by Safa Shaqsy
“She shouldn’t have brought you here”, a tender and feminine voice spoke from behind Nora.
Turing back promptly, she caught sight of nothing but a distinct path leading towards a doorway. Worried sick and in need of somewhere safe to be, she headed towards the door and stopped halfway through it as her eyes widened and her jaw dropped at the sight of a crypt with ragged looking ladies in grey hair all seated in what looked like a courtroom of some kind.
The room ran along in rims and circles, with grey haired women with crooked noses staring right down at her the moment she stepped through the door. Silence aired wildly within the crypt, and their staunch gazes tore through Nora’s soul as though they were condemning her for actions she still wasn’t aware of.
“Nora!” she heard her mother’s voice call to her.
Nora looked east from where she stood towards a large altar with her mother gagged and bound into it.
“Mother?” Nora called out in surprised tone but halted her step as she saw the women get to their feet the moment she took another step forward. “What is going on?”
Sarah gulped down hard and smiled. “I wasn’t expecting them to be this pissed or even gathered all in bid to thwart my homecoming”.
“SILENCE!!!” a resounding voice yelled from the center of the room, prompting Nora to step backwards in fear.
Slender framed, and without the ability to move fast or even walk properly, a hunched looking woman donning rather lengthy robe slowly made her way down the rows until she was right in the middle of the room. She launched her damning gaze towards Nora and Nora blinked fearfully, only to part her lids open and see the woman standing right before her.
“We have better hopes for you dear child”, the woman spoke softly. “None of us could have envisaged seeing you with your treacherous mother who not only stained our bloodline, but who also has come to take something important from us”.
Nora parted her lips to speak, but found words pretty impossible to air. “I… i… what do you mean?”
The woman waved Nora over, and gently led the girl towards where Sarah was bound with her frail and slender hand.
“I understand you don’t know who we are, but after watching you for years and other generations coming from our bloodline, we know everything about you Nora, daughter of Sarah and Muzin”, the woman spoke again.
Nora nodded her head, acknowledging her name.
“You have led such a wrong path following this vile woman”, the woman said, pointing towards Sarah.
Nora cleared her throat, stared around briefly and finally found her voice to speak. “Who are you?”
The woman smiled, and simply replied, “I am the first tarot card reader in our lineage”.
Nora gasped, while her mother broke into a rather annoying laughter. “They are your great aunts, and mothers and families but they lack spine!”
The woman wove her hand towards Sarah, causing her to twirl in pain as the gags around her body tightened further.
“We will not have you defile our names and insult us some more after all you have done!” the woman yelled. “I am Meralda, the first of our line and I will deem it fit that you burn in hell for your crimes”.
Sarah fell silent for a while, before breaking out again in rather insulting laughter and snickering.
“Did you think I came unprepared?” she asked, holding up her hand and the bag of ash Nora had seen with her earlier.
Meralda yelled atop her weak lungs. “You beast! You dare carry your son’s sacrificial remains into this holy crypt!”
Sarah rose from the altar, casting off her binds with ease as she slowly got to her feet to the scared looking crowd now gasping and whispering inaudibly.
“I haven’t come here for you, Meralda”, Sarah warned.
Nora seemed confused and unsure of what to do. She looked from her daring mother to the angry Meralda who looked as if she had been pelted with eggs to her face.
“We know what you have come for, but you cannot have it”, Meralda replied. “You tainted a sacred deck once and attempted to use it to fuel your own evil agendas and we will not hand you another one”.
Sarah nodded her head without uttering a word, while she paced along the room with her eyes solely fixated on her feet. She paused to look at Meralda briefly, before doing the same with her daughter.
She finally halted her pacing again and spoke. “You know what? How about I make you hand it over?”
Meralda cackled weakly, as did the others who saw her words to be nothing but empty threats.
“Some parlor tricks cannot save you from eternal damnation”, Meralda warned.
Sarah shrugged her shoulders and simply replied, “I know nothing can save you from me now”.
Nora watched her mother toss the bag of ash in the air, before snapping her finger as the content exploded in Meralda’s face.
“What are you doing?” Nora asked, staring blankly at her mother.
Sarah shoved her daughter out of the way as the women sitting slowly rose to their feet and watched Meralda begin to cough aloud after inhaling most of the ash Sarah had tossed in her face.
“You know what I want, and I will get it one way or another”, Sarah whispered to the old lady as she continued to cough in discomfort and suddenly fall to her knees.
Merlada growled and clung unto her throat as he face turned purple and her tongue began to gouge from within her mouth.
Sarah turned to the others watching angrily and smiled. “I know you’re all bound by the rules, and it clearly states that nobody shall be harmed or blood shall be spilled in this crypt!”
“Your soul will rot now, Sarah!” a woman yelled.
“There is no going back from what you have done now!” another cried.
One after the other, they began voicing aloud and in deafening chant without Nora understanding a word they were saying. Sarah ignored them all as she went on a knee and placed her hand on Meralda’s chest.
Meralda let off a bloody cough and whispered, “You damn your own soul as well as your daughter’s”.
Nora drew closer, looking teary as she watched her mother smirk over the old lady. “Nothing about what you say scares me one bit… I always get what I want”.
Meralda laughed hard and in difficulty, spewing some more blood in the process.
“You have no idea”, she whispered.
The haunting chants continued and grew even louder without any signs or intent on simmering down, the woman looked up, arms linked and hummed continuously, setting a discomforting tone for Nora, while her mother seemed unperturbed.
“We shouldn’t be doing this”, Nora called to her mother. “We shouldn’t be here!”
Sarah shot her daughter a torrid look, before jamming her clenched fist into Meralda’s chest, prompting the lady to gasp aloud in her last breath, as Sarah lingered her hand in the woman chest for something.
“Legend has it that she always keeps it close to her heart”, Sarah giggled. “These old fool always have a way to get literal about everything”.
She yanked her hand out, and with it came a box with strange inscriptions on it as Sarah held it out to admire every single bit of the art work on it.
“Remarkable”, she muttered in lust.
She held it out to Nora to see, but Nora refrained from touching it, after all, she had just seen her mother murder someone to get it.
“She was old and ragged and doesn’t need it in this world”, Sarah cajoled her daughter.
Nora shook her head still and slowly began to step away from her mother as the woman got to her feet.
“I want to go home”, Nora demanded
Sarah agreed and waved her daughter towards the entrance through which she had come. They raced towards the exit, but came to a halt as the women chanting slowly began to descend from where they stood to surround Sarah and her daughter. The walls of the crypt shuddered heavily too, and large bricks and rock fragments began to fall dangerously.
“Sha
me! Shame! Shame! Shame!’ they chorused, holding their hands out and pointing towards Sarah and her daughter.
Sarah looked around, hurried back to pick her bag of ash and began to unload its content as she formed a circle around she and her daughter. Nora, frightened beyond words, looked to her mother for answers, but it became apparent that even Sara had nothing to proffer as a solution to their current debacle.
“Take this”, Sarah extended the box to her daughter and tucked it into her hand. “It contains the most powerful tarot cards ever created ad it can channel immense power from any real and anywhere you use them”.
Nora bobbed her head, but remained lost on what exactly her mother needed of her as the enraged women slowly closed up on them and only needed some seconds to rip them into shreds. Sarah took in heavy breaths, looked at her daughter with a wry smile creeping into her face.
“I wasn’t made to be ordinary and I wasn’t born to be weak”, her mother smiled.
Nora parted her lips to ask some questions, but Sarah shoved the girl hard and fast until she fell out of the circle and without protection from the incoming hoard of angry old women in rags. She held up a box in her hand, showing she had tricked her daughter by giving her a fake, before crossing her arms over her chest and smiling.
“As long as I stay in this circle, you cannot lay a finger on me”, Sarah said spitefully at the women.
Nora’s heart sunk and her soul felt broken by her mother’s betrayal. She watched the women hurry in their direction as the crypt continued to crumble, but the exit remained shut and the dilemma on how they were to make their escape haunted her dearly.
“Shame! Shame! Shame!” they continued to recite as they walked past Nora without acknowledging her existence.
Nora gasped and felt her chest get relieved as she realized her mother was the main attraction for the angry elderlies. Sarah smiled within the boundary of her protection and shrugged her shoulder at her daughter. Unknown to her and without seeing it coming, a large sized rock rammed hard into her head, causing Sarah to stagger and fall out of the circle she had assumed would protect her.
The hoard surrounded her and dragged her body away while she screamed for mercy and help.
“Nora!” she cried. “Help your mother!”
Nora shook her head, crawled into a ball as she was scared to death.
“Help your mother, you stupid child and wake up!” Sarah yelled.
Nora looked to her mother, crawled over and yanked the box from her hand as she watched the women tear the woman she used to love and assume to be the best mother in the world apart.
“Open your eyes, Nora! Open your eyes!’ she muttered to herself with the newly acquired box containing the elderly’s tarot card in her hand.
The elderlies turned around upon dismantling Sarah’s body and tossing her remains aside. They shot Nora an angry look and began to approach her with their intent to do the same thing they had done to her mother becoming as clear as day.
“Open your eyes!” Nora yelled.
In a loud gasp, she parted her eyes opened and felt herself fall from the chair she had been sitting on. Her father had his back leaned against the door, while Naomi looked equally frightened.
“Something is terribly wrong outside the door”, her father cried.
Nora gasped for air and slowly began to attain a steady breath. She looked from Naomi to her father and back, before holding up the box she had acquired from her dubious mother.
“Where is your mother?” Muzin asked.
Swallowing some discomfort down her throat, Nora replied. “She tried to kill me… she’s dead”.
Naomi wrapped her arms around her friend and they shared a warm hug for a moment. “I am so glad you’re safe”.
Muzin shrieked aloud as a claw tore through the door and jammed into his arm.
“I don’t mean to break up your reunion, but with Sarah dead, the wraith is no longer on our side!” he screamed in pain.
Nora looked to the door and realized it was only a matter of time before the beast would make its way in.
“I cannot catch a break!” she sighed exhaustively.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Muzin still donned the confused look on his face while he stared at his daughter. Details of how his wife had tried to have his daughter lynched by elderlies aside, the information about Sarah’s true intent baffled him more. He shifted in his seat while the wraith seemed to have calmed down of occupied itself with something else.
“These cards are meant to be powerful?” he asked once again, sounding really skeptical.
Nora bobbed her head and took another look at the deck she still had not summoned courage to open. Running her fingers atop the deck’s cover, she got the sense and feeling something special was imbibed in the card, which would explain why Meralda had it lying inside her heart.
“I don’t think I should be using something this powerful after all that happened with the other card”, Nora sounded lost.
Muzin reached his hand over to his daughter and smiled. “From everything I have seen so far, you are nothing close to weak and your sheer strength leaves me wondering how it is possible to have such a wonderful daughter.
Naomi agreed with a subtle nod. “More so, if the news tarot card is powerful, then it might be just what we need to defeat those things out there”.
Nora agreed and slowly retreated her hand from her father before slowly flipping up the deck’s cover. Rusty looking, and old as hell, the cards stunk of staleness just by staring at them, yet, the edges weren’t torn or roughened as one would have suggested. She took them out slowly, whilst still admiring the beauty the card possesses even while it was old.
A note fell off from the deck’s cover, prompting Naomi to pick it up as she read aloud, “May the first give you strength, and may the first take what is hers… be forewarned and be steadfast, for Meralda always gets what she wants”.
Naomi looked at Muzin and then Nora, but uttered no word. It sounded like jargons to them all obviously, but even the jargons scared them and they didn’t plan on spilling their feelings.
“Here we go”, Nora sucked in ample air and exhaled.
One after the other, she laid out the cards on the table to note the images etched on their backs. Like a jigsaw puzzle, they seemed to tell a complete story, but not one she could find out unless the cards were all stacked close to one another.
“What does it say?” Naomi asked nervously.
Nora remained silent just before placing the last card on the table and at the edge to complete the layout. They gasped and shared bothered looks with one another, as the image formed was good enough to terrify just about anyone.
“You say this card belongs to another called Meralda?” Muzin asked to verify.
Nora bobbed her head gently.
Muzin reached his hand towards the cards but made no move to touch them. “Why does it have your face on its back?”
It was the billion dollar question and Nora wished she knew. She wished she could answer a lot of niggling questions bothering her as well, and she wished she could find ways to solve all the problems at hand without having to indulge in more dangerous ancient magic.
Naomi opened her mouth to speak, but Nora placed a finger to her lips and whispered, “Listen”.
The trio pinned their ears to the slightest sound they could pick, and with it came the chilling, yet subtle sound from the other side of the door. It was the eerie sound of claws scratching against a door, indicating their unwanted guest was back.
“The wraith is back”, Nora spoke the words they were too terrified to acknowledge.
Without further ado, she began to pick the cards together, stacking them properly before shuffling them as many times as her shaky hands would permit her. Muzin looked to the door nervously and looked like he was about to pass out on breath alone, while his daughter continued t shuffle the cards.
“We need someone to barricade those doors!” Nora demanded.
&n
bsp; Naomi jumped to her feet and raced in the direction of the scratching sound. “Read your father first and then you can do me afterwards”.
The candles on the table suddenly lit themselves, in blue burning flame with some degree of discomfort airing through the room in the manner it had occurred.
“This is getting really strange”, Muzin confessed.
Nora ignored her father’s words and took his hands into hers. Upon connecting their hands, the flames simmered and everything within the room stood still; Naomi remained stiff with her widened eyes, while the scratching sound from the wraith outside the door couldn’t be heard anymore. The world around the duo holding hands felt like they were trapped in a vacuum.
“What is happening?” Muzin asked.
Nora shook her head to indicate she had no idea. The cards slowly rose from the table while their hands remained locked, and one at a time, six cards spread themselves across the table between Nora and her father. It sent chills down the girl’s spine as they began to flip over without Nora having to do anything.
“Light… raven… rainbow… ocean… courage… wings”, Nora read the cards aloud.
Muzin leaned closer to have a look for himself. “What do they mean?”
Nora took a minute to maul the cards in her mind and grant herself the best interpretation. “I have a feeling you’d be tasked with some bold choices to make soon father”.
Muzin bore no understanding of his daughter’s words, but nodded his head in compliance.
“What happens next?” he looked towards Naomi who still remained petrified and asked. “What happens to all of us next?”
Nora slowly retrieved her hands from her father’s prompting the cards hovering before them to fall back unto the table, and the air around them to become active again. Naomi gasped from where she stood, with her back against the door, and Muzin let out an exhaustive sigh as well. Nora began to pick up the cards, but halted as her senses picked up something coming their way.
Looking up to her father with sorrow in her eyes, she whispered, “Your time is now, Papa”.