S.P.Y.

Chapter 21: HOME

It was still dark when the phone rang. Startled by the sudden noise, Sylis jumped quickly into the land of the living and look around, with the gun that was under his pillow in his hand, thinking that the ringing was some sort of alarm. When he realized that he was not under any threat, Sylis grabbed his phone from the bedside table.

"Hello?" He tried to sound professional, but it was clear from the caller that he was tired.

"Hello, my name is Lee Little and I was wondering if you would be interested in buying home insurance." The voice belonged to a lady.

Home insurance. I was woken up because of home insurance. Sylis sighed and he laid his blond head back on his pillow. "I'm sorry, but I will not be needing insurance for my house. I already—"

"Oh, but sir, think about your partner or offspring. What will happen if you don't have home insurance? How will you ensure that they will be safe inside the home?"

This woman... Sylis didn't appreciate that the lady had interrupted him and thus he was more awake. He put the phone on speaker and placed it on his bedside table. He had woken up and wouldn't go back to bed.

Her words echoed in his head as he thought of Lilin and Piper. Were they awake? Piper hadn't disturbed him in a while, but he was the one who initiated the silence. When he thought of Lilin, he touched his ring. It was only now that he realized he still had the piece of jewelry on. He had forgotten to return it that one day, last week. He admired the three small diamonds as they glistened in the waxing moon outside his still smashed balcony window.

"Sir?" It was the insurance lady.

"Miss Little." Lee Little, what an interesting name for a woman. "I don't need home insurance."

"Do you have an apartment?" Little continued as if she didn't hear Sylis. "We are giving out special discounts to protect your apartment, but you have to act fast because they are leaving quickly." It sounded as if she was smiling a fake smile, one too wide and toothy to be true.

"I'm sorry, miss Little, but as I tried to tell you. I don't need house insurance." He leaned toward his phone. "Goodbye." With a tap on the phone screen, the call ended. Sylis sighed, it wasn't one of relief but...

Actually, I don't know what particular type of sigh that was; welp.

Mayhaps it was a sigh of sadness because after the call ended, silence echoed throughout Sylis' bedroom and mansion. It has been his old life. The life of silence and waiting, waiting for the perfect moment to catch the bad guy (or gal). It wasn't safe to have a partner. Too risky to have someone one needed to take care of. It was a dog-eat-dog world, and good people died all the time.

One day he too would die and hopefully, go to Heaven. Or is Heaven even real? He stopped believing in God in Germany during the war. Surely if God were real he would not be an orphan. If Heaven wasn't real then so wasn't Hell. What was the afterlife? Did we all just die and be engulfed in the abyss? Would we become balls of glass in the night sky?

Sylis looked up at the sky. It was still dark as the sun had yet to show its face. The stars had started to blink away and barely any remained. He didn't know, but he also would not mind becoming a star. Some stars were shooting stars and they were very important. They were the keepers of wishes, dreams, and fantasies. If he were to die, he would want to become a shooting star.

Then he would finally be home.

Making a world where kids don't need to cry—that was the whole reason why Sylis became a spy in the first place. Many things can cause children to cry, but death, death causes a lifetime of tears. He wouldn't admit it to himself, but even now he felt the desire to cry as he did back then. It would never leave him alone, as he never fully grieved his mother—the one who cared so dearly for him.

People who knew of his occupation would tell him that he wasn't fit to be a spy. He wasn't one for killing people although he made himself out to seem that way. He carried a gun or another weapon not to kill, but to injury. Like a prey fighting its predator, he would scurry away.

Sylis' thoughts were interrupted by the sound of ringing. He turned to look at the phone that was making the sound. "Who is calling me now?" he whispered out loud. "Surely it is not the home insurance lady..."

Sylis picked up the phone and spoke with a hint of weariness, "Hello?"

"It's me, Mr. Youngblood. You once told me to call you if any new possible Shadow murders have occurred." It was Das, but for some reason, he thought it was going to be someone else—someone from the Cozbi.

"Ah, yes, that I did." He straightened up his posture as he stood up from his soft bed. "So, did a murder occur?"

"Oh, yes, it actually happened quite close to the detective agency. That is why I am calling you this early in the morning—sorry for waking you up, by the way." In the background it sounded like a lot of people were moving around and Sylis could hear the faint sound of an order being yelled.

Sylis made his way to his walk-in closet. "Don't worry, Das. I was already awake when you called." He was inside the closet when he asked, "So, did you get the murderer?"

"No, sir," came the curt reply. "Unfortunately, Shadow got away but there is some good news." Sylis' ears perked at this. "This time, we got something new—some new information."

Sylis pushed—stopped right in the middle of changing. "New information?"

"Yes, I think that you would like to see it for yourself..." Das' voice slowly disappeared as his head got pulled away from the phone. Someone was talking to him in real life now. He went back to the call. "Sorry, Sir, but I have to go. I will see you when you get here."

That's when the called need and when Sylis had fully changed into his usual outfit. What was the new information? Where was Shadow now? And most importantly—who died?