“Since Madeline doesn’t want the talisman, let’s just forget it…” Haley sighed.
“But you must come with us to deliver the deck. You can’t leave the group.” This time, Haley’s tone brooked no argument.
Even if they disagreed, they were still friends. They couldn’t abandon Madeline in her current state.
The group immediately drove away from campus.
The earlier argument had created a rift between Madeline and the others.
No one spoke a word the entire journey.
As time passed, they drew closer to their destination.
“Think about it, Madeline. If he really wanted to kill us, would he need to go through such an elaborate ruse?” Paxton pleaded earnestly, but the young woman beside him wasn’t listening.
“Wait a minute… doesn’t something seem wrong outside?” Paxton happened to glance out and saw the sky had become overcast with dark clouds.
“Is it going to rain? How unusual,” Grant commented.
“No, guys, don’t you think it’s getting dark way too fast?” Paxton’s words finally got everyone’s attention.
The sky, which had been fairly bright just moments ago, was gradually darkening, even starting to feel a bit like nightfall.
Soon, a light drizzle began to fall from the gloomy sky.
The people in the car began to sense an unusual atmosphere.
The flow of passing cars gradually decreased until theirs was the only vehicle left on the road.
The sky had turned completely dark, but the streetlights hadn’t switched on.
To ensure he could see, Grant had to turn on the headlights.
The weak beams of light couldn’t pierce the thick darkness, and everyone’s hearts began to pound faster.
Then they felt the car gradually slow down.
“Grant? What are you doing?”
“I… I don’t know! It’s not me, I didn’t do anything…”
The decelerating car came to a stop right in the middle of the bridge, like an isolated island in a dark sea.
Inside, Madeline grew restless and anxious.
She remembered the reading Haley had given her.
[Due to Mercury retrograde, you might feel like everything is going wrong, even technology might malfunction.]
Grant, fumbling frantically up front trying to restart the engine, seemed to prove the point.
The group talked amongst themselves, even the usually quiet Grant joining in.
It was as if keeping up a constant stream of conversation could dispel the fear clinging to their hearts.
Madeline, sitting on the far right side of the car, suddenly heard a sound.
A sharp, scraping noise, like flesh dragging across glass.
She turned to look. The outside of the window was fogging up rapidly, as if some unseen presence had breathed on it.
“Madeline~ Madeline…” A voice, dark and deep, whispered in Madeline’s ear.
On the fogged-up glass, a figure of a hanged man was being drawn, stroke by stroke…
“Ah… AHHHH!!!!”
[A thread leading to something…]
Madeline, her mind breaking, screamed, flung the car door open, and sprinted out into the darkness!
“No! Stop her!!” Haley in the car broke out in a cold sweat of panic.
During the reading, she had told Madeline not to run away when faced with difficulty or fear.
Now, by leaving the group and running deep into the darkness, Madeline was sprinting straight towards her death!
Haley immediately jumped out of the car, trying to catch up to Madeline!
Seeing this, Grant also wanted to give chase, but then he saw it—a gaunt, hairless, pale figure hanging upside down in front of the car!
For a moment, the three remaining in the car seemed frozen solid.
Extreme fear had locked their bodies in place.
But the eerie figure merely glanced at them, then swiftly scrambled up the steel girders of the bridge.
Its target wasn’t them!
“No… Haley!!” Grant burst out of the car, the others close behind him.
The twisted figure above moved incredibly fast, overtaking the group in an instant and catching up to Madeline at the front.
A rope dropped down, looped around her neck, and yanked her violently upwards!
The group witnessed the evil spirit killing with their own eyes, screaming in despair and terror.
But the monster’s actions didn’t stop.
Right in front of everyone, it hauled Madeline up, bit her head apart, then threw her lifeless body down!
Haley, who was closest to Madeline, was devastated; she had failed to save her.
In her overwhelming grief, she completely failed to notice the grotesque, twisted figure now lunging straight for her!
Grant, further away, watched in horror. But the next second, a light erupted from Haley’s chest.
The light seared the eyes of the evil spirit trying to approach. It covered its eyes, letting out a piercing shriek, then leaped away a few times and vanished into the darkness…
And the sky, which had moments before seemed to be turning dark, brightened once more, returning to its proper light.
The evil spirit was gone, but the group’s mood was anything but light…
Two hours later.
“Come in.” The young shopkeeper’s voice came from inside the antique shop. Haley and the others entered.
This time, they were soaked, disheveled, and battered.
Two men, two women, all with sorrowful expressions.
Looks like another one died, Su Fan thought, understanding the situation. He also felt a bit exasperated.
He’d given them protective talismans, and they’d still managed to end up like this, as if they were escorting the One Ring.
Thankfully modern city roads were flat, otherwise with their luck, they’d probably have tripped and killed two more on the way.
Without a word, Haley placed the box she was carrying in front of Su Fan.
“…This tarot deck originates from Hungary, around 1780…” she began, her voice flat. “A Count, who was an enthusiast of the occult, blamed his female astrologer for accurately predicting his wife would die in childbirth.”
“He not only exiled the mother and daughter but caused the astrologer’s daughter to die. The witch used her own life as the price to cast a curse upon the tarot deck.”
“Anyone who uses this deck for divination will be subjected to a death curse…”
“Her power is very strong. Be careful when you perform the exorcism.”
Su Fan accepted the box and looked at Haley, who clearly had more to say.
“This was the clue Madeline left behind,” Haley continued, her voice heavy. “We found information sent to her by that online medium on her notebook. But by then, she was already…”
“The tarot cards took three of our friends. We want to see it destroyed.” She met his gaze. “Is that okay?”
“Sure.” He didn’t refuse her request.
The four of them stepped back in unison, their focus entirely on the young man in the middle.
He had created the talisman that severely injured The Hanged Man; this shopkeeper was unfathomable.
Besides wanting to witness the deck’s destruction firsthand, they also wanted to see what methods he possessed.
Su Fan felt no pressure about this.
Just showing off a bit in front of others, he thought. I’m used to it.
He didn’t hesitate, directly opening the box. A wave of sinister energy rushed out.
“Oh?” he murmured, slightly surprised.
It was more powerful than he’d expected. It seemed the spirit attached to it had made a deal with some entity in life, obtaining power it shouldn’t have.
Just then, a prompt sounded in Su Fan’s mind.
[A tarot deck created by a quite accomplished astrologer, filled with the power of resentment and curses. Can materialize the eerie entities depicted in its illustrations.]
[This might offer you some inspiration as well.]
Under the group’s expectant gazes, Su Fan paused his actions and turned to Haley.
“How about you give me a reading too?”
