Bloodguilty // FIVE HARGREEVES

6. Who is Elisa Brookle

Trouble keeps coming and coming.

Another mission has been sabotaged by the hooded person. And as the good leader Elisa tries to be, she sends two more pairs of agents to surprise the person.

But they return empty handed and with the knowledge the failed.

"Four agents working together can't stop them," Elisa mumbles as she folds her arms over her chest. She's alone in her office, and she's again staring at nothing. Disappointment written on her face, Elisa sighs deeply. If four well-trained agents can't do the job, who can? Maybe Elisa should go with two new pairs to help them. That's a possibility, but at the moment, Elisa doesn't trust anyone in here except for a very few. Those agents can easily work together to assassinate Elisa. Four against one; it wouldn't be a fair fight, but Elisa is almost completely sure she'd survive. The others probably will not.

And the hooded person isn't even her only worry. Ever since she discussed the situation with Vanya, Klaus, Herb and Five, her boyfriend decided not to show up anymore. Still, Elisa doesn't mind him not being here at the moment. He'd preach about the decisions she already made and the ones she has yet to make.

The words that are still unspoken have left a mark on her, too. Everyone knew what Five truly meant. Even he did, but he at least had a little humanity inside of him not to say them out loud.

Elisa realizes warm tears are flooding her eyes, and she shakes her head, stopping herself from fazing out again. Her eyes fall on the gargoyles. The ones that are supposed to keep evil away, Herb told her. But Elisa always loved them—and so did the handler. Does that mean these do the exact opposite? Does that mean that Elisa is just as evil as the handler?

Doubts start to drown Elisa, and her lower lip trembles. It can't be true, can it? She has fought so long to keep the monster at bay. She has succeeded for so many long years, and now . . . Now she's afraid the darkness has finally won. Or at least, it's starting to win.

The gargoyle Elisa is looking at has the figure of a dog but the eyes of a cat. It has curled, adorable horns and the cutest rabbit ears. Its claws are huge, but there's a certain kindness in the red-painted eyes.

"You've spent a horrible amount of time with her." Elisa her voice is quiet, but the creature of stone won't hear her anyway. "You know I'm not like her, don't you?"

No answer comes.

A sad chuckle escapes Elisa's lips as tears cours down her cheeks. Of course no answer came. She didn't expect it to, but still, an answer would be appreciated. It would mean the world to her if someone told her she wasn't changing into the handler, because when she does it herself, she doesn't believe it even a tiny bit.

Five most certainly won't say so. He's busy hiding himself at the Umbrella Academy. Herb has gone extremely quiet ever since the meeting, too. In fact, Elisa has only seen him when he quickly peeked into her office, telling her that the other teams have failed, too. Either he allows Elisa a break from all of it, or he fears the worse, too. All his help for nothing. All the kindness didn't do its work. There's still hope in Elisa that hopes Vanya will say the words, but even she left with Klaus afterwards.

Elisa her eyes flicker to the gargoyle next to the other one. Its red eyes are right on her, too. This one is a serpent like gargoyle with the eyes of a young puppy. He has long fingers that are wrapped around its long, cow-like tail.

And suddenly, Elisa can't have it anymore. Her eyes fall on the door just on the other side of her office. She can't be sulking around like this. She spent enough time in this tiny room, worrying about the Commission. She needs something to put her mind on, so she won't have the time to even think about her own worries for one more second.

Right now, she's going to focus on the mission that's waiting for her to succeed it. The mission that her agents have failed every time again and again. The mission that the hooded person has sabotaged three times already. But no longer.

Right now, she's going to be Elisa Brookle and not the Commission's leader who's threatened to be sabotaged at every turn. She's going to be the assassin she's trained to be.

Ready for some action, Elisa grabs the phone out of her pants' pocket. There's only one person she has called frequently, and that's the person who's she's going to call. The person who'll make sure she's able to put her mind on this mission.

The call gets accepted after waiting only two seconds, and immediately, a smile tugs at Elisa her lips.

"Klaus, what do you think of teaming up?"