Four in Shadows

Chapter 3

Paper scattered the desk and sunlight started to pour into Oliver's apartment studio. They had been working all night trying to come up with a plan for reaching the Wraith.
"You know what?" Eliza said while rubbing her eyes.
Oliver looked up unamused. "Maybe we shouldn't find them. Maybe there's a reason it's so impossible. We can do it on our own!" Oliver smacked his head with his hand. This was about the tenth time she had said that tonight. Or today. The horizon shone bright pink and orange. But neither of them were in the mood to enjoy the sunrise. They had poured over every account of the Wraith and Marina that they could find. Still, they came up empty.
"Eliza, we can't give up we already took the job." A whining noise sounded from her mouth. "We are in too deep." Oliver jolted up and grabbed her underneath the arms. "Now get up. Get the blood pumping! We can do this!" His enthusiasm did nothing more than make her head spin. She pushed him away and let her mind settle. She blew out a breathe and focused on the pages in front of her. They didn't have a lot to go on. A birth record on marina, an account of a sighting of the wraith, a couple of conspiracy theorist sights on them and a random obituary that shows up when you Google marina. Interestingly enough, Marina Houston's name isn't mentioned at all. Eliza tilted her head while resting it on the table to better see the obituary.
"Huh." Something about it pulled her attention. "Why did you print this? There's no mention of them at all." Oliver shrugged and went to pour his 100th cup of coffee.
"Idk it just seemed odd that it consistently came up for Marina." She scrutinized the page.
"Yeah. Maybe it was a relative of hers." Eliza read the list of survived by. Husband, Carl Hannover. Son, Landry Delatan. Interesting. Her son had a different last name. That must mean Carl wasn't his father. Daughter, Julie Hannover. Sister, Sherri Brown. It went on. This doesn't make sense. Her head popped up suddenly making Oliver jump and spill some of his coffee.
"Liz!" She shushed him while she tore through the papers looking for something.
"I've seen this name before!" She grabbed a case file and held it up. "Aha!" Oliver sat down watching her closely. He could see the wheels turning in her head. "I remember this last name from the one court case the wraith was seen at. Or so they think. I doubted it was actually him before because how could someone recognize him if they've never seen him." Eliza flipped through it so fast pages went flying.
"What name are you talking about?" A gleam entered her eyes and Oliver could tell. She had it.
"The name Delatan. Mr. Delatan was on trial for murdering his daughter and Landry Delatan is listed as the son of the woman in the obituary." Oliver could yet feel her excitement.
"So?" She put the obituary and the case file side by side so he could see.
"So... what if it's coming up because the wraith was at both events." Still skeptical Oliver leaned back on his chair.
"Okay..."
"What if, Landry Delatan is the Wraith's real name?"
"It doesn't really make sense to me-"
"But it's worth looking into!" Oliver blinked slowly until Eliza pulled him to his computer.
"Find him. Landry Delatan. Okay?" He yawned but started typing.
"Whatever you say sis."

It took him twenty minutes to figure out the last know location of Landry Delatan.
"You never cease to amaze me." Eliza said patting his shoulders.
"Well you won't be too amazed when you find out where he is." He spun around on the chair. She peered over his shoulder.
"Where- oh god." The computer screen lit up pictures of a burning building. No. Not just a building a city. A whole city burning to the ground.
"The southern port city..."
"Diath." They said in unison. The town had been the main battle front in the Port massacre. Very few survived.
"Are you saying he's dead?" Eliza clarified feeling the Hope drain from her chest.
"No..." Oliver clicked open a second page with a list of names. "He's missing. And has been since the massacre."
Oliver watched the light flicker back into her eyes.
"Perfect." She said.
......................................................................................
The car door slammed hard.
"Shh." Eliza put her finger to her lips. It seemed like she could still smell the smoke even though the burning happened almost a year ago. They walked through the desolate town that seemed to only inhabit rats and rotting fish from the docks.
"It smells awful." Oliver complained.
"I know." Eliza scanned for any sign of life or a hideout. "You said he probably lived in the underground cellar of one of these buildings. How can we tell which ones have them?" He nodded seeming annoyed.
"I told you. We can't just look through every single ruin."
"Then what do you suggest?" She swiveled around to face him. "Huh? Because we have $100,000 on the line here."
"We could... ask for directions." Sensing her disapproval he trailed off the end of his sentence. Then he spotted something in the distance.
"No seriously." Oliver ran ahead.
"Where are you going?" She rolled her eyes before chasing after him.
When she caught up. Oliver was talking to an old man who looked like he had burned with the town himself.
"Do you know where I could find him?" The mans face had a severe gash on the side and his beard reached his waist.
"He's never home. But if he was he'd be-" the man was sent into a coughing fit. Still, he pointed his finger towards a small shack like structure at the edge of the pier.
"Thank you sir." Again Oliver took off.
"What did he say?" She rushed to keep up with him dodging barrels and crates on the dock.
"There is no Landry Delatan. Not anymore at least. From what I gather, he goes by John Dark now." They we're almost to the shack and the sun was starting to disappear beyond the water.
"How do you know it's him."
"A hunch." He simply replied. Oliver ran onto the Porch-if you could call it that- and rang the door bell. When there was no reply he tried the door.
"Locked." Eliza started to walk around the shack scanning for another entry point but there was none.
"Well shit." Suddenly Oliver picked up a metal shard from the ground. "Bet I could get it open." She raised a brow.
"You do that." Trailing off a ways a thought popped into her head. What if the cellar Oliver mentioned wasn't accessed from inside the house? She had seen houses that had cellar doors in their yard. Perhaps it was around here somewhere. She walked around the shack but found nothing. Oliver was also getting nowhere. Yelling profanities, he struggled with the lock. Eliza was about to head back to help him when she saw it. A door in the ground partially covered by burned wood. A smile tickled the edge of her lips.
"Found you." She whispered.

Before thinking to tell Oliver, she rushed towards the door and pulled on the handle. After the third time trying, the door gave way. She descended into darkness.