by Safa Shaqsy
Nora turned to Laura with a saddened and frightful expression on her face. ‘What is going on?”
Laura smiled. “That kid is stupid… most people know better than to worry the dead, but he goes right towards them and begins to kick one”.
Drenched in fear and barely able to keep his knees from wobbling, Daren begged for mercy with his eyes, and pleaded for some compassion with his facial expression.
“How do we get him free, Laura!” Muzin turned to his sister0in0law.
Laura fell silent, choosing to watch the boy drown in his misery at the expense of his life.
“You people never listen to me, so what does it matter now?’ she asked. “Even if I will tell you, then you have to promise me you will go back in and continue reading the cards as we ought to”.
Muzin stepped between his daughter and his wife’s crazy sister. “No!”
Nora struggled for a response as well, trying her best to give the right response, while she remained stifled by what exactly she ought to say.
“Do as she says, Nora”, Naomi begged. “If it will save Daren from that thing, then do as she says!”
Daren groaned aloud and prompted everyone to turn around to look at him. The grip around his ankle seemed to be tightening and there was now escape. The harder he tried to get himself out, the more difficult it became.
“Okay! I will do whatever it takes to read the cards”, Nora agreed.
Laura stepped closer to the girl and shook her head. “You will read the cards and bring my sister back, no matter the cost and no matter what the card demands of you”.
Nora swallowed hard and nodded her head. Her ability to make a choice had been taken from her without doubt and there was not telling what was about to become of Daren. His face looked pale and his eyes swelled with tears while he muffled sounds of pain softly too.
“They are dead, but they will respond to you”, Laura explained.
Nora looked to Daren and then back to her aunt. ‘Are you asking me to touch it?”
She nodded her head.
“That’s preposterous!” Muzin interjected. “My daughter isn’t going anywhere near those things!”
Daren groaned aloud and fell to his knees, struggling to keep himself from falling to the ground completely, as his ankle felt like it was burning wildly.
“Please, help me!’ he begged with drools of saliva dropping from his lips.
Laura yawned and locked Muzin in a stern gaze. “The longer that one holds unto the boy, the more it sucks the life force out of him… he might have just minutes to live or die”.
Nora spun around without uttering a word, as she hurried towards Daren and went on her knee. She looked at the boy briefly and tore her gaze from him as he had begun to weep, before slowly and carefully, reached to touch the dead cold hand tightening its grip around Daren’s ankle.
“Be careful Nora, for there are consequences touching the Onamenga”, Laura chuckled.
Nora’s hand had gone far enough and there was no recalling it as she felt the terribly cold and hardened skin atop the hand circled in grip around Daren’s ankle. The body shrieked aloud and hurried off from where it had planted itself, leaving Daren free. Daren gasped and sighed in relief, while they watched the creature vanish from sight and into a poof of dark smoke shaped in the frame of a skull.
Daren muttered softly and in weakened tone, “Thank you”.
He fell to the ground in a loud heap, prompting Muzin and Lama to race forward to help him from the ground. Nora and Naomi followed the grownups, with the exception of Laura who remained behind.
“One chain broken… some more to go”, she cackled to herself.
`` ***
The mood around the dining table was nothing as good a s somber. Muzin fumed with each spoonful of soup he took, while Laura tormented the ma with her endless smirks and incessant chuckles.
“I propose that we try and bring this thing to an end now”, Nora spoke, prompting everyone to stop eating.
She looked towards Daren who didn’t seem to be faring well since the dead man touched him.
“What is an Onamenga?” Naomi turned to look at Laura.
Laura raised her right brow, appearing lost as she looked to Nora for clarification on the question.
Naomi adjusted her seat so she cul look Lara in the face directly. “You mentioned something about an Onamenga earlier and I’d like to know what it is”.
Laura gasped, almost as if she now recalled, and smiled to herself before leaning back into her seat.
“Well, they are chains linking this world to the afterlife and with each one broken, things become more interesting”, she giggled.
Nora interjected and brought everyone’s attention towards her. “You mean with each one gone into smoke, the veil between our world and the oter side becomes weaker”.
Laura clapped her hands in attestation to how intelligent Nora was, with a little bit of condescension attached to the act.
“One step closer to bringing back your mother”, Laura added.
Muzin shook his head and rammed his fist into the table, causing everyone to become startled. “This isn’t right! We are Muslims and this is absolutely against everything we believe in! Dallying with dark magic and bringing the dead back?”
Laura ignored the man and held out her hand with the tarot cards neatly arranged on it.
“You alone can get this done and one way or another, the tarot card always wins”, she warned.
Nora, reluctantly, picked up the cards and slowly began to shuffle through the deck.
“What happens if we stop playing or reading the cards?” she looked up to her aunt slowly and asked.
“We all die painfully and traces of us will get wiped off from existence just as your mother’s was”, Laura replied.
Daren groaned from where he sat and adjusted in his seat. “Will that put an end to this madness?”
Laura shook her head fervently. “It will go to the next generation or any related bloodline to us and it will continue to roam around until someone is brave enough to end it”.
The mood around the table suddenly felt sour and troubling. Nora felt weighed down and needed answers more than she was certain she would get.
“Why did it choose me? What exactly is this all about? Why are we being forced to decide such crazy fates?” Nora looked up and towards her ant as she asked.
Laura sighed aloud and looked to Muzin who seemed interested in finding out too.
“The tarot cards in your hand were once spelled by a sorceress way back in our lineage”, Laura explained. ‘They said it was created as a means to cheat death once, and bring the Grimm Reaper to its knees with the power of life and death in the bearer’s hand once in every generation”.
Nora examined the bloodied looking cards one more time before placing the deck on the table. Lama had been awfully quiet and Muzin had barely spilled a word too since his outburst.
“It hurts! Oh! It fucking hurts!” Daren yelled aloud, groping his ankle as Nora and Naomi rushed to his side to see to him.
They helped him to the living room, where he laid back and continued to shriek in pain and agony without stopping. Naomi raised his jean up and brought to light a web of darkened veins stretching towards his thighs.
“He has been touched and infected”, Laura spoke from behind. “You must continue the reading of the cards, Nora!”
Daren groaned again and yelled, pelting out curse words which normally would have vexed Muzin, but for the circumstance in hand, he refrained from getting enraged.
“Okay”, Nora muttered, taking in deep breaths as she hurried back to the dining table and began to clear out the plates on it. “Help me create the atmosphere!”
Naomi, Laura and Nora set off to work immediately. Everyone knew Daren’s life might come to depend on it. There was no denying all they had seen, as death was literarily at their door.
***
“I’ll go next… I… I want to go next!” Daren g
roaned in pain.
Nora looked to her father who didn’t seem interested in declining, neither was he interested in going on with the entire ordeal. Lama continued to render her absence while she sullied through the entire ordeal in her room. Muzin had stated it as the safest place for the woman; far away from the tarot cards and definitely away from whatever was on the outside world.
The room slowly fell into darkness as they put off all the lights and began to replace them with candles on the dining table as Nora had instructed. One by one the seven candles got lit, while Daren with the help of Naomi, dragged himself towards the table, trembling and groaning excessively from the pain emanating from his leg.
“Will this work? Will it get the pain away?” Daren looked to Laura and then Nora for answers.
Both ladies looked lost, but Laura seemed rather calm in comparison to how she normally would be.
“You have been touched by the dead”, Laura muttered and slowly turned away to pull up a chair.
She dragged the chair noisily towards the table, and stopped some feet away as Daren was placed in the opposite chair to Nora. The boy shuddered aggressively and his fits seemed to be getting worse. Nora shared in his pain, from her expression and by the manner in which Naomi struggled to contain her emotion.
“I brought this on us all…. On you”, Nora confessed. “Grant me the opportunity to set things right”.
She held out her hand and insisted on having Daren’s in hers. He obliged, doing his best to hold unto her hands firmly as she tightened her grip around his. A gush of wind blew past them in the room and yanked open the front door as everyone looked in the direction to see another baffling ordeal waiting for them out there.
“They are standing up!” Naomi shrieked. “For fuck’s sakes! They are fucking up!”
Laura sat up, looked to the door to the sight of the Onamegas on their feet, but with their faces facing down and not in view.
“You must do the reading”, she said nervously. “You cannot break the link and you must get it done now!”
Nora turned to look at the boy whose hands were in hers and she slowly closed her eyes to open them again. Daren almost jumped out of his skin as Naomi looked equally frightened, just staring at Nora.
“Her eyes! Look at her eyes!” Naomi pointed to Nora, while Laura walked towards the door to shut it.
Naomi didn’t seem to be hearing them, as her eyes rolled back in their sockets, and her pupil became absent from sight. She mumbled words they could not hear incoherently, and the flames lit around them suddenly began to burn brightly and violently. Daren squealed and looked like he was about to pass out, while Naomi stood by him, waiting for the worse and hoping she would be able to do something to help.
“Yes! Don’t stop now, Nora!” Laura beckoned from her seat, looking both nervous and excited at the same time.
Muzin bit his lip from where he stood, and watched his daughter transform into someone he wasn’t sure he knew anymore. Whatever she was doing was scary as hell and watching her hairs begin to float around while the flames burst out violently on reinforced his worry.
“What is she doing?” Naomi looked to Laura to ask.
With a smug smile on her face and a rather dreadful one too, Laura replied, “She isn’t here at the moment… Nora isn’t here at all”.
Seconds strolled by, and the hammering wind threatened to uproot the roof of the house, while a large tree outside danced violently in accord to the wind’s demand. Nora lowered her head, slowly retrieved her hands from Daren’s and began to shuffle the cards without a word to anyone. The air in the room grew tense and the aura around felt rather gloom.
Daren seemed to be the most scared of them all, while Laura continued to smirk and enjoy the moment.
“Four legged beast”, Nora muttered, placing the first card on the table.
Laura gasped, as did Muzin, while Naomi burst into tears. Daren watched on I confusion as Nora began placing her tarot card in form of a cross on the table.
“Shadow door”, she mumbled again. “Hound of fate… “.
Nora paused, slowly looked back up at Daren and she seemed to bear some degree of fright in her eyes for a moment.
“I am sorry”, she simply muttered.
Daren looked right back at her, “Sorry for what? What are you sorry about?”
Nora got to her feet, almost instinctively, as the front door burst open, followed by the windows in rather deafening manner. The howling wind ushered in the beasts outside the house one at a time, as they hurried into the room with their gaze fixated on one person alone.
“Daren, run!” Muzin yelled to the boy.
He stepped before one, lifting up a chair and attempting to strike it but missed, as the creatures hurried for Daren and had begun to tug at his ankles while he lay on the ground screaming.
“Let him go! Let him go!” Naomi shrieked with her foot stumping into one of the Onamega’s head.
Laura moved closer to Naomi and yanked at her to get her away. ‘If they touch you, then you become their claim… you will become one of them!”
Naomi struggled to get herself free, but Laura managed to overpower her as she dragged the girl away, watching Daren get torn and dealt violent scratches by the beasts. He had stopped screaming and all that remained on his face was silence.
Muzin looked to his daughter and bore questions on his face, amongst which was, “What have you done?”
Nora remained silent and almost absent in the moment as she closed her eyes as the world around her continued to brew chaos. The Onamegas suddenly stopped, leaving Daren’s motionless body at Nora’s feet, as they crawled back out of the house and disappeared into the night. Nora opened her eyes and let off a loud cough, gasping for air as she struggled to find herself a seat.
“What happened? What happened?” she gasped for air while she tried to get herself a place to sit.
Naomi drew closer but without words as she looked to Nora’s feet. Lying there, lifeless and with his body barely recognizable was their friend, and most notably one whom her heart had been beating wildly for.
“You killed him”, Naomi muttered. “”Those things came in and killed him”.
Nora looked to her feet and a stream of migraine suddenly began rushing through. Her heart seemed to stop beating momentarily, while her eyes widened and her nostrils flared. His face remained absent from sight as he lay on his chest, but even at that, she wasn’t sure she would be able to recognize him anymore after the mutilating the creatures had done to him.
Her lips trembled as the words escaped her mouth, “I didn’t know… i… I swear, I didn’t know”.
Nora slowly reached to touch him, but Laura coughed aloud, prompting everyone to look in her direction.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you”, she warned.
Reluctantly, Nora retrieved her hand and watched Daren twitch on the floor. Naomi motioned to run over but Laura restricted her, as Daren’s hands turned around awkwardly without his face coming into view.
“Oh my God!” Muzin looked sick from where he stood. “What have we done?”
Daren upped himself from the floor without paying any attention to any of them. His head rotated around his neck, while his eyes grew bloodshot red. He smirked oddly at Nora just for a split second, before jumping on the table, and making it out of the room through the window immediately. Within seconds, he was long gone; disappeared into the night, just as the Onamegas had, with no traces of them in sight.
Everyone in the room hurried to the windows and cast their gazes outside. Hearts sunk in chests, and unaired feelings of bitterness spread across the room like wild fire. Naomi fell to her knees, while Nora felt too scared to look in her best friend’s direction.
“That wasn’t Daren”, Naomi muttered. “That wasn’t Daren”.
She looked up to Nora, hoping for some response, but the girl gave none. Distraught and stricken with grief, Nora tried to figure out what exactly had transpired when she read the
card out and how her friend had become a creature of the night.
“You said it would fix it!” Naomi turned to look at Laura.
Laura snickered but slowly wore an apologetic face. “It should fix it… it will fix it, but we need to remain strong and do what the card wants”.
Muzin stepped in immediately and defiantly. “No! No! No!”
He squared up to Laura and came within breathing distance of the lady.
“You came here to peddle nothing but lies and dangerous things and I will not have you any longer”, he whispered. “You must leave”.
Laura scoffed. “Leave? Where will I go? How will I get past whatever is out there when the rules clearly demands that we finish things right here and now?”
Nora sidestepped and looked to Naomi and then over to her father. ‘We will finish it… I will continue the tarot card reading and hopefully, by the time I’m done, all of these will bear some positive meaning”.
Muzin could not believe his ears, as neither could the others.
“You cannot be serious”, he sounded shocked.
Naomi sniffed and wiped her eyes off tears as she walked towards Nora. “If there is still hope that all of this will be sorted out, then I agree with you”.
Muzin held his face in his hand and muttered words only he could hear.
“We are all going to die”, he looked up and mumbled. “Those were the words your mother last said to me the night before the darn cards took her”.
He turned around and walked away, leaving Nora and the other ladies to deal with the reality that hell was at the front door and it was coming for them faster than they can imagine.
“You are doing the right… “, Laura had barely finished her line when it ended in a loud groan for her.
Nora had struck her aunt hard in the face with her fist, fuming red and angry as hell.
“You knew all of this will happen… you knew and you continued to lead me!” she yelled at her aunt.
Laura held her bleeding nose firmly in place to stop the bleeding, while she looked at her violent niece with an odd expression scribbled on her face. Naomi stood there, shocked and absolutely unable to believe Nora as capable of such violence.