Safa Shaqsy
tarot of death
Copyright © 2020 by Safa Shaqsy
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmittedin any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise withoutwritten permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distributeit by any other means without permission.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it arethe work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localitiesis entirely coincidental.
Safa Shaqsy asserts the moral right to be identified asthe author of this work.
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To all tarot readers who inspired me to write this book.
PROLOGUE
In heightened breath and raging heartbeat, she quickened her steps and continued to look around without certainty about what she was hoping to catch a glimpse of. Having chosen to spend a few more hours outside for the night to study, and falling asleep, only to wake up with her head well-rested on her pile of books and with enough saliva goo to wet them, the evening came with the feeling of distress in ways Nora had not anticipated.
Clutching her books tightly to her chest, and doing just about enough not to trip on every little obstacle in her path while she returned to her room, Nora halted her footsteps, but not completely; her ears had picked up a rather troubling sound, but without certainty on what it was or where it was coming from. She gulped down hard, tightened her clutches into her books and felt her fingers dig into the leather straps on her diary.
“It is nothing, Nora”, she whispered to herself. “You’re overthinking things”.
Crimes were absent for sure around the school premise, and she had not heard anything coming remotely close to students being mugged or dealt some harmful acts at night or at any point in time through the day on campus, but this night felt different. Everything about the night sent shivers down her spine and she wasn’t sure she would make it.
Gulping down hard and feeling lumps of worries begin to form in her throat, she closed her eyes, sucked in ample air into her lungs as the cold feel stung her insides and seemed to revive her strength. She resumed her walk and increased her pace, with her nostrils sucking in ample air per second to keep her well aerated within and ready to make a run for it should the need arise.
Nora looked ahead, catching sight of her college dorm in the distance with a relieving sigh. Her lips tore slowly to the side and a smile crept in, but even while the sight was pleasing in the distance, something about whatever she felt was following her continued to haunt at her guts. The urge to turn around slowly began to engulf her, and the need to simply enquire continued to taunt at her instincts.
“Don’t look back”, she mumbled to herself in clear, yet not staunch enough warning. “It is just some silly animals crawling around at night”.
The animals could definitely range from rodents seeking meals in the dead of the night, to students spending their time smoking and indulging in illicit affairs on the school grounds. Regardless, she had no worry or business with either parties and she assumed she ought to be fine. Al she needed to do was make it home and lock her doors behind her for the night.
Yet, with each step taken, the distance between where she was and her intended destination only continued to lengthen in a rather odd and bizarre outcome.
Nora paused once again and this time, to collect her thoughts and rid herself of whatever inquisitive worries were in her head. She turned her head east, and slowly rotated it towards her south and found nothing troubling or remotely disturbing in sight, before concluding that her mind was beginning to ply tricks on her.
She looked to her right, just by the side walk, where a tree stump had stretched its roots underneath the pavement, and with it came a thick frown across her forehead. She was sure of her thoughts this time, and she was definitely certain she wasn’t mistaken or hallucinating.
“I passed this tree some moment ago”, she muttered incoherently and in a confused manner.
Nora looked back up and towards where her college dorm room ought to be, and the sight, which she had joyed over not quite long, was nowhere to be seen.
“Oh my God!” she cried in fright, but not loud and in hopes of not alarming or alerting unwanted people or persons.
Her knees suddenly grew wobbly, and her breath seemed to mellow in desire to breeze through her effectively. Nora tightened her fists into her books and across her chest, but felt her nerves suddenly begin to stiffen as though an invisible gag had been placed on her.
“This isn’t happening! This is so not happening!” she mumbled to herself.
Feeling her veins begin to thump and rush with copious amount of blood flowing from her rapidly beating heart, she took the first step backwards in great difficulty, but with substance of relief in her guts. Yet, the crunching sound that came with her feet meeting the ground haunted her thoughts and caused her to swallow some bolus of sputum lodged in her throat with great difficulty.
Something about the crunching sound she felt her right foot make against whatever she had stepped on made her stomach sink, and seemed to deter her from trying to look around or even ascertain what it was, but Nora could feel her heart threatening to implode should she not find out. Curious, scared and absolutely befuddled as to what was going on, she turned around against her restraining nerves, and felt her lips slowly part, and air rushing through as it filled her mouth without going into her lungs.
“A
