The Cards

Does the date matter? 2020 (I think),

I shuffled the deck one more time. I stared in blank, dumbfounded horror at what had been right in front of my face this entire time. Surely I had to be reading this wrong! I'm not crazy, at least I wasn't crazy. After the world comes to an abrupt curtain call, people tend to lose a few gumballs from the machine. So who could blame me! My extensive studies in the niche topic of the adolescent brain in psychology taught two important facts: The human brain does not finish maturing until well into the twenties; and major trauma can cause a mass chaos of chemical imbalances and adverse reaction to minor situations. Well, I'm seventeen. And the world has become a shit show of blazing hellfire. (I believe that is a check in both boxes I just mentioned.) My thoughts haven't been quiet once since I got stuck in here. Where is here even? Hell, where am I? I let my thoughts wander again. SEE what I've been saying? If maybe for one second I could have had a quiet head in order to just think about this situation then maybe, just maybe I would of already realized this. Just to be sure though I need to redo this spread. I drew the first card. Once again I drew The World. I already expected that I would. Seeing as how all the drawings I'd done before today always pertained to that card it isn't that surprising. Damn! Right when I was about to see if this spread was gonna repeat and draw the second card the damn lights be gn flick erng I ca 't wrte e dark.

Another day in hell (2020 if we're keeping track),

The power goes out randomly like that all the time now. Ever since I've been in here I experience recurring tremors ever so often at random times throughout the day. One day there could be none, but the next it could never stop. Something about the uncertainty of this new life is both comforting and absolutely horrifying. I left the spread just as I was working with it before the power shut down in the bunker yesterday. I can the see the first card staring at me. The feeling it gives was always a devilish one. Every time I draw it I feel a wave of sinister energy crash over me. This deck makes me extremely anxious. I don't remember leaving it here. I don't remember receiving it. I don't remember purchasing it. I don't remember it existing. It kind of just showed up after that l o t

2020,

Look I'm getting tired of trying to write here and the power continuously failing due to the damn tremors. This was supposed to soothe me, writing what is happening, but no it is just stressing me more. I need to finish this reading and check my suspicion. I place the second card in the spread. The Tower. Once again I draw that card. For some odd reason it doesn't poison the energy of a room like the other one. Although maybe I just prefer the concrete message behind it. The Tower basically means everything is going to shit and falling apart. So if this reading is about the world (cue the first card) then it's pretty damn accurate. I feel a pit in my stomach when my brain begins to focus on the fact that this is the same second card I've been drawing for days now. I try to shake the feeling of dread and eyes watching me. I prepare for the final card. I flip the card and gasp. I retreat from the small table in this metal box of tricks. Just as my theory would of guessed, Death. The fear comes back. I've been pulling this exact spread multiple times daily for over a week now. I understand the message. However, I fear that it's more of a fortune than a message. The statement sent chills down my spine. I grab my locket. Touching the locket has given me peace, and calmed me ever since my mother died when I was younger. She told me that the golden piece would protect me as long as I held it close to my own beating heart. She pressed the piece of jewelry into my hand the night she passed. Somewhere deep inside me I feel certain that when I touch it she's right there grasping my hand in hers, being the mother she knew how to be. One who cared. I began to cry. I can't do this right now. This is too much for me.

It's me again 2020,

Sorry about yesterday. I don't even know who I'm apologizing to... No one is gonna read this. The whole world's gone. I had to go away because I couldn't bare to think about my friends and family being gone. Anyways, what I was trying to say was my locket is a comfort to me and it helps calm. I left the deck where it was completely untouched yesterday. I do remember now though that the deck sort of appeared after my mother passed. I started wearing the necklace and suddenly a few weeks later the deck appeared. I didn't think much of it and so I started using it. A lot of bad things started happening to me after I began shuffling it. But that's just a coincidence. Right? I left the second room of the shelter to return to the common space and saw the three cards, The World, The Tower, and Death still sitting on the table. The rest of them were gone. I freaked. I immediately tore the space apart, trying to find a trace of them anywhere.

"Fuck! Where are they!" I stopped. Two things hit me at the same time. That was the first voice I'd heard in months. It made me pause. I. Forgot. How. Much. I missed talking. Next, The only place they could possibly be would be on the stairs leading to the shelter exit. I bolted to them and scanned. I didn't see anything. There it was. A lone card. Poking out the window cover. I slid the metal cover back and the card floated to the ground. I looked out for the first time. I saw the demolished buildings crumbling. The sky was red. There were no plants. No trees. No Grass. It was all dust. A tear slid down my cheek and I thought of my mother. I looked at the foot of the door. I froze. H--h-how? It was the cards. They were outside the shelter. The wind blew them and they flew into the air. They landed in a pattern on the dead earth.

"IT WAS YOUR FAULT" They spelled. I immediately thought of my mother. I gasped.

"What the Hell is happening!" I screamed and my words bounced around the empty room. Nothing changed, but the cards.

"HE'S COMING"

"Who! You sadistic fucking cards!" Nothing happened. I felt time stop. I got a chill and remembered the card that fell. I bent down. I flipped the bent card. Fear flooded my being. I dropped it immediately.

"Why!" I screamed back at the "inanimate" objects. They shuffled.

"YOU" I trembled. I stepped back. I fell.

She tumbled down the metal stairs back into the abyss of her prison. She hit the bottom with a loud crack. Her stare fell blank. Her vision went black as the room went red. A gust of wind blew the crippled, cheap cardstock down after her. The card read, "THE DEVIL".

~

"Wake Up Alexia!" My eyes shot open. What happened? Where am I?

"Sweetheart! The car . . . crashed. Y-your m-mom..."

"Sir, we should leave her, she doesn't need to know right now" "We can't let it interfere with the healing, and her will to fight."

My head hurt. I thought to myself. Did that all really happen? NO. It couldn't have. Did I die? No, n-no! I remember. I remember the crash. A scene of my head slamming forward and immediately back before a world of black in my eyes flashed in my head. There was glass everywhere. I reached my hand up slowly. The necklace was there. I opened it. A piece of paper fell out. I uncrumpled the ripped sheet.

"IT WASN'T YOUR FAULT, I LOVE YOU" That's what was written inside. My arms fell. It was my mother's handwriting. My eyes swelled with tears and I turned my head. They grew wide. On the nightstand. It was there watching me.

The Cards.