Loop
"What was going on?" Claire thought opening her eyes and realizing that she was still boarding on the airplane again. 10 minutes until the arrival of Lima, Peru… a woman's voice announced, coming out of the speakers. 10 minutes? Time felt altered towards Claire who was panicking in confusion. Was it one of Mystic's tormenting tricks that she had always done again? A picture of her face remained inside, flashing in her vision almost as if it was subliminally advertising in her mind. The girl put her hands to her head, spreading her fingers apart and grasping strands of her brown hair that was trapped between them, her head pounding excessively with fast succession. Her eyes expanding as she couldn't handle anymore of this torment. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and exhaled. A sense of relief overcame the panic and paranoia and she was herself again. Claire looked towards the side where the couple was, they both were separated just looking up and not whispering, giggling or kissing. Stoic like statues they were, almost just waiting for a sign that the airplane had already landed. To Claire, it seemed as if they had a major dispute or they could only get a sense of relief from getting off the plane. It was cramped with just little leg space after all. Claire then looked at the other side where the nice gentleman was sitting looking outside the window. She gaped her mouth and looked to his direction waiting for him to look back, as he did, he had made the nervous smile that he had made previously as they were boarding on the flight. This confused Claire and perpetuated her theory on this being a sign of Mystic taking control over her mind. She then looked towards the man's suit to find a badge, but there was nothing there. The man grew even more nervous, shaking.
"W…W-what do you think you are doing?" he quivered uncontrollably from the girl's suspicion.
"Does your name happen to be David Esterton?" the girl demanded an answer, her tone almost as if she was angry and desperate.
"N-no. its Frederick… What are you trying to do? Help!" the man called. The man beside her was irritated. "Hey, little girl. What do you think you're doing? Psychic readings? Stop scaring everyone with your crazy antics!"
"You butt out and shut up." Claire said, almost with a lifeless tone. "It's none of your business."
Something changed Claire; it was as if she wasn't herself at that moment. The man grew furious, as if he didn't care if she was only a young girl. He clenched his fists and directed them towards the girl's head, leaving little space between.
"You wouldn't dare… If you know what's good for you." She said again in that same lifeless voice, her pupils changing into a dark purple. The man trembled in terror, not having any sort of understanding to what was going on. "What the hell are you?"
Adrian came running through the blue curtains from another section of the plane. "Don't touch her!" he said, holding his arms and directing his palm at the man. Adrian walked slowly towards them. "Put your fists down. Claire, come with me and leave these people alone."
Claire hesitated, storm clouds moved in and the lights in the plane flickered about erratically as the plane was about to land on the hard surface of the airport runway. Claire fainted when the airplane door were opened. Finally they have landed and they were ready to descend and exit the plane, till the only people left on the plane were both Adrian and Claire. Adrian waiting for a response to an unconscious Claire, the air host attempting to usher the two out but Adrian refused. It wasn't until the host was insistent on their leave that Adrian decided to leave the plane, carrying Claire in his arms. The man was confused, just what has been happening to her? It was his responsibility to look after her; he felt a sudden upheaval of remorse. For a brief moment, he saw a change. She isn't usually that rational and offensive towards others, she was shy towards strangers. Yet the tone of her voice against the scared passengers struck a chord with him, he knew that whatever the change was, it wasn't good. He laid the little girl on a seat, watching her attentively for a sign of her being awake as he sat the chair opposite to hers hoping for the group to know where they are. The little girl yawned and stretched her arms, Adrian holding on to her and shaking her, in joy of her waking up. However, when Claire opened her eyes, Adrian saw darkness like shattered glass in her eye floating around and travelling towards the pupil of her eye. He knew the perpetrator of this trick. His face aching with pain just to see Claire becoming a victim of hers, he just didn't know how. He was the one who had the curse… So why is Claire becoming affected by it? He couldn't understand. Claire read the shock on his face and grew worried. But instead of holding him tight, she pushed herself and stood up. She couldn't comprehend his reaction and why he seemed so sad. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing… Nothing's wrong. Everything's okay."
"How could you say that? I've seen how the way you looked. There's something wrong and you can't lie to me about that."
She really has no recollection with what happened in the plane? And how she changed into someone else? Adrian thought to himself, consolidated by him reading her mind.
"Are you just going to sit there not telling me what happened? I'm so confused, it's like if time's altering itself and I can't keep track on what's happening anymore. Things have been getting so hard, especially with the group. We're fighting a lot more and things we always leave everything unsolved." Claire said, pausing herself to look for the next words. "What is this journey all about, despite saving the world from the Astral Beasts? Running away from confrontation yet making fights towards those who are doing the same thing? Some journey that is. It's never about 'saving the world', it's more like 'saving themselves by running away' or 'saving yourself by telling everyone lies and sugar-coating the truth."
"Claire the journey isn't like that. We all do want to save the world…"
"See there you go again." Claire interrupted, in fury of Adrian's blatant reply. "It's comments and an attitude like this, that make our minds just travel in loops and never progressing for answers, just questions."
"Then what do you suppose we do Claire?" Adrian erupted. "You make it seem like we're the evil ones in this. Of course we're going to think about things other than saving the world! It's because we've got things to worry about, things to leave behind. We aren't travelling in a loop; it's just that you think we are. And of course it's about saving the world, you saying that we'll never progress is the attitude that's stopping you from thinking about it is. Think about what you say before you start accusing others. It's incredible in how selfish you sound, you make yourself out to be the only one thinking about the journey and you disregard everyone else and what they've been through. Everyone's had it tough, not just you. Think about that!"
Claire fell silent; she didn't believe the discussion was to be continued anymore. She looked down at her amulet and raised her head looking at the lights on the ceiling of the airports. "Let's look for the others, I bet they're looking for us too."
Adrian nodded his head, almost questionably towards Claire. "Yeah, maybe we should." As they walked around the airport, he never spoke another word to Claire until they found them.
"Where have you been silly gooses? We were all wondering where you were!" Lucy jumped, waving her fan to cool herself. People at the airports stared peculiarly at her, due to the fact that her fan she was publicly showcasing had blades on the top. She was oblivious to the fact and waved it proudly because of the attention.
Lisa studied a travel brochure and raised her head to the group. "So we have to organise a tour to get to Machu Picchu. Our option is hiking."
"Hiking? Our feet will get hurt from that!" Lucy snapped, angry at Lisa's decision. "There's no time to complain! We have to do what we need to do."
"Your feet will hurt? More like your brain will just figuring out which leg to put forward first." Mark said on the snide, giving high-fives to both Andre and Socrates. But where was May to defend Lucy was what Claire thought at the time.
"May? She ran off somewhere, I think she wanted to find us a hotel to stay for the night." Lucy said. "I'm surprised she didn't drag Andre into finding one though. Maybe she needs her alone time."
"Well we can't leave without any sign of where she is… We are going to have to wait." Socrates said.
"Wait? It seems like we're getting nowhere with anything all the time." Mark stated, Lisa nodding her head in agreement. Adrian looked to Claire for a reaction, but received none. The group then realized a young woman carrying bags of designer shopping clothes skipping about towards them.
"There's May. She's coming!" Andre said, in excitement. "Finally, can we get to our hotel rooms now?" Socrates said. "It looks like she used the money for something else rather than hotel rooms."
May smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "I'm back!"
"May, I thought you would actually use the money for something useful for all of us, not just to enhance your aesthetic appeal." Lisa grunted out.
"Hey Socrates could just make more money anyways, besides it's important to look your best whenever you are in a battle."
"Oh she got something for me too! Thanks May! Oh my goodness, it's a dress with jewellery encrusted on it! That is so AWESOME." Lucy celebrated
"We've got a mission to save the world here. I think it's decent to actually pay attention to that crisis first." Lisa rudely interrupted.
The group then made their way to the city to find how to arrange a tour to Machu Picchu.