Daughter of Darkness Vol. 2

Chapter 3: Old Frenemy, Old Memory

I woke up and glanced at the clock it was little after 9 am, and I was still tired so I hid my face from the sun using the blanket, but when I was about to close my eyes and go back to sleep someone moved the blanket off of my face. It was John. I swatted his hand away and pulled the blanket back over my head. "Well good morning to you too," he said, he took the blanket away from, again, and then said, "come on wakey, wakey eggs, and bakey,"

    "Please let me sleep," I begged.

    John started stroked my hair and asked, "so what do you want for breakfast?"

    I gave him a weird glance and answered, "grilled cheese."

    "Ok sleep head," John said getting up, "I'll make you grilled cheese if you walk up."

    I opened one of my eyes and sighed, "fine!" I got out of bed, and I felt cold so I grabbed a hoodie from my bag, put it on and pulled the strings.

    "Not a morning person are you luv," John said chuckling at my behavior. I stuck my tongue out at him and continued to the door.

    John and I walked down the stairs and into the kitchen were Zed and Chas were already sitting at the counter. "Well hello, morning glory," Zed said, I ground and sat in a chare putting my head down on the counter.

    "What's wrong with you," Chas asked.

    "I'm not a morning person," I said.

    "How in the world did you get her to get up John?" Chas asked John.

    "I bribed her with grilled cheese," John answered.

Chas chuckled and said, "well she's definitely your daughter." John laughed and continued making grilled cheese. "Oh, John I forgot to tell you I called Annie to ask if she could help with the situation."

"Have you gone completely looney!" John yelled, "she shot me!"

At that last comment, I became fully aware and pulled my hoodie up "who did what now," I asked quite confused at the situation.

"Coraline can you give us a minute?" he asked.

I went outside and closed the kitchen door, and put my ear to the door. I could hear yelling, but I couldn't make out words, so I leaned in a bit more. Before I could hear anything through, John opened the door and I fell.

"Hi," I said sheepishly, John grabbed my hand and helped me off the ground.

"I'm going to have a light," he said and walked outside.

"What was that about?" I asked.

"John and Annie have....history," chas answered

"Ok."

I thought for a minute and decided to walk outside to see if John wanted to talk.

I walked outside and saw John, and I ran over to him, he was smoking and bickering to himself, "Dad?" I said.

"Coraline," he said, "I'm ok."

"You sure?" I asked, "do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

"But-"

"Coraline, will you just go away!" He yelled. My stomach dropped, you see I had other foster homes before Nora, and one family I remember was beyond bad. They would hit me, yell at me, tell me I wasn't important, to shut up, and....to just go away. When someone yells at me I all ways think in the back of my mind they're going to hurt me. I felt like I wanted to curl into a ball and hide.

"Ok," I said just above a whisper, I could see he regretted yelling at me.

He reached out and said, "I'm sorry luv. I shouldn't have yelled."

I backed away, "It's ok." he stepped closer, and I just turned around and ran back to the house, up the stairs, into my room and slammed the door. I could hold it in anymore, I ran to the bed and started crying. I thought of how worthless I felt when I was with them, and how scared I always was.

I was crying so hard I didn't even hear John come in. "I'm so sorry Coraline," he said, I didn't say anything, "come on please come downstairs luv."

"Please just leave me alone," I said, I didn't want to tell him why I was so scared. John reached out to try and stroke my hair, but I just cried harder. I decided to tell him what was going on, "My first foster family, the ones before Nora, they would yell at me, hit me, They didn't care about me, they just took me in out of pity. Ever since then, when someone yells at me, in the back of my mind, I think they're going to hurt me."

John looked at me and said, "Coraline listen to me, I would ever hurt you, and I'm so sorry for yelling. I love you"

I got up and hugged him, "I forgive you, and I love you too, Dad." have we hugged we were interrupted by my phone ringing, I picked it up. "Hello," I said.

"Hello Coraline," it was Medusa, my face went pale and my hands started shaking, "listen I know your fathers there, so put the phone on speaker, if you would." I slowly pressed the speaker button.

"Talk," I said coldly, John looked at me confused.

"Hello John, I just wanted you to hear this. Now I'm going to give you a choice Coraline, give yourself up to me and I leave everyone you love alone, or I take you by force and kill anyone who gets in my way. You have Twelve hours to decide, if you call the number I call you from now, I will know you've surrendered. If you do not call I will know you have chosen to let your family and friends die protecting you like you did your mother." she hung up and I stared at the phone in shock.

"Coraline, luv I need your phone," John said.

"Ok, why?" I asked, and handed him the phone.

"You know I love you right?" he asked.

"Yeah, and you're scaring me," I said.

"I'm sorry," he said, then darted out the door with my phone!

"DAD!!!" I yelled.

"I love you and I am only trying to protect you," he said locking the door.

"Dad!" I yelled, pounding on the door, "please I can't lose you too!"

I fell to the floor crying, but then I remembered the throwaway phone, I ran to the bag and found the cell phone. Since I have a photographic memory, I remembered the number and dialed it. A person picked up after to rings.

"Coraline," Medusa said, "you made your decision quicker than I anticipated."

"Where do I meet you?" I asked.

"Where my daughter dies protecting your worthless life," she said coldly before hanging up.

I knew that this time I was a dead woman so I wrote a note to John, to say goodbye.

Dear, Dad,

I know that you love me and you feel that you have to protect me, but this time it's my turn to die for my family. I love you, and no matter what Medusa dose to me I'll be okay because I'll know that my family is safe.

Thank you for making me feel safe, and for being my dad when I needed you. I will miss you so much, and just for the record, not everyone around you dies. You have Zed and Chas, so please hold on to them for me, I need to know you're going to be ok too.

Love, your daughter, Coraline Monica Harris-Constantine

I put the note on my pillow and opened the portal to Gotham, on the street where my mom was murdered. I'll be with you soon mom as I thought as I walked through the portal.