Tales from Beyond
The Ten Of Swords
Day by day, things got worse. Natalie had borrowed Tasha's favourite book and would not return it because her dog had ripped the book into tiny pieces. Tasha's mother would not take this in and every day, after school, her mother would ask her if Natalie had bought her a new book or not.
A few weeks later, Natalie issued books on Tasha's and Robby's library cards. She returned Robby his books, but not Tasha's. The librarian would not believe Tasha, or she would say that Tasha shouldn't have given someone else a library book.
Natalie had stopped sitting with Tasha anymore, because Tasha was considered L.S. And Tasha was given the reason that Natalie couldn't bare the smell of mud around the seat.
Why didn't Natalie just stop talking to her?
One day, Natalie came and sat next to Tasha and said, "Hey, you know; I'm into something major. I need a tarot reading."
Tasha's question was answered. Natalie still needed Tasha to get tarot readings. Natalie was using Tasha. That day, Tasha got her math papers. She had failed.
At home, her father had stopped speaking to her and her mother had shouted at her for not cleaning her room. She, being so sensitive, couldn't take all this and burst into tears when her mother had left her room. Tasha had slipped on the wet floor that evening, and hurt her ankle. Her mother had taken her lightly and paid no attention to her. This made her feel even lonelier.
"Did Natalie return your book Tasha?" called her mother (who used to make websites, and made one for Tasha too) out of her office, which was supposed to be the guest room.
"No." Tasha replied and moved away as soon as she could.
That night, Tasha could not sleep. Thoughts of Natalie and her famous friends laughing at her behind her back kept coming into her thought cycle. Sao she woke up, picked up her cards, shuffled them and laid them out.
The Ten Of Swords.
"So this is what you've planned for me Natalie." And Tasha smiled with tears in her eyes.
The next morning, Tasha's mother came to wake her up for school.
"Wake up lazy, you'll be late for school! I'm not paying 100 bucks on your late penalty! Wa-" she realized that Tasha wasn't breathing any more.
Tasha was rushed to the hospital. The doctor declared her dead. He said that she had a broken nerve due to depression.
A month later, when Tasha's mother was checking Tasha's website mails, she came across a 'Thank you' mail. A tear came out of her eyes.
"She must have replied to a tarot request before she-"
The next few days many more 'Thank you' mails had been received. Then she noticed that pending requests were 0, but she swore that just the earlier day it was 29.
The next day, the phone rang. It was Natalie's mother, and she was crying. Natalie had been chocked to death. Fingerprints were being compared by the police.
They matched no one, but Tasha's.
