90. The One with the Night

An old woman sat at a round table draped in deep violet fabric. Her long, gnarled fingers hovered over a crystal ball that seemed to shimmer from within, though there was no light source to make it glow. 

Parlor tricks. The girls were loving it already.

Her silver-streaked hair was tied back, revealing dark, knowing eyes that fixed onto them the moment they stepped forward.

Aria leaned in close to Rose, whispering, "I had no idea this was in here."

Rose didn't reply. She was too busy scanning the strange relics, feeling an inexplicable pull toward them. 

She traced her fingers over an old wooden box covered in faded symbols when Aria suddenly began with her interrogation, 

"Are you a real gypsy? Can you read my fortune? Will it true or just some second-grade guessing?"

Rose's eyes widened, and she jabbed Aria in the ribs. "Do you wanna get turned into a toad?"

The woman let out a hearty chuckle at the two young girl who wandered off into her chambers.

Lifting her gaze to Aria with an amused smirk. "I can," she murmured, her voice low and husky. "And I will."

She raised her bony fingers for her to take.

Aria blinked but hesitantly stepped forward. She sat on the lone chair set in front of the round table the lade sat on. Offering her hand. 

Rose stood nearby, watching as the woman took it, her fingers which was surprisingly cold to Aria, tracing slow circles along her palm as she peered at the lines in attention, her expression unreadable for a second.

Aria flitted her gaze to Rose who shrugged also not knowing whether her lack of expression was a good thing or a bad one.

"You are a girl of simple pleasures," she said, tilting her head slightly. 

"You live an easy life, one free from burdens of the unseen. Mundane, yet fulfilling. You will experience the normal joys of love, the inevitable sorrows of loss… But nothing that cannot be overcome."

Aria smiled smugly. "Sounds about right. I told you, Rose. She was the real deal."

The woman's grip tightened suddenly, her brows drawing together. Her gaze darkened. Aria looked back, feeling uncomfortable as she tried to get her hand back from her grip which was unrelenting.

"However… there is an obstacle. A great one. It stands in your path, an immovable force. If you survive it, you will have a life worth living. But if you do not…" she drawled with an ominous vestige.

Aria stiffened. "What do you mean if? What kind of obstacle?"

The woman exhaled slowly. "It's of life and death." The woman looks up smiling as though she was wickedly satisfied to see discomfort in Aria's eyes.

"H- How will I overcome it?" Aria asks with half a mind to completely blow her off as a rambling old gypsy after some cash but the other half was genuinely scared with the look this woman had in her eyes. As if she knew things.

"That is not for you to decide. It rests on someone else's shoulders. Someone close to you."

Rose felt her stomach twist. "Who?"

The woman's gaze flickered toward her but said nothing.

Aria yanked her hand away with a forced laugh. "Okay, well. That's enough of that. Definitely just a trick." She turned to Rose. "Let's go before she starts chanting or something."

Aria gets up and speed walks towards the entrance.

Rose sighed, shaking her head as she turned to leave, but just as she stepped back, something fell from the table. 

A small, silver trinket clattered against the wooden floor and lands near her feet, and without thinking, she bent down to pick it up.

She walks back to put it on the table near the woman hand. The woman tries to grab the trinket quickly out of Rose's grip and their hands brush against each other.

The reaction was instant. She gasps as if burned.

The woman jerked back, her chair screeching against the floor as she recoiled, her breath hitching sharply. Her wrinkled hands trembled, and her dark eyes widened with something that looked a lot like fear.

Rose's heart pounded. "What?"

The woman clutched her own fingers, her mouth parting slightly as if to speak, but for a long moment, nothing came out. 

Then, in a hushed, almost reverent whisper, she murmured, "You… have a shadow over you."

A chill ran down Rose's spine. "Excuse me?"

"There is… a black mist over your life," the woman rasped. "Something is coming for you. You will soon never be the same once it gets close."

Rose felt her throat go dry. "I don't understand—"

"You are weighed down by the words spoken." The woman's voice dropped lower, her gaze now looking past Rose, as if seeing something else entirely. 

"The one with the night will consume you. It will unravel you piece by piece. You might think you like it, my child. But do not mistake pain for pleasure, for it will be your undoing-"

Aria grabbed Rose's wrist, pulling her away. "Okay, that's enough crazy for today. You need to chill, woman. Let's go."

The woman's head snapped up, her gaze locking onto Rose one last time. "Be careful, child. You stand at the edge of something you do not yet understand."

Rose didn't realize she was holding her breath until they had stumbled out of the shop and back into the light of the afternoon. And it felt like she can finally breath.

Aria let go of her arm, rolling her eyes. "That woman was nuts."

Maybe she was, maybe she wasn't. Rose… wasn't so sure anymore.

If she didn't know anything, if she was only trying to scare her then, why would she say 'you're own name haunts you'?

Rose.