Cards of Death Box Set

by Tamara Geraeds

  I reach for her hand and she jumps a little when I grab it.

  “So where did they find your grandma exactly?” I lower my voice, although I’m not sure why.

  She raises the arm I’m holding and points to a dark corner.

  “Okay, stay here.”

  “Wait,” she whispers urgently. “What are you going to do?”

  I take another step away from her. “Well, we’re here for a reason, so I’m going to see if I can find any clues. You said the deaths of your mother and grandmother were a mystery, right? Just like yours?”

  “Well… yes.”

  “So let me go check it out.”

  She bites her lip and I plant a quick kiss on it. “I’ll be back soon.”

  Before she can argue more – and before I lose my nerve – I stick my hands out in front of me and start walking. Or shuffling, is more like it. There’s junk everywhere and the further I walk, the darker it gets. It’s like stepping into a horror movie. My whole body screams at me to turn around.

  But I don’t. I want to help Vicky. She deserves to know what happened to her family and herself.

  Cobwebs tickle my face and I hit my toe on a chest. The floorboards creak, not just under my feet but all around me. The hairs in my neck rise.

  I yelp when a hand touches my shoulder.

  “Shh, it’s just me,” Vicky says. She holds up a light. “Here, this might help.” She hands me my phone, which I must have dropped when we arrived.

  “Thanks.” My voice is a bit shaky and I clear my throat. “You stay here.”

  “No, I’m coming with you. It’s my memory after all.”

  I frown. “Really? Did you find your grandmother here?”

  She shakes her head irritably. “You know what I mean. It’s meant for me.”

  My heart pounds loudly at her bravery. I want to tell her how amazing she is, but I’ve got a feeling this isn’t the right time for that. So I turn back around and take a deep breath. “Okay then. I’ll lead the way.”

  Her hand slips into mine and I feel a whole lot safer.

  Thanks to the flashlight on my phone, it’s not hard to swerve around the clutter now.

  The penetrating smell gets worse with every step but I keep going. When I spot a leg, I come to a halt. Slowly, I move my phone up.

  There she is, folded over a bunch of suitcases. Her legs dangle on one side, her head and arms on the other. A small spider is exploring the fabric of her dress.

  I move the light over the floor around her. “There’s no blood.”

  Vicky nods. “I know.”

  “So what happened? Did she have a heart attack?”

  “If she did, then how did that symbol get into her neck?”

  She grabs my phone and moves closer to the body. With her jaw clenched, she reaches for her grandmother’s hair and pushes it aside.

  I bend towards the symbol that is now fully visible. It’s red around the edges, like a new tattoo, but I recognize it immediately. “It’s the same as yours, isn’t it? Even in the same place,” I whisper.

  Slowly I bring my hand closer to it and follow the lines, starting with the small I attached to the larger one. I press the large raindrop at the bottom.

  “What is it?” Vicky asks. “What do you feel?”

  “It’s pulsing. It’s barely noticeable, like the purring of a cat.”

  Her eyebrows shoot up and I shrug. “I don’t know how else to describe it.”

  “How do you think it got there?”

  I wipe my hand on my trousers and stare at the symbol for a minute. “It wasn’t carved in. It must have been magic.”

  “That’s what I thou-“

  “Hello?” a voice suddenly shouts out. “Mary?”

  The creaking of the stairs indicates someone coming.

  My gaze meets Vicky’s. “Are we visible?”

  “I don’t think so. We’re not really here after all.”

  We take a step back from the body and listen to the footsteps approaching.

  The door is pushed open slowly and a pale, wrinkled man peeks in. “Mary?” His eyes sweep the attic. “Are you in here?” He squints and reaches for a light switch I wish I’d found before.

  For a moment we’re all blinded by the sudden brightness. Then he gasps and grabs his heart.

  I hold up my hands in defense. “It wasn’t us. We found her like this.”

  “Shh, Dante, he can’t see us,” Vicky whispers.

  I drop my arms, but keep an eye on the old man. “Are you sure?”

  “Oh no! Mary!” The pale man rushes forward. He almost trips over boxes and other junk on his way.

  “Yes, I’m sure,” Vicky says, almost inaudibly.

  I bend over to her. “Then why are you whispering?”

  She takes another step back. “Because this feels wrong.”

  I put my arm around her while we watch the man kneel in front of Vicky’s grandmother. “No, oh no.” He shakes his head violently. “I knew I shouldn’t have left you alone. I knew we were onto something."

  He looks up and blinks away his tears. For a moment I think he can see me, but he’s just staring sadly into the distance. The pain on his face makes the hairs in my neck stand up again.

  As I look into his eyes, a strange sensation flows washes over me. “I know this man.”

  Vicky turns her attention to me. “What? How? You weren’t even born yet in this year. And this man is like…” She waves her hand in his direction, “seventy years old.”

  “Yeah, maybe he just looks like someone I know.”

  We both bow our heads when the old man lifts Mary’s hand and kisses it. “I will avenge you, my sweet Mary. They will pay for what they did to you and I will make sure they will never harm anyone else ever again. And I will continue our search, my love.”

  I gasp. “Wait, is this your grandfather?”

  Vicky shakes her head. “No, he died young. My mother once told me about another man who worshipped the ground my grandmother walked on, but there are no pictures of him.”

  “Well, this must be him.”

  The man puts his hands together and lifts his head to the ceiling. “Dear God, please help me fight the Devil. Help me protect all the innocents and keep this world safe. Amen.”

  My heart stings at his words. This man doesn’t have a bad bone in his body, yet he has just lost the person he loves most. My hands ball into fists at the thought of the unfairness of it all. Mom and Vicky are just like him. They want to do good, make people happy, yet they suffer more than others. If there is a God, why doesn’t he help people like them?

  Before I can finish my thought, a rainbow appears in the corner of the attic. It rises to the ceiling, covering everything beneath it in specks of colored light.

  The old man smiles and closes his eyes. His body seems to light up from within.

  “Thank you, God. I will not disappoint you.” He stands up, straighter than before, and takes a deep breath. A tear escapes his eyes as he looks down on Mary. “Goodbye, my love. One day we will be reunited.”

  With light steps he walks back to the door. A second later, darkness falls upon us and his footsteps retreat.

  For a while we just stand there, lost for words.

  Finally Vicky speaks up. Her voice is hoarse with emotion. “That was beautiful.”

  I’m about to agree, when I notice some kind of mist creeping towards us. “What is that?”

  Vicky’s body tightens. “The Shadow World.”

  I squeeze her closer to me. “We don’t want to go there again, do we? Why are we walking towards it?”

  “We’re not. It is moving closer to us.”

  “Well, let’s get out of here.” I grab her hand, turn and pull her with me.

  But the mist comes in from all directions. It rises from the ground, leaning towards us, reaching out.

  I duck to avoid it. “How long do you usually stay in a memory?” I
ask, looking around for a way out.

  “I don’t know, it’s different every time.”

  “Has this ever happened before?”

  She jumps back as the mist dives at her. “No, but it has been getting closer with each memory.”

  While I hold on to her with one hand, I hit myself on the cheek with the other as hard as I can. It has no effect. The rules of dreams don’t apply here.

  The gray mist rises around us quickly. Wisps sway from side to side, like snakes assessing their prey. I try to follow them with my eyes, but there are too many of them. The air around us gets thick as they box us in.

  I pull Vicky’s arm to get her attention. “On three we jump through it.”

  She nods and I start counting. “One… two…”

  On three, the mist swoops down on us from all sides. Everything is blurry and it feels like I’m suffocating. My head spins and Vicky’s hand slips from mine.

  “No!” I yell, but the sound is sucked into the void.

  I have no control over my body. It is pulled away. All energy drains from me, making it impossible to fight. A thousand hands pull at me. Their cold touch numbs my limbs.

  I don’t want to fight anymore. Closing my eyes, I drift away.

  CHAPTER 2

  “Dante? Are you here?”

  A beautiful voice wakes me from my slumber. My eyelids are glued together. When I force them open, I see that I am still surrounded by impenetrable mist. Raising my head is difficult, it’s so heavy.

  Tentatively, I move my fingers. They are numb from the cold and feel like they don’t belong to my body.

  “Dante? Please answer me.”

  She sounds desperate. I open my mouth to call out, but a sliver of mist crawls in and cuts of all oxygen.

  I gurgle. My fingers grasp for a weapon. They are the only parts of my body moving. The rest of it just lies there frozen. I want to reach for my power core, but I can’t remember where to find it.

  “Don’t forget, it’s not real!” Vicky shouts.

  Not real? Then why am I choking?

  “Fight it! Fight it with your mind,” her words echo.

  Okay. I’m not choking. This mist is not real, it can’t hurt me.

  It doesn’t help. My body convulses with the effort to breathe. Everything tingles. I can feel the cold, empty mist taking over my body. It moves my arm and pushes my body upright.

  My eyes are still mine. They focus on Vicky, stepping out into the emptiness around me.

  Help! I want to say. But my voice produces other words. “Your time is up.”

  My arms shoot forward, and my fingers wrap around her neck.

  Vicky’s eyes widen in fear. She wriggles and kicks out with her feet. A gurgling sound escapes her mouth. I can read what she wants to say in her eyes. ‘What are you doing? Let go off me.’

  ‘I’m sorry!’ I signal back with my stare. ‘It’s not me doing this.’

  My free hand moves to my pocket and takes out my Morningstar. Vicky’s eyes, as well as mine, follow it. She tries to shake her head, while I fight to regain control over my body.

  My hand moves back, ready to strike. “Bye, Vicky.”

  ‘No!’ I yell inside my head.

  But the mist forces my arm forward. The Morningstar unfolds and cuts through Vicky’s chest.

  Rage builds up inside of me. I push it out, until the feeling in my hands returns.

  While my left hand drops the Morningstar, my right releases Vicky. My legs obey again and I catch her before she hits the ground.

  “No!” I moan. “Please no.”

  The mist gushes out of me like poison and swirls around her.

  “Go away!” I yell. “You’ve done enough.”

  But it just gets thicker and moves faster, until I can’t see her anymore.

  “Hold on, Vick,” I tell her. “Fight it.”

  You have no body in the Shadow World, Quinn’s voice echoes from my memory.

  My head jerks up with a frustrated grunt. I let go of Vicky. “It’s not real, babe. None of this is real. You can get up.”

  The mist howls and dives at me. I keep my feet steady on the ground and try hard not to blink. With a soft hiss, the mist dissolves. Tiny specks rain down on us as Vicky slowly gets up.

  I give her an encouraging nod. Inside I’m crying with relief, but I’m not about to tell her that. “How come you fell for that? You were the one who told me it’s not real.”

  She gives me a small smile. “You caught me by surprise. The mist fed off my fears for a moment.”

  “And that fear jumped over to me. But don’t worry, it’s gone now.” The moment I finish my sentence, gray fog moves up from the ground again.

  “Or not,” I say, facing it. “I don’t care. Whatever you are, you can swirl around us as much as you want, but you won’t drive us crazy.”

  I offer Vicky my hand. When she takes it and steps closer to me, her feet are suddenly lifted.

  She gives me a stern look. “You have to really believe it, Dante. Stop worrying about me.”

  “I’m not worried about you.”

  She places her other hand on her hip, which looks silly since she’s still floating on her belly in the air. “Liar. Don’t tell me you’re afraid to admit you care about me.” She raises her eyebrows.

  I huff and mimic her gesture with both hands, forgetting that I was the one holding her down. The mist drags her higher in the air immediately. I aimlessly jump to grab her leg, but she’s just out of reach.

  “Why would I not admit that I love-” I shake my head, “I mean, care about you.” Dammit, that slipped out.

  When I look up again, Vicky is grinning at me. “Say what?”

  The smug look on her face is so annoying, I want to kiss… I mean slap her on the butt. I shake my head again and squeeze my eyes shut for a second to lose the images the thought produces. “You know I like you… a lot. Why should I deny that?”

  “I don’t know,” she whispers in my ear.

  I jump back and look up. The sky is empty, the mist is gone. There’s only white nothingness everywhere. Except to my left, where Vicky’s black see-through shirt is pressed against my arm. Her cold breath tingles my skin.

  “How did you get down?” I turn my head in all directions. “Where did the mist go?”

  She places a finger on my lips. “It vanished.”

  “How?”

  My heart misses a beat when she withdraws her finger and kisses it. “I distracted you; made you forget about it.”

  I tilt my head. “Did I ever tell you how smart you are?”

  She shrugs. “Maybe.”

  “Well…” I wrap my arms around her and kiss her. She tastes different than on Earth. More fresh apple pie and honey than flowery electricity.

  I laugh at my mind trying to come up with descriptions. “You’re the smartest and hottest girl I’ve ever known.”

  She tickles the back of my neck. “Go on.”

  “You’re attentive, beautiful, annoying and a know-it-all.”

  The tickling stops. “What?”

  She tries to pull away, but I keep her close. I move my lips towards hers. “You’re all a guy ever dreams about. And that’s why I love you.”

  As a response she gives me a deep sigh. “You’re pretty perfect yourself. If only I’d known you when I was alive.”

  She buries her head in my chest.

  “Look at it this way,” I say after a short silence. “Even death can’t keep us apart.”

  Laughter boils up in her throat and vibrates through me.

  “You’re right,” she says, planting a kiss on my lips. Her mouth lingers there for a while and I keep very still.

  Way too soon she pulls away. “So, we’re still here. Do you think that’s a bad sign?”

  I wave the thought away. “Who cares about signs? We make our own destiny.”

  She nods and brushes a lock of hair from her face. �
�Sounds like a plan.” She looks around. “And which way do we start with this destiny?”

  “Whatever way keeps us together.”

  She throws her head back with a giggle. “You’re going a little overboard here, babe. Let’s move on.”

  I grin. “Works for me.”

  CHAPTER 3

  After an hour or two – or five, it’s hard to tell out here – we start to lose hope.

  Vicky wipes some white dust off her tight pants. “What if we never find our way back?”

  “We have to. The world needs us. The Shield needs us. And my mom…” I ball my fists. “We really have to get home.”

  She comes to a sudden halt. “What if we try a spell?”

  Hope makes me smile like a lunatic. “You know a ‘take me home’ spell?”

  She drops down on the bare ground and folds her legs. “If I did, we wouldn’t be here anymore.”

  “Then what do you suggest?” I ask when she closes her eyes.

  She opens one eye a crack. “Some Mages can write their own spells. You knew that, right?”

  I grin again. “I forgot. But don’t we need herbs and candles and stuff for a spell?”

  She taps her back pocket. “I’ve got some supplies in here.”

  I spread my hands. “See? Perfect.”

  “Could you shut up for a minute? I’m trying to think.”

  “Right.” I move my fingers over my lips, pretending to close a zipper. Dropping down next to Vicky, I think of all the spells I’ve already cast and read. If I change the words a bit, maybe we can… “Hey, what if we try the spell to open a portal? It got us in here the first time, why wouldn’t it get us back home when we cast it here?”

  Vicky lets out a deep sigh and looks at me sideways. “If it was that easy, I would’ve tried it already.”

  “Who says it’s not that easy?”

  She leans back on her elbows. “You can’t open a portal to the Shadow World when you’re already in it.”

  “Of course not. But we could open a portal out of it, if we change the words a bit.”

  “What if we end up in another, more dangerous world?”