I got up wobbly, feeling my way around the room. As I walked I could feel my bare feet making contact with my Tarot cards, apparently they were sprawled around the room. My head was spinning but I was getting out of the room by any means, I wanted… no I needed to know what I had said in my future sight.
I reached the wall and pressed for the intercom,
"Clarissa, Lisa, Beth, Bella, Laurent, Mom, Mrs. Velandre, Dad, anyone, please come to the View Study Room!"
I had to wait for a few minutes before Clarissa, Lisa, Beth, Laurent, Mom, Mrs. Velandre and Mau came running in. The first three came carrying a tray of fruit and tea, a sleep silk kimono and my slippers, Laurent brought my wheelchair, and the remaining three ran to me.
Are you all right? How do you feel? Does something hurt? Do you remember anything? Do you want something? I was bombarded with questions and I couldn't keep up, it was making my headache bigger.
"Please stop it, one question at a time…" I mumbled as Clarissa and Lisa placed me the kimono and my slippers. Laurent got close to me and sat me on the wheelchair; I still didn't feel well.
"How are you feeling, mi Luna?" asked my mother kneeling to my level.
"I've been better," I replied taking some tea and some chocolate covered strawberries; I knew it was a very awkward mix but I was in need of sugars.
"Does it hurt anywhere?" asked Mrs. Velandre worriedly.
"My forehead hurts and I have a headache besides that nothing," I replied taking a bite out of the strawberry.
"Do you remember anything?" asked Mau, I already knew this question was coming and I was prepared to shake my head.
Mau guided my chair to the dinning table of the Pool Area. There we all sat, by we I meant Mrs. Velandre, Mom, Mau and me, I vaguely wondered where Matthew was but subconsciously I suppressed the question. Bella, the head cook, brought us dinner. Before anyone had a chance, I asked my questions,
"How long was I out for and what happened in that while?"
"Well, you fainted around eight thirty. Mau arrived minutes later and began the ceremony, by midday it was finished. You woke up now, and its currently is seven fifteen. So all summed up you've been out for a good ten hours or so," answered my mother leaving out details and this for a fact I knew; every time mom kept an important secret from me she scrunched her nose.
"I've got your readings right here, written by you," intervened Mau, pulling out a paper with my trance handwriting.
I took it from her and read it. It confused me and frustrated me because I knew it was important but I didn't remember anything. Also, I had to pair up the two cards in my hand, specially "The Lovers" that kept appearing every time I touched the cards.
'SARYTZA'S TRUMP CARD' - I guessed this was either the Lovers or Death because those were the ones in my hand; though I had a feeling it was the first.
'3 YEARS' - Three years for what? Before what? Nothing came to my mind.
'APPLES IN OUR FUTURE' - Apples? What did apples have to do with anything?
'AN ISLAND OF BEAUTY AND UNTOUCHED NATURE' - Summerland?
'RUNNING AND FEAR WILL COVER' - Reading this gave me goose bumps and thought of all the bad things that could happen to make fear cover us.
'GODDESS WILL PROTECT' - Of course that the Goddess will protect us. She is a mother and mothers protect their children before anything.
'VAMPIRE REIGN' - Now at this point all the other phrases started to make sense –with the exception of Apples.
'KING WILL SHED BLOOD' - At this phrase my mind immediately gave me a picture of the card of Death.
"It is clear that the 'Vampire Reign' will induce fear and running from humans and that the Goddess will protect us. Now either it's three years for that to happen, or three years that vampires will reign, I ain't sure on that one. Now, an island of beauty and untouched nature could mean death of people and they would go to the Summerland. The King will shed blood could mean that the Vampire King will have his revenge on humanity by killing. What I still can't see is, Apples in our future," I mumbled more to myself than anyone.
All was quiet, none of us wished to eat anymore. Personally, I had never had a future sight of something so far away, thinking that it might be three years for that to happen, and I was almost sure that was the case, which means I needed to know for some reason. I wasn't one to worry much about what the future held and I lived day by day to the fullest but a voice in the back of my head was screaming bloody murder each time I read the phrases.
"Luna, you should know. By the end of the reading, you looked at Matthew called him 'King' and "The Emperor" card stuck to his forehead," Maureen informed me. Now I had another detail revealed, he was the Kings that would shed blood yet I simply nodded.
After those awkward moments, we continued eating. My mind was reeling on my foretelling but I made small talk with everyone as if nothing. I knew, Mau knew I was not settled but she didn't push it and for that I was grateful.
Later that night, Mau left for her shop –her house is at the second floor –after making sure I was all right. I had picked up all of my cards and with the help of Mrs. Velandre got upstairs with wheelchair and all, surprising the strength of vampires. Once in my room I relaxed, today had been stressful and nothing expected. I had originally planned on hitting the mall with Matthew to get him new clothes. Somehow I knew that the thought of going shopping would not make him much happy but I wasn't going to have him wearing the same thing. I dismissed what could have been and decided on getting a bath to help me. Moving my wheelchair to my bathroom, I turned on the warm water and let the tub fill, adding oils and salts.
My bathroom was big; it had the same décor as my room. It held a tub and a shower –separate –and a gigantic vanity with an equal sized mirror. I got up from my wheelchair slowly and took of my clothes careful not to fall, all after locking the door. Submerging in the warm water, I sighed at the heavenly feel. I heard the rain falling hard outside, and I watched through the bathroom window how it fell and the angry waves of the beach. I turned on the music and settled back, before realizing I still had my head bandaged. Deciding on taking the bandages off, I carefully pulled them out gauzes and all; I touched my forehead but there was no blood coming, making me smile to myself, there was nothing on my forehead, it was all just Mau's doing to make me scared. There was a knock on the door making me lowered the music before replying.
"Miss. Sarytza its Beth, I came to inform you that Miss. Renaldi is here to see you."
I sighed an ok; my wonderful hour long bath was cut short by 45 minutes but Andri was here and I wasn't going to leave her hanging. I came out and got clothed in a comfortable beach dress. I sat on the vanity to brush my hair while being able to see me, I knew it was a risk seeing if I fainted I would fall head-first to the floor. Yet all those thoughts were erased when I saw myself on the mirror. I had a small cut shaped as an upward crescent moon on my forehead; it was really close to the line of hair and by the wide of it, it would leave a scar. In my sixteen years of life I had never been physically harmed on one of my sights.
Forgetting about my hair, I lowered myself to the wheelchair and exited my room. There was Andri sitting on my bed watching a movie on my flat screen. She heard the bathroom door open and looked back at me worriedly,
"How are you feeling? I came as soon as I heard."
"I'm much better now, at least my headache is gone but look I got a cut and it's definitely going to scar," I whined; she came to me to inspect the wound.
"Hmhm, definitely going to scar, it does look like a moon though," she replied to me before going to my bed once more to turn off the TV, "So, what happened with you know who?"
I raised a thin eyebrow,
"You mean Matthew?"
"Oh, so you know he's name! That's a start, how'd it go?"
"Well, normal, I guess. He's mad at me and the world but was able to hold a conversation with me for three minutes," I joked.
Andri was my bestest friend in the whole world, she understood me, helped me but most importantly, we were raised together –we're practically sisters. Mau is my friend too, and on of the closest but we didn't share that bond Andri and I did, the friendship between Mau and me was more centered on the fact that we were both of the same religion and as Mau had helped me today, Andri couldn't.
"You know Mom was talking to me today about getting me a vamp pet too. I'm excited about it, I've never had a vampire friend," Andri continued to speak; I was lying on my bed now.
"Remember Andri, at the beginning it might be tough, you are buying them not becoming friends. You need to show him or her that you are friends," I reminded her.
"You are completely right. Oh, Sary, you haven't seen how everything has changed during a day," she sighed sadly.
"How so?" I asked getting up to a sitting position.
Andri sat up too, this time making sure to look me in the eye,
"The warrant the President yesterday is now popularly called "The Cleansing". It's the latest fashion. All the stores have stuff for vampire pets. This new store opened up today, 'Lovely Pet'; they only sell vampires, collars, leashes and other pet stuff but specific for vampires. People already have them, walking around with a leash and all. Kmart, Wal-Mart and Marshalls have a pet clothes sale today and tomorrow."
"How are they different from our clothes or the ones they wore before?" I asked genuinely intrigued by the topic.
"I'm not really sure; all I heard is that they are of a lesser quality and something about the "Cricket" working better with them. But there's everything from gothic to slutty, from pompous rich to worthless rags and from cover-alls to naughty stuff. And for all ages," she replied recalling what she had seen through the day.
I was surprised change had come so fast. It's was overwhelming and it wasn't only here, it was everywhere. I turned to Andri dead serious; Andri was Christian, she was raised by it and my religion, though she respected them, she didn't believe in them, which included my Tarot. Though, she did believe in my gift of clairvoyance. It was going to be a task to make here believe I what I had seen.
"Andri, you know today I had one of my episodes, I will tell you what I saw…" I began but was interrupted by her,
"No, Sary, you know I don't…" She tried to make me see but I interrupted her,
"No, Andri! It's important and you need to know it."
She kept quiet but nodded slightly, still apprehensive to the whole idea. I showed her the phrases making her ask the meaning because she didn't understand them. I explained what I had deduced with detail including the part of the cards, how "The Emperor" had stuck to Matthew's forehead, how "The Lovers" always popped up and how "Death" happened to be in my hand too. She nodded listening intently; I knew she was shocked; after all it had only been yesterday that the Cleansing had begun and today I had seen the repercussions it would bring for humanity three years from now.
Andri looked at me with calculating eyes; she wanted to study Criminal Justice to become a detective, she was amazing at pin pointing stuff and her deducting skills were good too,
"I bet that cut has something to do with it."
I looked at her skeptically; she rolled her eyes and continued to talk,
"I mean, you never get hurt and now that you see something so important for humanity, you suddenly get hurt. I say that cut is a moon and that phrase you can't decipher is a code to understand it."
Well, I must agree, she had a point. But I didn't know those meanings, or any means of finding them out. As we sat in silence, the door was rudely opened and in came an angry looking Matthew. I sighed: just what I needed. My frown was replaced by a smile, one of us had to try and I knew he wouldn't do it,
"Matthew this is my best friend Andrea Renaldi, Andri for short, Andri this is Matthew…"
Before I could finish my sentence Matthew spoke,
"The pet."
I looked at Andri exasperatedly; she stood up, she was going to leave me!
"Sary, I have to go it's getting late and Mom's gonna get worried. Would you mind if I take that paper with me?" she asked.
I was curious as to why she would take it with her, after all its superstitious things but I nodded none the less and handed it to her.
"Oh, and can't forget that cut of yours," she added whipping out her blackberry to take a picture of the wound on my forehead, "I'm going to investigate this case."
I chuckled, gave her a kiss on the cheek,
"There is no case Andri, and no bad guy."
She stuck her tongue out at me childishly before winking and closing the door. Who knows maybe that Andri could find something on it? She would my decoder. I chuckled once more before turning on the TV. I noticed Matthew standing at my windows looking down at the pouring rain but for once, I ignored him and continued watching my show.
