Six of Swords: Creative Writing Journal 1

Okay, dokey people! This is my first creativejornal entry. The way I did this was I picked a random card out of my Tarot deck and wrote a story about it as it came.

Creative Journal Entry #1
Tarot Deck- Gothic Tarot of Vampires
Tarot Card- Six of Swords

Shaiya emerged from the dark alley way, trying hard not to breathe in the mingled smells of urine, old, beer, trash and dry vomit.
As she stepped out from between the two buildings which were looming on either side of her like disapproving sentinels the soft blue light of the moon washed over her pallid face, making her deep red hair shine dully.
“We’ve been waiting for you,” a little voice said. Shaiya snapped to attention, her eyes narrowing to narrow slits. She hissed softly and pulled her lips back from her teeth, putting her impressive canines on display.
“And who is we?” Shaiya asked warily, her pale blue eyes narrowed as she studied the empty lot; weeds and old furniture surrounded by dusty stones and glittery bottles, long since dry of beer. But she saw nothing that would imply a speaking thing.
“That does not matter,” the little voice replied. “You are troubled and seek answers, do you not?”
“Shaiya blinked and bit her lip, looking around the yard again; sure that something was hiding, trying to play a trick on her. Slowly the woman who looked seventeen but was really hundreds of years old stepped into the empty enclosure, her old brown boots crunching over the gravel and broken glass that was scattered there as if feed for some monster birds.
“I… I was sent b-by Priest Wong to find out about a prophecy,” Shaiya said, ashamed at how her voice trembled and wavered in the cool, empty night.
“Ah…” the little voice breathed. There was a whisper of jasmine scented breeze and the night was not empty anymore; a little girl with pale blond hair and clad in a thin white gown stood in front of Shaiya, the hem of her dress fluttering around her legs in a breeze that only touched her.
Shaiya saw with a sudden sick horror that the little girl was standing on a bed of bright orange close, her bare feet hissing softly and giving off the potent smell of burned flesh, though she seemed to not notice.
“Oh, my God,” Shaiya moaned, closing her eyes, but still smelling that terrible smell.
“The prophecy is old and old again. To know it means knowledge eternal, it has driven others insane, pretty Shaiya,” the little girl murmured, her hair flying in her face, obscuring her mouth.
Shaiya’s hands balled into tight, hard fists at her thighs, her long nails cutting into the tender, pale flesh of her palms. She took a deep breath, plucked up her courage, already shredded from the threats Master Wong had given her if she failed and looked at the girl square in her milky white eyes.
“Tell me,” Shaiya whispered.
The little girl laughed softly, and to Shaiya it was like listening to silver wind chimes during a rain storm in the middle of summer, sweet but somehow ominous and foreboding.
“I do not know the prophecy,” the girl said, laughter still in her small voice. “It is there.”
The little girl pointed down the bed of coals without taking her eyes off Shaiya. Her finger was steady as it gestured to the slender pillar with a large book perched a top it, emitting an eerie crimson glow and even eerier whisperings.
“What is it?” Shaiya asked, drawn by the beautiful light and yet repelled by the whispers that, for some reason reminded her of an ancient story that she had never heard of for a very good reason.
“It is the Book of Prophecy. All things that will ever happen in all the worlds is in there, written neatly on paper made of dreams and cobwebs and fears,” the girl said with an absent little smile and an extended hand, which was almost transparent. “If you believe you can do it I will take you.”
Shaiya took a hesitant step forward and felt the heat from the orange coals rising up from their bed and stroke her with what felt like a physical blow. She shuddered slightly.
“Can’t I go around the coals?” Shaiya asked hopefully, looking back at the girl and being rewarded by seeing her face shift from human to snake and back again. Shaiya was suddenly very afraid.
The little girl, she was a girl and not a snake, Shaiya reminded herself, giggled softly, her hand still extended to Shaiya and said, “You know these things do not work in such a fashion.”
Shaiya swallowed and took another step forward, slipping her hand into the girls and suppressing a shudder as the little ones skin seemed to squirm beneath Shaiya’s fingers.
The little girl turned and walked forward on the bed of coals calmly, leading Shaiya along, each step the little child made hissed and crackled and Shaiya could see bits of charred flesh left behind, clinging to the coals.
Shaiya stopped at the edge of the coals, her entire body trembling as she stared down at a piece of flesh that was squirming over the ashy and coals back towards the little girl so it could join with her again. The girl looked back with a cocked head and inquisitive eyes but she said nothing, waiting for Shaiya.
“I…” Shaiya croaked, swallowed and opened her mouth to try again. She imagined her skin squirming over the coals and stifled a shriek and jerked her hand away then fled back the way she had come, away from the terrible girl with the snake face and the bed of coals.
As Shaiya ran another wind, scented with jasmines, picked up and ruffled her sleek hair, blowing it into her eyes, she looked over her shoulder without stopping and saw the yard was empty again, only sparkling with the broken glass and the dusty dry bottles of beer.
Master Wong would not be pleased with her failure, Shaiya knew.