Tarot Witch Read online

  I was about to push her away again, but the look in her eyes wasn’t sorrow or guilt, it was true fear. A look I had never seen on her before, and one that didn’t leave me with any idea what to do next. She nodded, apparently seeing I’d gotten the message. Next she pulled back, motioning for me to go to the closet, where she followed, waving her hands around the room in a very mystical way.

  Again, I wanted to say something. To ask what the hell she was doing… but remembering the fear in her eyes, I went with it.

  Admittedly, a hint of fear had now begun to creep up on me. Mostly I was annoyed. If there was an intruder in the house, she didn’t think I could handle it? We crept across to the closet, but my eyes darted over to the bathroom door, where light was showing through the cracks. Something was very off here. For one, I’d gone to sleep not long after waking up in the morning. There was no way it should be this dark, no way I could’ve slept all through the day.

  “What time is it?” I asked, but she held a finger to her mouth.

  I frowned, losing sight of her as we climbed in and she pulled the door shut so that we were in complete darkness. A thought hit me. I remembered she’d once expressed an interest in getting more creative in the bedroom. Since our sex life had taken a hit, maybe this was her idea of effort? I decided to play the role, reaching out, finding her ass, running my hand along its curve to—

  “Cut it out,” she hissed, and then the door rattled as if someone were trying to open it.

  Silence.

  Then the door thudded, rattling harder and harder, Leena screaming as I tried to see in the darkness, to understand what was going on. Telling myself this wasn’t happening, I went for the doorknob, almost—but saw it glowing red. Straight out of Home Alone.

  From the glow, I could see Leena’s expression, slightly, as she gripped my arm, looking horrified.

  “Don’t leave me, Jonny,” she said in a low voice. “I’m sorry.”

  Again with the rattling, and I held her close.

  “Tell me. I need to know what’s happening.”

  “Someone… one of the girls went missing today. And then the whole way home I thought I was seeing things. Maybe hallucinating? But I don’t think so, now. They’re after me.”

  “Who? What’s going on?”

  “The spirits… or ghosts, demons maybe? Whatever they are.” She shuddered, pressing tighter to me.

  “What. The. Fuck… What the fuck are you talking about?” Silence, the lights returning as a sliver of light through a crack in the door.

  She looked up at me, then to the doorknob—no longer glowing. “It’s complicated.”

  “Try me.”

  The expression on her face was one I’d certainly never seen on her before. Fright, confusion… hopelessness?

  “Leena, I’m here. I’m here for you.”

  “You won’t be enough.”

  That hurt, but I ignored it. “Tell me.”

  “We need to get out of here first, get to my aunt’s house.”

  “For dinner?”

  She shook her head, reaching cautiously for the doorknob. “She’s like me, one of us. She’ll know what to do.”

  “A fortune teller?” I asked.

  Leena opened the door, glanced around, and said, “More like a witch. Now, run!”

  The words barely out of her mouth, she took off at a sprint. I hesitated, staring slack-jawed at the mess in our room—blankets shredded and tossed everywhere, and what looked like blood on the walls. Holy shit, if this was some sort of prank she was playing on me, she wasn’t holding back.

  To my surprise, I found myself believing everything she was saying, and ran like a madman to catch up. Hey, at least I wasn’t wondering if she was cheating on me anymore, as I was too busy freaking out about whatever was happening here and wondering how it related to her job.

  We charged outside and made it to the car without any problems, but my hands were shaking as I drove.

  “Mind telling me what’s going on?” I asked as I turned, heading toward North Glendale. “A girl went missing, and… whatever just happened to my place?”

  “Our place.” She said it as if on instinct, and it served as a bit of an anchor for my emotions in this storm. “And yes, I mean, a woman. Like me, on my team. She’s just… gone. And weird things have been happening since.”

  “How does the government use a medium, exactly? And how does that relate to what you’re telling me?”

  “It’s—”

  “Complicated. Secret.” I swerved, realizing I was drifting and had almost hit the next car over. “Dammit, it’s time you told me. I can handle it.”

  “You think so, but—”

  “Leena.”

  She sighed. “Fine.”

  “Fine?”

  “Fine.” A moment of silence passed as I merged again, then she turned to face me, hand on my leg. “It wasn’t the government, although they were involved, too. They’ve been looking into it, poking their nose around. Asking everyone questions—which is why I was in that car. But it wasn’t them, not really. It was LivreCorp.”

  “The game company?”

  “Games, simulations…” She indicated for me to watch the road. “Yeah. About a month ago, when all this started, someone came into my shop and said they didn’t want their future told, but had use of my experience as a medium. At first I turned him down. The guy wore this fancy suit and just felt off in so many ways. But then he came back, and brought the other ladies. They explained to me what this was, that it was a simulation to help grieving parties, just like we did all the time. They were part of this group from out east, and had sensed my ability to reach into the beyond.”

  “What the fuck does this have to do with a gaming company?”

  “Again, gaming and simulations,” she said, showing her irritation. “And that’s what I’m getting at. They were creating a simulation to let grieving parties interact with their lost loved ones. Data miners, people from the FBI and whatnot who were experts at digging up all the information on someone that could possibly be found, they were pulling all of these people together to make the simulated lost loved one as real as possible.”

  “That’s… creepy.”

  “I don’t think so, or didn’t.” She pulled her hand away, turning back in her seat and staring out her window. “I thought it was something I could get behind. They wanted our help, so that they could better understand how to help people. What grieving parties need to move on, to get closure. And… maybe more.”

  “Hold up,” I said, finally getting it. “They wanted you to try and actually reach out to the dead.” My hands gripped the steering wheel as I tried to process this. “The company, and the government—however they were involved—they… they hired actual mediums to try and interact with the dead to make this simulation more realistic.”

  “More or less.”

  “That’s so insane, so stupid!” I grimaced as I realized how offensive what I was saying had to be to her, given that this was her job and all. “Listen, I didn’t mean it like that.”

  “You said it because you meant it, because you didn’t believe.” She turned back to me again, and I glanced over. There wasn’t much to worry about, as the roads were uncharacteristically empty, even for a Sunday. Her eyes narrowed and she leaned closer. “But can you still say you have doubts after what you saw?”

  “I’m still not sure what I saw.”

  She laughed. “Wow. That right there? That’s what we call denial.”

  Finding our exit, I pulled onto the offramp, cautious as I knew I was tired and on edge. “Let’s assume… for the sake of argument, that my place was haunted or being attacked by spirits, ghosts—”

  “Maybe demons.”

  “Sure, okay, demons, too.” I sighed, coming to a halt at the stop sign, then turning to her fully. “We’re trying to escape them by going to your aunt’s house, because, as I recall you saying, she’s a witch.”

  “That all checks out.”

&nb
sp; “Except that it doesn’t, Leena. Nothing I said really checks out.”

  A loud honking sounded, reminding me that I’d been stationary at the stop sign for quite some time. I waved a hand in the mirror and checked the streets, continuing on our way. The silence that followed was almost as haunting as the chaos of my room, giving me a chance to think back on all of the ghost and demonic movies and books I’d been exposed to over the years. How could any of that be real?

  “Wait, what you’re saying,” I made a groaning sound, not sure where it came from, “how? I mean, I get that you did the job, but how does that connect to what you’re telling me?”

  “We went too far, and I think opened some sort of gateway to the afterlife. We played with fire, now the flames are leaping out of the firepit, threatening to burn down the whole forest.”

  “So this other lady then, she might have somehow gone over?”

  “What?” she turned to me with a jolt.

  “Through a portal or something, to the afterlife. Right?”

  She leaned back, hands on her face, and cursed. “I honestly… had… no… idea.” She sat up again, eager. “The thought hadn’t even crossed my mind. But if so, maybe that means we can go through, too. Find her, bring her back.”

  “You want to go into the afterlife?” I slowed, much to the annoyance of cars behind me. “Like… die?”

  “No, like her. No death.”

  I had to process this. “You actually think there’s a way to go into the portal? Have you seen one?”

  She shook her head. “I haven’t, but if she vanished like that, then yes, I believe it has to be possible.”

  Finally, we pulled up at her aunt’s house. I’d only ever dropped her off before today, not gone in with her. Going up to the door felt awkward, but seeing the old lady glare at me when she opened the door, not moving aside to let me in, confirmed how this was going to go.

  “He knows,” Leena explained.

  Her aunt Cindy glared at me, shook her head, and said, “You shouldn’t have told him.”

  “They came for him. What choice did I have?”

  “Came?” Cindy eyed me, ran a tongue over her teeth, and then finally nodded me inside.

  The room was lined with various candles of different colors, lit with crystals in key points, but even more, there were runes and other etchings carved into boards set up, even the walls near the doorway and windows. It had the feel of a crazy old lady’s place, and maybe that’s exactly what it was. Two canaries were on a perch by the doorway, no cage, but at least there was newspaper on the floor below them although it was covered in bird shit and needed to be changed. Other than that, there was the bead curtain leading to a side room, which I imagined was where she and Leena did their medium work. Leena had told me all about her aunt, how the woman had taken her in when her parents had been killed in a horrible break-in. How she’d taught her to deal with grief, to even reach out to the other side. And that had led to who Leena was today, the Leena I knew and was infatuated with, so I had to appreciate that. With everything she’d gone through, I was in no place to judge her for such an off-key lifestyle.

  In a way, it was an honor to finally meet the woman who’d played such a large role in Leena’s upbringing. But also, it was like finally meeting the President only to find out his left eye twitches every two seconds—it leaves you wondering.

  “You… really listened.” Leena said, eyes wide, looking at the candles and all.

  “Yes, well… this is uncharted territory.” Cindy looked me over, nose scrunching. “We don’t know what’ll really work, do we? Tell me, boy,” she walked in a circle, eyes seemingly looking past me, as if trying to see my soul. “How much magic do you know?”

  “Sorry?”

  “Magic. What type do you study? How long have you been a witch?”

  “He’s not, aunty,” Leena cut in.

  “Bullshit.” Cindy waved a hand around my head, then frowned. “There’s something about him, though, isn’t there?”

  “Yeah?” Leena looked at me as if considering. “There was a certain draw to him when we first met. Maybe…”

  “What?” I shook my head, not ready to listen to them telling me I had a magical aura or anything weird like that. At the moment, all I wanted to know was how to return everything to normal.

  A howling sounded, my eyes going to the window. The tall evergreen out there had its branches blowing like crazy, so I had to hope the sound was the wind.

  I breathed a sigh of relief, but my next breath caught in my throat at the look of worry in Leena’s eyes. Her aunt was already at her crystals, going back over to check what I was thinking must be runes carved into the door frame, and then returning to usher us into the back room.

  “The wards will hold,” Cindy said.

  We found ourselves in a room very similar to the area where Leena worked with her tarot cards, and the two entered into a spell ritual in a way that reminded me of a prayer circle. I’d never seen this part of Leena, and as much as I was not the slightest bit into this—if anything, I’d been raised a Baptist, so… yeah—it was kind of hot. Like my lady friend was some sort of real version of Hermione Granger, only hotter and much more real.

  I had to chuckle at that thought.

  Leena’s eyes darted up at me, narrowing, and I wondered what was wrong with me that I could find humor in a moment like this? The wind was still howling outside, the lights even seemed to flicker, though I wasn’t sure if I’d imagined it. Yet, I was smiling, enjoying myself. Maybe it was part of their spell?

  She couldn’t hide the upturn of her lip as she returned to the chant with Cindy.

  A pounding sounded and I startled, the smile gone. We all locked eyes, frozen in place, until Yankee Doodle started playing from a blinking device on the wall, and Cindy sighed.

  “The doorbell,” Leena explained when I looked to her in confusion, and Cindy was already brushing past me to head back out to the door.

  We followed, and when she opened it, I noticed two things right away—one was the fact that it was sunny and there seemed to be no wind. The second was a cute Asian woman, probably a year or two younger than Leena, standing there in a black schoolgirl uniform with a purple bow around her waist, hair at shoulder length and curving in slightly under at the ends. Her eyes darted from Cindy to me, then to Leena.

  “Something’s not right,” the woman said, nodding to Cindy. “We have to go.”

  “This isn’t the best…” Cindy frowned my way, then nodded. “Yes, okay.” She said a few words in Chinese, then grabbed her bag and returned to the door, while this woman and Leena made eye contact, something unspoken there that I couldn’t begin to read.

  “What’s going on?” I hissed at Leena.

  “The coven,” she threw my way, then addressed her aunt, not the newcomer. “And us?”

  “Stay put,” her aunt replied, closing the door for a moment, turning our way. “Wait. Scratch that. You said this all started at LivreCorp? A girl missing? Go, find answers. If it started there, that’s where we’ll find our answers.”

  With that, she nodded, heading for the door. The two left without another look in our direction. Leena looked at me, worry etched across her face as she gave me a quick kiss.

  “Give them a minute, then we’ll go. We have our next move.”

  I wanted to ask why I had to go, but hey, that wasn’t exactly a boyfriend thing to say, so I nodded, standing tall. Maybe my attempt at looking brave wasn’t working, I don’t know, but I certainly wasn’t going to confirm how terrified I was by putting it into words.

  “What do you mean I don’t have access?” Leena grumbled, looking like she was about to launch herself right over the desk and strangle the security guard at LivreCorp. The building was everything I’d expected it to be—tall with plenty of work space and multiple floors, large signs showing off their fancy simulated worlds and flashing holo images for their ads.

  “Says here you no longer work here,” the guard said
. “That your contract has been terminated.”

  “Bullshit.” Leena took a step closer, eyes narrowing as his hand went to his taser. “Call my supervisor, Matt Gillis. He’s leading the—”

  “Matt’s been let go, too,” the man said. “In fact,” he checked the screen, “yeah, according to this they’ve sent out notices that you’re not to mention ever having worked here. Right now, talking about this in front of him,” he nodded my way, “is breaking contract. You need to scram, or all pay will be subject to—”

  “Oh, fuck off.” She spun on her heels, going for the door.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, knowing she didn’t really have a clue.

  She led the way through the sliding doors, back to the car, and held out her hands. “I’m driving.”

  “Um…” Seeing the look in her eyes, I nodded and tossed the keyfob over. “Not that you need it as long as I’m in the car, but sure.”

  She glared. Of course she knew that. A moment later we were in the car, driving off. Her posture was hunched forward, fingers wrapping and unwrapping around the steering wheel as she mumbled.

  Finally, I broke the silence. “We’re going back, right?”

  She nodded.

  “After hours?”

  She nodded again.

  “Damn. Breaking and entering… new on my checklist of things to do.”

  The look of anger transformed to a wicked smile. “I can’t wait. And when we leave, you’re going to drop a deuce on the security guard’s desk.”

  “No fucking way.”

  “Yes, you are.”

  “I can’t do that and—hey, that was a red light!” I spun, glancing around for cops, glad to see traffic wasn’t too bad and we hadn’t caused any accidents. “You want to ‘drop a deuce,’ you do it.”

  “Jonny, ladies don’t do that.”

  “No, they just tell their boyfriends to.”

  The word lingered there, neither of us addressing it for the longest moment. Finally, she relaxed her grip on the wheel and leaned back, glancing at me.

  “You know—”

  “Yeah, got it. Slip of the tongue.”

  She looked back to the road. “No, I was going to say—”