Colour Me Red

Chapter 8: Dune

Chapter 8: Dune

"When will you be done with the passport?" I asked the only person I'd describe as a friend.

"In a couple of days," he said with a shrug.

Marc Dwyer - also known as the brains of the business - was somewhat of a colleague to me, considering that we both took orders from the same people. He controlled all the technicalities that I simply didn't have time for; erasing birth certificates, creating new records, and identities. If there were more hours in the day I would've done all the work myself.

I didn't like the fact that Marc could be used against me - not only was he a friend, he was also a great asset to my profession. If he were to ever be hurt because of what he does (or who he works with, should I say) I would never forgive myself.

There are a lot of people out there who would happily put my head on a spike; that I did not doubt. The only problem was that they were too afraid to face me properly, so they'd target people that meant something to me, whether it was an emotional attachment or simply that I found them useful.

I wasn't allowed to visit my own family for that very reason; merely communicating with them lowered a veil of danger that not even I could lift. And here I was trying to play the hero by saving a damsel in distress when I couldn't even protect my own family.

I nearly wanted to laugh at myself.

"Do you have a photo of the subject?" Marc's voice invaded my subconscious.

I nodded, pulling my wallet from my back pocket before tugging out a photo of Ellie that was similar to her current passport photo.

I handed it to Marc.

We were currently working on rebuilding Ellie's identity. We needed to change her last name on every document that proved who she was. We had to make it as believable as possible for people to think that Ellie Clarke had died. Basically, we were creating a whole new person.

"Man, she's cute. You said you're living with her?" Marc asked me.

"Temporarily," was my response.

Marc frowned. "So you don't plan on keeping her?"

"She's not a dog, I can't just do what I want with her," I said, smirking as I remembered the fire in her eyes as she told me the same thing.

"But you kept Felix; he's still with you, right?" he went on.

"Felix was only 15 at the time, I didn't really have a choice," I tried to defend myself.

I was desperately grasping at reasons why Ellie couldn't stay with me and Felix, but I came up short every time. The only plausible reason I could comprehend, was the fact that she would be the catalyst to my demise. I couldn't risk falling for her; if I hadn't already. It put her in too much danger.

"Better make the most of your time together then," Marc replied with a wink.

I rolled my eyes.

"I don't sleep with every girl I meet, you know," I stated, matter-of-factly.

"Yes you do," was his blunt reply.

I sighed.

"You know I can't date them," I said, feeling like the weight of the world was on my shoulders. "I'd be putting their lives at risk."

"Don't you even wonder what they're feeling when they wake up and you're just not there? Don't you feel bad for them?"

Great, he was going all sentimental on me.