The Fortune Teller’s Omen

The carnival had always been a place of fleeting joy—laughter in the air, the scent of caramel and popcorn thick as smoke. I had never been one for fortune tellers, but something about the old woman’s tent, tucked away behind the main attractions, drew me in.

Inside, the air was heavy with incense, the glow of a single candle flickering off her wrinkled face. She looked up, her cataract-clouded eyes searching my soul before I even sat down.

"Cross my palm with silver," she croaked, extending a withered hand.

I hesitated before tossing a few coins onto the table. Her bony fingers swept them up, and she pulled a deck of tarot cards from beneath her shawl. She shuffled them with surprising dexterity before laying them out one by one.

The first card: The Devil.

I let out a nervous chuckle. "That’s not a great start, is it?"

She said nothing, drawing another card.

The Tower.

A cold sweat prickled at my neck. I didn’t know much about tarot, but even I recognized these as bad omens.

The final card: Death.

The old woman exhaled sharply, snapping the deck shut. "You must leave," she whispered.

I frowned. "What?"

"You are cursed," she hissed, her voice quivering. "A darkness lives inside you. You are not who you think you are."

I scoffed, trying to shake off the unease settling in my bones. "That’s ridiculous."

Her grip on my wrist was like iron. "You don’t understand. You are evil."

The words sent a jolt through me. "That’s—That’s insane," I stammered. "I’ve never done anything evil in my life!"

She stared at me, something like pity in her expression. "Not yet."

I yanked my hand away, stumbling back from the table. The candle flickered wildly, the shadows on the tent walls twisting into grotesque shapes.

I fled into the night, the carnival’s lights suddenly garish, the laughter around me tinged with something cruel.

That night, I couldn’t sleep. Her words burrowed into my mind, poisoning every memory. Was there a darkness in me? Had I ignored it all these years?

I turned on the lamp beside my bed and glanced at my reflection in the mirror. For a moment—just a flicker—I swore I saw something else staring back.

And it was smiling.