Can There Be Only One?

Chapter 26

I walked into the dojo Duncan told me to meet him at. I looked around and everyone was staring at me so I felt really uncomfortable. A man came up to me and looked around.

"It is a female, not a monster, get back to your workouts people, come on. Sorry, it is not very often that we get a female in here. Charlie DeSalvo." I shook his hand and saw Duncan and Richie. They walked up to me and I casually glanced to see everyone occasionally look at me. I followed them and sighed.

"Why are we at a dojo?" I asked and Duncan looked over and I saw Joe. I walked up to him and he smiled as if we were friends, which I felt we were somehow. I smiled and looked around again.

"Quenten Barnes," he said and I threw my neck back to him almost hard enough to get whiplash. He nodded and Duncan and Charlie began to fight, while Richie stared at me. I sighed and leaned on the doorframe of Charlie's office.

"Duncan doesn't want to get involved?"

"No, I am a Watcher, he still doesn't trust me. But you do, and this man is very-"

"Yeah, I know, I will do anything in my power to stop him. What do you got for me?" He pulled out a packet and handed it to me. I opened it and flipped through it, looking back up at him with astonishment. There was almost every detail about Duncan and his friendship in there.

"Wow, you Watchers are REALLY great at finding and observing. Thanks, Joe." I smiled at him and he nodded. I walked with him to the front door and smiled at him again when he left. I turned around and Richie scared the Hell out of me.

"Richie, don't do that, I can't feel your presence." He laughed a little bit and I shook my head and looked at Duncan, who didn't even care about Barnes. I sighed and Richie looked out the door to see Joe was gone and back at me.

"I wouldn't put your full trust in him just yet, Maria, who knows what he has and could do." I shook my head and Duncan finally came over.

"I never in all of my life, trusted someone right off the bat -except for you Richie- and they have mostly become backstabbers. I trusted Joe as if he were my brother or Father. I have no idea why, but I really do trust him Duncan, and I don't care if you don't. I am going to use this helping hand that he gave to me and I am going to find Quenten Barnes." I left the dojo and thought I saw the man again and he left once more. I ran over and didn't see anything so I just opened the file again when I got in my car. I went back to the shop where I sat with Tessa.

"Have you ever had a problem with trusting someone?" I asked and she sat up more and sighed.

"I trust people too much and it almost gets me killed every time, why do you ask?" I leaned back in my chair and she looked at all of the pictures and evidence I had spread out on the table. She read through some of it.

"I am quite the opposite... I never trust anyone, except I really trust this damn Watcher -Joe- and everyone makes me feel like it is the worst decision in my life. I trust him very much -more than I trusted Connor when I first met him, and he was trying to train me." She nodded and put everything back into a neat stack for me, knowing how I would like it.

"I think you should trust your brain, not your heart. It could get you killed." I nodded and felt Duncan. I looked out and saw him and Richie come up. She smiled and I sat there and messed with the corner of the folder, thinking. I looked at Richie who sat at the table in front of me and he sighed, grabbing my hands.

"What is the course of action?"

"You are not in this course of action, Richie, that is WAY too dangerous for you. This immortal was a literal serial killer in 1920, he was put in the electric chair. He would find you and kill you in a matter of seconds if he wanted to." He sighed and stood up, sitting on the couch in front of me.