“I lost her mother to that thing the first day I ever let her do a reading with it”, Muxin broke in loud tears without forewarning.
He clamped his hands over his face and struggled to hold back everything he had been keeping within.
“It ruined her, and it is about to ruin you too!” he noted.
Nora stepped towards her father, feeling her hand trembling and her eyes sweeping from him to his new wife. Lama drew closer too, consoling the man by placing her hand on his back and running it down slowly until he sniffed and gathered some strength to look back up.
“Whatever it is, whatever is going on, Papa, you need to tell me”, Nora pleaded.
Muzin held his daughter by her arms, visibly shaken and absolutely stricken with grief.
“The tarot cards you assumed you bought belonged to your mother”, he broke out the pretty baffling news. “it has always been in her family for generations and according to her, those handpicked to use it cannot escape its fate”.
It still sounded like a whole lot of gibberish to her, even while she wanted to believe her father. He yanked the diary out from her grasp and began to flip through pages until he found the one he wanted. Nora looked at him oddly, before slowly looking at the book and reading it to herself. Her mother had stated it clearly; the tarot card was theirs to possess and there would be no doing away with it.
“Are you sure this isn’t just some part to her illness?” Nora asked, sounding almost as though she had been won over on the idea of her mother being sick.
Muzin shook his head in show of defiance. He knew what he knew and there would be no altering his believes.
“What will you do with it?” Nora asked.
Muzin took a moment to think, snapped his fingers together and rushed out of the room to retrieve the cards from where he had hidden them. The dusty old deck looked as harmless as it had been from the moment she picked it up, and even while her father clutched tightly unto it, she felt the urge to rip it from his hand and keep it for herself.
“I’m going to do exactly what your mother wouldn’t do”, her father sneered.
His face bore nothing but frightening look, as his lips curled and his nostrils flared.
“I will destroy the darn thing”, he grinned.
Nora was about speaking against the act when her father hurried past her and raced down the stairs. She followed suit without wasting any time while Lama dragged her feet after them.
“It took your mother”, he mumbled while he stoke the fireplace. “It isn’t taking anything from me again!”
Nora motioned to stop her father from dallying with something he obviously had no idea about, but Lama held her back. They bore witness to the man doing what he felt was needed to take charge and control of his life. It felt somewhat of an overreaction to Nora, but even while she had her reservations, her mother’s handwritten words only puzzled her badly.
Muzin sorted the fire and took one good look at the deck of cards with a wilder grin on his face.
“I hope you rot in hell and leave my family the hell alone”, he smiled, before tossing it into the blaring flames.
No sooner had he tossed it into the flames did Nora see her mother’s last written note.
“For all who touches the deck of truth, shall share in the gate it possesses for them… life or death may be thy fate, but beginning without ending is the doom you’d get”.
“I think we need to finish whatever mom started:, Nora whispered.
Her father turned around, wearing his smile and looking at his daughter like she was speaking absolute gibberish.
“It is done”, he whispered.
Nora stepped closer to the fire, as did Lama while the trio watched the deck of cards burn into crisp, and its flames soar into the chimney up above. It felt like the end to nothing; an exaggeration which everyone had taken up without needing to. Nora felt a tad disappointed, but some part to her felt relieved, even while there were many questions yet to be answered.
“What does the card have to do with mom’s death?” she asked herself. “How does it even translate to my generation?”
The questions continued to linger in her head, and the answers successfully continued to evade her as well.
“That’s the end to that episode”, Muzin seemed proud of himself while he slowly returned up the stairs.
Lama motioned to follow her husband but halted a few feet from him as they all turned to the front door as the doorbell rang aloud.
“That’s odd”, Lama muttered.
Muzin lost the smile on his face and replaced it with a frown immediately.
Nora motioned to the door and held her hand out to her father to not bother himself. “I’ll get it”.
Muzin raced past her, almost as if he had a motive against whoever was on the other side of the door. He yanked the door open, stood face to face with the young man about to punch the doorbell again, and asked, no question.
“Good Morning Sir”, the young man managed his words.
Nora gasped and felt her eyes widen as she recognized the boy, and the lady standing by his side.
“Shit!” she muttered, before catching her father’s stinging gaze.
“What do you want at my home at this hour of the day?” Muzin asked the boy.
The young man rolled up his sleeve, stared at his watch and held it out for Muzin to look at.
“This is past nine”, he said.
The skies looked somewhat dull, and the clouds were static. Muzin couldn’t believe his eyes when he took a look at his own watch and wondered if someone was trying to play some odd trick on him. He rushed back inside the house and past his daughter to look at the wall clocks, before placing both hands on his head and wearing that worried
