Going In Flashes

Claire woke up as the she heard the couple beside her kissing and laughing quite loudly while the majority of the plane were quietly keeping to themselves or sleeping. Claire turned her head the other side with jealousy. She couldn't stand that the two were professing their love towards each other so publicly. She found herself insulted and completely outraged at the two's self-centredness. She turned her head to the side, facing the man at the windows, who she seemed to have strong yet unexplainable adoration for.

"Can't stand it too? They've been at this even when you were sleeping. Talking complete, utter nonsense to one another." Claire chuckled. "At least they are finding a bit of enjoyment in this arduous trip in such a miniature airplane." The man put his hands on his chin, looked up and nodded. "If only others could find the amusement in just plain ridiculousness. Such as us, who wallow and observe such an idiotic display." The man moved closer and whispered Claire's ear, making her giggle uncontrollably.

"You are a very mean man! Criticizing people around you with such cynicism and insults." Claire jokingly said, then continuing to giggle. "Then why are you laughing? Besides they are not insults, merely just stating the truth."

The couple had stared at the two near the window; rolling their eyes around and leaving stares that would penetrate those with the weakest of hearts and those who constantly trembled with fear. Claire used to be one of those, but she wasn't anymore returning the gesture.

The man rolled his eyes again, while the woman stared reaching her arm over the man's shoulders and pulling him towards her, successfully deterring his attention towards the two.

Claire giggled towards the man, leaning her head towards his direction. "People these days! Just glaring at others for the heck of it" she said out-loud. "It's decent courtesy to not drag people down as low as yourself!" The man heard this comment and knew that it was directed to him, but he decided to pay more attention towards his partner. Claire witnessed this and looked down at her seat and saw the grey floor and paid attention to that. It was almost that she was sulking inside, about the loss of interest that the man displayed. She felt as no one cared about her feelings, but to the naked eye, it was obvious whenever Claire was depressed over something. No one dared pay attention to her; while she seemed harmless it never occurred for the people in her life to worry about her. And now without Adrian, she felt, as the world never cared. Especially her mother and father. She was daydreaming about them, "What did they look like?", "What were they like?" and really "Who were they?". All these questions she wanted answers, but had no one to look to. Her curiousity faded over time. She grew disinterested, more so neglectful of her origins as she knew to herself that it was futile to ponder over things that can never be surfaced.

"That's a beautiful amulet that you are wearing. It seems like a magical artefact, maybe passed on by witches or something." The man said, interrupting Claire's thoughts. It took Claire exactly two seconds to think of a reply. She remembered Adrian advising her to not talk about the journey or her magical powers to strangers during one of the bus trips. She ignored, this rebelling against his statements. They were almost irrelevant, as she felt isolated and alone.

"Well, it's sort of passed on" Claire asserted. "It was given to me by a fortune-teller… She turned out to be evil in the end, cursing my Guardian with arcane powers." She light-heartedly said. She held the astral amulet with two fingers, flickering about. "What a story! Arcane magic, fortune-teller and cursing your guardian, you really must have ticked the fortune-teller off for her to do something like that!" the man joked around.

"You don't seem really convinced that all of this is true…"

"What? Magic to be true? I don't think so. It's only things that good writing and animation can do these days. If it were true, businessmen like me would use our magic to de-borify our jobs instead of sexually harassing our secretaries or dance around with Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves during lunch break."

It took a moment for Claire to grasp at the reality of the man's words. "I'm just joking about the office stuff. I'm not a businessman, despite the suit. I work with the magic alliance."

"Magic alliance? I thought you said magic isn't true."

"I've been assigned to headquarters. But apparently, I got some invitation from my home to go there. They said it was an urgent notice, so I thought I had to come."

"You don't even know what they do. It could be dangerous." The man smiled. "It's so nice that you care, but what could it really be anyways? I can take care of myself."
"But, you can't go somewhere without knowing what on Earth it is. That's just…"
"Stupid?" the man interrupted. "You shouldn't worry about me. We've only just met." Claire sulked. "But I feel like I have to…"

She looked at the right side of his suit, a badge saying "Magic Alliance Tactics Management". She was then relieved. "I guess I don't have to worry about him after all." She thought to herself. She observed the badge to find his name. "David Esterton huh? That's who you are…"

"And I should presume that you've got a badge I can wander my eyes over?"
"Sorry." Claire apologized, nervous and not knowing what to say back. "I'm Claire Nash…"

"Well then Ms Nash, what brings you here to an airplane headed for Peru?" he said. She couldn't deny how charming the man was and shrugged her shoulders, unable to restrain her smile. "Well, I'm heading for the Machu Picchu ruins. I'm really interested in it."

"A young girl, interested in ruins? That's incredible. A lot of the children at my time only cared for being movie stars or being famous."
"Well then there's that of course…" she humoured. "A girl wants to get dolled up and have superstar treatment." She said, reaching out her hands and grabbing hold of David's arm and leaning her head on his shoulders and she closed her eyes to rest.

"It's only cute when five year olds do that." David said. Claire opened her eyes and realizing his comment, and loosened herself from holding on to his arm.

David grinned tricking Claire. She then pushed his arm gently. "How dare you." She said in sarcasm. "And now we're behaving like them.

Claire opened her eyes and saw the man still looking outside the windows. "Why does it seem like this flight is going in flashes?" she thought to herself. "The man at the windows, turning towards her and smiling. She turned to him and smiled back. "I wonder how long this flight will go on for. It seems like ages."

"It shouldn't be too long. Like you said, the flight is going in flashes." Claire was intrigued at his comment. Just what did he mean?

Then the flash occurred again….

As the plane landed on the airport, the travelling bunch regrouped and discussed about what to do next, "Machu Picchu right? How are we going to get there if no one knows where it is?" May stated.

"I did some reading. Apparently, you can either take the train or you can take the scenic route and walk there." Lucy said, in delight of knowing the answer.

"Do you know where to make the tours then?" Mark snapped. Lucy struggled to find an answer, she didn't read at all. She just heard small talk in the plane when she was escorted to business class. Lisa jeered, "She's only good at stating the obvious, but doesn't really get the full details." May felt outraged at the comment. "And I suppose YOU know where to go and what to do?" she retaliated against Lisa and Mark.

"Does everyone have to be so mean to each other?" Andre said. "Who was talking to you dumbo?" May said in aggression. The group had another falling out, with May, Lisa, Andre and Socrates arguing and conflicting. Mark walked away from the scene, Adrian followed. To Claire, It almost felt like the inevitable break up of the group. May ran off away from the group, dragging Andre along with her and Lisa went off alone still carrying the black book with her and Adrian and Mark where nowhere to be found. It was only Lucy left stuck in the middle with Claire and with no sense of direction she stayed in that centre, sitting down and remaining silent. She had lost her friends due to the flashes and now she had lost the man who had just sat next to her a few minutes ago.

"Where could he be…? Where did David Esterton go?" Those, being added towards the millions of questions that she felt that nothing could ever answer.