Queen of Nothing

“Scan that face,” I pointed to the monitor at the sinister man standing in the middle of the helicopter yelling at the remaining two men as they lifted off.

“Already tried boss, no results. Just like Ronan’s girl, this fucker has three or four ghost identities but none of them are the real one. Someone’s gone through a lot of trouble to hide them.” Taylor said with a disappointed tone, that she couldn’t give us what we needed.

“I need to go see Fletcher in the hospital, he can’t be there alone,” I told Ronan, but Taylor cut in again.

“The other girl is with him.”

“What?” Ronan’s eyes practically bulged out of his head learning our entire team let one of our captives freely walk out of here.

“Doc’s orders boss. Apparently, she wouldn’t unglue from Fletcher’s side, and since no one knew what the hell she was saying Emory decided the fastest way to save his life was to bring her along. There are a few men guarding his operating room, and I’d take a wild guess that she’s not a flight risk.” Taylor said matter of factly like she knew something we didn’t as she tried to calm the beast rising in Ronan.

“You don’t take wild guesses, show me,” Ronan demanded, and she sighed heavily at the idea of breaching someone’s privacy, but it wasn’t her call to make anymore. She pulled up another feed that showed Fletcher climbing into bed with Chiyo, soothing her until she fell asleep.

“What the fuck?” Zerkos and I said in unison.

“Did you know that was happening?” I asked Taylor and she shrugged her shoulders.

“How long has it been happening? I don’t know, how long have I been seeing this? Probably closer to five or six weeks. Red fell hard for her, kind of impressively romantic if you ask me. Breaking the language barrier and what not.” She shot me a look that let me know she’d seen what I’d been up to as well but she knew better than to say it in front of Berserk.

Ronan grunted and spun on his heels to turn around and leave the technical lab but Taylor grabbed his shoulder, spinning him back to face her.

“I wasn’t done. I said I couldn’t tell you who that fucker was, doesn’t mean I can’t find out.” She said, crossing her arms.

“Hold on, Santo just landed. I gotta call him and fill him in,” Ronan said, turning away and walking towards a quiet corner to make the call. Santo was always the calm one out of the three of us, but I knew the bond he had with Cecilia was probably going to cause an eruption over this.

He would blame Ronan, he would blame me, and he would go on a rampage until he got her back.

My head was spinning and pounding at the same time, the stress of losing Cecilia creating an intense pressure in my skull that wouldn’t be relieved now, no matter what I did to try.

All my crutches, my vices, my solace, they were all taken.

Along with her.

I’d get her back even if I had to burn this whole city down to do it.

Now that I’d had a taste of her, I wouldn’t let her go, I was just as condemned as Ronan when it came to her, except I was reveling in the wreckage that trailed behind her. I knew I needed more of it, more of her. Without her I would sink into the bottomless ocean of all consuming guilt that made its home in the void of my heart.

No, she’d made her home there too now.