Operation 007 (SpyxFamily)

Chapter Eight

Damian hadn't considered how quiet his life would become with Anya gone.

She was loud and energetic. Challenging and stubborn. A real eye sore, always trying to invite herself to his house.

What was up with that, anyway?

She never shied away from telling him off, either. Grumbling what a bad guy he was.

He didn't think he'd miss it.

'I don't!' He reminded himself, which was hard to believe when he kept staring at her empty seat below. He glanced at Blackbell who sat beside it.

She had become more listless. She'd watch the board, the teacher. Held her pencil to paper but not write anything. He'd often catch her looking beside her and knew she was losing more hope each day Anya remained missing.

It had been two weeks now.

Even the rest of the class was getting depressed. None of them really knew her, but she was a bright light that they missed looking at.

No one knew what happened either. Why was she taken? Was it because she was an Eden student? Were they going to be next? What happened to Anya?

Damian had overheard some students talking about it, having wondered that too.

No one had figured out who pulled the fire alarm.

A lot of the students suspected it was the nurse who had disappeared with Anya. Others thought the nurse was kidnapped along with her.

Damian highly doubted the nurse wasn't in on it. It was too suspicious. Hired just a couple days before she vanished with Anya.

What did they want with Anya? What could possibly be worth all that trouble to kidnap a random commoner?

He knew that wasn't true. It was very much not random. It would've been so much easier to grab someone off the streets. A kid who didn't even have a home.

Which led him to 'what was so important about Anya'. Again. A loop he turned over and over with no answers.

Her parents weren't significant at all. The kidnappers would barely get anything if they wanted a ransom. If that was true, they wouldn't have waited this long to contact them, anyway.

Damian's mind couldn't seem stop thinking about it, plaguing his time meant for studying and class.

He wanted the mystery cleared up. 'That's all.' He tried to convince himself. He didn't care about the shrimp.

Of course he cared about the shrimp.

She was kidnapped. That was a horrible thing. He would feel horrible if he wasn't worried about something like that.

Even Ewen and Emile were worried about Anya, and they almost had as much distaste for her as he did.

The professor wrote more equations on the board, alerting Damian's attention to the few scant notes in his book.

It was unlike him to be so distracted in class.

———————

Becky's grades had dropped drastically since Anya went missing.

She studied. Or tried to study. But it had never been so hard.

Her father had expressed his displeasure when he saw her grades, but it was hard to fault her for it.

Becky knew she should put more effort in, and she tried, but it was hard to get Anya out of her head.

Classes felt longer than before. Her appetite had declined. Her sleep had taken a hit, her brain refusing to quiet down.

It's not like she was depressed all the time, but even on a good day, there's always that hole.

Her mind went to the worst of places: Was she ok? Was she hurt?What did they want from her? What were they doing to her? Was she dead?

She couldn't believe Anya was dead. It hurt too much. A pain rose in her chest and head, her throat, a pressure that built up when she asked that, trying to force the hysteria back down. Trying to push the evil thoughts away.

'OF COURSE SHE'S NOT DEAD!' She would internally yell at herself. 'THIS IS ANYA YOUR TALKING ABOUT!!' As strange as it was, being angry that she would ever think Anya was dead, helped.

Blackbell gave a start when the bell rang, realizing she hadn't heard a word of the lecture.

—————

Loid had noticed something strange about Yor.

She was going on an awful amount of walks, for an awful amount of time.

He didn't want to spy. He trusted her. She was probably taking time to be by herself. It was normal. Her daughter was missing. She loved her.

The odd thing was the time. She'd leave soon after dinner, and return late at night when he was asleep. He started to wonder if Yor didn't want to be here.

She had become rather quiet. They both had. A joy was missing from their lives that they didn't quite know what to do with. The police had found nothing. Loid hadn't found a thing from the hospitals and mental institutions yet, and as far as he knew, Yuri was turning up empty handed as well.

Yuri didn't know Loid was aware of what his true job was, but Loid was pretty sure Yuri would look into it.

'Maybe I should have a talk with her.' Loid contemplated. 'See how she's holding up.'

Indeed, Loid hadn't talked about this with Yor much, to his own chagrin. He'd been so caught up with finding Anya, he hadn't stopped to check in with her.

'What a mess.'

—————-

Yor released the limp hand, the body falling dead to the floor.

Another bust.

She wanted to continue searching, but she knew Loid was getting suspicious. She had been out quite late every night for the past two weeks, searching for any piece, any scrap of information she could find.

She had even branched out to other crime activities, believing it would be more productive.

But nothing.

A heavy sigh, dejectedly prodding the body with her foot.

She should head home. It was late. She had to start giving the impression that she was a normal housewife, doing normal housewife things, coming home at a decent hour, and not killing people behind her husband's back.

Yor left the bodies to find a pay phone. She needed to tip off the police.

She considered changing her voice. She had done this too many times for them not to get suspicious.