Elysian Orb

And there it was. That card of death. A skeleton standing proudly on the sun with a single arrow and a crow on its shoulder. All the hopes I had have for this fortune telling were gone.

“What does this mean?” I asked already knowing the answer.

She smiled. “It means you get to look into my book,” she pulled a little black book from underneath the table, “and see the future for itself.”

She placed the book out in front of her and started chanting.

I was expecting something magical to happen, flicking lights, objects to move at random, sparkles or at least an eerie feeling. But there was nothing to that extent. Only her words flowing into my ears, her inaudible words. Still, I was calm as I sat there waiting.

She tapped on the spine of the book three times before running her finger over the pages. This continued several times, only taking a break to press her ear against the book.

I opened my mouth to say something, but I was stopped by her swift movement to place a finger over my mouth. “Shhhhhhhhhhh”, she said sternly pressing her finger over my lips, “the book must not know your here.”

I humor her with a nod. This lady is clearly off her rocker! I was sure she could see the disbelief on my face.

She puts her ear to the book, “you’re being so difficult today!” She turns around and started rummaging in boxes behind her. “Stay right there,” she turns to me and points at the floor, “do not move from that spot!” She exits the room through a doorway with a curtain.

I glance around the room, there didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary here. It literally looks like a fortune teller shop out of a movie. I can hear her banging around in the back room still. Should I leave? She wouldn’t even notice. I could just leave the money for the fortune and just be done with this game.

But what if I move and she puts like a curse on me or somehow finds out where I live and shows up at my house and stands outside my house all the time, creeping on me and then I have to move but she just keeps finding me over and over until I randomly die for unknown reasons.

I take in a deep breath. I’m freaking myself out for no reason. She stumbles back into the room, struggling to carry a box, she sets on the table.

“Alright,” she lifts the lid off the box, “this is a full proof way to get it to work.” She begins setting little animal figures out in a circle around the book. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.” She sets the last animal in its place before throwing her hands in the air, calling out another chant and throwing her hands back down, slamming them onto the book.

The ground starts trembling under my feet, small objects fall over and off shelves. I stammer forward and grab the table.

“Look!” I hear her yell.

A black orb on the table beginnings to circle the space between the figures and the book. It starts going faster and faster stopping at the one of the figures.

“Look,” she pointed excitedly at the figure, “Its chosen the fox!”

The orb started to change, glowing before being absorbed into the fox figure.

The teller grabbed the fox and placed it in my hands. “The fox has chosen you. You have to leave now and never come back.” She started pushing me towards the door. “No matter what happens you must not come back to this shop.”

“What……what are you talking about?” I turn around to stop her from pushing me any rather.

She goes around me to open the door, “You have to leave now, or it will be to late. This has already taken longer than normal.”

I walk out the door holding the figure, “Please tell me what’s happening,” I look around to see if anyone is watching, “I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh you’ll find out soon enough,” She smiled and winked, “but you won’t be able to come back by then.” She closed the door and turned the sign to closed.

The sky grew darker and the smell of rain began to form in the air. I placed the figure into my pocket and started off on my way home. This isn’t normally a side of town I’m on. The rain begins to pour down over me as I pick up the pace. I have to get out of this rain. I duck into an ally way to take cover from the rain. I sit down near a back door that has as almost enough over head to cover me.

I start to wonder about the figure, “I wonder what she meant about being chosen, “I dip my hand into my bag to find the figure only to find a puddle of slime or something, “what is this?” I pull my hand out of it but it only starts to spread, crawling up my arm. “What……what is happening?” I try to rip it off with my other hand but it only spreads on the other hand and starts crawling up the rest of my body.

It quickly absorbed the rest of my body, “This can’t be happening,” A pain starts to cover over me and I can’t help but start screaming like crazy.

The pain subsides and I'm able to look around. Nothing has changed until I take a step forward. I look down and see a paw. My paw. I turn in circles trying to get a better look at myself. I'm a fox now! I'm a fox!