Fetch's POV
"Boston?" Delsin's eyes widened as I began booking the trip on the airplane website. "That's a solid 5 hour trip!"
"Five hours and five minutes exactly, according to Google Maps." Olivia added.
"Thank you for the unnecessary commentary, Oli." Delsin rolled his eyes, and Olivia shrugged. Oli? Since when did he have a nickname for her? But I bought four plane tickets, leaving for next morning. I looked out the window of Delsin's apartment. The sun was slowly beginning to sink below the horizon.
"If Olivia's right, we'll be able to find her friend in Boston. Where, I don't know, but we have to be careful about what we do. There's a bunch of historical sites, and I'd rather not cause a lot of destruction." I reminded them. Eugene nodded in agreement, and the rest nodded assent.
Olivia was perched next to Delsin on the couch. Of course it bothered me, but Olivia knew Delsin the best out of all of us. Still, that didn't stop me from getting ticked off. Delsin hadn't had time for me and Eugene-it's been Olivia, Olivia, Olivia. Sheesh, he's only known the chick for four days!
I held in my sigh of frustration as I finished speed-booking the plane. "Done," I said, handing Eugene back his laptop. He had been slightly irritated when I asked for it-it was his precious laptop-but he's been a good sport. Eugene was a good kid.
And Delsin? Well...I think it was obvious how I felt for Delsin. But how could he be so blind?
Delsin was my best friend. He reminded me of Brent so strongly-the same unbreakable loyalty, the same comfort they brought when I needed it. But there was more than that. I just didn't know what.
And my thoughts about Olivia were clear.
"D, can we talk?" I said, standing up and stretching. Delsin looked at Eugene, and Eugene only shrugged as Delsin stood. I beckoned for him to follow me outside the apartment and into the hallway.
"Yeah, what's up?" Delsin put his hands in his pockets.
"D, I don't trust Olivia." I stated quite bluntly. Delsin sighed and looked over his shoulder, as if afraid Olivia might be eavesdropping.
"Fetch, if she wanted to kill me, she would have done it by now." He said tiredly.
"That's not it." I insisted. "I just-she seems too eager to help. What if she's working with the thieves? And she's just leading us straight to them as a trap? I mean, we're too powerful for her, but what if she needs help?"
Delsin didn't seem convinced, only raising a brow at me. He looked slightly annoyed. "Fetch, I know you don't like her, but even if she did betray us, we're three of the most powerful Conduits alive right now. Sure, the thieves might be a problem, but we put up a hella good fight. If anything like that happens, we'll train constantly. But for now, I trust Oli. She just wants to find her friend and track down the thieves."
"Says she." I muttered. "But D, she's too...hotheaded. She totally flew off the handle with her interrogation with Augustine, and didn't tell us why. I knew Augustine probably provoked her in some way," I spoke before Delsin could defend her, "But first, she's not telling us something. Something happened when she went to talk to Augustine, but she's keeping it from us. She's reckless, she's stubborn, and quite frankly, rude and sarcastic." The words spilled out of my mouth before I could stop them. Delsin looked at me for a long time, no expression, just staring at me.
"Fetch-"
"Forget it, D." I gave up, throwing my hands up in frustration. "Do as you please." I brush past him and slip into my apartment, locking the door. He doesn't knock, which both disappoints and relieves me. Instead, I can hear him slowly walking back to his own home, as if hoping I would come back out.
I didn't.
Delsin's POV
"Oh Jesus." Eugene muttered, looking pale as the plane began to move.
"Huh? What's wrong?" I looked over, and Eugene was gripping the armrests so tightly, his knuckles were white. He sat stiffly, and his face had the most panicked expression I'd ever seen. I should have been concerned, but in all honesty, it was kinda funny.
"Aw, c'mon Teen Angel, don't tell me you haven't been on a plane before," Fetch teased, leaning forward to peer over me at Eugene. Things seemed normal again between me and Fetch-this morning, she seemed as bright and cheery as ever. Olivia was behind us, trapped next to the window next to a beefy, bald-headed man who kept glancing at her with a dirty smirk on his face. She had looked less than pleased at the seating arrangement, but I peeked back, and she was covering herself with her jacket, her arms crossed and looking out the window, sitting stiffly. She was wearing a long green trench coat and dark stonewashed jeans with worn sneakers. She gave me a pissed-off look, jutted her chin subtly in the man's direction, and stuck up her pointer finger and thumb in the shape of a gun, pointed it at her head, and made a tiny sound effect, like pew. I chuckled as I turned back around. She'd be fine.
"Well, the thing is...I haven't." Eugene admitted meekly, and he almost lost it as the plane lurched slowly. We were going airborne.
"OH SWEET JESUS, WE'RE OFF THE GROUND!" Eugene yelped loudly, and the other passengers gave him a strange look as he whimpered, not daring to take his hands off the armrests.
"My God, you've never been on an airplane before?" Fetch blinked in actual surprise.
"N-no." Eugene whimpered. He had been so excited this morning-he had woken up earlier than anyone else, and a ridiculous grin on his face. And when we had boarded the plane, he had bounced a little in his seat. "I can't believe I'm on a plane!" He had whispered. I never would have assumed he never actually had been on one.
"But you were so happy this morning!" I reminded him teasingly, nudging him with an elbow. Eugene was clearly fighting a bout of panic, squeezing his eyes shut.
"You'llbeokayYou'llbeokayYou'llbeokay." He murmurered over and over again as the plane continued to ascend. Fetch and I exchanged a look, eyes full of laughter, but we didn't actually laugh, for Eugene's sake.
"Whatever you do, just don't turn back into Teen Angel and go Dwells-Does-He loco. Last thing we need is you flying out the plane." Fetch snorted.
"It's "He Who Dwells"!" Eugene hissed from tight lips.
"Same thing." Fetch yawned and stretched, almost hitting me in the face with her hand. "Oops, sorry D. Gonna catch some Z's so I don't arrive at Boston cranky." She yawned, pulled out one of the complimentary airplane pillows from under her butt, and shoved it behind her head as she shifted around, trying to get comfy. Great. My two companions were such help-one with a budding fear of planes, the other beginning to nod off.
"Eugene, how 'bout you try to get some sleep, too? We're getting there by, like, 10:00 p.m." I suggested gently.
"And wake up dead?" Eugene squeaked.
"Well, if you were dead, you wouldn't wake up at all." I pointed out. But Eugene ignored this as he tried to steady his breathing.
The attendant's smooth voice came over the intercom, announcing that we were now officially airborne and her voice reminded us of airplane safety rules. I ignored her, as I slipped in my ear buds. The plane had a complimentary free movie service-might as well take advantage of it.
As I tapped the touchscreen planted in the back of the seat front of me, I heard murmurs behind me.
"What's a pretty lil' thing like you doing on this plane alone, sweetheart?" I heard the gross guy say in a smooth voice.
"I'm with them." I heard Olivia say coldly. By them, I was assuming she meant us. I paused in my movie-hunting as I listened in, ready to intervene if Olivia did something rash.
"Oh, but they look busy. How about you, me, meet up in the bathroom, eh? No one will afta know about it."
"In your dreams, dickhead." Olivia spat. My muscles tensed.
"Oh, no need to get feisty." I looked over my shoulder subtly. The guy was leaning towards Olivia as she reciprocated by leaning away, squishing her shoulder into the window.
"Have a little fun, hm?" The guy's hand creeped towards her thigh. That was enough.
"Hey!" I snarled. The guy jumped, his hand shooting back. "Leave her alone. She's with us."
"Aw yeah?" The guy stuck up his chin. "And who're you, kid?"
"Delsin Rowe. And my friends, Abigail Walker and Eugene Sims. Maybe you've heard of them." Oosh! The guy's eyes widened in recognition, and scowled as he turned away, sulking.
"Thanks," Olivia mouthed, looking gratified.
"Don't mention it," I whispered back. Something hit my shoulder. I looked around, thinking it was Fetch. and it was-but not what I was expecting. She had fallen asleep, and her head had lolled onto my shoulder. It was one of those romantic poses you see in the movies, but when I looked down, I couldn't ignore how...cute Fetch looked in her sleep.
Praying she wouldn't wake up, I slowly brought my hand up and stroked her hair gently. She didn't stir.
"Do you like her?" I looked to my side. Eugene still looked nauseated and rather worse for wear, but his eyes kept switching from Fetch, to me, to Fetch, then to me again.
"Of course. She's my best friend."
"Not like that." Eugene stared at me over the rim of his glasses, and heat flooded my face. Yes, I knew exactly what he was asking, but it was an absurd thought. She was my best friend, not a girlfriend. We were better off good friends.
"I do, but..." I hesitated. "Don't tell her, okay? We're better off just being good friends."
"But she-" Eugene's sentence was interrupted by a horrible shriek. I brought my hands up and clasped them over my ears, but the sound-like metal scraping against metal magnified ten times-still sliced my ears.
Fetch woke immediately, jolting up and covering her ears, face contorted with pain. Eugene's panicked state immediately returned, yelling as he shrank into his seat, trying to cover his ears desperately.
"What the hell is that?" I hollered, but my voice was lost in the continuing noise.
Then, the plane began to fall.
What was happening?! The sound finally stopped, and the plane instantly filled with noise again, panicked yells, the crying of children, and the flight attendants trying to calm everyone down. Eugene was trying to keep calm, but I could tell that he was about to puke. Fetch, usually always levelheaded, was gripping my arm tightly, a frightened expression on her face.
A cloud of mist flew past me and stopped in the aisle, and it materialized to become Olivia. "HEY!" She screamed. Instantly, all activity stopped, as over a hundred frightened eyes locked onto her. Olivia looked shaky and scared, but her voice was steady and strong.
"What happened to the pilot?!" Olivia turned her attention to the flight attendant, who was emerging from the pilot's cabin. There was silence as she dragged herself out, and as she looked up, there was a collective gasp. There was a huge gash across her head, bleeding profusely.
"Dead." The woman whispered, and then collapsed. The plane instantly fell into chaos again, but Olivia stomped her foot, and a wave of water swept through the cabin. I was immediately doused with ice-cold cold. Splutters and gasps echoed around the plane as the passengers sobered up. However, through the absolute silence, I could hear faint whispers. "Bio-terrorist..."
"Calm down! If we fall into the water, I can control it! We'll be safe! And I'll find out what's happened, dammit!" Olivia whipped around and began to walk briskly up the aisle when something landed on the roof so hard Olivia stumbled and fell, sliding into the seat next to her. I attempted to stand, my heart pounding in my ears, but the plane was rocking too hard. Finally, a hole ripped through the roof of the plane, and I gasped as frigid air filled the plane. It swept through me so suddenly I lost my breath.
Two figures jumped through the hole and into the plane. From what I could tell from their turned backs, one was a shorter girl, with long blonde hair, the other a tall guy. The girl walked up to Olivia, who was gripping the seat, trying to drag herself up.
Olivia looked up and her eyes widened, looking as if the world had been yanked out from under her.
"Crystal?"
"Hi, Olivia. Sorry we have to do this." Crystal grabbed Olivia by the front of her jacket and gripped the guy's shoulder.
In a flash of color, they were gone as the plane fell down to the Earth.