By popular demand, here you go. I own nothing. Review.


Charlotte walked down the street to The Shadowman's emporium. It had been a few days since he had read her fortune and her curiosity was piqued. Cautiously she walked down the alley, unsure if she should be dong this.

She reached the end of the alley and walked up to the door. She was about to knock when she changed her mind. Turning to leave, she started to walk away when suddenly the door swung open. Turning back around she shivered.

He knows I'm here, she thought to herself. Carefully she walked into the building. It was dark, with not a single light inside. When she was about half way into the room the door slammed shut behind her. She spun around to see what had closed the door. It was him. Charlotte swallowed. Facilier moved away from the door and began to walk towards her, regarding her coldly.

"Why are y'all here?" He asked towering over her. She cowered back, too frightened to speak. He walked closer to her, wrapping his arms around her. She trembled harder.

He's doing this on purpose, she told herself. He wants you be scared of him. Recovering some of her confidence, she pulled herself out of his grip.

"I am here," she said, looking at him, "because I want to know how the cards work." He smiled.

"Is that all, mon chere?" He asked. He put is arm around her shoulder and guided her to the table. "I'd be honored to teach y'all about them." He sat her down and sat across from her. "Mind you," he said, making his deck appear, "that y'all won't be quite as good as I, you need magic to do what I do. But I can teach you what each card means." He started to shuffle the deck. "Each card has a meaning and a reverse meaning, depending on how they're positioned. If y'all want to know if a card is reversed or not, just remember, if the card is facing upright to the person asking the question, you use the regular meaning." He took a card out of the deck randomly and laid it down so that the picture was upright to her. "If the person telling the fortune sees it as upright, however," he flipped the card so that the image was now upside down to her, "you use the reversed meaning." Charlotte nodded, looking at the card. It had a skeletal being riding a horse. Facilier smiled.

"That there's the death card, darling," he said, smiling when he saw the tremor of fear.

"Death?" She asked, her voice wavering slightly. "Is that bad?"

"Not really," he said, nonchalantly. "The death card really just means change. Still useful if you want to scare someone though." He smiled at her. "Now then," he said, "there are two Arcanas in Tarot; the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana has 22 cards and the Minor Arcana has four suits, the wands, cups, swords and pentacles, with 14 cards each. The total number of cards in a deck is 78." He smiled when she looked at him confused. "Stop me if I'm going too quick chere." Charlotte shook her head.

"Sorry," she said, "it's alot to grasp." He smiled.

"Tell you what," he said, walking over to the bookshelf. He climbed the shelf to get to a small, red book. He jumped down, the bookshelf rocking slightly. He looked at it and sighed.

"That thing 'll fall over one of these days," he said. He walked back to charlotte and handed her the book. "Odie gave me this when she was first teaching me Tarot." Charlotte took the book and flipped through it. "Y'all can borrow it if you like." She looked at him and smiled.

"Really?" She asked. Facilier nodded. She stood up. "Thank you," she said. He bowed slightly.

"Don't mention it chere," he said. Smiling she turned and walked out of the shop. Once she was gone, Shadow glided over to his master angrily.

Why did you let her go? He asked. Facilier glared at the shade.

"Because Odie kept her fortune from me for a reason!" He snapped. "And I intent to find out why. So until that time, we need to lay low. Understand?" Shadow nodded.

What card did she draw again? Facilier sighed. He shuffled through the deck and held up a card.

"This one," he said. The card changed back to the appearance it took when Charlotte had drawn it from the deck, her surrounded by a cloud of purple mist. The one thing that didn't change was the Roman numeral printed on the bottom of the card. XIII. Thirteen. The Death Card.


I am done with this story. It is completed. Did you notice the little reference to another story in my verse? If so, point it out.