He felt scared, and the peeping lady standing by the door could see the fear on her father’s face too. Nora turned around before her father could look in her direction.
***
“How exactly are you related to Nora?’ Daren asked with stuffed mouth and little breath as he multitasked on chewing his sandwich and speaking at the same time.
Laura shook her head and looked away while she picked a bottle of water from the fridge. “I’m surprised you still have the stomach to eat, when death is literarily on your doorstep”.
Daren halted with his eyes widened and his face turning white immediately. He looked at the half eaten sandwich in his hand and then back at the woman. “What do you mean?”
Laura snickered oddly and began to gulp down her bottle of water without granting the boy the answer he sought. Naomi looked from the crazy lady to Daren and then back again.
“What kind of grownup are you when you scare kids?” Naomi muttered, casting a rather annoyed look at Laura.
Laura slowly took away the bottle from her mouth and locked her gaze on Naomi. The air in the room seemed to change and shift oddly as the woman slowly beckoned towards Naomi.
“You should be careful little one”, she whispered. “As much as your fires burn brightly together, yours bears a more cynical tune to it which might serve for a perfectly bitter ending to this little union of ours”.
Naomi gulped down hard, staggered backwards as Laura pressed closer to her until her back met the wall. She looked away from the terrifying lady and to the ground, hoping the current situation would come to an end, but Laura seemed to be enjoying every bit of the torture and had no intent to stop.
“Why are you here?’ Naomi asked, doing well not to stutter her words. “If you are welcome in this family and so important, how come I have never heard of you from Nora or even her father?”
Laura chuckled derisively and gulped the last of her water before jamming her hand into Naomi’s throat and pinning the girl hard into the wall. She held Naomi’s face in place and stared directly into her eyes as though she was searching for something.
“I saw you in my readings before I came here”, she giggled and purred. “I am well prepared for whatever the card has to offer or whatever it demands of us”.
Daren shot up from his seat and drew closer but suddenly stopped. “Leave her be!”
His words had been intended to air as loud as possible and with some degree of ferociousness to it but the disappointing tone with which it escaped his lips only caused Laura to laugh aloud and mockingly.
“It is a pity you didn’t get your reading done first”, Laura shook her head. “It would be lovely to find out how you die”.
Still digging her nails into Naomi’s throat, while casting a taunting stare at Daren, Laura fell silent, closed her eyes and parted her lips to speak just before she got interrupted.
“What on earth do you think you’re doing!?” an enraged sounding Nora asked.
Laura loosened her grip around Naomi’s throat, and immediately switched her countenance into one of absolute innocence as she smiled at Nora and giggled.
“Your friends and I are just getting to know each other”, she muttered. “If we must survive or face whatever is coming next, then we must get along well enough”.
“What are we facing?” Nora inquired. ‘If you are talking about the tarot cards, I’d suggest you go out that door and forget about everything, because I am doing dealing those cards”.
Naomi raced over to meet with Daren, who gladly took her into his arms. She looked white with fright and barely uttered a word as she cast really angry gaze towards Laura.
Laura waved her hand and declined Nora’s notion and words. “You don’t decide when you’re done with the cards, and especially when things are yet to even begin”.
Daren let off a rather irritating laughter. “Lady, it is embarrassing when you perceive yourself to be some kind of messenger for a freaking stack of cards gotten online”.
Nora and Naomi broke out laughing, causing Laura to fume and turn red in the face.
“This is no joke, you fools! You think and believe this is a television show where some puny minded kids go scot free for dealing a card damned for ages and sent down upon this earth to tear the balance between life and death?”
Howling winds began hammering against the window panes, causing those within the living room to stare at them in frightened manner.
Holding her arms wide and apart from her body whilst she cackled, Laura continued. “The cards chose you, as it did your mother, and it will ask for more which you dare not hold back!”
The howling wind became a menacing sight for them, sending chills down Nora’s spine as she clenched her fists and closed her eyes. Unknown noises began to hammer into the rooftop, causing Daren and Naomi to fall back into the chair. Loud caws could be heard from every corner of the house, while the heavens blackened outside within seconds.
“What is happening!?’ a frightened sounding Nora asked her aunt. “If this is some kind of trick, you have to stop it”.
Laura shook her head and looked down at the ignorant girl. “How I wish it was my dear… how I wish it was”.
The cawing sound suddenly stopped, before the loud crashing sound of the kitchen window, which caused Nora and her friends to flinch and scream in terror. A raven flew into the room and fell dead at Nora’s feet, before two more swarmed in to similar fate. Terrified stiff and unable to move, Nora shuddered with fright and mumbled incoherently as Laura neared her.
Placing a hand on her niece’s shoulder, Laura leaned her head closer to the girl’s ear and whispered, “You command death now, and it is all around you”.
She cackled aloud
