Wicked Courtesy

Chapter 3

After a doubtful stare, she finally gives up and moves on to the row ahead of the one ahead of us, starting a quiet conversation with a mother and her child.

"Excuse me, Mam" She taps on her shoulder, prompting the lady to take her headphones off.

"Would you and your son mind switching seats with the gentlemen behind you?"

"Why? Is something wrong?"

"No-no, it's just he's very easily irritated and we want to avoid a scene from happening"

The woman in the light blue button-down shirt looks over to her son who's wearing a plain shirt of the same color and asks him if he wants to move back, with his attention still at his gaming console, he just shrugs at her question, the mom looks at a sleeping old lady across the aisle before agreeing to move. She starts patting her son on the back, gently suggesting his body should get up, while slowly moving up to the edge of her seat so that her long hair isn't smothered anymore and can be placed into a bun. They only had a few pieces of luggage, a purple purse matched with a beige carry-on, and a small backpack for the kid's items, so it was easy for them to get out of their seats.

"Actually, do you mind if we just move to the seats in front of the exit instead of waiting for him?" she asks the flight attendant.

"Yeah that'd be fine, thank you for being so understanding," Tess says before turning to go and talk to the middle-aged man.

The brunette then turns towards the seat next to her and wakes an old woman up before they head to their new seating area.

"Mom...mom," she says while gently pulling her out of her lull.

The old lady blinks at her a few times as she regains her focus.

"Mhm?"

"They had us move a few seats behind our old ones, so we'll be right there if you need anything" her finger points in the direction of the bickering of the middle-aged man, who responds bitterly to the news of his new seat.

"No I don't need your help, I can move these on my own, you'd probably break 'em if I had your help," He says as he recklessly tosses his three bags over the top, two of which got stuck in the leg space between the seats and one balanced on the armrests. He doesn't even make eye contact with any of them as he moves forward and gets settled in his new row.

Meanwhile Tess thanks the family for being helpful and gives them each a packaged peanut butter and jelly sandwich, as they take to their new seats. The mom steers her child from the shoulders onto the window seat, as she places their luggage underneath.

After minutes, Mr. Seth finally broke his silence, more precisely he let out a soft snicker as his head arrived at the cushion of his seat, his eyes staring at the roof of the plane now.

Once the two in front of us had their headphones on and the flight attendants were far enough it felt like I could hear everything, the cackling of joysticks, the mobile whispers, the resonant beeping emerging from the cockpit far ahead, an inauspicious collage of sounds reserved for only my adjacent and I. At this moment, no one else knew us as much as we did each other.

"What do you think I should do?" he incuriously asks.

I jumped on the opportunity immediately.

"I think you should wait… if you're going to shoot her, there's no point in hurting anyone else, right.".

The ominous sounds resurface for a few moments before I speak again.

"You can do it when we land"

"And you'll do nothing?"

"Yeah".

"You won't report me even though you know I'm gonna commit a crime?"

"I mean…you're already set on shooting her"

"That's not what I asked" he commands whilst appearing a little frustrated.

I didn't respond to what he said.

"How do I know you're not lying?"

"You can't," I say in a monotone voice to match what his tone shifted to.

"Listen, if you do it here, no matter what happens after, your life is over. You have no choice but to trust me".

"My life is over, huh?" He remarks sarcastically before letting out another snicker.

"My life is over"

It takes me a second, but I realize he's already made up his mind, asking me was just a wicked form of courtesy.

The silence fades as moments become minutes. All the horrors that were ever witnessed by my distant imagination, now destined to become reality.

An engraved ring emerges from his backpack, forcing a jumble of black cables into the seat on its way, as his left-hand forms a fist around the possession to hold it tightly. Simultaneously, his right-hand rises from underneath its cover, taking charge as his body yields to its instructions and gets up to turn towards the backside of the plane. A young lady, in a maroon hoodie in the aisle seat two rows behind us, lifts her head from her current immurement, only for her pupils to readily dilate at the receiving end of the firearm. Today she meets the judge, the jury, and the executioner.

The screen controller, her headphones, food that was on her tray are all suddenly flying out as she scrambles at the mercy of panic, trying her best to get up to her feet and find cover. Ominously, the gunman is calm, he provides her with silent eye contact just long enough for her to catch her balance in the hallway and realize who he is, she opens her mouth to speak-

BANG!

He lands the first shot right between her brown eyes, his body is simultaneously blown in the opposite direction-

The mother who just witnessed the bullet zoom right above her lets out a shriek and then instantly jumps to protect her child. The middle-aged man who was in front of us turns around and at the sight of the gun, he takes off towards the staff room, knocking Tess and her cart over on his way. A young black father whose daughter is seated right in the seat in front of Lydia, hurriedly grabs her arm and pulls her towards him away from the gunshot trajectory. When he sees Seth's body blown away he grabs his daughter and runs towards the bathroom to hide behind the last seats. The few who weren't paying attention are now quickly trying to process what they just heard, ducking as the remnants of the gunshot fade away. Everyone starts to whisper in their corners.

Even though Seth's body slammed onto the seat behind him, knocking his luggage over, and his left hand grabbed onto the window curtain as he fell, completely ripping it off its hinges, he still showed no regard for anything other than her, he didn't even notice that the ring flew out of his palm. His body used the seat as a clutch as he re-positioned his shooting hand until it regained its aim, even though he's still trembling, he fires again-

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Panic is forced into silence.

Three silver bullets penetrate her maroon clothing, blending the red of blood with the color of the cotton. Her body barely remains standing as it rests on the empty aisle seat across from her original place, and on the other side, Mr Seth has already folded in between the seats.