The Last Card

Death

"If Death isn't bad, why is it so scary?"

I took the querent's rough hand. "Why do you think it is scary?"

"Look at it," he said bluntly. "It's a skeleton and there are dead and terrified people."

"Don't you see?" I reached over with my other hand to touch an area of the card. "Despite the horror, the sun is rising. There is still hope. The skeleton is the symbol of your old way of life and you're traveling to rebirth. You're on a journey and it is hard. Encounters with people in your life don't leave you the same. You were the Magician, but now you're Death."

He raised an eyebrow. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

I smiled. "This card represents change―the reason it looks scary is because change is frightening. You want to stay in a life that you find comfortable. But the white horse is taking you to your new destination."

"The grave?"

"Must you be morbid?" I scolded him. "Do you think I enjoy hearing you talk this way?"

He squeezed my hand. "I'm sorry. It's just...I've been trying to live my life and forget about the possibility of death. Then Jack Skellington shows up."

I stared into his dark eyes. "The card showed up to tell you to accept change and keep going forward. Because the white horse is going to keep taking you forward."

He forced a smile. "Like Meadow is forcing me to take her to Philadelphia for that Taylor Swift concert?"

I giggled. "See? There are things scarier than death."

The querent took my hand to his lips and kissed it. "Thank you. I don't think I could have made it through this damn year if it hadn't been for you."

His kiss still sent tingles through me. Memories of our time on the table came back to me and I sighed.

The querent smiled wickedly―he knew what I was thinking.

But he didn't know everything. Once he left, I stared at Death.

"It's a setting sun. You once saw everything so clearly and you don't see that the sun is setting. The skeleton represents mortality―it really was that obvious. But you don't see..."

He had looked right at me and only saw the woman that he loved.

The tarot reader who always told the truth.

"The white horse is also mortality. You can't control it's journey. The skeleton isn't looking ahead because it cannot bear to see where it's going. You don't want the truth and you'll not accept the truth until it's too late."

It was easier for him that way.

"The dead body? I think that symbolizes who we were―and now it's done."

My eyes started stinging. But I wouldn't cry. I would never be one of the dying who desperately pleaded with Death to stop. I knew it was coming for the querent and I knew that I couldn't fight it.

"It's been thirteen years and when this card shows up, you only see the bad. You've never been able to truly accept my help. You've never been able to change."

My throat felt sticky as I turned Death over.

"But I understand," I said quietly. "You can accept me as the Empress, the High Priestess or the Lovers. But you can't accept that I am also Death."