“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 groaned 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
