim to a considerably evil fate.
“I don’t want to lose you too”, Nora confessed to her friend with a tear drop in the corner of her eye.
Naomi groaned softly and reached her hand over to her friend, placing it on her thigh as she replied, “Life is not worth living when we have monsters like the wraith existing”.
Nora felt compelled to agree with her friend, even while her words were merely voicing how hurt she was that she had lost the love of her life, and how tired she was about going on in life without him being with her. There were lots of unsaid words, but Nora could fit them all in together without a doubt.
“I’ll do it”, Nora agreed.
Gently laying the second card to rest on the floor, the wraith could be heard galloping towards the door, its whining and shrieking continued to blare aloud enough for the girls to hear, but they only continued to don smiles on their faces with their hearts now set towards being brave enough and willing to confront anything coming their way.
“Fusion of good and evil”, Nora looked up but bore no smile on her face as the last card dropped.
It felt like the die had just been cast, ad she duly well knew what was coming, but Naomi remained ignorant, wearing her weak smile as the wound she sustained continued to fester with dark veins stretching towards other parts of her body.
“Can I be cured?” Naomi asked. “Will I be fine?”
Nora bit her lower lip and felt weary about spilling the words which would read as lies and nothing more. The truth had been told by the cards and there was no changing it. She slowly got to her feet and rounded one of the candles so she could stand before Naomi and whatever was coming through the door.
“It cannot have you”, Nora whispered.
Slowly spreading her arms apart, she smiled and turned her head to the side to look at her friend once again. Naomi had fallen flat with her chest against the ground, and her eyes rolling wildly in her socket as she tried to speak but without bearing enough strength to do so.
“Please”, she muttered without much strength.
Nora ignored her friend as the wraith made a hard barge into the door. The wooden door stood still, while the angry creature shrieked some more. It barged in again, and harder than it had done before, prompting the door to fall and the girls to come face to face with the beast. Its eyes glowed red and dangerously so, while its claws dripped of blood.
“If you want her, you’d have to go through me, you foul creature!” Nora cried atop her voice, as the walls began to shudder and threaten to crumble against them.
Naomi held out her hand but it fell to the ground again as she struggled to stop her friend from committing suicide. “Nora!”
Nora turned to look at her friend, just as the wraith lunged towards the both. In one full swing, it shoved her hard and out of its way, causing Nora to fly hard and fast across the room, with her crash into the wall breaking the dangerous swing. Groaning in pain, but still bearing enough determination at heart not to allow anything happen to her friend, she upped herself and staggered towards the wraith.
“Leave her alone!” Nora cried, picking up a log of wood from the broken table on the floor.
Groping it with both hands and bearing a good degree of determination to deal as much damage as possible to the beast hovering over her friend, she raced forward, kept her feet as steady as possible, and the log pointed directly at the beast as it turned around a little too late, only to watch Nora jam the log into its chest and right into where its heart ought to be.
It staggered backwards and shrieked while it attempted to get the log out. Its cries could be heard around the house, and its pain could be felt too as it swung its claws at anything in sight, threatening to bring Nora down with it as best as possible. Nora dodged and leapt towards helping her friend to her feet. Slowly, and in strain, she helped Naomi to her feet with her arm wrapped around her neck while they both made way for the front door.
“I got you… I got you”, Nora continued to whisper to her friend with assurance. “I got you dear”.
Naomi winced and moaned in pain, but barely gave a response in acknowledgment as she dragged herself along with her friend. The wraith continued to battle with the log plunged into its heart, before letting out one final cry in pain as its body landed into the floor in a loud thud. Nora paused, and Naomi halted her breathing.
The duo turned around slowly to look at the beast, with no words being passed between them. Watching it slump to the ground, barely moving or breathing brought some immense relief to Nora, but even while it felt like they had defeated something terrible, a staunch feel suddenly began to ravish her mind, as she heard Naomi retch wildly to the ground.
“Nora”, the weakened tone called out.
Nora looked to the ground and gasped; in the mix of blood was a claw, and not just any other claw, but that belonging to the creature they had just killed.
“It isn’t over, is it?” Naomi managed to ask.
Nora felt too scared to answer the question. She felt too terrified to tell her friend that their biggest nightmare was yet to come.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Nami spat out some more blood, while she curled on the couch as Nora tried to make sense of her last reading. She hurried to the kitchen to grab some towels for her friend, and a bowl of warm water, before settling into the seat next to her.
“You need to go”, Naomi managed to speak. “Leave this cursed place and go!”
Nora looked to the door, and then back at her wounded friend, but remained unsure of what to do. She had lost so much, and walking out on the last person alive which she could call family felt like a particularly tall order she didn’t want to go through.
“Please”, Nora begged. “Don’t die on me”.
Naomi snickered softly, but made no sound as she closed her eyes and felt her friend begin to help wipe off the blood stains from her mouth with clean towel.
“You’re all I’ve got left”, Nora sniffed as she gently squeezed the towel back into a bowl by her side.
Naomi smiled, sucking in ample breath, just before closing her eyes and sliding off into an unconscious state. Nora felt her neck for pulse and found a weak one, before gently slipping away from the girl’s reach in hopes she would be able to get some rest.
“The hospital”, she figured to herself, having forgotten they weren’t being bound by the monsters outside their house any longer.
She hurried to the door frame which bore no door, ad looked outside the house, to widened eyes and absolutely stiffened nerves. She scanned her eyes from east to west and then back again, wondering if she was indeed seeing things as they ought to be.
“This cannot be happening!” she frowned. “What more do you want?”
The earth around the house crawled with vermin slowly easing from underneath, while the skies slowly turned dark from the distance. Wild shrubs spread across the grounds and slowly extended towards the front door, but surprisingly, the oddity only seemed to be occurring around their house alone.
“It still doesn’t want us to leave”, Nora thought to herself as she realized the dilemma she was in.
She tightened her fists and turned around to look in the direction of her friend, but felt her heart stop beating momentarily, and her stomach sink at the sight of an empty couch; Naomi was nowhere to be found.
“Naomi?” Nora called out, wondering where he weak friend could have gone to without making a sound.
Asides a large goo of blood at the foot of the couch, nothing else indicated where the lady might have headed, while the room fell awfully silent as well.
“Naomi!” Nora called out in cautious voice, as her breath heightened and her eyes widened in worry.
She raced up the stairs and towards the bedroom in search for her friend, hoping she had gone into
the room in search for better resting place, but the absence only caused her heart to rage with discomfort, and her knees to wobble too.
“Where are you?” she whispered to herself in distress.
No sooner had she asked the question, did she hear a loud growl rage around the room, followed by heavy breathing and the unmistakable cry from her friend, Naomi.
“Naomi!” Nora yelled, turned around without further ado, and heading down the stairs.
Her feet moved quickly, and her arms swung wildly by her side as she hurried down the stairs and stopped for a moment to listen for her friend once again. She turned to the couch as the wind hurrying through the front door blew the stack of tarot cards on the table into the air, causing them to fly in her direction, and a select few to fall at her feet.
Nora slowly crouched to pick the one directly before her feet up and flipped it over. The card left her chills, and caused her to gasp as she slowly held it away from her face in hopes she wasn’t seeing the right thing.
“No”, she gasped.
She picked up the next two cards closest to her and flipped them over as well, as the oddity they bore on their faces struck her and caused her to further back away.
“This isn’t right”, she thought to herself.
Forgetting about Naomi for the moment, she began hurrying around the room to pick up the other cards as well. They all bore the same image on them, causing her to wonder if they weren’t the same cards she had read earlier. The image was clear as day and the intent behind what the card wanted wasn’t hard to decipher, since it bore two feminine figures fighting.
“You cannot be so evil to want this!” she yelled at the cards and hoped the elderlies could hear her from whatever realms they were in. “Isn’t it bad enough that you’ve taken my entire family!?”
She fumed as she picked up every single card, before walking over to the fire place she had lit to give them some warmth. Taking another look at the cards with her heart pounding in her mouth wildly, Nora closed her eyes and tossed the deck into the fire.
“I don’t have any friends to bring you back”, she thought to herself.
