“Shadow door”, she mumbled again. “Hound of fate… “.
Nora paused, slowly looked back up at Daren and she seemed to bear some degree of fright in her eyes for a moment.
“I am sorry”, she simply muttered.
Daren looked right back at her, “Sorry for what? What are you sorry about?”
Nora got to her feet, almost instinctively, as the front door burst open, followed by the windows in rather deafening manner. The howling wind ushered in the beasts outside the house one at a time, as they hurried into the room with their gaze fixated on one person alone.
“Daren, run!” Muzin yelled to the boy.
He stepped before one, lifting up a chair and attempting to strike it but missed, as the creatures hurried for Daren and had begun to tug at his ankles while he lay on the ground screaming.
“Let him go! Let him go!” Naomi shrieked with her foot stumping into one of the Onamega’s head.
Laura moved closer to Naomi and yanked at her to get her away. ‘If they touch you, then you become their claim… you will become one of them!”
Naomi struggled to get herself free, but Laura managed to overpower her as she dragged the girl away, watching Daren get torn and dealt violent scratches by the beasts. He had stopped screaming and all that remained on his face was silence.
Muzin looked to his daughter and bore questions on his face, amongst which was, “What have you done?”
Nora remained silent and almost absent in the moment as she closed her eyes as the world around her continued to brew chaos. The Onamegas suddenly stopped, leaving Daren’s motionless body at Nora’s feet, as they crawled back out of the house and disappeared into the night. Nora opened her eyes and let off a loud cough, gasping for air as she struggled to find herself a seat.
“What happened? What happened?” she gasped for air while she tried to get herself a place to sit.
Naomi drew closer but without words as she looked to Nora’s feet. Lying there, lifeless and with his body barely recognizable was their friend, and most notably one whom her heart had been beating wildly for.
“You killed him”, Naomi muttered. “”Those things came in and killed him”.
Nora looked to her feet and a stream of migraine suddenly began rushing through. Her heart seemed to stop beating momentarily, while her eyes widened and her nostrils flared. His face remained absent from sight as he lay on his chest, but even at that, she wasn’t sure she would be able to recognize him anymore after the mutilating the creatures had done to him.
Her lips trembled as the words escaped her mouth, “I didn’t know… i… I swear, I didn’t know”.
Nora slowly reached to touch him, but Laura coughed aloud, prompting everyone to look in her direction.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you”, she warned.
Reluctantly, Nora retrieved her hand and watched Daren twitch on the floor. Naomi motioned to run over but Laura restricted her, as Daren’s hands turned around awkwardly without his face coming into view.
“Oh my God!” Muzin looked sick from where he stood. “What have we done?”
Daren upped himself from the floor without paying any attention to any of them. His head rotated around his neck, while his eyes grew bloodshot red. He smirked oddly at Nora just for a split second, before jumping on the table, and making it out of the room through the window immediately. Within seconds, he was long gone; disappeared into the night, just as the Onamegas had, with no traces of them in sight.
Everyone in the room hurried to the windows and cast their gazes outside. Hearts sunk in chests, and unaired feelings of bitterness spread across the room like wild fire. Naomi fell to her knees, while Nora felt too scared to look in her best friend’s direction.
“That wasn’t Daren”, Naomi muttered. “That wasn’t Daren”.
She looked up to Nora, hoping for some response, but the girl gave none. Distraught and stricken with grief, Nora tried to figure out what exactly had transpired when she read the card out and how her friend had become a creature of the night.
“You said it would fix it!” Naomi turned to look at Laura.
Laura snickered but slowly wore an apologetic face. “It should fix it… it will fix it, but we need to remain strong and do what the card wants”.
Muzin stepped in immediately and defiantly. “No! No! No!”
He squared up to Laura and came within breathing distance of the lady.
“You came here to peddle nothing but lies and dangerous things and I will not have you any longer”, he whispered. “You must leave”.
Laura scoffed. “Leave? Where will I go? How will I get past whatever is out there when the rules clearly demands that we finish things right here and now?”
Nora sidestepped and looked to Naomi and then over to her father. ‘We will finish it… I will continue the tarot card reading and hopefully, by the time I’m done, all of these will bear some positive meaning”.
Muzin could not believe his ears, as neither could the others.
“You cannot be serious”, he sounded shocked.
Naomi sniffed and wiped her eyes off tears as she walked towards Nora. “If there is still hope that all of this will be sorted out, then I agree with you”.
Muzin held his face in his hand and muttered words only he could hear.
“We are all going to die”, he looked up and mumbled. “Those were the words your mother last said to me the night before the darn cards took her”.
He turned around and walked away, leaving Nora and the other ladies to deal with the reality that hell was at the front door and it was coming for them faster than they can imagine.
“You are doing the right… “, Laura had barely finished her line when it ended in a loud groan for her.
Nora had
