Daisy Madigan's Paradise (8 page)

'She's gone,'
whispered Daisy, 'She wanted you to know how much she loves
you.'

Mrs Freiling
nodded, 'I know... I know,' she said as she dabbed at her cheeks
with a handkerchief. 'I don't even know your name?'

'It's
Daisy.'

'Thank you so
much, Daisy. I guess Charlotte just needed to know what had
happened to us all and she would never have been able to find out
were it not for you. So thank you, thank you so very much,' she
said as she turned and walked away, past the sleeping lion and the
headless angels.

Daisy stood
watching her go, a feeling of peace enveloping her as a few happy
tears slowly rolled down her face.

CHAPTER
16

One night
while the moon was especially bright, the sounds of howling chilled
Daisy to the core. As it had been such a lovely night, Daisy had
decided to sit near the large headless statue with her sketch book.
It had been such a long time since she'd done any drawings and
there was just something about the unusually large moon sitting
behind the statue that made her want to remember it and the best
way to do that was to sketch it.

The drawing
was just about complete when the howling started. The terror almost
prevented her from moving, keeping her stuck to the same spot.
'Move, move, move,' she whispered to herself as the sounds got
closer and closer until finally, the adrenaline pulsing through her
body allowed for movement. But there wasn't enough time to get back
to the catacombs. She had no choice, therefore, than to escape
upwards.

Climbing the
nearest tree, she'd just got high enough when she saw them. Holding
her breath, Daisy watched as the first wolf sniffed at the spot
where she had been sitting just moments before. He wandered around,
smelling the ground, getting closer and closer to the tree where
she found herself clinging to.

As the others
arrived, the dread-locked woman's eyes appeared to be glowing
yellow. Daisy gulped.

The second
wolf followed behind her, then the awful memory busting brunette
and her man, the leader walked into the clearing last.

They were
talking quietly, laughing about having stolen some precious item.
She heard them mention something about a museum but before she had
the chance to listen to anything further, she spotted her pencil
hanging out of her jacket pocket.

With eyes wide
open in fear, Daisy realised she was unable to catch it in time as
she clung to the tree. So she watched as it fell, almost in slow
motion, out of her pocket and was slowly carried on the breeze
until it bounced onto the ground below.

How could such
a small thing make such a loud noise, Daisy would never
understand.

The moment it
hit the ground, both wolves' ears pricked upwards, followed by
their eyes. Daisy would never forget that moment.

The second
they laid their eyes on her, the dread-locked girl looked up right
at her as if they had communicated telepathically. Her eyes seemed
to glow brightly as she hissed with an evil smile spreading across
her face.

'Well, well,
well,' she said as the other two turned to see what all the fuss
was about. 'What have we here? This must be the Daisy that Jack
mentioned.'

Daisy didn't
know what to do. She could climb down and try and outrun them, but
she knew that would never work, even with her super human speed,
would the wolves match it? Looking across at the nearby trees, she
saw her only means of escape. She would have to jump from tree to
tree until she could either get out of the park or into her secret
hiding place. The trouble with that is that they might see her go
in and she certainly didn't want that. She had no choice, she would
have to try and escape from the park.

The wolves
watched her every move while the three 'humans' goaded her,
assuming she was just a regular runaway hiding in a tree.

Perhaps the
element of surprise would slow them down a little.

She didn't
want to wait and see what they would do. She just knew she had to
get away.

So she took a
deep breath and threw herself onto the closest tree, grabbing it
with all her strength like some kind of Amazonian monkey. If only
she had a long tail, she thought as she then went on to the
next.

She could hear
the 'humans' yelling at her and the wolves were snarling, following
her trail from beneath her.

'Get her!'
shouted the leader as one of the wolves jumped as high as
possible.

Fortunately
for Daisy, it wasn't quite high enough and as she grabbed hold of
the next tree, she left the wolf behind slightly. However, the next
tree wasn't as strong; it refused to hold her weight and so she
hung, clinging on, as it drooped, creaking, threatening to break
directly above the gang.

A wolf snapped
at her feet, grabbing her and pulling her down, tearing the skin in
her ankle. She winced and with as much of her strength as she could
muster, she kicked it full force on the head, temporarily stunting
it as it released her.

With a split
second to spare, she grabbed hold of the nearest branch and flung
herself on to it before eventually landing on to the gate's wall.
Stopping briefly to catch her balance, she ran along the top of the
wall, like a tightrope walker, all the time listening to check
where the wolves were, snapping beneath her feet.

She could hear
the cackle of the brunette's laugh as she enjoyed the thrill of the
hunt, certain that she would have a plaything for later.

But Daisy had
other ideas and so, she turned and took one last look at the gang
and catapulted herself out of the park, landing on her feet. She
ran as fast as she possibly could until she reached Balvinder and
Shariq's corner shop.

Banging hard
on the door, tears fell down her cheeks as the adrenaline continued
to flow.

'Please let me
in Shariq... please,' she shouted, banging, banging, banging.

Finally, after
a couple of minutes, she noticed the shop light switch on and
Shariq hurried to open the door.

She pushed it
open and slammed it shut behind her.

'Switch off
the light, switch off the light,' she shouted.

Shariq did
exactly as she said while trying to calm the young girl down.

'Are you hurt,
Daisy? Are you injured? What happened? What happened?' he said as
Daisy burst into tears and leaned back against the wall, sliding
down until she sat in a heap on the floor.

'I'm okay,'
she said, 'I'm okay. Thank you... thank you,' she sobbed.

'Shariq...
what on earth is going on down there?' shouted Balvinder from the
top of the stairs.

'It's okay. No
need to worry. We're coming up. Come on Daisy, get up, get up. Come
upstairs and we'll fix you a nice cup of sweet tea. It's okay
now... it's over. It's over...'

CHAPTER
17

Daisy had
refused to tell Balvinder and Shariq what really happened. They
knew she was a homeless girl but they also knew not to ask
questions. Even though she knew they trusted her, she knew she
couldn't tell them the truth. There was this feeling inside her
that told her nobody should know about her abilities, or the fact
that there was such a thing as werewolves.

Slowly she
began to accept that she was seriously different than most people
and she also came to accept that she was strong enough to come to
terms with it. She had managed to escape the gang. If she did it
once, she could do it again. Nobody was going to frighten her away
from her home.

The next few
months were spent in a frenzy of helping numerous ghosts to cross
over. But at the same time, it was also spent trying to return the
memories of those that had been touched by the weird brunette in
the scary gang.

Luckily, she
had so far managed to evade capture, but she had seen them since in
the park at night on several occasions. Some local ghosts had
warned her when they were coming, giving her time to escape to her
hiding place within the secret catacombs. She just hoped that none
caught would give her 'home' away.

Jack was still
with her, promising to stay by her side for the foreseeable future.
But one morning, she knew it was finally time for him to go.

She'd found
him wandering through the trees like a lost puppet on a string, not
knowing which way to go. He'd been touched by her again and enough
was enough. Jack had been that woman's target too many times now
and his memories were beginning to confuse him.

'Jack, this
can't go on any more. You must cross over and join your
family.'

'I don't know
what you mean?'

'Jack, surely
by now you must realise what you are? You died in that house fire
months ago. You've only been staying here for me and I... I think
it's time for you to go.'

Looking
forlorn, Jack stared at the muddy ground, 'I... I know... I'm a
ghost aren't I?'

Daisy nodded,
'I've been telling you for months for you never believe me. You
usually just go off in a huff. But it's time to face up to it,
Jack. It's time for you to join your family.'

'But... but,
who is my family, Daisy?'

'Your mum and
dad, Jack. They're waiting for you.'

'But what if I
don't recognise them?'

A smile
crossed Daisy's face, 'I have a feeling that all your memories will
return the moment you step into that light. You'll know them
immediately.'

'But... but I
don't want to leave you, Daisy. I can't leave you, I promised that
I would never leave you.'

'That was when
I'd lost everything Jack. I was lost. But I'm not lost any more
I've found myself here, helping all these trapped spirits. I feel
like this is what I'm meant to do, at least it's part of what I'm
meant to do.'

'What do you
mean?'

Shrugging her
shoulders, Daisy kicked the dirt absent-mindedly, 'I dunno. I feel
like I'm meant to be a part of something big. I don't know what yet
but I know that it's coming. I can't explain it except that I know
I'm in the right place now and I'm okay. I'll be okay. I'm finally
able to... let you go, Jack.'

The expression
on his face made her stomach feel like it was tied up in a massive
knot and she felt so guilty, but she knew, deep down, that he
wasn't meant to stay on this earth any longer.

'But, Daisy...
I... I...'

'I know,
Jack.'

Looking back
to the floor, he suddenly rushed right up to her and shook his head
determinedly.

'I'm not
leaving until you've found your father,' he said, crossing his arms
with a smirk.

She knew he
meant it and she also knew that he was right. It was time that she
tracked him down. She was ready to be re-united.

Holding her
hands up in submission, she smiled and shook her head, 'Okay,
okay... I'll find my dad and you cross over.'

'Not until
you've found him though,' he winked as Daisy nodded with a
sigh.

oOo

Finding the
drunk homeless man turned out to be a lot easier than you'd
imagine. With the help of quite a few ghosts, it was a piece of
cake actually. She knew exactly where he was and she was ready to
go fetch him.

Waiting for
night to fall, Daisy knew that a petite teenage girl carrying a
fully grown man through town and then to the cemetery might get
some odd attention, especially if she planned on doing it at
speed.

So after her
shift at the corner shop, instead of heading home, she took a slow
walk, the couple of miles to central Hackney. Once she'd arrived,
she found a secluded spot to eat her dinner, kindly provided by
Balvinder. Then she sat for hours waiting for the streets to clear
in the darkness.

After
midnight, she finally felt ready to go and see her father and so
she began the short walk to the spot where she'd been told he
frequently beds down for the night, not too far from the end of
Church Street, apparently.

Walking
through the shopping district, Daisy couldn't help but look
longingly in the shop windows. It was a long time since she'd had
the money to be able to walk into a clothes shop and buy whatever
took her fancy. Like every January, in the sales, her mum had
always given her £100 spending money and told her she could buy
whatever she wanted. She stood for a moment with her hands on the
glass looking at the latest styles on the faceless mannequins.

Daisy sighed
and looked down at the old pair of skinny jeans that were ripped at
the ankle and were becoming more and more stained despite the
weekly wash Balvinder gave them.

One day, she
thought, one day things will be different.

The sound of
breaking glass interrupted her thoughts and she turned quickly to
see a couple of teenage boys laughing as they threw a second beer
bottle at the wall.

She withdrew
out of the street light and continued to walk silently in the
shadows beyond, careful to avoid attention.

Daisy spotted
a nearby police car come to a halt by the kerb. Two officers
stepped out and approached the drunken boys, who were growing
louder by the minute. Daisy waited for them to turn away from her
before she rushed across the street and carried on walking until
she reached the place she expected to find her father.

It was a short
narrow alleyway with a dead end. Right at the back, she could see
someone leaned against the wall with a bottle in his hand. The
familiar smell of alcohol and stale body odour made her nose
wrinkle in disgust.

'Dad?' she
said as she tiptoed closer.

The man
stopped, mid-drink, and slowly moved the bottle away from his
lips.

'Dad?' she
asked again, a little louder.

Trying to
stand, she watched him sway uncontrollably. Rushing forward to
catch him as he fell, Daisy felt a familiar tug in her chest. She'd
missed him so much. And she'd only just realised.