“Nao… Naomi”, Nora stuttered. “What… what… what happened to you?”
Naomi looked at her body and smiled, before folding her hands behind her back as she walked towards the window. Nora attempted to step closer but held herself back as her legs seemed too scared to even carry out the move.
“You look surprised to see me”, Naomi smiled without turning around to look at her friend.
Nora opted to speak but held her word back again.
“For years, I have waited, wondering if I would ever get the opportunity to escape from that hell hole called a realm after the cards sucked me in”, Naomi continued. “Yet, here I am… on the brink of death after you jabbed that log into my chest, I heard your friend’s inner cries”.
The room fell silent and oddly so too, while Nora tried to make sense of what her best friend was saying.
“She wanted to live, and I could hear her wishes”, Naomi continued. “She blamed you for everything that had happened to everyone… she wondered why you couldn’t have just let the dingy old tarot cards be and not buy them off of the internet”.
Naomi’s frame turned around, as her body slowly began to take proper form back into that of a human.
“I didn’t know!” Noara yelled at her friend. “Naomi, I had no idea and you know this!”
Naomi held up her hand, snapped her fingers, and Nora felt her left ankle get dislocated in the process.
“You didn’t care”, Naomi replied. ‘All you wanted was fun ad a way out of the miserable life you were having at home”.
Naomi felt to the ground, groaning and whimpering in pain as she tightened her grip around her twisted ankle. “What did you do to me? What are you talking about?”
Naomi wove her hand and lifted Nora from the ground, slamming her into the wall as Nora yelled in pain just as she noticed the cards she had tossed into the fireplace, now neatly stacked atop the couch as if nothing had happened to them.
“You could have been powerful enough to handle all of this you know?” Naomi continued. “All you had to do was embrace what you are, as I did and as your grandmother did as well”.
Nora gasped and her eyes widened as she slumped to the ground. “Mother?”
Naomi cackled aloud and spread her arms apart. “Hello Nora!”.
Nora jumped to her feet and lunged toward the mother as hard as she could. She shoved the woman to the ground and knelt atop her with reddened eyes and heavy breath.
“What did you do!?” she asked
Naomi flipped Nora over and knelt atop her. “You friend is dead… she died the moment my other half, the wraith jammed its claw inside her”.
Nora didn’t want to believe it, and she hurriedly shoved her mother off.
“How is it possible?” Nora asked. “The wraith died! You died, or at least, you were trapped down there!”
Naomi waved her hand and smiled. “A part of me was trapped in that crazy realm with those ol duds, but as long as my wraith remains in this world, a part of me remains tethered here too”.
Nora shook her head, trying had to disregard her mother’s words.
“When you plunged the wood into my heart, or at least my wraith’s heart, you set me free and granted me access to another vulnerable creature in your friend who didn’t want to die”, Naomi explained.
“No! Leave my friend! Let her go!” Nora yelled.
Her mother cackled aloud while she snapped her fingers together.
“You are weak! Too weak to even channel your true powers from the tarot cards!” Sarah smiled as she transformed Naomi’s body into hers. “I will give you one last chance to right your betrayal and stand with me while we bear power over life and death”.
Nora looked towards the tarot cards with a thin smile in the corners of her mouth.
Sighing softly, she looked up to her mother and replied, “Thank you”.
Sarah shrugged and replied, “For what?”
Nora slowly walked towards the couch and picked up the tarot cards as she stared at it intensely without breaking her gaze off.
“You were right”, she replied. ‘I have wasted too many time, allowed too many lives to die because I never really imagined what I’m capable of even when I have seen firsthand what you can do with these cards”.
Sarah tilted her head to the side curiously and stepped closer to her daughter.
“Thank you mother”, Nora whispered. “Thank you for ruining everything I hold dear, and for making me into what I am about to become”.
Sarah giggled, reached out her hand to her daughter, but Nora stepped backwards, yanked out the cards and placed both hands atop them with her eyes closed.
“What are you doing?” Sarah asked in a perplexed tone.
Nora remained silent momentarily, before she began to mumble. “Take my soul… take my will… make me the sacrifice you seek, and grant me what I need!”
The card began to burn brightly, while Nora yelled in pain.
“You stupid girl!” Sarah yelled in anger.
She wove her hand and caused Nora to crash into the wall, but the girl wouldn’t let go of the cards, as she continued to pledge her life to it.
“Take my soul… !” she yelled, while se crashed into the wall behind her and her head felt like it was about to get split open. “Take me!”
Sarah raced towards her daughter, as the cards glowed even brighter, and her daughter continued to pledge her existence to it.
“The cards are mine!” Sarah cried in ager. “I will not allow you take it away from me!”
Nora
