Category Major Arcana: Death

Sissy and Danny stared at me. Sissy like she was waiting for something, Danny like that something was a detonation. I picked up my slack jaw, caught in the thought mid-way through a sentence. “I-I was saying, you know, to…

The pain slowly subsided. One moment I was in the kitchen with my family around me, then darkness swallowed my world. I wasn’t aware of anything, not time passing or my thoughts. For a moment in the darkness, I just…

“You’re home now. Both of you.” Danny put his hand on my head like I was little again. “That’s all that matters.” Trix wrinkled her nose at the room. “If you’re not gonna sleep here, let Holly.” “You liked it…

“YOU STUPID BITCH!” I jerked from a dead sleep as something punched the air from my lungs. Someone was on top of me, shaking my shoulders like I owed them money. The weight holding me down felt like knees on…

The night passed with old pictures and old stories until Holly’s eyes grew heavy and her head rested against my shoulder. Sissy gently pulled the empty plate from her hands and Stella and Gia slid the albums back into the…

Between the fireplace and old quilts, we shook the chill from the rain. The photo albums our aunts pulled out for Holly warmed the rest of me. “I’m sure you recognize this gangly thing.” Our aunt Gia pointed at a…

God, she still smelled the same—a hint of that cotton blossom perfume on her skin and fresh sheets in her knit. Like getting tucked into a warm, soft bed. Her body was rigid between my arms, all wiry muscle on…

The dark and rain didn’t help my navigation. Holly found the last building—an old warehouse barely standing—and started counting turn-offs on her fingers. Something knotted in the pit of my stomach. She tugged my shirt and pointed to a dirt…

The bridge was in much better condition than the roads—surprising in no-man’s-land like Korena. I pulled on the empty stretch and tried to beat the storm as the winds buffeted. I flew down the lane, the guardrails blurring to the…

Mountains covered in ancient trees towered over the winding road and banks of mist meandered across the pavement as I drove through a rainforest of vine and moss. Almost home . . . My rust stain of a car groaned…