The blank black eyes bore into him. He wants to walk back further \u2014 run, anywhere away from here. But he remains in his spot, locked by invisible chains.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u201cI expect you to help my mother.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u201cAnd that is what I will do.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n The Ten of Cups is drawn \u2014 family, similarities, peace<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n When the doctor first came, Robert had noticed dark skies blanketed with grey clouds. The grounds were already damp from a previous downfall and he worried that they\u2019d soon become so wet that he\u2019d drown if he dared to step out.<\/span><\/p>\n Now, it has yet to flood, and Robert wishes it would so he could drown.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Has he done something wrong in letting this strange \u201cdoctor\u201d in? He can\u2019t bear to look at what it\u2019s doing to his mother \u2014 he doesn\u2019t want to know. And he may never know because everything is silent. Is that creature doing anything at all?<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHow much do you want her to live?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The crow-creature\u2019s voice startles him.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHow much do you care about her?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Robert shifts his weight between his feet.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s my mom.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI know \u2014 but how much do you <\/span>care?\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n He immediately turns around. Its hands are pressing around his mother\u2019s face and upper body.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhy do you need to know that? What are you going to do to her?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He steps forward. The creature\u2019s hand is on her chest \u2014<\/span><\/p>\n Her un-breathing chest.<\/span><\/p>\n . . .<\/strong><\/p>\n Shit.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n This is not what she wanted to happen. Her movement across the woman\u2019s chest becomes frantic. Amina didn\u2019t do <\/span>anything <\/span><\/i>to the woman. Sure, she never intended to cure her, but she never meant to harm her either \u2014 <\/span>how is she already dead?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u201cWhat did you do to her?!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n . . .<\/strong><\/p>\n The guy \u2014 her \u201cclient\u201d \u2014 screeches frantically, embarrassingly. She would have laughed if she didn\u2019t realize how deep of shit she was in. Luckily, he doesn\u2019t notice her hyperventilating through her ridiculous mask.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat did you do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n This time his tone is low. Something crawls up Amina\u2019s spine.<\/span><\/p>\n He whips his head around to face her and she feels the tables turning. His eyes have darkened and his eyebrows have scrunched in pure hatred. No longer does he look like the pathetic, skittish boy that she found at the front door. No longer does he appear gullible to her tricks \u2014 and that\u2019s a dangerous thing.<\/span><\/p>\n Finally, Amina begins to feel dangerous herself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n . . .\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve given her peace.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Robert stares hard at the expressionless mask. He hates it so much, with all its lies about the plague and helping his mother. For the first time, Robert begins to wonder about the ugly creature that lies beneath the mask.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n So he <\/span>lunges<\/span><\/i> \u2014\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014 and then he\u2019s lunged at, and then they\u2019re both tumbling through the sharp glass and out into the open world where the clouds begin to clear \u2014<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014 and onto the damp ground, they make wet with their blood.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n . . .\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n End<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you’ve been reading since the start of the arc, thanks for sticking around! This will be the final part. It continues in a commanding murmur. \u201cSo what do you expect of me?\u201d The blank black eyes bore into him. He wants to walk back further \u2014 run, anywhere away from here. But he remains […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2257,"featured_media":19691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2038],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21062"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2257"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21062"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21065,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21062\/revisions\/21065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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