Champion of Death

                                                                                            Ellie      Monotony. That was the only possible word for it. My snake of an uncle had brutally murdered my father, yet I went to school. Day after day, my life consisted of school, work, missions, and my brothers trying in vain to cheer me up. “We could reach out to Volkov.” Godric sighed, rubbing at his temple as he slid into the chair across from my desk. Thank god he finally stopped pacing.     “This would do us no good.” Nicoli hissed. “He severed ties with SFB three years ago. He was black listed shortly after.”     “He could still have connections.” Godric insisted.     “Enough. Arguing isn’t getting us anywhere. We’ve been at this for four months now...” I sighed. “When do we just accept that we are wasting our time and won’t be tracking Dominic down anytime soon?” I slammed my hands down on the table, my frustration spiking.     Godric leaned forward, his eyes softening. “I promised we would not stop until he was found. You know very well that I always keep promise. No matter what, sestra.”      “We both do. He must pay for what he has done, and it must be you that stops him.” Nicolai smiled bitterly.     Sighing, I leaned back in my chair. “Fine. We keep looking, then.”      “What is next move?” Godric asked.     “Reach out to Volkov, I guess. You’re right, he may still have connections despite being black listed.” A headache budded behind my eyes, and I squinted them against the fluorescent lights buzzing above us.     “Very good. I will get back to you later today with any intel he may have.” Godric stood to go, but stopped long enough to smile sadly at me. “We will find him.” Without another word, he left my office, the door clicking behind him.     “You can not fault him for being hopefully optimistic. He believes in you, more than anyone else.” Nicolai leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes.      “More than you, brat?” I smiled sarcastically.     “More than me, sestra. I want to, but at same time, it is hard to be hopeful after so many months of nothing.”     “No, I feel the same way. Four months of chasing our tails, it just feels like this is pointless.”     “Maybe it is, but Ric will not give up. He needs this more than us.”     “I know, this was more of a betrayal for him than either of us. He and Dominic were close when we lived in Russia.” Anger bloomed inside of me, piercing my core. It was so familiar at this point; every second that Dominic was on my mind, a white hot poker stabbed at me. Knowing that he's still out there, still breathing while my dad is six feet under is unbearable.     “For his sake, we can not give up.” Nicolai’s eyes opened, locking on mine.     “No, for his sake, we won’t.”                                                                                          Blade     The police station was buzzing. The lights, the constant background chatter from everyone around me, the phones ringing. Everything droned together into a dull buzzing as I sat in the lobby. “Hey, Blade. Come on back to my office.” Detective Hamen smiled sadly down at me.     “Thank you.” I muttered as I followed the stiff spined woman through the maze of desks. She closed the door softly behind us and smiled sadly.     “I don’t have any new leads yet.” She sighed. “Would you mind going over a few points for me again?” Her hair was almost white, a lot like Elizabeth’s. Where Elizabeth wore her long hair down, this detective wore hers in a neat, tight bun on top of her head.     “Yeah, of course.” I wrung my fingers in my lap, wishing she had called with better news.     “So, you said your dad worked for the government.” She said, glancing down at an open folder in front of her.     “That’s right.”     “We couldn’t find a definitive tie to any one organization. Was he a freelance contractor?” Her brow furrowed as she read off whatever was in the folder.     “I’m not sure. He never wanted to talk about work. Any time I would ask, he’d say it was a government job with good benefits.” I shrugged.     “Alright.” There were a few seconds of silence while she scribbled something. “When was the last time you saw him?”     “About four months ago. Three days before I reported him missing.”     “Why did you wait so long?”      I forced myself to repress a sigh of frustration. We have been over this so many times... “Like I said before, he was gone for days at a time sometimes. He’d always call every three days if he was off on a mission. When he didn’t call on the third day, I got worried.”     “Right. There’s no place you can think of that he may go? A vacation home under an alias, an extended family member that may keep his whereabouts a secret?”     “No...” I scoffed. “If I had any idea at all where he might be, I wouldn’t be sitting here. I wouldn’t have been sitting on my ass, waiting by the phone for you to call.”     “Okay...” She clicked her pen and set it down on the open folder. “I’m sorry. This is just a much more puzzling case than I was expecting it to be. Tell me, is there any possibility that he could have run off with a woman? Was he seeing someone?”     “No. I’ve already answered these questions a dozen times already.” Her piercing green eyes sized me up, and for a very uncomfortable second, it felt like she was reading my soul.     “Blade...” She broke our gaze, chewing on her nail. “We’re going to be forced to move on from this case if we don’t get a lead soon. I’m sorry, but we can devote our departments resources to a case for so long before it goes cold and we have to turn to other people who need us.”     “I know...” Tears brimmed my eyes, and I blinked hard as I fought them back. “Okay, thank you for your time. I’ll just have to find him myself.” Bitter, angry, I pushed to my feet and stormed from the precinct. I’ll just have to find him myself.