Something forbidden is going happen
Part -2
Mystic Marcus didn't laugh. He just stared at the card for a long moment, then flipped the third one. A woman sat on a throne, her eyes blindfolded, surrounded by swords planted in the ground around her.
Something irreversible and forbidden will happen tonight. The universe demands balance. For every action, an equal reaction. For every soul that rises, another must fall."
My sister shifted uncomfortably on her stool, her earlier enthusiasm curdling into something more cautious. "Okay, that's... that's great. Very dramatic. Alex, babe, your turn."
Alex leaned forward, radiating that effortless confidence I'd never been able to replicate in my entire life. He cut the deck with one hand â because of course he could make even *that* look cool â and Mystic Marcus laid out three new cards in the same triangular pattern.
Alex's cards hit the table with a soft slap, face-down and waiting. Mystic Marcus turned the first one over with one ring-heavy finger.
"The Sun," he said, and I could almost hear the relief in his voice â like he'd been half-expecting another harbinger of doom. The card showed a radiant sun blazing over a joyous child riding a white horse. "Vitality. Success. A body in its prime. You are blessed with health and strength, young man. The world smiles upon you."
"Yeah, that sounds about right," Alex said with that cocky grin of his, flexing slightly. My sister giggled and ran her hand along his arm. I tried very hard not to look like I was cataloguing the exact dimensions of his biceps.
Mystic Marcus turned the second card. His ring clinked against the table's surface, and the candlelight caught the image before he even fully revealed it â a figure hanging upside down from a tree, one leg crossed behind the other, his face eerily calm despite his predicament.
"The Hanged Man," the old man said, his voice dropping to barely above a whisper. "Surrender. Suspension. A different perspective gained through... sacrifice. Something will be given up tonight, though whether willingly or not, the cards do not say."
Alex's brow furrowed slightly â the first crack in that armor of cool confidence I'd ever seen. "That sounds prettyâ"
"âominous? Yeah, it does," I finished for him, unable to keep the slight smirk off my face. For once, Mr. Perfect wasn't looking so composed.
Mystic Marcus held up one ringed finger, silencing us both. "The cards are not finished." He reached for the third card, and the candles flickered as though a draft had swept through the tent, though the air was perfectly still. His fingers hovered over it for a moment â hesitating, I realized, which did absolutely nothing to calm the nervous energy that had suddenly settled in my stomach.
He flipped it.
The card showed a great wheel, ornate and ancient-looking, covered in cryptic symbols. Creatures clung to its sides â some rising, some falling â all caught in its eternal rotation.
"The Wheel of Fortune," Mystic Marcus said, and there was something almost reverent in his tone now. "Destiny. Turning points. The cycle of fate, spinning without mercy or preference." He looked up from the card, and his dark eyes settled on Alex with an intensity that made even me shift on my stool. "What goes up must come down. What is given can be taken. The wheel turns for everyone, young man. No one rides the top forever."
"Okay, so... what, I'm gonna get lucky and then not get lucky?" Alex said with a dismissive chuckle, but I caught the way his jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. "That's basically life, isn't it?"
Mystic Marcus didn't smile. He just gathered Alex's cards with a slow sweep of his ring-laden fingers, and the candlelight caught the stones in those rings, sending little shards of colored light skittering across the velvet tablecloth like scattered gemstones. His eyes drifted from Alex to me, and something about that gaze made the hairs on the back of my neck stand at attention.
"And now," he said, his whispery voice carrying a weight that seemed disproportionate to its volume, "the young man who watches from the edge."
"I'd rather not," I said, half-rising from my stool. "Really, I'm notâ"
"Nonsense," Mystic Marcus said, and his voice carried that strange resonant quality again â the one that seemed to bypass my ears and go straight to my chest. "The cards have already chosen you. Refusing them would be... unwise."
Something about the way he said *unwise* made me sit back down. My sister snickered beside me.
I sat back down on the rickety stool, the wood creaking under me as I shifted my weight. My sister was already leaning forward with that look on her face â the one she always wore when she was about to watch me embarrass myself. Alex had his arm draped casually across the back of her stool, his fingers tracing lazy circles on her shoulder, looking about as concerned as someone watching paint dry.
"Go on, James," my sister said with a sweet, poisonous smile. "Let's hear how you'll die alone surrounded by comic books."
"Thanks. Love you too."
I reached for the deck with slightly trembling fingers â though whether from the incense or the old man's unsettling gaze, I couldn't say. The cards felt weirdly warm as I cut them, like they'd been sitting too close to one of the candles. Mystic Marcus collected them with that same slow, deliberate grace and laid three new cards face-down in the triangular pattern.
"The wheel turns," he murmured, almost to himself. "Yes... it certainly does."
He flipped the first card.
The image that revealed itself was almost identical to one of Alex's cards â the same great wheel, ornate and ancient, with creatures clinging to its sides as it spun in eternal rotation. But where Alex's Wheel of Fortune had been bright, almost triumphant in its depiction, mine felt heavier somehow. The colors were darker, the creatures more desperate in their grip.
"The Wheel of Fortune," Mystic Marcus said, and this time there was no reverence â only a quiet certainty that made my stomach drop. "The same card. The same destiny. Fates intertwined." His dark eyes flickered between Alex and me, and I caught something in them I hadn't expected â a glimmer of something that might have been amusement. "What rises for one, falls for the other. The wheel does not discriminate."
"So... what, we're connected or something?" I asked, trying to keep my voice steady. "That doesn't even make sense. We're notâ"
"We're not anything," I finished lamely, gesturing between myself and Alex. "I'm just the chaperone. Trust me, there's no destiny binding us together."
Mystic Marcus didn't answer right away. He just stared at the card with those sunken eyes, his ringed fingers tracing the edge of the image like he was reading braille. The incense smoke curled between us, thick and sweet, and for a moment I could have sworn the smoke formed shapes â two figures, one rising and one falling â before dissolving into nothing.
"The cards do not lie, young man," he said finally. "They merely wait to be proven right."
Mystic Marcus turned over my second card with a deliberate slowness that felt almost cruel. The image showed a figure standing at a crossroads, two diverging paths stretching out before him into darkness. The figure's face was blank, featureless, as though the card itself couldn't decide who it belonged to.
"The Two of Paths," the old man said, though I was fairly sure that wasn't a real tarot card. Then again, I wasn't exactly an expert. "A choice approaches. One that cannot be unmade. The road you walk tonight will cease to be yours, and another will open in its place."
"Great. Vague and creepy. My two favorites," I muttered, but my mouth felt dry. My sister was unusually quiet beside me, her fingers no longer tracing lazy patterns on Alex's arm. Even Alex had straightened up slightly, that easy slouch replaced with something more attentive.
Mystic Marcus reached for my third card. His fingers hovered above it for a long, uncomfortable moment â longer than he'd hesitated with any of the others. The candles guttered and flickered, and I swear the temperature in the tent dropped a few degrees. My sister actually shivered beside me, pressing closer to Alex's side.
"Prepare yourself," the old man whispered, and I couldn't tell if he was talking to me, to Alex, or to the empty air itself.
He flipped the card.
The image on the third card hit me like a punch to the gut.
The Fool.
A young man walked toward the edge of a cliff, his eyes on the sky, completely oblivious to the drop inches below his feet. A small dog nipped at his heels. The sun shone brightly overhead. He looked joyful â blissfully, stupidly joyful â and entirely unaware that one more step would send him plummeting into the void.
"The Fool," Mystic Marcus said, and the word hung in the air like smoke.
I stared at the card â at the grinning idiot marching toward the cliff edge without a care in the world â and felt an inexplicable chill crawl down my spine. The little dog yipping at his heels seemed almost frantic, like it was trying to warn him, but the Fool just kept walking, eyes turned skyward, faith in every stupid step.
"Great. So I'm the idiot about to fall off a cliff. Fantastic," I said, but my voice came out thinner than I wanted it to. I cleared my throat. "Really inspiring stuff, Marcus. Can I get my five bucks back?"
Mystic Marcus didn't laugh. He didn't even crack a smile. He just gathered my cards with that same deliberate slowness, stacking them perfectly aligned atop one another, and fixed me with those sunken eyes that seemed to look past my face and into something deeper â something I wasn't sure I wanted examined.
"The Fool is not stupidity, young man," he said quietly. "It is the beginning of a journey. A leap of faith into the unknown. The Fool steps off the cliff not because he is blind, but because he trusts that something will catch him." He paused, his ringed fingers pressing flat against the deck. "Or perhaps because he has no choice."
"Well, that's comforting."
Mystic Marcus gathered the cards one final time, tapping the deck against the table with a sharp click that made all three of us flinch. He tucked them into a velvet pouch embroidered with symbols I didn't recognize and fixed us with that unsettling gaze one last time.
"Remember," he said, his voice barely above a whisper, "the wheel turns for everyone. What is owed will be paid. What is empty will be filled." His eyes lingered on me, then on Alex, and a thin smile crept across his weathered face. "A reversal of fates."
"A what now?" I asked, but he was already waving us toward the exit, his bony hand flapping at us like we were pigeons he wanted gone from his presence.
We stumbled out of the tent blinking like moles, the harsh neon light of the fairground a jarring contrast to the dim incense-choked interior. The night air hit my face like a splash of cold water, and I sucked it in gratefully, realizing only then how stale and heavy the atmosphere in that tent had been.
"Well, that was a waste of five bucks," I announced, shoving my hands in my pockets. "Though I did enjoy the part where he implied you were about to lose everything, Alex. That was a highlight."
"Shut up, James," my sister muttered, but she was looking at Alex with something approaching concern, which was unusual for her. She usually treated her boyfriends like accessories â fun while they were new, easily replaced when they got boring. "That Tower card thing was creepy though, right? The whole 'something will break tonight' bit?"
Alex shrugged those broad shoulders of his, the movement so casual it was almost offensive. "It's just some carnival act, babe. The guy probably says the same dramatic crap to everyone who sits down. Keeps the tips rolling in." He draped his arm back around my sister and pulled her close. "Besides, you heard him â I got The Sun. Sounds like things are looking pretty good for me."
"You also got The Hanged Man," I pointed out helpfully. "Sacrifice. Suspension. Something about giving something up tonight?"
"Nobody asked you, Wikipedia," Alex shot back, though without any real heat. He was too busy nuzzling my sister's neck to put any effort into a comeback.
"Can you two seriously not keep your hands off each other for five minutes?" I groaned, already walking ahead. "I need cotton candy or something sweet before I diabetic-coma myself to death to escape this nightmare."
"Nobody's making you watch, James!" my sister called after me, her voice muffled â probably because her face was buried in Alex's neck. Gross.
I found the cotton candy stand and bought the biggest bag they had, stuffing pink wisps into my mouth as I waited for the lovebirds to catch up. The sugar did nothing to dispel the weird feeling that had settled in my chest since leaving that tent. *A reversal of fates.* The words kept rattling around my skull like loose change.
I was still picking sticky pink strands out of my teeth when they finally caught up â my sister's lipstick smeared halfway across her face and Alex's hair mussed in a way that told me exactly what they'd been doing behind the nearest tent while I'd been stress-eating sugar. I didn't comment. Some things were better left unacknowledged, like mold in a bathroom or the fact that my sister had zero self-awareness.
"Took you long enough," I said, tossing what was left of the cotton candy into a trash bin. "What were you two doing, drafting a peace treaty?"
My sister's face flushed â whether from embarrassment or annoyance, I couldn't tell. "We were talking, James. God. Not everything is about sex."
"Talking. Right. Is that what they're calling it now?" I said, eyeing the lipstick smear that extended from the corner of her mouth almost to her ear. "Must've been a really animated conversation."
Alex chuckled â that deep, rumbling sound that seemed to come from somewhere in his chest rather than his throat â and casually wiped his jaw with the back of his hand. It came away faintly pink. He didn't seem to notice. Or if he did, he didn't care.
"Where to next?" he asked, sliding his hand back into my sister's like it had never left. A magic show board nearby shimmered with golden letters, and before I could protest, my sister was dragging us toward the main tent. "Ooh, look! They're starting a magic show! Come on, we can get good seats if we hurry!" she exclaimed, her earlier unease from the fortune teller's tent already forgotten.
We filed into the crowded tent, thick with the smell of popcorn, body odor, and something sharp and chemical underneath it all. We found three seats near the back, and immediately my sister and Alex resumed their mutual occupation of each other's personal space. I sat on the end, arms crossed, resigned to another hour of watching the stage instead of watching them.
"Welcome, welcome, ladies and gentlemen!" boomed a voice from behind the curtain, which rippled and parted to reveal a tall man in a shimmering purple suit, his face painted an unnatural shade of white with dark, exaggerated eyebrows arched like twin archways above glittering eyes. He swept off his top hat and bowed so low his nose nearly touched the floor.
"The dazzlingly and ingenious Mr. Wendigo!" The announcer's voice cracked on the last syllable, and a smattering of polite applause rippled through the audience. The man in the purple suit straightened up, revealing a grin so wide it looked painted on â which, considering the rest of his face, it probably was.
"Thank you, thank you, you're too kind, really, stop, you're making me blush," Mr. Wendigo said, not stopping or blushing. He swept his hat through the air and produced a single white dove from inside it, the bird fluttering its wings in confused indignation before settling on his outstretched finger. "Tonight, my friends, you will witness marvels that defy the very laws of nature! Illusions that will make you question the reality you take for granted! Magic that willâ"
"He's going to pull something else out of that hat," I muttered to no one in particular. "Calling it now."
Mr. Wendigo did, in fact, pull something else out of the hat. A lizard this time â bright green with beady eyes that looked almost as unimpressed as I felt. It scurried down his arm and disappeared into the folds of his purple jacket while the audience clapped on cue.
"Is this what we drove forty minutes for?" I whispered to my sister.
"Shh," she hissed without looking at me, her eyes fixed on the stage. Alex's hand was resting on her knee, his thumb tracing slow circles that I was actively trying to pretend I couldn't see.
I settled deeper into my seat, resigning myself to an evening of watching a man in face paint pull livestock out of formalwear. Mr. Wendigo continued his routine â cards materializing from thin air, coins disappearing behind ears, the standard bag of tricks that every birthday party magician since the dawn of time had mastered. The audience ate it up like it was groundbreaking entertainment. I checked my phone. Forty-three minutes since we'd sat down. It felt like hours.
"And now," Mr. Wendigo announced, his voice dropping to a theatrical whisper that somehow carried across the entire tent, "we approach the finale of tonight's performance. The piece de resistance. The trick that has mystified audiences from Cairo to Constantinople!" He paused dramatically, and even I'll admit the silence was effective. "I call it... the Pharaoh's Curse!"
Two stagehands in black rolled out the largest props of the evening â two massive glass coffins, each one tall enough to stand in and wide enough to stretch your arms without touching the walls. They gleamed under the spotlights, catching the light and throwing it back in sharp, fractured beams that swept across the audience. The coffins were mounted on circular platforms studded with golden hieroglyphics that looked vaguely Egyptian if you squinted and didn't think about it too hard. Which, judging by the gasps rippling through the crowd, nobody was doing.
"These ancient receptacles," Mr. Wendigo intoned, dragging his gloved hand along the surface of one coffin with a lover's tenderness, "were discovered in a tomb outside the Valley of the Kings. Crafted by priests who understood the fundamental truth of the universe â that the soul is but a passenger, and the body merely a vessel. And what one vessel contains, another may hold."
He snapped his fingers, and the glass doors of both coffins opened simultaneously with a soft hiss, like something out of a sci-fi movie. Fog crept out from inside them â from where, I had no idea, since I hadn't seen any fog machines â and curled across the stage floor in lazy tendrils.
"For this trick," Mr. Wendigo continued, his white-painted face catching the light in a way that made his exaggerated grin look almost sinister, "I require two volunteers from the audience!"
The crowd erupted â hands shooting up, bodies leaning forward in seats, a chorus of "me, me, me" from children and enthusiastic adults alike. Mr. Wendigo swept his gaze across the audience with the slow deliberation of a hawk surveying a field of mice. His eyes passed over the eager faces one by one, his painted smile never wavering.
And then they stopped.
On us.
On me.
And then on Alex.














