Naomi looked at Muzin and then Nora, but uttered no word. It sounded like jargons to them all obviously, but even the jargons scared them and they didn’t plan on spilling their feelings.
“Here we go”, Nora sucked in ample air and exhaled.
One after the other, she laid out the cards on the table to note the images etched on their backs. Like a jigsaw puzzle, they seemed to tell a complete story, but not one she could find out unless the cards were all stacked close to one another.
“What does it say?” Naomi asked nervously.
Nora remained silent just before placing the last card on the table and at the edge to complete the layout. They gasped and shared bothered looks with one another, as the image formed was good enough to terrify just about anyone.
“You say this card belongs to another called Meralda?” Muzin asked to verify.
Nora bobbed her head gently.
Muzin reached his hand towards the cards but made no move to touch them. “Why does it have your face on its back?”
It was the billion dollar question and Nora wished she knew. She wished she could answer a lot of niggling questions bothering her as well, and she wished she could find ways to solve all the problems at hand without having to indulge in more dangerous ancient magic.
Naomi opened her mouth to speak, but Nora placed a finger to her lips and whispered, “Listen”.
The trio pinned their ears to the slightest sound they could pick, and with it came the chilling, yet subtle sound from the other side of the door. It was the eerie sound of claws scratching against a door, indicating their unwanted guest was back.
“The wraith is back”, Nora spoke the words they were too terrified to acknowledge.
Without further ado, she began to pick the cards together, stacking them properly before shuffling them as many times as her shaky hands would permit her. Muzin looked to the door nervously and looked like he was about to pass out on breath alone, while his daughter continued t shuffle the cards.
“We need someone to barricade those doors!” Nora demanded.
Naomi jumped to her feet and raced in the direction of the scratching sound. “Read your father first and then you can do me afterwards”.
The candles on the table suddenly lit themselves, in blue burning flame with some degree of discomfort airing through the room in the manner it had occurred.
“This is getting really strange”, Muzin confessed.
Nora ignored her father’s words and took his hands into hers. Upon connecting their hands, the flames simmered and everything within the room stood still; Naomi remained stiff with her widened eyes, while the scratching sound from the wraith outside the door couldn’t be heard anymore. The world around the duo holding hands felt like they were trapped in a vacuum.
“What is happening?” Muzin asked.
Nora shook her head to indicate she had no idea. The cards slowly rose from the table while their hands remained locked, and one at a time, six cards spread themselves across the table between Nora and her father. It sent chills down the girl’s spine as they began to flip over without Nora having to do anything.
“Light… raven… rainbow… ocean… courage… wings”, Nora read the cards aloud.
Muzin leaned closer to have a look for himself. “What do they mean?”
Nora took a minute to maul the cards in her mind and grant herself the best interpretation. “I have a feeling you’d be tasked with some bold choices to make soon father”.
Muzin bore no understanding of his daughter’s words, but nodded his head in compliance.
“What happens next?” he looked towards Naomi who still remained petrified and asked. “What happens to all of us next?”
Nora slowly retrieved her hands from her father’s prompting the cards hovering before them to fall back unto the table, and the air around them to become active again. Naomi gasped from where she stood, with her back against the door, and Muzin let out an exhaustive sigh as well. Nora began to pick up the cards, but halted as her senses picked up something coming their way.
Looking up to her father with sorrow in her eyes, she whispered, “Your time is now, Papa”.
Still absolutely unsure of what she needed or what was going on, Muzin shot to his feet and snuck his hand into his pocket to ascertain he had enough bullets in there. Tightening his grip around his magnum, he looked around the room for signs of whatever trouble his daughter seemed to have sensed was coming.
“You can feel it too, can’t you?” Nora asked her father. ‘The cards have granted you and I the ability to know something is coming for us”.
Muzin stiffened his muscles around his gun while he tightly groped it in his hand, before looking around and sighing softly. “It is back”.
With the words escaping his lips, a loud growl came roaring through the ground, just between where Naomi stood and where Muzin was. The Mega-Onamega broke through the earth and reared its ugly face and frame, gnarling its teeth towards Muzin, and growling aloud and violently some more. Muzin stepped to the side and shoved the table out of his way, while his daughter clung to her cards as she scampered to the corner of the room.
Nora watched her father grow in confidence, even while he understood death was literally standing before him, and that the end might just be before him. He smirked in the face of the beast and steadied his shaking hand with the gun still lodged into it.
“I guess going down in one last bit of heroic deed wouldn’t be a bad idea”, he smirked to himself.
Nora blinked, and with it came tears as she watched her father face the beast. It glared at Muzin but didn’t seem entirely interested in the
