The Irreversible First Door

I thought about it deeply, but this caught my attention more than anything else. There was a single card inside. I pulled it out. It was a Fool card that looked as if no one had used it in years.

Grandpa once taught me about the Fool. In Tarot, the Fool was the beginning. It was the start of the Fool's Journey, and that journey never truly ended. He would keep moving forward until he reached his limitless potential.

'Hey, Fool. I wanted to see what I could do by following your rules. You need money or fame or something, but I'm sure I can't give you that.'

I bit the tip of my finger. For some reason, my hand didn't hesitate. 'For now, I'll give you my blood as an offering, just like you asked.'

Aron flinched. "Mr. Zekai, what are you doing?!"

A drop of blood welled up from my fingertip.

"No... don't. Blood..."

I ignored him. There was no point explaining the rules to him. I held my bleeding thumb over The Fool card. A drop fell onto it. The blood disappeared into the card without leaving a stain.

Plop.

The hall sank back into its dead silence. One second. Two. Three.

I waited another moment. Still, nothing happened. "...Seriously?" With a mocking smile, I tossed the card away. 'All that talk, and you're not even worth the buildup you gave me.'

But what happened after that was something I didn't expect at all. My hand was still in the same position after I threw it away.

The card froze motionless in midair. It was simply there.

Then, in a fraction of a second, it was suddenly back in my hand. For a moment, it felt like déjà vu. I clearly remembered throwing the Fool card away. 'How did it come back?'

Not believing it, I threw the card away again. 'Go away. Get away from me.'

My hand stopped in place. The card refused to leave my hand. I stared at it in disbelief. '...What?!'

My mind replayed the throw. I knew I had thrown it. I had seen it leave my hand. 'This makes no sense!' And yet, the card was right there in my hand. Maybe I had imagined it.

I turned toward Aron. "Hey. Did you see that?"

Aron blinked. "See what?"

"The card. It stopped in midair."

"...No."

Aron's confusion deepened. "It was in your hand the whole time." His face told me he wasn't joking.

'What is he talking about?'

For the first time, I couldn't tell what I had actually seen anymore. My thoughts were all over the place, like someone had driven a nail straight into my head and scrambled everything inside.

But one thing became clear. We were no longer going to see the same thing. And I had no idea which one of us was wrong.

( * * * )

Suddenly, Zekai stood there stiff as a statue, his hand still holding the card slightly forward, his mouth wide open.

Aron looked at Zekai in shock. The person Zekai had been talking to a moment ago was now completely motionless.

"You were just talking a little while ago! But now you're not saying anything!" Aron was trembling. He grabbed Zekai by both shoulders and shook him. "Mr. Zekai?!"

But Zekai didn't hear him.

"What happened to you?!"

There was no response from Zekai. He didn't even blink.

( * * * )

I put my hand on my head and let out a small sigh. I slowly closed my eyes and opened them again. "Aron. Looking at everything happening here, I feel like I'm going crazy."

But there was no reply from Aron. I looked straight ahead. He was standing in front of me, his eyes were open, but they weren't moving. Frozen like a human statue. I tried to speak to him. Aron wasn't blinking. "Aron, what happened to you? Look at me."

But The Fool card refused to leave me. It pulsed again.

Thump.

"Hey!"

The card pulsed again. Something deep red seeped out from beneath the illustration. It crawled over the edges of the card and spilled into the air.

"What the hell is this...?" My voice fractured. "No. No, no..." I grabbed my wrist and tried to pry the card away with my fingers. "Let go. Let me go!"

But the red liquid didn't stop. It split into hundreds of thin lines. They raced across the walls, climbed over the pillars, and crawled across the ceiling like veins spreading through a living body. More and more lines appeared until they covered everything. The throne disappeared beneath the red web. The entire hall was sealed in red horror.

I just stood there, completely shaken. "I think I just messed with the wrong thing."

Only a snake knows the footprints of another snake. My feet carried me backward into the shadows.

I didn't know what I'd messed up, but staying here felt worse than running blindly.

I immediately grabbed Aron's hand and pulled him up. "Aron! Get up, quick. We have to get out of here." Aron's chest wasn't moving. The fear on his face hadn't changed.

A blinding white screen filled my entire field of vision. Sharp black text slowly appeared in the light as the world around me faded into darkness.

[EVENT ACTIVATED — IRREVERSIBLE]

THE FOOL HAS RESPONDED

[THE FIRST DOOR IS OPENING]

I stared at it with a frozen gaze. "Irreversible..." My eyes couldn't move away from those last words. "The First Door—"

It felt like something I should never have seen or heard in my life. Then, I looked at the Fool card in my hand. Just like I had wished, it was gone. For the first time since entering this place, I felt a little relieved. At least one problem was gone.

Snap.

But suddenly something twisted inside my mind. It felt like something was draining the life straight out of me. I could sense something standing behind me, even though I couldn't hear a single sound.

My whole body went completely paralyzed. I couldn't even turn around. A pair of pitch-black hands, cold as ice, emerged from the darkness and covered my eyes.

My entire body tensed at once. "WHO THE..."

✦ End of The Chapter 3 - The Irreversible First Door ✦