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Dedicated to ToughCookiexD for becoming a fan. You're Awesome xXx
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Plena septimana,
Coeli plorate,
Non diebus non noctes,
Adducet relevium
* * * * * * *
A strange stillness washed through the room as we all seemed to take a moment to contemplate the gravity of the words passed between us.
The sun had been lurking on the edge of the horizon as they arrived, but now it was lower still as it slunk behind the mountains, casting elongated shadows throughout the room.
Accompanied by the dim light of the fire they seemed to take on a life of their own, flickering and writhing in a freakish dance to the moaning of the wind as yet another storm began to move in.
"I’d better turn on the generator," I broke the silence between us and began to rise.
"Please don’t," Bette said wistfully, "It reminds me of home. Some candles would be lovely though, if you have them."
"Of course," I smiled as I made my way to the bureau on the far side of the room. I wondered where ‘home’ had been, and when. I pulled a mildewed box of candles from the left-hand cupboard, taking a box of matches from the drawer above before passing them to Bette who placed them about the room just-so, giving it an aura of comfort and warmth.
"Not that I mind the company, but why are you all here?"
Julius reached into the pocket of his jacket, "I’m returnin’ these," he set the sunglasses I thought I’d lost earlier on the arm of his chair, "Betty’s come t’ read yer fortune, an’ Gray’s jus’ a nosey parker come t’ see the ‘uman girl wot’s got Cal all in a tizz."
I blushed furiously. "Why didn’t he come too?"
Gray chuckled, "I think he was worried you’d punch him again, that and he’s got a one hell of a mess to clean up."
"Vampires doing housework?" I laughed with him, "How very..."
"Not Vampire-ish?" Bette asked,
"No, not that. I was going to say boring."
The ice was well and truly broken as we all sniggered at Callan's misfortune. Left behind to mop the floors, poor bugger.
"Oh crap!" I exclaimed "I’m so sorry, I’m the worst host in the universe," I shot to my feet, "Do you guys want beer or coffee or anything?"
Gray stood up with me, "We never say no to beer, I’ll give you a hand. Bette, get your cards and set up the show."
She nodded as Gray followed me out of the room towards the stairs.
"You’re not at all what I expected," he said as we reached the first of the basement rooms. "You seem to be taking all of this very well. When Callan carried you in yesterday, you were this bedraggled pathetic looking damsel in distress who fainted at the sight of dead bodies, but you’re not like that at all are you?"
"I'm not. Did he tell you why I fainted?"
"No, maybe it wasn't his story to tell."
I told him about my dream.
"Does Bette know?"
"I have no idea." I passed him a crate of beer, nicely chilled from being kept underground and we left the basement in silence.
The sitting room had been transformed upon our return. A low wooden table had been placed in front of the hearth with cushions on the floor at either end and my makeshift bed had been folded and neatly put aside.
Bette had lit more candles and drawn the curtains, letting the soft glow of the moon filter through the ancient windows, intensified by the flickering of three candles in a row along the window sill.
She pulled an ornate carved wooden box from her bag and withdrew the same embroidered velvet pouch I had seen in her room. She sat on one of the cushions with her back to the window, gesturing for me to sit on the other as Julius and Gray cracked open their beers and watched intently.
I couldn’t help but feel oddly nervous as Bette pulled the drawstrings open, gently tipping the cards into the palm of her hand before placing them neatly in the centre of the table.
"Don’t worry," she took my hands in hers across the table, giving them a gentle squeeze. "I’m going to do the simplest of readings for you, just three cards. The first will be a representation of your past, the second represents the present and third represents what is yet to happen."
I nodded as she gave my hands another squeeze before releasing them.
"I’d like you to pick up the cards and shuffle them. If you have a question to ask, think of that as you handle them. When you’re satisfied with how they’re shuffled, not before, I’d like you to place them back on the table, face down."
I took up the cards and my mind went blank, I couldn’t think about a specific question so instead I thought about the events of the week so far. The cards felt thick and heavy in my hands - much larger than playing cards they were worn with age and use, yellowed and fraying at the edges.
I put the cards back on the table and clasped my fingers together in my lap.
Bette slid the cards to her left and took the top card from the deck, setting it face down a little away from the middle of the table. She placed the next card in the exact centre of the table and the third lay to its right.
"This card represents your past." She turned over the card to her left to reveal a woman shrouded in blue.
"This is the High Priestess. For you she represents the shadows of your past, the negative part of yourself which you have kept under lock and key, hidden from those around you. Your subconscious mind has tried to lead you down a different path, but it has failed over and over."
Her dark eyebrows pulled together as she stared at the card, running her fingertips around its edges,
"What path?" My expression mirrored hers, confused and searching for answers.
She pursed her lips,
"I don't know. It’s like there’s a door in your mind. It should lead to something, but there’s nothing but a void on the other side."
Isaac’s sinister voice rang in my ears, "You are a curious little thing aren’t you. So empty and so hollow inside, yet you know nothing of it."
So empty and so hollow inside... What did he mean? What can she see?
"You have been shut off from the power that dwells within you, that has always been a part of you. It is a power that would transform you if you could only find the other side of the door..."
Bette moved on to the second card, turning it face-up. A Sphinx lounged atop a circle - not dissimilar to a compass in appearance - sitting high in the sky surrounded by clouds and framed by mythical creatures.
"This is the Wheel of Fortune, it represents your ‘present’, the here and now. You left your old life behind, ending it to move here, to Wales, to this very house so the Wheel could begin a new cycle.
It means you are changing, and that which was struggling to break free with the High Priestess is beginning to sow seeds of manifestation. The Wheel is also known as Fate, it is impossible to change your fate, it would be futile to even try.
The Wheel must turn full circle and complete its cycle before you can move forward to your future."
With that she flipped the third and last card. A skeleton sat astride an ethereally white horse.
Death.
"Death is my future?" I exclaimed,
"No," she mused, "Not exactly. Death doesn’t mean you will die, it’s not that straightforward."
She looked perplexed, tracing the ominous card with her fingers once more.
"I’ve never seen the cards line up like this..." She shook her head as if to clear her mind and regain focus.
"The changes you are going through lead to sacrifice, born of forced circumstance, not through choice. You must sacrifice your present self and allow Death to destroy you.
Death should mean that a metaphorical door in your life is closing, but the door is real, it’s in you. Death will open the door into the void. You must leave your fear behind and step through to be renewed. No... not renewed... re-born."
I was lost for words. Power, change, sacrifice... a void and a door. For a moment I wondered if it was just the product of an overactive imagination, until I remembered there were three vampires in my sitting room.
"Fuck-"
"Bleedin’ ‘eck-"
I stared at Gray and Julius as they both leapt to their feet, sending half drunk cans of beer rolling across the flagstones as every single candle sent up flares as long as my arm and the fire erupted into the chimney, turning the iron pothooks wedged into the stone into rivers of molten metal as they were consumed by the flames.
Frantically, I turned back to Bette to see her eyes roll back in her head as she glared blankly around the room and a voice that was not hers left her mouth.
"Initium finem," she intoned, her words sounding like rocks striking the earth, hollow and soulless.
"Two seals have been breached, the third will crumble. The Devils Bargain is awakening - only four seals remain intact, yet they too will fall. They will all fall."
Julius grabbed her by the shoulders as Gray and I could only look on in horror.
"Bette... Betty," He yelled, shaking her roughly, her head flopping bonelessly back and forth like a rag doll. "Wake the fuck up!"
"Tantum sanguis finire prophetia!" She roared, both sets of fangs extending to their full length as the whites of her eyes burned and glowed in her skull, wide and frantic.
Her head fell forward onto her chest and I let out the breath I didn't know I had been holding in as the candles returned innocently to their former appearance along with the fire, which resumed its merry crackling.
I dropped to my knees at her side next to Julius as she began to convulse, wrapping my arm tightly around her shoulders as I realized that she was crying. Gray moved to her other side, resting his hand on her shoulder as Julius gently raised her head in his hands.
"Oh Betty," He breathed, his eyes filled with sorrow as he ran his fingers through her tangled hair, gently wiping away her tears with his thumb, leaving a streak of blood across her face.
She was crying tears of blood.
"Oh my god," I exclaimed, jumping up and racing to the bathroom to grab a fresh white toilet roll from the pack atop the cistern before sprinting back to the sitting room.
"Here," I knelt in front of Bette, tearing off the end of the roll and wrapping it around my hand in a wad before dabbing it underneath her eyes as she continued to sob and shudder, blood coursing down her cheeks in waves as it dried about the edges, peeling and cracking against her skin.
"Bette? It’s me, it’s Daegan, you’re okay. You’re in my house with Julius and Gray. Something... took you, but it’s gone now. It’s gone."
What the hell was it?