Alone. (Open)

[attr="class","ssimbod"]It was dark out. What time was it? Umiko pulled out her phone to take a quick peek. It was 10:23 pm. Late. She had ventured into the alleys and eventually came across the restricted zone. Curious, she went into it. She tugged on her backpack once she heard something. It surprised her. Luckily it was only a rat. She took out her lunchbox and threw some of the leftover food she had in it for it. She kneeled down to watch it nibble on the food. It was cute. After a few minutes, she stood back up and went on walking. This place seemed to keep on going. Hopefully she wouldn't get caught by anyone, especially law enforcement. This place was restricted.[break][break]

She decided to sit down. This area had a nice atmosphere. If Alistair and a few other people were here maybe she could try to do a seance. She's been wanting to try doing one again. She didn't know what kind of spirit to call upon. Probably any spirit in the area would do. She opened her backpack again and took out her tarot cards. She took them out of the box and shuffled them. She was going to do a dream interpretation spread. She kept having the same dream over and over. A big black dog was always following after her, growling along the way and she'd be walking down a long never ending hall in the dark. The hall would go on until it got too dark to see anything and soon after she'd fall down a hole. She'd always wake up after that.[break][break]

She put down four cards and started to flip them over one by one. Luckily her eyes had adjusted to the dark. Card zero, the moon reversed. Card zero was to represent an issue that was beginning to get out of hand. The moon reversed could mean lots of things from emotional stress, loss of sleep, confusion, unhappiness to secrets being revealed. Alistair wouldn't reveal anything too personal about her so having her secrets revealed was out of the question. She was having trouble sleeping and that was solely thanks to that dream she kept having. That dream did cause her emotional distress. It was right about that. She was afraid of big dogs. In her dream she was already in an eerie place and the growling dog did not help.[break][break]

Card one, knight of wands reversed. Violent impulses, jealousy, arguments, restless energy, and frustration. This would be the general vibe of the dream. The dog was always growling and she felt very restless during the course of the dream. It made sense. The dog was apart of her psyche. It had to be jealousy. Jealousy always made her restless and afraid. She was afraid if the other person would find out and that it'd ruin their relationship. She didn't like being jealous. She wasn't sure who or what she was jealous of though. Maybe it was her one friend at school. Her family had just gotten inheritance money from her wealthy grandpa who had passed away recently. Her family was scrambling together for money. They could barely afford to put a decent amount of food on the table as it is. Her falling into the pit was a representation of fear. Fear for how her family is doing financially, and fear about her friend finding out about her jealousy. It all came together if she put it that way.[break][break]

Card two, three of cups upright. Celebration, sense of community and accomplishment. This card was about what was blocking her from understanding the dream’s message. She was doing pretty well in school; she was getting straight A's. She and her family were proud of that. Her family was tight as ever. Their times of distress only meant they'd come together. They always did. Their financial situation was causing that stress. Her mom, her dad and Alistair were all there for her and she was there for them. With all that positivity happening in such a bad time, it was easy to get carried away in it and ignore the bad.[break][break]

Card three, she didn’t get the chance to lift it before she started hearing someone’s footsteps. Startled, she stopped the reading, grabbed her tarot cards and jumped up. She looked around, her eyes swept from left to right. She wasn’t afraid but she knew she needed to be careful at this time of night. She didn’t think she’d run into anyone here. It was unexpected and she didn’t know what she’d do if they turned out much bigger and stronger than her. If they tried to use physical force she wouldn’t be in the best position. Alistair wasn’t here. She was alone.