He jolted awake, a blinding light pointed directly at him, his head throbbed, and his breath was shallow. As he came to, he was sitting on a chair across from the man he had spoken to before. "Sorry about that, until we know you are on board, our location is highly classified." The agent continued explaining the company and its investigation of things that shouldn't exist. "Your assignment is a particularly interesting one. Recently, we had an entity voluntarily enter a room; actually, we just found it there. We had little say in the matter. We want you to figure out what it can do, and don't take any of his cards if they are black." Matthew eagerly agreed; he'd start tomorrow.

He woke in his quarters. Today, he was to meet his research team. He woke up, got ready and walked through the facility to his lab, where his coworkers stood waiting. He looked around at the faces of the people and felt himself stop in his tracks as he looked at the last person — it was the girl from his class who always beat him. He went to his desk, and the girl spoke up, "Hello, I'm Madeline, and I am the head researcher in this team." She proceeded to get all of the researchers working on their tasks before walking to Matthew and saying hello. Each week, one of them would engage the entity they were researching. Matthew and Madeline were the last researchers out of the group to interact with it. They still had three months before they were needed to interact with it.

As time passed, the two grew close and started dating. They also learned more about the entity. It was humanoid and could talk, calling itself "The Tarot Teller." It claimed to carry out fates' desires and consistently refused to interact with the researchers, saying "the fates do not yet wish for my involvement."

This continued for two months and a couple of weeks before it was Madeline's turn to interact with the entity. This time, unlike before, the Tarot Teller regarded her, taking a deck of tarot cards out of its briefcase. In a surprisingly smooth and almost mechanical voice, the Tarot Teller spoke, "Pick a card, do you feel one drawing you to it?" Madeline took a card. It was the Two Swords card. "Oh I see, seems you have some difficult choices ahead of you," the voice sounded again. Matthew rushed to her as soon as she left the chamber, "What happened, it's never responded before!" She shook her head, "Just some silly superstition, it's nothing but cheap tricks."

One week later Matthew entered the room, expecting to be turned down like so many before. The Tarot Teller pulled out a second, much more ornate pack of tarot cards. "You have the Fates' deepest attention, for Better or for Worse we shall soon find out, Pick one, but take care — the fates have a very strong wish for you." He reached out, feeling drawn to a particular card, but refusing the instructions given by the Teller, he hastily grabbed a second card.

The Tarot Teller looked at him almost apologetically as he drew the card before speaking up, "The Spider, a card born of deceit. I wish you luck — after defying the fates, you'll need it." Matthew immediately began screaming as his body distorted, arms splitting into four, his abdomen elongating, and his legs dividing into six spear-like claws. On his face, his cheeks extended into mandibles, and two new, smaller eyes opened beneath his ordinary ones. He tried to stand, but instead of the two legs he was used to, he was held aloft by a spider-like lower body.

Filled with panic, he turned to look at Madeline, expecting to see her worried and calling for help. But as he moved closer to the glass of the observation room, all he saw was fear and disgust. In the face of the one he loved, everything he had grown to treasure in the past six months shattered. He began sobbing in the corner of the chamber, barely noticing as the Tarot Teller stood and left. He didn’t resist when the armed guards rushed in and stripped him of his keycard and keys.

Finally, Matthew stopped crying. He didn’t know how long it had been since the curse had taken hold, but he could swear the people in the observation room had come and gone hundreds of times — and he noticed Madeline had not returned. He was no longer upset; in fact, he felt nothing at all. Well, almost nothing. Now that he thought about it, he did feel the faintest twinge of hunger. As this thought grew, he looked up at the observation window. The researchers who stared at him — the ones he had once considered good friends — now resembled nothing more than snacks.