Dance of Roses

It was a hot summer night, with fireworks going off overhead. A woman that looked like she was roughly in her late teens, with long, flowing, red hair and bright blue eyes that seem more significant against her pale, almost translucent, skin, was seated, elegantly at her tarot table wearing a dark crimson cape with the hood pulled over her head, in front of the cathedral, where she could smell the river water on the wind while watching the other people in the square laughing and playing around as they enjoyed the celebration.

“Look at them, having a marry old time, as if none of them know what had happened here all those years ago, but I remember. I remember all too well, as if it happened just yesterday, and I think they should pay,” she thought.

Then she saw a mother pick up her little boy and place him on her shoulders so he could see the fireworks and the hard piercing look on her face soften, causing a soft smile to appear on her full lips as longing bloomed in her heart. “Or, maybe, I just want to feel that for once, love and acceptance,” she thought as a scraggily, college aged man walked up to her table. He had dark hair and even darker eyes which went well with his tanned skin.

She looked up at him from her seated position and, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Zander and Sean waiting in the alleyway for her to be ready to leave, so she lifted her finger up to let them know to wait just a bit longer while the stranger just kept staring at her. After a few moments of this awkward silence, she cocked her right eyebrow and pulled out a cigarette.

“Can I help you?” she asked as she lit the cigarette and took a puff of it, the smoke seeming to cause a halo to form around her face, contrasting nicely with her heart-shaped face.

The strange man shook his head slightly, as if to clear it, and said, “I’m sorry, I… Uh, I… I am not sure. I think I must have zoned out while I was walking and somehow ended up here. What exactly are you doing here?”

“Have a seat and I will explain it all. There must be a reason spirit led you to me specifically,” she said with a smile that showed her natural fangs.

“What’s with the fangs, did you have them filed for some sort of vampire gimmick?”

“It’s no gimmick, they’re natural,” she said and frowned slightly before shaking her head and pasting on a bright smile that could easily be mistaken for a real one, “Anyway, you asked what I am doing here. I am a psychic reader and I give people guidance in their life based on what the spirits tell me.”

“Oh, I have always wondered about getting a reading,” he said as he pulled out his wallet, “How much do you charge?”

“I work on a tip basis. You pay me what you want after the reading, by the way, I am Claudia, What’s your name?”

“My name is Mike,” he said as he put his wallet away and sat down, “Ok, Claudia, the beautiful vampire witch, how exactly does this work?”

“Do you assume all psychics are witches or is it my looks that make you think I am a witch?” she asked before picking up the middle deck that had pictures of crows on it, “As for how it works, simple. You shuffle the cards, I break them up, you pick a set, and I lay them out then tell you what I get from them. From this point, you tell me whatever you like just not anything about you, especially nothing that tells me about your past or present.”

“Ok,” he said as he took the deck and began shuffling, “So, did you go to college for anything? I am currently…”

“Ah, ah, ah I said nothing about your past or present,” she said.

“Oh, right.” He said as Claudia looked over his shoulder to see a shorter man, she didn’t know talking to Zander and Sean was no longer there.

As the short man finished speaking to Zander, both he and Zander looked at her and despite his smile, a shiver ran down her spine. At this same moment, a foreboding shadow momentarily crossed over Zander’s face.

“Earth to Claudia,” Mike said as he turned around to see what she was looking at, ‘Is everything alright? I mean did that man frighten you or something?”

“Yes, everything is fine. It was probably just a trick of the light or something,” she said and split the cards into three even sets.

Once she laid them down, Mike picked up the middle one and handed it to Claudia. She took the top thirteen cards and laid them out to look like a tower with two cards on each side of it with all cards faced down.

As she flipped over the top left card of the tower, she looked up into Mike’s eyes and said, “You have led a very mixed life, filled with secrets, pain, happiness, and truths,” she then flipped another card and said, “As a matter of fact it was your father who caused the pain and your mother who tried to keep it from you.”

Mike then took a deep breath and whispered, “But how?”

“Shhh. The spirits tell me many things, and this is just the tip. Now is time to listen. Soon you can talk.”

Mike nodded and Claudia flipped over the next three cards in the same manner, the whole time looking at Mike not the cards.

“You are feeling slightly lost because you are having trouble trusting any male authoritive figure due to this. You need to change this. Not every male is like your father,” she said then flipped the remainder of the tower and shook her head. You have a feminine energy in your life trying to tell you not to trust this person you look up to as a mentor. You need to listen to her because she is trying to help you. This mentor of yours is going to betray you and try to crush your spirit by any means they can.”

When she flipped the next card Mike scrunched his face up in fear and Claudia shook her head again.

“Do not fear the death card as you should not fear death. He isn’t coming for you yet. This just means that it’s time for a new chapter in your life as it is followed by,” she began then flipped over the chariot card, “movement, travel. You need to broaden your horizons.”

Finally, she looked down at the cards and shook her head, “I don’t even think you need the last two cards.”

“I think you may be right but sadly, I only have ten dollars.”

“Keep your money. I read you because the spirits said I needed to not because I wanted anything from you,” she told him as an older gentleman, Zander, and Sean all walked up to her table and she knocked the cards onto her table.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“I am more than sure,” she said as she turned the gentlemen walking up to her with a smile on her face.