O.A. - Ruby

“So, so,” Camilla tapped her fingers on the table, “you got three cards: the Hanged Man, Death and the Emperor. It turns out the alignment is only of senior cards. We’re looking at the near future, aren’t we?”

I nodded.

“I can tell right away that there will be something unpleasant but you can handle it. There will be some strong nervous tension. You will look at the situation with the wrong mood, from some kind of curved angle that is incorrect. The Hanged Man card often indicates an enclosed space. I would say that you will be sent to jail. And the Death card is nearby. Death indicates danger or some kind of trouble, moreover unexpected. I like the Emperor’s card. It says that either you will be well protected or you will prove yourself an authority. In any case, you will keep the situation under control. Do you want to try to get more details?”

“No, thanks, my eyes are already closing, I’m going to bed and I’ll think about the situation in the morning.”

I didn’t understand a damn thing.

I cleared the dishes off the table and put them in the sink and was on my way to the bathroom when Camilla said to me: “And one more thing… Beware of water. I can’t figure out why yet but the Hanged Man is water.”

“Yeah sure, exactly.”

So, I shouldn’t wash now?

“Probably, you are just going to have some fun during the upcoming weekend.”

I didn’t answer.

After brushing my teeth and placing the toothbrush in the glass, I took out the dental floss. After unrolling the desired length and securing it around my middle fingers, I began to gently insert the thread between my teeth. I started on the right side, then the front teeth and then closer and closer to the desired place, the upper left wisdom tooth.

When I reached it, I took a deep breath. And as I exhaled, pressed hard with the dental floss into the gap between the teeth.

Looking at myself in the mirror, I smiled. All my teeth were covered in blood. I call it my Red Smile.

It seems that this time I overdid the strength part a little…

There are times when I can’t cope with stress, I go through outbursts of anger or suffer waves of despair, which is almost always then, I resort to the relief that pain gives me if I remember it in time.

When I feel physical pain, mental pain disappears somewhere into the background, I can’t concentrate on it and it dissipates like fog.

The main thing is not to forget about allowing for the possibility of making myself feel such pain. And it needs it to be quickly accessible.

I do not consider myself a masochist, but when you are drowning, you’ll not only grab a life vest but also a red-hot pipe if necessary.

My red-hot pipe is a deep cut in my gum that needs to be refreshed periodically. If I feel impending alarm, I press my tongue on my gum. Then there are the toenails on my big toes, trimmed to grow into the skin. If I feel that I am about to lose control, I shift the center of gravity from my heels to my toes.

I remember the operation to correct the septum of my nose. For me it was, perhaps, not the happiest of times but in fact it was one of the best because for the first days after the operation and during the following days of healing, the inability to breathe through my nose allowed me to concentrate only on my physical condition. Besides the physical pain there was also a wonderful feeling, as if there was a country filled with rainbows in my chest, one in which elves and unicorns made love. Each one with its own kind of course. At that moment that is how I imagined inner harmony.

Part 3

Someone was standing outside the circle of light cast from the lantern. Levy knew it couldn’t be Ethan or Caleb. The silhouette of the man did not move. Levy carefully backed away until he disappeared around the corner of the building. It appears that he was unnoticed. He needed to look for some other way, there wasn’t much time left.

Levy returned to the building of the third section of the surgical department. If he went to the end then there would be a chance to come out on the other side and exit unnoticed, but he couldn’t turn on the flashlight, otherwise the creatures would react to the light again. However, it takes a very long time to move by touch in the dark.

Below was an underground floor! There were no windows down there so therefore no one outside would be able to see the light from the flashlight. He continued moving along from memory to the exit onto the stairs, Levy opened the door and went through it but even in the dark he could see that the stairs were not there. He turned on the flashlight and saw there was a long corridor in front of him which did not fit into the scheme of the building in any way. This was simply not possible. Some 15 minutes ago there was a staircase behind this door. So, the changes had already begun…

Levy felt a strong draft, which meant that now he was not alone on the floor. Maybe there is just the one he saw in the light? There was too little time for reflection. He took a step forward and carefully closed the door behind him so as not to signal his location with noise.

The light from the flashlight pulled part of the corridor out of the darkness. It seemed that it had no end and if there was, then the power of the flashlight was not strong enough so that the light penetrated to the farthest point. There were no windows in the walls on either side only old ragged wallpaper and in some places the already familiar black mold.

Levy quickened his pace. About 20 seconds had gone by but there was still nothing ahead but darkness.

On the wall to the right, Levy saw a painting. It depicted a naked man in a cage hanging in the air over a fiery abyss. A chill ran down Levy’s spine. He recognized his own features on the face of the person who had been drawn.

Further, on the right side there were more pictures. One showed a man who looked like Ethan. He was impaled and around him, terrible twisted children danced in a circle. The next picture depicted a man who looked like Caleb, or rather, parts of him. The arms, legs and head were torn off from the torso and lay around it forming the shape of a five-pointed star.

The next picture depicted Sandra. With two heads: one with closed eyes and a sewn-up mouth, the other with horns and eyes from which a bright light came.

The further Levy ran, the larger the corridor became. The ceiling got higher, the walls moved farther apart and he could see more pictures and their plot was unchanged, only torture and death.

And then the corridor ended. If at the beginning only two people could fit side by side in it, now the walls were at a distance of about five meters from each other and the ceiling was at the level of a two-story house. There were three doors in front of Levy with inscriptions he could not understand: Suspensus 8 8 The Hanged Man in Latin , Mortem 9 9 Death in Latin and Caesar 10 10 Emperor in Latin .

He took a bottle filled with flammable liquid from his backpack, unscrewed the cap and stuffed a piece of handkerchief into it. The result was a Molotov cocktail. Anything at all could be waiting outside the door for him so he needed to be prepared for anything.

Levy chose the door in the middle, marked Mortem. The handle was icy, but it turned easily. He found himself in a room that looked like a huge ceremonial hall. It was not clear whether there were windows here or not, since all the walls were covered with draperies made of dense red velvet fabric. Light came from lighted candles placed along the walls, so the flashlight could be turned off. It felt that the room had been specially prepared for some event.