Free The Nightmare Game by S. Suzanne Martin

crazy.
    “Well, let’s see if the cards say anything,” she
said as if everything I had just blurted out was nothing out of the ordinary to
her and she turned over another card. “Ya not here alone, despite what ya say.
The people that ya stayin’ with, they tryin’ ta help ya. Listen to them. Heed
what they say.”
    Funny, those were the same words the dream man had
used. I asked her, “Will I be able go home? I think I’ve been caught up in
something I don’t want to be and I just want to go home now. But these people
keep telling me that I can’t.”
    She turned over a few more cards. “Ya been warned
wisely. Ya surrounded by danger, the only safety and protection is where ya at
right now. Don’ leave, listen ta these people. The cards mention an amulet to
guard ya from somethin’ truly evil.”
    “It’s this,” I said, pointing to the necklace.
    “That’s beautiful. I noticed it earlier, never
seen nothin’ like it before. If that’s the amulet, ya got ta keep it on.”
    Her expression began to look worried as she
continued turning over cards. “Wait. Not all the people aroun’ ya are lookin’
to ta help ya. There’s a woman. She’s bad, mighty bad. She’s dark an’ powerful
an’ she means ya great harm. She’s the evil the others are tryin’ to protect ya
from,” she continued reading, “But they’re weak, tiny, compared ta her. She got
powers, strong powers.”
    “Have I’ve met her already?”
    “Yeah, ya have.” As she continued reading, her
eyes showed disbelief. “Oh, this is bad. She don’ jus’ want to plague ya, she
wants to kill ya.”
    “Is she one of the ones that don’t want me to
leave?”
    “No, she wants ya to go. Leavin’ gets ya away from
all protection, gets ya away from ya journey.”
    “What exactly is my journey?”
    “Not a good one,” she said, turning over all the
cards but the last two. “Ya in a lot of danger, it’s everywhere, all aroun’ ya,
everyplace ya turn. The dark woman, she’s a vile one, she’s the cause of it
all. I see lots of tricks, lots o’ tricks, lots o’ darkness.” She looked
nervous as she turned over the next to the last card, “Ya surrounded by evil.
Potent evil.”
    “How does it end?” I urged her on, although her
apprehension was growing. She was becoming visibly distressed.
    Before she could turn over the last card she
jumped up suddenly and walked anxiously over to the door. “I feel it, it’s
comin’. Ya must leave. Now.” She walked quickly over to the door, opening it.
    “What’s coming? How does this end?” I implored
her. “What must I do?”
    “Get out! Leave before it finds me, before it gets
here!”
    I grabbed my purse, trembling, and walked over to
her. “But I haven’t even paid you yet.”
    “Leave!” she screamed, horrified, as she forced me
out of the door, slammed it shut behind me and locked it.

CHAPTER FOUR
     
    From the sidewalk, I stared at the tea room’s
closed door in shock. What I thought might be a vehicle for some advice to help
guide me through the mire in which I’d landed turned out instead to be merely
one more source of alarm. Even more frightened and confused than I was before
I’d entered the shop, I began to meander the streets, heading nowhere, neither
looking nor caring where I was going. I walked in a daze with nothing on my
mind except the unreality of my circumstances and the bizarre, outlandish
situation that had sought me out. I was consumed by the possibility that it
might be true, that I really was under attack and that my death would most
likely be sooner and more grizzly than I’d ever imagined. I didn’t realize that
I’d been walking around in circles until I roused myself from this morbid
preoccupation and found I’d taken a longer than necessary route to Jackson
Square, for I had found my way to the Vieux Carré on autopilot. Crossing the
pedestrian walkway portion of Chartres, I walked between the impressive St.
Louis Cathedral and the gated