Different Kind of Venom

Chapter VIII

    It all happened in a blink; Aria throwing herself on the bed with a sob; Medusa retreating backwards; and Mark, as any of Medusa’s victims, lunging forward blindly, his IV drips tearing into his skin. 

    Aria tried her best to get her father back into the land of the living, calming him, yelling in his ear (she thought it would help rid him of Medusa’s magic voice) and hugging him. It wasn’t long until a nurse came – an old woman with blue eyes in a kind face – and eventually called the doctor.  Aria searched for Medusa around the room only to find no trace of her.

    Half an hour later, Aria found herself waiting in the lobby stuck in her own head, thinking of what Medusa had done for her, her dad who just got out of a damn coma only to be a crazed damn animal. Someone cleared their throat. Aria looked up to a familiar tall man in a white doctor’s coat. His nametag spelled: Dr. Delano. Aria stood, finally recognizing him as her dad’s doctor. His green eyes were twinkling when he said, “your father has been sedated, but despite that, it’s miraculous how he got out of the coma.” 

    Aria couldn’t choke down her sob of relief at that. And when she looked at the doctor’s hand – extended to shake hers – she just pulled him into a hug. She heard him laugh in her ear as he awkwardly wrapped an arm around her.

    When Medusa left the hospital, she flew to Aria’s house, figuring that it was her best option; she wanted to talk to the mortal woman, but she couldn’t have stayed at the hospital. It was easy for Medusa to get into the house (she flew in from the upper balcony), take off her coat and veil, and pull out Aria’s laptop.

    She didn’t know how much time had passed when Aria unlocked the door and stepped in. She looked in Medusa’s direction. Medusa’s dead heart lunged at the look Aria gave her; she looked at her as if Medusa had saved her entire world. Medusa ignored the unfamiliar man’s scent that dusted Aria’s strawberry one, when Aria slowly sat next to her on the couch, resting her head on Medusa’s shoulder. 

    After a minute or two of silence – Medusa being too distracted to continue her work on the web, and Aria too emotionally drained – Aria finally said, “they’re gonna keep him for some days at the hospital on watch, but after that he’s gonna come home. Medusa, I – I really don’t know how to thank you enough.”

    Medusa hoped Aria couldn’t see the smile spread bright on her face as she just silently wrapped an arm and a wing around the latter in response. 

    She felt Aria lean into her further. 

    “It’s okay, dad. Baby steps.” Aria was walking her dad out of the car into the house. Mark may have been fully healed but he was still stiff from staying in bed near five months. 

    “That’s what I said when you were ten months old, Ria,” they both chuckled. Medusa smiled when she heard the luscious sound of Aria’s laugh. 

    Aria had asked Medusa to stay home while the former brought her father from the hospital. Aria had said she wanted Medusa to “encounter as much people as her – er – condition allowed”. She assured that her father was very trust-worthy at that. So Medusa stood, at the farthest end of the living room, her eyes covered with a pair of sunglasses (she had explained to Aria that her eyes and snakes cannot be viewed by males at the same time, and she refused to keep her snakes caged). 

    When Mark walked in, he had his eyes on the floor; so he couldn’t see the intruder in his house. Medusa dared to breathe out a sigh of relief. Aria had her eyes on her now, she was still smiling – perhaps more apologetic.

    Aria hated how the sunglasses hid Medusa’s beautiful multicolored eyes. However, even though Medusa had her eyes covered, Aria could still sense her discomfort and tenseness. The immortal was clearly not used to strangers. When Mark slowed to a stop, he looked up. He blinked twice, then jumped back, cursing. 

    Aria choked down a laugh when her dad looked back and forth between Medusa – who had a hand up in mid-wave – and Aria who must’ve looked eerily casual to him. 

    “A-a-are you seeing this, honey.” His jaw was open, highlighting his hollow cheeks even more. His blue eyes twinkled with confusion, his brows drawn together. Aria had missed the liveliness radiating off of him; though she had to admit that this wasn’t exactly the time to examine him.

    “Dad. Don’t freak, okay? This is Medusa.” It felt odd talking to him the same slow way you talk to a child in.

    “Pfft. As if!”

    “No. It really is Medusa. Her magic got you out of the coma.”

    Medusa ruffled her wings. Show-off, Aria thought.

    “So… The snakes are real? And attached to her scalp? Wow. That’s weird. And she has wings!? Though she really is a beauty… but… try harder, Ria.”

    Aria had to agree with her father about the beauty Medusa had. Even though she was clad in simple blue shorts and a tight tank top, she looked like a dark seductress. Aria felt Medusa’s gaze on her behind her RayBans. 

    Aria felt her cheeks heat as she said, “Dad, Medusa will be here often, so you’re gonna have to get used to having an immortal around.” She threw a glance her dad’s way, but made sure to look Medusa in the eyes as she said, “she’s my friend.”

    “Hello Mark.” Medusa’s voice was strangely strained – probably to diffuse the magic in it. Magic that Aria felt only in a trickle. Magic that she started feeling when she saw Medusa naked, sprawled on the bathroom floor. Magic that she felt when she felt her attraction to Medusa increase. 

    She hadn’t allowed herself to think of it like that, of the fact that they were both women, and the fact that she needed to stop seeing Virgil before it all got too messy. She knew she felt something for the gorgon; she knew it with every breath hitched and heartbeat missed she had whenever she touched Medusa. 

    Aria was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard the threatening hiss of one of Medusa’s snakes. She looked up to see her father in front of an ever-so-tense Medusa. His hand drawn as if he had tried touching the snakes. She chuckled and walked forward to the two.

    “Dad, Dad. You don’t touch the snakes, dad.” She made sure her expression was smug enough; her smile wide enough, when she leaned into the slightly-taller gorgon. She put one hand over her shoulder, as her other hand’s fingers went into Medusa’s scalp. “Anything but the snakes, dad.” Her father’s expression was picture worthy as said snakes only lovingly slithered towards her arm. Medusa only smirked.

    “Okay so, if you really are Medusa, I’ve tons of things I wanna ask you.” Aria had seen that coming. “I don’t know if Aria, here, told you; but I’m an ancient history teacher.” Mark blindly sat down on a nearby chair, still looking at the gorgon. “Okay so, I didn’t know that you had wings.”

    “Ugh. Daaad!” Aria started, only for Medusa to shut her up by, “Shush, Ria,the adults are talking here.” Medusa’s heart warmed when she saw Aria’s jaw slack. It was still hard to roughen her voice – for Mark’s sake – but she still managed to say, as she sat down opposite to Mark, “I bet there are a lot of things they don’t say about me.”

    It wasn’t easy to talk – it had been at least a couple of centuries Medusa had a ‘friend’, but Medusa was willing to try. She wanted Aria’s father to like her.

    “Um – people associate you with two other gorgons. Is that true?”

    “Yes.”

    “But mythology says that you’re the only mortal between them? No offence, but, shouldn’t you be dead?”

    “Sadly, no. The … goddess is cruel.” 

    “So, Athena did punish you?” Medusa cursed as she nodded; it was dangerous to speak the gods’ names, it could grab their attention. She voiced that thought.

    Aria listened to their conversation, learning a few things, and throwing a comment here and there as she laid on the couch, with her head on Medusa’s lap and the latter’s fingers soothingly brushing her hair. It was a silent agreement the two had; they were allowed to seek comfort in each other’s touches without having to talk about it. It had started when Medusa first started using the Internet and Aria frequently falling asleep on the gorgon.

    It wasn’t long before she found herself slowly slip into unconsciousness.