“Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame!’ they chorused, holding their hands out and pointing towards Sarah and her daughter.
Sarah looked around, hurried back to pick her bag of ash and began to unload its content as she formed a circle around she and her daughter. Nora, frightened beyond words, looked to her mother for answers, but it became apparent that even Sara had nothing to proffer as a solution to their current debacle.
“Take this”, Sarah extended the box to her daughter and tucked it into her hand. “It contains the most powerful tarot cards ever created ad it can channel immense power from any real and anywhere you use them”.
Nora bobbed her head, but remained lost on what exactly her mother needed of her as the enraged women slowly closed up on them and only needed some seconds to rip them into shreds. Sarah took in heavy breaths, looked at her daughter with a wry smile creeping into her face.
“I wasn’t made to be ordinary and I wasn’t born to be weak”, her mother smiled.
Nora parted her lips to ask some questions, but Sarah shoved the girl hard and fast until she fell out of the circle and without protection from the incoming hoard of angry old women in rags. She held up a box in her hand, showing she had tricked her daughter by giving her a fake, before crossing her arms over her chest and smiling.
“As long as I stay in this circle, you cannot lay a finger on me”, Sarah said spitefully at the women.
Nora’s heart sunk and her soul felt broken by her mother’s betrayal. She watched the women hurry in their direction as the crypt continued to crumble, but the exit remained shut and the dilemma on how they were to make their escape haunted her dearly.
“Shame! Shame! Shame!” they continued to recite as they walked past Nora without acknowledging her existence.
Nora gasped and felt her chest get relieved as she realized her mother was the main attraction for the angry elderlies. Sarah smiled within the boundary of her protection and shrugged her shoulder at her daughter. Unknown to her and without seeing it coming, a large sized rock rammed hard into her head, causing Sarah to stagger and fall out of the circle she had assumed would protect her.
The hoard surrounded her and dragged her body away while she screamed for mercy and help.
“Nora!” she cried. “Help your mother!”
Nora shook her head, crawled into a ball as she was scared to death.
“Help your mother, you stupid child and wake up!” Sarah yelled.
Nora looked to her mother, crawled over and yanked the box from her hand as she watched the women tear the woman she used to love and assume to be the best mother in the world apart.
“Open your eyes, Nora! Open your eyes!’ she muttered to herself with the newly acquired box containing the elderly’s tarot card in her hand.
The elderlies turned around upon dismantling Sarah’s body and tossing her remains aside. They shot Nora an angry look and began to approach her with their intent to do the same thing they had done to her mother becoming as clear as day.
“Open your eyes!” Nora yelled.
In a loud gasp, she parted her eyes opened and felt herself fall from the chair she had been sitting on. Her father had his back leaned against the door, while Naomi looked equally frightened.
“Something is terribly wrong outside the door”, her father cried.
Nora gasped for air and slowly began to attain a steady breath. She looked from Naomi to her father and back, before holding up the box she had acquired from her dubious mother.
“Where is your mother?” Muzin asked.
Swallowing some discomfort down her throat, Nora replied. “She tried to kill me… she’s dead”.
Naomi wrapped her arms around her friend and they shared a warm hug for a moment. “I am so glad you’re safe”.
Muzin shrieked aloud as a claw tore through the door and jammed into his arm.
“I don’t mean to break up your reunion, but with Sarah dead, the wraith is no longer on our side!” he screamed in pain.
Nora looked to the door and realized it was only a matter of time before the beast would make its way in.
“I cannot catch a break!” she sighed exhaustively.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Muzin still donned the confused look on his face while he stared at his daughter. Details of how his wife had tried to have his daughter lynched by elderlies aside, the information about Sarah’s true intent baffled him more. He shifted in his seat while the wraith seemed to have calmed down of occupied itself with something else.
“These cards are meant to be powerful?” he asked once again, sounding really skeptical.
Nora bobbed her head and took another look at the deck she still had not summoned courage to open. Running her fingers atop the deck’s cover, she got the sense and feeling something special was imbibed in the card, which would explain why Meralda had it lying inside her heart.
“I don’t think I should be using something this powerful after all that happened with the other card”, Nora sounded lost.
Muzin reached his hand over to his daughter and smiled. “From everything I have seen so far, you are nothing close to weak and your sheer strength leaves me wondering how it is possible to have such a wonderful daughter.
Naomi agreed with a subtle nod. “More so, if the news tarot card is powerful, then it might be just what we need to defeat those things out there”.
Nora agreed and slowly retreated her hand from her father before slowly flipping up the deck’s cover. Rusty looking, and old as hell, the cards stunk of staleness just by staring at them, yet, the edges weren’t torn or roughened as one would have suggested. She took them out slowly, whilst still admiring the beauty the card possesses even while it was old.
A note fell off from the deck’s cover, prompting
