Cyberpunk 2077: V

Chapter 39: Three Cards

The table was the only thing lit, the circular beam of light coming from the head of a disembodied lamp that hung directly overhead. The surface of the table was a strange dark red velvet, the color of dried blood. In the center of the circular table lay three tarot cards; they were face down, lined up in a perfect row.

V tried to move again, but found she couldn't. It was as if her lower body was fused to the chair she suddenly found herself sitting in, boots, legs, and lower back superglued to the cold wood.

Wood. That was odd. The chair was made of wood. The table was made of wood. Not a lot of things were made from wood anymore. Real wood, that is.

V looked around her, not that there was much to see. Beyond the meager light hovering above her and the table, there was nothing. Nothing but a dark void, without even a hint of a distinguishing feature. It scared V. It felt like The Void that haunted her in her recurring nightmare.

She looked down at the cards again. The tarot cards. They looked like cards from the Rider-Waite deck that Misty had shown her. These cards had designs on their backs, a simple blue and white plaid pattern that for some reason made V's hair stand on end. Just by looking at them she couldn't tell what their "face" was. They all looked exactly alike.

Why am I here? V suddenly wondered. Why were there three cards on a table in front of her? What was her dream trying to tell her?

Why wasn't the moonstone Misty gave her working?

V had realized that she was dreaming once she found she couldn't escape the chair. Originally, she thought for a split moment when she went to bed and woke up in the strange space that she had been kidnapped in her sleep. THAT was how real this all felt to her. V could feel the cold wood of the chair, the emptiness of the void around her, hear the slight buzzing of the bulb over her head.

V finally worked up the courage to move. Her arms weren't frozen, luckily, and she lifted her hand towards the cards. She paused, uneasy about the whole scenario, but finally slipped her fingers under the card to her far left, and turned it over.

The Sun.

Something moved out of the corner of V's eye.

Her face darted to the left, body rigid with fear - but all that stared back at her was darkness. After a moment, she looked back down at the card, and was startled to find that it had changed.

When she flipped it over initially, it was just a coated paper tarot card, Rider-Waite deck style, showing a small child riding a white horse as a sun with a stern expression looked on. Now the card appeared to be made of solid gold; thicker, heavier, with a metallic gleam in the light. V swallowed a lump in her throat and went to move on to the other cards, trying to mentally record all that she was experiencing so she could try and make sense of just what the hell was going on when she woke up.

She reached for the next card.

Temperance.

An angel with large red wings and white robes holding two cups, pouring silver water from one into the other. It hovered above a stream that wound past a bank of flowers, and far back in the background, the sun gleamed.

There was movement in the void again.

Instinctively, V jolted her eyes towards the area she thought she saw something; something to her right. Again, nothing but darkness. She looked down at the cards.

Temperance had changed as well; or rather, WAS changing.

V watched in shock as the card appeared to slowly curl up in one corner, as if burning. Paper and art curled and shattered and drifted into the air, a flameless char, until all that remained was a rectangular card of what looked to be pure silver.

V's heart was pounding in her chest. Her mouth was dry, and her hands felt clammy. What did this all mean? Why was she sitting here, why were the cards changing? What did it mean?

And what did she keep seeing out of the corner of her eye?

V took a deep breath, lifting her chin. This was her dream, and she was in control. V could wake up whenever she wanted to - but before she did, she wanted to know what was going on. And so, she reached for the last card.

The Devil.

A terrifying image of a creature with a goat's head and legs and snarling teeth flanked by a man and woman set against a dark background stared up at V. Terror began to rise in her chest as the movement appeared in her peripheral vision again, but this time, right in front of her.

It took every ounce of her willpower not to look up. V kept her eyes on the card, watching for any potential change. But finally her curiosity and fear were too much, and she glanced up. 

Nothing. Just the void.

V quickly looked down at the card.

Where The Devil card had been were now two neat piles of black ash.

Movement. V looked up, hands curling into fists as her heart hammered in her ears. She tried to open her mouth to call out and challenge whatever was out there in the darkness, but she found that fear had frozen her jaw shut.

There, in front of her; something moved.

Something was moving.

Something running—

at V.

V couldn't tell what it was, whether it was a person or an animal or a machine or some monstrous horror; all she could tell was that something was coming at her fast through the void, and that she was powerless to escape.

Time to wake up, V thought.

There was a faint sound now; the sound of steps. They were fast and hard, a running pace. Almost like someone with heavy boots was sprinting across a wooden floor.

Time to wake up!

Closer, closer, a dark form somehow darker than the void around her came careening directly towards her. Fear made V's blood turn ice cold, her heart beating so fast it was like a live wire was buzzing in her chest. Her hands trembled so hard the chair rattled.

Wake up, V! she mentally shouted at herself, her eyes filling with tears of terror.

The steps grew louder.

Wake up!

Something rushing, running-

Wake UP!

V inhaled sharply, trying to scream. She couldn't move.

WAKE UP!

Eyes.

WAKE UP! WAKE UP!

WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKE-