Page 29 of Gothikana

It was time for the diversion.

CHAPTER 9

Corvina

The girl withlong, dark hair lay face down in the water, her tresses floating over the surface ethereally, her skin ghostly pale in the moonlight. Corvina looked around, not knowing the place or the time, just that she needed to get to the girl. She took a step forward, her ankle dipping in the icy water, disappearing under the blackness.

Heart pounding, she took another step, just as something cold and slimy gripped her ankles, locking her in place. Corvina struggled trying to get to her, but the movements caused ripples that made the girl float farther away. She struggled harder, but the slippery fingers around herfeet gave no room.

The girl reached the middle of wherever they were, and slowly began to sink into the murky water, inch by inch, until only her hair remained floating on the surface.

Corvina opened her mouth to call out to her, but nothing came out, her voice muted, her throat locked in place like her ankles.

‘Corvina,’ a voice called from behind her, a voice she knew and loved in her soul. Her mama’s voice.

She turned to see her mama standing a few feet away on the shore, in her black cotton gown and braid, smiling. But her eyes were blown up with black covering everything until she couldn’t see the violet eyes full of love. She was shuffling a deck of cards, watching Corvina with those eerie fully black eyes.

‘Mama,’ she called out, her voice working this time.

One card fell out from the deck, and another, and another. Her mama smiled up at her, throwing the deck to the side and picking up the cards that had come during her shuffle, turning them to show her.

The Devil. The Lovers. The Tower.

All major arcana. All powerful omens.

‘You know what’s coming, baby,’ her mother said, still smiling. ‘A storm. The only safe place is the eye. He is the storm. He will keep you safe.’

‘Who, Mama?’ Corvina asked, trying to free her legs from whatever was holding her in place.

‘The devil,’ her mama answered.

‘The one in the card?’ She outstretched her hands, trying to reach her.

‘The one in your heart,’ her mother chuckled. ‘Once you taste the forbidden fruit, you belong to the devil.’

Corvina cried out as the hands holding her ankles began to tug her into the water, away from her mother.

‘Mama,’ she uttered in horror just as her mother began to disappear simultaneously. She struggled harder to get to the shore but to no avail, her body moving frantically deeper into the depths.

‘Mama!’ she screamed, her hands outstretched, trying to touch a mother who wasn’t there.

Something shook her hard.

‘Corvina!’

Her eyes flew open to see Jade’s worried face looming over her, her hands holding her down by her shoulders. Corvina panted, her chest heaving, her entire body drenched in sweat, her eyes looking around the room wildly as her mind processed what had happened.

A nightmare. She’d had a nightmare.

Breathing through her mouth, she sat up, her hands trembling.

‘You were screaming for your mom,’ Jade told her softly, handing her a glass of water from the side. Corvina accepted it gratefully, gulping the whole thing down in seconds, letting her racing heart slow down.

A nightmare. Just a nightmare.

‘Thank you,’ she told her worried roommate, handing her the glass back.

‘Are you okay?’ Jade asked, taking a seat on her bed.

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