Daughter of Darkness Vol.1

Chapter 10: Medusa

 I got up and walked downstairs, to get something to eat. When I reached the kitchen I was surprised to see there was someone there. It wasn't Jason, John, or Batman, it was an older man. He was wearing a suit and tie and was cleaning the counter. "Who are you?" I asked.

"Alfred Pennyworth and you miss?" he asked.

"Coraline," I answered. "What are you doing?" I asked trying to make small talk. I'm terrible at small talk.

"My job," he said.

"Are you a butler?" I asked.

"In a manner of speaking," he answered.

"Do you know where Jason is?" I asked. He was the only person I could talk to about me and John.

"I'm not certain," Alfred said sadly, " I believe the operative term would be, 'out'."

"Oh," I said. Why would he leave when I'm in trouble? I thought he cared, I thought. I stared at the ground, repeating those thoughts in my head.

"Are you alright?" I looked up to see John sitting next to me.

"Yeah," I said, unconvincingly.

"I deal with demons, luv. I can sniff out a lie," he said with a smirk.

I sighed, and turned towards the counter putting my head down, "Jason left," I said my voice muffled a little bit.

"The booger, that gave us the not so friendly welcome," he said trying to make me laugh.

"Yeah," I said sadly, "probably better off."

John gave me a hug and said: "Coraline, I don't know for sure, but I'm pretty sure that my life would have been better off with you in it."

"Yeah, ok," I said. He's probably right, I thought.

"I gotta go call someone, to help with our current situation," he said.

"Who?" I asked.

"Chas," he answered, "an old mate of mine."

"Ok," I said. Just as John was going to walk out of the room I stopped him, "do you think it's safe for me to go outside?" I asked.

"I think so, I put wording around the perimeter of the house," he said, "But bring your phone just in case, ok luv?"

"Yeah, thanks Dad," I said walking out of the kitchen and grabbing a banana on the way out.

I walked out of the mansion to the front yard just for a walk. I wonder what John thinks of me calling him Dad? I thought, who is Chas? Where did Jason go? These thoughts run through my brain like a bullet train.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by the sound of a car, I turned around to see a bright yellow taxi, but it wasn't a normal taxi it was older. Is that Chas, I thought. I decided to walk over and investigate, I saw a man with dark hair, and a short beard steps out of the taxi, but he wasn't alone. There was a woman getting out of the car too, she had curly hair that was a bit shorter than mine.

When the man spotted me he asked: "are you, Coraline?"

"Yeah," I said.

"It's wonderful to meet you," he said shaking my hand, "I'm Chas, and this is Zed."

I looked at Zed and smiled. "John's inside," I said.

"Well, let's go inside then," Zed said.

When we got inside John and I told them what happened, and what we've learned, which wasn't much. I took thirty minutes to explain everything, and by the end of it I felt like crying. "So it's someone that is peeved at John, that lowers it down," Zed said in a sarcastic tone.

"And someone how is 'peeved' at Coraline," Chas said. "So kid, who hates you?" he asked.

I thought of all the times I made some buddy mad. Vicy Shoeman, Davey Micou, Emma Picousey, and so-on. But why would they hate John? Maybe it's someone who hated my mom, I thought, she was a pretty good cop, she put a lot of criminals away. Come on, I have a photographic memory. Who hated Mom?

I thought to throw all of the times I went to work with Mom, what I saw, what I heard. Then it hit me there was a file I saw, it was marked MEDUSA. Mom looked so scared and mad when her partner handed it to her.

"I can think of one thing, my mom was a cop, and one day she got a file from her partner. The file name was printed with Medusa on it, my mom looked pretty freaked out," I said hoping that it would help.

"It's a start," Chas said, "What's her partner's name?"

"Louis Barton," I said and Chas stood up.

"Ok," he said, "Zed and I will go track him down, and John will stay here with you".

"Sounds like a plan," I said trying to give a smile. Then they got in Chas's taxi and drove away.